The rain fell in sheets, turning the battlefield into a graveyard of mud and blood. Luo Tian stood motionless as the downpour washed over him, the water running red where it touched his skin. His body ached—not from wounds, but from something deeper. The nanomachines had repaired the physical damage, but the weight of what he'd done settled in his bones like lead.
The Heavenly Sword Sect was gone.
Not just defeated. Not just broken.
Erased.
His hands flexed at his sides, still humming with residual energy. The Thunderbone Ancestor's final scream echoed in his memory, the way its skeletal frame had blackened and crumbled under his dragonfire. The Sect Master's dying gasps. The disciples who had fled into the night, their terrified faces burned into his mind.
[Combat efficiency restored to 92%]
[Energy reserves stabilizing]
[Recommendation: Immediate recalibration]
Luo Tian ignored Echo's prompts. Instead, he turned his gaze upward, to the storm-choked sky.
"They started this," he told himself. "They left me to die."
But the words rang hollow.
Because now, standing in the ruins of his enemies, he realized something terrifying:
He didn't feel satisfied.
He felt... nothing.
The Girl Who Lived
Mei Ling ran until her lungs burned.
She didn't stop when the rain soaked through her robes. Didn't stop when her feet bled. She ran like death itself chased her—because it did.
Luo Tian.
The monster who had destroyed everything.
The boy who had spared her.
That was the thought that finally made her stumble. Why? Why had he let her go? She'd been helpless, weaponless. He could have crushed her like an insect. Instead, he'd looked at her with those cold, glowing eyes and...
Let her live.
A sob tore from her throat. She collapsed against a tree, her body shaking. The weight of survival pressed down on her. She was the last. The only one left to remember.
And that meant one thing:
She had to get stronger.
The Empire's Next Move
Deep within a fortress of floating black stone, three figures stood around a holographic display. The image showed Luo Tian, standing amidst the ruins, rain streaming down his face.
*"Sigma-9's evolution exceeds projections,"* the first figure said, their voice distorted by a mechanical hum.
"Irrelevant," the second snapped. "He's still just a weapon. A tool."
The third figure, taller than the others, reached out and touched the hologram. The image shifted, zooming in on Luo Tian's eyes—on the faintest flicker of hesitation in them.
"No," the third figure murmured. "Not just a weapon anymore."
A smile curled beneath their featureless mask.
"He's becoming something far more dangerous."
"He's becoming human."
The Calm Before
Luo Tian walked.
No destination. No purpose. Just... forward.
The nanomachines whispered in his veins, their usual clinical reports now tinged with something new. Something almost... concerned.
[Psychological stress detected]
[Suggest neural recalibration]
He ignored them.
For the first time since the Abyss Gorge, he let himself think. Not about survival. Not about revenge.
About what came next.
The Sky Empire was still out there. The real enemy. The ones who had created Echo. The ones who saw him as nothing more than a lost weapon to be reclaimed.
His hands curled into fists.
"No," he whispered. "I'm not theirs."
But the question remained:
Then what was he?