Chapter 46: Shatter the Covenant

  When the blinding golden light faded, the chamber was no longer a battlefield—it was a ruin.

  Fragments of black chains lay scattered like broken dreams. The floor, once ancient and smooth, was carved with deep fissures that still steamed from the clash of powers.

  Tianming stood at the center, the jagged fragment-sword dissolving into light between his fingers. His arm—the one branded with the Abyss Mark—was burning, the skin around it splitting, blood hissing into vapor.

  But the mark itself was cracking.

  Not dying.

  Changing.

  Lei Xueyan, Zhen, and Jiang Chen rushed to his side. Lei caught Tianming’s shoulders before he could fall.

  "You idiot," she whispered, voice rough with relief. "You should have waited for us."

  Tianming smiled faintly. "Couldn't let him monologue me to death."

  Jiang Chen barked a short laugh, but the tension in his body didn’t ease.

  Behind them, Elder Vayer lay crumpled, still breathing but unmoving. The crystal in his eye had shattered, leaving an empty socket that oozed black mist.

  Jiang Chen crouched beside the elder, inspecting the remains with a frown. "He wasn't fighting for himself," he said grimly. "Someone else... something else... was controlling him."

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Tianming staggered forward. His arm throbbed violently, the cracked mark pulsing with a rhythm not his own.

  The chamber rumbled.

  A voice—not from Elder Vayer, but from the very walls themselves—spoke.

  "Bearer of the Abyss and Chaos.

  Breaker of the Bound Covenant.

  You stand at the threshold.

  Choose."

  The center of the chamber split open with a groaning roar. From the chasm rose a black obelisk, inscribed with ancient glyphs of stars, voids, and serpents devouring their own tails.

  "The Sanctum..." Zhen whispered, face pale. "It's alive."

  Tianming stared at the obelisk, and somehow, he understood.

  The Sanctum had never been a place for cultivation.

  It was a forge—a place to either bind those touched by the Abyss...

  ...or break them.

  Those who failed would be consumed. Those who survived... could become something else entirely.

  Golden light shimmered from Tianming's jade fragment, drawn toward the obelisk.

  The voice echoed again:

  "Bind yourself to the Abyss... and you shall inherit oblivion.

  Or rewrite the Covenant... and defy fate itself."

  His friends turned to him, tense, waiting—but silent.

  This choice was his alone.

  Tianming’s arm flared again, the cracked mark surging wildly. Visions flashed across his mind—

  Worlds consumed in black storms.

  Cities collapsing into endless night.

  Himself, standing alone, the last ember in a dying universe.

  But then came another vision—

  Lei Xueyan’s hand, gripping his, pulling him from the darkness.

  Jiang Chen’s cool, steady presence, a shield when everything else burned.

  He clenched his fists. "I am not just Abyss. I'm not just Chaos. I am Li Tianming."

  He stepped toward the obelisk.

  The mark on his arm erupted, bands of shadowy chains trying to drag him down.

  They tore into his skin, ripping at his soul—but he kept walking, step by agonizing step.

  When he touched the obelisk—

  —a pulse of gold and black burst outward.

  The chains around his arm shattered with a sound like screaming stars.

  The mark reformed—not a brand of slavery, but a sigil of balance. Half of it shone with golden flames; the other half glistened with deep void-black.

  For the first time, the Abyss bent to someone's will.

  ---

  Elder Vayer let out a choked sob. His body convulsed—and from his mouth spilled a shard of black crystal.

  Jiang Chen grabbed it with a barrier of light, trapping it before it could sink into the floor.

  Zhen peered at it grimly. "This is it. This was how they controlled him... and others."

  Tianming turned, breathing hard but steady now.

  "We're not done yet," he said, voice quiet but unbreakable. "Whoever set this trap...they're still out there."

  He looked at the shattered mark on his arm, now a living sigil of fire and void.

  "And now... they’ll know I'm coming."

  Above them, the ruins of the Sanctum began to crumble, the last of its ancient energy spent.

  Lei Xueyan threw Tianming a wild, exhausted grin. "You’re buying drinks after this."

  Tianming laughed—and together, the four of them raced toward the exit as the past collapsed behind them.

  End of Chapter 46.