The mountain burned.
The once-glorious Crimson Sky Sect, feared across the cultivation world, had been reduced to rubble. Blood stained the stone steps, corpses of disciples and elders littered the courtyards, and the grand ancestral hall collapsed in flames.
At the heart of the ruin, a man knelt in shattered armor, his body broken, his dantian cracked, and his lifeblood soaking the ground. His black robes, embroidered with the insignia of a blood-red sky, were torn and soaked with ash. His eyes, once sharp enough to terrify nations, were hollow and trembling with rage.
He was Xie Mo.
Sect Master. Villain. Tyrant. The scourge of the righteous path.
And today, he was defeated.
Hovering above him in radiant light, the righteous cultivator who had led the siege sneered.
"Evil deserves no mercy. Your clan will be erased, root and stem."
Xie Mo's pupils shrank as screams echoed across the sect grounds. His wife cut down as she shielded their youngest son. His eldest daughter pierced through the heart while dragging disciples to safety. Even his loyal servants slaughtered without hesitation.
"Stop…!" His voice cracked, but the only answer was the swish of immortal swords reaping lives.
The heavens seemed to laugh at his despair. His chest collapsed under a final palm strike, hurling him into the rubble. His vision blurred, the world fading into crimson haze.
So this was how the Crimson Sky Sect ended.
So this was how his bloodline vanished.
For a moment, hatred boiled hotter than his pain. If I could live again… if I could rise once more… I would burn this world until no 'righteous' hypocrite remained.
But death crept closer. His soul began to scatter, threads of consciousness unraveling into the void.
Then—
A cold, mechanical chime echoed in the abyss of his mind.
[ Ding! ]
Void nexus initializing…
Searching for compatible Sect Master…
Host found. Binding successful.
Xie Mo's fading eyes widened.
"What… is this…?"
The voice was neither human nor divine. It resonated like truth itself, cutting through the veil of death.
[ Sect Master detected with zero disciples. ]
[ Activating emergency restoration protocol. ]
[ Summoning first batch of disciples… from an external realm. ]
A flicker of light stirred in the ruins around him. Circles of strange symbols formed in the air, unlike any cultivation array he had ever seen. The ground quaked as portals opened, each radiating an aura utterly foreign to this world.
Xie Mo's blood-stained lips twisted into a trembling smile.
He had lost everything—his sect, his family, his pride.
But if fate itself handed him a chance…
Then he would take it.
"Very well," he whispered, voice hoarse and filled with venom.
"Grant me these… disciples. No matter what they are, I will forge my sect anew. And one day… the so-called righteous will kneel before me."
The ruins crackled with otherworldly light, shadows of strange figures stepping through.
And thus began the rebirth of the fallen villain.