The sky above Mount Tianyuan was split by a golden light.
Clouds swirled like a vortex, pressing down on the mortal world with a force that made even low-level cultivators tremble from thousands of miles away. Spirit birds fell from the sky, nature spirits hid, and all living creatures felt the same thing—the will of Heaven was descending.
At the peak of the mountain, a man stood alone.
His black robe was torn by the heavenly wind, his long hair was wildly disheveled, and blood flowed from the corner of his mouth. Yet his back remained straight. His dark eyes stared at the sky without a hint of fear.
In front of him, nine pillars of light rose high, forming a heavenly punishment formation.
And in the center of that formation—a woman kneels.
Her body is covered in wounds, her white clothes stained with blood, yet her face remains calm, as if she had accepted everything from the beginning.
Those clear eyes stare blankly ahead, not at Heaven, nor at the man standing not far from her.
The man clenches his fists.
He recognizes that gaze.
The gaze of someone who had lost too much to hope for anything anymore.
"Enough..." his voice was hoarse, almost drowned out by the roar of the sky. "Isn't it enough?"
The sky did not answer.
Instead, a majestic and emotionless voice echoed from all directions, piercing through soul and body.
"Forbidden love between unequal destinies. Verdict: severing of ties. Reincarnation repeated. Memories purified."
The woman's body trembled slightly.
The man took a step forward, then another—but the heavenly pressure hit him like a collapsing mountain. His knees slammed into the ground, bones cracking audibly.
But he laughed.
Slowly. Madly...
"Severing the bond?" He lifted his face, blood flowing from his forehead. "You call it fate. I call it cowardice."
The sky rumbled louder.
Golden lightning struck, hitting his body, burning his flesh and tearing his meridians. An ordinary cultivator would have been reduced to ashes. But the man was still alive.
Still staring upwards.
"I've followed him," he said softly but emphatically. "One life... two lives... who knows how many times. Each time, I lost everything. My cultivation, my status, even my own soul."
He turned to look at the woman.
"And every time, she forgets everything."
The woman finally lifted her head.
For a moment, their eyes met.
No recognition. No love. No memories.
Just two strangers connected by something even Heaven considered a mistake.
"I'm sorry..." the man muttered, more to himself. "I failed again."
The light of the formation grew more blinding. The woman's body slowly rose, her soul pulled out by the power of reincarnation.
The man roared.
With the last of his strength, he forced himself to stand and tore open the seal on his chest—the Seal of Eternal Life, something that should never have been released.
A dark aura erupted from his body.
The sky fell silent.
"If our love is a sin," he said, his voice shaking the space, "then I will be the greatest sinner in the history of Heaven."
He reached out his hand.
Not to save the woman.
But to mark his own soul.
Black light pierced the sky, carving an oath directly into the cycle of reincarnation.
In the next life, I will find her.
Even if she doesn't recognize me.
Even if Heaven must fall.
The formation collapsed.
The sky screamed.
And the world turned upside down.
The pain vanished.
Consciousness sank into endless, endless darkness.
When the man opened his eyes again, the smell of cheap medicine and rotten wood filled his nose.
The ceiling was cracked. The room was cramped. His body was weak.
He coughed, fresh blood flowing onto his palms.
"Life... next?"
Memories flowed rapidly.
But this time, it was different.
He could feel something inside his dantian—not cultivation power, but the mark of an indelible oath. This soul might be new, this body might be fragile, but his will remained the same.
He slowly rose from the wooden bed.
"In this life," he murmured coldly, "I will not wait for fate."