Silence rippled through the broken Sanctuary.
Xiao Wang stood frozen, the Devouring Sword humming with a dangerous tremor in his grip. Dust drifted slowly through the air, settling on cracked stone and shattered ruins. The silver-haired girl beside him felt her throat tighten as the woman's words sank deeper.
"I am the woman who betrayed you in your past life."
Those words echoed across the chamber like a blade drawn across the soul.
Xiao Wang's expression did not change—not immediately. But deep in his eyes, something shifted. A spark, a buried memory, a nearly-forgotten pain stirred.
He didn't speak. Not yet.
The woman took another step forward.
Her long, midnight-hued hair flowed behind her like an unfurling banner of night. Her eyes, deep and unreadable, held the weight of centuries. Her robes shimmered with an aura that made even the ancient Sanctuary feel young.
The silver-haired girl swallowed hard. "You… you can't be her. She died. You were sealed away. The heavens destroyed everything related to the Forbidden Era."
The woman glanced at her, her expression calm. "Little child of the Moon Tribes, do not speak of events beyond your lifespan."
The girl shrank back, trembling at the authority laced in the woman's tone.
Xiao Wang finally spoke.
His voice was quiet—too quiet.
"State your name."
The woman smiled faintly. "You knew it once. You whispered it a thousand times. You carved it into the stars so that no heaven could erase it."
She paused.
"Yun Xi."
The Devouring Sword's spirit hissed violently, its voice trembling with fury.
"Boy… don't trust her. Don't listen to her. This… this woman is the reason the heavens found you. She is the catalyst that shattered everything."
His other personality muttered darkly, "Yep. I'm getting trauma flashbacks we didn't even know we had."
Xiao Wang remained silent.
Yun Xi stepped closer.
"You're wondering if I came to kill you," she said softly. "Wondering if the heavens sent me. Or if I came to finish what I began."
He didn't answer.
"You're wondering," she continued gently, "how I'm alive at all."
She stopped a few paces from him, her gaze meeting his without wavering.
"The truth is simple. Heaven did not kill me." Her expression dimmed. "They used me."
The air thickened with tension.
Used?
The silver-haired girl tensed, her eyes darting between them.
Xiao Wang narrowed his eyes. "Explain."
Yun Xi lifted her hand slowly. A faint, shimmering mark glowed at the center of her palm—an ancient seal wrapped in divine chains.
The Devouring Sword recoiled. "Heaven's Oath Prison. They bound her soul."
"That is correct," Yun Xi said quietly. "The day I betrayed you… it was not by choice."
Xiao Wang's aura surged instinctively, black-gold power rolling from his body in waves. The stone beneath his feet fractured.
"Choose your next words carefully," he said.
His other personality whispered, "Because if she lies, we're turning this Sanctuary into dust."
Yun Xi did not flinch.
"Xiao Wang… in your past life, you stood at the peak of all existence. The heavens feared you more than they feared universal collapse. You were too powerful. Too uncontrollable."
She lowered her gaze.
"They took me. They found the one person you wouldn't guard against… and they turned me into their blade."
The silver-haired girl gasped. "You… were the woman who stabbed him. You—"
Yun Xi's hand trembled.
"I stabbed him," she whispered. "I cut open his heart with the dagger Heaven forged from his own fallen stars. And I watched him fall."
A faint tear slid down her cheek.
"Because if I didn't… they would have annihilated our entire clan, our entire world."
The Sanctuary fell silent.
Xiao Wang's grip on the sword loosened slightly, but only slightly.
"I don't remember you," he said. "Not fully. Not yet. I see fragments… pieces. But they don't show the whole picture."
"That is because Heaven sealed your memories," Yun Xi replied. "The moment your spirit shattered into three—Emperor, Devourer, and Sword—your connection to me became fractured as well."
She stepped closer, slowly, deliberately.
"And the reason I've come… is because your awakening threatens Heaven once again. They unsealed me in hopes I would lead them to you."
The Devouring Sword growled. "So she admits she's a trap."
"I was," Yun Xi said softly. "Until I broke their chains."
She lifted her palm, and the glowing seal cracked. Light spilled from her fingers, dimming quickly.
Xiao Wang watched it without speaking.
"They ordered me to kill you again," Yun Xi whispered. "But I refuse. Not this time. I came to warn you."
He remained motionless.
The silver-haired girl bit her lip, watching the two with conflicted eyes.
"What is Heaven planning?" Xiao Wang asked finally.
Yun Xi's expression turned grave.
"Heaven has activated the Abyssal Hunt Protocol."
Even the air seemed to stop moving.
The Devouring Sword's spirit swore harshly. "Damn it… that old nightmare."
The silver-haired girl gasped. "That protocol was banned. No realm is supposed to invoke it!"
Xiao Wang frowned. "Explain."
Yun Xi looked him straight in the eyes.
"It means every celestial force, every realm guardian, every killing order the heavens possess—will be aimed at you."
"They will send Executioners."
"Then Overseers."
"And when those fail—"
She exhaled shakily.
"Heaven will descend personally."
Xiao Wang blinked once. Calm. Too calm.
"So they're scared."
His other personality let out an amused whistle. "Terrified, actually."
Yun Xi stepped even closer, until she stood just an arm's reach away.
"Xiao Wang… listen to me carefully. You cannot stay in the Immortal Sanctuary. Your awakening here was too loud. Too bright. Heaven has already locked onto this place."
She touched his chest gently—hesitant, unsure if she even had the right.
"Let me help you."
Xiao Wang didn't move.
"Why?" he asked softly.
Her expression twisted. Pain. Regret. Sorrow.
"Because in the life I took from you… you were the only one I ever loved."
The silver-haired girl stiffened, her eyes widening in a mix of shock and something else—something sharp and unpleasant.
Xiao Wang's aura wavered.
Not from weakness.
But from a memory.
Flickering. Fading. Incomplete.
A long-forgotten voice calling his name.
A warm hand holding his.
A promise whispered beneath a starless sky.
He blinked, and the moment vanished.
Yun Xi took a small breath as if gathering courage.
"I know you don't trust me right now… and you shouldn't. But Heaven is coming. If you stay here, you'll die before your past awakens fully. You must leave."
She turned slightly.
"And… there is someone you must meet."
Xiao Wang's eyes narrowed. "Who?"
Yun Xi answered in a whisper that trembled with dread and hope alike.
"The part of you that never died. The part Heaven could not kill. The part that remembers everything."
Her gaze darkened.
"The Emperor Fragment."
The Devouring Sword fell silent.
His other personality stopped speaking entirely.
And Xiao Wang's heartbeat echoed like thunder in his own ears.
The Emperor.
One of his three past lives.
The most arrogant, overwhelming, terrifying of the three.
The one who ruled galaxies.
He spoke quietly.
"Where is he?"
Yun Xi pointed toward the deepest part of the Sanctuary, where the air shimmered like a curtain hiding another world.
"Beyond that gate. Sleeping. Waiting. Waiting for you to awaken him."
The silver-haired girl quickly grabbed Xiao Wang's arm. "You can't. The Emperor Fragment is too dangerous. If it merges with you too soon—"
"I know," Xiao Wang said calmly.
Yun Xi watched him with an unreadable expression.
Xiao Wang moved forward.
But Yun Xi suddenly stepped in his path.
"There is something else," she said quietly. "Something you must understand before you enter."
He paused.
"You will not return from this unchanged."
Her eyes softened with something painfully tender.
"When you face the Emperor Fragment… you will confront the version of yourself that loved me. That hated me. That wanted to destroy Heaven for me. And that wanted to destroy everything because of me."
She looked at him with trembling lashes.
"Are you prepared for that?"
Xiao Wang looked past her, toward the shimmering gate.
"The past doesn't scare me," he said.
His other personality chuckled darkly. "We scare the past."
The Devouring Sword whispered, "Then let us begin."
Xiao Wang walked forward.
The silver-haired girl followed, determined, even if she was afraid.
Yun Xi remained behind for a moment, her gaze heavy with longing and regret.
Then she whispered softly to the empty air.
"Forgive me… for everything."
Xiao Wang reached the gate.
Golden light pulsed from within it—ancient, imperial, suffocating.
The air throbbed with a presence that made even the Sanctuary feel small.
He placed his hand on the surface.
It cracked open.
A wave of emperor's will crashed into him.
And a voice that sounded exactly like his own—older, colder, absolute—echoed from the darkness beyond:
"So… you finally came."