The moon hung low over the Celestial Ascendance Cliff, its pale glow casting long shadows over the jagged rocks below. The wind howled through the mountains, cold and merciless, but Xiao Ren did not shiver. His silver hair swayed, his crimson eyes locked onto the figure standing before him—the woman he had once trusted above all others.
Lan Yue.
Her expression was unreadable, but her silence spoke louder than any words could. Behind her, figures emerged from the darkness—elders of the Radiant Moon Sect, their ceremonial robes gleaming under the moonlight.
Xiao Ren's voice was steady, but there was a quiet fury beneath it. "You planned this all along."
Lan Yue's gaze did not waver. "You were never meant to ascend beyond your station."
A bitter smile tugged at his lips. "My station?"
"You always sought power beyond what was permitted," she said, her tone devoid of warmth. "Your talent… it was dangerous. The sect could not allow it. I could not allow it."
A sharp pain spread through his body. His meridians—once teeming with raw, untamed potential—were sealed. A poison, subtle and insidious, coursed through his veins. It had been in the tea he drank earlier, the tea she had poured for him.
Xiao Ren clenched his fists. Not in rage, not in despair, but in quiet understanding.
He had been blind.
The Grand Elder stepped forward, his ancient voice carrying the weight of finality. "The hidden realm you seek is forbidden. Your thirst for power exceeds the natural order. You were always meant to be culled."
The ground beneath Xiao Ren trembled. Cracks spiderwebbed across the stone, the abyss below calling to him like a silent requiem.
Lan Yue took a step closer. For the first time, hesitation flickered in her eyes. "Xiao Ren… if you surrender, perhaps—"
He did not let her finish.
He did not beg. He did not curse them. He did not even look back.
He simply stepped backward—into the void.
The last thing he saw was Lan Yue's lips parting in silent shock.
And then, there was nothing.
---
The Fall
Darkness. Endless, suffocating darkness.
Xiao Ren should have hit the ground. Should have felt his body shatter upon impact. But there was no ground, no sensation of falling—only weightlessness, as if the abyss itself had swallowed him whole.
Was this death?
Yet, something told him it was not. There was no peace, no release. Only the unsettling sensation of being watched.
A pulse of energy rippled through the abyss. Something ancient stirred.
Then, it spoke.
A voice, neither male nor female, neither soft nor harsh. It resonated not in his ears, but in his mind.
"Mortal… why do you seek the power of the abyss?"
Xiao Ren's crimson eyes narrowed. He should have been terrified. He should have felt the weight of insignificance before such an entity.
But he did not.
Instead, he answered without hesitation. "Because I refuse to be bound."
The voice rumbled, as if amused. "Bound? By what?"
"By fate. By false oaths. By the weak who chain the strong."
The abyss stirred, darkness shifting like a living thing. Then came laughter—cold, ancient, understanding.
"Good. Then let the heavens tremble."
A sudden force surged through Xiao Ren's body. Power unlike anything he had ever known wrapped around him, seeping into his very being. Symbols older than time itself ignited across his skin, burning with knowledge lost to the world above.
And in that moment, Xiao Ren was no longer falling.
He was ascending.
Above him, unseen to the heavens, a pair of crimson eyes—darker and deeper than his own—opened within the abyss. Watching. Waiting.
A prophecy, long forgotten, was beginning anew.
---
End of Chapter 1