Chapter 9 — The Prince's Wrath,Yin and Yang Devour the Void
The grand gates of Yang Kang City towered like ancient beasts carved from black stone.
Each brick carried the weight of countless years. Blood, ambition, and imperial authority had soaked into the city's foundations, turning it into one of the most feared strongholds of the Central Plane.
Within the city, the imperial palace rose like a mountain of gold and jade. Maidens moved silently through its halls, heads lowered, footsteps light. Guards stood in rigid formation, eyes sharp, hands never straying far from their weapons. This was not a place for mistakes.
Inside the Third Prince's Manor, the air was cold.
A guard approached the hall doors, hesitated, then knocked lightly.
"Come in."
The voice was calm—too calm.
The guard entered and immediately knelt, pressing his forehead to the ground.
"I ordered you to monitor every movement of Shu Hua," Murong Yu said, his tone flat. "Why are you still standing inside my palace?"
The guard trembled.
"My Prince, may you live ten thousand years," he said hurriedly. "This subordinate… discovered something important."
Murong Yu's eyes narrowed.
"Speak."
The guard swallowed. "Miss Shu Hua… she may already have a man."
The words had barely left his mouth when the world blurred.
Murong Yu appeared before him in an instant.
A hand clamped around the guard's throat, lifting him off the ground as if he weighed nothing.
"What," Murong Yu asked softly, "did you just say?"
The guard's face turned purple. His feet kicked uselessly as air refused to enter his lungs. With shaking hands, he activated a spirit stone, letting it fall from his sleeve.
Murong Yu loosened his grip slightly.
The image within the stone flickered to life.
A moonlit courtyard.
A woman dancing.
And a man—his arm wrapped around her waist, movements natural, intimate, unrestrained.
Murong Yu watched silently as Luo Xiao Tian and Shu Hua danced together, their figures close enough to feel each other's breath.
Crack.
The spirit stone shattered in Murong Yu's palm.
The temperature in the hall dropped.
"Who is he?" Murong Yu asked.
"L-Luo Xiao Tian," the guard gasped. "A freshman… from Gold Coast Academy."
Murong Yu released him. The guard collapsed to the ground, coughing violently.
"I want him dead," Murong Yu said. "Take men. Find an opportunity. Make it clean."
The guard scrambled to his feet. "Yes, My Prince—"
"Alive," Murong Yu interrupted.
The guard froze.
Murong Yu's eyes glinted with cruelty.
"I want him alive. I will personally cut off the fingers he used to touch her."
The guard bowed deeply and retreated, leading a group of elite guards into the shadows.
Murong Yu stood alone in the hall.
"For four years," he muttered, his voice low and venomous, "I pursued Shu Hua. I did not dare touch her hand."
His lips curled.
"And a nameless freshman dares to hold her waist."
"Luo Xiao Tian," Murong Yu whispered.
"You will not die easily."
Taishan Peak was silent.
A single oil lamp burned within a stone chamber.
Luo Xiao Tian sat cross-legged before an old man dressed in plain robes. His master, Gu Long, looked ordinary—so ordinary that no one would believe he was a cultivator who had survived countless eras.
"Talent," Gu Long said calmly, "determines how far one walks."
Xiao Tian listened in silence, wine gourd resting at his side.
"The Renegade Warrior Realm," Gu Long continued, "has nine floors. But most cultivators never walk beyond the fifth."
He raised a finger.
"Those without sufficient talent force their breakthrough. They step into the Lord Realm prematurely, their foundations incomplete."
Xiao Tian's eyes flickered.
"The Renegade Lord, Renegade King, and Renegade Saint realms," Gu Long said, "each possess three stages—early, mid, and late."
"Only after completing the Saint Realm can one sever mortal shackles."
Gu Long's gaze deepened.
"That is when one steps into the Renegade Immortal Realm."
Xiao Tian felt his blood stir.
"The Immortal Realm," Gu Long said, "is also divided into nine floors. Each floor refines the soul, strengthens the Dao Seed, and sharpens one's will."
"Fail to complete all nine," he added, "and you are unworthy of sovereignty."
"Sovereignty?" Xiao Tian asked quietly.
Gu Long nodded.
"The Sovereign Realms, also known as the Heaven Rulers. They consist of the False Emperor and True Emperor realms—each divided into early, mid, and late stages."
"False Emperors borrow Heaven's authority."
"True Emperors carve their Dao into existence."
Gu Long paused.
"And yet," he continued, "even Emperors are bound by the heavens."
"To split the skies and ascend to Sky City, one must attain Godhood."
"The Divine Realms," he said, "begin with False God… and end with True God."
"When you reach that point," Gu Long said flatly, "you will understand why the heavens fear renegades."
The room fell silent.
Gu Long reached into his sleeve and produced a jade scroll.
"Take this."
Xiao Tian accepted it.
"This jade contains the Law of Space," Gu Long said. "Drip your blood onto it."
"It will stabilize your soul."
"When you master it," he added, "you will no longer walk beneath Heaven's shadow."
The oil lamp flickered.
Gu Long vanished.
Xiao Tian remained seated, staring at the jade scroll.
He pierced his finger and let a single drop of blood fall onto the jade scroll.
The moment it touched the surface, the jade ignited.
Golden symbols burst forth like burning stars, tearing through the air and flooding straight into his consciousness. His vision shattered. The world twisted.
Then—
Darkness.
His conscious mind was dragged into a boundless black galaxy, silent and endless. No sky. No ground. No direction.
Void.
Before he could steady himself, a massive void vortex formed beneath his feet, spiraling violently, its pull absolute. Space collapsed inward, trying to devour his existence.
Xiao Tian's expression hardened.
He tried to escape.
Just as he exerted strength—
Another vortex appeared.
This one descended from above, darker, heavier, colder. It dragged him upward while the vortex below pulled him down.
Torn.
Crushed.
His soul stretched between the two forces, screaming silently as space distorted around him. His physical body outside trembled violently, veins bulging, bones creaking as if they would shatter at any moment.
"This isn't space alone…"
"It's annihilation."
He activated the Law of Time, forcing his will outward, attempting to slow the pull.
Nothing changed.
Time bent—but the void did not acknowledge it.
The vortices continued their merciless pull.
Cracks spread through his soul.
Blood leaked from the corner of his mouth.
Then—
The Dao Seed deep within him trembled.
Radiance erupted.
Vast, ancient Qi poured into his body like a roaring flood, stabilizing his collapsing form. Xiao Tian raised his hand slowly, his movements deliberate, precise.
Time responded.
The spiraling vortices slowed.
Then—
They froze.
The galaxy stood still.
Xiao Tian sat cross-legged in midair.
"Void absorbs all," he muttered. "Then I will absorb the void."
He extended his soul.
The vortex beneath him dissolved into streams of black essence, flowing into his body like refined Qi. The vortex above followed, resisting violently before being torn apart and consumed.
The void screamed.
When it ended, silence returned.
But the power was too violent.
The energy rampaged inside him, tearing through his meridians, crushing his soul.
Crack.
His soul shattered like glass.
Fragments scattered across the void—
Then pulled back together.
Reforged.
Darker.
Colder.
Sharper.
Waves rippled outward as his consciousness snapped back into his body.
Xiao Tian opened his eyes.
He immediately entered deep meditation, stabilizing his newly reforged soul. His aura sank inward, heavy and restrained.
"If not for the first layer of Space and Time," he thought calmly, "I could already kill a late-stage Renegade King."
He slowly raised his head.
"Now…"
"Let them merge."
His voice echoed through the void of his mind.
"Yin embraces Yang."
"Time embraces Space."
"Day embraces Night."
"Yin–Yang Soul… condense."
Black and white Qi erupted from his body, intertwining like serpents. A gigantic Dharma Image rose beneath Taishan Peak—half frozen in eternal daylight, half swallowed by endless darkness.
Space warped.
Reality bent.
The mountain trembled.
With a dull roar, Xiao Tian broke through—
Mid-stage Renegade Lord.
A voice echoed from the void.
"Good."
"You did not disappoint me."
Gu Long's figure appeared faintly within the rippling space, his gaze calm, unfathomable.
"A good seed," he said.
"Take this."
An ancient brush descended from the void, its surface etched with runes older than time.
"Master-disciple gift."
Xiao Tian accepted it and bowed.
"Thank you, Teacher."
Gu Long vanished.
Xiao Tian stood, took a sip from his wine gourd, and descended Taishan Peak.
His aura was different now.
Cold.
Vast.
Oppressive.
Even he could feel it.
As he walked through the academy, murmurs reached his ears—talk of an upcoming auction in Gold Coast City. His interest stirred briefly.
Then—
Boom.
An invisible pressure crashed down on him.
His knees bent violently.
"You are Luo Xiao Tian."
The voice thundered from midair.
"I sent people to warn you."
"And you dared to ignore me."
The pressure increased.
Xiao Tian's bones screamed.
"It's Senior Jin Feng…"
"This boy is finished."
"He doesn't even know how to die."
Xiao Tian raised his bloodied face.
"So this is…" he thought coldly, "…the power of a Renegade Saint."
"Stop."
Wu Miao Miao's voice rang out.
The pressure vanished.
Jin Feng descended slowly, eyes filled with disdain.
"I'll give you a choice," he said. "Stay in this academy—or die."
"Three years from now," he continued, "I challenge you to a life-and-death duel."
A blood-stained contract flew toward Xiao Tian.
Xiao Tian wiped the blood from his mouth and signed without hesitation.
"Three years," he said coldly. "You will learn that I, Luo Xiao Tian, am not someone to step on."
Jin Feng sneered.
"Wu Miao Miao is mine."
"Anyone in my way dies."
He turned and left.
Wu Miao Miao clenched her fists.
She had been betrothed to Jin Feng since childhood.
But she had never accepted him.
And now—
The gears of fate had begun to grind.