The moon above Vermillion Smoke City had turned blood-red. A sign. A warning. A beginning.
Li Xuan stood alone on the peak of Mount Nocturne, overlooking a valley flooded in spiritual fog. Behind him, a hundred cloaked figures kneeled in silence—Silent Root Sect's elite, chosen through agony, forged by karmic blood. His presence did not warm them. It did not need to.
He was no longer a shadow behind the auction.
He was the sovereign of its darkness.
The Karma Ledger floated before him, its pages inscribed in glowing blood-script:
[Karma Accumulated: 1,020,315]
[Cultivation: Early Soul Formation]
[Codex Authority: Tier 3 – Monarch Initiate]
But numbers no longer satisfied him.
He would not rest until the realms themselves were ledger entries beneath his rule.
Realm Structure
As his Karma Network expanded, he formalized the structure of the cosmos:
Low Realms – Mortal-bound, spirit-starved worlds where Qi thinned like smoke.
Upper Realms – Rich in ley lines and artifacts, ruled by ancient sects and loose federations.
God Realms – Where cultivators shed humanity, forming Dao Avatars and walking with Celestial Tribes.
Ancient Realms – Remnants of fallen eras, twisted by time. Even the sky here bleeds memory.
Forbidden Realms – Sealed dimensions where immortal beasts slumber and karma itself is unstable.
Li Xuan's current dominion extended across 123 Low Realms. But to touch the Upper Realms... he would need more than sects and agents.
He needed trust.
And trust, he did not possess—not even in those closest to him.
The Black Council
He summoned the Black Council, a secretive circle formed from the most loyal of his generals, his karmic enforcers, and silent advisors.
Each stood behind mirrored masks, their names erased.
None knew the others' identity. Not even Li Xuan revealed his true self—he spoke through a soul puppet infused with a wisp of his true karma.
"Report," he said.
General Ran, masked in silver threads, stepped forward. "Realm Cluster 49 is secured. The auction led to five sect collapses. Seventy-three oaths sealed."
General Wu added, "Our shadow transports have begun delivering cultivation techniques to candidate sects. In exchange, they gave us their Foundation Technique archives."
"Good," Li Xuan's puppet said. "Begin transcribing karmic seals into each archive. When triggered… they'll burn the dantian from the inside."
None flinched.
Li Xuan's voice turned cold. "And what of the leaks?"
Silence.
Then General Yin stepped forward. "We found a spy within our mirror agents. Tier-5 Karma Mark. Hidden by an Upper Realm sect."
"And?"
"He spoke the name Zhenxu Pavilion. He will not speak again."
Li Xuan closed his eyes. "They've noticed me. Good. Let them."
Cultivation Realms
In a silent chamber of obsidian glass, Li Xuan recorded the cultivation stages for his own growing empire:
Qi Condensation
Foundation Establishment
Core Formation
Nascent Soul
Soul Formation
Dao Root Realm
Void Incarnation
Heaven Ascension
Immortal Body
Karmic Immortal
These ten were standard through most Low and Upper Realms. But the Ancient and Forbidden Realms birthed their own paths—warped, brutal, heretical.
Li Xuan had no intention of choosing between them.
He would create his own.
The Puppet Immortal
Rumors whispered of a new player in the God Realms: a masked figure who traded souls for Dao Treasures. No sect claimed him. No artifact recognized his aura.
But Li Xuan knew the truth.
It was his puppet, upgraded using soul fragments gathered from thousands of auction deaths. Infused with partial karma stolen from Immortal ascendants through forbidden rites.
This puppet was no longer a tool.
It was his vessel for stepping into higher realms, unnoticed, untraceable.
"I see now," he murmured one night. "The Immortals are flawed. They hoard karma instead of wielding it. They hide behind Dao rather than using fate as a sword."
Lightning crackled across the sky as he raised his hand.
"I will unmake them."
Seeds of Subjugation
Using the Karma Network, Li Xuan initiated Project Thousand Needles—a plan to bind 1,000 sects in secret using karmic debts disguised as blessings.
Each 'blessing' was a soul-etched technique gifted freely through the Thousandfold Echo Hall.
Each one contained a resonant glyph.
Once all 1,000 were activated simultaneously…
Every sect leader would be puppeted through pain.
They would kneel before Li Xuan's voice, even if they never heard his name.
Internal Betrayal
Despite his precautions, cracks began to show.
General Hao had begun forming a private army.
He claimed it was for "border defense."
But Li Xuan's karmic mirrors told another story: a secret vault, auction profits unreported, and correspondence with unknown entities beyond the known realms.
Li Xuan called him into the Hall of Ash.
"You swore to me," Li Xuan said.
Hao bowed, unflinching. "I still do."
Li Xuan extended two fingers. A karmic thread ignited behind Hao's eyes.
"You lied."
He clenched.
General Hao screamed, bones snapping, body curling like parchment.
When it was done, all that remained was a fragment of his soul, stored in a karmic shard.
Li Xuan crushed it.
From that day, the other generals feared him anew.
Glimpse of the Forbidden
During a karmic meditation, Li Xuan's soul was briefly pulled into the border of a Forbidden Realm.
There, he saw it—a chained Immortal, eyes stitched shut, whispering to a black sun.
The Immortal turned to him.
"You wield karma like a blade. But you are not its master."
"I will be," Li Xuan answered.
The Immortal smiled with broken teeth. "Then your heart must die."
Li Xuan awoke, coughing blood.
But he smiled.
He would find that chained Immortal again.
And he would make him speak.
Ascension Preparation
Using soul iron mined from the Ashwake Rift, and crystals harvested from karma storms, Li Xuan began building the Ascension Pillar—a teleportation obelisk that would allow his real body to project into the Upper Realms for limited periods.
Only two other such constructs were known in the Low Realms.
Both had been destroyed by the Upper Realm enforcers.
But Li Xuan's pillar was hidden beneath a floating island surrounded by illusions. Not even his generals knew its true location.
The final component? A blood seal from a God Realm beast.
He summoned the Hall's 1st Auction Grandmaster.
"Find me a sleeping godbeast," he said. "And bring its heart."
Legacy of Control
By the end of the year, Li Xuan's power stretched like a spider's web:
1,300 Sect Alliances
203 Auction Houses
11 Puppet Generals
9 Realms under karmic law
1 Ascension Point nearing completion
And none knew his face.
Not even the people closest to him.
His true body now existed only in shadow—encased in the Lotus of Silence, a karmic cocoon that slowed time around him by a thousandfold. There, he meditated in suspended time, planning moves ten years in advance.
"Trust is a currency I cannot afford," he whispered to the dark. "So I spend fear instead."
End of Chapter 10