The Inquisitor moved first.
He blurred forward, crossing the distance in a breath. His blade shimmered—not with qi, but with law. The kind that denied space, time, and resistance. It carved through reality like parchment.
Liu Shen caught it between two fingers.
The world trembled.
The clash unleashed no light, no sound. Instead, the ground vanished beneath them, swallowed by the silence of true power.
The fog split in two.
---
"You grasp at laws that were never yours to wield," Liu Shen said, eyes glowing crimson-black. "Tell your masters—the heavens cannot bind what they fear."
The Inquisitor's voice remained hollow. "You are unredeemed. Your soul is fractured. You speak with the tongue of fallen kings."
"I am a fallen king," Liu Shen said—and pushed.
The Inquisitor was thrown back, crashing through three warded walls and landing in the central courtyard of the Hollow Palace. The protective runes shattered like dried leaves.
Yu Meixing arrived at his side, breathing hard. "That blade—it almost ignored your defenses."
"It did," Liu Shen replied. "It's a weapon made from the bones of a slain Law Dragon."
Her eyes widened. "Then this isn't a purge. It's a declaration."
---
From above, dozens of Heavenly Emissaries descended, wings woven from starlight and order. They chanted in unison, voices ringing with celestial authority.
But beneath them, the earth answered with defiance.
The Jade Coffin pulsed. Flames leaked through its cracks—old flames, tinted with memory.
Kuren was waking.
---
The Inquisitor rose from the rubble, mask still intact. His robe shimmered with inscriptions that negated pain, time, and even death itself. "You tread the same path once more, Liu Shen. Will you die again to protect ruins and traitors?"
Liu Shen lifted his hand.
A crimson sigil flared above his palm—a demonic brand shaped like a crown of broken horns.
"I did not die to protect ruins," he said. "I died defying cowards who sold eternity for borrowed light."
The sigil spun once.
And the bindings on the Jade Coffin shattered.
---
From the core of the palace, fire erupted.
Not the fire of destruction, but of a soul reborn.
Kuren, the Crownless Flame, rose from the shattered remains of his jade prison. His armor was cracked, his limbs scarred, but his eyes burned with recognition.
"Demon Sovereign…"
His voice was hoarse, but reverent.
Liu Shen nodded. "I have returned."
Kuren dropped to one knee. "Then the embers will rise again."
---
The Inquisitor moved to strike—fast, lethal, merciless.
But this time, Kuren intercepted him.
Blade met flame.
Heavenly law screamed as it collided with Abyssal Will.
The clash lit the skies. One side held divine order. The other, rebellion forged in agony and honor.
And yet, between the two, Liu Shen stood untouched.
He turned to Yu Meixing. "Activate the Heart Loom Array. Lock the city."
"What about the people?"
"They must witness this."
---
All across the capital, mortals and cultivators alike saw it.
The skies alight with violet fire. The heavens cracked above a palace that defied fate.
The Hollow Empire had risen again—not as a subordinate vassal, but as the first open defiance of the celestial order in an age.
---
As Kuren roared and engulfed the Inquisitor in a vortex of searing judgment, Liu Shen looked beyond the skies, where a thousand eyes of heaven watched.
"You wanted an apostate?" he whispered.
"Then burn this into your stars."