DEMON SOVEREIGN'S REIGN

The darkness swallowed Liu Shen whole.

It was not mere absence of light—it was sentient, oppressive, a void that whispered in languages forgotten even by time. Each step he took echoed not through space, but through memory—his own and others'.

Suddenly, light bled in. A silver corridor revealed itself, carved from blackstone etched with glowing blue veins. In the distance stood a gate with bone-white edges, guarded by statues that pulsed like living things.

> "Welcome to the Hollow Roads," a familiar voice echoed.

The Herald hovered ahead, arms crossed beneath its cloak. "Few mortals have walked here. None return the same."

> "I'm not mortal," Liu Shen replied calmly, his gaze sharp. "And I don't intend to return the same—I intend to return stronger."

---

Trial of Entropy

The Hollow Roads were not mere passageways; they were tribulations of the mind, body, and soul. As Liu Shen advanced, the path shifted—walls morphed into spirals, floors dissolved into illusions, and gravity reversed without warning.

At one juncture, a mirror surfaced from the floor.

> "A trial of the self," the Herald whispered.

In the mirror, Liu Shen saw not himself—but his old form: the Demon Sovereign clad in obsidian armor, blood dripping from his hands, empires kneeling before him. And behind him… stood Lei Qing and Yu Meixing, dead and broken.

> "This is your path," the mirror murmured. "Rule alone. Kill all. Serve none."

Liu Shen raised a hand—and shattered the illusion with a flick of his spiritual force.

> "That was the old me," he said coldly. "Now I break fate. Not people."

---

Beneath the Hollow Capital

After what felt like days, he arrived.

Before him loomed the Hollow Empire proper—a continent-sized fortress suspended in the void, built from the corpses of forgotten gods. Giant gears turned in the sky above, fueling arcane mechanisms that kept the Empire tethered to this plane.

The Herald led him to a sanctum sealed by nine black rings. Inside, floated a crypt sealed in voidglass, chained by soulsteel. Within it lay a figure cloaked in starlight.

> "The Heaven's Witness," the Herald said. "Untouched. Slumbering since the first betrayal."

Liu Shen's eyes narrowed. "What is the price?"

The Herald hesitated.

> "The Witness is protected by the Warden of Cycles. To awaken the witness, you must defeat it."

---

Warden of Cycles

The chamber rumbled.

From behind the voidglass emerged a monstrous figure—ten arms, a single eye that spanned its chest, and rings that spun around its body like planetary orbits.

> "You who disrupt fate," it bellowed. "Begone, or be unmade."

Liu Shen unsheathed his spiritual essence, the Demon Sovereign's Core burning black-gold within him.

> "I've been unmade once. Never again."

The Warden struck first. Temporal blades flew at him, each one laced with aging spells. Where they landed, stone turned to dust, metal to rust.

But Liu Shen was faster. Dodging with ghostlike grace, he surged forward, clashing against a spinning ring, shattering it with a palm strike.

> "I control my cycle!" he roared.

He invoked Heavenbreaker Flame, the demonic technique that consumed causality itself. Time stuttered around him, and with one upward strike, he severed the Warden's third and fourth arms.

The battle raged across space and dimensions—each clash ripping new cracks in the Hollow sanctum. Until finally, Liu Shen pierced the Warden's central eye with a strike that shattered its very name.

The Warden let out one last howl and disintegrated into stardust.

---

Witness Awakened

The chains snapped.

The crypt opened.

The Heaven's Witness stirred.

She looked like a woman made of galaxies—eyes filled with swirling constellations, her voice like distant thunder.

> "You… are not Heaven," she whispered.

> "No," Liu Shen said. "I'm what they fear."

> "Then I give you this truth—one they buried."

She touched his forehead, and suddenly—

Visions flooded his mind.

—The day of his betrayal from a new angle. Celestial envoys watching from afar. Not to punish Liu Shen, but to ensure he fell.

—Yu Meixing's original soul being marked by the Celestial Order as a threat even before birth.

—A prophecy sealed by the Heaven's Eye: A Demon Sovereign shall rise not once, but twice. The second time, the heavens fall.

Liu Shen stumbled back, breath heavy.

> "They knew…" he whispered. "They orchestrated it all."

The Witness nodded. "You were never the threat. Your existence was the counterforce to a system doomed to collapse. So they tried to erase you."

> "Then I will return the favor," Liu Shen growled.

---

Departure and Warning

The Herald watched as Liu Shen ascended from the sanctum, power thrumming violently in his veins.

> "You've seen enough," the Herald said. "Now, you must leave."

> "I will," Liu Shen said. "But know this—if the Hollow Empire dares to manipulate me again, I won't just resist. I'll consume it."

> "And if we stand against the Heavens?"

> "Then we are allies… until one of us isn't."

The Herald smiled. "Spoken like a sovereign."

A portal opened.

And with a step, Liu Shen vanished—returning to the mortal realm, burning with newfound truth, and fury.

---

Meanwhile…

In a hidden observatory at the Celestial Concord, a Seraph named Vanyel observed the flickering sigils across the celestial sphere.

> "The Demon Sovereign now holds the truth," he murmured.

Another Seraph frowned. "Should we act?"

Vanyel turned. "No. Let him gather the pieces. When he reaches the peak, only then will his fall matter."

And so the game deepened.

Liu Shen returned not just with power—but with purpose sharpened like a blade.

The Heavens would not survive his next ascension.