Mu Chen waved his hand toward the broken figure of Shen Xi.
Shen Xi's injuries vanished.
The blood staining her robes faded as if it had never existed. The exhaustion in her eyes disappeared, replaced by clarity and strength. Her depleted spiritual energy surged back to its peak, flowing smoothly through her meridians. Even the dim, flickering flame of her soul, which had nearly collapsed under the strain of battle, reignited—steady, whole, and untouchable.
It was as though the concept of damage had been quietly removed from her existence.
Seeing Shen Xi fully recovered, Nibi let out a series of high-pitched, delighted chirps. The colossal golden beast, which had just decimated an army of geniuses, shimmered and shrank, returning to her form as a small, fluffy, and perpetually lazy cat.
She leaped into Shen Xi's arms with a speed that belied her cuddly appearance, immediately pressing her soft paws against Shen Xi's cheeks. She stared intently into the woman's eyes, her whiskers twitching as if verifying something only she could sense.
"I am fine, Nibi," Shen Xi said, her voice soft and carrying a hint of a smile. She gently stroked the cat's golden fur, feeling the lingering tension in the creature's small body.
As the two of them turned their gazes toward Mu Chen, the air in the valley grew unnaturally still. Mu Chen did not look at them. Instead, he raised his hand and snapped his fingers. The sound was sharp, a solitary crack that echoed through the silence like the breaking of a world.
In the center of the cratered battlefield, eleven figures flickered into existence. Ling Xi, Ye Ming, and their nine allies appeared as if they had never been harmed. Their bodies were whole, their robes pristine, and their life auras were perfectly intact. However, their eyes told a different story.
They stood there, trembling, their faces ashen with the absolute horror of their memories. They remembered the teeth of the beast, the crushing paws, and the sensation of their lives being snuffed out—yet here they were, standing once again on the soil where they had just perished.
"What is happening?" one of the nine cultivators stammered, his voice breaking as he clutched his own chest, feeling for the wound he knew should be there.
"Didn't we all die? How... how are we alive again?" another gasped, his mind fracturing under the weight of the impossibility.
The nine disciples looked up and saw Nibi nestled in Shen Xi's arms. Despite her small, fluffy appearance, the memory of her colossal, sun-like form was etched into their souls. A deep, primordial fear, rooted in the very core of their existence, rose like a tidal wave. Their knees buckled, their strength deserting them instantly.
They fell onto their rears, their aristocratic pride replaced by a frantic, animalistic desperation. They didn't understand the mechanics of their resurrection, but they knew they had to flee. Scrambling backward like insects, they turned and began to run in pure, unadulterated terror.
"You—" Ling Xi hissed, his gaze landing on Mu Chen.
This time, there was no arrogance in his tone, no conceit in his posture. Having experienced the cold finality of death once, he had finally learned the bitter truth: his pride was a useless, in the face of death.
Ye Ming was in no better state. As soon as the initial shock of his revival passed, he reached the same conclusion. Without a word, he gathered his remaining strength and attempted to vanish into the distance, his shadow flickering across the scorched earth.
Just as they believed they might actually escape, as the distance between them and the valley grew and the hope of safety began to take root, a sound reached them. It was a low, calm voice that resonated directly inside their skulls, cold as a devil's whisper.
"Did I ask you to leave?" Mu Chen asked.
The response was instantaneous and horrific. All eleven of them exploded. It did not matter that some had already fled for miles, or that some were still crawling on the ground, or that Ling Xi and Ye Ming had just begun their retreat.
One moment they were whole; the next, they were nothing but bursts of crimson mist. Blood stained the sky, falling like a gruesome rain over the battlefield.
Then, a moment later, they were alive again. They stood in the same spots, facing Mu Chen, their bodies perfect but their memories now burdened with two separate deaths. They tried to run again, their minds screaming, only to explode and be resurrected in an endless, sickening loop.
"Bastard... why? Why!" one of them shrieked, tears of blood streaming down his face. Before the question could fully form, his head vanished in a burst of gore.
"Give us death! Just let us die!" another wailed, his voice a ragged plea. His body began to melt, turning into a puddle of organic slag before reality reset and brought him back.
Others tried to swallow their curses, their eyes wide with unspoken hatred, only to be bisected by invisible blades.
They recovered, were killed, and were recovered again. The cycle was relentless. Memories remained perfectly intact, piling up like the layers of a nightmare.
The battlefield was quickly filled with a literal river of blood; limbs began to pile up into small mountains as the physical remains of the reset lives failed to disappear. Yet, no matter how many times Mu Chen slaughtered them, no flicker of satisfaction appeared on his face.
He melted them alive and let them rebuild. He burned them to nothing and let the nothing become them again. He ground their bones to powder while the part of them that felt remained awake. The prayers came first. Then the bargaining. Then silence.
Their voice disappeared. Their will broke. Slowly, their resistance faded into a hollow, broken acceptance.
The sheer scale of the carnage began to seep into the hearts of Nibi and Shen Xi. He was killing them thousands of times over, a relentless tide of wrath that seemed to have no end.
For the first time, a quiet, unspoken thought surfaced between them—this was no longer the Mu Chen who simply ignored the world. This was something else… something that did not stop, did not hesitate, and did not need a reason.
In a state of hesitation and a burgeoning sense of fear, Shen Xi and Nibi approached him. Shen Xi reached out, her hand trembling slightly as she took his in hers. Nibi meowed softly, a sound filled with a rare uncertainty and placed a tiny paw against Mu Chen's cheek.
Mu Chen turned his head. He looked at them, and for the first time, he saw the flicker of fear in their eyes. Nibi, who usually treated him with the indifference of a queen toward a piece of furniture, was hesitating to even touch him.
Mu Chen closed his eyes once. He turned his gaze back toward the eleven enemies who had just been revived for the thousandth time. He snapped his fingers again.
Suddenly, the physical bodies of the eleven vanished for the final time. In their place, their souls were ignited with a pale, devouring flame. Within this fire, they would forever remember every death, every sensation of melting and shattering, and feel that cumulative agony for all of eternity.
"There will be no reincarnation for you," Mu Chen declared, his voice echoing with the weight of a final decree. "The three realms cannot contain you. Your souls will be whipped by lightning. If anything dares to oppose this—there will be no need for it to exist."
As the declaration left his lips, the very foundations of heaven and earth began to rumble. The Three Thousand Dao, the fundamental laws of the universe, shivered in recognition of a power that sat above them.
A dark, swirling void appeared in the center of the valley, acting as a hungry maw that sucked in the eleven screaming souls, dragging them toward a punishment that would never see an end.
The sky above the battlefield darkened—not with clouds, but with a sudden, suffocating intention. The Heavenly Dao, the silent witness to eons of cosmic cycles, finally stirred.
It did not move out of mercy for the condemned souls, but out of an ancient, prideful affront. A being wearing a mortal shape had dared to declare an eternal punishment without its sanction.
Thunder did not merely rumble; it screamed. It was a sound before sound, the collective voice of the Three Thousand Laws recoiling from an insult. The void above the valley split open, revealing a blinding, golden authority that descended to erase the anomaly that dared to rewrite its narrative.
Mu Chen looked up at the descending judgment. His expression did not change. He raised one finger toward the sky—not in a gesture of defense, but as if he were a teacher instructing a wayward pupil.
The golden judgment stopped. It hung frozen in mid-air, a massive blade of celestial light paused mid-fall by a single thought. Then, with the same effortless casualness one might use to brush dust from a sleeve, Mu Chen flicked that finger downward.
A shrill, agonizing sound resounded through the entire cosmos. The cry resonated in the marrow of every living being across the Three Realms. Ghosts in the underworld heard it; the Buddhas in their distant lands heard it; gods and immortals in their high realms heard it.
Every myriad race in the creation felt the vibration of an injured sky. High above, the very heavens began to bleed, crimson streaks appearing across the clouds.
"Learn your place." Mu Chen spoke three words to the empty air, his voice echoing with a quiet, terrifying dominance.
The bleeding of the sky stopped instantly. The dark intention cleared, and the sun returned to the valley. But within the fundamental weave of the Three Thousand Realms, those who possessed the sight to see such things would forever find a scar—a silvery thread of absence where the Heavenly Dao had been reminded that there were declarations that outranked even its own.
…
Mu Chen turned back to Shen Xi. She was still holding his hand, her grip tightening as she stared at him, searching for the man she knew behind the god-like wrath.
He offered her a small, calm smile.
"I am good," he said softly. "Don't worry."
He then looked at Nibi. The golden cat instinctively tried to move back a half-inch, her body tensed. Mu Chen reached out, stroking her fur and scratching behind her ear with practiced ease.
"Did I scare you?" he asked.
Nibi purred, the sound vibrating against his hand, but she immediately let out a sharp meow of disagreement. She flicked her tail as if to say: Humph, how could someone like you scare the almighty Nibi?
However, despite her prideful protest, her small frame remained slightly tensed for a moment longer.
Mu Chen took her into his arms, and this time, she did not resist. He looked at her and whispered, "Okay. No next time. Good?"
Nibi looked into his eyes and let out a soft, confirming meow.
At that precise moment, a shimmer of light appeared in the sky. The Sacred Tablet of the ancient ruins materialized its dark surface glowing with an ancient, condensed radiance. New characters began to etch themselves into the stone.
Mu Chen and Shen Xi looked up together.
"Mu Chen, Northern Domain."
"Record: Engaged Ling Xi of the Northern Domain, Ye Ming, and nine geniuses of the Western Domain. Result: Victory!"
The ancient tablet seemed to vibrate as the characters appeared, a subtle tremor that felt almost like fear. Having watched the carnage and witnessed even a tiny fraction of Mu Chen's true power, the sentient artifact was doing its best to fulfil its duty without drawing his attention.
"Let us go," Mu Chen said.
Shen Xi nodded, and a soft, white cloud materialized beneath their feet. Just as they were about to depart the valley of blood and dust, a voice reached them from the distance.
"Looks like I arrived late. The hero already has a beauty by his side."
The clear, soft voice revealed a girl dressed in black robes who landed nearby, watching them with a playful smile. It was Yun Er.
When she had first seen the signal that Shen Xi was under attack, she had rushed toward the area, but the ruins were vast. It was only when Nibi's colossal figure had eclipsed the sun that she realized she had been moving in the wrong direction.
Yun Er stepped toward Shen Xi, her eyes scanning her for wounds. "Are you okay? If you are hurt, I have some knowledge of medics. I can help."
Shen Xi looked at the girl, her gaze narrowing into a glare. She could sense the subtle provocation in the "little vixen's" tone.
"Well, thank you," Shen Xi replied, her voice cooling considerably. "But I am perfectly fit and fine."
Yun Er nodded, her smile never fading as she hopped onto the cloud beside them. The group rose into the air, leaving the scarred valley behind as they soared into the sky.