The air across the Low Realms trembled. The silent pressure of the karmic threads that had once been invisible now flickered faintly like strands of golden and black silk trailing through space. Every major force—sect, clan, kingdom—could feel the change.
In the depths of the Hidden Abyss, where normal cultivators dared not tread, Li Xuan sat cross-legged on an obsidian platform suspended over a lake of void essence. His eyes were closed, but his mind was awake—too awake.
The Voidheart Enlightenment Sutra, the forbidden mind technique that no one knew, churned in his sea of consciousness. His soul was being pierced—scraped and reformed—by invisible blades. Pain twisted every fiber of his being. The stronger his understanding became, the more unbearable the suffering.
But he endured.
Each second felt like years, and each breath cost the lives of mortals whose karmic debt he now silently consumed. Unwilling sacrifices. Unknowing victims. That was the law of karma when wielded by someone like him—ruthless, cold, and singular in vision.
He had already subdued the seven great hidden clans. The seven generals, now feared across the Low Realms, had been sent to the One Million Supporting Realms to carry his influence further. From shadow auctions to direct conquests, every realm now carried whispers of a masked auctioneer whose power transcended comprehension.
And yet... Li Xuan trusted none of them.
"Even loyalty rots," he murmured aloud, blood dripping from his ears as the Sutra's third awakening phase seared his mind. "Only power remains pure."
With a flick of his wrist, a golden scroll appeared before him—etched in runes of karma, power, and memory.
The Auction Mandate.
A divine tool born of his system's evolution, it allowed him to hold auctions simultaneously across multiple realms. His generals would lead them, but only he could seal the transactions. Every deal they struck fed karma into him like a tide of molten gold.
Behind the scenes, he pulled every string.
Li Xuan stood. Blood had soaked into his robes, and the scent of void essence clung to his soul. Yet his presence now stirred fear even in ancient Nascent Soul cultivators. He was still at the late Core Formation stage, but his comprehension was something even God Realm experts could not fathom.
He glanced upward. Far, far above, where the veil between worlds shimmered faintly—the border to the Upper Realms pulsed with growing instability.
Soon.
But not yet.
"Begin the Grand Purge," he ordered mentally. Seven command tokens glowed. Across the One Million Supporting Realms, hidden traitors and minor powers that resisted his authority began to vanish—wiped out in the blink of an eye by karmic chains they never saw coming.
Each death, each struggle, fed him more threads—painful, vibrant, and raw.
He opened his palm. In it hovered a seed made of black light and golden fire.
The Seed of Karmic Incarnation.
A terrifying artifact born from slaughter, comprehension, and the fusion of void essence and karmic law. Once planted in the heart of a realm, it would turn even the natural laws into tools of fate, giving him control over the very rules of reality within that realm.
He would plant it soon. But not in the Low Realms.
Li Xuan's gaze darkened.
It would be planted in the Upper Realms.
And when it bloomed, not even the Immortals watching from afar would be able to ignore him.
He was no longer just a shadowy manipulator.
He was becoming a Monarch of Karma