Heavenpiercer cut.
Not through metal. Not through flesh. Not through qi.
It cut a rule.
For a tiny moment, the whole dome went quiet, like the world forgot how to breathe. Then the "nothing" in front of Qi Shan Wei split open like a thin wound in the air.
A pale silver crack appeared.
And from that crack, moments began to leak.
They fell like clear drops.
One drop touched a broken stone near the Court platform. The stone turned smooth, like it was new again. Then the same stone turned old in one blink, crumbling into dust. Then it became smooth again.
Back and forth.
Young and old.
Alive and dead.
People outside the dome screamed as they watched the ground change like it was being rewritten.
A few weaker cultivators stumbled back, clutching their heads, because their memories started to slip. They could not tell if they had already screamed, or if they were about to.
The Silent Bell envoy took a slow step forward. His face was pale now. The bell on his chest shook harder than before.
"That is not payment," he whispered. "That is damage."
A Court elder shouted, voice sharp with fear and anger. "Fix it! You brought this here!"
Qi Shan Wei did not look at the elder.
He stared at the silver crack.
His face stayed calm. His eyes stayed steady. But the air around him grew heavier, like a mountain was standing up.
"Time is leaking," Zhen said in his flat voice.
Qi Shan Wei answered softly, "I know."
Another drop fell.
It hit a dead assassin's hand—the one that had dropped to the ground after the bell "corrected" them. For one breath, the hand twitched like it was alive again. The fingers curled.
Then the hand turned to dust.
People jumped back like they had seen a ghost.
Feng Qingyue's jaw tightened. Heat rose around her, but it was controlled, tight like a blade. Her phoenix mark flickered once near her collarbone.
The price she paid was not over.
The Time-Debt Ledger above the Court platform flashed again, bright enough to burn the eyes. The words on it shook like they were not happy.
Then new words formed under the old demand.
Not in the Court's language.
In an older script that made the air feel ancient.
ERROR: HOOK SEVERED.CORRECTION PROTOCOL: SELECTION.
The Silent Bell envoy stared at the new line. His throat moved like he wanted to swallow, but could not.
"The next ring…" he said quietly. "It is not a demand."
He lifted his eyes to Qi Shan Wei.
"It is a choice."
A Court elder scoffed, trying to sound strong. "A choice for who?"
The envoy's voice turned dry. "A choice for the heavens."
Outside the dome, the sky far away was still cracked. Thin white-blue lines spread across the clouds like broken glass. And the thunder rolling through them did not sound like weather.
It sounded like something waking up.
Ling Xueyao's breathing turned rough. She held her chest with one hand like she was trying to hold her heart in place.
The Frost Thread above the platform was still there. Still trembling. Still wounded.
But now the bell's pull felt different.
It was not grabbing.
It was looking.
Ling Xueyao's eyes lifted slowly. Her pupils reflected a pale light like moon on ice. Her voice came out tight.
"It's searching for… the one it will take."
Qi Shan Wei shifted one step closer to her, calm and exact. He did not wrap her up. He did not do anything soft.
He placed his presence beside her like a shield.
"You will not be taken," he said.
Those words were simple.
But they carried weight like a vow.
Ling Xueyao swallowed once. Her pride did not bend. But her eyes shook for a breath.
Then another drop of time fell—this one much bigger.
It hit the air itself.
And the battlefield changed.
For one heartbeat, the broken ground became whole again. The shattered Court platform looked clean and perfect. The blood stains faded.
A dead cultivator outside the dome suddenly stood up again with empty eyes.
Then the whole illusion snapped back.
The cultivator fell, dead again.
Someone screamed and vomited.
The Court elders' faces turned ugly. They were used to controlling fate with words and seals. But this was not their tool.
This was a tool that did not care about them.
Zhen moved forward.
His armor runes lit in clean lines. The Imperial Shield Matrix shifted again. The "inner dome" around the cocoon and allies became thicker, like a fortress wall sliding into place.
Zhen spoke with calm timing. "Imperial Shield Matrix: Third Layer."
The air around them changed at once.
The falling time-drops hit the shield and slowed, like they were moving through thick water. Some drops froze in midair for a breath, trapped inside the shield layer instead of touching anyone.
A Court elder's eyes widened. "He is… catching time."
Qi Shan Wei's voice stayed level. "Movement can be guided."
Feng Qingyue looked at him from the side. For a moment, her eyes softened.
Not like a playful girl.
Like a ruler watching another ruler.
Then her phoenix mark flickered again, and her face tightened.
The Phoenix Price was biting her now.
A cold emptiness slid through her chest, like someone had pulled out a warm coal and left only air.
Feng Qingyue's lips parted. She breathed in—once, twice—but the air did not feel the same.
She looked down at her hand.
A faint red-gold feather shape burned into her palm, like a seal made of flame.
It was not pretty.
It was a debt mark.
The Silent Bell envoy saw it and his eyes lowered.
"A Return-Feather," he said softly. "You gave one of your 'returns' to the ledger."
Feng Qingyue's voice was sharp. "Speak clearly."
The envoy hesitated, then obeyed. "Phoenix bloodlines can return from death more than once. Not many times. But more than once."
Feng Qingyue's fingers curled. "And now?"
The envoy's voice was quiet, almost sorry. "Now you have one less."
The dome felt colder even with all the heat and flame.
Feng Qingyue's throat moved. She did not cry. She did not shake.
But for one heartbeat, she looked human.
Then she lifted her chin again.
"Fine," she said, voice hard. "Then I will not waste my life."
Qi Shan Wei turned his head slightly.
His eyes met hers.
"I will not waste it either," he said.
The words were not romance poems.
They were a promise between people who understand what a price means.
Feng Qingyue's breath hitched for one tiny moment.
Then she nodded once, sharp and controlled.
Inside the cracked cocoon, Drakonix growled. The sound was rough, but it filled the dome like a real dragon.
The cocoon split wider.
A second wing pushed out, trembling and wet with prismatic light. Flames spilled out in long ribbons, not random fire—law-fire.
It touched the silver crack in the air.
The crack hissed.
For a heartbeat, the time-leak slowed.
The Silent Bell envoy's eyes narrowed. "That flame is biting Bell-Law again."
Drakonix's voice came out hoarse and proud. "Mine… fire… remembers."
Zhen replied, flat as a stone. "Statement: you are loud."
Drakonix hissed. "You… are boring."
Zhen paused half a breath. "Boring is stable."
Drakonix made an angry baby-dragon sound.
Then the humor died as fast as it came.
Because the sky cracked again.
A new thunder rolled, deeper than the last. And this thunder carried a strange feeling, like the world was being chosen.
Outside the dome, lightning began to move sideways through the clouds, not falling down.
It was hunting.
It did not hunt bodies.
It hunted names.
The Silent Bell envoy lifted his head slowly, like he was listening to something far away.
"The Heaven-Rending Thunder…" he whispered. "It has started early."
A Court elder snapped, voice shaking. "That is impossible! That is a world event!"
The envoy's eyes stayed cold. "Time is broken here. The heavens notice broken things first."
The Time-Debt Ledger flashed again.
Another line appeared, pressing into the air like a stamp.
SELECTION WILL BEGIN ON THIRD RING.
The Court elders hovered higher, forming a circle like vultures. Their killing intent rose again, thick and ugly.
One of them pointed at Qi Shan Wei. "If the heavens are selecting, then let them select him. He is the problem!"
Qi Shan Wei did not answer.
He simply raised Heavenpiercer again, calm and exact.
He did not look like a man arguing.
He looked like an emperor deciding.
But before he could move, the air on the outer edge of the dome rippled.
Six figures stepped out of that ripple like shadows becoming real.
They wore masks. Not random masks.
Clean masks with no faces.
Blank, smooth, and cold.
Each of them had a thin silver thread-mark on their wrist, like the dead assassin had.
Bell marks.
But they also had something else.
A contract seal floating above their heads, written in sharp black ink that did not glow like normal qi.
KILL WITHOUT KARMIC DEBT.
The Thousand Masks Pavilion.
They had sent a new team.
Not one assassin.
A unit.
The crowd outside the dome exploded into panic.
"Those are Pavilion debtless killers!"
"They can kill and the world won't punish them!"
"Run—!"
One of the masked killers pointed, not at Qi Shan Wei, but at Ling Xueyao.
Another pointed at Feng Qingyue.
A third looked straight at the cocoon.
They were aiming for the pillars, not the king.
Qi Shan Wei's eyes narrowed slightly.
He did not panic.
He issued one calm order.
"Zhen."
Zhen's answer was instant. "Defense priority updated."
The Third Layer shield shifted like a moving wall. It slid between the killers and the women, clean and fast.
The killers did not stop.
They moved like trained machines, stepping into angles where shields were usually weak.
But this shield was not "usual."
It was Shan Wei's system.
It adapted.
One killer struck the shield with a black blade that seemed to eat light.
The blade sank a little.
Then stopped.
The shield did not shatter.
It did not flare out of control.
It simply held.
The killer's mask tilted, as if confused.
Ling Xueyao lifted her hand, shaking. Frost gathered around her fingers like tiny stars of ice.
Her Lunar Frost Domain was screaming inside her chest, trying to wake up to protect the thread.
Her voice came out rough. "Shan Wei… I can't—"
Qi Shan Wei's voice cut in, calm and firm. "One breath."
Ling Xueyao's eyes widened.
He wasn't asking for her whole life.
He wasn't asking for her to burn herself.
He was asking for one breath.
Something she could give without breaking.
Ling Xueyao nodded once, teeth clenched.
She inhaled.
And for that single breath—
The moon behind her appeared.
Not half.
Not flickering.
A full pale moon formed behind her back, huge and silent.
Her Lunar Frost Domain.
It lasted only one breath.
But in that breath, the whole dome turned cold.
Not normal cold.
Cold that touched rules.
The time-drops froze in the air like beads trapped in glass.
The silver crack in the air stiffened.
Even the debtless killers slowed like their joints had turned to ice.
The crowd outside the dome went silent.
A Court elder whispered, voice shaking. "Frozen law…"
Ling Xueyao's face went white with pain. Her lips trembled. Blood touched the corner of her mouth.
But she held the breath.
She held the moon.
Qi Shan Wei moved in that breath.
He did not swing wild.
He did not shout.
He stepped forward, calm, and his sword tip traced one clean prismatic line through the air.
A small formation disc appeared at the edge of the killers' contract seals.
Simple.
Public.
Registered.
But the way he used it was not public.
It was emperor-level control.
The contract seals above the killers' heads began to shake.
Drakonix's prismatic flame surged out of the cocoon, biting into the black ink.
The words burned like dry paper.
The killers' bodies jerked.
They looked up for the first time, as if something they trusted had just died.
One of them spoke in a thin voice. "Our clause—"
Zhen spoke, with terrible timing. "Clause removed."
Drakonix growled, proud and angry. "No… stealing… my kill."
Qi Shan Wei did not let them recover.
He lifted two fingers.
The Heaven-Anchor Bastion pattern flashed.
Not as a city wall.
As a name anchor.
It pinned the killers' wrist marks—the Bell marks—to the ground for a breath, like nails of light.
The killers froze in place.
The Silent Bell envoy's eyes widened. "You are pinning Bell tags…"
Qi Shan Wei answered calmly. "If time marks you, you can be located."
The moon behind Ling Xueyao shattered into frost light.
Her breath ended.
Her Domain vanished.
She staggered, nearly falling.
Qi Shan Wei's presence caught her—again, not with romance, but with protection. His prismatic wrist guard formation tightened gently around her arm, keeping her upright.
Ling Xueyao swallowed, eyes shaking. "One breath…"
Qi Shan Wei said, "Enough."
Feng Qingyue stepped forward, flames rising.
Her phoenix mark flickered weakly, then steadied. She looked at the debtless killers with cold eyes.
"You came for me," she said.
Her voice was soft.
But it made people flinch.
"Then burn."
She lifted her palm.
A thin phoenix flame thread shot out—not a wild blast, but a sharp line.
It wrapped around one killer's wrist mark.
Not killing them.
Testing them.
The killer screamed.
Not in pain.
In fear.
Because the wrist mark answered her flame with a bell-like pulse.
The killer's mask cracked.
Feng Qingyue's eyes narrowed. "They're not just Pavilion."
The Silent Bell envoy spoke, voice tight. "They are Bell-tagged tools. Someone bought the Pavilion… and also touched time."
Qi Shan Wei's gaze lifted slowly to the Court elders.
His calm became heavier.
"Who," he said, "used Bell-Law."
The elders did not answer.
The bell answered instead.
The bell on the envoy's chest rang on its own.
Then the second bell beyond the realm rang again.
Not loud.
Not small.
A perfect, clear ring.
The third ring.
The Time-Debt Ledger flashed like a sun.
Words formed in ancient light, simple and brutal.
SELECTION BEGINS.
Outside the dome, the sky split wider.
Lightning moved sideways through the cracks like hunting snakes.
Then a single thin line of lightning appeared at the top of the dome.
It did not strike down.
It looked.
It moved slowly along the barrier, searching.
People held their breath.
Ling Xueyao's Frost Thread trembled.
Feng Qingyue's phoenix debt mark burned hot.
Drakonix's flames rose like a challenge.
Zhen's shield walls tightened.
Qi Shan Wei stood still in the center.
Calm.
Serious.
Emperor-like.
The lightning line stopped.
Right above Qi Shan Wei.
Then it moved down, thin and silent, like a needle.
It touched the air in front of his face.
And a name appeared.
Not his public name.
A longer name.
A hidden name with weight.
The crowd outside the dome went pale.
The Court elders' faces changed.
The Silent Bell envoy whispered, voice strained. "It found your true label…"
Qi Shan Wei's eyes did not flinch.
He only said, very quietly, "So the heavens want to speak."
The lightning needle brightened.
Time held its breath.
Then—
Between one flash and the next—
someone stepped into the dome.
No explosion.
No gate.
No ripple.
Just a step between strikes.
An old man stood there, wearing simple robes like thundercloud cloth. His eyes were calm like storm centers. Around him, lightning did not attack.
Lightning respected him.
The Court elders froze like children facing a legend.
The Silent Bell envoy's voice dropped to a whisper of fear.
"Elder Tian Lei…"
The old man looked at Qi Shan Wei.
He spoke one sentence, slow and clear.
"Lightning has finally found someone who does not beg."
Then the sky cracked again.
And every single lightning line outside turned toward the dome—
like a pack turning toward its chosen prey.
To be Continued
© Kishtika., 2026
All rights reserved.