The Paragon Realm was a place where the clouds were made of spun gold and the air itself tasted like the finest wine.
It was the highest of the nine heavens, a domain reserved for those with the purest bloodlines and the most profound cultivation.
For seventeen years, Jiang Chen had known no other life.
He was the favored son of the Jiang Clan, a youth of exceptional grace, striking black hair that caught the light like polished obsidian, and a smile that could melt the frost of the coldest peak.
At 5'10", with a lean, athletic build that promised even greater strength once his bloodline awakened, he was the envy of every young lord in the capital.
But despite his status, Jiang Chen was known for his kindness—a rarity in a world where power was the only currency that mattered.
Tomorrow was the day everything would change.
Tomorrow, he would turn eighteen.
Tomorrow, the legendary bloodline of the Jiang Clan would finally stir within his veins, granting him the divine abilities that would cement his place as a future sovereign.
But tonight, he didn't care about power. He only cared about her.
The Realm Gate stood at the edge of the floating continent of Astraea, a massive archway of shimmering white marble and ancient runes that overlooked the swirling, colorful mists of the lower worlds.
Standing beneath its shadow was a figure that made Jiang Chen's heart skip a beat.
Wu Feng.
She was dressed in a fluttering robe of pale silk that clung to her curves like a second skin, her long hair tied back with a ribbon of azure jade.
Her beauty was ethereal, the kind of beauty that poets spent lifetimes trying to capture.
"You're late," she said, though her voice was soft, devoid of any real bite.
Jiang Chen grinned, stepping closer. "A future Paragon Sovereign has to make an entrance, doesn't he? Besides, I had to dodge three different elders who wanted to give me 'pre-awakening' lectures. My ears are still ringing."
Wu Feng laughed, but the sound seemed to trail off a bit too quickly.
She looked out at the vast expanse beyond the gate, her eyes unreadable.
"Tomorrow is the big day," she whispered.
"It is," Jiang Chen said, his tone turning serious. He stepped into her personal space, the scent of jasmine and something faintly metallic clinging to her.
He took her hands in his. They were cold, trembling slightly. "Feng'er, I've been waiting for this moment for a long time. Not just for the awakening. But because my father said that once I awaken, I can choose my own path. I can choose who I want by my side."
He looked deeply into her eyes, his heart hammering against his ribs. "I don't want to go into the ancestral grounds alone tomorrow. I want you to be there. As my partner. As the woman I love."
The words were out. They hung in the air, heavy and sweet.
Jiang Chen waited for the smile, for the embrace, for the confirmation of the secret glances they had shared for months.
Wu Feng looked at him. She did smile, but it wasn't the smile he expected. It was a smile of profound, chilling pity.
"Oh, Chen'er," she sighed, her voice like silk over a blade. "You really are too kind for your own good. So sweet. So... naive."
Jiang Chen's brow furrowed. "Feng'er? What do you mean?"
"I'm sorry," she said, and for a fleeting second, he thought she meant she was rejecting him.
But she didn't pull her hands away.
Instead, she gripped his wrists with a strength that shouldn't have been possible. "I really am. But a woman like me... I need someone with more than just a 'legendary' name. I need someone who already has the world in his palm."
"I don't understand," Jiang Chen stammered. "If this is about the awakening, it's tomorrow! I'll have the power—"
"But you won't," a cold, mocking voice interrupted.
From behind one of the massive pillars of the Realm Gate, a figure stepped out.
He was tall, dressed in midnight-blue armor that hummed with repressed energy.
His face was identical in its handsomeness to Jiang's, but where Jiang's expression was open and warm, this man's was twisted with a deep-seated, simmering resentment.
"Li Chen?" Jiang Chen gasped.
Li Chen, his foster brother.
The one his parents had taken in and treated as their own.
The one Jiang Chen had shared his toys, his techniques, and his secrets with. Unlike Jiang, Li Chen had already reached his eighteenth year months ago.
He had awakened a formidable lightning-attribute talent, and Jiang had been the first to celebrate his success.
"Did you really think she would choose a 'may-be' over a 'certainty'?" Li Chen sneered, walking forward. Each step he took cracked the marble beneath his boots. "Did you really think the 'nice guy' gets the prize?"
"Li Chen, what is the meaning of this? Why are you here?" Jiang Chen demanded, trying to pull his hands from Wu Feng's grip, but he found he couldn't move.
A paralyzing seal was spreading from her palms into his veins.
"Why?" Li Chen laughed, a jagged, ugly sound. "Because I'm tired, 'Brother.' I'm tired of being the charity case. I'm tired of the servants whispering that I'm only powerful because the Jiang Clan threw me a few scraps. I'm tired of Mother and Father looking at me with 'pride' while they look at you with devotion. You haven't even awakened yet, and they've already prepared the throne for you!"
"That's not true! They love you—"
"They love their legacy!" Li Chen screamed, his face contorting. "And tomorrow, you were going to become that legacy. But I've decided to change the script. Wu Feng and I... we've been planning this since the mid-winter festival."
Jiang Chen looked at the woman he loved. "Feng'er... is this true?"
Wu Feng didn't look away.
She leaned in, her lips brushing against his ear, her breath hot and mocking. "He's just more... exciting, Chen'er. He has a darkness in him that your 'kindness' could never match. And he's willing to do what it takes to reach the top."
"Enough talk," Li Chen growled. He raised his hand, and arc of violet lightning danced between his fingers, condensing into a jagged blade of pure energy. "The elders think you're meditating in the ancestral hall. By the time they find out you're gone, I'll be the only 'son' they have left to carry the name."
Jiang Chen felt a surge of adrenaline, a desperate need to fight, but his body was a cage.
The seal Wu Feng had placed on him was a high-grade paralyzing curse. He was a lamb to the slaughter.
"Li Chen, stop!" Jiang Chen pleaded, not out of fear, but out of a shattering sense of betrayal. "We're brothers!"
"We were never brothers," Li Chen spat.
With a blurred motion, Li Chen lunged.
Splat.
The sound was sickeningly wet. Jiang Chen gasped, his eyes widening.
He looked down to see the lightning blade protruding from his chest, right through his heart.
The heat was unbearable, cauterizing his insides even as it destroyed them.
Blood bubbled up in his throat, hot and metallic.
He looked at Li Chen, who held the hilt of the energy blade with a manic, joyous expression.
He looked at Wu Feng, who watched with nothing but cold curiosity, as if she were watching a bug being pinned to a board.
"The Realm Gate is open tonight for the supply ships," Li Chen whispered, leaning in close. "I wonder... how long can a 'Legendary Bloodline' survive a fall from the Paragon Realm without any cultivation?"
Li Chen pulled the blade out. Jiang Chen collapsed, his legs giving way.
He slumped against the edge of the gate, the abyss of the lower realms swirling beneath him in a chaotic kaleidoscope of colors.
"Goodbye, Chen'er," Wu Feng said, her voice fading. "In the next life, try to be a bit more selfish."
Li Chen delivered a brutal kick to Jiang Chen's shoulder.
The world tilted. The marble vanished.
Jiang Chen fell.
The wind was a screaming monster, tearing at his clothes and his skin.
The pressure of falling through the layers of reality was like being crushed by a mountain.
His heart, or what was left of it, throbbed with a rhythmic, agonizing pain.
Why?
The question looped in his mind as he passed through the Cloud Sea, through the layers of the Middle Realms, descending further and further into the darkness.
I loved her. I loved him. I gave them everything.
Tears blurred his vision, freezing into ice crystals as he plummeted.
The golden light of the Paragon Realm was a pinprick above him, shrinking until it vanished entirely.
He was falling into the dregs of the universe.
He was falling into Nadir.
Nadir—the lowest realm.
A place of wild, untamed jungles, monstrous beasts, and humans who lived like animals in the dirt.
To a citizen of the Paragon Realm, falling to Nadir was worse than death. It was erasure.
The atmosphere grew thick and humid. Below him, an endless sea of emerald green appeared—a canopy of ancient, colossal trees that stretched for thousands of miles.
Jiang Chen's consciousness began to flicker. The blood loss, the atmospheric pressure, the sheer trauma of the betrayal... his mind was shutting down.
I'm dying, he thought. I'm dying on my eighteenth birthday.
He hit the canopy.
CRACK. CRACK. CRACK.
Branches shattered like glass as his body plowed through the dense foliage.
Leaves whipped his face, thorns tore at his skin, but he was too numb to feel it.
Finally, he slammed into a patch of soft, mossy earth at the base of a tree that was easily a hundred feet wide.
The impact was the final note in a symphony of pain.
Jiang Chen lay there, broken and bleeding, staring up through the gaps in the giant leaves.
The sky here wasn't gold; it was a deep, bruised purple, dotted with unfamiliar stars.
The air was heavy with the smell of damp earth, rotting vegetation, and the distant roar of predators.
His eyes slowly closed. The silence of the forest rushed in to swallow him.
Darkness.
...
...
How much time had passed? Minutes? Hours?
Deep within his soul, something began to stir. It wasn't the warm, majestic power of the Jiang Clan bloodline.
That power had been shattered by Li Chen's blade. This was something else. Something colder. Something hungrier.
A faint chime echoed, not in his ears, but directly in his mind. It sounded like a silver bell struck in a vacuum.
[DING!]
[Condition Met: Reach the age of 18.]
[Condition Met: Experience True Despair and Betrayal.]
[Condition Met: Vital Signs at 1%.]
Jiang Chen's eyes flew open, though he couldn't move his head.
In the darkness of the Nadir forest, a translucent screen of deep crimson hovered in the air before him.
[The Legendary Bloodline: "Aether Sovereign" has been corrupted by Vengeance.]
[Initialization Complete.]
[Welcome, Host Jiang Chen.]
[The Love Thief System has been bound to your soul.]
[Initial Reward: "Heart of the Ravisher" (Passive) — Healing fatal wounds... Success.]
[Current Objective: Survive. Reclaim. Conquer.]