The sky broke three days later.
It wasn't a storm; it was a judgment. The clouds above Moon Peak swirled into a funnel of
chaotic black and purple energy. The pressure was so immense that the stone pillars of the
main palace began to crack under their own weight.
Li Wei ran. He wasn't running away; he was running around the perimeter of the peak, planting
flags.
"System! Deploy the Nine-Heaven Lightning Rods!"
[Deploying. Cost: 2,000 Support Points (Debt Incurred).]
Metal rods shot out of the ground, forming a conductive circle around the palace. Li Wei had
mortgaged his soul—literally took a loan on his own immortal vitality—to buy these. If he hadn't,
the first bolt would have vaporized the entire mountain top, himself included.
In the center of the storm, hovering above the roof of the palace, sat Su Mei.
She was laughing.
Her hair whipped around her like white snakes. Her robes were torn by the spiritual wind,
revealing armor made of pure ice beneath. She looked maniacal. She looked divine.
"Come!" she screamed at the sky. "Is this all the Dao can muster? I am the Empress of Ice!
Strike me if you dare!"
KRAKOOM.
The first bolt fell. It was thick as a castle tower.
It smashed into Su Mei's shield. The impact wave flattened the surrounding forest. Li Wei threw
himself behind a rock, covering his ears. His eardrums burst instantly. Blood trickled down his
neck.
He watched through the dust.
Su Mei didn't buckle. She absorbed the lightning. She grabbed the bolt of energy with her bare
hand and crushed it, inhaling the sparks.
"More!" she roared.
The heavens, insulted by her arrogance, responded.
The clouds turned red. Red Lightning. The legend said this was the 'World Severing Tribulation',
reserved for things that shouldn't exist.
"System," Li Wei couldn't hear himself, but he thought the words. "What is that?"
[Anomaly. The Heavens detect the System's interference. It is trying to erase the Error.]
The red lightning descended.
It ignored the lightning rods. It ignored the palace formations. It struck the palace directly.
BOOM.
The jade roof exploded. The walls crumbled. The magnificent hall Li Wei had spent years
maintaining, the place where he had served her tea every morning, disintegrated into dust in a
millisecond.
Debris rained down. A massive chunk of masonry, part of the intricate archway, flew toward Li
Wei.
He tried to move, but the pressure pinned him.
This is it, he thought. I die by a falling rock while she fights gods.
A blue barrier flickered around him.
Ding.
The rock shattered against the shield. It was the Defensive Token Su Mei had thrown at him in the dirt months ago. It had activated.
Li Wei looked up, gasping.
Su Mei was still in the air. She hadn't looked down. She hadn't saved him consciously. It was
just a forgotten tool doing its job.
The palace was gone. The herb garden was burning. The shed where Li Wei slept was a pile of
splinters.
And in the center of the ruins, a new form emerged.
From the crown of Su Mei's head, a tiny, glowing figure rose. It was the Nascent Soul. It looked
exactly like a miniature Su Mei, but it was made of pure, concentrated light.
The Nascent Soul opened its eyes. They were voids.
It merged back into Su Mei's body.
The storm stopped instantly. The clouds dispersed as if terrified. The sun shone down on the
smoking crater of Moon Peak.
Su Mei lowered herself slowly. She landed on the only thing left standing: a jagged piece of the
foundation stone.
She took a deep breath. The spiritual energy of the entire mountain range rushed into her,
revitalizing her skin, repairing her robes.
She was a Nascent Soul Ancestor. In this realm, she was effectively a demigod. She could
move mountains with a thought. She could live for three thousand years.
Li Wei crawled out from behind the rock. He was covered in ash. His hearing was slowly
returning thanks to the System's passive healing.
He stumbled toward her.
He looked around. Everything was gone. The painting of the Golden Phoenix he had hung in the
hallway? Gone. The tea set they bought together? Vaporized. The bed? Dust.
"Mei'er," Li Wei whispered, reaching the edge of the crater.
Su Mei looked at him. She floated a foot above the rubble, refusing to touch the ruin.
"It is done," she said. Her voice resonated in his skull.
"The house..." Li Wei pointed at the pile of rubble. "Our home. It's gone."
Su Mei followed his finger. She looked at the destruction.
Li Wei waited for the grief. He waited for her to say, 'Oh no, your things.' Or 'We will rebuild.'
Su Mei smiled. It was a beatific, enlightened smile.
"Good," she said.
Li Wei froze. "Good?"
"It was a cage," Su Mei explained, sweeping her hand over the ruins. "Walls. Roofs. Doors.
They are for mortals who fear the rain. I am the storm now. Why would I need a roof?"
She looked at Li Wei. "Do you see, husband? The Heavens did me a favor. They severed the
past. I have nothing weighing me down now."
Li Wei looked at his feet. Half-buried in the ash was a small, charred wooden sign. It was the
piece of the sign from their shop: Golden Phoenix.
He knelt and picked it up. It crumbled in his hands, turning to soot.
"Nothing?" Li Wei whispered, looking at the black stain on his palms. "You have nothing
weighing you down?"
Su Mei looked at him. Her eyes lingered on his face, then moved to the horizon.
"Almost nothing," she corrected.
She turned away from him, facing the vast expanse of the Azure Cloud Sect below.
"I must go to the Grand Hall," she said. "The Sect Master is coming to kowtow. I am the
strongest cultivator in the sect now. I will likely take the throne by sunset."
She began to fly away. "Su Mei!" Li Wei shouted.
She paused, hovering.
"Where do I sleep tonight?" he asked. It was a pathetic question. A mortal question.
Su Mei didn't turn back.
"The world is vast, Li Wei. Sleep where you find shelter. You are resourceful. You always were."
Then she streaked across the sky, a comet of blue light, leaving him standing alone in the
smoking grave of their marriage.
Li Wei stood there for a long time. The sun set. The cold wind returned.
He didn't rebuild the shed. He found a cave nearby—a beast den that had been abandoned
during the storm. He gathered some dry leaves. He sat in the dark.
[System Quest Update: Path to the Throne.] [Progress: 80%.] [Host Condition: Homeless.
Broken. Alone.] [System Note: You are doing a great job, Host.]
Li Wei laughed. It started as a chuckle and turned into a scream that echoed off the cold stone
walls, unheard by anyone, especially the god living on the peak above.