A white world stretched endlessly.
There was no sky, no horizon—only pale light diffused into infinity, as though the concept of direction itself had been erased. Flowers bloomed everywhere, flawless and unreal, their fragrance too heavy, too complete, as if nature here had never learned decay.
Clear water flowed across the land, silent and smooth, reflecting nothing.
It did not ripple.
It did not resist.
At the center of this world stood a woman bound in chains.
The chains were not metal.
They were concepts—restraint made manifest.
Every struggle caused the air itself to tighten, as though the space disapproved of resistance.
Her figure was slender, dignified, cold.
Her face was beautiful in a way that did not invite admiration—only distance.
Ice had settled not on her skin, but deeper, within her will.
She pulled against the chains.
They did not break.
Another woman stepped forward.
She wore the same face.
The same eyes.
The same frost-bound calm.
The chained woman raised her head, her gaze sharp and alert even in confinement.
"Who are you?" she demanded.
"Why am I trapped here? Why am I in this place?"
Her eyes narrowed.
"And why do you look exactly like me?"
Fragments of memory flickered.
Blood.
Fire.
A crying infant.
A hand severed in midair.
Her pupils shrank.
"Release me!" Lin Moun shouted, her voice cracking for the first time.
"I need to save my son! If anything happens to him—"
Her killing intent surged violently.
"I will destroy everything. Heaven included."
The other woman smiled.
Not mockingly.
Not gently.
But knowingly.
"I have been waiting for you for a long time," she said.
"You finally came."
Lin Moun clenched her fists.
"Who are you?" she asked again, more quietly now.
"And why am I here?"
The woman tilted her head.
"Do you truly not understand?"
Her gaze sharpened.
"Or have you lost yourself again—just like before?"
Lin Moun's breathing slowed.
"What do you mean… again?"
The woman laughed softly.
"Who am I? Where are you?"
She stepped closer.
"I am you. And you are me."
She spread her hands slightly.
"This is your inner mind space."
The chains trembled.
The woman's tone turned cold.
"And the past I mentioned—have you truly forgotten your mistake?"
Her eyes locked onto Lin Moun's.
"Did you not spare the Mang family's son?"
Lin Moun froze.
Her throat tightened.
"You possessed a technique capable of erasing all traces of yourself," the woman continued mercilessly.
"You could have killed him. Erased his existence entirely."
She leaned closer.
"But you hesitated. You injured him… and let him escape."
Her voice sharpened like a blade.
"If you had killed him, would the Mang family have ever discovered you?"
Silence.
The flowers did not sway.
The water did not move.
"You spared him," the woman said calmly.
"And because of that mercy—your son is now dying."
Lin Moun lowered her head.
She did not deny it.
Because she knew the truth.
The woman circled her slowly.
"How does it feel," she asked softly,
"to be powerless?"
Her voice echoed endlessly.
"Your child is dying in front of you. And you can do nothing."
She stopped.
"After marriage, you chose peace. You never try to remove your cultivation sealed. You lived as a mortal."
Her eyes hardened.
"You forgot the Dao."
Lin Moun's lips trembled.
"Your weakness," the woman said, "is the only reason your son is dying."
She paused.
"Do you truly believe this foolish restraint protected anyone?"
Tears finally fell from Lin Moun's eyes.
Not loud.
Not dramatic.
Just silent acknowledgment.
Then the woman spoke again—slowly, deliberately.
Each word pressed itself into existence.
"Listen carefully.
This world was never shaped by kindness.
It moves only because something is always willing to endure, to take, to continue."
"Heaven does not ask who is right or wrong.
It asks only who can remain."
"Fate is not a chain forged by gods, but a road worn smooth by those too afraid to deviate."
"Power, morality, order—these are not truths.
They are tools.
Justifications written after survival."
"A child has no value to this world because a child has not yet proven persistence.
What they are taking is not his life—
but the possibility that he might one day matter."
"Now you face the question older than cultivation itself:
will you accept the world as it is—
or will you become the flaw it failed to foresee?"
The chains trembled violently.
"Do not deceive yourself.
You are not defying Heaven for love.
You are declaring that there exists one thing the world is not permitted to decide."
"Whatever you lose from this moment onward will be the price of your will.
Whatever remains will bear its mark."
"Existence does not reward meaning—
but it cannot erase it either."
Crimson and blue aura erupted from Lin Moun's body.
Power surged violently, cracking the air.
Her sealed cultivation screamed as it shattered its restraints.
Crack.
Something broke.
A flicker.
A flash so sharp it cut through the air—
silent as a whisper,
deadly as judgment.
Something severed Mang Lao's hand.
It happened too fast.
No one saw what moved.
Blood sprayed.
Mang Lao screamed.
This was the moment he was absorbing little Zhou Fang's life essence and divine body.
The formation shattered.
Lin Moun appeared.
She sliced off Mang Lao's hand and snatched Zhou Fang from his grasp.
Blood poured endlessly from Mang Lao's wound.
Zhou Fang lay in Lin Moun's arms, covered by a protective barrier. Crimson and blue aura surged uncontrollably from her body, so she instinctively formed a shield around him.
The moment Zhou Fang touched her chest, a soft warmth enveloped him, soothing his trembling body.
Lin Moun's eyes burned with rage.
But when she looked down at Zhou Fang, her gaze softened instantly—as if she had reclaimed her entire world.
Then she looked back at Mang Lao.
Her eyes blazed again.
Killing intent leaked from them like a storm ready to slaughter all existence.
She moved like lightning.
Before Mang Lao could react, Lin Moun drove her sword straight through his head.
Her strike did not merely kill him.
It annihilated his divine soul and consciousness completely.
Mang Shi screamed.
She immediately ordered the dragon to kill Lin Moun.
The dragon roared and unleashed crimson flames.
Lin Moun vanished before the flames touched her.
She reappeared instantly before the dragon's eyes and stabbed her sword straight through them.
Blue and crimson aura engulfed the dragon's body.
In an instant, it collapsed—dead.
Everyone was shocked.
That dragon possessed power equal to a ninth-star Divine Transformation cultivator.
Even with Lin Moun's restored cultivation, killing it so effortlessly was impossible.
If she breakthrough on next stage so there will be trevulation arrived.
Yet no tribulation descended.
Lin Moun turned to Mang Shi and the Mang family members.
She appeared before them in a flash.
Her hand closed around Mang Shi's throat.
Mang Shi evaporated instantly.
Crimson and blue aura surged outward, erasing everyone present.
Lin Moun then moved like lightning across the battlefield.
Thousands of bodies fell.
Lin Fan rushed to her side.
"Sister… how did you do this?"
He shook his head.
"Forget that—tell me later. We have Zhou Fang now. We should leave before the Mang elders arrive."
Lin Moun shook her head slowly.
"It's too late," she said calmly. "They're already here."
Twelve elders descended.
A billion soldiers surrounded them from all sides.
There was no escape.
Only one path remained.
"Killing everyone," Lin Moun said coldly.