Ling'er shook her head, tears streaking down her cheeks. "Big brother... I'm scared... I "

  In a single motion, Emperor Cāng summoned his blade. A gleaming arc of light flashed. First Lǐ Míngxuě's head fell. Then Hóng Líng'er's. Blood sprayed like blossoms in bloom.

  Shā Tiān screamed. His body trembled violently as an unbearable heat surged from within, boiling his blood. Crimson tears streamed from his eyes, staining his face as that scream twisted into something deeper gut-wrenching, primal, the cry of a soul being torn apart. His mind shattered. His heart, already broken, ignited. The ancient blood of the Demon God, dormant for millennia, erupted like a volcano. His cyan eyes turned blood-red, glowing with a murderous light. The last vestiges of warmth vanished. Only hate remained. His hair turned white in an instant, drained by the agony of loss and the surge of divine fury. Flames of black and red danced along his skin. The air around him cracked, the very laws of reality bending.

  "Even if I must die..." he thought, as the ground beneath him splintered with each heartbeat, "I will take one of you with me." As he rose from his knees, the world quaked. The Dao trembled. The laws recoiled. The power of the being who once helped shape the True God Realm, though changed not peace, but wrath incarnate had returned.

  Each step he took echoed like a death knell. With every movement, his pressure multiplied, suffocating the skies. The Qi he exuded had reached the threshold of the God Emperors. The divine troops who had once roared with pride turned to flee. But it was too late.

  In one motion, he raised his hand. The battlefield turned scarlet. Millions of Ancient Gods and God Kings were reduced to nothing. A crimson tidal wave exploded outward, erasing them from existence. Not a scream was heard. Only silence. Above, the heavens darkened to a swirling black and red. A true monster was born that day a being of boundless sorrow, rage, and divine wrath. The last scion of the Demon God had awakened.

  With each step Hóng Shā Tiān took toward the God Emperors, his Qi intensified, spiraling into the heavens like a divine storm. The ground beneath him shattered, unable to bear the weight of his fury. His blood burning, ancient, and divine howled with hatred. Each step was heavier than the last. Each breath was thunder. With each heartbeat, his power rose. It surged beyond comprehension beyond what any had thought possible.

  Then, it happened. The barrier. The wall. The so-called unreachable summit. He broke it. In his mere twenties, surrounded by the ashes of all he loved, Hóng Shā Tiān reached it the God Emperor realm. Though it burned his life force, though it tore at his soul, he stood as an equal to the celestial tyrants. A boy had become a god. And that god would not forgive.

  For the first time, the God Emperors felt it. Fear. Emperor Xuān’s eyes narrowed, his hand twitching slightly as the remnants of divine law around him wavered. "Impossible... He’s ascended? In mere moments?" he muttered, his voice low with disbelief. Emperor Huāng’s golden armor cracked faintly under the pressure as he clenched his fists. "This shouldn’t be happening. We severed the Demon God's line for a reason. He was never meant to awaken." Emperor Cāng, usually composed as the void, furrowed his brow for the first time in countless eons. His voice, cold and cautious, echoed, "That aura... it rivals ours."

  The three stood together, yet none stepped forward. They stared in horrified silence at the youth who defied their heavens, surrounded by the blood-soaked mist of millions they once commanded. Emperor Huāng spoke again, his voice shaking despite himself. "That power... That killing intent... It’s the Demon God. He’s returned."

  Emperor Xuān growled, "No. This is worse. The Demon God was calm. Merciful. This one... he is wrath."

  They looked to one another. And for the first time hesitated. But they knew what had to be done.

  "We must kill him now," Emperor Xuān said grimly. "Before he grows any stronger."

  In perfect unison, the three God Emperors raised their hands to the heavens. "Eternal Judgment: Celestial Trinity Annihilation."

  From Emperor Xuān came the Palm of Void Extinction a hand of cosmic darkness that erased all laws and time within its grasp. From Emperor Huāng erupted the Sun Piercing Spear, a golden weapon forged from the breath of a dying star, wreathed in the flames of a billion suns. From Emperor Cāng descended the Frozen Heaven Mirror, a vast, ghostly reflection that sealed any soul reflected within, freezing their fate for eternity.

  The three god-tier techniques fused in midair into a single cataclysmic blast an ultimate convergence of light, flame, and void. It hurtled toward Hóng Shā Tiān like divine retribution.

  And yet he lifted his palm. Just one palm. With a roar that shattered the realm itself, Shā Tiān met the attack head-on. The world froze. Then, the fusion of the three God Emperors' attacks cracked. It shattered like brittle glass. The shockwave exploded outward, throwing even the Emperors back.

  Dust and blood whipped through the void as Hóng Shā Tiān’s white hair billowed, his crimson eyes locked on a single target. "Cāng..." His voice was a whisper of death. And he moved.

  Like a flash of hatred incarnate, Hóng Shā Tiān surged forward, his killing intent locked onto the one who had slain his mother and sister. The first God Emperor he would destroy would be Cāng. With a flicker of divine speed, Hóng Shā Tiān appeared before Emperor Cāng and drove a thunderous palm strike into his chest.

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  "What you’ve done here... I will never forget," Shā Tiān growled, his voice low, trembling with wrath. "Even if you die ten thousand times, it wouldn’t be enough to atone." The impact shattered layers of celestial armor and sent shockwaves through the heavens. Cāng’s eyes widened. He coughed a mouthful of blood, his body lurching backward through the air like a ragdoll. The light around him dimmed for a brief moment, the once serene and unreadable God Emperor now disheveled and wounded.

  Emperor Huāng immediately shouted, "We can't defeat him through brute force! We must seal him NOW!" Emperor Xuān nodded grimly. "Use the Nine Nails. The remnants of the Demon God's bones."

  Emperor Cāng steadied himself mid-air, clutching his chest, blood still trailing from his lips. His mind swirled in disbelief. "He was a child," Cāng thought bitterly. "A scholar. A peace-seeker. How did it come to this...? We forced this upon him. We made the monster."

  A sliver of regret twisted in his gut, but he crushed it. "No. This is necessary. The Demon God's blood cannot be allowed to flourish. Not again."

  Emperor Huāng gritted his teeth as he watched Shā Tiān ascend ever higher. "He surpassed us in moments... If he had been left alone... If we had waited another decade... no, a year... even the heavens wouldn't be able to restrain him."

  Emperor Xuān's face was stone, but a tremor lingered beneath his stoicism. "This boy," Xuān murmured in his thoughts, "He reached what we built for eons to touch, in the time it takes to breathe. That power... no heaven can contain it. This isn't revenge. This is survival."

  None of them spoke aloud but within their hearts, buried beneath pride and law, they all knew:

  They were afraid.

  "If he isn't bound here and now, not even the Celestial Realm will be safe."

  Together, they began to chant in ancient celestial tongue.

  As the ritual began, Emperor Huāng muttered under his breath, "This is the price of mercy... we should have crushed him in his cradle."

  "He was never supposed to reach this point," Emperor Cāng added, his voice bitter. "We were fools to think leaving the Demon God Clan in peace was wise."

  Emperor Xuān's expression was like iron. "Spare your regrets. He will be sealed not for decades, not for centuries. For all of eternity."

  "Let the world forget him," Huāng whispered. "Let his name rot with the bones of history."

  Cāng nodded, though his fists clenched. "Let this be the final verse of Hóng Shā Tiān's tale."

  Xuān's voice was the last to rise. "By our will, let him vanish from the heavens... forever."

  The skies cracked once more as nine enormous nails each forged from the shattered remains of the original Demon God's essence and tempered with God Emperor law descended slowly from the void, radiating immense power. Each nail pulsed with the aura of suppression, reeking of divine betrayal. The sealing had begun.

  As the Nine Nails descended, they flew toward Shā Tiān one by one, streaking through the void like divine meteors. With each approach, he unleashed titanic bursts of Qi to deflect them his crimson aura roaring, his fury undying. But it was not enough. The nails pressed on, immune to his wrath. They pierced through the torrents of divine energy, drawn to his bloodline like fate itself.

  One after another, they slammed into his body.

  The first into his right shoulder.

  The second through his left thigh.

  The third embedded in his chest.

  Each strike carved celestial runes into his flesh, and with every nail, his power waned.

  He roared, the world quaking with his resistance, but still the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh nails buried themselves into him. Cracks spread across the sky.

  By the time the eighth and ninth struck one in his abdomen, the other at the center of his forehead the heavens themselves fell silent.

  A great seal blazed across his body, pulsing like a second heart. Divine chains of suppression coiled around his soul. A prison of law and eternity. A seal so powerful that even the true Demon God himself may not have been able to break it.

  And yet Shā Tiān laughed.

  A hoarse, blood-choked laugh, echoing across the smoldering battlefield. Madness and grief intertwined in his voice as he looked at the three God Emperors above.

  "You think this is the end?" he spat, blood dripping from his lips. "Do you believe you've won?"

  His body trembled as the nails dug deeper, but his spirit burned brighter than ever.

  "Mark my words... even if it takes a thousand years... a million... I will return. This grudge this blood debt you will pay it."

  Cracks of light spread across his skin as the sealing neared completion. And with one final glare of crimson fury, he screamed:

  "I promise you... the day I break free, I will head to the Celestial Realm. On that day, your entire Celestial Realm your sects, your cities, your divine lands will drown in a sea of blood. I, Hóng Shā Tiān, swear upon the heavens I will repay this grudge a hundredfold!"

  Emperor Huāng sneered. "Such arrogance even in defeat. You won’t escape your fate."

  "Let him scream," Emperor Xuān said coldly. "The seal is eternal. He'll rot in silence beneath time itself."

  Emperor Cāng, blood still at his lips, managed a twisted smile. "Let the name Hóng Shā Tiān fade into myth. He will never break free. Not in a thousand lifetimes."

  The world fell silent. Even the howling winds of war dared not stir.

  With the last flicker of his strength, Hóng Shā Tiān tore open a rift in space a jagged crack between realms forged from raw divine will. The God Emperors did not follow. They could only watch as his figure, bloodied and nailed, vanished into the void beyond. He fell from the God Realm that day, cast down through the layers of existence.

  But the Celestial Realm would never forget. The name Hóng Shā Tiān was etched into their bones, into their skies, into their nightmares.

  For the day he returns is the day heaven bleeds.