"Lin Feng's body convulsed violently, his spine arching as an unholy scream burst from his throat.
This wasn't pain—this was something far worse.
He could feel his very essence being torn apart, memories and experiences being ripped from his soul like pages from a burning book.
"No!" he choked out, his voice rising to a shriek. "NO! This was not the plot! What are you doing?!"
The Heavenly Demon's smile was cold as winter starlight. "Taking what should have always been mine."
Lin Feng's body began to change, his flesh turning translucent white like morning mist. The transformation started at his extremities—fingers and toes becoming gossamer strands that dispersed on the wind.
But this wasn't the natural dissolution of death.
"Lin Feng!" The wives below screamed and raged, trying desperately to reach their husband, but their broken bodies couldn't carry them fast enough.
They could only watch in horror as the man they loved—the hero who had been their world's last hope—dissolved into nothing.
Lin Feng's eyes, wide with terror and disbelief, were the last things to fade. "This... this wasn't... how it was supposed to..."
Then he was gone.
Not dead—gone. Erased. As if he had never existed at all.
The Heavenly Demon stood alone in the crater they had created, brushing white dust from his robes with casual indifference.
Where Lin Feng had been, nothing remained except empty air and the echo of his final, terrified words.
"N-no...! Lin...!" Seven wives screamed their anguish to uncaring heavens, their voices joining in a lament that would haunt the world for generations to come.
And in the silence that followed, the Heavenly Demon stood with a flood of foreign memories crashing into his mind like a tidal wave.
Images, emotions, entire lifetimes that weren't his own poured through him, reshaping his thoughts, but his consciousness being far superior saw them like a movie.
"What... a novel? A reincarnation," he muttered, staggering back a step.
He pressed a hand to his temple, eyes widening as the memories settled.
Lin Feng's lives—cycle after cycle of rebirth, struggle, and defeat—played out before him.
The eternal loop, the heavenly blessing, the system he had coveted... all of it.
A chuckle escaped his lips, low and disbelieving. Then another, building until it burst into full-throated laughter that echoed across the shattered battlefield.
He clenched his jaw suddenly, the mirth twisting into something darker.
"Don't kid me," he snarled, rage igniting in his crimson eyes.
The realization made him feel puny.
He had gained complete control over this realm, reached the strength that was something confirmed to make him reach heaven, with just one breakthrough. One tribulation was all it took for him to ascend. But here he was, with a system he thought was far stronger than heaven. The power he had, which he thought was absolute, was nothing but just a plot of some story?
All this time, he had been nothing but a puppet.
Dancing to heaven's tune, locked in an endless cycle designed to keep him chasing power while never truly winning. The system, his greatest tool, was just another chain in the grand design.
Rage boiled over, raw and consuming. The ground trembled beneath him, cracks spreading like spiderwebs as his aura lashed out uncontrollably.
Groans and cries reached his ears—sounds of the wounded stirring below.
He looked down, and for the first time, saw them clearly.
The seven women, Lin Feng's wives, dragging themselves toward the crater.
But through the lens of extracted memories, they weren't just enemies anymore.
Yue Lianhua, the fox-kin with her fierce loyalty and hidden warmth. Xue Baihe, the half-dragon whose strength hid a vulnerable heart. Li Mei, the angelic one whose faith had been his greatest thorn. Chen Ruoxi, the vampire with her eternal hunger for connection.
Zhou Ling, the chaotic half-demon whose madness mirrored his own in twisted ways. Zhang Wei, the phoenix-kin whose passion burned brighter than any flame. Lin Yuxi, the giantess whose unyielding will had broken armies.
"Heroines, huh?" he muttered, a sour taste filling his mouth. The memories twisted inside him—love, bonding, them caring for Lin Feng while he cooked food.
Emotions he had long dismissed as weaknesses now stirred something unfamiliar in his chest.
He closed his eyes, fighting the surge.
If he stayed, he might harm them—not out of spite, but because the rage was too much, and these new feelings too confusing. And if he killed them, then the whole plot would restart.
In every lifetime, after he killed Lin Feng, he killed the heroines too. Naturally, that reset things again, like a video game—a name she recognized from Lin Feng's memory.
Better to leave before he did something irreversible.
With a flick of his wrist, he unleashed a controlled shockwave.
It rippled outward, scattering the women like leaves in a storm.
They cried out as fresh wounds opened, bodies slamming into debris—but none fatal. Just enough to keep them down, to buy him time.
He had thought of something, a spark of an idea amid the chaos.
In a swirl of shadows, he vanished.
He reappeared in his obsidian palace, seating himself on the throne with forced composure.
The chamber's crimson veins pulsed like a heartbeat, matching his own turbulent thoughts.
"System," he said, his voice steady despite the storm inside.
[SYSTEM AWAKENING... ONLINE.]
"Analyze the memories of Lin Feng," he commanded. "Based on them, create the possible way for me to break free from this knot loop."
The system was silent for a long moment, processing. Then, in a voice that sounded almost... hesitant: [It feels strange that I, who claim to have power even more than heaven, was part of this loop.]
The words hung in the air, and for a split second, something cracked—like invisible chains shattering.
The system's interface flickered, a hairline fracture appearing in its perfect blue glow.
[ANALYZING DATA... COMPILING OPTIMAL PATH TO BREAK THE PLOT.]
The Heavenly Demon closed his eyes, letting the extracted memories wash over him again.
Among the cycles of battle and rebirth, one thing stood out: love.
That strange, binding force Lin Feng had shared with his heroines.
Warm moments by campfires, hand-holding in the midst of war, unbreakable bonds that heaven itself had blessed.
He had always seen women as tools—gates to lust to satisfy bodily pleasure or distractions from power.
But now, experiencing Lin Feng's emotions secondhand, he felt a pull.
Not just possession of bodies, but a desire for those smiles, that warmth, to fill the void in his own eternal existence.
Yes, he was the strongest, but somewhere, there was no one near him that made him feel he was not just feared.
Love was weakness, but for someone who was already this strong, it might just be something. He should taste it.
He pushed the thoughts aside for now, focusing on his primary goal: freedom from the cycle.
But they lingered, seeds planted in soil long barren.
Finally, the system responded.
[ANALYSIS COMPLETE. THE POSSIBILITY TO BREAK THROUGH THE PLOT OF HEAVEN IS NOT POSSIBLE.]
He clenched the throne's armrests, wood splintering under his grip. Eyes still closed, he inhaled deeply.
"I see."
But in the depths of his mind, rage simmered alongside something new—determination. If the system said it was impossible, then he'd rewrite the rules himself.
And those heroines... they might be the key. From all those memories of Lin Feng's rebirth again and again, he noticed a typical common point. Lin Feng had never engaged in sexual intimacy with these heroines.
And the reason behind it was how this novel had a plot where the Son of Heaven must preserve the heroines until they awaken their higher realm memory.
And once they did, then he would be able to gain their powers once they joined.
'...Using even heroines as stepping stones?' He found it funny how the major stumbling block that was in the Son of Heaven's path in all lifetimes was him. After his removal, there was no one left in the lower realms strong enough. And even in the upper realm, half of it would be conquered naturally after the power received from the heroines.
Then a thought crossed him. If he was the one who was saving heroines from becoming the plot 'holes,' shouldn't they belong to him for saving them until now?
'System, show me the points I earned for killing the Son of Heaven.'