They landed in a scorched field beyond the borders of Obsidian Grove.
The sky had changed.
Where once stars shimmered quietly, now a crack split the heavens—faint but growing. As if the very sky had begun to fracture from Lei's awakening.
Lin Yue steadied herself. "Do you feel that?"
Lei nodded. "They're watching. The gods. The Heavens know I've returned."
Elder Rong arrived with several guardians, all wide-eyed and silent as they felt the shift in the air around Lei—his aura no longer that of a mere cultivator. He was something old, something rooted in rebellion, and storm-forged.
"You've crossed the threshold," Rong said. "There's no hiding now."
"I don't plan to," Lei replied. "This world needs to remember what was lost—and why we fell."
A gust of wind stirred the earth, but it wasn't natural.
A portal tore open in the sky above them.
From within descended a figure robed in heavenly gold, eyes blindfolded with burning silk, a sword that sang with divine resonance strapped to his back.
"The Celestial Tribunal sends judgment," the being declared. "Kneel, bearer of the Root."
But Lei didn't flinch. He stepped forward, lightning crackling at his fingertips, Lin Yue at his side, the lotus shard still pulsing in her grip.
"I knelt once," Lei said. "Never again."
Thunder roared behind his words.
The golden figure paused—just for a moment. Then slowly unsheathed his sword.
As the first divine strike fell, Lei raised his blade to meet it, storm meeting starfire in an explosion that cracked the very ground beneath them.
And in that clash, the war for the heavens… began anew.