Jiang Xuan's POV
The sect gates opened at dawn.
Jiang Xuan walked in first, silent, his boots still stained with ash from the valley. The others followed behind, tense and quiet. Even Elder Wen, usually brimming with suspicion, said nothing.
Too much had been seen.
Too much had been felt.
The world hadn't changed.
But something inside him had.
---
He didn't return to his quarters.
Instead, he walked the outer edge of the sect, through the old gardens where no one went anymore. His head buzzed with half-formed memories: names he didn't recognize, voices he couldn't place, emotions that weren't his — but felt so close.
And then he felt it.
A gaze.
Someone watching.
---
He turned toward the abandoned bell tower — a place unused since the last sect war — and there, in its shadow, stood an old man in gray robes, leaning on a cane made of blackened iron.
His presence didn't radiate qi.
But Jiang Xuan's mark flared the moment their eyes met.
The old man bowed slowly.
"As I live and breathe," the man rasped, "the Lord has returned."
Jiang Xuan froze.
"…Do I know you?"
"Not yet," the old man said. "But once, I carried your blade across ten kingdoms. I died twice for your cause."
Jiang Xuan stepped forward. "You served the Demon God?"
"I served you. Before you sealed the heavens. Before you forgot."
---
The air thickened.
The garden around them faded into fog, like the world itself wanted to close the distance between past and present.
Jiang Xuan's voice dropped.
"What was my name? Before."
The old man looked up.
"You had many names. Some feared. Some revered. But to those closest to you, you were called—"
He stopped.
As if waiting.
Jiang Xuan's pulse thundered in his ears.
"Say it," he whispered.
The man smiled faintly.
"Shenlian."
And with that single word, something unlocked.
---
A wave of heat surged through Jiang Xuan's chest.
His breath caught.
And then—
A flash.
Of a battlefield soaked in blood.
Of silver-armored soldiers chanting that name.
Of a throne of bone and obsidian.
Of himself, older, colder — wearing a crown made of black fire.
His knees buckled.
The old man caught him.
"You remembered a sliver," he said gently. "It begins that way."
Jiang Xuan panted. "Why are you here now?"
"Because I swore an oath. To find you again, when the chains began to break."
---
Jiang Xuan sat back on the cracked garden bench, hand over his heart.
"Is it really me?" he asked. "Or just… a shadow?"
"You sealed yourself," the man said. "You became this — Jiang Xuan — to buy time. To forget. You thought if you could live long enough as someone else, the world would forgive what you once were."
Jiang Xuan looked up, eyes clouded.
"And if it doesn't?"
The man gave a sad smile.
"Then it burns. Again."
---
From behind a tree, Yao Xi watched, silent as smoke.
She had followed his trail, feeling something wrong the moment they returned.
Now she heard it — the name that echoed through her nightmares:
Shenlian.
She backed away.
A storm had been brewing for years.
Now the thunder had remembered its name.
---
"Reclaim your court," the old man said, voice low and reverent.
"All that you once commanded… still lingers. Sleeping. Waiting."
Jiang Xuan stared at him.
"A court of monsters?"
"A court of loyalty," the man replied. "Those who bent knee to you did so willingly. You weren't born the Demon God, Shenlian. You became him… for them."
Jiang Xuan's mark pulsed again, hot against his skin.
He shook his head.
"I didn't ask for this. I never wanted a throne."
The man's eyes glinted.
"That's what made you different."
---
The fog swirled heavier now.
Like the valley had followed him here.
Jiang Xuan rose slowly.
"You said they're still waiting?"
The man nodded.
"Scattered. Sealed. But yes. The fragments of your empire lie dormant. Temples hidden in shadows. Servants reborn into the bloodlines of common clans."
He reached into his robes and pulled out a ring — black metal, shaped like a serpent swallowing its tail.
"Your signet."
Jiang Xuan didn't take it.
"I'm not Shenlian."
"You were."
"And if I become him again?"
The man's voice softened.
"Then I will follow. Until the end."
---
Behind the stone wall, Yao Xi clenched her fists.
She had heard every word.
The ring.
The court.
The name.
Her breath hitched — not from fear.
From the weight of truth crashing down all at once.
He wasn't turning into the Demon God.
He was the Demon God.
And now… the world might remember that too.
---
Jiang Xuan finally took the ring.
It was cold. Heavy.
Like it recognized him.
"I don't know what I'm doing," he said.
"You never did," the old man said, smiling. "That was always your strength. You led from instinct."
Jiang Xuan slipped the ring into his sleeve.
Not onto his finger.
Not yet.
---
"Tell me your name," he said.
The old man bowed.
"Zhao Yan. Once your blade-bearer. Now, your servant again — should you allow it."
Jiang Xuan nodded slowly.
"Then leave before the elders find you. They won't understand."
"I'm already gone," Zhao Yan said, turning toward the fog.
"Call when you're ready. The First Temple will hear."
He vanished like mist.
---
Yao Xi stepped out from behind the tree.
Jiang Xuan flinched.
He hadn't sensed her.
That worried him more than anything Zhao Yan had said.
"How much did you hear?" he asked.
She didn't answer.
She didn't need to.
She was already walking toward him, eyes burning.
---
"You said you didn't know who you were," she said.
"I didn't."
"But now you do."
"Parts of it."
She stopped two feet from him.
"And what are you going to do? Raise your empire from the grave?"
He looked at the ring in his hand.
"I don't want to. But I think I might need to."
"To do what?"
He looked up at her.
His voice quiet, almost broken.
"To survive."
---
She stepped even closer.
"If you become him again… if you stop being Jiang Xuan… I'll kill you."
He didn't flinch.
"I know."
A pause.
Then she added, softly—
"But I'll hate myself for it."
And that… he didn't have a reply for.
---
Later that night, Jiang Xuan sat alone in his room, the serpent ring on the table in front of him.
It didn't glow.
It didn't whisper.
It simply waited.
Just like everything else that once belonged to the Demon God Shenlian.
----
End of Chapter 15