The heavens above the Scarlet Cloud Pavilion trembled.

  Nine points of light burned through the clouds like falling stars, but they did not fall—they descended with purpose, wrapped in divine symbols and cloaked in flowing celestial robes. Their eyes gleamed with judgment, and the qi around them choked the air for miles.

  They were the Watchers—envoys of the Heaven Encompassing Sect.

  “Nine Stars of Execution,” Yue Xian whispered, eyes wide.

  “They only descend… when a threat to the very heavens is born.”

  Li Fan stood still at the center of the Pavilion’s outer ring, robes fluttering in the divine pressure. His newly formed Nascent Soul pulsed behind him like a silent guardian of broken laws.

  One of the Watchers spoke—his voice was like a bell tolling for war.

  “Li Fan. You who touched the Godslayer’s Beacon.

  You who walk the Crownless Path.

  You are hereby condemned.”

  The Watchers parted, and from their center emerged a figure clad in gold-laced armor, forged in the likeness of a dragon devouring a sun. His face was hidden behind a mask of weeping jade.

  His name was Xuan Yu.

  He held a sword nearly as tall as himself—its blade jagged, cleaving the air simply by existing. This was the Judgement Blade, “Divine Reaping.”

  “This sword slew Aran the First Godslayer,” Xuan Yu declared.

  “You will be no different.”

  Yue Xian stepped forward, but Li Fan stopped her with a glance.

  “This fight is mine,” he said, calmly.

  “Let heaven come.”

  The ground shattered at first contact.

  Xuan Yu’s blade howled with divine intent, forming halos of light that cleaved buildings and air alike. Every swing summoned the echoes of past executions—ghosts of slain immortals crying out in harmony with the sword.

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  But Li Fan’s movements had changed.

  There was no wasted motion. No hesitation.

  He moved like the flame itself—unpredictable, beautiful, deadly.

  With a twist of his palm, the Divine Ossuary Sutra erupted in dark gold light. A rune of death bloomed beneath his feet, swallowing divine qi and converting it into marrow-forged force.

  “Your divine light,” he said, “has no dominion over my path.”

  With one punch, he shattered one of the Watcher’s halos. With a second, he dented Xuan Yu’s golden armor.

  “Impossible!” roared the Watcher. “That sword killed gods!”

  “I am not a god,” Li Fan said, voice low. “I am the flaw in their design.”

  As Xuan Yu reeled back, summoning the full wrath of the Judgment Blade, the sky dimmed. The Ninth Star—the highest-ranking Watcher, a woman veiled in starlight—suddenly stepped forward.

  She raised her hand.

  The battlefield stopped.

  “Enough,” she said, her voice a song across galaxies.

  “The flame has chosen. And if it is lit again… then perhaps we need a Godslayer after all.”

  Gasps rang out. Xuan Yu’s face twisted in fury beneath his mask.

  “You defy the will of the Tribunal?!”

  “No,” the veiled woman said. “I await it.”

  Then she turned to Li Fan, her voice dropping into something only he could hear.

  “Your flame burns truer than the last. Find the Gate. When it opens… I will come to you.”

  And with that, she vanished.

  One by one, the Watchers followed. All but Xuan Yu.

  He cast one last glance at Li Fan.

  “This is not over. The Tribunal will come next.”

  And then—he, too, vanished into the stars.

  Yue Xian approached, still stunned.

  “You beat them. Or… they let you win.”

  “Both are true,” Li Fan said, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth.

  “But now, I know this for certain—”

  “The heavens fear something. And I will find out what it is.”

  He looked up at the sky, where divine light once shone.

  “The Gate is real.

  The Deep Realm is stirring.

  And I am not the first to walk this path…”