Author's Note:(Bureaucracy and fear forced the sects to change the board. If they couldn't beat the monsters of the desert in the light of day, they would try to bury them in the darkness of a Heaven Grade trap. But they forgot one fundamental rule: never lock predators in the same cage as your lambs).
Chapter 31: The Labyrinth of Destiny
The Celestial Jade City vibrated with a tension so thick that the air seemed ready to shatter. The first round of duels had left a scar of pure terror on the pride of the regional powers. The Morningstar Clan had not only won; they had humiliated, mutilated, and trampled the most promising geniuses of the Hundred Sects without shedding a single drop of their own blood.
In the central VIP box, the Holy Son Valerius Valois could not afford another public display of weakness. Using his political influence and the widespread panic of the Patriarchs, he forced a change of plans that would have been unthinkable a day before.
The Head Judge, a Saint-level elder, floated toward the center of the Jade Coliseum. Around him, the combat arena began to tremble violently.
"The individual duel format has concluded!" roared the judge, his amplified voice sweeping over the expectant stands. "From this moment on, only the truly worthy will survive! Let the Second Phase begin: The Labyrinth of Jade Whispers!"
From the coliseum floor emerged immense walls of green stone, spiritual crystal, and obsidian, rising dozens of meters into the sky, twisting and intertwining until they formed a colossal, enclosed structure that occupied the entire arena. It was a Heaven Grade artifact, a prison designed to isolate, confuse, and kill.
"You will be separated from your allies! Your divine sense will be blocked!" the judge continued, with a cruel smile. "The objective is to reach the core of the labyrinth! In the dark, there are no rules! May the ancestors protect you!"
Samael, standing at the south entrance alongside his heirs, observed the immense labyrinth. He knew perfectly well what this "change of rules" meant. Inside, far from the eyes of the public, hundreds of cultivators from the sects allied to the Valois had the green light to ambush and massacre them as a group.
The Sovereign of the Void turned to Kael, Violeta, Eris, Cedric, Xylia, and Elowen. There was no fear in the eyes of any of them.
Samael didn't give them an inspiring speech. His words were daggers of ice.
"They want to hunt us in the dark and isolate us," Samael said, his violet eyes glowing with pure tyranny. "Show them who the true masters of the shadows are. I don't want anyone coming back with their limbs intact. Let the slaughter begin."
The heavy doors of the labyrinth opened like the jaws of a beast. The group advanced, and upon crossing the threshold, a blinding light of spatial teleportation engulfed them, scattering them throughout the immense jade structure.
The Path of Mirrors (Kael)
Kael landed heavily in a corridor where the walls, floor, and ceiling were made of perfectly polished spiritual crystal. Every one of his movements was reflected thousands of times, creating an illusion of infinity that would make any ordinary cultivator dizzy. His divine sense was completely suppressed; he couldn't perceive Qi beyond a meter away.
Suddenly, from amidst the reflections, eight figures dressed in gray robes emerged. They were elite assassins from the Severing Dragon Sect and the Valois Family, wielding short swords smeared with Qi-devouring poison.
"A simple desert dog playing swordsman?" mocked the leader of the assassins, his image multiplying in the jade mirrors to attack from all angles. "Your legend ends here, brat."
Kael didn't unsheathe immediately. He closed his golden eyes. He didn't need divine sense. He had his Sword Heart.
On his left chest, right over his heart, the blood mark in the shape of a flaming sword—the oath that bound him to the Spiritual Vein and to Samael—began to emit a comforting heat.
Kael didn't attack the reflections. He didn't play the labyrinth's game of illusions. He gripped the hilt of the Whisper of the North and channeled the pure, absolute intent to cut. He didn't aim at the assassins; he aimed at the very structure of the Heaven Grade artifact.
"My sword does not chase ghosts," the Vanguard whispered.
SLASH!
Kael executed a horizontal slash propelled by the full weight of his Transcendent Peak foundation. The wave of physical force and pure will crashed against the unbreakable walls of crystalline jade.
The labyrinth could not withstand the concept of the Sword Heart. The mirrors shattered into millions of razor-sharp fragments.
The shockwave and the storm of glass shredded the eight assassins simultaneously, grinding their bodies and defenses to dust before they could take a single step. Kael sheathed his sword, literally carving a path through the destroyed walls of the labyrinth, walking over the bloodied corpses.
The Thermal Paradox (Violeta and Eris)
Violeta and Eris had dropped into opposite sectors of a vast zone of dimensional traps, but the separation meant nothing to them.
On both their chests, the karmic tattoos of the Ash Phoenix and the Frost Lotus burned intensely, beating in unison. Samael's blood and the Spiritual Vein acted as a beacon impossible to block. They felt each other's exact direction.
Violeta was walking down a hallway where space compressed dangerously. A dozen disciples from the Eternal Flame Sect ambushed her from behind, conjuring tornadoes of fire.
Violeta didn't turn around. She sighed in annoyance and used her dual affinity. She injected her Absolute Ice into the folds of Space, literally freezing the dimensional walls behind her. The enemies' fire crashed against a wall of frozen space and bounced off harmlessly.
Three hundred meters away, separated by thick black jade walls, Eris was surrounded by similar ambushers. Instead of burning them slowly, Eris raised her hands. Her eyes darkened with the madness of the Concept of Destruction.
She invoked the [Flame of Ruin], a black and bluish fire that devoured Qi.
"Violeta, now!" Eris yelled, her voice transmitting through the vibration of the blood mark on her chest.
Synchronized by their sisterhood, both unleashed their ultimate attacks not toward their enemies, but toward the thick jade wall separating them.
Violeta concentrated all her Space/Ice on a focal point, while Eris launched a torrent of Fire/Destruction at the exact same coordinates from the other side.
The clash of the Ice's entropy and the Black Fire's annihilation inside the jade wall caused a thermal detonation of catastrophic proportions.
BOOOOOOM!
The Heaven Grade jade wall was blown to pieces, opening a smoking tunnel ten meters wide. The explosion's shockwave simultaneously incinerated and froze the ambushers of both twins, reducing them to scorched crystal dust.
The twins met in the center of the crater, black fire and frost dancing around them. They held hands and advanced toward the core, leaving a trail of thermal death in their wake.
The Emperor's Usurpation (Cedric and Xylia)
Cedric dodged a poisoned dart and leaned against a jade pillar covered in glowing inscriptions. Around him, the circular chamber was infested with automatic traps that fired Qi needles, controlled by disciples of the Hidden Seal Squad who laughed from the upper platforms.
Xylia stood beside him, deflecting the needles with whips of black lightning.
"They are using the labyrinth against us," the Thunder Empress said. "Can you destroy it?"
"Destroy it?" Cedric let out a cold laugh, his eyes shining with the red and sapphire of his past life as the Great Array Emperor. "That would be a waste, My Lady. I am going to usurp it."
Cedric slammed both hands onto the jade pillar. He closed his eyes and injected his Qi and his immeasurable fractal knowledge directly into the 'veins' of the labyrinth's array. He wasn't "hacking" a system; he was bending the will of the formation with the authority of an absolute monarch.
In ten seconds, the green inscriptions on the pillar turned a dazzling gold. Cedric opened his eyes.
"Mine."
Above, the enemy disciples screamed in panic as the matrices they controlled stopped responding to them. Worse yet, the Qi needle cannons spun 180 degrees, aiming directly at them.
"Sweep them away, Xylia," Cedric ordered.
Xylia raised her arms, injecting her [Heavenly Thunder Mandate] into the nodes Cedric had just usurped. The entire chamber became an electromagnetic resonance box. Dozens of ambushers were electrocuted simultaneously, dropping from the platforms like scorched flies.
Cedric and Xylia walked toward the core with the elegance of royalty, the labyrinth itself opening its doors as they passed.
The Alchemist's Stroll (Elowen)
Elowen was thrown into the labyrinth's punishment zone: the Miasma Swamps. The air here was a green acid that melted skin and corrupted meridians in minutes.
Twenty assassins from the Venomous Serpent Sect, utilizing special breathing masks, emerged from the acidic fog with curved daggers ready to flay her.
Elowen didn't run. She didn't summon magical shields. She sighed, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. The mark of the poisonous lotus and dragon roots on her chest glowed softly.
She was the incarnation of the Wood Dragon Bloodline. Life and death were mere ingredients to her.
She walked toward the assassins. As she advanced, she used her [Hand of Life and Death] on the air itself. She didn't cure the ambient poison; she transmuted it. She accelerated the miasma's toxic properties, elevating its lethality level from something that killed in minutes to a spiritual neurotoxin that paralyzed the heart in a single beat.
The filters of the assassins' masks burst, unable to process the toxic purity Elowen had just created. The twenty men clutched their throats, falling to their knees, black blood oozing from their eyes and mouths. They asphyxiated, drowning in their own blood, while Elowen walked among them with light steps, caressing the jade vines of the labyrinth as if strolling through a spring garden.
The Devourer of Destinies (Samael)
Samael walked calmly down an immense obsidian corridor. There were no traps or low-level assassins here. Valerius Valois was not stupid; he had sent his absolute trump card to personally deal with the Sovereign of the Void.
At the end of the corridor, blocking the path to the core, stood a golden-haired youth in white robes embroidered with gold. His feet didn't touch the ground. Behind his head floated a glowing halo, a "Son of Heaven Destiny".
He was an artificial monster. A genius of the Valois Family who had been fed the empire's best elixirs, forced to Origin Realm Stage 9 (Peak), and imbued with Semi-Saint level defensive artifacts.
"You have come far, desert beast," the Son of Heaven said, his voice exuding divine arrogance. "But your luck ends here. My destiny is to crush heretics. I am blessed by the heavens and protected by the formations of a Patriarch. Kneel, and I will leave your corpse intact."
Samael halted. He tilted his head, observing the youth's glowing halo with a morbid curiosity.
"Heaven has no power in my presence," Samael replied, his violet eyes narrowing into reptilian slits. "And your destiny... looks delicious."
The Son of Heaven roared, unleashing a storm of golden light and Qi blades that would have pulverized a mountain.
Samael didn't dodge. He used his Minor Law of Space.
Though crude and difficult to control, it was a law of the universe. The space in front of him folded, shortening the fifty-meter distance to zero in a microsecond.
Samael materialized right in front of the golden youth. The Son of Heaven paled and immediately activated his Semi-Saint level shield, a spherical barrier of unbreakable runes.
"You can't touch me!" the genius screamed, terrified by the sudden appearance.
Samael raised his bare hand. "The Void doesn't need to ask for permission."
He channeled his Absolute Void affinity into his palm. Upon striking the Semi-Saint shield, the Void exerted an infinite gravitational pull on the runes. The barrier didn't break; it collapsed in on itself, devoured by nothingness, leaving the genius completely exposed.
Before the Son of Heaven could retreat, Samael plunged his bare hand directly into the center of his chest, piercing flesh, bone, and spiritual tissue.
The youth screamed in pure agony.
Samael wasn't aiming for his heart. He unleashed his Blood manipulation inside him. He enveloped the genius's pure vital essence, the compressed Qi of his meridians, and used the gravitational force of the Void to physically suction the "Destiny" rooted in the boy's soul.
With a brutal yank, Samael pulled his arm out. His hand was covered in blood, but in the center of his palm, he grasped a sphere of golden energy, pure and pulsating: the Son of Heaven's Halo, ripped out by the roots.
The Valois genius dried up instantly, his skin turning gray and ashen as he lost all his vitality and luck, falling to the obsidian floor like an empty, dead husk.
Samael looked at the golden sphere in his bloodied hand. He opened his mouth and, without hesitation, swallowed it whole.
The raw power of the devoured destiny flooded his meridians. In the corner of his eye, golden notifications appeared:
[Alert! You have devoured and assimilated a Heaven Grade Synthetic Destiny.]
[Physique and Vitality Purified. Origin Stage 9 cultivation base expanded to the absolute limit.]
[Item acquired: 'Celestial Destiny Fragment' (Stored in Soul Inventory). Useful for forging Avatars or breaking Major Tribulations.]
Samael licked the blood from his lips, his violet pupils glowing with a momentary golden radiance. The hunt had been productive.
The Final Rupture
Suddenly, the blood mark on Samael's chest vibrated intensely. Cedric's mental voice echoed in the heads of the six heirs.
"Sovereign. I have taken control of the primary nodes. I have nullified the containment walls to the core's central plaza. Converge now."
Samael walked toward the end of the hall. The immense jade walls slid downward, making way for him thanks to Cedric's control.
In the heart of the labyrinth, an immense pillar of light connected the floor to the artifact's false sky. There they gathered, emerging from different smoking corridors covered in enemy blood. Kael, Violeta, Eris, Cedric, Xylia, Elowen, and Samael. All unharmed, their auras blazing.
"They've seen enough of our show in the dark," Samael said, raising his gaze to the labyrinth's ceiling. "It's time to give them their arena back. Break it."
The Morningstar Clan didn't attack other participants. They attacked the structure.
Kael unleashed the Sovereign's Slash.
Violeta and Eris fused the annihilation of Ice and the Flame of Ruin.
Xylia brought down a pillar of Black Lightning, guided by Cedric's matrix alterations.
Elowen injected dragon roots into the cracks, expanding them with massive life force.
And Samael channeled a devastating pulse of Void and gravity.
All the attacks struck the central pillar of the Jade Labyrinth simultaneously.
The Heaven Grade artifact screeched, groaned, and then exploded into a million pieces.
The Jade Coliseum, which had been watching the giant structure for the last hour with blind expectation, was shaken by a dull earthquake.
The immense labyrinth collapsed inward, dissolving into a storm of green dust and rubble. When the breeze cleared the smoke screen, the scene in the arena left the hundreds of thousands of spectators plunged into a sepulchral silence, paralyzed by pure terror.
The Labyrinth no longer existed. In the center of the cleared arena, the Morningstar Clan stood in perfect formation, without a single visible scratch.
And around them, scattered across the sand, lay dozens upon dozens of mangled corpses. Assassins, array masters, tamers, and, most shocking of all, the dehydrated, lifeless corpse of the Valois Family's golden genius.
In the supreme VIP box, Valerius Valois stood up so fast that his carved jade throne cracked under the pressure of his unstable Qi. His eyes were bloodshot. His master trap, the Heaven Grade artifact that had cost a fortune to mobilize, had not only failed; it had been destroyed by the brute force of teenagers.
While the world stared in dread at the Sovereign of the Void, the golden panel of the System materialized in front of Samael.
[Secret Mission: 'The Crown of the Legend Devourers' - Phase 1 Completed.]
[The Morningstar Clan has annihilated the opposition and claimed the top of the rankings.]
[Final Objective Unlocked: To claim the Celestial Chest and establish absolute supremacy, defeat a True Saint Level Elder in open combat during the closing ceremony.]
Samael looked away from the golden letters. He raised his head, fixing his eyes—still tinged with bloodlust and stolen destiny—directly on Valerius Valois's box.
Samael didn't say a word. He simply offered a dark, wide smile laden with extreme cruelty, while the blood of the Son of Heaven dripped slowly from his right hand onto the pristine sand.
The war of the geniuses was over. Now, it was time to hunt gods.
END OF CHAPTER 31