In the aftermath of the Shadow Auction, the Mirror Pavilion trembled with suppressed power. The karmic echoes of hundreds of sects bidding their sins still lingered in the walls, like trapped spirits. And Li Xuan, now seated upon the Black Jade Throne within his inner sanctum, reviewed the results not with joy—but with cold precision.
A realm had fallen into his hands.
But that was only the first.
"System," Li Xuan murmured, his voice sharp and quiet, "initiate the Root Integration Protocol. Absorb all karmic debts pledged during the auction. Begin soul brand mapping."
[Initiating Root Integration...]
[Absorbing karmic web from 381 factions...]
[Creating soul brand registry...]
[1,204,993 karmic tethers mapped. Authority dominance: 93%.]
As the numbers climbed, Li Xuan's pupils began to glow. His Voidheart Enlightenment Sutra surged forward, feeding upon the depth of cause and consequence he had forced into submission.
His spirit sea churned.
A lotus bloomed within it—dark, ethereal, woven from the karma of others.
And atop the lotus, the image of Li Xuan sat in perfect meditation. For the first time, the path to the Upper Realms began to ripple before him.
Outside the citadel, his generals moved in silence.
General Yan received a message from the shadow emissaries of the Abyss Sect. General Wu was already conducting inspections on the 49 elite units to ensure their loyalty hadn't shifted under pressure. General Lan prepared the next minor auction—one held in a remote war-torn region that had only recently pledged itself to the Heaven Auction Pavilion.
Each general held absolute authority within their zone, yet each was bound by karmic threads directly tied to Li Xuan.
They could not betray him.
They would not disobey him.
At least, not yet.
Meanwhile, in a sealed cave realm under the Mirror Pavilion, Li Xuan finally activated one of the true reasons for the Shadow Auction.
He stood before a black altar.
Upon it: a seed.
The Karmic Flame Seed he had acquired.
"I offer nothing but myself," he said coldly, slicing his palm and letting blood flow. "But I am already everything."
The seed drank in his blood, then the light, then the air. Fire erupted.
And within moments, a spiral of karmic runes wrapped around him. The pain was unimaginable—a million threads of karma slicing into his soul, reading his sins, his ambitions, his truths.
Li Xuan welcomed it.
He did not scream.
Instead, he opened his soul and demanded more.
In the deepest level of the system's interface, a new path opened.
[Void Ascension Sequence Unlocked]
[Condition: Mastery of 1 Realm, Ownership of 1 Million Karma Points, One Forbidden Artifact Sacrificed]
[Progress: 1/3 Realms Secured. Karma: 1,045,872. Artifact: Pending.]
He grinned. "I will sacrifice the Boundless Void Fragment next auction. Then... the path to the Ancient Realms begins."
The world above him continued to change.
Minor sects submitted.
Rebel clans vanished.
Auctions became more frequent, their influence spreading through war, greed, and whispered salvation.
And all the while, Li Xuan remained unseen.
Manipulating.
Absorbing.
Becoming.
The Million Realm would soon remember his name—not as a savior.
Not as a tyrant.
But as the man who turned fate into currency.
End of Chapter 38.