The sky wasn't calm that night.
Blue lightning cracked above the sect's towers like an impatient dragon.
Air vibrated, heavy and sharp.
And in the middle of the courtyard, Jian Wu stood alone, rain soaking his clothes, eyes reflecting the storm.
"Do you hear that?" one disciple whispered.
"The sky sounds like it's calling for someone…"
Every gaze turned toward him.
Toward the boy without a core
From the distance, Yue Shan descended the tower in a blur of white robes.
"Wu!" she shouted. "Get inside, now!"
He didn't move.
His eyes stayed fixed on the swirling clouds above, lips barely moving.
"It's calling me," he said quietly.
Yue Shan stopped beside him. "The sky doesn't call humans," she hissed. "It judges them."
Then thunder exploded.
The ground split.
From that blinding flash, a shape emerged, tall, calm, but radiating a pressure so cold it made the air sting.
Everyone froze.
The figure stepped forward, walking through the air itself.
Silver hair. White robes with a symbol of three layered eyes on the chest.
Its gaze was empty, yet bright with the color of lightning.
"Who… who is that?" someone whispered.
The Grand Elder's face turned pale.
"The Envoy of Heaven."
The air thickened.
Every breath became a struggle.
Only Jian Wu still stood straight.
The Envoy's voice echoed, deep and distant.
"You… are the one who shook the balance. The one who forced Heaven to open its eyes."
Jian Wu tilted his head, half-smiling.
"Then maybe Heaven's been blind this whole time."
Lightning fell between them.
The ground shattered.
Disciples screamed, running for cover, yet Jian Wu didn't flinch.
The blue mark on his chest glowed, shielding him from the blast.
"Stop this!" Yue Shan shouted.
"I'm just asking a question," Jian Wu muttered, eyes locked on the Envoy.
"Why send an angel down for someone like me?"
The Envoy raised one hand, light swirling into a spear.
"You are not human. The world cannot keep what was never meant to exist."
"Then try deleting me."
The spear shot forward—
Jian Wu punched back.
BOOM!
The courtyard exploded. Stone pillars cracked, dust swept the sky.
Jian Wu was thrown backward, hit a wall, and slid down.
Blood dripped from his lip, but he laughed.
"You really think that's enough to kill me?"
The glow on his chest brightened. Blue currents wrapped his arms like chains of light.
The Envoy hovered above him, voice calm.
"You've merged with the Void. The world doesn't need the Void."
Jian Wu stepped forward slowly, rain sliding off his jaw.
"Maybe the world's just tired of Heaven's rules."
He vanished.
A whisper of wind, then impact.
The Envoy was blasted backward, smashed through the storm clouds themselves.
Thunder erupted again, brighter, louder.
Blue and white lightning tangled in the air, clashing like beasts.
"Enough!" shouted the Grand Elder, but his voice drowned under the storm.
Jian Wu leapt, fists glowing. "HAAAAH!"
His punch hit the Envoy's chest, solid, cold, not flesh but something harder than steel.
The collision rang like metal scraping rock.
He staggered, coughing blood.
The Envoy countered instantly, one kick, pure light.
The force sent Jian Wu flying, tearing a trench across the ground.
He stopped himself, half-kneeling, still grinning.
"You hit hard," he spat blood. "But bad news… I don't die."
He raised his hands.
The blue light on his chest broke into circles, rings of energy spinning around his arms, humming like broken stars.
Then silence.
He disappeared.
"Behind you," his voice came.
The Envoy turned, too late.
A glowing fist slammed into its back, blasting it high into the storm.
The explosion lit the entire mountain.
The disciples fell to their knees.
Lightning rained again, but this time, not from the heavens.
It poured from Jian Wu himself.
The world dimmed.
Colors drained from the clouds; thunder died.
And from above, the Envoy's voice returned, not in sound, but inside every mind present.
"You've opened a door that should never exist."
"You are no longer Heaven's enemy…"
"You are its replacement."
The figure dissolved into pure white light, fading until nothing remained.
Only one echo stayed behind.
"Heaven will come for you itself."
Rain started again.
Cold. Heavy.
Jian Wu stood amid the ruins, blood on his face, eyes calm.
Yue Shan approached, trembling.
"Wu… do you even realize what you've done?"
He wiped the blood from his mouth.
"Yeah," he said quietly. "Told them something important."
"What?"
He looked up at the gray sky, voice low but sharp.
"That even Heaven can be wrong."
Thunder rolled once more before vanishing beyond the mountains.
Disciples slowly got up, still pale, their gazes drawn to the boy in the middle of the courtyard,
the one who had just fought Heaven… and survived.
That night, Yue Shan visited his room.
Jian Wu sat by the window, watching the fading lightning.
"Heaven won't stay silent," she said softly.
He smiled. "Neither will I."
She frowned. "You're insane, you know that?"
"People keep saying that," he murmured. "But maybe being insane is the only way to live."
Her eyes so
ftened. She noticed the symbol on his chest, it pulsed again, brighter than before.
Outside, the last rumble of thunder echoed like laughter.
Not human laughter.
Something older.
Something watching.