The Asura That Devours Heaven

A crimson moon hung over the Skyfall Sect, casting jagged shadows across the towering jade pavilions. Tonight was meant to be Bai Yunfei’s ascension—a moment ten years in the making.

He knelt at the heart of the Celestial Spirit Altar, his body trembling as waves of spiritual energy surged through him. Golden runes flickered beneath his fingertips as he guided the flow of energy toward his dantian. After years of relentless cultivation, he stood on the cusp of breaking through to the Heavenly Core Realm—a feat that would place him among the elite.

"One more breath… and I'll ascend."

Yunfei’s long black hair billowed behind him, his face pale but resolute. The air thickened as the final thread of energy coalesced into a glowing core within his dantian. His bones trembled beneath the pressure, his meridians stretched to their limits. And then—

Pain.

A searing agony tore through his chest. The golden light around him shattered as a cold, foreign energy pierced his meridians like poison. His cultivation base—the essence of everything he had worked for—collapsed in an instant.

A hand, wrinkled and heavy with authority, pressed against his back.

“Master…?” Yunfei’s voice cracked, disbelief etched across his face.

Standing behind him was Master Shen Jue, the man who had taken him in as a child, who had called him "disciple." But there was no warmth in his eyes—only cold ambition.

“I warned you, Yunfei,” Shen Jue said softly. “Your talent grew too quickly. A disciple like you... could threaten my position one day.”

Yunfei’s heart pounded. “I… I was loyal to you—”

“Loyalty?” Shen Jue sneered. “I raised you to be a weapon, nothing more. But you grew too strong, too willful. I cannot allow you to surpass me.”

With a flick of his fingers, Shen Jue unleashed a wave of Soul-Severing Qi, shattering the last fragments of Yunfei’s cultivation. Blood burst from his lips as his foundation crumbled. His once-glorious Heavenly Core dissolved into nothingness.

Yunfei collapsed onto the stone floor, his limbs numb, his spirit broken. His life’s work—gone.

Above, hidden figures stepped into view—elders of the Skyfall Sect, their faces shadowed beneath their ceremonial robes. They knew. This was no act of impulse. It was a conspiracy.

Master Shen Jue turned away. “Dispose of him.”

A hooded figure stepped forward, lifting Yunfei’s broken body with a hand like iron. Through the haze of pain, Yunfei recognized the cold voice of Senior Brother Mu, a man who had always eyed him with jealousy.

“No hard feelings, Junior Brother.” Mu’s grip tightened. “Blame yourself for being too gifted.”

Yunfei tried to fight. But with his meridians shattered, he was no better than a cripple.

As dawn broke over the horizon, Bai Yunfei was cast into the Abyssal Wasteland, where no cultivator had returned alive.

The winds howled like starving wolves. Yunfei’s broken form lay at the edge of a blackened chasm, his breath shallow. The Abyssal Wasteland stretched endlessly—a cursed realm where spirits and fiends roamed freely.

"Is this how it ends?" he thought bitterly. Was his dream to protect the weak and bring honor to his sect nothing but a foolish fantasy?

Yet, beneath the agony, rage stirred. Not a flicker—but a roaring flame.

"I will not die here."

A jagged pain tore through his chest, but this time it was not Shen Jue’s doing. Something ancient… and hungry stirred beneath him.

A voice, low and filled with malice, echoed in his mind.

“Mortal… do you wish to live?”

Yunfei’s breath caught in his throat. His rational mind screamed to resist, but the searing pain and hatred left no room for hesitation.

“I… will live,” he rasped. “And I will destroy those who betrayed me.”

The ground trembled. From the darkness, a crimson sigil burned beneath him, ancient and violent. He felt a surge of power unlike anything he had ever known—raw, untamed, and terrifying.

“Then become my vessel.”

Pain—pure, agonizing—ripped through every fiber of his being as the Asura’s power fused with his shattered meridians. The golden core he had lost was replaced by something far darker.

The light of the Skyfall Sect faded into memory.

And in the abyss, something far more dangerous was born.