The world held its breath.
Van Thien Phong's sword hung mid-air, blood dripping from his shoulder — not from Huyet Minh's blade, but from a silent strike from behind.
A cold blade, thin and unassuming, now pierced him just below the collarbone.
He turned his head slowly.
Bai Xiao Nian.
Her eyes… were filled with pain, not guilt.
"Why?" Phong growled, voice low, shaking. "Why you?"
She didn't answer at first.
Instead, she twisted the blade.
Minh raised a hand instinctively, voice trembling, "Xiao Nian… What are you doing?!"
But she remained calm, and reached into her robes.
From within, she pulled out a small black sigil, pulsating with dark light — carved with impossible symbols that shifted as one looked at them.
The Mark of Fate.
The entire realm screamed at its presence.
"No," Minh whispered. "That can't be... The Heavenbane Sigil was destroyed during the Primordial War!"
Bai Xiao Nian turned to him.
"It was never destroyed. It was sealed — in me."
---
The True Identity
She stepped back, pulling the blade from Phong's flesh. He dropped to one knee, coughing, but kept glaring.
"I trusted you…" he muttered. "You healed me. You kissed me. Was that fake too?"
Her voice cracked, soft and cold.
"No. None of it was fake."
"Then why—?!"
"Because I had to get close enough to kill you."
---
The Heavenbane Agenda
The mark in her hand pulsed brighter, and the sky warped above them. The stars dimmed, and the constellations twisted into eyes — ancient, watching.
"You two… you're Sovereigns," she continued, voice echoing with something no longer fully human. "Do you know what happens when two Sovereigns clash with no limit?"
"The realm breaks," Minh answered slowly.
She nodded. "And when it breaks… He wakes up."
Phong's eyes widened. "Who?"
"The First Sovereign. The one who created Sovereignty itself. The one the heavens betrayed. The one even gods fear."
Minh gasped. "He's real?"
Bai Xiao Nian smiled darkly. "And now, thanks to you two fools, he's stirring. My mission… is complete."
She slammed the sigil into the air — and the sky ripped open.
---
The World Fractures
From the tear above, a voice spilled out — slow, deep, and terrifyingly calm:
> "Sovereign Thien Phong… Sovereign Huyet Minh…
You have danced beautifully.
Now kneel."
A massive hand — made of starlight bones and void blood — descended from the sky.
Every cultivator in the realm collapsed in fear.
Mountains disintegrated just from the hand's presence.
Minh screamed, "You've doomed us all!"
Phong rose, blood trailing from his lips. "Then we fight fate itself."
Bai Xiao Nian's smile faded.
But Phong pointed at her.
"You may have betrayed me. But that also means… you were close enough."
He vanished.
Appeared right behind her.
Sword pressed against her back.
"I loved you," he whispered.
"I know," she said, almost crying.
And then — slash.
---
But She Doesn't Fall
She didn't move. Didn't flinch.
Blood ran down her spine.
Yet she stood, turned, and looked him in the eyes.
"I can't die… yet," she whispered.
Then her form shifted.
Hair grew silver.
Eyes turned golden.
Her presence became… divine.
Phong stepped back, stunned. "You're not… mortal?"
She smiled faintly. "I never was. I was just waiting for my divinity to awaken — and now, it has."
---
The New Sovereign
Minh fell to one knee, overwhelmed. "She's… beyond Sovereign."
"She's a Primordial," Phong muttered.
"No," Bai Xiao Nian corrected. "I am the Sovereign of Fate reborn."
And she raised her hand — summoning both Phong and Minh's soul cores into the air.
"They are mine now."
The skies shattered into fractals of light.
And the realm entered… the Age of Ruin.
The fractured sky rained down embers — pieces of shattered laws falling like cursed snowflakes.
Van Thien Phong stood breathless, sword trembling.
Before him, Bai Xiao Nian hovered, divinity blooming like a death flower. Her hair, silver as moonlight, flowed against the winds of fate. Her eyes no longer held pain — only judgment.
"Do you know why I had to do it, Phong?" she asked, voice echoing through dimensions.
He clenched his fists. "Say it. Tell me."
She descended slowly, the very ground cracking beneath each step she took — not because of weight, but because reality couldn't handle her presence anymore.
"I was born in a dying timeline. A version of this world that was erased before it began," she whispered. "In that world… you were not the villain."
Phong blinked.
"You were the hero. You saved me. You loved me. We built a world together."
She stared into his eyes, and tears finally fell — hot and glowing.
"But Heaven didn't like that ending. They said your power twisted the weave of fate. So they deleted that reality."
She gritted her teeth.
"And left me as the only survivor — cast into this timeline. To fix it. By destroying the man I once loved."
---
Memories Flood In
Suddenly, images flashed before Phong's eyes — not his own, but hers.
A different world. A different him. A peaceful realm. A wedding beneath starfall blossoms. A child in her arms.
Then... the sky ripping open. Divine chains. Blood. A scream. And Bai Xiao Nian, floating in a void, while everything vanished.
Phong stumbled backward.
"Those memories… I felt them."
"You did. Because your soul… remembers me."
She took another step forward.
"But now, I am no longer your Bai Xiao Nian. I am the one chosen by the First Sovereign. I carry His Will. I must unmake this world… to bring back the one we lost."
---
The Beginning of the End
Minh, weakened but standing, shouted, "You'll destroy billions!"
"I will resurrect infinite more." she replied coldly. "This world is a copy. A failed attempt."
Then she raised both hands — and the ground split open across continents. Giant obsidian spires shot up across the world. The Doom Lattice — the machinery of multiversal reset — had begun activating.
Phong roared and dashed forward, ignoring his wounds.
But as he struck her again — his sword shattered.
"I gave you that blade," she said softly. "Even now, it cannot hurt me."
He coughed blood.
Then smiled.
"I wasn't aiming to hurt you."
From behind her, Minh struck — empowered by a blood-forged technique that burned his lifespan to fuel his strike.
It connected.
Bai cried out — not in pain, but in confusion.
"You still… care," she whispered, stunned.
Phong and Minh stood side by side.
"Maybe we do," Minh said. "But that won't stop us from stopping you."
---
Final Moments of the Chapter
Bai Xiao Nian floated back, blood dripping from her lips. Yet the mark on her hand — the Heavenbane Sigil — grew even brighter.
She looked at them with one last glance of sorrow.
"I hope… in the next life… you'll forgive me."
Then, with a whisper of fate, she vanished into the sky fracture.
And the world… began to collapse.
---
[End of Chapter 27]