---
The wind howled above the cliffside like a whisper from the past.
Below, the world stretched quiet and gray, a graveyard painted in mist.
Shadow Burial Valley.
Where even the stars refuse to shine.
Xuan Yuan stood at the edge of the precipice, black robes trailing like silent flames, eyes calm—but not empty.
The stone beneath his feet bore a symbol carved by finger and qi:
A single lotus.
No name. No words.
Only memory.
---
"They said I was born to change the world.
But the world was too afraid to change."
---
He was once called a prodigy. A rising star of the Cloud Void Temple.
He comprehended Laws instinctively, surpassed disciples twice his age, and walked forbidden paths with ease.
Until the truth revealed itself:
He was born with the Reality-Breaker Physique — The Nameless Collapse.
A body not made for ascension… but for collapse.
A physique so forbidden, even Heaven sealed it with twelve cosmic chains before he ever began to cultivate.
---
He clenched his fist.
"If Heaven feared me from birth,
Why didn't I fear it back?"
---
She died here.
Lian'er.
The only one who saw him—not the seal, not the power, not the fear—but the boy beneath it all.
He remembered her voice like moonlight:
"Yuan-ge, don't look so serious. The stars are watching."
But when she fell, the stars didn't watch.
They turned their faces away.
And so did Heaven.
---
The ground behind him shifted.
Three presences approached.
He didn't turn.
A voice, sharp and smug, broke the silence.
"So the frozen genius returns to the scene of his shame."
Mu Shen.
White robes. Silver eyes.
Heavenly Sword Sect.
The man who stood still when Lian'er bled.
"Still crying over a wilted flower, Xuan Yuan?"
---
Xuan Yuan didn't answer.
He stared at the lotus.
Then, slowly, rose to his full height.
His voice was quiet.
"I cry for no one."
"Then why return?" Mu Shen sneered.
Xuan Yuan's gaze didn't shift.
His eyes stayed locked on the stone.
"Because the next time someone dies in front of me…"
crack
The earth beneath him fractured slightly.
"…Heaven will have to ask me first."
---
Mu Shen laughed.
"Big words from a sealed coward."
He drew his sword.
"Let's see if fate still protects you."
---
But Xuan Yuan didn't move.
He closed his eyes.
And inside him—
A sound.
Not heard, but felt.
Snap...
The first chain on his Reality-Breaker Physique broke.
A pulse surged from his dantian.
Not warmth—wrath.
---
Mu Shen lunged.
But Xuan Yuan was no longer where he stood.
A breath later, his palm rested lightly on the back of Mu Shen's neck.
"Tell your sect…"
His voice was low. Cold. Unshaken.
"I am done mourning."
---
As Mu Shen collapsed, gasping, the sky above trembled—
Not from thunder.
But from fear.
---
[End of Chapter One]
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