The clouds split apart with a deafening crack.
Thunder rolled through the valley, shaking the ground beneath Jian Wu's boots. The air thickened, heavy, suffocating.
"Damn…" Yue Shan raised his arm to shield his eyes. "What in the world is that!?"
Jian Wu didn't move. His gaze locked upward, jaw clenched.
Something tore through the clouds.
A figure wrapped in golden light, wings stretching wide enough to swallow the horizon. Every feather gleamed like molten metal. In its grip, a blade of pure light.
The storm bent around it, trembling like it knew who ruled the sky.
Yue Shan's voice dropped to a whisper. "That's not a cultivator."
Jian Wu exhaled, eyes narrowing. "No… that's Heaven."
---
The being descended, slow but crushing. The pressure was unbearable. Rocks cracked, trees bent, and the air screamed.
Then came the voice. It didn't echo, it invaded.
"Mortal vessel… your time has ended."
Jian Wu staggered, clutching his chest. The voice crawled through his bones.
He gritted his teeth. "Tian Ye Zun… the Seraph of Heaven."
The golden figure hovered just above the ground, twin suns burning where eyes should be.
"The balance has been broken. You are its flaw."
Jian Wu spat to the side. "Then maybe Heaven should stop calling everything it can't control a flaw."
---
Lightning ripped through the air.
The Seraph lifted its sword. "Defiance again… like those before you."
Yue Shan drew his blade, breathing hard. "You'll have to go through both of us!"
The Seraph turned, voice colder than steel.
"One mortal heart cannot bear divine sight."
A beam of gold shot forward, silent, instant.
"Shit!" Jian Wu shoved Yue Shan aside. The blast grazed his shoulder, burning through skin and cloth.
He stumbled, clutching the wound. "Aaargh.. !" His breath hissed through his teeth. "Guess we're starting early."
---
The mark under his chest pulsed, faint at first, then wild. Blue light crawled under his skin, spreading fast.
The Seraph raised its sword again.
"You carry what should not exist."
"Then come take it!"
The sword came down.
Jian Wu caught it with both hands.
The impact cracked the earth open. Shockwaves ripped through the valley. Trees shattered, mountains shook.
Yue Shan hit the dirt hard. "Ugh.. !" He coughed, eyes wide.
Jian Wu stayed standing, hands trembling, palms bleeding, but he refused to let go.
---
Tian Ye Zun's eyes flared brighter.
"You resist Heaven itself?"
"Not Heaven!" Jian Wu's teeth ground together. "Just you!"
The Seraph's wings spread wide. The light around it turned violent, gold tearing through the clouds.
"Jian!" Yue Shan shouted. "Fall back!"
Jian Wu didn't move. The heat burned through his skin, clothes turning to ash. The mark on his chest flared blue, pushing back against the gold until the sky itself split in two colors.
"Come on!" he roared, veins of blue light bursting across his arms.
---
Then, silence.
Everything stopped for a heartbeat.
Then the world exploded.
The shockwave tore the valley apart. Mountains cracked. Fire rolled across the sky.
When it was over, the two figures stood apart, smoke and ruin between them. Jian Wu's arm dripped blood, fingers twitching. His breath came out ragged.
He raised his head slowly. "That all you got?"
The Seraph tilted its head, voice calm.
"You fight like the old ones… but your body will not hold."
Jian Wu smirked, eyes half crazed. "Then I'll break first."
---
Far away, in the halls of the Sky Sect, a disciple burst through the doors, panting.
"Elders! The Seraph, he's fighting the Vessel near the southern cliffs!"
The room fell silent.
Elder Mei Han gripped the table. "Heaven actually sent Tian Ye Zun!?"
Ren Kaien's tone was grim. "If the Seraph kills him, the Void collapses."
Yue Shanrong's voice cut through the room. "Then pray it doesn't. Heaven doesn't bargain."
---
Back in the valley, gold fire scorched the ground.
"I will end this corruption now," the Seraph declared.
Jian Wu wiped the blood from his mouth. "Try me."
He pressed his palms together. The blue veins on his body moved like they were alive. The air trembled, heat twisting the light.
He whispered through his teeth, "Heaven-Breaker Form… Second Gate."
The world dimmed.
Then, BOOM.
Blue energy exploded outward, clashing with the Seraph's gold. The valley vanished under the storm. Rocks shattered. The sky bled light.
---
Yue Shan crouched on the ridge, arms over his face. The wind howled like a beast.
He couldn't see Jian Wu, only light, fire, and chaos.
Then, under it all, he heard it.
Thump.
A heartbeat.
Thump.
Another.
Strong. Relentless. Alive.
Then everything went still.
---
The light faded. The valley was gone, only a crater left.
Tian Ye Zun knelt in the center, golden armor cracked, blood dripping down his arm.
Jian Wu was on one knee, his right arm blackened, skin scorched.
The Seraph looked down at him.
"You have wounded Heaven. Remember this, mortal."
Jian Wu coughed, blood spilling from his lips. "Heh… I will. Because next time…" He smirked faintly. "I'm not kneeling."
The Seraph's wings folded, voice fading like thunder.
"Then we will see if the world still stands when you rise again."
Light swallowed it, and it was gone.
---
Yue Shan stumbled down the slope, slipping on loose rocks.
"Damn it, Jian!" He dropped to his knees beside him, shaking his shoulder. "Hey! Open your eyes!"
Jian Wu groaned. "Ugh… Told you…" He smirked weakly. "Heaven bleeds."
Yue Shan let out a broken laugh. "Idiot…"
He looked up at the sky, no more gold, just gray clouds rolling by.
"Come on," he muttered, hauling Jian Wu's arm over his shoulder. "We're leaving before the sky changes its mind."
Jian Wu winced as they walked, but managed a low chuckle. "Heh… lead the way then."
---
They staggered out of the crater, smoke curling around them.
Behind them, the air trembled one last time.
A whisper drifted through the wind, soft, almost human.
"The world remembers…"
Yue Shan froze, eyes darting upward. "Did you hear that?"
Jian Wu didn't answer. He just glanced at the dark clouds above, his expression unreadable.
Far beyond the heavens, past the light and into the shadow, something opened its eyes.
And it wasn't Heaven.