The heavens split apart.
Lightning like molten spears rained across the endless firmament, tearing open the clouds as the roar of divine thunder echoed through the nine skies. In that chaos stood a man — his black robes torn, his saber drenched in blood, his long hair whipping wildly in the storm.
Qin Feng — once hailed as the Heaven Saber Saint, the man who could sever fate itself.
Around him floated countless broken blades, remnants of the armies that had once followed him. The battlefield was nothing but a wasteland of scorched mountains and shattered peaks.
> "Qin Feng!"
The voice that thundered from the heavens was cold and cruel.
"You dared defy Heaven's decree. For that, even immortality shall reject you!"
A dozen Immortal Emperors circled above, their auras blotting out the stars. Betrayers — his former brothers, men he had once taught and trusted.
Qin Feng laughed, the sound ragged but fearless.
> "Heaven's decree? You worms mistake fear for faith. If Heaven itself denies me, then I shall break Heaven!"
He raised his saber, Heaven-Breaking, a blade forged from the bones of a fallen star. The storm bent toward it; the world itself seemed to freeze.
For one heartbeat, it was as if the entire sky inhaled.
Then — lightning fell.
Thousands of bolts struck at once, swallowing his body. The ground cracked open; mountains collapsed. His scream was lost in the sound of worlds being torn apart.
In that instant of annihilation, Qin Feng's soul shattered.
---
Darkness.
Cold. Infinite.
He drifted through a void without beginning or end. Time had no meaning here.
Then, faintly — a sound. Like wind caressing crystal.
> "So… even you have fallen."
A mirror floated before him — vast as a moon, its surface rippling like water. Within its reflection, he saw not his body but countless versions of himself — some human, some monstrous, all screaming.
> "Who… are you?" he whispered.
The voice was gentle, ageless.
> "I am the SkyDome Mirror. The eyes that once watched over all creation. You carried my shard in your saber."
> "Why show yourself now?"
> "Because your fate was never meant to end beneath Heaven's wrath. You… still have a path to walk."
Light exploded from the mirror, piercing through the void. His broken soul was pulled into its depths — through memories, regrets, and unfulfilled oaths — until it found a single flicker of life far below.
A boy, weak and battered, lay bleeding behind the Azure Sect's kitchen hall.
---
Qin Feng's eyes opened.
Air rushed into his lungs, burning like fire. His vision blurred; pain stabbed through every bone. His hands — small, scarred, trembling.
> "This… body…"
Before he could think further, a surge of agony struck his mind as fragments of the boy's memory flooded in: humiliation, beatings, starvation — a servant despised by all.
The voices of mockery echoed in his skull:
> "Trash like you shouldn't even breathe sect air."
"Born without a spirit root — why not just die?"
"Even rats live better than you, Qin Feng."
His lips curled into a cold smile.
> "No spirit root? Then I shall forge one from Heaven's blood."
The SkyDome Mirror pulsed within his soul, whispering softly — like a heartbeat of moonlight.
> "Awaken, Reborn Saber… let the storm remember its master."
Qin Feng clenched his fists. His gaze, though set in a weak body, burned with the same fire that once defied immortals.
> "They call this a world of cultivation… very well."
"This time, Heaven will kneel beneath my blade."
Lightning flickered outside the servant quarters — faint, distant — as if the heavens themselves remembered the one who once challenged them.