DEMON SOVEREIGN'S REIGN

The sky over the Hollow Empire was no longer serene. Clouds twisted unnaturally, dimming the sun, as though the heavens themselves recoiled from what had been awakened. News of the imperial altar's collapse spread like wildfire, but the true cause remained buried beneath layers of fear and myth. No one dared to speak the word: Abyss.

Inside the secluded underground sanctuary, Liu Shen sat cross-legged beneath a seal-inscribed lantern, refining the void qi still lingering in his body. It was potent, chaotic—but not foreign. Rather, it felt like a part of him long denied. A memory stirring in his blood.

Yu Meixing stood nearby, watching over him while Zhao Ying conferred with Lei Qing. The Empress—now stripped of titles, though not of power—had shed her imperial robes for a black battle-gown. Her expression was calm, her eyes ever calculating.

"The Abyss called you gatekeeper," Lei Qing said, leaning against a stone pillar. "Did it mean that literally?"

Zhao Ying answered before Liu Shen could. "In the era before the celestial dominance, there were sects... old ones. Powerful beyond comprehension. One of them guarded the boundary between realms. I thought it was myth. Until I saw him unlock that gate."

Liu Shen opened his eyes. "It wasn't a myth. The sect existed. It was called the Cradle of Dusk."

Meixing turned to him. "I've never heard of it. Not even in the forbidden records."

"That's because the heavens erased it," Liu Shen replied. "They wiped out the sect that guarded the Abyss and sealed its remnants within me when they executed the pact. I was their scapegoat. They claimed I sought to break the world, when all I did was resist their fear."

Zhao Ying sat quietly, her fingers tracing the hilt of her blade. "Then the Celestial Pact wasn't just about destroying you... it was about erasing the Cradle of Dusk itself."

Liu Shen nodded. "And now that the Abyss has stirred, they'll act again. The envoys will come. First in whispers, then in fire."

Meixing frowned. "We need to find the remnants of this sect. If they truly guarded the gate, perhaps something remains. A relic. A record."

"There is one," Liu Shen said. "A sanctuary hidden in the southern ruins of the Shattered Steppes. But it won't be easy to reach. It's within a zone devoured by time, where even memory frays."

"A Forbidden Zone," Lei Qing said. "Just like the Blackglass Ravine."

"Worse," Liu Shen said. "This one... it feeds on cultivation."

Meixing stepped forward. "Then we go together."

Zhao Ying rose to her feet as well. "You'll need someone who knows the Hollow's borders. I'll come. Besides... if I stay here, they'll make me the scapegoat."

Liu Shen met her gaze. "You understand the cost?"

"I betrayed you once," she said. "I won't do it again."

A silent agreement passed between them, and just then, a pulse of energy resonated through the earth—faint, but unnatural. Meixing's face paled.

"That wasn't from the Abyss," she said. "That came from the sky."

Outside, a fissure opened in the clouds—brief, golden, and searing. An eye—not unlike the one in the Abyss—gazed down, wreathed in celestial flames.

A Heavenly Witness.

Liu Shen's voice turned cold. "They've begun watching. The gods are stirring."

Zhao Ying turned away. "Then we leave at first light. If the Cradle of Dusk left behind anything, we must find it before they do."

As the others scattered to prepare, Liu Shen stood alone beneath the ancient sky. The path ahead was clear: they would travel into lands lost to history, chased by envoys and secrets. But this time, he wasn't running from fate.

He was chasing it.

And when he found the truth of the Cradle of Dusk, he would burn the false heavens with it.