Chapter 23 — The Forbidden Ascent: Jian and the Celestial Seed
The air was still reeking of burning Qi and soul fragments. Frostveil stood over the corpse of the slain cultivator, her body trembling from fatigue and emotional corrosion. Jian watched in silence. Her rage had been unrestrained, terrifying. Her technique—the soul-obliterating froststorm—had not only killed her enemy, but left a scar on the land itself, a patch of earth now frozen beyond any season's mercy.
But Jian's eyes weren't on the battlefield. His gaze had long left this mortal land, piercing beyond cloud and sky, beyond the Nine Layered Heavens, reaching toward the uppermost plane—the Sanctum of Celestials, where the Celestial Seed was sealed.
He felt it.
A faint pulse. Subtle but commanding. Familiar.
Something buried in him stirred—an echo of the past when he had once stood among sword immortals, when just a flick of his blade tore through law and reason. That part of him—the true Sword Dao—had been shattered during transmigration. But now... something had awakened.
A memory. A possibility.
A path.
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The Celestial Seed — Lore and Meaning
> "When the universe first exhaled, and light carved its name into the infinite dark, the Celestial Seed was born. Not as life, not as flame, but as a singular point of pure cultivation potential—an unaligned, undivided force. It is the embryo of Dao itself, where all laws are mute and all potential is infinite."
The Celestial Seed is said to be the first condensation of pre-Dao energy—the ur-origin of Heaven's will. It contains unshaped potential, untouched by Qi, karma, or destiny. In myth, only the first Heaven Emperor dared attempt communion with it—and in doing so, was burned away, leaving behind only a scream that became thunder across all realms.
Sealed within the Astral Vault, the highest zone of Heaven, the Seed is not simply a source of power—it is a challenge to the order of the cosmos. It is said to respond only to those whose will exists outside fate, whose Dao is self-written.
It is also guarded by the Thirteen Arbiters of the Root Sky, semi-divine beings who wield foundational concepts as weapons—Time, Form, Judgement, Memory, Void, and more.
And yet...
Jian intended to steal it.
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"I Will Cut Through the Sky"
Jian sat atop a jagged stone spire, one of the broken remnants left from the war. The winds roared, but he heard nothing. His mind replayed visions of his former life—of standing at the edge of eternity with a blade that hummed like the breath of the world.
He spoke, not to Frostveil, not even to himself—but to the Sword Dao buried in silence.
> "This world, this Heaven... it sings a lullaby of order. But I was born from a scream. I do not obey the lullaby. I will rise again—not as a man of the sword, but as the sword itself."
His decision was final.
He would pierce the fabric of Heaven.
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Preparation for the Ascension
The night before his departure, Jian drew a sword—not forged, but formed from his own soul energy. It was incomplete. Rusted, chipped, and trembling. A reflection of his current self.
Frostveil watched him train, sweat and blood mixing at his feet.
> "You'll die if you go," she said, but her voice was hollow. She already knew the answer.
Jian didn't respond with words. He stabbed the ghostly blade into the stone before him, closed his eyes, and whispered a mental mantra.
> "Heaven is tall, but not immune. The stars burn, but I burn deeper. My Dao is not to live forever—
My Dao is to never bow."
He vanished the next day—his presence nothing but a vapor trail of Dao aura lingering like incense in the air.
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To Be Continued...
> In the next chapter: Jian steps into the Heavens, where logic fails, gods bleed, and the impossible begins to unravel. The Astral Vault awaits. The Celestial Seed pulses with unspeakable power. And Jian, armed with only fragments of his Sword Dao, will challenge all of creation itself.