Chapter 53: Heavenly qi

Life was unfair, and the heavens even more so. They always tried to shoot down anyone who dared to rise too high, as though they despised those who challenged their fate. Gu Tian had learned this bitter truth long ago, back in his childhood, when his cultivation had been destroyed—not by an enemy, but by his own cousin.

His cousin, the young master of the main branch of the Gu family, had been his equal once. Gu Tian, a rising star from one of the lower branches, had shone brightly, his talents praised by all and had rivalled him. But in one fateful moment, it was all taken away. Crippled and humiliated, he was cast aside like broken pottery, no longer useful or admired.

Instead, he was bullied. The clan sneered at him, his peers mocked him, and even his fiancée publicly broke off their engagement, leaving him in disgrace.

That was his life—broken, unfair, laughable. Until he found the ring.

The old, worn ring he had stumbled upon by chance held his salvation. Inside it dwelled the spirit of a legendary alchemist and demonic cultivator. The master within the ring had shown him that the heavens could be defied, that there were ways to claw back what fate had stolen. Gu Tian, who was mentally exhausted from everything that was going on with him, didn’t hesitate to abandon what was called the ‘righteous path’.

And like he’d expected, things changed for him—for good.

His master healed him, painstakingly rebuilding his shattered cultivation. In return, Gu Tian offered his loyalty, embracing the darkness that had given him a second chance. His revenge was swift and brutal. The cousin who had destroyed him fell to his blade, and with bloodied hands, Gu Tian severed his ties to the Gu family forever, banished but finally free. That was all that mattered, didn’t it?

He soon started wandering the vast lands of the Kalian Empire, and with every challenge that was thrown his way, he grew. Each victory reinforced his belief that he could rise above the heavens themselves, just like his master had told him.

When he joined a demonic sect hell bent on breaking apart the heavens to reach newfound realms, his master approved. Slowly, he had proven his worth in the sect until he had been looked upon as someone promising and had been tasked with finding the medallion that would unlock the Gate of Immortals.

His master had already intended to look for it, so the decision was made quickly.

That quest led him to Cloud Mist City, a place brimming with danger and opportunity. Though obstacles arose, he overcame them, his confidence growing with every success.

Defeating Li Xuan, a prodigy of the Soaring Sword Sect, had been his crowning achievement so far. In that moment, standing over his fallen opponent, he had felt invincible.

The medallion also had been within his grasp with his next opponent Chen Ren being in possession of it. The heavens trembled before him, and Gu Tian was certain of one thing: he would seize immortality and make the heavens kneel.

But just as he was one step away from claiming the medallion after supposedly killing Chen Ren, everything fell apart. Gu Tian had lost—lost to tricks and deceit, to the careful concealment of power that Chen Ren had used and a lapse of judgment.

And as the official declared Chen Ren the victor, something inside Gu Tian snapped.

He remembered the humiliation of his youth, the day his cousin had shattered his cultivation. Back then, it hadn’t been a head-on fight but a web of schemes and traps. And now, here he was again, standing on the edge of greatness, only to be dragged down by trickery. After becoming a demonic cultivator, Gu Tian had never truly lost. Yes, there were times when he had to flee, but he always called it a strategic retreat, never a defeat.

But now, with Chen Ren basking in the crowd’s cheers, something dark and primal clawed its way to the surface. Gu Tian clenched his fists, his voice low and venomous. “I haven’t lost yet,” he whispered, just loud enough for Chen Ren to hear.

Inside his mind, his master’s voice echoed urgently. By now he knew that his master had a good idea of his personality and quirks; how far his anger could go, and what he could do when he would snap.

“Gu Tian, calm yourself. This is not the time. There are too many cultivators here. Revealing yourself now will be disastrous. Do you hear me? Don’t do anything.”

Gu Tian’s face twisted with fury, his eyes locked onto Chen Ren’s triumphant figure. “I won’t get another chance!” he hissed, saying the words out loud. “You said it yourself—there’s a strong presence around him. If I wait, I’ll never be able to reach him. I’ll kill him now and make him suffer for this disgrace. Then we’ll run.” ȑ𝘼ＮỘ฿Εȿ

“Gu Tian, no!”

his master’s voice rang in his mind, loud and clear.

“This is reckless—”

But his words fell on deaf ears. Gu Tian unleashed the demonic qi sealed within him, the dark energy radiating outward in waves, big and harmful. His eyes darkened, their colour shifting to crimson.

“I’ve hidden for long enough,” Gu Tian growled. He raised a trembling hand. The air around him grew heavy as he whispered, “Chains of Confinement.”

Dark chains burst from his body, writhing like living tendrils, their sharp edges gleaming in the air. The crowd gasped in shock, their cheers turning to cries of alarm.

A loud laughter escaped Gu Tian’s lips when he saw Chen Ren. The man, caught off guard, could only watch as the chains shot toward him. He tried to call upon his lightning qi, his body crackling with energy, but the chains moved faster. They wrapped around his arms and legs, pulling him down to the ground and pinning him in place.

Gu Tian rose to his feet, his eyes cold and unrelenting. He tilted his head mockingly and grinned.

He walked towards Chen Ren, and with every step, the air grew thicker with his demonic qi, suffocating those nearby. The crowd scrambled back in panic, some shouting in terror, others frozen in fear.

The official who had just declared the match hurriedly fled the arena, abandoning any pretence of maintaining order.

The cultivators in the audience began to stir, their weapons drawn, but Gu Tian didn’t stop. He glared at Chen Ren, his voice low and menacing. “Who the fuck do you think you’re? You thought you could humiliate me? Just like that? You’ll pay for this with your life.”

The stage trembled under the preparations of his unleashed power as he was about to strike, uncaring of the consequences that would follow.

As the demonic qi swirled, a dark silhouette emerged above Gu Tian, growing larger and more defined. His master’s ghostly form materialized—a tall, lean figure with hollow, glowing eyes that radiated a red glow.

The ghostly figure raised a hand and a barrier of shimmering black energy formed around the entire stage. The barrier pulsated with malevolent energy, exuding an impenetrable aura.

Gu Tian laughed again, knowing that his master was strong enough to hold back any cultivator in the arena.

“Nowhere to escape,” he said with a smirk.

From the corner of his eyes, he saw a daring cultivator leapt forward, summoning a blazing spear of fire imbued with spiritual qi, and hurled it toward the barrier. The spear crashed into the dark shield, the collision sending shockwaves through the air, but the barrier held firm. The flames were swallowed whole, leaving no trace of their existence.

His master’s deep, otherworldly voice boomed, echoing across the arena. “I can hold this for five minutes, no more. Do what you must, quickly.”

Gu Tian sneered, his gaze locked onto Chen Ren. “I won’t need more than a minute,” he said coldly, striding toward his immobilized foe.

Chen Ren glared up at him, his body still bound by the dark chains. Gu Tian saw the fear and anxiety in his eyes, but there was something else—something that made his blood boil. It was resilience—defiance that refused to die, even in the face of certain death.

Gu Tian leaned closer, his voice dripping with malice. “Your tricks won’t save you now. The medallion will be mine, and you’ll die here, humiliated, with the whole city watching your execution.”

Chen Ren struggled against the chains, his lightning qi flickering weakly around him. “Get me out of these,” he spat. “If you want a fight, I’ll give you one.”

Gu Tian laughed, the sound echoing like a death knell. “A fight?” he repeated mockingly. “No, that’s the way of the righteous—a path I abandoned long ago. For me, a kill is a kill. It doesn’t matter how it’s done.” He straightened, gripping his sword tightly. “You should close your eyes. That way, you won’t have to see your own body cut in half.”

With those words, Gu Tian raised his sword and plunged it into Chen Ren’s stomach. Blood splattered across the ground as Chen Ren screamed in pain, his body writhing against the chains.

Gu Tian smirked, savouring the moment. Pulling the sword free, he turned his attention to Chen Ren’s belongings. Kneeling, he rummaged through the pouch tied to his waist and withdrew the medallion. It glimmered faintly in his hands.

His master’s voice resonated beside him. “Finally. The medallion. The way to the Gate of Immortals.”

Gu Tian studied the medallion, his brow furrowing. “You’re sure this is the right one? Doesn’t look remarkable.”

“It is,” his master said confidently. “I don’t lie about these things. It matches the descriptions in the old legends. Now, finish him. I’ll propel you into the sky to escape.”

Gu Tian scoffed as his master’s words echoed in his ears. “What do you mean he’s already dead?” he muttered. Turning back to Chen Ren, his eyes narrowed.

Chen Ren lay in a pool of his own blood, the sword still embedded in his stomach, but he was still alive. His chest rose and fell, shallow breaths escaping his lips.

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As Gu Tian moved to use his sword to slice his neck off to give him a final rest, something gave him pause. The defiance, the fear, the resilience he had seen earlier—all of it was gone from his eyes. What remained in Chen Ren’s gaze wasn’t the emptiness of death but something entirely different.

Hollow.

No. Not hollow.

It was something completely different. Inside the empty gaze, something seemed to simmer.

It was as if the man before him had become a vessel—an empty shell brimming with something incomprehensible.

Before he could process the thought further, Chen Ren’s body convulsed, and his pupils began to change. The dark irises shimmered, a light spreading outward. In moments, they turned gold.

Gu Tian felt his demonic qi recoil as if struck, the pressure around him shifting violently. The air grew dense and suffocating, as an unfamiliar and overwhelming presence filled the stage.

From Chen Ren’s mouth, a voice unlike his own rang out—deep, resonant, and filled with a power that seemed to shake the heavens themselves.

“You dare harm my chosen, filthy demon.”

***

Yalan’s heart plummeted as her claws scraped against the invisible wall that separated her from the platform. Her amber eyes blazed with fury as she watched Gu Tian loom over Chen Ren’s barely conscious form, his demonic qi spilling forth like a suffocating tide.

The barrier shimmered ominously, a translucent dome of dark energy that repelled every strike she unleashed. Her claws lengthened instinctively, the razor-sharp tips gleaming under the flickering flames of her tail. She snarled, slamming her burning tail against the barrier with all her strength, the impact resounding through the air.

But the barrier held firm.

Her rage only deepened as she pressed her paw against the cold surface, feeling the pulse of powerful energy rippling through it. It didn’t budge, not even a crack or a flicker of weakness.

“How is this possible?” she growled, her voice trembling with frustration. She was in the meridian expansion realm—her strikes should have been enough to destabilize any ordinary barrier.

Yet, this wasn’t ordinary.

It was created for the purpose of ensuring that all the cultivators in the arena would be kept out of it. This barrier wasn’t something Gu Tian could have created on his own.

Yalan’s sharp eyes scanned the stage, her breath catching as she saw the faint silhouette forming above Gu Tian.

A ghostly figure hovered in the air, its shape wavering as if struggling to maintain its presence in the physical realm. Despite its ethereal weakness, its aura was unmistakable—formidable, ancient, and suffused with the terrifying power of a nascent soul realm cultivator.

Her claws retracted slightly as shock momentarily overtook her rage.

A nascent soul spectre?

she thought, her mind racing.

Nascent soul cultivators had vanished from the mortal world centuries ago, their power so immense that the heavens themselves seemed to conspire against their existence. Yet here one stood, or at least its lingering shadow, bolstering Gu Tian with its unholy strength.

How could Gu Tian have aligned himself with such an entity?

There was no time to dwell on the answer. Every second wasted was another second Chen Ren lay bleeding on the stage, bound and vulnerable. Yalan’s gaze snapped back to him, her chest tightening as she saw the blood pooling around his body.

“Chen Ren… hold on,” she whispered, her fury reigniting.

Flames surged down her tail as she struck the barrier again, the inferno roaring with her resolve. She didn’t care if her strikes didn’t break through. She didn’t care if her attacks left her drained.

All she cared about was finding a way to save him, no matter what it cost.

Her heartbeat thundered in her ears, each pulse driving home a dreadful reality: she was watching it happen again.

The sight of his pale face, blood spilling freely from his wounds, tore through her resolve. Memories flashed unbidden of the previous Chen Ren that she had failed to protect. She clenched her fists, her claws digging into her paws as guilt and despair warred within her.

Was she truly this week?

Her hair bristled as her eyes burned with fury. She had always thought herself strong. Yet here she was, standing powerless while the one she swore to defend teetered on the edge of death.

Her head snapped to the side as a familiar presence approached. Qing He appeared, her usually serene face etched with a fury that matched Yalan’s own. The elder’s squinted eyes fixated on the barrier, and the faint wrinkles on her face seemed deeper under the strain of her anger.

“This is no ordinary construct,” Qing He muttered, her voice heavy with frustration.

Yalan let out a howl. “We need to combine forces. Together, we might be able to crack it enough to get through.”

“We should.”

Qing He didn’t hesitate, already preparing to channel her qi. Yalan mirrored her, flames rippling along her tail and claws as the two pooled their strength.

But just as they moved to strike, Yalan froze, her sharp instincts picking up something in the air—something emanating from Chen Ren himself.

Her gaze whipped back to him, and her amber eyes widened.

Golden light began to seep from his eyes, an otherworldly glow that seemed to pierce the demonic qi surrounding him. The light grew stronger, radiating from his battered form with an intensity that made the platform tremble.

Then she felt it.

Her breath caught, and her flames wavered as a sensation long buried resurfaced—a power she hadn’t sensed in years.

Heavenly qi.

Pure, untainted, and overwhelming, it rolled off Chen Ren in waves, clashing with the oppressive darkness of Gu Tian’s demonic energy. Yalan’s heart pounded as she stared at him, her disbelief mingling with a glimmer of hope.

“Heavenly qi,” she whispered, her voice barely audible.

Qing He paused as well, her attack forgotten as she turned to Yalan. “What did you say?”

Yalan didn’t answer. Her eyes remained fixed on Chen Ren, her lips parting in astonishment as the golden light grew brighter, illuminating the stage.

Perhaps… all was not lost.

***

Chen Ren's consciousness drifted like a leaf caught in a murky current. His thoughts were sluggish, fragmented, and disjointed.

The last thing he could recall was the crushing weight of Gu Tian’s chains binding his limbs, his body sapped of strength. He’d stared up at the demonic cultivator, his heart pounding with defiance and despair, just before the cold bite of a blade plunged into his gut. Pain had exploded through him, and he threw up a lot of blood. It had been bitter, and painful. But then endless darkness had taken over him.

Now he stood in a void.

No ground beneath his feet, no walls or sky to confine him. Just an infinite expanse dotted with light, stars twinkling faintly above and around him.

He glanced down at his hands, flexing his fingers sluggishly. There were no wounds, no blood soaking through his robes, but the memory of the pain still lingered, sharp and biting.

I’m back in my star space. But why?

The question echoed hollowly in his mind. A bitter taste rose in his throat as fragments of his failure swirled together. He had doubted Gu Tian’s façade of mediocrity, and suspected the man’s techniques weren’t as simple as they seemed. Yet he’d done nothing, ignored the signs, and now here he was—caught between life and death, alone in the star space.

Is this where cultivators come before they die, their star space?

The thought sent a chill down his spine, but there was no one to answer him. He tilted his head upward, scanning the stars above.

It was different.

His star space had always been sparse, a cold expanse with only four stars burning dimly in the void. But now… now the sky was alive, teeming with countless lights. The stars blazed fiercely, their glow raining down over him and filling the void with a warmth he hadn’t felt in what seemed like ages.

A rumble broke through the stillness.

Chen Ren’s heart jumped as the ground—or whatever it was he stood on—shuddered beneath him. The stars seemed to tremble as something massive shifted in the space above. He turned, his body moving sluggishly as though underwater, and froze.

A presence loomed above him.

It was vast, shadowy, and incomprehensibly large. As the rumble grew louder, the shape resolved into something unmistakable. Scales, luminous and shimmering like liquid golden, caught the light of the stars as the creature descended. Its form coiled endlessly, a serpent wreathed in celestial radiance.

The dragon.

The stars seemed to bow to its presence, their light dimming as the dragon’s maw opened. The stars themselves formed the dragon’s fangs, sharp and radiant, and its voice rolled through the space, vibrating through his chest.

The beast’s eyes, glowing like molten gold, bore into him with an intensity that made his legs tremble.

“Chen Ren… I choose you, yet you stumble so quickly toward death.”

Chen Ren swallowed hard, unable to muster a reply, his gaze fixed on the creature’s immense, gleaming fangs. A tornado of questions swirled in his mind and he resisted the urge to prostrate himself in front of the entity.

But rather than ask about what was going on, he answered the dragon's question.

“I didn’t expect Gu Tian to be a demonic cultivator. Even then… those chains—” He looked down at his hands, flexing them uselessly. “I couldn’t break through them.”

The dragon’s eyes narrowed, and a sharp exhale escaped its nostrils, like the sigh of a storm.

“There’s no excuse for weakness. This is the way of the world. Strength determines survival, and you are far too close to death. My slumber has lasted long enough—I cannot let it be.”

The words struck like a hammer, but Chen Ren barely had time to absorb them. His thoughts churned in frustration and confusion. His fists clenched, trembling. “I know…” he muttered, his voice barely audible. Then louder, more resolute: “But how can I defeat Gu Tian? With his chains and that ghost at his back—it’s too strong.”

The dragon tilted its head, a faint glow rippling across its scales.

“I know it is. Hence, we are taking over. Your fight is no longer yours alone.”

Chen Ren’s breath hitched in his throat. “What… what does that mean?”

The dragon didn’t answer. Instead, its form began to shift, its body unravelling into streaks of radiant light. Chen Ren’s eyes widened as the dragon unfurled from the heavens, descending upon him with a terrible grace.

The stars in his space flickered and dimmed, their light snuffed out one by one. Cracks formed in the void beneath him, jagged lines racing outward with every rumble of the dragon’s approach.

“No—” Chen Ren stumbled back, his voice caught in his throat. The dragon surged forward, its golden eyes blazing brighter as it filled his vision.

The last thing he saw was the beast’s maw opening wide, its fangs shimmering like starfire as it swallowed him whole.

The void shattered.

Chen Ren gasped, his eyes snapping open.

The platform stretched beneath him, Gu Tian standing below with a sneer that faltered as he looked up. Chains still bound Chen Ren’s arms, but they felt lighter now, their weight insignificant compared to the power coursing through him.

It was unlike anything he’d felt before—consuming and powerful. Extremely powerful. Heat rushed through his veins, igniting every nerve as golden light spilt from his eyes.

A low rumble escaped his throat, growing louder until it built into a deafening roar that echoed through the arena.

The voice wasn’t his alone.

From within the roar, Chen Ren felt it—something bursting free. His qi surged outward, enveloping the platform in waves of radiant energy. Gu Tian’s eyes widened, and he stumbled back, shielding himself from the force.

Above them, the sky tore apart.

A golden dragon emerged, its massive form coiling and twisting as it rose into the heavens. It roared again, a sound that shook the very ground and sent waves of fear through the onlookers.

Chen Ren looked up, his body trembling from the sheer intensity of the power. It felt alien and unstoppable, yet somehow… It was him.

Or was it?

As he tried to grasp it, the dragon turned its gaze downward, its golden eyes locking onto Gu Tian, whose expression had turned to one of terror.

Chen Ren felt his lips curve into a faint smile, though he wasn’t entirely sure it was his own. The golden light in his eyes flared, and the platform trembled as his qi surged again.

***

A/N - You can read 30 chapters (15 Magus Reborn and 15 Dao of money) on my patreon. Annual subscription is now on too.