Time did not slow.
It stopped.
Snowflakes hung in the air like frozen diamonds.Xueya's hand rested against Shan Wei's sleeve—motionless.Drakonix's terrified tears remained suspended midair.Jin Wei's runes flickered in a single frozen frame.The Empress's mouth was open mid-warning, unmoving.
The only thing still alive—
was Qi Shan Wei.
And the voice inside his mind.
"Do you understand now?"
Shan Wei grit his teeth.
"…Calamity Heir."
The voice chuckled softly, like someone pouring ink into clean water.
"Good.I grow tired of hiding behind avatars and echoes."
Shan Wei breathed slowly, trying to calm his spiraling pulse.
"What are you showing me?"
A ripple passed through the still world.
Then—
The ice under Shan Wei's feet cracked.
Reality peeled open like paper.
And he fell.
Shan Wei Falls Into a Future That Should Not Exist
He landed on a barren plain.
The sky overhead was black, split with streaks of collapsing stars.
Dead mountains.Silent rivers.Broken continents.
He recognized this vision—
he saw a glimpse earlier—
but this time, it was whole.
Complete.
The air smelled of ash and sorrow.
He took a shaky step.
"W-Where am I…?"
The voice answered, amused:
"In one of your futures."
A cold pain twisted in his chest.
"Show me."
The land trembled.
A distant roar rolled over the horizon.
And then—
He saw himself.
A towering silhouette stood on a throne of prismatic flame.
Hair silver as dying moons.
Eyes like cracked suns.
Aura monstrous enough to crush worlds.
Shan Wei went pale.
"That… that thing is—"
"You," the Heir whispered."A future where you awakened your Forbidden Path too early."
Shan Wei's throat tightened.
His older self turned—
slowly—
emotionlessly—
toward him.
And spoke with a hollow echo:
"Everything I touched died."
Shan Wei's blood ran cold.
"What happened to—"
He couldn't finish.
But the Calamity Heir did:
"The women who followed you…the beast who loved you…the puppet who knelt for you…they all died.You broke."
Shan Wei staggered backward.
"No—I would never let that happen—"
"But you DID."
The older Shan Wei raised one hand.
Prismatic flames rose from the earth like ghosts—
forming images.
Shan Wei saw Xueya frozen in a prison of shattered stars.He saw Drakonix's lifeless body curled at his feet.He saw Jin Wei split apart trying to protect him.He saw the heroines dying one by one—smiling, because they believed he would live.
And the older Shan Wei sobbed—
a broken, empty sound.
"I wasn't strong enough."
Shan Wei's knees shook.
He whispered:
"…This isn't real.It's a trick.An illusion—"
The Heir's voice cut him.
"Illusions can't replicate Dao pressure.You felt that earlier, didn't you?"
Shan Wei froze.
He had.
His Forbidden Awakening had nearly erupted.
He swallowed hard.
"What are you trying to do to me…?"
The Heir sighed.
As if disappointed.
"I am showing you that you are destined to break."
The Second Vision — The Future Shan Wei Fears Most
The world tore again.
He fell—
again—
into another timeline.
This one hurt even more.
Snow.
A courtyard.
The smell of herbs.
Laughter.
Xueya sitting beneath a cherry tree, sword across her lap.Mei Lianhua humming as she tended flowers.Feng Qingyue sparring with Jin Wei's upgraded form.Bai Lianhua healing small birds.Yin Yuerin teasing Drakonix.Hua Xiangning meditating among beasts.
Shan Wei's heart warmed involuntarily.
A peaceful future.
A dream.
But then—
The sky split open like a wound.
A shadow fell across the courtyard.
A silhouette descended.
Void-black robes.A mirror-like mask.Aura of death and prophecy.
The Calamity Heir.
Xueya stood first.
Her aura trembling with fear and fury.
"You… you will not touch him—"
But the Heir raised a hand.
Time fractured.
She froze mid-strike.
A single black thread of fate extended—
and pierced her chest.
Her eyes widened.
She looked at Shan Wei—
softly—
sadly—
and whispered:
"…I'm sorry."
She dissolved into frost.
Mei Lianhua screamed.
Hua Xiangning roared, half-transformed.
Yin Yuerin tried to use Shadow Authority—
but a wave of anti-cultivator law erased it.
One by one—
they fell.
Shan Wei ran to them.
Ran until his feet bled.
But he couldn't move.
His body was bound by fate chains.
Drakonix roared desperately—
but the Heir whispered a single word:
"Shatter."
Drakonix exploded into prismatic dust.
Shan Wei screamed:
"STOP—!!!PLEASE—STOP—!!"
But no sound came out.
He was mute.
Helpless.
Broken.
Tears streamed down his face.
And the Heir stepped to him—
placing a hand against Shan Wei's cheek.
"You break every time you love…and I appear in every future you create."
Shan Wei trembled violently.
Breaths shallow.
Heart tearing.
"Why…why are you doing this…?"
The Heir whispered:
"To protect you."
Shan Wei snapped.
"…Protect me!?"
The Heir nodded.
"If you do not love,you will not break.If you do not care,no one will die for you.If you walk alone,your path remains unbroken."
Shan Wei whispered, horrified:
"You want me…to stop caring."
"Yes."
Shan Wei stared at him.
Saw the calm.The certainty.The cold logic.
And he hated it.
He PRISMATICALLY hated it.
He snarled:
"No.I refuse."
The Heir tilted his head.
"Then I will show you the worst of them all."
The Third Vision — The Future He Never Admits Aloud
Reality cracked for a third time.
Shan Wei stumbled into—
a battlefield.
Bodies everywhere.
Flames.
Cultivators kneeling.
A sky of black lightning.
A throne half-formed.
At its base—
someone lay dying.
Someone wearing frost-dusted robes.
Shan Wei's heart clenched.
"Xueya…"
She looked up with difficulty.
Her lips quivered.
"Shan…Wei…"
He reached for her—
desperate—
but his fingers passed through.
A vision.
She forced a smile.
"You grew strong…stronger than anyone…"
Tears blurred Shan Wei's vision.
"But you never learned to let someone stand beside you."
She reached up—touching his cheek with a trembling illusion.
"And that…was the only thing…that ever broke you."
Her hand fell.
Her eyes dimmed.
Her spirit dispersed into snow.
Shan Wei screamed—
but no sound came out.
The Heir spoke, gentle and cold:
"This is the future where you fail to protect the woman you care for most."
Shan Wei fell to his knees.
Hands shaking.Heart tearing.Breath suffocating.
He whispered:
"…Stop…please…"
The Heir placed a cold hand on his shoulder.
"There is only one cure."
Shan Wei looked up, eyes hollow.
"…What?"
"Walk alone."The Heir's voice softened further."Abandon them.Release them.Never let them near your fate."
Shan Wei shook his head.
"No…that's not what she would want.That's not what any of them would want."
The Heir exhaled.
"You break because of them, Qi Shan Wei."
Shan Wei whispered back:
"…I break because I care."
He rose slowly.
Painfully.
One agonizing breath at a time.
"But caring doesn't make me weak."His aura pulsed."It makes me HUMAN."
The Heir stepped back.
His tone shifted.
Colder.
Harder.
"So you reject peace."
"I reject fear."
"You reject safety."
"I choose risk."
"You reject destiny."
Shan Wei's eyes burned with prismatic fury.
"I CHOOSE MY OWN."
The Heir's mask glowed.
A crack formed across it.
He whispered:
"Then your fate…will be rewritten."
Time Remembers How to Move
The visions shattered.
Sound rushed back into the world.
The air exploded in a shockwave.
Time resumed.
Drakonix screamed in fear.
Xueya stumbled, gasping.
Jin Wei rebooted mid-sentence.
Yue Lian shielded her eyes.
The Empress fell to one knee.
And the Echo Devourer—
lifted its colossal head in alarm.
The Heir's voice echoed through the chasm:
"Let us see if your chosen future can survive the next blow…"
A massive shadow formed above the Devourer—
A second Zone King descending.
The Empress stared upward, horrified.
"No…NO—TWO ZONE KINGS!?"
Shan Wei clenched his fists.
His prismatic aura flared.
His eyes blazed with a fury born from shattered visions.
And he whispered:
"…Then I'll rewrite EVERYTHING."
To be Continued
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