The Abyss no longer slumbered.
From the flickering depths beneath Liu Shen's feet to the farthest reaches of that cursed domain, a pulse echoed—slow at first, then accelerating like the heartbeat of something colossal waking from an age-long dream.
Three Abyssal Beacons now burned, casting their black flame skyward, and with each flame, the chains that bound the ancient army began to crumble.
Liu Shen stood at the edge of the Hollow's exit, watching as Kael, the twins Zhao and Zhen, and even the spectral presence of Lin Yue assembled behind him. Their once-forgotten faces were sharper now, more defined, as if time itself was giving them back their form.
But the path forward remained unclear.
"What now, Sovereign?" Kael asked, voice steady but eyes wary.
"There is a fourth Beacon," Liu Shen murmured. "But its location was hidden even from me. It was placed not in the Abyss… but in the mortal world—disguised, sealed by blood, and bound to a child who never knew they were a weapon."
Lei Qing stepped forward, brows furrowed. "You mean—?"
Liu Shen nodded. "A descendant. One born from the remnants of my power… or from a contract made before my fall."
Yu Meixing looked stunned. "You left behind a bloodline?"
"No," Liu Shen said grimly. "But the Abyss did."
---
They returned to the Hollow Empire, the capital cloaked in storm clouds. Since Liu Shen's descent into the Abyss, the imperial court had gone silent, its officials either in hiding or trapped in rituals gone wrong.
In the center of the imperial palace, the Abyssal Gate still throbbed with the power Liu Shen had awoken, now unstable without the final Beacon to complete its formation.
As they arrived, Empress Zhao Ying knelt at the gate's edge. She was weakened, her cultivation fragmented by the backlash of her failed ritual. Still, when Liu Shen approached, her eyes sparked with conviction.
"You've returned," she said. "The court fell into madness after you vanished. The ritual awakened something in our blood."
Liu Shen narrowed his gaze. "That's because you carry a fragment of the Abyss."
She hesitated. "Then… is that why my daughter…"
The silence grew heavy.
Liu Shen turned slowly. "Where is the child?"
Zhao Ying's hand trembled. "She's hidden. The last remaining member of the imperial bloodline. We've protected her since birth… but she's changing. Sometimes her voice speaks with tongues we cannot understand. Chains appear on her skin when she's angry."
Yu Meixing's expression shifted. "A manifestation of an unawakened contract."
Liu Shen nodded. "She is the fourth Beacon. And if we do not find her first, the Heavens will."
---
They raced through the capital's ruins to the Temple of Silent Flame, a sealed sanctuary said to be untouched since the ancient rebellion. There, within its inner sanctum, the girl awaited.
She looked no older than ten.
Jet-black hair flowed around her like ink in water, and her eyes—one gold, one abyssal violet—watched them with silent curiosity.
She did not speak when Liu Shen entered. Instead, she raised her hand.
The Whispering Chain curled around his arm without command, reacting to her.
Not fear.
Recognition.
Liu Shen knelt before her. "Do you know who I am?"
She blinked slowly. "You're the one I see in my dreams."
"What do you see?"
"You burning," she whispered, "and then rising again. You were angry. But not at me."
He nodded slowly. "What is your name?"
"…Yue'er," she said after a pause.
A soft tremor ran through the temple.
Liu Shen's breath hitched.
Yue'er.
The name of the soul he had left in the abyss, long before his death. The one who died to protect the last piece of his soul—an anchor he'd thought lost.
It wasn't just blood that made this girl a Beacon.
She carried a reincarnated shard of the Abyss.
Of him.
"I need your help," he said softly. "But I won't force you."
The girl tilted her head. "Will I die?"
"No," Liu Shen said firmly. "You'll become part of something eternal. But you must choose."
She stared at him for a long moment, then looked to Yu Meixing, then Kael, and finally at the sky beyond the broken temple walls.
"…Then I choose."
She touched the Whispering Chain.
It burst into black flame.
---
The Fourth Beacon ignited.
But unlike the others, this one did not remain within the Abyss. It rose above the mortal world—into the sky, piercing the heavens.
Its message was clear.
The Demon Sovereign had returned.
And now… he had a heir.