Li Yi stood motionless before the awakened Starlink Altar, his chest rising and falling slowly. The array inscribed upon the obsidian stone pulsed in rhythm with his merged core, syncing with something far beyond the realm. He felt it—a tether to the God Realm, thin as a strand of silk, humming with divine resonance.
Yet even in that moment of clarity, a dread crept through his veins.
The vision from the altar replayed again and again: his mother and father, side by side on a crumbling battlefield, a sea of abyssal beasts crashing upon their defenses. The sky above was cracked like shattered glass, leaking black flame and crimson lightning.
And at its center… the Crimson Moon.
> "When the moon turns red…"
The words echoed in his soul. Li Yi rose to his feet. The altar's glow began to fade, the array dimming into dormancy. Whatever message it carried was now branded into his blood.
He turned away from the ruins. The Soul-Hollow Envoy had been just one scout. If the altar was awakening, if the seal was weakening—then more would come.
And soon.
---
That night, Li Yi rested atop a barren hill just outside the Jadefall Ruins. The stars were bright, unnaturally so. As he meditated, the qi within his body surged faster than before.
> Cultivation Stage: Twin Core Fusion – Late Phase
Heavenroot Cycle: Initiated
Not only was his core evolving, but his understanding of divine qi was deepening. He could now store attacks from his enemies, recycle them through his root channels, and return them as purified, amplified force. A technique lost since the early God Era.
He opened his eyes.
"I don't have time," he whispered. "The abyssal gate… I must close it before it opens wider."
But even as he said it, a change rippled across the sky.
The moon—pure, silver, and full—began to dim.
Its light turned gold.
Then amber.
Then… crimson.
He stood in horror.
All across the Xuan Realm, cultivators looked up. From mountaintop sects to remote villages, the blood moon cast a shadow across every heart.
In the Forbidden Sky Pavilion, sages trembled.
In the Eight Heavens Sect, ancient bells rang.
Even in the Li Family's Eastern Sky Peak, the ancestral tablet began to weep blood.
> "It's too early," an elder whispered. "The seal was supposed to last a hundred more years…"
---
Li Yi shot into the sky, his crescent spirit blade flying faster than ever before. He had to return to the Li Estate. If the gate opened now, only the ancestral defense formation could hold back the first wave.
When he arrived, the sky was already cracked.
A single rift had opened above the main hall. From within it, shadowed figures began to descend. Some were twisted like smoke, others armored in obsidian bone. Their eyes were hollow, their mouths whispering in tongues no mortal could understand.
"Abyssal wraiths…" gasped a sect elder.
"Defensive array—activate!" shouted Li Qingxian, his voice shaking the mountains.
The estate lit with barriers and talismans. Ancient weapons rose from beneath the earth. Spirit beasts roared from their pens.
Then, in a beam of red light, a general stepped forth from the rift.
He was ten feet tall, cloaked in living chains, with two curling horns and a jagged blade that dripped with void essence.
"I am Va'Kur, First General of the Hollow Fang," he declared, voice booming across the land. "The gate opens. Your world dies."
He pointed his blade at the estate.
"Begin."
The abyss descended.
Li Yi's qi flared like a burning star. He launched himself toward Va'Kur without hesitation, golden and azure light swirling around him like a divine storm.
No more time.
No more waiting.
The real war had begun.