The next dawn never came.
Above the Azure Flame Mountains, the sun froze half-risen — a golden sphere suspended in unmoving sky. Time itself had halted, and the entire realm shivered beneath an invisible weight.
Elder Mei Lian rushed through the courtyard, robes fluttering, her voice breaking with alarm.
"Feixue! The heavens— they've descended again!"
Feixue stood silently at the sect's summit, her white robes rippling in the wind. Her silver hair shimmered faintly beneath the frozen sunlight, her eyes like mirrored galaxies.
Around her, the sect's defensive arrays ignited on their own, ancient runes blazing with both flame and frost — as if even the mountain itself prepared to defend her.
Then the sky split open.
---
A gate of radiant gold tore through the heavens, towering from horizon to horizon. From it, nine figures descended — each clad in divine armor etched with laws of the Dao.
Their auras were overwhelming, their presence vast enough to crush entire cities by accident. They were the Celestial Judges, enforcers of Heaven's decrees — each one an Immortal Monarch who had transcended mortal comprehension.
The leader, a man draped in obsidian robes, raised his hand. His voice was neither cruel nor kind, only empty — the sound of judgment itself.
> "Feixue of the Azure Flame Sect. By decree of the Immortal Emperor, you are charged with defying divine law, corrupting heaven's flame, and resurrecting the forbidden Origin Qi.
Kneel, and your soul will be examined. Resist, and your sect shall be erased."
---
Yan Lie, the sect master, stepped forward, his aura blazing.
"She has done nothing but cultivate in peace! Heaven cannot condemn enlightenment!"
The Judge's gaze turned toward him — a single glance, and Yan Lie coughed blood, forced to his knees.
"The heavens do not judge acts," he said coldly. "They judge existence."
The disciples screamed as divine pressure tore through the air, cracking mountains and shattering protective formations.
But Feixue did not move. She stood amid the chaos, the wind calm around her, her gaze steady.
> "So," she said softly, "Heaven has chosen to erase what it cannot understand."
The Judge's expression hardened. "You are not Heaven's creation. You carry something older than law. Your existence defies the cycle. You are a threat."
Feixue closed her eyes briefly. "A threat?"
When she opened them again, the world dimmed. Frost spread outward from her feet, silencing the screams, freezing the divine flames of the descending Judges.
> "Then let Heaven taste what it fears."
---
The temperature plummeted instantly.
Flame and frost intertwined in the air, spiraling into a vortex of silver and azure light.
The first Judge struck — his divine spear flashing like lightning.
It never touched her. The moment the weapon entered her domain, it fractured into particles of light.
Feixue raised her hand. Time itself stopped. The air, the sound, the motion of qi — all froze mid-existence.
The Judge's attack hung suspended like a painting.
She walked forward slowly, each step echoing in stillness. Her voice was soft, almost kind.
> "You wield Heaven's law… but the law was written by one who forgot."
Her fingertip touched the spear's edge. It dissolved into starlight.
Then, gently, she pushed her hand forward — and the Judge vanished into frost, his essence scattered into the wind like snow.
---
The other Judges roared, breaking through the frozen time, their divine power shaking the realm.
Flames, swords, and divine seals rained down.
The entire sky turned into a storm of divine destruction.
Feixue stepped through it like drifting snow, untouched. Each attack that reached her melted into silence. Her aura no longer felt mortal or immortal — it was primordial, vast, infinite.
And in that silence, whispers echoed — not from her, but from the world itself.
> "The Origin walks again…"
"The Mother of Creation has returned…"
The Judges faltered. Even they, embodiments of Heaven's will, hesitated. Something deep in their souls remembered her — feared her.
Feixue's voice resonated across the battlefield.
> "I am not your enemy. But if Heaven insists on chains…"
Her eyes glowed — twin stars of infinite reflection.
> "Then I will shatter them."
---
Light exploded outward, swallowing everything.
The mountains trembled. The sky cracked. The divine gate that linked to the Celestial Palace flickered — then shattered, scattering shards of gold across the Immortal Realm.
When the light faded, the Azure Flame Sect still stood. The mountains were scarred, but alive.
The Celestial Judges were gone — erased, not slain. Their divine essence had been absorbed into the frost, purified and returned to the cycle.
Feixue stood at the center, silent. Her robes were untouched. Her aura, though calm, carried the faint echo of ancient divinity.
Elder Mei Lian fell to her knees, trembling. "Feixue… what are you?"
Feixue's eyes turned to the distant sky, where faint cracks in reality still shimmered.
> "I am what Heaven abandoned when it forgot where it came from."
---
Far above, in the Celestial Palace, alarms blared through the halls of divine jade.
Envoy Seraphis burst into the throne room, kneeling before the Immortal Emperor.
"Your Majesty, the Judges— they've been erased from existence!"
The Emperor's calm finally shattered. His eyes blazed like twin suns.
"Erased? Not slain?"
Seraphis hesitated. "Their divine souls… returned to the Origin."
The Emperor's voice thundered through the palace.
> "Then it is true. The Origin has awakened — within her."
He stood, his golden robes rippling like the cosmos itself. "Send word to the Ancient Thrones. Summon the Primordial Guardians. The Heavens will not fall to their Mother."
But in the depths of his divine eyes… there was fear.
---
Meanwhile, on the mountain, Feixue sat again beneath the frozen lotus pond. The air was silent, the stars bright. She gazed at her reflection in the ice — at the faint flicker of something vast behind her image.
> "The more they remember me," she whispered, "the closer the Heavens come to their truth."
A faint, celestial hum rose in the wind — the sound of reality itself trembling.
Somewhere in the infinite distance, a voice — the same as hers, yet not hers — murmured back:
> "Then remember, Feixue… when Heaven collapses, the Origin will rise again."