THE CHAOS SOVEREIGN

CHAPTER 5

The blue light on Zhao’s hand was instantly sucked into Lu Chen’s skin. Zhao’s eyes went wide. He tried to pull his hand back, but it was stuck to Lu Chen’s chest like it was trapped there.

"My... My Qi! Where is it going?!" Zhao screamed. His face began to change. His plumpy, healthy skin turned grey and wrinkled. The energy he had spent fifty years gathering was being eaten by the Chaos Root in seconds.

"You took my family's life," Lu Chen said, looking into Zhao’s dying eyes. "So I will take yours. Every drop that remains."

In a final, desperate gasp, Elder Zhao turned into a pile of dry skin and bones, crumbling to the floor. The great Elder was gone.

Then

Elder Mo backed away, his face pale with horror. "The Chaos Devouring Root... it woke up. The High Heaven Emperors told us that this power was a myth!"

"The Emperors told you a lot of lies," Lu Chen said, stepping over the ashes of Elder Zhao. "Like the lie that I was weak."

Elder Mo raised his staff, a blinding golden light filling the room. "You think killing a minor Elder makes you a god? I led the charge against your father! I was the one who drove the sword through your mother’s heart!"

He laughed, a cruel, jagged sound. "She begged for your life, Lu Chen. She thought you were a normal child. If she knew you were this monster, she would have strangled you herself!"

Lu Chen’s heart pushed to the image of a woman he didn't know, begging for him; It flashed in his mind.

"Thank you," Lu Chen said in a lowly voice.

"For what?" Mo sneered.

"For giving me a reason to make your death slow."

Lu Chen didn't use a palm strike. He simply opened his mouth and inhaled. A black fog erupted from his body, filling the room. The golden light of the staff was swallowed by the darkness.

Elder Mo’s screams echoed through the silent sect Hall, but no one came to help him. The hunter was finally being hunted.

The High Elder’s Hall was silent, except the sound of Elder Mo’s staff hitting the floor and breaking into pieces. The golden light was gone. All that remained of the man who had bragged about killing Lu Chen’s mother was dust and a tattered silk robe.

Lu Chen stood in the center of the room. He felt... heavy. The energy he had just devoured from the two Elders was like a storm in the sea making violent noise against the walls of his soul. His Chaos Devouring Root was moving so fast it felt like a heartbeat in his entire body.

"Is this what it feels like? To have the power they stole from me?"

Lu Chen whispered, looking at his glowing violet palms. He was still standing at the elders hall.

Outside the hall, the alarm bells began to ring. The disciples had finally noticed the unnatural darkness hanging over the Elder's Hall.

"Intruder! Someone has broken into the High sanctuary!" voices shouted from the courtyards.

Lu Chen moved through to the balcony. Below him, hundreds of disciples were gathering, led by the remaining junior elders. Among them stood Wei Feng and Han Yu, their faces pale as they looked up at the dark image in the window.

When they saw it was Lu Chen, the "trash" disciple they had kicked only yesterday, a wave of shock fell over the crowd.

"Lu Chen? What have you done?" one of the junior elders yelled, pointing at a sword he was holding in his hand. "Where are Elder Mo and Elder Zhao?"

"They are where they belong, in the land of no return, where they send my family," Lu Chen said. His voice moved across the square like thunder, even though he didn't shout.

The Afure Cloud sect was coming to an end and no one had the power to hold it back.

Han Yu screamed, trying to hide the trembling in his knees. “He’s gone mad! Kill him!” He quickly got a fire-talisman, sending a fireball of flame toward the balcony where he was standing.

Lu Chen didn't dodge. He simply opened his hand.

The fireball didn't explode. It stretched and thinned, turning into a stream of pure heat that was sucked into his palm. He didn't just stop the attack; he welcomed it, and said

"This is my turn,"

As he was slamming his foot onto the balcony A wave of black energy erupted from him, flowing down to the stone walls and across the ground like flood.

Every disciple it touched felt that their strength had vanished. The spirit-stones in their pockets shattered. The protective charms on their robes turned to ash. The very foundation of the Afure Cloud Sect—the ancient arranged groups that kept the mountain floating in the mist—began to crack and crumble.

"No! The mountain is falling! Can we allow it to fall?" someone shouted. Every disciple was still because there was no energy to hold it back.

Lu Chen watched it as the building began to collapse. He felt no pity, all he has to say is that this sect was built on the blood of his family. Every stone was a lie.

He looked up at the sky, his eyes past the clouds, toward the Nine Heavens where the High Heaven Emperors sat on their golden thrones. He knew they could feel him now. The seal was broken. The Chaos Monster they feared was finally awake.

Lu Chen said to the stars. "You thought you could hide me in the mud forever, but even the mud can rise and swallow the sun."

He turned away from the burning sect, and stepped out of the balcony into the open air, hinging himself in the air, and the black energy was supporting him like a dark cloud.

He had nothing left—no family, no home, and no good name but the one he would carve into the world with his own hands.

He whispered, "Wait for me, I'm coming for the throne."