The azure flames that had once consumed Lin Feng's soul now floated calmly around him like quiet stars.
But within their light… shadows stirred.
He stood upon a landscape that wasn't part of the sword world.
The air shimmered, and before his eyes, the heavens themselves fractured into countless shards of glass — each one glowing faintly blue.
"These fragments…" he murmured.
"They feel… alive."
The voice of the Azure Sovereign whispered faintly, as though echoing from deep within the flames.
"You have awakened my Soul Flame.
With it, comes the memory I left behind — the truth of what I once was."
The shards around him pulsed once — and then the world changed.
---
Lin Feng blinked. The sword world vanished.
He now stood within a realm of clouds and golden light — the Heavenly Court of old.
Majestic palaces floated in the sky.
Divine generals and god-kings walked among the stars.
At the center stood a single man — tall, robed in azure, hair like flowing starlight. His eyes burned with defiance and sorrow.
In his grasp was a blade Lin Feng recognized instantly — the Azure Sword, radiant and pure.
"That's… him," Lin Feng breathed.
"The Azure Sovereign."
He watched silently as divine beings knelt before the Sovereign — but their respect carried fear.
The Sovereign's presence was overwhelming, the air trembling around him with every heartbeat.
A deep voice thundered from above — ancient, vast, without emotion.
"Azure Sovereign, you have defied the Heavenly Law.
You have slaughtered gods and shattered divine order.
For what purpose?"
The Sovereign raised his sword toward the sky.
"Purpose?" he laughed softly. "You call it rebellion. I call it truth.
Heaven claims to uphold balance, yet it chains the living with fate."
His gaze lifted — piercing through the clouds and into the stars themselves.
"I was born beneath heaven's order, but my sword was not.
My sword was born to break it."
Lightning flashed across the heavens.
Tens of thousands of celestial warriors descended, their weapons gleaming like suns.
Lin Feng could feel the pressure even as an observer — it was the power of countless divine realms colliding.
"One man… against the heavens," he whispered.
The Sovereign smiled faintly, his eyes filled not with rage, but calm.
"If heaven cannot understand freedom… then I will teach it fear."
He swung his sword.
The sky split open.
---
The next vision came like a storm — endless light, endless battle.
The Azure Sovereign fought alone, every strike rewriting the laws of creation.
His sword did not merely cut; it commanded.
Where he walked, time reversed.
Where he struck, divinity itself bled.
But even he was not invincible.
The heavens adapted — sealing his power with divine chains that drew blood from the stars themselves.
Lin Feng felt every wound, every fragment of pain, as if it were his own.
The Sovereign's body grew weaker, his breaths shorter, yet his eyes never dimmed.
"Heaven cannot kill what it fears," the Sovereign said coldly.
"It can only bury it."
Then came the final image — the Sovereign plunging his sword into the heart of the sky.
A massive explosion of azure light engulfed everything — gods, stars, and heavens.
When the light faded, the Sovereign was gone.
Only the Azure Sword remained, floating in silence, dripping with divine blood.
---
The vision shattered.
Lin Feng found himself kneeling in the ruins of the sword world once more, his heart pounding.
The fragments of memory floated around him like falling petals.
"So that's how it ended…"
The Sovereign's voice returned, softer this time — no longer divine, but weary.
"No, child. It did not end."
Lin Feng froze.
"What do you mean?"
"That day, I severed my body from my will.
My body escaped the Heavenly Seal… beyond the stars.
What you inherited is only the remnant of my soul, bound in this sword."
Lin Feng's blood ran cold.
"Then… you're saying your true body still exists?"
"It sleeps," the voice said.
"Awaiting the one who can awaken all nine seals.
When that day comes, the Azure Sovereign will return — not as god, not as man… but as the sword that ends eternity."
Silence followed.
Only the hum of the sword world remained.
Lin Feng stood slowly, eyes burning with azure light.
"If your body still lives, then your rebellion isn't over."
"And if your will flows through me…"
He lifted his sword.
The reflection of the Sovereign flickered briefly in the blade — the same calm smile, the same defiant fire.
"…then neither is mine."
Lin Feng clenched his fist, feeling his heartbeat align with the rhythm of the sword.
The world within the blade trembled as if answering his resolve.
"I am Lin Feng… heir of the Azure Sovereign.
The heavens buried your truth once.
I will unearth it — with my sword."
As he walked toward the distant horizon — where the Forbidden Sky shimmered in chains of divine light — the azure flames at his back began to twist into the shape of wings.
The path ahead was clear.
The Fourth Seal awaited.