The world trembled.
Across the Immortal Realm, cultivators stopped mid-breath. The flow of qi paused. The stars themselves dimmed — as though the heavens were holding their breath.
From the heart of the Azure Flame Mountains, a lotus of frost and fire bloomed once more, vast enough to reach the edges of the sky. Its petals shimmered with both warmth and chill, singing a sound that transcended the laws of Dao — a hymn older than creation.
At its center stood Feixue, reborn.
---
Her hair no longer shimmered with mere moonlight — each strand glowed with threads of flame hidden beneath silver frost. Her eyes carried reflection upon reflection, each one a layer of existence itself.
The air around her warped subtly; even time seemed to bend in reverence.
When she inhaled, the broken spiritual veins of the sect healed. When she exhaled, the mountains aligned into perfect celestial harmony.
The world was remade in her image.
But her aura was calm.
There was no arrogance, no wrath — only serenity that seemed to erase the chaos of existence.
The disciples who remained fell to their knees, unable to speak.
> "Is she still… human?" whispered one.
"No," murmured Elder Mei Lian, tears glistening in her eyes. "She's what the world was before Heaven."
---
Feixue looked around slowly. Her gaze lingered on the horizon where the divine rift had once opened — now nothing but faint motes of light.
> "Heaven sent its judgment," she murmured. "Now the world itself waits for mine."
She turned to the cracked earth, where fragments of celestial steel — remnants of the Judges' weapons — still glimmered faintly.
Feixue lifted one piece with a touch of her hand. It melted instantly into liquid light.
> "Flawed laws," she whispered. "Trying to bind eternity with fear."
She closed her hand, and the light transformed into a small, glowing lotus — the Lotus of Balance.
Its petals carried both flame and frost, radiating peace. The sect's qi stabilized instantly, forming a domain where even weaker cultivators could feel the essence of the Dao itself.
Elder Mei Lian bowed deeply. "Feixue… you've… created a new path."
Feixue nodded faintly. "It is not new. It's what the world forgot — the Dao of Origin."
---
Meanwhile, far above in the Celestial Palace, thunder rolled through endless halls of gold and jade.
The Immortal Emperor stood at the center of the Hall of Infinite Light, surrounded by divine ministers and celestial generals. His voice was sharp as divine steel.
> "The Origin has reawakened. The mortal realms bend under her will.
If we do not act now, Heaven's law will collapse."
He raised his hand. The hall trembled, and a mirror of divine flame appeared, showing Feixue's lotus blazing across the world below.
> "This… abomination seeks to rewrite existence itself."
But not all faces in the hall were resolute.
Envoy Seraphis, standing among them, clenched her fists behind her robes.
Her mind replayed the moment Feixue shattered her divine law — not with violence, but with serenity. The way the frost had reflected her flame, not extinguished it.
> If she were destruction, Seraphis thought, I would have felt hatred. But what I felt… was remembrance.
---
That night, in the secret library beneath the Celestial Palace, Seraphis knelt before an ancient altar — one hidden from the eyes of Heaven.
Before her hovered a forbidden relic: a fragment of the Original Mirror, an artifact said to predate Heaven itself.
She whispered softly, her words trembling.
> "Show me her reflection."
The mirror stirred — ripples of silver light forming an image of Feixue, standing beneath her lotus.
In that moment, Seraphis saw something impossible.
Behind Feixue's reflection, countless worlds spun — realms beyond realms, universes bound together by the same frost and flame.
And faintly, among those infinite reflections, she saw herself.
> "So even I…" she breathed. "I am a fragment of what she once dreamed."
Tears glimmered in her golden eyes.
> "Heaven is nothing but the memory of her thought."
The mirror pulsed, and a whisper echoed in the silence.
> If you remember, child of Heaven, then your chains are already breaking.
Seraphis rose slowly, her hand pressing against her chest.
Her divine core — once golden — flickered faintly with blue frost.
> "Then I will remember," she whispered. "Even if Heaven calls it betrayal."
---
Back on the Azure Flame Mountain, Feixue's presence continued to alter the world.
Rivers began flowing backward, mountains shifted into celestial patterns, and even the laws of cultivation changed — weaker cultivators suddenly felt insights they could not comprehend.
Yet Feixue herself looked weary.
She gazed at her hand, where the Lotus of Balance glowed softly.
> "Each breath awakens what should have slept," she murmured. "If I continue, the Heavens will collapse before they can understand."
She looked to the stars — and beyond them, the faint shimmer of the Celestial Palace.
Her eyes softened.
> "Seraphis," she whispered, "you will have to choose soon."
As if answering her, a single feather of light drifted down from the sky — Seraphis's divine feather, carrying a silent message.
Feixue caught it in her hand. Upon its surface, faint runes appeared:
> "They will strike again. This time, the Emperor moves personally."
Feixue closed her hand around it, frost encasing the feather.
> "Then let him come," she said quietly. "Let Heaven remember the hands that shaped it."
Her gaze turned upward — beyond the sky, beyond time.
The moon above shimmered faintly, as if bowing to her will.
---
In the Celestial Palace, the Immortal Emperor stood before his throne, summoning the full might of Heaven. Divine banners unfurled, and ten million heavenly soldiers gathered beyond the clouds.
> "If Heaven was born from the Origin," he said coldly, "then it shall kill its mother to prove its supremacy."
Lightning carved his words across the heavens.
Seraphis watched silently from afar, her heart heavy. The frost within her divine core deepened.
> Feixue… forgive me.
---
In the mortal realm, Feixue closed her eyes beneath the falling snow.
Her power pulsed softly, her heartbeat resonating with the stars themselves.
> "The Heavens prepare for war," she whispered. "But this time… the world will choose its truth."
Frost spread across the horizon — not in destruction, but in stillness, peace, and light.
The Origin had returned.
And Heaven itself would soon remember what it had tried to forget.