The night was silent, but Feng Xieyun's soul was not. The vision of golden palaces haunted him, each heartbeat echoing with whispers he could not silence.
When he sat to meditate again, the System's voice was harsher:
> [Do not reach for what is forbidden.]
[The Immortal Plane is beyond your cycle.]
Yet his blood burned. The Heavenly Demon Dao Bone within him pulsed violently, rejecting the chains. A storm gathered inside his meridians—Qi twisting into a whirlpool that tore against the system's bindings.
Suddenly, the world cracked.
Light consumed him, and once more his soul was hurled upward. But this time, he broke the chains.
---
He landed upon a bridge of jade spanning across endless skies. Celestial rivers flowed beneath, carrying stars within their currents. Above, cities gleamed like suns, their towers endless.
He had entered.
The Immortal Plane.
Yet the beauty was drowned by a pressure so absolute it bent the soul. Countless Immortals hovered in the far distance, their bodies radiating laws of creation and destruction. Their eyes flickered toward him, then away, dismissing him as one dismisses an ant who accidentally stumbles into heaven.
But one did not dismiss him.
From the throne of shadows, the pressure intensified. The Unknown God's remnant, sealed within the Immortal Plane, stirred. Its voice was a whisper across eternity:
"So… a fragment dares crawl back to the sky."
Xieyun staggered, clutching his chest. His soul felt as if it were being peeled apart. The System shrieked in panic.
> [Warning: Host has exceeded allowed parameters.]
[Emergency retrieval in progress.]
But something interfered.
From the river of stars, a figure rose—clad in silver and black, hair flowing like ink across the night sky. Her eyes, deep as chaos itself, fell upon him.
She raised her hand. The Unknown God's shadow recoiled.
"Yu…" she whispered, and this time the name was not broken. It was whole. "Even here, I will shield you."
The Chaos Goddess.
Though her form was faint, bound and weakened, her presence was undeniable. The warmth of her protection spread into him, igniting a forgotten familiarity.
The throne trembled. The shadowed voice roared. "You cannot keep him, woman. His hatred is mine."
Chains of void erupted from the darkness, lashing toward him. But the Goddess' starlit form intercepted, her radiance shattering the first wave.
"Go back," she urged him, her voice trembling with both love and sorrow. "You are not ready. But when you return to me, Yu, the heavens themselves will burn."
Light enveloped him once more, pulling him downward. His vision blurred. Her silhouette faded.
---
He awoke on the cold floor of his chamber, gasping, drenched in sweat. The System's voice was trembling—something he had never heard before.
> [Host… you are not permitted there.]
[That place… that woman…]
The words cut, glitching like broken glass.
Feng Xieyun's fists clenched. His heart thundered—not with fear, but with burning resolve.
"The Immortal Plane…" he whispered. "She's waiting for me there. No matter how many chains bind me… I will reach it."
And in the shadows beyond his chamber, the world seemed to listen.
---