The ultimate chaos God

I will take the chaos heart with me

A figure stepped through the haze. She wore flowing white silk that seemed to glow against the grey stone of the valley. Her face was pale, her eyes wide with a terror that looked entirely genuine.

"Li Tian!" She shouted as her voice rolled across the valley.

"Xinyi...?"

Li Tian staggered to his feet, his broken leg dragging in the dirt. He couldn't believe it. She was the one thing he had loved with all his heart, the one person he had fought to keep by his side and protected with his life back then in Heaven Sect Accord.

"Xinyi... get back!" he rasped, his voice breaking. "It's a trap! Get out of here!"

She didn't listen. She ran toward him, her white robes fluttering like a dove's wings. She looked so small and fragile against the backdrop of the massive jade barrier and the armored disciples.

"I won't leave you!" she cried, her voice echoing with desperation. "Please, Li Tian! Just stop! Give them what they want and come with me!"

Li Tian felt a strange, terrifying warmth in his chest that had nothing to do with the Chaos Heart.

She threw her arms around his neck, burying her face in the hollow of his shoulder. Her body was shaking with sobs. Li Tian's blood-stained hands hovered in the air for a second before he pulled her close, leaning his forehead against hers.

The two elders watched from a distance. Mo Yun's jaw was tight.

"I've got you, Xinyi," he whispered into her ear. "It's over now. You can let go."

Li Tian closed his eyes and let his guard down, holding Xinyi.

And suddenly Li Tian's eyes snapped open as he looked down to see what was happening a Celestial Frost Dagger was buried deep in his stomach.

Xinyi was still hugging him and her chin was still resting on his shoulder, but her sobbing had stopped entirely and her body was no longer shaking.

Frost violently erupted outward from the wound, turning his blood into jagged crystals and instantly freezing his meridians.

"Xinyi...?"

Li Tian's voice came out wet and broken as blood gushed out of his mouth.

"Guh—!"

Xinyi pulled back from him and there were no more tears on her face. She looked at him without any regret. As she laid her hand on the Celestial Dagger in Li Tian's stomach, she twisted it with Frost Requiem: Shatter Twist.

CRACK!!!

The sound of Li Tian's spiritual core fracturing echoed in his own ears. Li Tian collapsed to his knees and clutched his stomach, with half-frozen blood spilling through his fingers.

Mo Yun walked past the broken ranks of the Heaven Accord Sect disciples. His footsteps crunched against the gravel. He simply walked up to Xinyi and stopped beside her.

Li Tian watched as his vision began to blur. Mo Yun didn't look at Li Tian. He looked at Xinyi. He gently brushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear, his thumb wiping a drop of Li Tian's blood from her pale cheek.

"Shh…"

Xinyi leaned into Mo Yun's touch. She closed her eyes for a brief second, exhaling a soft sigh, before resting her head against Mo Yun's chest. Mo Yun wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her close.

Li Tian's eyes trembled. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. His fist clenched tightly, a vein bulging sharply at his temple as tears began to gather at the corners of his eyes. He gushed blood from his mouth again.

"Guh—!!!!"

"Why…?" Li Tian choked, his voice shattered with disbelief.

Mo Yun finally looked down at him. The forced composure from earlier was gone, replaced by a cold, victorious sneer.

Mo Yun scoffed. "You were a stray dog our master picked up. You eclipsed me in the sect. You took the legacy that belonged to me. And then you took her." Mo Yun tightened his grip on Xinyi's waist. She didn't resist; she slipped her hand into his, intertwining their fingers.

"You thought you were protecting me," Xinyi's voice dripped with pity. "Living in a cabin? Hiding like peasants? Mo Yun offered me a place at the peak of the Heaven Accord Sect. He gave me resources, status, and a future. You only gave me the shadow of a monster."

Li Tian froze.

"…Monster?"

He clutched his stomach, his fingers slipping on the dark, slushy gore that spilled onto the grey gravel, and he stared at their intertwined hands. The frost continued to spread rapidly across his body.

Li Tian's gaze slowly shifted to Mo Yun. You didn't want the legacy, Mo Yun.

His eyes traced the sharp line of Mo Yun's jaw. The perfect sect robes. The hand resting so comfortably on Xinyi's waist, as though he had always belonged there.

"You were never chasing the legacy. You were chasing the moment you could steal the Chaos Heart from me."

The frost had crept past his elbow now, threading up toward his shoulder in pale, branching veins. He could no longer feel his left hand. The gravel beneath his knees was dark and wet. Every exhale came out thin and ragged, misting faintly in the cold air.

"I trained until my hands bled. I swallowed poison so my core could endure another breakthrough. I buried every piece of myself that was too soft, too human, too weak because I believed it was worth something. Because I believed if I gave enough, it would mean something."

His fingers curled slowly against the ground and he let out a breath.

"I gave everything. Every scar. Every year. Every version of myself I burned through just to keep moving forward."

"And this world this rotten, indifferent world only sees me as a monster. They tried to get rid of me and steal the Chaos Heart. My friends, my sect, and my loved ones betrayed me, and there is nothing left for me to protect."

His gaze did not waver from Mo Yun's and Xinyi's faces. And suddenly a geyser of golden fire erupted from his spine, instantly vaporizing the frost in his core. The concussive blast threw Mo Yun and Xinyi violently backward. The ground beneath Li Tian's feet disintegrated, magma bleeding through the cracks as he rose.

If I can't defeat you all, I will take the Chaos Heart with me. Li Tian let out a Grinch smile.

"He wants to self-destruct!" Xiao Feng shouted. "Stop him now or we won't be able to retrieve the Chaos Heart from him!"

The destructive energy around Li Tian grew stronger and stronger, before anyone could come close enough to stop him.

KAAAA-BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

A shockwave was sent across the crater and a dust cloud rose five thousand feet into the air a pillar of ash that blotted out the sun. For miles, the earth groaned as the valley floor collapsed into a massive, perfectly circular crater. Slowly, the roaring wind died down. The heat began to dissipate, leaving behind the smell of ionized air and burnt stone. Li Tian's presence could be felt no more.

"Li Tian! Li Tian! Wake up, you idiot!"