The Celestial Envoy descended like a divine blade from the heavens.
Her armor was not metal, but something older—woven star-silk infused with celestial bone, glowing faintly with every step. Her eyes were twin moons, calm and cold, and in her hand she held a decree scroll so old it hummed with primordial law. The very air around her shimmered—reality itself bending in reluctant submission.
She was beautiful.
She was terrifying.
And she was here to kill him.
Li Tian stood alone on the muddy slope, wind tugging at his travel cloak like a dying thing. The Serpent pendant at his neck swayed in rhythm with his breath. Beneath his skin, his core pulsed with Void Qi—unnatural, unstable, yet growing stronger by the hour.
> [System Warning]
Enemy threat level: CELESTIAL-TIER.
Recommended action: Immediate escape.
Estimated survival rate if engaged: 0.07%.
Li Tian smirked. "Less than one percent?"
"Yes."
"Better than zero."
The Envoy raised the jade scroll, and her voice rolled across the hills like thunder spoken in scripture:
> "Li Tian. Accused of sect-wide annihilation, soul harvesting, and defiance of Heaven's natural laws. By order of the Immortal Court, you are to surrender for judgment, or be extinguished under celestial mandate."
Li Tian's gaze didn't waver. "Do you always read death sentences like shopping lists?"
No reaction.
He took a step forward, boots sinking slightly into the wet earth. "Tell me, Envoy—how many corrupt Elders have you walked past without raising that scroll?"
Silence.
"How many cities burned while your Court debated 'lawful procedure'?"
The Envoy's lips parted. "You are a heretic."
"I'm what your Order made when it turned away."
Lightning cracked from the heavens. Not storm-born—but divine. It didn't fall; it judged.
Li Tian moved.
---
1
Heaven's First Blow
The ground exploded.
A pillar of light slammed into where he'd stood, carving a crater two men deep. Soil vaporized. Trees thirty meters away caught fire. A local spirit beast—an ironback boar rooting nearby—was reduced to ash mid-squeal.
Li Tian appeared on the crater's edge, Void Step dragging him through the shallow layer of space like a shadow untethered.
> [Soul Echo Sense: activated]
Target resonance: Absolute Discipline. Celestial Qi concentration: 89%.
She hadn't moved. That entire strike—effortless. Her eyes watched him not with anger, but indifference. As if even now, he wasn't worth her full attention.
He bared his teeth. "Good. That'll make your face more satisfying to break."
> [HATE POINTS +1,000]
[Skill Unlocked: Void Fang Pulse (Level 1)]
His core responded instantly, Void Qi condensing into spiraling glyphs across his forearms. His body screamed under the strain—muscles tearing and repairing mid-movement, bones humming like tuning forks.
He leapt.
Void Fang Pulse tore through the air, a streak of black-violet distortion aimed at her midsection. It should've been too fast for mortal eyes.
She blocked it with two fingers.
CRACK.
The energy dispersed like paper ash, scattered by divine will. Her hand didn't even shake.
> [System Alert: Skill Ineffective. Qi density mismatch: 1000:1.]
He hit the ground hard, shoulder-first, rolling backward. His teeth bit into his cheek. Blood spattered the grass, steaming.
The Envoy's gaze sharpened for the first time. "You should not be alive."
Li Tian laughed, blood on his teeth. "I'm not."
---
2
Borrowed Power, Borrowed Time
> [System Alert: Emergency Protocols unlocked.]
Corruption Level: 23% — Dream-Link Vision Re-entry permitted.
Option: Channel alternate self from future-potential state for 60 seconds. Side effect: Unknown.
A roar sounded in his mind—a thousand versions of himself screaming through branching futures.
"I want the one who wins," he growled.
> "Confirmed."
The world shifted.
For a moment, Li Tian ceased to exist in the present. In his place stood a silhouette wreathed in void flames, clad in tattered emperor's robes. A broken crown hovered above his head. His skin glowed with countless carved sigils—some still bleeding golden ichor. His right eye pulsed like a dying star.
The Envoy's expression finally cracked. She stepped back.
That moment was all Li Tian needed.
He raised a single hand. The air shattered.
> [Skill: Dream-Link Pulse — Emperor Form — TIMEFRACTURE STRIKE]
Twelve versions of himself lunged forward simultaneously—each from a different potential outcome. One wielded a black blade shaped like a serpent's fang. Another dripped molten soul-fire from his fingertips. A third walked with Death chained behind him.
They all struck as one.
The Envoy summoned a golden sphere of lawscript—Absolute Mandate—but the assault cracked it on impact. Her armor dented. Blood spurted from her lip.
But that was all.
The future collapsed.
Li Tian screamed as he returned to himself—body scorched, every nerve boiling. The backlash hurled him twenty meters into a ravine. Bones broke. The pendant snapped from his neck.
> [Timefracture Duration: Expired]
[Vitality: 17%]
[System Warning: Internal bleeding. Spine integrity compromised.]
Li Tian gasped, blinking through black spots.
"Still alive."
"For now," the system rasped.
---
3
Her Mercy, His Curse
She descended at last, not flying—walking. Step by step, down into the ravine, as if gravity bent differently for her. The jade scroll floated beside her, glowing with renewed fury.
He tried to crawl. His body wouldn't listen.
"Li Tian," she said, voice no longer dispassionate. "What was that power? That future you borrowed—where did it come from?"
He coughed blood. "A version of me… that got tired of being a pawn."
She looked at him—truly looked—for the first time. "That future doesn't belong to this realm."
"No," he agreed. "It belongs to the next one. After I burn this one down."
She raised a glowing palm. A star blinked into her irises.
The execution was seconds away.
Then her hand trembled.
The system hissed. "Wait."
She was hesitating.
"I saw a name," she murmured. "In that vision. On the world you ruled."
Li Tian blinked. "What?"
Her fingers shook as she lowered her hand. "The name carved beneath your throne… was my name."
She turned and vanished.
---
4
Survivor's Price
Rain fell in fine needles. The system kept Li Tian alive—barely—by draining the residual Qi from his last few harvested souls. He lay still for hours, feeling bones realign slowly, like rusted clockwork winding back to life.
When he finally rose, it was not with triumph, but with silence.
> [System Update: Trait unlocked — Survivor of the Impossible.]
"You will always live. But not all parts of you will survive."
[HATE POINTS +6,000]
[Corruption Level: 26%]
He looked down at the broken pendant—the only thing that remained of Mei Lin's memory—and picked it up, even though he no longer remembered the song she once sang.
The Celestial Envoy had shown mercy.
But mercy was just another kind of chain.
"I'll make you regret that," he whispered. "Next time… I won't need a future self."
His blood soaked the earth.
And the sky, for the first time, flinched.