The heavens screamed.
Above the 88th step, where only gods dared tread, the clash of two immense forces shattered the balance of the world. Shen Li, reborn from the ashes of betrayal, stood motionless, cloak fluttering like torn shadows in a void storm. Before him, the Celestial General of the Western Sky descended, radiant in divine armor, spear crackling with pure will of heaven.
"You should have remained dead."
The words carried the weight of law. Divine decree. Cosmic order. And yet, Shen Li only smiled.
"You think I crawled out of hell to kneel again?" he said.
With a single breath, he vanished.
In that instant, time bent.
The Celestial General parried, but too late. Shen Li's palm collided with his chestplate, cracking it. Not breaking—but enough to shake even the heavens.
Bolts of chaos lightning surged across the sky, setting mountaintops ablaze. The spiritual pressure alone turned hundreds of lower realm cultivators to ash. High above, the eyes of Heaven narrowed, glowing brighter.
"He has surpassed mortal fate," whispered an elder of the Azure Lotus Sect, witnessing from afar. "He walks where no reborn soul should."
But the battle was only the beginning.
As the two titans exchanged blows, each more destructive than the last, something ancient stirred deep beneath the plateau. Sealed for millennia, bound by ten thousand dragon chains, the earth itself began to bleed.
A gate—older than time, pulsing with cursed energy—began to awaken.
And she was watching.
Far beneath the chaos, within the heart of the Earthshadow Prison, a pair of crimson eyes opened. They belonged to a woman cloaked in silver, her hands bound by runes that screamed in silence. Her lips parted for the first time in a hundred years.
"Shen Li... he's returned."
Her voice was soft. Almost broken. Yet the walls of the prison cracked with the force of her words.
Memories surged.
She had once walked beside him. Fought with him. Loved him. And in the end... betrayed him.
Or so he thought.
---
On the battlefield, Shen Li began to bleed.
The Celestial's spear finally struck true, piercing through his left shoulder. But instead of pain, Shen Li only stared at the blood—dark, almost black, shimmering with starlight.
"Still carrying the blood of traitors," the Celestial spat.
"No," Shen Li said. "I carry the blood of the betrayed."
And then he roared.
Power surged.
Not spiritual.
Not divine.
But something older. Wilder. The sky fractured. Mountains turned to dust. And the 89th step accepted his foot.
The Celestial recoiled. "Impossible. You cannot ascend beyond 88!"
"Then watch me," Shen Li whispered.
He leapt.
The world held its breath.
And somewhere, locked beneath a thousand seals, the silver-haired woman began to break her chains.
[end of chapter 13]