The Shattered Vortex

Chapter 13 The Ascendant Dawn

The internal soul space of Lu Chen’s mind was an apocalypse of gold and crimson.

Four hundred years of Sect Master Jiang Chen’s refined, immortal consciousness was not easily digested. The golden phantom writhed within the absolute gravity of Lu Chen’s self-inflicted black hole, its multi-limbed ethereal form thrashing against the razor-sharp shards of the shattered emerald needle. Every single memory the old man possessed—the empires he had watched rise and fall, the betrayals he had orchestrated, the brothers he had buried—slammed into Lu Chen’s brain like a runaway freight train.

"I am the Sky of the Vermilion Mountains!" Jiang Chen’s soul shrieked, his voice losing all its divine serenity as the crushing vacuum began to peel the outermost layers of his ego away like rotted cloth. "You are a speck of dust! A beggar born in the mud! You cannot contain the heavens!"

"Then I will rip the sky down and choke you with it," Lu Chen’s consciousness roared back.

He did not flinch as the extreme friction of the soul-grinding began to boil his own thoughts. He welcomed the pain; it was an old friend, a familiar anchor that reminded him he was still alive. Using the absolute, unyielding malice that had kept him breathing through the toxic miasma of his youth, Lu Chen forced the shattered fragments of his vortex to grind even faster.

The Devouring Maw closed its teeth.

SNAP.

The core of Jiang Chen’s soul fractured. The massive, golden reservoir of late-stage Core Formation Realm energy was no longer a structured mind—it was raw, unrefined, primordial cosmic fuel.

Outside, in the physical plaza of the Vermilion Sect, a catastrophic pressure wave erupted from Lu Chen’s body. The remaining two hundred inner disciples were thrown onto their backs as a visible dome of golden-crimson shockwaves expanded outward, shattering the marble flagstones into fine powder and obliterating the heavy obsidian doors of the coliseum into dust.

Lu Chen’s physical frame floated slowly into the air, suspended by an immense, unnatural localized gravity. Blood still poured from his ears and fingernails, but it was no longer dark mortal blood; it was glowing with a brilliant, luminescent golden-crimson light.

Up in the VIP stands, the surviving elder council—seven old men who had spent their entire lives hidden in the highest palaces—stood frozen in absolute horror.

"The Sect Master... his life aura is completely gone," one elder whispered, his hands shaking so violently he dropped his spiritual talisman. "The boy didn't just resist... he is digesting him!"

"Kill him now!" another elder screamed, drawing a jagged ceremonial blade. "He is locked in a breakthrough! His meridians are vulnerable! If he lands, none of us will survive the night!"

The seven elders leapt from the high dais simultaneously, their combined Core Formation and peak Flesh Tempering auras flaring into a dazzling rainbow of destructive elemental lights. Firestorms, frost lances, and lightning bolts converged from all angles, aiming straight for the floating, blood-stained youth.

But Lu Chen’s eyes suddenly snapped open.

There were no whites left in his eyes; they were twin pools of spinning, cosmic void, sparking with red and gold lightning.

Within his belly, the shattered fragments of his foundation did not reassemble into a standard, smooth sphere. Instead, driven by the massive influx of a Sect Master’s soul, the shards fused into a terrifying new manifestation: a solid, multi-layered Golden-Crimson Cosmic Vortex. It was a miniature, physical galaxy spinning in the center of his soul, generating its own gravitational laws.

He had bypassed the traditional stages of progression entirely, leaping straight past the Flesh Tempering limits and locking his anchor directly into the First Layer of the Core Formation Realm.

"Too late," Lu Chen’s voice resonated through the entire mountain range, sounding like the collective rumble of a shifting continent.

He merely swept his right arm outward in a broad, fluid arc.

Vrrr—!

The seven incoming elemental attacks didn't hit him; the moment they entered the gravitational field of his new cosmic vortex, they were violently warped, bent, and dragged into his orbit. The fire, the ice, and the lightning swirled around Lu Chen’s body like a beautiful, deadly ring of cosmic debris, entirely obeying his will.

With a definitive flick of his wrist, Lu Chen redirected the stolen elemental storm back at the seven advancing elders.

BOOM!

The explosion was deafening. The seven elders were blasted out of the sky by their own combined might, amplified tenfold by the razor-sharp friction of Lu Chen's jagged Qi. They crashed into the ruined marble tiers, their robes burning, their defensive charms shattered into useless glass, completely crippled and broken.

Lu Chen’s bare feet touched the ground once more. The heavy, dark purple haze in the sky began to slowly clear, replaced by the brilliant, amber light of a new dawn breaking over the mountain peaks.

As the stolen memories of Jiang Chen fully settled into his consciousness, a dark, profound realization took root in Lu Chen's mind. The Vermilion Sect was not the pinnacle of the world. It was merely a tiny, insignificant colony. In the Sect Master’s mind, Lu Chen had seen the true coordinates of the Grand Holy Land of the Eternal Eclipse—the vast, ancient continental empire that actually controlled the beast trades, the forbidden manuals, and the factions that had ordered his family’s slaughter.

He looked down at the surviving, trembling inner disciples who were now bowing so low their heads were buried in the dirt. He looked at the ruined elders groaning in the rubble.

The beggar had not just broken the cage. He had completely eaten the master of the house.

Lu Chen took a deep breath of the morning air, feeling the immense, planetary power of the cosmic vortex spinning smoothly within his chest. He turned his eyes toward the distant, northern horizon, far beyond the boundaries of the Vermilion Mountains.

"The mountain is quiet," Lu Chen whispered, his voice a promise of absolute destruction. "It's time to go hunt the gods."