The silence that followed the collapse of the Secret Realm was even more terrifying than the very roar of destruction.
Clouds had dispersed, and the still slightly quivering ground scattered fragments of spiritual energy around, like ashes from a divine fire.
One after another, those cultivators who had been swallowed by the light came out from nowhere and were thrown back to the plain.
Some of them staggered; others screamed.
But all wore the same look of astonishment.
"The Secret Realm… was destroyed?
"No… it was consumed…"
"That young man… Jun Tian… he…
Those words echoed everywhere. The name "Jun Tian" spread like a spark in a dry field, igniting rumors, fear, and disbelief.
Amidst the crowd, Yun Xiang breathed heavily.
His robes were torn, blood trickled down his chin.
But the physical injury was the least of his problems.
The final scene within the Secret Realm—the moment Jun Tian confronted Li Ze, diverted the power of a Nascent Soul artifact, and destroyed the central formation—replayed in his mind like a nightmare.
The power emanating from that young man was not something belonging to a mere cultivator of the Fourth Realm.
It was as if the world itself rejected him... and yet, he forced his way through the path opened with his own hands.
"He's… a monster," Yun Xiang whispered, his voice trembling. "A talent that shouldn't exist in this world."
For an instant, his eyes reflected a spark of fear combined with fascination.
And then, the pride in his heart shattered.
"Even with my purple talent…" he tightened his fists. "I don't know if I'll ever be in a position to reach him."
Not far away, Li Ze's Master, Li Heng, looked up at the sky.
His disciple's soul seal had vanished just minutes before.
The pain of loss consumed him, but with it came something else-the fear of the unknown.
He took a deep breath and let his voice ring forth with strength.
"Jun Tian," he shouted – shaking the earth.
The power of the Nascent Soul spread in waves, causing the nearby cultivators to fall to their knees.
But beneath the anger was something he couldn't suppress:
hesitation.
The artifact that Li Ze used had the mark of his very own master.
Even so, it had been nullified within the Secret Realm.
Not destroyed, but redirected.
That wasn't something a cultivator in the Fourth Realm could do. "Who… or what are you, Jun Tian?" Li Heng muttered, his eyes unsmiling.
While the sects were struggling to understand what had just happened, the news was received in silence by the Jun Family.
The sound of the wind beating against the bronze bells inside the main courtyard seemed to mock the two cultivators standing before the ancestral altar.
Gu Qingluo caressed his son's ancient talisman as his eyes welled up with tears.
The patriarch, Jun Xiao, did not move or change his expression.
"We said he was a waste," she whispered. "That he would never achieve anything."
"And now," her husband added in a hoarse voice, "he is a legend that even the eldest are afraid to mention.
The place was filled with heavy silence.
In every breath, there was regret; in every gaze, at empty space.
"He had always carried loneliness in his eyes," Gu Qingluo said, "but we never realized what lay behind it."
"Now…" Jun Xiao looked away. "Now it's too late.
The wind blew, and it lifted the courtyard curtains; in an instant, the shadow on the wall was that of the figure of a young man standing there, imposing and distant, as if he already belonged to another world.
On another continent, Jun Tian opened his eyes.
The air was different, denser, purer.
The surrounding mountains were cloaked in an ancient atmosphere, the sky deepened to a red tinge, and the very firmament seemed to be aflame in spiritual fire.
"So this is the other continent." he muttered, peering out at the horizon.
Yue Lian appeared beside him, floating serenely, her eyes shining like two moons.
"The Secret Realm took you to one of the Seven Continents," she explained. "Each one three times larger than the world you knew."
"Seven continents." Jun Tian furrowed his brow. "And each one holds its own secrets."
She nodded. Her gaze was distant.
"Destiny is vast, and the paths are uncertain. What you have seen so far is but the surface."
Jun Tian closed his eyes as he could feel spiritual energy running within his body.
His power was firm, stable—and different:
Something had changed within him.
"My path will not be guided by fate," he replied calmly. "I will forge it myself."
Yue Lian smiled slightly.
"Then proceed, Jun Tian. For there is something awaiting you…something that not even the heavens dare to touch."
Meanwhile, somewhere unreachable in the heavens—in the Upper Realm—a room shrouded in golden mist was trembling gently.
There, an ancient being opened his eyes.
His pupils were whirls of destiny, and gold threads of energy stirred around his body in diagrams of infinite prophecies.
He was a Divinity Realm cultivator, and among the few remaining immortals, he was known as the Sage of Eternal Threads, who cultivated the Dao of Destiny.
— "Hm…" — he muttered to himself, observing the lines of the future twisting before him.
— "Something… has changed."
He moved his finger and a thousand destinies unfolded like flowers of the spirit.
But soon they all started to crumble.
A dark gleam, like a crack in destiny itself, appeared right in the center of his vision.
The Sage frowned.
"A force… that even destiny itself cannot touch?"
He tried to probe deeper—and in that instant, the universe answered.
An invisible roar coursed through the currents of space-time, and the lines of destiny snapped before him.
The old being took a step back, his eyes wide.
For an instant, he saw—between the cracks—an indistinct silhouette.
A young man in the darkness, enveloped in grey flames, walking calmly against the flow of the universe.
"Dao… of Chaos."
The immortal's voice trembled.
He slowly closed his eyes, and a shadow of worry covered his face.
"The board has been moved."
"And when chaos awakens, even the heavens will bleed."
The golden mist dissipated.
Silence returned.
But, in the depths of destiny, the name Jun Tian began to echo—like the harbinger of an era that would change everything.
Volume 1 – Awakening Under the Deadly Sky