📖 Chapter 15: The Crimson Covenant – The First Judgment
*(Part 1 of 3: The Rise of the Threat)*
In the depths of the **Crimson Sanctum**, buried beneath ten thousand meters of cursed earth and sealed by nine layers of blood-formed runes, the **High Council of the Crimson Covenant** convened in silence, their bodies shrouded in robes woven from the skin of executed heretics, their eyes glowing with the light of forbidden knowledge, for they were not mere cultivators, not sect masters, not emperors — they were the **Guardians of Balance**, the ancient order that had existed since the First Age, tasked with erasing anomalies that threatened the natural order of the world, and for ten thousand years, they had remained in shadow, watching, waiting, judging — but nothing, nothing in their long history had ever made them tremble… until now.
A single orb of crimson light floated at the center of the chamber, pulsing like a dying heart, and within it, a vision played on endless loop:
— A mountain shattered by a breath.
— An emperor erased by a thought.
— A pillar of white light that split the sky.
— And at the center of it all, a boy, fifteen years old in appearance, standing in silence, his eyes closed, his body unharmed, as if destruction itself bowed before him.
The **Oracle of the Seventh Bloodline** spoke first, her voice a whisper that cut through stone:
*"His name is Huang Tian.
He was born in obscurity, died in weakness, and returned with a path that does not exist in any scripture, any law, any realm.
He has reached the pinnacle of Body Refining Realm in less than five hundred years.
He has broken through to Core Formation without guidance, without sect, without inheritance.
And his energy… it does not follow the laws of qi, nor soul, nor magic.
It is something else.
Something that should not be."*
The **Grand Inquisitor**, a figure taller than any man, his face hidden behind a mask of fused bone, rose slowly, and when he spoke, the very air trembled:
*"Then he is not a cultivator.
He is an **anomaly**.
And by the First Law of the Covenant, all anomalies must be erased — not contained, not studied, not worshipped.
**Erased.**"*
A murmur spread through the council, not of disagreement, but of **recognition** — for they had faced anomalies before:
— The **Soulless King**, who consumed ten thousand lives to reach Nascent Soul.
— The **Voidborn**, who emerged from a crack in space.
— The **Eternal Child**, who never aged, never slept, never died.
But none had done what this one had done.
None had **rewritten the rules of cultivation** as if they were nothing more than dust on a stone.
The **Archivist of Forgotten Names** stepped forward, holding a scroll older than civilization, its edges burned, its text written in blood:
*"There is a prophecy.
From the Age of Silence.
It says:
*'When the Architect walks, the world will crack, the heavens will weep, and the old gods will flee, for he does not seek to rule.
He seeks to unmake.'*
This… is him."*
Silence fell.
Then, the **Supreme Arbiter**, the oldest and most powerful of them all, a being who had lived for 3,000 years and consumed the souls of nine sect masters to extend his life, opened his eyes — one red, one black — and said:
*"We have waited ten thousand years for this moment.
Not to fight a god.
Not to kill a demon.
But to stop the **end of the world** before it begins.
Prepare the **Nine Blood Blades**.
Send them to Desolate Mountain.
Their mission is not to capture.
Not to test.
Not to negotiate.
**Their mission is to erase him from existence.**"*
And so, the **Crimson Covenant**, an organization that had not moved in three centuries, stirred.
They opened the **Vault of the Fallen**, where the weapons of dead anomalies were stored, and retrieved nine daggers forged from the bones of executed heretics, each one capable of severing a Nascent Soul with a single cut.
They performed the **Rite of the Silent Assassins**, sacrificing nine hundred prisoners to awaken the **Blood Veil Cloaks**, garments that made the wearer invisible to spiritual detection.
And they selected the **Nine Blood Blades** — not the strongest, not the fastest, but the coldest, the most ruthless, the ones who had already died once and been reborn in blood.
The mission was simple:
- Infiltrate Desolate Mountain.
- Kill Huang Tian before he reaches Nascent Soul Realm.
- Erase all traces of his existence.
- Return, or die trying.
The **First Blade**, known only as **"Silence"**, had once been a sect master who slaughtered his entire clan to perfect his soul-severing technique.
The **Fifth Blade**, **"Ash"**, was a woman who had burned her own face off to erase her identity and become invisible to fate.
The **Ninth Blade**, **"Void"**, had no body — only a soul bound to a cursed dagger, capable of possessing any living being.
They were not assassins.
They were **judgments**.
And as they descended into the night, cloaked in silence, their hearts frozen, their souls severed from emotion, the Supreme Arbiter whispered into the void:
*"Let the first judgment begin."*
He did not say *"May you succeed."*
He did not say *"Return safely."*
Because success was not the goal.
**Eradication** was.
And if they failed…
then the Crimson Covenant would become something far worse.
The **Crimson God**.