For a long time, neither William nor Victoria moved.
The two siblings remained in that embrace, not as cultivators, not as disciples, not as people connected to a war between sects.
Only as a brother and a sister who had lost their home.
Eventually, the tears stopped.
Not because the pain disappeared.
But because the human heart, no matter how much it suffers, cannot continue crying forever.
William slowly loosened his arms.
Victoria looked at him.
For the first time since his arrival, she noticed something that frightened her more than his anger.
His silence.
There was no rage in his eyes.
No madness.
No trembling.
Only an emptiness so deep that it seemed to swallow all emotions.
"Brother..."
She called softly.
She wanted to stop him.
She wanted to tell him to stay.
To think.
To wait.
But the words died before leaving her mouth.
Because she knew.
The William standing before her had already made his decision.
He gently touched her head one last time.
The same way he did when they were children.
Then he turned around.
"William."
He stopped.
For a few moments, the prison remained completely quiet.
"Come back."
Only two words.
But they carried all the fear of a sister who had already lost too much.
William did not answer.
Not because he ignored her.
But because he did not know if he could keep that promise.
Then—
he walked away.
He left the sect without speaking to anyone.
The injured disciples watched him leave.
No one dared to stop him.
No one dared to ask where he was going.
The sky itself seemed to understand.
Dark clouds gathered over the land.
A cold wind moved across the mountains.
And a single figure rose toward the heavens.
William flew above the world.
The same world where he had once been powerless.
The same sky he had once looked at while trapped, dreaming of freedom.
The same earth where his parents had given him a place to belong.
Now—
that place was gone.
His eyes turned toward the distance.
The gathering of the Black Cloud Sects.
The home of the Crimson Shadow Sect.
A place that had existed for generations.
A place filled with disciples, elders, halls, treasures, and a history built over centuries.
William did not accelerate.
He moved slowly.
Very slowly.
As if he wanted every second to exist.
Every moment to be remembered.
The disciples of the Crimson Shadow Sect noticed him immediately.
Alarms spread.
Protective formations activated.
Elders gathered.
Thousands of eyes looked toward the sky.
And they saw a man standing alone.
At first, there was confusion.
Then recognition.
Then fear.
"William."
The name spread like a curse.
Some of the younger disciples who had survived his previous attack stepped backward.
They remembered.
They remembered the monster who had appeared like divine punishment.
But they also remembered something else.
He had disappeared.
He had almost died.
They had believed that chapter had ended.
No one expected him to return.
William looked at them.
No hatred appeared on his face.
That was what made it worse.
His gaze carried the same emotion a person would have while observing something that had already disappeared.
He raised his hand.
The connections of existence revealed themselves.
Millions upon millions of threads.
The relationships that held flesh together.
The bonds between souls and their vessels.
The connections between matter and its form.
Slowly—
he began to separate them.
There were no explosions.
No flames.
No grand attacks.
Only silence.
A disciple looked at his own hand as it started becoming transparent.
His body did not bleed.
It did not burn.
It simply ceased to be.
Panic spread.
Screams filled the mountains.
They attempted to run.
They attempted to attack.
They attempted to resist.
But their attacks could not reach him.
Their techniques could not recognize him.
Their power could not affect him.
William had no intention of giving them a quick end.
They watched themselves disappear.
Piece by piece.
A lifetime of cruelty returning to them in the form of helplessness.
The halls collapsed into dust.
The weapons lost the bonds that made them whole.
The formations unraveled.
The mountains carrying their legacy cracked apart.
The Crimson Shadow Sect was not defeated.
It was erased.
Until only two presences remained.
Kate.
And the Third Elder.
They stood among the ruins.
For a moment, neither of them could believe what they were seeing.
"Impossible."
The Third Elder whispered.
"You were supposed to be dead."
Kate's expression became dark.
But unlike the disciples, he did not flee.
He remembered their previous battle.
The violent backlash.
The price William had paid.
A small fragment of confidence returned.
"You made the same mistake again."
His sword appeared in his hand.
"You are using a power you cannot control."
For the first time since arriving—
William looked directly at him.
A memory appeared.
A dark room.
Chains.
Pain.
A young man begging for mercy.
Then another memory.
His father standing before a door.
His mother collapsing beside his corpse.
His family buried beneath the earth.
The memories disappeared.
William extended his hand.
The two of them immediately tried to move.
They failed.
Every connection between their bodies and movement had been restrained.
Every attempt to gather power was suppressed.
Their expressions finally changed.
Fear.
Real fear.
"Impossible..."
Kate whispered.
"How—"
William stepped closer.
His voice was quiet.
Too quiet.
"I spent years dreaming of killing you."
Every word felt heavier than a mountain.
"I imagined thousands of ways."
The Third Elder struggled.
"You monster!"
William looked at him.
For the first time, a faint expression appeared.
A smile.
Not one of happiness.
But one born from a broken soul.
"Yes."
His eyes became empty again.
"That is what you created."
The space around them twisted.
William carried both men away.
They disappeared from the destroyed remains of the sect.
Behind them—
nothing remained.
No history.
No legacy.
No trace that the Crimson Shadow Sect had ever existed.
They arrived in a place where there was nothing.
No civilization.
No witnesses.
Only an endless empty land.
William threw them onto the ground.
The impact shattered the earth beneath them.
Kate tried to rise.
The Third Elder tried to speak.
But William walked toward them.
Slowly.
Each step echoed through the empty world.
For the first time since his return—
his emotions became visible.
Not anger.
Not hatred.
Grief.
An endless grief that had nowhere to go.
He stopped before them.
And the two men understood.
Death was not what awaited them.
For William, death had become too small a punishment.
He raised his hand.
The threads around them began to appear.
Their senses.
Their memories.
Their perception of time.
Their connection to pain.
All laid before the one man they had created through their own cruelty.
William looked down at them.
His voice carried no emotion.
"Now."
The world became silent.
"Let us begin."
And for the first time in their lives—
Kait and the Third Elder truly understood what it meant to be helpless.