The snow falling over the Azure Frost Sect was not white; it was stained a pale, sickly grey by the soot of the funeral pyres.
Zero stood on the edge of the Precipice of Lament, watching the smoke rise. Below, thousands of outer-court disciples wailed for the fallen Elders. Their grief was a physical thing, a heavy mist of salt and sound. To them, the loss of their masters was a catastrophe. To Zero, it was merely the shifting of a few grains of sand in an hourglass that had already run out.
"How tedious", Zero thought. His expression was as still as a frozen lake.
In his hand, he held a small, pulsating stone—the Void Heart. It was not a physical organ, but a condensed shard of Primordial Nothingness. It did not beat; it thawed. Every time it pulsed, the air around his fingers vanished, consumed by a hunger that knew no satiation.
"Zero..." a voice rasped behind him.
Zero did not turn. He knew the gait of his Master, Elder Gu. The old man was dying, his cultivation base leaking like a cracked jar after the sect's failed defense.
"The sect is in ruins," the Elder coughed, blood flecking his white beard. "But you... you are our last spark. Take these Spirit Stones. Run to the Southern Border. Hide, cultivate, and live—so that our lineage does not vanish from the scrolls of history."
Zero finally turned. He looked at the heavy bag of resources, then at the trembling, hopeful eyes of the man who had raised him for ten years.
"Master," Zero said, his voice devoid of warmth. "Do you know why the void is the ultimate truth?"
The Elder blinked, his hands shaking. "What... what are you saying? We have no time!"
"A vessel can only be filled if it is empty," Zero stepped forward, the grey snow crunching beneath his boots. "Kindness, loyalty, hatred, and love—these are all 'clutter.' They take up space in the soul. They make the heart heavy. And a heavy heart can never cross the Sea of Bitterness to reach Immortality."
Before the Elder could react, Zero's hand moved with the clinical precision of a butcher. He didn't strike out of anger or malice; he struck out of pure, cold efficiency.
The Void Heart touched the Elder's chest.
There was no scream. There was only a sudden, horrific silence as the Elder's entire cultivation—his life force, his remaining Qi, and the very essence of his soul—was sucked into the vacuum of the stone.
The bag of Spirit Stones fell to the snow with a dull thud. Zero picked it up, weighing it.
He looked down at the withered, grey husk of the man who had been his father figure. He felt no guilt. He felt no joy. He felt only a slight tightening of his own power, the "Void" within him growing a fraction larger, more stable.
"The path to the Great Dao is a lonely one", Zero thought, looking toward the distant, jagged horizon of the Immortal Realms. "To become a Monarch, one must first become nothing. I have finally emptied my heart. Now, I can begin to fill the world".
He walked into the grey smoke, leaving no footprints behind.