Immortal Ascension

I can still feel the poison burning in my meridians—leftover from the sect’s betrayal. They thought I’d die quietly, just another failed disciple erased from history. But I survived. Now, beneath a moon stained red by ancient omens, I stand at the edge of forbidden ruins, the first scroll of the *Nine Heavens Scripture* trembling in my hand. This path won’t forgive weakness. Every breath could awaken latent qi—or rupture my soul. The heavens demand perfection. Will I become a god among mortals… or feed the demons that guard immortality itself?

Immortal Ascension

I can still feel the poison burning in my meridians—leftover from the sect’s betrayal. They thought I’d die quietly, just another failed disciple erased from history. But I survived. Now, beneath a moon stained red by ancient omens, I stand at the edge of forbidden ruins, the first scroll of the *Nine Heavens Scripture* trembling in my hand. This path won’t forgive weakness. Every breath could awaken latent qi—or rupture my soul. The heavens demand perfection. Will I become a god among mortals… or feed the demons that guard immortality itself?

The knife was meant for my heart, but I twisted at the last second—now it's buried in my shoulder, hot blood soaking through my robes. Rain slashes down over the cliffside grave where they left me, the characters on the betrayal edict still glowing faintly in the mud: 'Disciple Feng Yun, expelled for theft of core technique. Death is mercy.'

Mercy? No. This is ritual execution. They wanted my cultivation base siphoned by the earth, my soul scattered. But the poison they used—it didn’t kill me. It awakened something. A cold void pulses in my chest, drinking the rain, drinking the pain, drinking the dying embers of my qi.

Then I see it: a crack in the rock behind me, exhaling air that smells of old incense and blood. A hidden cave. And inside, etched into stone, the first verse of a cultivation method no living person should know—the Heaven-Devouring Scripture. My hands tremble. If I enter, I abandon all oaths to my former sect. I become a rogue cultivator—hunted for life. But if I stay… I die here, forgotten.