Chapter 21: Envoys of the Bound Path

The Unwritten Sect was still forming.

Its mountain had no name.

Its elders bore no titles.

Its disciples learned not from scrolls—but from silence.

Each day, more came: broken wanderers, forgotten heirs, beasts who dreamed, and even spirits who refused to reincarnate, choosing instead to walk a path with no script but their own.

But Lin Xuan knew peace would not last.

Freedom, in a world trained to kneel, is not seen as possibility.

It is seen as threat.

And the first reaction… had arrived.

 Arrival of the Envoys

At the edge of the mist-shrouded mountains, three cultivators stood in silence.

They bore no weapons, only scrolls sealed in golden jade and divine wax.

But their presence struck deeper than any sword.

The first wore blue robes—a representative of the Ninefold Sects Alliance, emissary of traditional cultivation.

The second wore black and gold—a Voice of Karma, a spiritual adjudicator from the Heaven-Rooted Temple.

And the third was wrapped in white scripture—skin inked with sacred laws.

"A Living Edict," whispered Elder Yun Rou."The very laws of the heavens… bound in human form."

Nie Qing narrowed her eyes.

"They don't come to negotiate."

"They come to bind."

 The Debate Begins

Lin Xuan met them in silence beneath the Voidspire Tree.

They did not bow.

The blue-robed envoy stepped forward.

"We recognize your achievement, Lin Xuan."

"Your war against Heaven has disrupted karmic flow across five major sects and over ninety-seven minor realms."

"We are not here to fight you."

"We are here to give you a choice."

Lin Xuan raised a brow.

"You mean to offer chains disguised as respect."

The Voice of Karma stepped forward.

"The world needs order."

"Without it, mortals fall to madness. Cultivators break. Demons rise."

"We do not need you to kneel."

"We only ask you to… be defined."

The Living Edict's eyes opened—bright with law-script.

"Submit to the Codified Paths Accord."

"Name your sect. List your techniques. Declare your stages."

"And you will be granted autonomy under Heaven."

 Lin Xuan Responds

Lin Xuan stood.

The wind did not stir.

But the Null Flame Codex flickered at his side.

He said only this:

"The moment I let someone else define me, I cease to exist."

"I am not a sect."

"I am not a rebellion."

"I am the question you are afraid to ask."

The ground beneath him pulsed once.The envoys flinched.

The Living Edict staggered.

"He… he speaks outside script—I cannot trace his meaning…"

 Envoy Ultimatum

The blue-robed envoy's face darkened.

"Then you are a threat."

"And threats must be contained."

The scrolls in their hands ignited.

Heaven's law returned in fire.

"Three days, Lin Xuan."

"Bind your name, or the Seventy-Two Sects will vote to declare you an anomaly-class existential hazard."

"If that happens…"

"They will not send envoys next time."

"They will send gods."

They turned and vanished.

Leaving silence once more.

 Aftermath — The Sect Reacts

Nie Qing approached Lin Xuan as the sun set behind the fractured heavens.

"They won't wait three days," she said.

"They're already preparing for war."

"What do we do?"

Lin Xuan's gaze turned skyward.

Then to the mountain below—where hundreds of misfit disciples trained without law.

Where broken dreams slowly stitched themselves into new meaning.

"We teach them to write themselves faster."

"Because when war comes…"

"Only those who have defined their own existence can withstand being erased."

 Elsewhere — One of the Void Incarnates Moves

In the ruined Western Continent, beneath a temple that had fallen into the sea, a child of flame and ink opened its eyes.

It wore Lin Xuan's face.

But its smile… was different.

"They want a god?"

"Then I shall be what they fear."

"I will be the Lin Xuan who never stopped at freedom."

It walked toward the East.

Toward the Unwritten Sect.

 Chapter Rewards

 Sect Status: Unwritten Sect – Recognized as Existential Anomaly World Threat Level: Rising Incoming: War Resolution from Seventy-Two Sects

 Lin Xuan New Insight: Existence as Defiance Lin Xuan can now nullify rank-based suppression effects. Divine titles and sect hierarchies lose their coercive power in his presence.