Morning mist clung to the stone steps of Tianyuan Spiritual Academy like ghostly fingers. As dawn broke, most students were just waking up, but Li Xuantian was already descending from the mountain—alone, silent, and unnoticed by the outer disciples.
He was following a thread of fate.
It called to him last night, faint and ancient—a whisper from the western peaks, where spiritual qi had begun to decay unnaturally. The Celestial Web had shown him an anomaly: a corrupted spiritual node, leaking demonic essence.
The modern world had forgotten what that meant. But he hadn't.
Demonic rot. The same dark presence he fought a million years ago had returned.
And it had chosen to reawaken here.
---
Several miles from the academy, the air grew thick and oppressive. The forest around the mountain path turned gray, trees wilting unnaturally. Birds stopped singing. Even the wind hesitated.
Li Xuantian stopped walking.
Ahead, black mist coiled between the trees. Not ordinary mist—this one pulsated. It fed on spiritual qi, devouring it like a parasite.
From the shadows emerged a beast. Towering, horned, with flesh rotting and eyes glowing purple. Its cultivation was high—Nascent Soul stage, maybe higher—and its spiritual core had already been replaced by demonic marrow.
A demonic beast, long thought extinct.
It roared, shaking the trees, and lunged forward like a falling mountain.
But Xuantian simply raised his right hand.
Time seemed to ripple.
He pressed two fingers together and whispered, "Return to Dust."
A black rune flared on his fingertip, unseen to most mortals. Ancient language from before the great sects, before even the heavens fractured.
The beast froze in mid-air.
Then, slowly, it disintegrated—starting from the inside. Bone turned to ash. Flesh crumbled like paper. Its roar ended in a hollow gasp as it scattered into the wind.
Silence returned.
Li Xuantian closed his eyes.
"Only a scout," he muttered. "The real rot is deeper."
---
Back at the academy, chaos brewed.
Fang Wuji, still injured from his public defeat, had summoned his grandfather—Vice Headmaster Fang Jin—and demanded justice.
"Qi Condensation?!" Fang Jin bellowed, slamming his fist into a jade pillar. "You were humiliated by a Qi Condensation student?"
"He's hiding something," Fang Wuji groaned from his bed. "He's not normal. It felt like the sky crushed me when he touched my chest."
Fang Jin's eyes narrowed.
"No one humiliates the Fang Clan and walks away. We will test this… Xuantian. If he resists, we'll expel him."
---
That afternoon, an official decree echoed through the academy:
"Li Xuantian is hereby summoned to the Heavenly Arena to demonstrate his cultivation level before the elders and inner court. Refusal will result in immediate expulsion."
Most students gathered eagerly. Rumors had turned Li Xuantian into a myth. Some thought he had a powerful master. Others claimed he used forbidden pills.
Yan Ruyue, however, sat quietly among the crowd, heart heavy.
She had read the jade slip again and again.
The "Eternal Heaven Sect" wasn't just a myth. It had ruled the world ten thousand cycles ago, before vanishing without a trace. And now, this mysterious young man bore the same name as its master.
Could it be?
---
At the Heavenly Arena, Li Xuantian stepped into the center calmly.
Across from him stood an elder—Elder Mo, a powerful cultivator at the late Soul Formation Realm, chosen by Fang Jin to "test" the boy.
"Show us your realm," Elder Mo said coldly. "Circulate your qi and attack. I will judge your power accordingly."
Li Xuantian nodded once.
But instead of taking a stance, he stood still. And then… he exhaled.
Just a breath.
Yet the arena's wind reversed.
Qi surged through the stone floor like a wave, shattering the outer layer. The pillars groaned under invisible pressure. Spectators gasped as the sky above darkened for a moment.
Elder Mo took an instinctive step back. His soul trembled—not from visible power, but from the pressure that came with it. It was like facing a mountain that had lived for eons.
"What is this…" he murmured.
"I told you," Xuantian said calmly. "Realm doesn't matter."
He walked forward.
Elder Mo prepared to strike, summoning a celestial flame technique.
But before he could finish—
Xuantian raised a finger.
One strike.
And the flame vanished.
Elder Mo's technique collapsed into sparks. His spirit shield shattered. He fell to his knees, clutching his chest, coughing blood.
Gasps filled the arena.
"Impossible…"
"He defeated Elder Mo with a single finger?!"
"No one at Qi Condensation could do this!"
Fang Jin stood up in rage, but before he could act, a voice echoed from above.
"Enough."
A figure descended from the sky in robes of flowing starlight.
The Headmaster.
Everyone bowed in silence.
The Headmaster stared at Xuantian with eyes that pierced reality.
"You are not ordinary. You hide your true cultivation… yet suppress it perfectly. Tell me your purpose in coming to Tianyuan Academy."
Xuantian did not lie.
"I seek the Celestial Library," he said. "The sealed vault beneath this academy holds records that no longer exist in this era."
The Headmaster frowned. "How do you know about the sealed vault?"
"I built it," Xuantian replied.
Gasps. Silence.
No one spoke.
The Headmaster's eyes widened… not with disbelief—but realization.
"You… were there. Before the Great Collapse."
Xuantian nodded.
Fang Jin roared, "Are you all mad?! He's a fraud!"
The Headmaster silenced him with a wave.
"This is no fraud. I recognize his aura now. This man is older than any of us. A cultivator who defies time itself."
He turned to Xuantian and bowed slightly.
"Then the heavens truly stir again."
---
That night, Li Xuantian sat alone beneath the moon, overlooking the forest beyond.
The stars above pulsed with ancient rhythm.
And then… it happened.
The Heaven Gate shimmered again. Brighter. Stronger.
Its seal weakened.
From the cracks in the gate, a single whisper leaked into the mortal realm.
"They're coming…"
Xuantian opened his eyes.
And for the first time in a million years… he felt something akin to fear.
---