The battlefield remained frozen.
Millions of celestial soldiers were locked in suspended time — blades mid-swing, flames halted like paintings in glass. The sky itself seemed afraid to move.
Only two beings stood untouched within the stillness.
Feixue and Seraphis.
Silver frost and frostfire feathers drifted slowly between them, the only motion left in the world.
Seraphis exhaled shakily. "This power… you stopped Heaven's time itself."
Feixue shook her head gently.
> "No. I stopped borrowed time."
She raised her hand, and the frozen soldiers faded into pale silhouettes, their divine auras unraveling like mist.
> "Heaven does not own time. It only enforces it."
The world trembled in response.
---
Far above, beyond layers of shattered clouds, the Immortal Emperor watched in silence.
His expression was no longer calm.
The Mirror of Judgment cracked further, its surface spiderwebbed with fractures as Feixue's Domain expanded beyond Heaven's calculations.
> "She has crossed the threshold," he said coldly.
"She has created a domain not bound by Heavenly Authority."
A minister fell to his knees. "My Emperor… if this continues, the Heavenly Law will—"
The Emperor raised a single finger.
The hall fell silent.
> "Then we activate the Ancient Execution Law."
At those words, the heavens screamed.
---
Across the Immortal Realm, ancient symbols burned into existence — runes older than sects, older than immortals. They appeared in the sky, on mountains, within souls.
Even mortals felt a crushing pressure, as if existence itself had issued a death sentence.
Seraphis stiffened. "That law… Feixue, that's not a legion."
Feixue's gaze sharpened.
> "I know."
High above the battlefield, a colossal eye of golden light opened in the sky.
No form.
No body.
Only judgment.
> "By decree of Heaven's First Throne,"
"the Origin Anomaly is sentenced to erasure."
The sound did not travel through air — it engraved itself into reality.
The frozen battlefield began to crack.
---
Golden chains erupted from the sky, forged not from qi, but from authority itself. They ignored distance, ignored defense, ignoring even time.
They wrapped around Feixue's limbs.
For the first time—
The world felt resistance against her.
Seraphis cried out. "Feixue!"
The chains burned with unbearable light, attempting to overwrite her existence — not killing her body, but erasing the idea of her.
Feixue's eyes dimmed slightly.
> "So this is Heaven's final argument…"
Her feet touched the ground.
Snow spread outward.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
---
She closed her eyes.
The Lotus of Balance bloomed behind her — larger than before, its petals no longer just frost and flame, but memory itself.
> "Heaven judges by authority," Feixue said quietly.
"But Origin does not judge."
Her eyes opened.
And the world remembered.
---
The chains froze.
Then they began to crack — not shattering from force, but unraveling as if they no longer made sense.
The golden eye in the sky flickered.
> "ERROR—ORIGIN LAW NOT RECOGNIZED."
Feixue lifted her hand.
> "Because you were born after it."
The ground beneath her transformed into a vast sigil — not inscribed, not summoned, but acknowledged by reality itself.
Origin Domain – Stillness Before Creation
The sky lost color.
Sound vanished.
Even light hesitated.
Within the domain, Heaven's runes dulled, their authority reduced to decoration.
Seraphis felt it instantly.
Her divine core stabilized — no longer golden, no longer cracked, but something new.
> "This domain…" she whispered. "It doesn't suppress. It liberates."
Feixue nodded.
> "Within Origin, nothing is forced to obey."
---
The colossal eye in the sky began to collapse.
Cracks spread across it as its judgment faltered.
> "IMPOSSIBLE—EXECUTION LAW IS ABSOLUTE—"
Feixue took a step forward.
And Heaven flinched.
> "There was never anything absolute," she said calmly.
"Only things that had not yet been remembered."
With a gentle gesture, she dismissed the eye.
Not destroyed.
Dismissed.
It faded like a mistaken thought.
---
Far away, in the Celestial Palace—
The Immortal Emperor coughed blood.
For the first time since ascending the throne.
His hand trembled as he steadied himself against the armrest.
> "She didn't resist the Execution Law…" he whispered.
"She invalidated it."
The ministers were pale.
One whispered in terror, "My Emperor… if she reaches the True Throne Beyond Heaven…"
The Emperor's eyes darkened.
> "Then Heaven will end."
---
Back on the battlefield, time resumed.
The celestial soldiers collapsed to their knees, their weapons dissolving into light. Many wept — not from pain, but from clarity.
They remembered freedom.
Seraphis turned to Feixue and knelt — not in submission, but in acknowledgment.
> "Tell me what to do."
Feixue looked toward the torn sky, where Heaven's light flickered weakly.
> "We move before the Emperor recovers."
She turned her gaze toward a place unseen by gods and mortals alike.
> "Beyond Heaven lies the Primordial Threshold.
That is where the truth of the throne is hidden."
Her eyes glowed softly.
> "And that is where this war will truly begin."
Snow began to fall again.
Not cold.
Not warm.
But eternal.