The crater of broken mirrors shimmered beneath Li Yi's feet, each fragment reflecting distorted pieces of the sky above. It felt as though he stood at the center of countless worlds, each one holding a different fate. Around him, the others formed a loose circle, weapons drawn, spiritual senses sharpened.
The man before them radiated authority. His third eye remained half-closed, yet power flowed from it like a waterfall from the heavens.
"I am Xuanyan, Celestial Guardian of the Brand," the figure announced, voice resonating across the mirror-field. "You tread upon the ashes of the Starfall Temple—where ambition met divine punishment."
Li Yi stood tall. "I seek the Celestial Brand to unlock the path forward, not to plunder relics of the past."
"Many said the same," Xuanyan replied coldly. "Do you believe your Chaos Bloodline makes you worthy?"
Li Yi's eyes narrowed.
"Then prove it."
Xuanyan raised his hand, and the violet flame suspended in the air pulsed violently. A massive ripple surged outward, and instantly, the fragments beneath them levitated—swirling to form a platform of mirrored glass. The world distorted. The sky cracked like porcelain, and a battlefield materialized: starlit plains filled with echoing screams and phantom soldiers locked in eternal combat.
"Welcome to the Trial of the Brand," Xuanyan declared. "Only by enduring this illusion and emerging whole will you earn the right to touch the Celestial Flame."
A second later, the world shifted entirely.
Li Yi found himself alone.
Gone were his companions, the Guardian, and the crater. He stood at the base of a broken city that floated in the sky—pillars of cloud-borne marble held together by silver chains. Blood painted its walls. Screams echoed above, and divine weapons were scattered across the shattered streets.
He didn't need to be told where he was.
This was the last memory of the Starfall Temple—its destruction.
Flashes came rapidly.
Celestial cultivators defending a spiraling tower at the city's center. Armored demons, massive and grotesque, tearing through barriers. In the distance, a portal churned, leaking abyssal darkness into the sky like a broken dam.
The Abyssal Demons' first incursion into the Upper Realm.
A war that had started the chain of events which led to the sealing of the God Realm.
A war that cost countless supreme beings their lives.
Li Yi clenched his fists.
Then the vision pulled him deeper.
A demon with seven horns lunged toward a crying girl—barely twelve—cowering behind a collapsed statue. Li Yi instinctively surged forward, the Chaos Qi within him bursting from his dantian.
He struck the demon's face with a single palm.
Boom!
The phantom exploded into fragments, yet more surged from the shadows.
Hundreds. Thousands.
Li Yi understood the trial now. It was not just a test of strength—but will.
Of heart.
The illusion wasn't meant to be beaten by sheer power, but by enduring everything the past had buried—facing it head-on, without losing oneself.
He fought for what felt like hours. Perhaps days.
The visions blurred together: A young couple holding hands as they leapt into a void to avoid corruption. A man holding a celestial seal, screaming as his body cracked from the inside. A divine beast torn apart by chains formed of black flame.
It was the cost of resistance.
The price of reaching for the stars.
Suddenly, he found himself atop the central tower, the same girl from before—now a young woman—standing at the edge, holding the Celestial Brand.
"Will you take it?" she asked, her voice tired. "Will you carry the pain with it?"
Li Yi looked around him. The city was gone. All that remained was her and the flame.
"I will," he said.
The brand flared.
And the trial collapsed.
—
He awoke with a gasp, kneeling in the center of the crater. The others were beside him, also stirring from their own trials—faces pale, eyes wide.
"You succeeded," Xuanyan's voice echoed.
The Guardian now floated above the violet flame, his third eye fully open. "Few have survived the Celestial Trial without losing themselves."
He extended his hand, and the violet flame floated into Li Yi's palm.
The moment Li Yi touched it, a torrent of celestial information flooded into him.
Memories of the fallen. Coordinates to the sealed realms. Rituals for restoring the Ascension Bridges. The name of a weapon that could kill an Abyssal Sovereign.
More importantly… a name.
Li Shentian.
His grandfather.
Not from the Upper Realm—but from the God Realm.
A supreme cultivator who had fought in the final defense of the Path of Return.
Li Yi's eyes widened. He now understood why his Chaos Bloodline burned brighter with every passing day.
He wasn't just a remnant of a broken lineage.
He was born to reignite it.
When the others rose, they looked toward him. Their respect had turned to something else now—belief.
"You saw it too?" he asked them quietly.
Mo Ruyan nodded. "That city… that pain… It wasn't just an illusion. It was a memory."
Lan Qing'er stepped forward. "What do we do now?"
Li Yi turned toward the stars. They no longer looked cold.
"We find the remaining fragments," he said. "We restore the bridge to the God Realm."
Xue Lian folded her arms. "And what then?"
Li Yi's voice was soft. "Then we go home."
—
That night, under a clear sky, the group left the crater and made their way west. The celestial map etched into the flame guided them now—toward ruins, inheritances, and keys to truths long buried.
But far above, in a realm hidden from mortal eyes, a ripple formed in the void.
On the Abyssal Battlefield beyond the edge of the God Realm, a colossal demon with eight wings paused in its slaughter, sniffing the air.
"Something moves…" it growled.
From the dark mists, another creature slithered forth, eyes gleaming with abyssal intelligence.
"The Chaos Child awakens."
—
End of Chapter 23