Midnight.
The Scripture Division's temple stood like a slumbering beast—silent, ancient, and filled with secrets.
Liu Shen wore a novice's outer robe and masked his spiritual signature beneath Mist Veil Incense, a technique from his past life.
Only two guards stood outside. Their cultivation? Mid Foundation Realm.
> Too weak to sense killing intent, but sharp enough to notice footsteps.
Fortunately, Liu Shen wasn't there to fight.
He was there to read.
And if needed… to erase.
---
A Hall of Lies
Inside, shelves of jade slips stretched into the shadows. Thousands of texts—recorded laws, cultivation scrolls, sect histories, lineage records.
Jin Mu had warned him earlier:
> "Not all records are true. Some are rewrites, carefully edited to protect the sect's image. Others? False from the beginning."
> "But the one you want is in the Red Vault—marked 'Class X Forbidden'."
Rin had acquired the key through… unspoken means.
Liu Shen found the red vault deep within a hidden stairwell beneath the archive floor.
The door opened with a whisper of soul-forged iron.
Inside were only twelve scrolls.
And one pulsed with an aura Liu Shen had not felt in centuries.
---
The Scroll of Black Flame Prophecy
He touched the seal.
It did not resist him.
Instead, it welcomed him.
The scroll unfurled, glowing softly.
> "And from ash shall rise the Sovereign in Shadow, marked by betrayal, wielding flame that devours the heavens…"
> "…he shall be born twice, and die twice—but never truly fall."
> "The second death shall come from within, by the hand of one wearing loyalty like a mask."
Liu Shen's breath stilled.
This prophecy—he remembered it.
It was sealed in his past life, spoken by a heretical prophet he executed… just days before his own betrayal.
> Born twice. Die twice.
> The second death… from within.
His fists clenched.
> "Even in this life… the heavens still write curses in ink."
But he wasn't the same Sovereign.
Not anymore.
---
The Hidden Author
He turned the scroll over—and found a name burned into the parchment's edge:
> "Yan Wuheng, Fifth Transcriber."
The very elder who sealed the Memory Core child.
The one who rewrote the sect's origins.
The one who, even now, controlled the flow of truth within the Searing Cloud Sect.
Liu Shen's eyes narrowed.
> "So it was you, old snake… twisting fate from the shadows."
> "You knew I would return."
---
A Shadow Wakes
Outside the vault, something moved.
A wisp of darkness slipped through the air, invisible to most—but not to Liu Shen.
> A Soul Shadow. Watching. Listening.
He smiled coldly.
> "Then let him listen."
Liu Shen burned the scroll to ash, but absorbed its essence into his Crimson Soul Flame—the knowledge now his alone.
He turned and walked out, robes still plain, expression calm.
But within him, something stirred.
Not rage. Not fear.
Conviction.
> "I won't die again," he whispered.
> "And if I must face betrayal once more…"
> "…then this time, I'll make sure it dies first."