Blood Cannot Reign
The chamber pulsed with tension.
No sound. No movement. Just raw, living pressure so thick it threatened to crush the bones of lesser cultivators. Cracks formed in the air around the Crimson King, not from physical strikes, but from the sheer weight of the spiritual storm he now emanated.
This was no longer a battle. It was war.
And yet, standing in the middle of it all—Haeun, Haneul, and Jin Haru didn't flinch.
They had already made their choice.
1. Unleashing the Blood Domain
The Crimson King raised both arms, and the very walls of the throne chamber bled. Rivers of red carved their way down ancient stone, rising into midair and forming a swirling vortex of blood essence. Glyphs spun along his skin, ancient and forbidden.
"Now you face the real me," he growled. "No more tricks. No more games."
Suddenly, the blood snapped into form—an arena within an arena, a domain where his control was absolute.
Haneul shifted forward first, slicing open space with his blade, disrupting the flow of blood for mere seconds. Jin followed with a barrage of spirit arrows, each glowing with overlapping sigils, aimed not to hit—but to disrupt the Crimson King's tempo.
Haeun stayed still, his eyes closed.
His Dantians weren't just glowing—they were calling to each other. Threads of power laced between them, drawing out an unstable fusion.
He was no longer at the edge of the Evolutionary Realm.
He was teetering.
2. Three Versus One
They struck in tandem.
Haneul from above, slicing downward in a crescent of silver Qi. Jin, firing into the King's blind spots, each shot guided by pre-etched calculations. And Haeun, blinking between positions with ghostlike speed, placing disruption talismans across the ground.
The Crimson King blocked the first strike. Dodged the second. Absorbed the third.
Then retaliated.
With a howl, the air burst into a sea of crimson limbs—spiritual projections of wrath and hate. They clawed and tore at everything in reach, striking with the weight of ten thousand vengeful souls.
Haneul vanished into a flash step, reappearing above.
"He's learning with every exchange," he realized. "He's not just fighting—he's evolving too."
Jin's body screamed in pain from a near-miss. Blood dripped down his arm, his vision swimming.
"One more hit like that and I'm done—"
But then something strange happened.
He could see it.
Everything.
The flow of blood.
The pulse of the Crimson King's techniques.
The exact moment the next strike would land.
"This is it."
Jin let go.
Not of the bow—but of the fear.
He moved on instinct. Fired again, and again. Not at the King—but at the places the King would be.
3. A Turning Point
For the first time, the Crimson King was caught off guard.
One arrow pierced his thigh, disrupting a crucial blood channel.
Another struck his back, and the blood domain flickered for a split second.
Haeun seized the opening.
With his Dantians vibrating in a perfect triad, he stepped forward—not physically, but spiritually. His mind, body, and essence aligned for the briefest of instants.
"Your reign ends here," he whispered.
He reached out with both palms, forming a tri-circular seal in the air. One circle burned with life. One pulsed with spirit. One floated above, radiating pure clarity.
Three worlds, one strike.
The seal launched forward.
The Crimson King roared, attempting to absorb it—only to stagger back, clutching his chest. The tri-seal didn't damage his body.
It crushed his bloodline.
4. No Return
Still, he wouldn't fall.
"I will not be undone by children!" the Crimson King bellowed.
He threw off his outer robe, revealing a torso covered in glowing runes—each one a pact made, a blood ritual sealed with the lives of those he had slain.
"I've sacrificed everything. I am the culmination of a thousand deaths."
His final technique began.
The blood domain collapsed inward, condensing into a single blood sun above his head. It screamed in unholy tones, radiating annihilation.
Jin fell to one knee.
Haneul couldn't move—his sword had cracked under the pressure.
And Haeun?
He stood tall.
And smiled.
"That's why you've already lost," he said.
The three of them stood in a triangle, light linking them together.
Their energies synchronized.
5. Rebellion Incarnate
The sky tore open above the chamber, revealing not heaven—but silence.
A void where rebellion takes root.
Where power is not loud—but still.
Where kings fall not to armies, but to resolve.
The Nameless One's scroll, hidden deep beneath the ruins, began to glow faintly in its broken statue's hands.
Their master's legacy acknowledged them.
A voice whispered from the void:
"Power… is not dominion. It is choice."
The Crimson King unleashed the blood sun.
It screamed downward—unstoppable.
And the three of them raised their hands.
Together.
The sun shattered.
Not from force.
But from resonance.
6. Aftermath
The Crimson King collapsed to his knees, body twitching, runes dimming.
"How…?" he muttered. "How could you…"
Haeun stepped forward.
"Because we didn't fight to rule. We fought to end your reign."
With one final motion, Haneul's repaired sword glided through the King's chest.
He fell.
For good.
7. Jin's Awakening
As the chamber quieted, Jin Haru sat down hard.
His spirit surged, not in celebration—but in revelation.
He'd stopped comparing himself.
And because of it—
His Spirit Core reshaped itself.
A fourth ring formed around it.
Jin Haru had stepped onto the path of Ascension.
8. End of the Blood Chapter
The trio stood in silence.
The throne hall burned around them.
But they were no longer victims.
They were no longer survivors.
They were the rebellion