Chapter 14: The Tomb of the First Void Emperor
The mirror-shard sky faded.
The silver flame portal shimmered before Lin Xuan like a wound torn in the world's skin.
From within it came no sound.
No pressure.
Only a pull.
Not on the body.
On the truth of a soul.
Descent Through the Forgotten Rift
Lin Xuan stepped through the gate.
Behind him, Nie Qing watched, but did not follow.
"That place isn't part of the trial," she whispered. "That place is older than the Heavens."
"Good," Lin Xuan murmured. "I've had enough of Heaven's lies."
Then he vanished into the void beneath memory.
He descended for what felt like hours, yet no time passed.
The tunnel was formed of unwritten law — symbols flickering in and out of visibility, suspended mid-thought, like a prayer the world had forgotten how to speak.
His footsteps made no echo.
His body began to fade—not dissolve, but grow less real.
Until finally…
He emerged into a world of ashen silence.
The Void Throne Necropolis
Before him stretched a ruined world beneath a black dome of dead stars.
A city of shattered towers, sunken halls, and floating fragments of laws long extinct.
At its center, atop a fractured spire…
A throne carved from a single block of reversed stone — something that absorbed presence.
All around it drifted shadows — not ghosts, but traces of failed Void Heirs, each one whispering a lesson, a death, a choice they couldn't undo.
Memory Constructs Awaken
As Lin Xuan walked forward, the air shimmered.
Three figures emerged before him — not real, but echoes, each reflecting a piece of the First Void Emperor's Dao.
A girl with no eyes, dressed in scholar's robes — her voice a monotone hum:
"I sought to master cause. I erased every consequence. In the end… I was unneeded."
A tall, battle-worn man, wrapped in celestial chains:
"I sought to master Heaven. I challenged the Eye. I won. And then… I became it."
A mirror — showing Lin Xuan himself — older, crowned, emotionless, seated on the void throne:
"I sought to free all. In the end… there was no one left to free."
Each offered him their remnants.
Each warned him of the same thing:
"The Void is not mercy.""The Void is not rebellion.""The Void is freedom from all meaning."
Lin Xuan's Choice: The Null Flame Codex
Lin Xuan walked past them all.
At the base of the throne, he knelt before a small black scroll sealed in four chains — each chain bearing a heavenly sigil.
"That's it," he whispered. "The Codex of the First."
He reached for it.
The tomb shook.
The air itself resisted.
A burning decree formed above — Heaven's last ward:
"This relic must not be claimed. It threatens all narrative stability.""Accessing this inheritance will collapse identity layering in a 10-mile conceptual radius."
Lin Xuan didn't flinch.
He placed his hand on the scroll.
Null Flame Codex Accepted
The chains shattered with a silent scream.
The scroll burst open—not with light, but conceptual darkfire — a flame that devoured assumptions.
Lin Xuan inherits the Null Flame Codex — a cultivation manual that does not teach how to become, but how to unbecome.
Core Principle: Existence is a lie layered by agreement. The Void Path allows you to selectively peel those layers.
Technique Gained: Null Flame Seal — Self-Origin Rejection Strike a target's sense of self. The stronger their ego or narrative identity, the harder they fall. Higher forms can erase divine titles, sect status, bloodline inheritance, or karma lines.
As the codex merged with his soul, the throne pulsed once.
And a voice whispered.
Not words.
Certainty.
"You are not my heir."
"You are my successor."
Meanwhile — In the Highest Heaven
Across a sky of gold and law, thousands of celestial scribes screamed in unison.
Scrolls burst into flame.
Records unraveled.
And one figure, hidden beyond even the Celestial Bureaucracy, sat up from slumber for the first time in an era.
Eyes made of starlight narrowed.
"He took the Codex.""He's not becoming the next Void Emperor."
"He's becoming… the Last."
Tomb Fades
Lin Xuan rose from the crumbling throne hall.
The tomb trembled. Reality rippled.
The Void Throne Necropolis, now empty of power, folded into his presence.
And when Lin Xuan stepped out of the portal...
He was not seen.
He was felt — like a forgotten truth returning, deeper than memory.