The heavens cracked.
Jin Seong stood rooted in place as the Grand Patriarch's shadow fell across the Lotus Pavilion like an eclipse. His mere presence silenced the wind, the trees, and even the Qi itself — as if all of existence paused to obey.
Hovering in the sky was an elder whose presence dwarfed all others. Clad in nine layers of embroidered robes, his eyes were stars buried in stormclouds, and his aura was not cultivation — it was law.
Elder Baek groaned, blood oozing from his lips. "P-Patriarch… he's corrupted. Tainted."
Jin Seong said nothing.
He didn't plead. He didn't bow. He merely met the ancient man's gaze with fire that refused to die.
"You draw your blade against your sect?" the Grand Patriarch asked. His voice was calm, almost gentle — yet it pressed against the soul like a mountain of iron.
"I draw my blade against betrayal," Jin Seong replied. "I am not the traitor."
A faint ripple passed through the sky, and suddenly… time halted.
Disciples mid-breath froze. Birds mid-flight paused in the air.
Only two remained in motion: Jin Seong and the Grand Patriarch.
"Interesting," the old man mused. "You are tethered to something outside this timeline. A forbidden resonance. You shouldn't even be conscious in this moment."
"I walk a path you chose to bury."
The Patriarch's eyes narrowed. "You've touched the Vein of Fate. The Heaven-Slaying Path."
Silence followed.
Then came laughter. Quiet at first… then sharp.
"You speak as if it were yours to claim."
The Grand Patriarch raised a single finger.
The sky screamed.
A beam of pure judgment descended — not Qi, not spirit, but Heavenly Law itself. It was the kind of attack that turned mountains to ash and legends to dust.
But Jin Seong didn't flinch.
Instead, he stepped through it.
Not around. Not under.
Through.
The moment the heavenly strike touched him, Jin Seong vanished — reappearing at the Patriarch's side, sword drawn, eyes gleaming with forbidden clarity.
"I see it now," he whispered. "Heaven isn't watching us. It's afraid."
The Patriarch's expression darkened. "You dare say such things?"
Jin Seong lowered his sword.
"No. I prove them."
With that, he turned his back and began to walk away.
A heartbeat passed.
The Grand Patriarch did not stop him.
The world resumed.
Time surged forward — disciples gasped for breath, birds flapped wildly, and Elder Baek collapsed fully to the ground.
But Jin Seong was already gone.
The Pavilion would never forget what it witnessed:
A defier of fate…
Spared by the heavens.