World-Breaker.
The words hung in my mind, colder and heavier than any tombstone.
Lin Feng wasn't a hero. He was a weapon. A cancer, seeded by the Netherworld, designed to grow, metastasize, and ultimately consume Aethelgard. His protagonist's halo, his cheats, his endless luck—it wasn't the blessing of the Heavenly Dao. It was the investment of a demon lord.
And Lyra… my clever, treacherous, regressed sister… she had thrown in her lot with the apocalypse.
Did she know? Did she understand the true nature of the entity she was helping? Or did she, in her single-minded focus on winning, only see a path to power, ignorant of where it ultimately led?
It didn't matter. Her intentions were irrelevant. She had chosen the side of the world's hidden enemy. Which, by a delightful twist of irony, made me the one fighting to save it. A villain as the world's unlikely, unwilling savior. The cosmic joke just kept getting better.
A wave of dizziness washed over me. The aftermath of devouring the Imp was hitting hard. My spiritual energy was in chaos, and my body was screaming in protest. I quickly sat down, crossing my legs and beginning to circulate the Abyssal Shadow Devouring Art. I had to stabilize this new power, to make it my own. The Netherworld energy was a wild, bucking stallion; I needed to break it, to brand it with my will.
Time bled away in the darkness of the cistern. When I finally opened my eyes, I felt… different. The Netherworld energy was no longer a foreign entity. It was an extension of me, a second pool of power alongside my normal Qi, dark, cold, and hungry. My cultivation hadn't advanced a stage, but the raw potency of my presence had tripled.
I glanced at the timer in the corner of my system's interface. Twenty minutes until Lyra's banquet. Perfect.
I used the cistern's murky water to wash the blood from my face and hands. My clothes were a mess, but I could fix that.
"[Imp's Shadow-Step]," I whispered, focusing on the destination: the shadows behind the draperies in my own bedchamber.
The world dissolved into a sickening, non-Euclidean lurch. For a split second, I was nowhere and everywhere, a ghost in the static between realms. Then, reality snapped back into place. I stood in my room, the scent of sandalwood incense filling my nostrils. The teleportation was disorienting, but it was incredibly effective.
I quickly changed into a fresh set of fine, black and silver robes—the colors of a predator, not a dandy. I looked at myself in the obsidian mirror. The face was the same handsome, aristocratic mask, but the eyes were different. There was a new depth to them, a hint of ancient darkness that wasn't there before.
It was time for the party.
Lyra's garden pavilion was an exquisite structure of carved moonlight-wood and translucent silk screens, set in the middle of a koi pond. Floating lanterns cast a soft, dreamlike glow over the scene. It was a picture of serene beauty.
It was a viper's nest.
As I approached, I could already see the guests. There were about a dozen of them, all young, all powerful. Heirs and prodigies from families and sects that had supported Lyra and Lin Feng in our last life. My [Eye of Scrutiny] worked overtime, cataloging them all.
[Name: Marcus Valerius] - Cultivation: Foundation Establishment - 1st Stage. Son of the Prime Minister. Future general under Lin Feng.
[Name: Elena Sunstrider] - Cultivation: Body Tempering - 8th Stage. Prodigy of the Blazing Sun Sect. Future member of Lin Feng's harem.
And standing beside Lyra, a calm, composed smile on her face, was Seraphina Vane. My former fiancée. My current target.
They all stopped talking as I entered the pavilion. The air grew thick with tension. Every single person here, except possibly Seraphina, saw me as the enemy. The useless, trash brother of their brilliant princess.
Lyra glided forward, a vision of ethereal beauty in a flowing, moon-white gown. Her smile was flawless. "Brother! You came. We were all just talking about your heroic deeds today."
"It was nothing," I said, my own smile just as false. "Anything for you, little sister."
My eyes scanned the gathered crowd, and I let my gaze linger for a moment on the arrogant face of Marcus Valerius. "Though I hope the 'friends' you've gathered tonight are of a higher caliber than the spies my Second Brother employs."
The shot was deliberate, a stone tossed into the placid pond. Marcus's face tightened, and a few of the others shifted uncomfortably. They had all heard about the 'accident' that befell my servant. They knew I was sending a message.
Lyra's smile didn't falter. "Everyone here is a true friend, Kaelen. Please, have some wine." She gestured to a servant, who immediately poured a cup of jade-green liquid and offered it to me.
I took the cup, my eyes meeting Lyra's over the rim. This was the first test. Poison? A truth serum? Something more subtle?
I brought the cup to my lips, sniffing it delicately. The aroma was of orchids and honey. But beneath that, my newly-sensitized connection to Nether-Aether detected something else. A faint, almost imperceptible trace of something cold and cloying.
My system confirmed it instantly.
[Substance Detected: 'Heart's Echo' Dust]
Description: A rare and subtle alchemical agent. Not a poison. When ingested, it makes the user's emotional state highly susceptible to resonance with musical notes. Often used by interrogators to induce feelings of guilt, fear, or honesty through specialized songs.
Clever. Not a direct attack, but a trap waiting to be sprung.
I smiled. "An excellent vintage."
And I downed the entire cup in one go.
Lyra's eyes widened slightly, a flicker of surprise and triumph in their depths. She thought she had me.
The banquet began. The conversation was a minefield of pleasantries laced with subtle barbs and probing questions, all of which I deflected with the practiced ease of a courtly dandy. I played my role perfectly, laughing at their weak jokes, complimenting the ladies, appearing utterly harmless.
Then, Lyra clapped her hands. "Let us have some music to accompany the beautiful evening."
A musician stepped forward with a zither. He was a master, his fingers plucking a hauntingly beautiful melody. But this was no ordinary performance. I could feel the 'Heart's Echo' dust in my system begin to vibrate, resonating with the music. A wave of artificial melancholy washed over me, a psychic pressure urging me to confess, to feel guilt, to show weakness.
This was the core of her trap. To break down my emotional defenses in front of her allies.
But Lyra had no idea what now lived inside me. The cold, abyssal power I had devoured was anathema to such petty emotional manipulation. The Netherworld energy in my soul simply… consumed the feeling. The artificial sadness vanished, leaving only my own cold, calculating clarity.
I leaned back in my seat, a look of placid enjoyment on my face, and took another sip of wine.
I watched as Lyra's expression slowly shifted from confident expectation, to confusion, and then to a dawning, frustrated disbelief. Her trap had failed. Utterly. I was completely immune.
Seeing her plan crumble, I decided it was time to launch my own counter-attack.
I stood up, raising my cup. "A toast!" I announced, my voice ringing with good cheer. "To my dear sister, Lyra. On her miraculous recovery."
Everyone raised their cups.
"And," I continued, my eyes locking onto hers, my smile turning sharp as a shard of glass, "a toast to her future. May she find a husband worthy of her. Someone powerful. Someone who isn't, for instance, a preening, self-righteous, second-rate alchemist who gets himself crippled by falling out of a window."
The silence that followed was absolute.
Every person in the pavilion froze. I had just, in the most public and insulting way possible, referenced Jian Yue. I had linked him to Lyra and then mocked him as a worthless cripple.
Lyra's face, for the first time, went completely pale. Her perfect composure shattered, replaced by a flash of pure, unadulterated fury. She had lost control.
And in that moment of chaos, just as the tension reached its breaking point, a thunderous explosion rocked the entire Imperial Palace. Not a small, targeted blast like the one at the guild. This was a massive detonation, originating from the direction of the palace treasury, powerful enough to shake the very foundations of the earth.
Screams and alarms echoed through the night.
Before anyone could react, the system flared with a notification that made my blood run cold, erasing my triumphant smirk.
[WORLD ANNOUNCEMENT]
[A 'World-Breaker Anomaly' has entered the capital city.]
[The Protagonist, Lin Feng, has arrived.]
[Due to multiple interferences with the timeline, his 'Protagonist Halo' has entered an overclocked state to correct destiny.]
[First Correction Event Initiated: A priceless treasure has been stolen from the Ravencrest Treasury. The blame will befall the most likely suspect.]
[System Analysis: You, Kaelen Ravencrest, are currently the number one suspect.]