"You are mine now." The voice came from inside me, consuming and dangerous.
When the black tribulation lightning struck, I felt my body tear apart from within. My flesh split, my bones fractured, and even my vision faded into complete darkness and yet, I did not die.
My consciousness vanished into a vast, endless void without light or time. I lost the sense of my own body, unable to tell if I was standing, floating, or already dead.
Then I saw it...A throne made of bones. Endless bones fused into a grotesque structure of white and crimson, rising from the dark like the spine of an ancient beast. On it sat a figure cloaked in shadows, its form is unclear but real.
Its eyes opened and I could tell that they were not human. They were not demonic but ancient beings.
"You chose to devour," it said, its voice layered as if countless beings spoke at once. "You chose defiance."
I tried to speak, but my voice felt distant even to me. "Who… are you?"
The figure leaned forward slightly. The bones of the throne creaked under its motion. "I am the fragment you awakened," it replied. "The Devouring Sovereign."
The title sent a tremor through the void. Memories that were not mine flashed across my mind — battlefields buried under piles of corpses, rivers of Qi flowing backwards into a single figure, heavens torn apart by hands that refused to submit.
"You were sealed," I whispered.
"By the heavens," it answered calmly. "Because I have what it can't control."
A chill ran down my spine as it spoke. The black jade fragment did not just hold a cultivation technique, It had imprisoned a being. "Now what?" I asked.
Its gaze sharpened. "Now you have shattered my prison."
The void moved violently. Cracks spread across the darkness, revealing glimpses of reality; the ruined Lin Clan, the swirling tribulation clouds, the massive golden eye still glaring from above.
"You are too weak to host me fully," the Devouring Sovereign continued. "But you are compatible."
Compatible? The word was a relief to me but somehow, discomforting. "I don't want to be possessed," I said quietly.
The throne rose with low, rumbling laughter. "Possession you speak of?" it echoed. "Child, I have no interest in controlling you."
Its presence drew strangely closer in a restrained way. "I need to survive," it said. "You need power. Then, our desires match."
"What if I refuse?"
"Then the next bolt of tribulation will erase you, and I will remain buried under the ashes of your failure."
It was not a threat, that was simply the truth.
The void trembled again as reality intruded into my mind more violently. I felt my physical body convulsing under the remnants of the tribulation storm. My meridians were collapsing. Without the jade's containment, the Devouring Qi spiraled out of control inside me.
"You are breaking down," the Sovereign observed.
Pain returned in waves, sharp and unbearable. "What do you want from me?" I demanded.
The entity's voice softened, though its weight remained immense. "A contract."
The word felt very unsettling.
"You keep control of your will," it explained. " and I lend you my knowledge. My skills and my understanding of how to devour without destroying yourself."
"What will be the cost? There is always a cost." The throne moved, and suddenly I felt something tug at my chest.
"Each time you consume power beyond your realm, your emotions will dull."
My breath paused.
"Your sorrow. Your hesitation. Your mercy. They will all erode." It continued "Do you want to protect the weak? Do you want to avenge your sister?"
Images of Lin Yue flooded my mind as it spoke.
"If you walk this path," the Sovereign concluded, "you will eventually become what the heavens fear."
"And what is that?"
Its eyes glowed faintly. "You'll be unbounded."
The final tribulation bolt struck my body in the real world. Agony ripped through both realms at once. "I do not want to lose myself," I whispered.
The Sovereign's voice lowered. "Then cling to what remains."
***
I returned to my body with a scream caught in my throat. The courtyard exploded outward as black lightning collided with the Devouring Qi spiraling from my chest. The shattered jade fragment had dissolved into fine dust, circling me like a storm of dark particles.
The golden eye in the sky pulsed violently.
The black tribulation lightning had not destroyed me. It had only fused with me.
My meridians were no longer just twisted, they were completely rewritten.
While cultivators absorbed heaven and earth Qi through spiritual roots, I felt something different, an inward pull, as if my body itself were a vortex.
I sensed lingering spiritual energy from the dead clan members, from the shattered array, from the very soil under the courtyard, and I was absorbing it unconsciously.
Then the heavens responded immediately. The golden eye flared brighter. "Heavenly Decree: Anomaly confirmed."
The words echoed across the sky. The swirl of clouds began rotating faster, compressing into a massive seal formation directly above me. Runes formed in spiraling patterns.
It was not another lightning strike, It was containment. Heaven was trying to suppress me before I fully stabilized.
My knees buckled as invisible chains formed around my limbs, composed entirely of condensed heavenly law. For the first time since awakening the Devouring Path...I felt small.
The Sovereign's voice echoed faintly within me. "You are at the threshold of Initial Qi Refinement. Pathetic by mortal standards. Yet heaven acts like you threaten its foundation."
The chains tightened. Blood spilled from my mouth. "Why?" I gasped.
The Sovereign was silent for a long moment, then it answered. "Because you are not merely cultivating."
The golden eye in the sky suddenly widened.
The seal descended. If it were completed, my cultivation would be permanently crippled. My path would end before it even got a chance to begin.
The chains pulled me down, forcing my body toward the shattered stone, and I resisted kneeling. The command returned, heavier than before.
And for a moment, I considered it. If I kneel, maybe the seal would weaken, maybe heaven would relent. But then I remembered Lin Yue's final expression, she trusted in me. "I will not kneel."
The Devouring Qi moved violently in response to my will. The vortex within my meridians expanded and suddenly I felt something far beyond the ruins of my clan.
It was a presence descending rapidly from the eastern horizon. This time, a powerful human.
The seal above me paused. The golden eye flickered. Someone else had sensed this anomaly.
The presence drew closer, cutting through the air with a terrifying speed. He was a cultivator of immense strength.
The Sovereign's voice lowered to a murmur. "This changes everything."
The chains around my body began to tremble. The seal was seconds from completion. The approaching cultivator was seconds from arrival and I stood in the center of both.
The sky split open and a figure stepped through the clouds in white robes with a sword that radiated pure, righteous Qi. Their gaze locked onto me and the first word they spoke carried both shock and killing intent. "Heretic."