"The Forbidden Lands that crushed the three ancient clans, I presume," Zhi Xuan hissed, exhaling slowly after his explosive outburst. "But listen to me: I was raised as a mortal. You cannot thrust your destiny upon me. Blood is merely my origin; it is not my fate to walk as you do."

  "To walk as we do?" The eight-winged figure snorted, a sound like the grinding of continents on the ocean floor. "You view this majesty as a burden, while thousands of beings in the Nine Heavens prostrate themselves just for a drop of Ancient Heaven blood. You call yourself mortal, yet you stand here, staring at us, clutching the Nine Heavens Bead. No mortal could carry that weight without crumbling into dust in a single breath."

  The air around them suddenly froze. The golden light from the wings of the Ancient Heavens began to twist, forming giant formation nets that caged the space where Zhi Xuan stood.

  "Your blood is not merely an origin," the voice echoed again, this time carrying an undeniable tone of judgment. "Your blood is the resurrection of the ancient races since the Fall of the Nine Heavens. If you reject your destiny, you are not only betraying your race; you are allowing this universe to slowly collapse."

  Zhi Xuan smirked. He felt the chill of the Winter he had just absorbed surge, trying to repel the invasion of that holy light. "If this universe must rot because I want to live as myself, then let it rot. I owe you nothing."

  "And 'betrayal of the race'? Did I even know I was of the Ancient Heaven race before this?" Zhi Xuan hissed coldly, staring sharply as he tightened his hold on Mei Hua. "You speak as if I have committed a great sin. Look at what you've done to me! I do not believe in destiny; I only believe that the blood flowing in my body is a vessel, while my will is a force you cannot place on your chessboard."

  "A chessboard?" The eight-winged figure stepped forward, and instantly the space beneath its feet warped, creating ripples of light that extinguished the distant stars. "Zhi Xuan, you consider yourself a player, yet you do not realize that every breath you take is part of a move we have written since the age of creation."

  "Your will?" the majestic voice continued, accompanied by a flap of wings that sent waves of pure Yang pressure. "You think everything is the result of your own effort? You think your meeting with that Devil Fox was a coincidence? All your suffering, every drop of blood you shed, is the result of heavenly destiny."

  Zhi Xuan felt his anger reach a boiling point. His Dao Heart trembled violently—not from fear, but from rejection of this forced fate. "So, you wish to say that everything I've endured is your cheap destiny? Every slaughter, every death, the pain in every inch of my meridians... it's all destiny?"

  Zhi Xuan laughed, a sound like a breaking sword blade. "I don't believe it! I don't believe in destiny!"

  He stomped his foot, splitting the ground beneath him and causing cracks to snake in all directions. "Just because I accept this blood doesn't mean I will become like you! I have my own Path!"

  The shock from Zhi Xuan's stomp sent a shockwave that split the golden mist on the horizon. The Heavenly Samsara Wheel in his chest spun wildly, radiating a four-colored aura—Spring green, Summer red, Autumn yellow, and Winter silver-white. That energy exploded outward, forming a pillar of light that challenged the golden dominance of the Ancient Heavens.

  "Your own path?" The eight-winged figure spoke again, this time with a tone of cold pity. "An ant crawling across a painting will never understand the form of the work it traverses. You speak of a path, while you are still trapped within the Dao mirror we created to test you."

  Zhi Xuan was stunned for a moment, but the smirk on his lips grew sharper. "Dao mirror or Heavenly prison, it makes no difference to me. If you created this trial to make me surrender to destiny, then you have made a grave mistake."

  "If I am the last descendant of the Ancient Heavens," Zhi Xuan hissed with a sharp roar, waving one hand and catching his Celestial Sword. With a heavy thud, he lunged upward and roared, "Then you are but shadows of a fallen Ancient Heaven!"

  Zhi Xuan's roar rent the sky. A pitch-black sword aura, carrying the Slaughtering Intent of thousands of souls, erupted from the Celestial Sword, tearing the golden light formation that caged them. The sword no longer merely radiated darkness, but also the four-colored glow of the Four Seasons Laws he had just mastered, forming a strange yet lethal vortex of energy.

  The Ancient Heaven figures atop the silver clouds were slightly startled. Their nebula eyes spun faster, as if they couldn't believe their own descendant dared to raise an Immortal weapon refined by their race against them.

  "A Dao Heart so vast, so defiant of Heaven," the eight-winged figure's voice sounded like distant thunder, yet it carried a weight capable of toppling Heaven and Earth. "The hope of the Ancient Heaven race. The Heavenly Path, the Devil Path, and the Ancient Path—their resurrection will flow through this child."

  In the eyes of the eight-winged being, Zhi Xuan’s face—filled with fury, gritted teeth, and sharp roars as he lunged with the Celestial Sword to cleave the Ancient Heavens—was exactly the face they hoped for. Not a face beaming with inheritance, nor a face that simply accepted being a vessel.

  However, before Zhi Xuan could reach his target, dozens of other Ancient Heaven figures lunged forward. Their wings flapped in unison, creating a golden light storm that hammered Zhi Xuan from all directions. Each wing radiated a different law—constricting force, misleading illusions, soul-burning holy fire, and wind blades as sharp as a thousand swords.

  WHUMP! WHUMP! WHUMP!

  From the midst of the split sky, a giant golden finger appeared. Dozens of Ancient Heaven figures immediately locked Zhi Xuan in the center of the golden storm, giving him no chance to even react. The weight of that golden finger pressed down on him, rendering him helpless.

  "Do not fight it, Zhi Xuan," Ruo Xianxue's voice warned from within his Sea of Consciousness. "Enough. That finger, though a result of the Dao mirror, is a manifestation of your own blood. They are awakening the seed within you."

  Zhi Xuan roared, the veins in his neck and forehead bulging like ancient tree roots. The pressure of the golden finger wasn't just crushing his physical body; it felt as though it were forcibly squeezing his life essence back to its point of origin. He felt like a speck of dust trying to halt the collapse of a marble mountain.

  "Awakening... the seed?" Zhi Xuan hissed through gritted teeth. His vision began to redden—not just from rage, but because the blood vessels in his eyes were bursting under the irrational celestial pressure.

  The golden light radiating from the giant finger began to seep through his skin, infiltrating his meridians that had been dominated by the Kun Peng chill and Devil darkness. A fierce battle raged within his body; the holy Ancient Heaven aura was like a flood trying to wash away every foul stain within the vessel.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  "NO! I AM ME!" Zhi Xuan screamed, his voice mixing with the booming explosions of energy. He partially released his grip on Mei Hua, using one hand to hold the weight of the giant finger while the other continued to cradle the little girl as if she were the only reality he possessed.

  Suddenly, on Zhi Xuan's back, a giant silhouette appeared. Like himself, an illusion of two large lumps emerged from behind his shoulder blades. The silhouette's skin tore, and golden-silver blood spurted out. But instead of paralyzing pain, Zhi Xuan felt the silhouette behind him stretch out as if holding up the sky.

  Two massive wings, initially withered and drenched in blood, began to unfurl. These were no ordinary wings; they were woven from dark light with eclipse patterns pulsing in every feather. As they spread fully, the pressure from the golden finger abruptly ceased, as if staring at the silhouette that vanished in an instant.

  Half-Step Soul Transformation. The woven dark light was the soul of the Devil Seed residing within his body, forming a dharma painting that served as the Divine Soul for any Soul Transformation. It was the shock of a Soul Transformation about to form, only to be instantly pulled back by the Devil Seed that refused to be purified.

  A massive shock hit the Secret Realm that served as Zhi Xuan’s Dao mirror. The cracks in the sky were no longer mere wounds, but the destruction of spatial foundations unable to withstand the collision between Ancient Heaven authority and the wild rejection of the Devil Seed within Zhi Xuan’s body.

  The giant silhouette behind him, which had appeared and then vanished, radiated an ancient aura so dark that the golden light from the winged beings dimmed, as if swallowed by an inevitable eclipse.

  Zhi Xuan knelt on one knee upon the void, his breath ragged, carrying silver blood vapors that wetted his lips. The wings that had momentarily appeared as a soul projection were now absorbed back into his shoulder blades, leaving a burning sensation that seared to his marrow.

  "Hah... hah..." Zhi Xuan looked up, his sapphire-blue eyes flickering with golden starlight at the edges of his pupils—a mark of the Ancient Heaven blood before it vanished, forced into submission by a Devil's will hungry for freedom.

  The eight-winged figure in the center of the sky went silent for a long time. Its nebula eyes stared intently at the place where Zhi Xuan's dark wings had briefly spread. There was real shock—a ripple in a divine calm that had remained undisturbed for thousands of years.

  "Enough," another vibrating voice suddenly appeared, one radiating a will that could grasp the stars, moon, and sun.

  From behind Zhi Xuan’s kneeling form, the massive spiritual silhouette of Ruo Xianxue appeared, one hand raised to serve as Zhi Xuan’s footing. Ruo Xianxue’s dual Sun and Moon pupils glared darkly with full recognition at the Ancient Heaven figures above.

  "You are merely the blood of this child through a Dao mirror," Ruo Xianxue's voice sounded different, filled with a devilish aura that obliterated dozens of two-winged to four-winged figures, leaving only the six-winged and eight-winged ones. "I, Ruo Xianxue, reject the Heavenly Dao and stand with the Supreme Law of Darkness."

  "Even if the Ancient Heavens themselves came here," she flicked her other hand, closing the cracks in the Secret Realm with a single sweep of her darkness-filled tail. "They would not speak arrogantly of destiny before me."

  The atmosphere within the mirror dimension instantly shifted into a battlefield for two supreme authorities. The presence of Ruo Xianxue’s massive spiritual manifestation created a stark counter-pressure; if the Ancient Heavens were a burning light, then Ruo Xianxue was a swallowing darkness. Her giant fox tails danced behind Zhi Xuan, cleaving the golden clouds and replacing them with a chill from the depths of an ancient hell.

  The eight-winged figure leading the Ancient Heavens narrowed its nebula eyes. "Ruo Xianxue... the remnants of Devil majesty from the Fall of the Nine Heavens. You still dare to show your face after being sealed within the Nine Heavens Bead?"

  "Sealed?" Ruo Xianxue laughed, her voice shattering the celestial silence like breaking porcelain. "I have risen and I stand here, while your Ancient Heavens have left only a tiny seed: this youth!"

  Zhi Xuan, still kneeling in Ruo Xianxue’s spiritual palm, felt a strange resonance. The Devil Seed in his chest pulsed in sync with the Great Saint’s breath. He felt as though the weight of the golden finger had been completely diverted, but in its place, he felt the pull of a bottomless abyss.

  "The Dao mirror cannot even replicate the true majesty of the Ancient Heavens," Ruo Xianxue hissed coldly, her voice carrying a cosmic toll that shook the Ancient Heaven manifestations. "Do not think that the blood growing within this child is purely Ancient Heaven; you forget me as the guide who led him here."

  "Though I do not fully remember what happened to you back then," nine tails of darkness lunged forward, sweeping away all remaining Ancient Heavens, which immediately dissolved into golden dust. "Even the Heavenly Dao will bow beneath the ancient races. Perish; this old fox thanks you for the partial awakening of the Ancient Heaven blood within this boy."

  The explosion of darkness released by Ruo Xianxue wiped away the remnants of celestial grandeur. The sky, once filled with golden glows, collapsed, shattering into illusionary shards that fell like black snow.

  One by one, the eight-winged figures faded, their flawless faces cracking and evaporating into light particles immediately swallowed by the Great Saint’s dark tails.

  Zhi Xuan felt a powerful gravitational pull as Ruo Xianxue’s spiritual hand slowly vanished, returning him to a solid but trembling ground. This Secret Realm was screaming; the spatial foundation built upon Zhi Xuan’s soul mirror could no longer contain the clash of two entities beyond mortal logic.

  "Cough!" Zhi Xuan coughed, golden-silver blood seeping from the corner of his lips and dripping onto Mei Hua’s silk dress.

  He immediately wiped it with a trembling hand, ensuring the blood from his body did not stain the little girl’s purity. Mei Hua remained asleep, her innocent face untroubled by the storm of authority that had just occurred, as if Zhi Xuan’s embrace were a shield separating her from this minor apocalypse.

  "Get up, Zhi Xuan! You must leave this field immediately!" Ruo Xianxue hissed, having returned to her seat on the Demon Tree of Life. "Ten days have passed within this Ancient Heaven mirror. Now, you must find a more stable place!"

  Zhi Xuan forced his trembling limbs to stand. The heat from the forcibly awakened Ancient Heaven blood clashed with the cold of the Devil Seed, creating a storm within his meridians that threatened to explode his own body.

  He looked around; the once-stable vast field was now warping like a reflection in stirred water. Spatial rifts appeared everywhere, spewing a hollow void that swallowed the remaining golden light particles.

  "Ten days just to face those ancestral shadows?" Zhi Xuan murmured in a raspy voice, his throat feeling as though it were stuffed with gunpowder. "This Dao mirror truly gives no room to breathe."

  "Stop talking, boy! This realm is rejecting my presence after my interference!" Ruo Xianxue shouted within his consciousness, her voice carrying an urgency she rarely showed. "If you are swallowed by this spatial collapse, you will be thrown into a dimensional rift."

  Zhi Xuan nodded quickly. He waved his hand weakly, and the Seven Star Boat roared out of his storage bag. He jumped onto the bow without hesitation, touching the boat with his essence. Instantly, the starlight behind the vessel thickened, and the Seven Star Boat sped off to escape the collapsing field.

  "There—that will lead you to another side of this Secret Realm," Ruo Xianxue hissed, pointing to a gate rift appearing at the edge of a flat plain.

  The Seven Star Boat sped like silver lightning through the curtain of darkness, leaving behind the field now shattering into illusionary dust. Behind it, space and time seemed to fold, swallowing the remnants of the Ancient Heaven majesty that had just faded. Zhi Xuan stood tall at the bow, even as his joints creaked and his meridians felt as though molten lava were flowing through them.

  "Mei... hold on a little longer," Zhi Xuan whispered, channeling a sliver of soothing Winter energy around Mei Hua, protecting her from the violent dimensional tremors.

  The gate rift ahead radiated an alien gray glow, carrying neither golden majesty nor devilish darkness. It was the door to a region yet untouched by his soul mirror. With a single surge of will, Zhi Xuan forced the Seven Star Boat to plunge into the rift.

  A violent jolt hit the entire frame of the Seven Star Boat as its prow pierced the gray veil. Zhi Xuan’s vision momentarily turned white, his senses seemingly pulled from his body, leaving a sickening emptiness in his chest.

  Yet, his grip on Mei Hua only tightened, as if the little girl’s existence were the only anchor preventing his soul from drifting away in the chaotic dimensional current.

  "I will withdraw from your Sea of Consciousness for a while," Ruo Xianxue’s voice faded along with the sense of her presence. "Otherwise, this Secret Realm will be destroyed by my trace and that earlier interference."