The Elder from the Jade Scepter sect didn't just see a scene of chaos. She saw a story. And in that story, I was the villain.
Her presence was a tangible thing, a weight on the world that made the Crimsonwood Ancestor's aura feel crude and unfocused. This was the refined, focused pressure of an Eternal Dao Realm master. A being who had manifested their own personal Law. We weren't just in her presence; we were in her domain.
"Elder Sun," Captain Draven said, his voice filled with a reverence that bordered on awe. He recognized her. "What are you doing here?"
"I came seeking a young man of 'righteous spirit'," the Elder said, her sharp eyes never leaving me. "Instead, I find a monster, a knight, and a god… all dancing to the tune of a little shadow prince."
Lin Feng, still simmering in the afterglow of his 'Heaven's Wrath', stared at her. "Elder… Prince Valerius sent you?"
"The Second Prince is a dutiful boy," she acknowledged, a hint of approval in her voice. "He was wise to seek our counsel. He saw the smoke, but he did not understand the nature of the fire." Her gaze flickered to the Shadowfang Dagger, still embedded in the Ancestor's root. "A dagger that wears the scent of a stolen destiny. A boy who smells of the Netherworld's rot. A desperate hero led by the nose. And a slumbering god, driven mad by conflicting signals. This is your work, is it not, Fourth Prince?"
She saw it all. Not the details, perhaps, but the shape of the truth. She was a master strategist, a veteran of a thousand political and spiritual battles, and my desperate, chaotic gambit looked to her like a deliberate, masterful manipulation. In a way, she wasn't wrong.
I had to change the narrative, and fast.
I pulled my dagger free from the root. The Ancestor, its concentration now fully broken, let out a low, confused groan and began to slowly, ponderously, recede back into the earth, its duty as a guardian momentarily forgotten in the face of this incomprehensible situation. The World Boss was logging off.
"Elder Sun," I said, my voice calm and respectful, a stark contrast to the chaos around us. "You misunderstand. I am not the puppeteer. I am the hunter."
I pointed the dagger—my protagonist-scented dagger—at the panting Lin Feng. "I swore a Blood Hunt to bring this demon to justice. The creature you see before you is not a 'righteous spirit'. He is a World-Breaker, an anomaly whose very existence is a poison to this realm. The Crimsonwood Ancestor, a guardian of the natural order, recognized him for what he is. I did not manipulate the guardian; I merely used the demon's own tainted nature to confuse it and save our lives."
It was a brilliant lie, woven from the threads of the truth. I was the hero who had cleverly used the villain's own evil against a greater threat.
The Elder's eyes narrowed. My story was plausible. It painted me as a cunning but ultimately righteous actor.
But then Lin Feng, my eternal rival, spoke. "Lies!" he roared, his voice hoarse. "He is the demon! He tortured me! He… he called me his brother!"
The Elder's gaze snapped back to me, a new, sharp light in her eyes. The accusation of torture was one thing. The claim of kinship was another entirely. It hinted at a deeper, dirtier secret.
Draven, ever the noble knight, chose this moment to intervene. "Elder Sun, I can attest to Prince Kaelen's words. He warned me that this man was tainted. I did not believe him at first, but the forest guardian's reaction proves it. The Fourth Prince may be unconventional, but his goal was the same as mine: to subdue this fugitive."
Seraphina's agent was defending me. It was a logical move. His mission was to stay close to Lin Feng. By corroborating my story, he painted himself as a reasonable observer, separating himself from the "demonic" fugitive and aligning with the "heroic" hunter. He was protecting his cover.
The situation was a tangled mess of accusations and half-truths. A true stalemate.
The Elder was silent for a long moment, her gaze sweeping over the three of us. She was a judge, weighing the evidence.
"The truth of this matter is clouded," she finally declared. "But one thing is clear. This boy," she gestured to Lin Feng, "is a source of immense instability. Prince Valerius was right to be concerned. He will be returned to the capital, not as a prisoner of the Fourth Prince's personal vendetta, but as a ward of the Jade Scepter sect. We will investigate the nature of his power, and we will determine the truth of his origins."
She had just seized custody of my asset. With a single declaration, she had completely nullified my father's decree and taken control of Lin Feng.
"And you, Captain Draven," she continued. "Your bravery is commendable. You will escort us back to the capital. The Vane family's support for Prince Valerius is a welcome development."
She had acknowledged Draven, solidifying the alliance between her sect and Valerius's faction.
Finally, her gaze settled on me. There was no warmth, no approval. Only a deep, abiding suspicion. "As for you, Fourth Prince… your 'Blood Hunt' is over. Your methods are reckless and your affinity for dark energies is… unsettling. You will return to the capital and explain yourself to the Emperor. Your days of operating as a rogue agent are at an end."
She had checkmated me. In one move, she had taken my prisoner, strengthened my political rivals, and ordered me back to the palace, stripping me of the very freedom I had just won. She had seen through my chaos and imposed her own, rigid order.
I had no choice but to concede. Openly defying an Eternal Dao master would be suicide.
"As you say, Elder Sun," I said, giving a shallow, almost mocking bow.
I had been outplayed. For the first time since my regression, a player with more experience and more raw power had stepped onto the board and dictated the terms.
As we began the long, tense journey back to the capital—the triumphant Elder, the "rescued" Lin Feng, the noble Captain Draven, and the defeated me—I was already calculating my next move. I had lost this round, but the game was far from over.
And then, as if to prove that the universe enjoyed nothing more than absolute chaos, the system, my system, chose this moment of defeat to finish its full analysis of the Netherworld. It had been working on it ever since I had devoured the Imp. A new information package bloomed in my mind, a wealth of forbidden knowledge.
[ANALYSIS COMPLETE: THE NETHERWORLD - BASIC HIERARCHY AND PROTOCOLS.]
[...DATA INCLUDES INFORMATION ON 'THE COURT OF INEVITABILITY'.]
[CROSS-REFERENCING NEW DATA WITH ALL KNOWN EVENTS...]
...
[!!! CRITICAL CONTRADICTION DETECTED !!!]
The system displayed the contradiction, and my blood turned to ice. It was a twist so profound, so reality-altering, that it made everything that had just happened seem like a petty squabble.
[CONTRADICTION: Judicators of the Court are forbidden, by the Netherworld's most ancient and unbreakable law, from forming symbiotic bonds or planting control markers on any mortal soul, for any reason.]
[CONCLUSION: The entity marker detected within User 'Seraphina Vane' is not a legitimate 'Judicator' trace.]
[ANALYSIS: The entity masquerading as a Judicator is, in fact, a being of a completely different, and hostile, cosmic origin.]
[ ITS TRUE IDENTITY IS... THE SYSTEM'S ORIGINAL CREATOR.]