Birth of the Black Throne
The mountain screamed.
It wasn't metaphor.
Frostveil Mountain, revered as one of the twelve sacred peaks in the Celestial Empire, trembled from its root. Pillars cracked. Formations flickered. The frost-choked wind turned black with void mist.
In the inner sanctum of the Binding Chamber, where Xiao Yun had been shackled minutes ago, nothing remained intact.
The chains lay in molten puddles. The ground had caved inward, swallowed by a spiraling pit of darkness. Elders and guards who had stood too close were either dead—reduced to blood mist—or unconscious, sprawled like broken dolls.
And in the center, floating above the crater, he sat.
Xiao Yun.
Not standing. Sitting.
On a throne made of black flame and serrated bone. The structure pulsed with sentient malice, void lightning dancing through its jagged spires. Every breath Xiao Yun took sent ripples of instability through the air. The temperature dropped, and yet the ground scorched. Ice and flame warred at his feet.
This was no ordinary throne.
It was the Black Throne—a forbidden artifact once theorized in ancient void scripture, believed to be formed when a cultivator forcibly bends reality to create a domain before reaching Ascension.
A Throneborn cultivator.
Impossible in the mortal realm.
And yet, here he was.
Xiao Yun opened his eyes.
Dark, bottomless void. Glowing rings of violet churned like whirlpools of stars.
His body had reknit itself. The broken bones were gone. The missing leg? Replaced by void-forged flesh, wrapped in living runes. His chest no longer heaved—he didn't need to breathe. His physical body had become a vessel for something more ancient than cultivation itself.
He had forced open the Fourth Gate.
"Devour the False World."
From every corner of the sect, disciples screamed in panic. The formation cores trembled. Spiritual beasts in their pens howled. The sky above Frostveil turned dark, as if twilight had fallen in an instant.
Outside the Binding Chamber, Yue sprinted across a collapsing stone bridge, her breath ragged, qi flaring around her like a shield. She'd felt the shift in power the moment Xiao Yun rose.
But nothing could have prepared her for this.
She skidded to a halt at the edge of the chamber ruins and looked down.
There he was—unchained, seated, radiating pressure like a god returning from exile.
She clenched her jaw. "He's awakened it."
From behind her, Elder Mei appeared, blood dripping from her mouth, her robes shredded, one arm hanging limp.
"This is no longer a sealing problem," she hissed.
Yue turned. "You said the ritual would suppress him—"
"I was wrong."
"You said he was unstable—"
"I WAS WRONG!"
Lightning cracked above them.
Mei's face turned cold. "If we don't act now, we lose this mountain. We lose this realm."
Inside the pit, Xiao Yun tilted his head.
Their voices echoed faintly.
He didn't stand.
He didn't need to.
The Black Throne pulsed again.
With a thought, he altered the flow of spiritual energy in the area.
All formations—nullified.
All qi flows—reversed.
The mountain's ley lines twisted like veins around a beating heart. His heart.
He raised one hand.
BOOM.
A spear of pure void energy shot upward from his palm, tearing through a dozen levels of the sect's central tower. Cries of alarm followed, cut short by the sound of collapsing stone and the explosion of barrier seals.
The Void was no longer just in him.
It was around him.
Feeding off his presence.
Spreading.
Elder Mei drew her sword. It was curved, glowing with pale green light. "Frostveil Heavenblade," she whispered.
The blade reacted, humming with celestial resonance. Snow began to fall unnaturally fast.
She leapt.
Yue followed.
They dove toward the pit together, blades forward.
But before they reached him—
Xiao Yun stood.
With one motion, he swept his hand sideways.
A shockwave of silence blasted out.
Not air. Not sound. Not fire.
Silence. A void of everything.
The Frostveil Heavenblade cracked.
Elder Mei's eyes went wide as her weapon shattered in her grip. The backlash sent her tumbling midair. Her sword arm twisted at a grotesque angle as she crashed against the wall of the crater and slid down, blood trailing behind.
Yue landed with precision, knees bent, sword drawn, breath calm—but her aura flickered.
Even she couldn't deny it.
Xiao Yun was no longer simply strong.
He was wrong. Inhuman. Like a god disguised as a man.
She pointed her blade at him. "You'll destroy everything."
He stared at her. "Then get out of the way."
"I won't."
He walked forward.
The throne didn't follow. It dissolved into black ash, seeping into the crater floor, corrupting the very earth.
He stopped just feet from her.
The cold between them intensified. Her spiritual robes cracked along the seams from the pressure. But she held firm.
Their eyes met.
Hers were resolute.
His, indifferent.
He raised his hand—
Yue flinched.
But the strike didn't come.
Instead, a distant horn blasted through the sky.
BOOOOOOOM!
All of Frostveil shook.
The clouds above the sect turned crimson.
And then it appeared.
A floating city of gold and red.
Hovering above the clouds. Massive, ancient, radiating divine suppression.
The Celestial Tribunal had arrived.
Dozens of divine constructs unfurled from the floating fortress like serpents of steel and light. Golden stairways descended. Pillars of judgment flame began forming in the sky.
And at the front of it all—
A man in white armor stepped onto the golden platform.
Tall. Hair like snow. Sword sheathed in his back, eyes hidden behind a veil of divine silk.
The High Arbiter of the Celestial Tribunal himself.
His voice shook the sky.
"Void Tyrant… you defy the heavens once again."
Xiao Yun looked up, a smirk slowly forming on his face.
"Oh," he said. "It's you."
Lightning exploded across the sky as the Arbiter unsheathed his sword.
"I sentenced you to death a thousand years ago," the Arbiter roared.
"And I've held the grudge ever since," Xiao Yun whispered.
The sword came down.
A single slash from the heavens.
Faster than light.
Hotter than flame.
More final than death.
Xiao Yun didn't move.
Instead, he raised one finger.
The Void Core in his chest ignited like a sun gone black.
And the world split.