The world was no longer the same.
After the fall of Yun Shuyi, after the celestial vision that split the heavens and bled golden light across the continent, something ancient and buried had stirred. The skies, once governed by divine cycles, trembled—unwilling to remain unchanged in the face of one mortal's defiance. And as the shattered fragments of Heaven's Will began their slow reassembly, a ripple extended across all Realms.
But Wei Long… stood still.
Within the collapsed ruins of the Lotus Sky Sect, amid cracked marble floors and broken immortal array formations, he sat silently. His eyes were closed. His breath long and measured. The world seemed to wait on him—to see what this harbinger of chaos and order would choose next.
But Wei Long… listened.
Not to the winds or the whispers of the devastated cultivators who remained nearby, but to something deeper: a whisper beyond space and time. A hum vibrating through the marrow of his bones. The System's voice.
[System Update Complete: Authority Protocols Rewritten.]
[Congratulations. You have become: Core Authority of the New Heavens.]
[Heaven's Judgement has been reduced to an observer class.]
[You may now rewrite Laws.]
Wei Long opened his eyes. They burned with a crimson-gold light, not from any manual or technique—but from raw authority. The concept of "Heaven" had begun to mold around him.
"…It begins now," he whispered.
Far across the realm, deep in the Nightless Abyss, the ancient clan of shadow weavers—silent for ten thousand years—felt it. The Ninth Patriarch, his body coiled in thousands of threads of darkness, suddenly convulsed.
His eyes snapped open. "He altered the Law of Cause… Impossible!"
"Patriarch?" asked a trembling youth nearby, holding a jade scroll.
The old being trembled. "No man… no being… should be able to suppress the cause of death once triggered. And yet he did."
"Who?"
"…The one who just replaced Heaven."
In the Cloud Temple of Divination, floating above the sky's upper reaches, the Star Oracle fell from her meditation throne, her astral body trembling violently. Constellations distorted behind her as the Celestial Map cracked.
She gasped. "A new North Star…?"
"No," whispered an old voice in the chamber. "Not a star. A hand dragging all stars into orbit."
And yet, Wei Long, despite the world noticing, remained silent in contemplation.
Heaven's Vein.
The term no longer referred to the ancient river of cultivation energy that flowed beneath the continent. It was now… him. The System made it clear.
[You are the World's New Vein. What flows through you shapes destiny.]
[All cultivators may now be influenced by your Core Will.]
[But beware. The Five Supreme Sects will not sit idle.]
Wei Long stood. The ground beneath him pulsed—like it was alive.
"System," he murmured. "What happens if I change the concept of death?"
[A Law Rewrite requires Universal Consent.]
[Consent may be forcibly taken.]
He smirked.
Suddenly, from the shattered horizon, a thunderous gate cracked open in the sky. A floating fortress pierced through—adorned in dragon-scale motifs and gold phoenix sigils. It was enormous, the size of a city, floating on heavenly wind.
From it descended an immortal pressure that weighed down the very clouds.
Wei Long looked up. His expression remained calm.
A voice boomed:
"Wei Long! You dared alter the Celestial Will without consent of the Five Pillars!"
A figure appeared in the sky. Clad in white and blue robes embroidered with shifting patterns of lightning and time, he held a jade decree in one hand and a nine-ringed saber in the other.
His eyes burned with divine authority.
"I am Zhen Tianhao, Third Son of the Supreme Sky Sect! Come forward and face Heavenly Judgment!"
The cultivators around Wei Long trembled. Even the elders hiding in protective arrays could not resist kneeling. Zhen Tianhao had descended with full Heavenly Mandate.
But Wei Long… chuckled.
"You bring judgment from a Heaven I now govern?" He stepped forward, the fractured stone beneath his feet glowing with his divine authority.
Zhen Tianhao's face darkened. "You have no idea what you've triggered."
Wei Long raised his hand. "Then let me show you."
With a snap of his fingers, the skies cracked again. But this time… not from divine descent.
From above, a chain of celestial rivers poured downward—flowing from other Realms. Time reversed and fast-forwarded. Gravity inverted. Concepts began twisting.
Wei Long was rewriting a Law.
The cultivators below screamed as their very cores trembled. Techniques failed. Spirit roots twisted. Dao Hearts shattered. What kind of madman would alter the fundamental pillars of reality so casually?
But Wei Long continued, voice calm, eyes unyielding:
"From this moment on, no one shall be born with a fixed fate."
"The concept of 'Heaven's Chosen'… is abolished."
Above, in a realm beyond the sky, ancient beings—observers older than time—watched.
"He's… destabilizing the cultivation ladder…"
"No, worse," whispered another. "He's burning it. So no one climbs higher by divine right."
Zhen Tianhao was already mid-attack, his saber slicing with the force of nine domains. But Wei Long's hand rose.
And with one command, reality bent.
[Law Rewrite Triggered: "Saber Paths require Internal Harmony."]
Zhen Tianhao's attack froze in mid-air. He coughed blood. His core fractured. His saber broke in half—his own technique turning against him.
"Impossible… I have trained for—"
Wei Long appeared before him in a flash.
"You trained in the old way. But I am no longer bound by what was."
Wei Long struck.
A ripple shattered the sky.
As the Supreme Sky Sect's fortress fled back through the dimensional gate, badly damaged and leaking divine qi, the realms below remained still.
Wei Long floated in mid-air. The world beneath him restructured itself subtly—imperceptibly—aligning with his will. He wasn't just a reformer anymore.
He was… the storm.
The cultivators who watched from afar didn't cheer. They didn't kneel.
They understood.
The rules had changed.
And they had just witnessed the beginning… of a new cultivation era.