The moonlight dripped like silver through the high windows of the Jade Temple, casting long shadows over Xuan Long's meditative figure. He sat cross-legged in the lotus position, his breathing steady, but his soul in turmoil.
Inside his dantian, the chaos was growing.
Ever since his encounter with the masked assassin from the Shadow Sect, something had felt... wrong. Not just the searing pain that had followed the fight, but a foreign presence—like invisible chains tightening around his spiritual core.
He opened his eyes. Blood trickled from the corner of his lips.
"Damn it…" he muttered, pressing a hand to his chest. The cold sensation was back. This wasn't a simple wound. This was something far more sinister.
It was soul poison.
He stumbled to his feet, knocking over the incense burner. The embers scattered across the jade tiles as he staggered toward the scroll rack. Somewhere… somewhere here, Master Tian had written about forbidden poisons.
He found the scroll wrapped in dark silk—its seal broken long ago. He unrolled it with trembling hands, scanning until his eyes widened.
> Soul-eating Frost Venom: a rare and deadly toxin capable of corroding the spirit. Once inside the body, it hides in the dantian and feeds on the cultivator's qi, growing stronger with every attempt to expel it. Antidote: Unknown.
His vision blurred. His cultivation had grown rapidly since his reincarnation, but this... this venom was eating him from within.
"Someone… wants me gone. Not just dead—but erased."
A flash of memory struck him: the assassin's blade glowing with dark mist, his laughter cold and mocking. "You think a second life will save you, Immortal Emperor? Fate has already claimed your soul once. Now we'll make it permanent."
Xuan Long clenched his fists.
"No," he growled, voice low and resolute. "Not again. I won't be anyone's pawn. Not this time."
At that moment, a knock echoed through the temple.
He quickly masked his aura, his body tense.
"Who is it?"
"It's me," came a soft voice. Familiar. Comforting.
Su Yuechan.
She stepped inside, her face pale in the moonlight. "You disappeared from the sect hall. I was worried."
He hesitated. "I'm… handling something."
Her eyes narrowed as she stepped closer. She could sense it—his qi was unstable, his aura fractured.
"You're poisoned," she said plainly.
He turned away. "It's nothing."
She didn't let him. Grabbing his wrist, she forced his palm open. Her spiritual sense touched his core—and she gasped.
"This isn't poison. This is... a curse."
He looked up, surprised.
Yuechan's hands trembled. "A Heaven's Curse Seal. The kind they used on criminals who defied the Heavens themselves. Xuan Long—who did this to you?"
His silence was answer enough.
She stepped back. "You were… someone important in your past life, weren't you?"
He nodded. Slowly. "More than you know."
And in that moment, she saw the truth in his eyes. The weight of lifetimes. The fury. The pain. The regret.
"You're not just Xuan Long," she whispered. "You're…"
"The Immortal Emperor," he finished for her, voice barely audible.
The silence that followed felt like the calm before a storm.
Suddenly, the ground trembled. A distant bell rang three times—a warning signal from the sect.
"Enemy attack!" someone shouted outside.
Xuan Long's eyes turned cold.
"It's them," he said. "They've come to finish what they started."
And then he stepped forward—poisoned, cursed, dying—but radiating an aura of unyielding might.
The emperor wasn't gone. He had returned.
And this time, the heavens would bleed.