The Crimson Altar Awakens
The chamber beneath the Crimson Heart Altar trembled as ancient formations clicked into place. Crimson light leaked through every crevice, flooding the air with a scent of iron and old blood.
The remaining Blood Lotus Sect elders gathered around the awakening sarcophagus, their auras sharp as blades. Elder Yanwu stood at the front—his cultivation at the Peak Nascent Soul Realm. Behind him, Elder Mo Jie drifted through mists woven from soul essence, her power a chilling Late Nascent Soul Realm. The rest, each Core Formation or above, bowed before the awakening will of their slumbering queen.
But what stirred inside the sarcophagus was not whole.
"My soul... remains fractured," whispered the Crimson Demoness, her voice leaking through the veil of mortality like a phantom wind. Only a shard of her essence resided in the mortal realm, the rest sealed across dimensions long since lost to war and betrayal. Her eyes—those hellish twin moons—glowed faintly.
"Yet even a shard... remembers."
History Rewritten
Above the ritual floor, Lu Xuan stepped into the sanctum, blade in hand. His demon eye pulsed, resonating with the energy of the altar.
Su Xue followed moments later, her time-seal burning white against her collarbone. Her aura flickered, fighting the backlash of her Peak Core Formation cultivation destabilizing. The strain of resisting her sealed power made her knees buckle, but she refused to show weakness—not here. Not before him.
The murals around the chamber shimmered.
History awakened.
Visions flooded the chamber—projected by the altar's resonance with Lu Xuan's soul.
They saw a young demon god rise.
They saw the frost-clad woman by his side.
And they saw her turn on him.
Steel through the back.
Ice through the heart.
The betrayal wasn't spoken—it was *shown*.
Su Xue's face turned pale as the images seared the air. Her voice trembled. "That wasn't me. That was… another life."
Lu Xuan stared at the image of himself crumbling, betrayed by love and fate.
"Isn't that what you said before?" His tone was ice. "When you came back in time to stop me. Who's to say you didn't come to finish the job?"
Her slap cracked like thunder.
"You think I want this? You think I enjoy remembering lives I never lived?"
He didn't flinch. "No. But it doesn't change what's coming."
Su Xue's frost qi began to lash the ground. "Then maybe I should end this before it does."
Their energies collided—ice and corruption—filling the sanctum with a clash of intent and unresolved grief.
The Demoness Watches
Within her sarcophagus, the Crimson Demoness stirred, watching through the tear in the veil.
"Fate repeats itself," she murmured. "The lover and the god. The sword and the ice."
Elder Mo Jie knelt before her. "What is your will, Lady Crimson?"
The Demoness's lips curled. "Let them fight. Their hatred feeds my rebirth. Only in the breaking will he awaken fully."
She reached toward the veil, her soul fragment tugging at the altar's core.
"And when he does... he will no longer belong to her."
Deepening Rift
Outside the chamber, Yao Lin held Mei close. The girl's vision-spirit quivered.
"They're hurting each other again," Mei whispered. "Like before."
Yao Lin's eyes narrowed. "Worse. This time, they *remember*."
From the shadows, Ming Zhao scouted the next path, his blade drawn. The Blood Lotus disciples were rallying, bolstered by their elders. Their cultivation ranged from **late Foundation Establishment** to **early Core Formation**, but the real threat lay with the elders.
"Three hours," he called. "Before they begin the full ritual."
"Then we strike now," Lu Xuan said, stepping from the sanctum, the unnamed sword trembling in his grip.
Su Xue stood at the far end of the chamber, arms folded, frost clinging to her lashes.
"I'm not fighting with you," she said.
"You're not," he replied. "You're fighting *beside* me."
The words hung between them like a cracked bridge—not rebuilt, but not fallen either.
They moved.
Not allies.
Not enemies.
Just two pieces of a broken history, walking toward a battle written in blood and ice.
What Lies Ahead
Within the Blood Lotus Sect, the elders prepared.
Elder Yanwu infused his blade with soul poison. Elder Mo Jie began the blood incantation to tether the Demoness's spirit fully. And the Crimson Demoness whispered promises into the darkness.
"Let him come," she said. "Let him bleed. Let them both burn. Then… I shall rise."
**Next Chapter: The Crimson Trial**