Years flowed like sand through an hourglass.
Timelines rose and fell.
And Yun Lintian killed.
He had long lost count of how many Primordial Gods had fallen to his blade. Hundreds? Thousands? It no longer mattered. Each death was a step forward, each absorbed divinity another fragment of power added to his being.
The corrupted ones—those tainted by Yin’s mark—had become disturbingly common. At first, Yun Lintian had studied them, searching for weaknesses in their corruption. Now? He slaughtered them as effortlessly as breathing.
Emotion had faded long ago.
There was only the hunt.
Yun Lintian stood in the endless dark, the God Slaying Sword humming quietly at his side. His golden-black eyes scanned the fractured realities before him, selecting his next target with cold precision.
He no longer hesitated.
No longer questioned.
He was a blade honed to a razor’s edge—a weapon with a single purpose.
The word echoed in his mind like a mantra.
He needed to be stronger than Nian Shi.
Stronger than fate itself.
A ripple in space announced his next destination.
He stepped through without pause.
The moment Yun Lintian appeared, the air screamed.
This timeline was dying—its celestial laws unraveling, its stars guttering out like candles in a storm. The Primordial Gods here had gone mad, their forms twisted into grotesque parodies of divinity.
The God of Storms had become a writhing mass of lightning and flesh, his laughter shaking the heavens.
The Goddess of Mercy wept blood as she strangled her own worshippers.
Yun Lintian didn’t flinch.
The God Slaying Sword moved.
The God of Storms’ laughter cut off abruptly as his body split in two, his essence devoured before he could even scream.
The Goddess of Mercy turned, her bloodied hands reaching for Yun Lintian—
—only to freeze as his fingers closed around her throat.
"Pathetic," Yun Lintian murmured.
Then he crushed her divine core.
One by one, the mad gods fell.
Their power joined the ocean within him.
As the last god dissolved into nothingness, Yun Lintian paused.
Something was different this time.
The energy swirling inside him had reached a critical mass—a tipping point where power no longer accumulated but transformed.
The edge of something greater.
Was it the Creator Realm?
Yun Lintian didn’t think about it further and created a pocket dimension, isolating himself from the world. He sat cross-legged on the void and closed his eyes, calmly refining his power and attempting to break through.
Far beyond the timelines, Nian Shi watched from his silver throne, his fingers steepled in contemplation.
Tantai Lanling stood beside him, her crimson eyes wide.
"Reaching the threshold," Nian Shi finished, his voice oddly calm.
Then Nian Shi smiled.
Tantai Lanling turned to him sharply. "Good? If he transcends—"
"Then the game becomes interesting." Nian Shi’s silver eyes gleamed. "Let him climb. Let him strive. The higher he rises..."
"...the harder he’ll fall."
Nian Shi glanced at Yin, who was leisurely sleeping on the display and curled his lips. "I’ve already made a move. Now, it’s your turn."
In the endless void between existence and nothingness, where even time dared not tread, a pair of eyes opened.
Yin stretched lazily, his black robes rippling like liquid shadow. The golden chains that had bound him for eons shattered with a mere flick of his finger, dissolving into motes of light that vanished before they could touch the ground.
"Heh." His chuckle echoed through the abyss. "That was a good nap."
His gaze turned toward the void—piercing through layers of reality as if staring directly at Nian Shi’s observation point.
"Are you ready to make your move?" Yin’s lips curved. "Because I certainly am."
With that, his figure dissolved into darkness, disappearing so completely that not even Nian Shi’s all-seeing eyes could trace him.
Yin reappeared in a realm beyond realms—a place where the very concept of existence frayed at the edges. The darkness here was alive, pulsing with a hunger that could devour creation itself.
Two figures stepped forward from the abyss.
Identical to Yin in every way.
Same handsome features.
Same eyes that held the void of unmaking.
If Nian Shi or Yun Lintian had witnessed this, they would have realized a terrifying truth.
The "Yin" they had known—the one who clashed with the Creator, the one sealed away—was never the true entity.
The first Yin avatar cracked his neck. "Took you long enough to wake up."
The second smirked. "Nian Shi’s grown arrogant in our absence."
The true Yin—the original—folded his arms. "Let him play his games. While he monitored our decoy, we’ve been recovering."
For eons, the three had rotated. One would act as the "sealed Yin," drawing attention while the other two cultivated in absolute secrecy, regaining the power lost during their war with the Creator.
Not even Nian Shi, who prided himself on omniscience, had noticed.
The first avatar stretched. "So? What’s the plan?"
The original Yin’s smile turned sharp. "First, we remind Nian Shi of his place."
He raised a hand, and the abyss trembled. "Then we reclaim what was stolen from us."
The second avatar licked his lips. "Starting with Yun Lintian?"
Then all three Yins laughed—a sound that would have driven mortals to madness.
"Oh no," the original smiled. "Yun Lintian is the key. Through him, we’ll unmake everything."
The original Yin’s laughter faded as he turned to his two avatars. "It’s time to release our hunting hounds."
The three exchanged knowing smiles before the original stepped into the abyss’s deepest layer—a place even darker than the void itself.
One by one, they knelt on one knee, their voices resonating as one.
Yin chuckled, his hands clasped behind his back as he surveyed them. "You’ve been here long enough." His smile widened. "Time to go out and see the sun."
Then he corrected himself playfully: "Ah, no. Not see the sun."
"Time to paint it black."
The ten figures stood.
The moment they rose, the abyss trembled.
An aura of absolute destruction erupted from each of them—so vast, so overwhelming that if Yun Lintian had been present, even he would have frozen in shock.
These beings were not Primordial Gods.
They were something else entirely.
Each one radiated power a hundred times beyond any god Yun Lintian had ever slain...