The Jade Moon Lake was a place of impossible beauty. It was a perfect mirror, reflecting the sky with such clarity that it felt like you were staring into the heart of heaven itself. A gentle, sacred aura emanated from its waters, calming the soul and purifying the Qi of all who drew near.
It was the perfect place for a bloodbath.
From my hiding spot on a high cliff overlooking the lake, my new Destiny Map gave me a god's-eye view of the unfolding chaos. Lyra's shimmering silver star was a desperate comet, streaking towards the sacred shore. Close behind, Lin Feng's angry red star was a predator closing in for the kill. And fanning out behind them both was a swarm of smaller lights—Elder Sun and the entire elite of the Jade Scepter sect.
Lyra burst through the trees and onto the pristine white sand of the lakeshore. She was bleeding from a cut on her arm, her fine robes torn, her breath coming in ragged gasps. She had a wild, cornered look in her eyes.
"You have nowhere left to run, traitor!" Lin Feng roared, emerging from the forest moments later. He was in his 'Heaven's Wrath' state, a faint red aura of rage clinging to him. The Jade Scepter sect, in their arrogance, had likely tried to suppress him, and he had responded with the only tool he had: brute force. He had escaped their custody and was now running on pure, obsessive fury.
"I am no traitor!" Lyra screamed back, her hand flying to her chest where the fragment had embedded itself. "You are the monster, the demon who ruined my life!"
A sliver of raw, untamed power—a chaotic, silver light—flared from her hand, forming a crude shield that deflected a blast of Qi from Lin Feng. It was the Lottery Wheel fragment, her new, wild talent. She had no idea how to control it, but her survival instinct was bringing it to the surface.
This clash of tainted energies—Lin Feng's Netherworld-fueled rage and Lyra's chaotic, system-born power—was the catalyst. It was Seraphina's Fated Event, kicking into gear.
The surface of the Jade Moon Lake began to boil.
The sacred aura of peace vanished, replaced by an overwhelming pressure, a divine rage that felt like a physical weight on my soul. The water in the center of the lake began to glow, a brilliant, blinding gold.
A colossal head, larger than a carriage, broke the surface. It was a creature of breathtaking divinity, a carp whose scales were made of solidified light, its whiskers were threads of pure spiritual energy, and its eyes… its eyes were ancient, wise, and filled with a terrible, righteous fury.
The Spirit Carp of a Thousand Blessings had awoken.
Its voice was not a sound, but a wave of pure thought that washed over the entire mountain, a voice of absolute judgment.
[TAINTED ONES!] it boomed in our minds. [You dare defile this sacred ground with your corrupted souls? You dare bring your petty, filthy conflict to the heart of the world's purity? You shall be cleansed!]
This was Seraphina's plan in motion. The Carp, in its divine rage, made no distinction between Lyra and Lin Feng. It saw two blights, two sources of unnatural power, and it moved to annihilate them both.
A tidal wave of pure, golden spiritual energy rose from the lake, a tsunami of sacred power aimed directly at the two combatants on the shore. It was an attack that would not just kill them; it would obliterate their very souls.
Elder Sun and the other sect members, arriving at that moment, could only watch in horror, powerless to intervene.
This was my moment.
I didn't care about saving them. But I could not let them die. Not yet. Lyra was my key to chaos, and Lin Feng was my future power-up. Their deaths had to be by my hand, on my terms.
I pulled the Bell of Sorrowful Souls from my inventory. The coppery metal felt cold, vibrating with a malevolent, suppressed energy.
"Let's add a little noise to the party," I whispered to myself.
I poured my Abyssal Qi into the bell and, with a flick of my wrist, I rang it.
There was no sound. Not at first.
Instead, a wave of pure, invisible, psychic agony erupted outwards. It was the color of despair, the texture of grief, the sound of a million souls screaming at once.
The effect was devastating and indiscriminate.
On the shore, Lin Feng and Lyra screamed, clutching their heads as their souls were shredded by the soundless cacophony. The righteous cultivators of the Jade Scepter sect cried out, some collapsing to their knees, their pure Qi thrown into turmoil by the demonic frequency.
But the true target, the Spirit Carp, a being of almost pure spiritual energy, was annihilated by the blast.
The golden tsunami of holy power it had summoned collapsed instantly. The divine light in its scales flickered and died, replaced by a sickly, corrosive black. It let out a silent, soul-shattering scream of pure pain, its colossal body thrashing in the sacred water, turning it into a churning, muddy mess.
The Bell of Sorrowful Souls had crippled a god.
In the ensuing chaos, with every single person either incapacitated or reeling in agony, I used [Imp's Shadow-Step].
I teleported from my cliff-top perch directly onto the thrashing, dying head of the Spirit Carp. I stood there, a black-clad figure of death, the Bell in one hand and the Shadowfang Dagger in the other, a villain appearing at the heart of a tragedy he himself had orchestrated.
The Carp's immense, ancient eye rolled to look at me. The rage was gone, replaced by a deep, pained wisdom. Its psychic voice was no longer a boom, but a weak, fading whisper in my mind.
[The... bell... a sin of the Sundering... so this is how it ends...]
Its gaze shifted, its divine sight piercing through the veil of reality, seeing the truths we all tried to hide. It looked at Lin Feng, still writhing on the shore.
[The son of the sinner... the seed of the shadow... your blood is a curse upon this land...]
It had just publicly confirmed Lin Feng's bastard heritage to everyone present.
Then, its gaze moved to Lyra. It saw her, my supposed sister, and its divine consciousness flinched, not in anger, but in confusion. It saw our intertwined destinies, my dark obsession, her hateful ambition.
But then it saw something deeper. A flaw in the bloodline. A lie at the heart of the story.
Its final, dying proclamation was a twist so profound, so earth-shattering, that it made everything that had come before—the regressor, the World-Breaker, the System itself—seem like a simple prologue. Its voice echoed in the mind of every single person on the mountain.
[And the girl... the stolen child...] the Carp whispered, its gaze locking with mine. [You wear the blood of the Ravencrest Dragon, but you are not of its heart. Your soul does not match the lineage. You are no daughter of this line.]
The Carp's great eye dimmed, its life fading.
And I stood there, on the head of a dead god, the universe having just screaming the truth at me.
Lyra was not my sister. My entire motivation, the twenty-five-year-long obsession that had defined my death and rebirth, was built on a fundamental lie.