Ethereal Rebirth: Path of the Void Sovereign

“The most dangerous truths are not those hidden by gods… but those erased from memory.”
— From the Forbidden Void Codex

Part 1: The Seal Beneath the World

Far beneath the Conclave, where even gods do not walk, a buried realm stirred.

Chains forged from forgotten starlight cracked in silence.

Within them slept… a child.

Eyes closed. Wrapped in silver lotus flame. A mark upon its brow — half a lotus, half a void spiral.

It did not cry.

It did not breathe.

Yet it was alive.

And somewhere far above — Jiang Chen flinched, mid-meditation, hand clutching his chest.

Something just called to me… but it wasn’t pain.
It was… familiar.

Ruyan opened her eyes from her side of the spirit chamber.

“You felt it too?”

He nodded.

“The child,” she said. “The one erased from your sixth life.”

“She’s not gone,” Jiang Chen murmured. “She was sealed.”

The Map of Broken Stars

Later, deep within the archives of an ancient rogue sect called the Star-Graved Readers, Jiang Chen unrolled a celestial chart — one that should not have existed.

The final lines were missing. But at the chart’s edge, written in old Void Flame script, was one location.

“Ashfall Cradle — the tomb of the Unseen Star.”

It wasn’t on any divine map.

Because it wasn’t supposed to be remembered.

“This is where they hid her,” Ruyan said.

“And where they chained my past,” Jiang Chen added.

A New Journey Begins

The path to Ashfall Cradle was dangerous.

It lay at the edge of the Rift of Realms — a tear in the world's fabric where time fractures and soul beasts roam free.

No sect ruled there. No law held sway. Only echoes of what the gods buried.

Jiang Chen and Ruyan left at dawn, cloaked in silence.

They no longer traveled as fugitives — but as seekers of a truth the heavens dared not speak aloud.

As they passed through the clouded gates of the east, a black lotus bloomed behind their steps — unseen, yet eternal.

Part 2: Beasts That Remember

The Rift of Realms was more than a scar — it was a place where time, memory, and qi spiraled into chaos.

Jiang Chen and Ruyan arrived at its edge beneath a violet sky, where wind blew backward and footsteps echoed before they were made.

The land groaned with soul-rot, haunted by things that had once been human… or divine.

They moved carefully.

Ruyan’s Moonlotus aura flared softly, repelling unstable temporal spirits.

But even her light dimmed when they saw it:

A beast made of broken timelines — its body stitched from flickering forms, each second showing a different face… each one a version of Jiang Chen.

“What… is that?” Ruyan breathed.

Jiang Chen narrowed his eyes.

“A Time-Echo Horror. Spawned when a soul’s karma is forcibly erased.”

“From your sixth life.”

“Yes.”

Battle in the Rift

The beast lunged.

Jiang Chen moved first, using [Sovereign’s Step] to shift between fractured time.

The wooden sword glowed briefly — and cut through the creature's neck… only for another to form.

“We can’t kill it by force,” he said.

“Then how?” Ruyan asked.

He stepped forward, pressing his palm to the creature’s head.

And whispered:

“You are not forgotten.”

The creature paused.

Its dozens of flickering faces blurred… then coalesced into one.

A young man with Jiang Chen’s eyes.

“Master…” it said, before crumbling into lotus dust.

The Guardian Appears

As the dust settled, the wind shifted.

A figure appeared at the base of a shattered gate — robed in ancient black and silver, lotus tattoo over one eye, and a sword shaped like a flame-wrapped crescent.

He bowed once.

“You shouldn’t have come.”

Jiang Chen’s breath caught.

“Fei Yun.”

Ruyan tensed. “You know him?”

“He was my disciple,” Jiang Chen said. “From my second life.”

Fei Yun raised his blade.

“Then you know I was sworn to protect what lies beyond this gate… even from you.”

Part 3: The Disciple’s Blade

The shattered gate loomed behind Fei Yun, swirling with faint black flame and moonlight. He stood like a statue, his aura perfectly still — but Jiang Chen knew it well.

It was the Silent Lotus Sword Style, one Jiang Chen himself had created in his second life.

“Why do you guard her?” Jiang Chen asked.

Fei Yun’s gaze softened. “Because I failed you… back then. I chose the gods over you. This is my penance.”

“And if I take your place?”

“You are not meant to touch that seal. If you do… the heavens will descend. Again.”

Jiang Chen stepped forward. “Then try to stop me.”

The duel began.

The Soul Duel

No grand explosions.

No blazing lights.

Only silence — two swords whispering through space like falling petals.

Jiang Chen’s Void Resonance matched Fei Yun’s Silent Lotus Blade.

Each strike was a question.

Each deflection, an answer.

Ruyan stood to the side, eyes glowing, hands pressed to a mirrored sigil.

“Moonlotus Mirror… show me the child.”

The mirror shimmered — and in it, she saw the child… eyes open, staring upward… at Jiang Chen’s mark etched on the ceiling above her.

She remembers him.

The Duel Ends

Fei Yun faltered.

Jiang Chen’s sword stopped just shy of his heart.

“I don’t want to win,” Jiang Chen said. “I want her free.”

Fei Yun knelt, weeping silently.

“Then go. I cannot guard her from you any longer… Master.”

The gate opened.

Inside the Cradle

They stepped into a realm of pure quiet.

Silver flame danced like snowflakes.

And there, in a bed of lotuses, lay the child.

Not a baby — but a girl, maybe six or seven, eyes open, staring as if she had never closed them.

When Jiang Chen stepped closer, she sat up slowly.

“Papa…” she whispered.

His breath caught.

Ruyan stepped beside him, hands trembling.

“She knew you.”

“She’s part of me,” Jiang Chen said. “And… part of you.”

The girl reached up, tiny fingers brushing Jiang Chen’s palm.

And the Void Lotus bloomed with a new center.

A bud.