431 Detainment

The Temple of the Four Heroes burned.

Golden fire crawled along shattered pillars and collapsed roofs as an enormous scale of judgment hung in the sky above, its radiance tearing open the heavens themselves. Chains spilled from it in endless torrents, latching onto cultivators and stone alike, ripping bodies apart and reducing sacred architecture to drifting dust.

Once, this place had been home to Wen Yuhan and her disciples.

Now, it was the core of the Heavenly Temple and the very heart of the Promised Land.

Breaking through their defenses had been… disappointingly easy.

They had not expected an enemy to march so openly through their territory, let alone one that ignored caution altogether. Even though it should have been daylight, the world lay drowned in darkness, the night sky unnaturally summoned and illuminated only by the gold of the scale above us.

That darkness was deliberate.

Jue Bu had already reversed day and night with his Immortal Art: Reversal of Heaven and Earth, smothering precognitive sight and severing the clean threads of fate. Even the Destiny Seeking Eyes would struggle here, especially when the Heavenly Master herself only possessed half of them.

I felt the distortion in causality like a pressure against my skin.

Jue Bu yawned beside me, hands tucked lazily behind his head as another distant explosion rattled the ruins.

"This is it?" he said. "This is the Promised Land? I was promised resistance. Maybe even a little fear."

I did not answer him immediately.

Gu Jie walked a step behind me, her mismatched eyes reflecting firelight and falling ash. She studied the temple halls as we advanced, her expression tight with calculation.

"Father," she said at last, "what exactly is the plan?"

Jue Bu clicked his tongue. "You really need to stop asking questions you already know the answers to."

Gu Jie shot him a flat look. "I see futures," she replied evenly. "Not thoughts. Knowing what will happen isn't the same as knowing why."

I slowed my steps.

Around us, cultivator corpses disintegrated into ash as the judgment of the scale resolved itself. Many had not been claimed by it at all, their karma judged too lightly and their chains dissolving before they could fully form. However, in the end, they were unable to raise there heads and meet my gaze for fear of suffering the same fate that befall there compatriots.

"I don't have a plan," I said at last.

Both of them looked at me.

I continued walking, my boots crunching softly over fractured jade tiles.

"But I do have the beginning of one."

"Let me guess," started Jue Bu. "Does your plan involve sacrificing yourself again?"

Gu Jie did not even hesitate. "If it does," she said lightly, "at least make it dramatic. Toss yourself into the sun, or perhaps into the void. Knowing you, it would suit your temperament."

Their tone was teasing, familiar, and far too casual for what lay ahead. I laughed with them, but a strange tightness settled in my chest. Was this really how they saw me now? A man whose solutions always ended with his own death?

For a fleeting moment, the thought crossed my mind with uncomfortable clarity. Luring my counterpart toward the sun, the moon, and the void, then cutting him down with a double-edged sacrifice. It was reckless, brutal, and effective. I rolled the idea around once, then dismissed it.

"No," I said aloud, clicking my tongue. "If anyone's getting sacrificed, it's you." I glanced at Jue Bu. "After all, you already stole my body once. It seems only fair you take my place."

He snorted. "Bah. That's because you like me too much."

We reached the threshold of the inner sanctum and stopped.

There should have been a spire here. I remembered it clearly, rising like a needle through the heart of the Temple of the Four Heroes. Instead, there was nothing but a single stairway descending into darkness, as though the structure itself had been carved away.

As we started down, our banter continued, quieter now, echoes chasing our voices along the stone.

"It would still be more efficient to sacrifice Jue Bu," Gu Jie said thoughtfully. "He has guaranteed resurrection. Even his memories come back."

Jue Bu scoffed. "You say that far too easily. Sacrifice yourself once or twice and suddenly everyone thinks it's a renewable resource."

"There's a first time for everything," I added. "Just try it, you might find it fun…"

We descended for a long while before the stairs ended.

At the bottom lay a lake.

It stretched wider than the torchlight could reach, its surface perfectly still. The flames flickered in the walls, yet the light refused to reflect properly on the water. Even my Divine Sense faltered there. The lake did not resist perception so much as absorb it, rendering everything vague, muted, and wrong. The word "dark" felt inadequate, but no other description came to mind.

Jue Bu frowned. "How did you even know this place existed beneath the temple?"

Gu Jie answered before I could. "We saw it before. In a recorded world of the past, after we were dragged inside… and more."

I nodded. "You've been here too."

Jue Bu looked at me sharply. "I have?"

"I saw it in your memories," I said. "Parsing them was… unpleasant. Too much information, too many fractures. It isn't like searching a library. More like sifting through a collapsed city."

He stared at the lake again, eyes narrowing. "I can't remember it clearly. Just a sense that something important happened here."

Upon learning the true purpose of my arrival in this world, I had never felt so resolute about one thing.

I wanted to live.

Not merely to endure, not merely to stumble forward out of obligation, but to see another day with clear intent. I would protect my people, survive the trials set before me, and live according to what I believed was right. I would take back my agency, piece by piece, and refuse to let prophecy tighten its grip around my throat any longer.

For too long, I had lived as though the future were a verdict already passed.

No more.

This time, I would live not only for others, but for myself.

I turned to Gu Jie and Jue Bu, the faint glow of the torches barely touching the surface of the dark lake behind me.

"This is what we are going to do," I said. "We will detain my counterpart here. We will buy time for my disciples to fight back, to reclaim the faith that empowers me. Even then, victory will not be guaranteed. But we will have a fighting chance."

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I did not say it lightly. Faith was not an abstract concept to me. It was a force that had been torn away deliberately.

There was a reason Heavenly Master Yuan Shun had targeted my symbols of faith so thoroughly, going so far as to ignite a war across the world. She understood what sustained me, perhaps better than anyone else.

Jue Bu folded his arms and looked at me with open skepticism. "All right," he said. "How exactly do you plan to pull that off?"

I raised my hand and gestured toward the lake.

"This place has special properties," I replied. "I intend to drag my counterpart here and seal him."

Jue Bu let out a short, humorless laugh. "Excuse me. No offense intended," he said, "but will you not just die?"

He looked straight at me now, no teasing left in his eyes.

"I have not even seen this counterpart of yours," he continued. "But if he is capable of brainwashing Ru Qiu at his weakest moment, or slaughtering your Six Path Souls with such ease, what do you honestly think your chances are against him?"

I met his gaze and said nothing for a moment.

There were answers I could give, truths I could share. There were also things I could not afford to reveal, even to allies I trusted with my life. Some knowledge was a blade best kept hidden until the moment it was needed.

So I only smiled faintly.

"You are right," I said. "My chances are not good."

The lake behind us remained silent, its darkness patient and absolute.

"But they are not zero."

"You should trust him more," Gu Jie told Jue Bu plainly.

Jue Bu clicked his tongue, though there was no real irritation in it. "Oh, I do," he said. "I like your confidence in him. I really do. But I would prefer something a little more tangible. For example, what exactly am I supposed to be doing while he wrestles with his other self?"

I looked at him and answered without hesitation. "Stand guard."

That earned me a raised brow.

"While I detain my counterpart within the seal," I continued, "I need you to ensure nothing interferes with the process. If anything slips past you, everything we are risking here collapses."

Jue Bu exhaled slowly, then nodded. "That I can do."

I turned to Gu Jie. "As for you, you are free to act as you see fit."

She met my gaze, her mismatched eyes steady. "I will not disappoint you."

I paused, then asked quietly, "Tell me. What is it like?"

She knew exactly what I meant.

There had been precious few moments for me to ask about her constitution, one that no longer belonged purely to the mortal path. The traces of vampirism within her were unmistakable. Through the blood pact with Alice, I could still feel it. A fragment of Alice endured, inherited and transformed within Gu Jie.

I had not given up on Alice. Nor on the others who had perished while I was bodily absent.

I would bring them back.

Gu Jie lowered her gaze briefly before answering. "When Lady Alice was close to death, she forced herself onward until she found me. She offered her blood freely. With it came hope for the future, and the power to fight back against what threatens this world."

Her voice was calm, but there was weight behind every word.

I nodded. "Then we should begin. It will not be long before our enemies arrive."

Jue Bu cracked his neck once. "I will set traps here," he said. "And scatter more along the path upward. If they come, they will regret it."

Gu Jie stepped closer to the lake. "I will remain here as the last line of defense. I will also prepare countermeasures in case Yuan Shun attempts to interfere."

"That leaves me," I said.

I turned toward the dark lake, its surface unmoving, its depths unfathomable.

"I will immerse myself within it," I continued. "I need to become acquainted with this place and prepare the seal."

So we began.

Jue Bu vanished toward the stairs without another word. Gu Jie summoned the puppet fashioned from Wen Yuhan's corpse, drawn from a recorded past, its presence silent but oppressive.

I walked to the edge of the lake and stepped forward without hesitation.

The darkness swallowed me whole.

As I submerged myself, I spread my quintessence outward, asserting dominion. The authority of the Hollow Star followed, vast and inexorable. This place resisted at first, testing my will, pressing against my consciousness.

I endured.

I recalled Yuan Shen's memories, how he had once been imprisoned here, bound by forces beyond his control. Unlike him, I possessed a master key.

The crown. The Hollow Star.

With it, I began to claim this place inch by inch, bending its laws, learning its nature, and extracting every advantage it could offer.

It took me several days to fully bind this place to myself, even with the Source assisting me.

The Source truly made anything I set my mind to easier. It was not an active force I could command at will, but rather a passive, omnipresent guide, like a flawless wish-fulfilling artifact that never spoke, only nudged. My thoughts became clearer, the steps more efficient, the countless interlocking processes required to dominate this place smoothing themselves out as if they had always been meant to align this way.

When I finally stepped out of the dark lake, the surface sealing behind me without a ripple, Gu Jie was waiting.

The land trembled faintly beneath our feet, a distant but constant shudder.

"How is it going?" I asked.

She answered without hesitation. "The Heavenly Temple's armies are launching a full offensive. Jue Bu is holding them back from the outside, but they are pressing hard."

I fell silent, weighing my options. Whether to strike now or wait for the precise moment mattered more than raw strength. Timing would decide everything.

I turned my gaze back to her. "Are you finished with your task?"

"I've completed my preparations—"

She never finished the sentence.

In an instant, I was in front of her. My hand clamped onto her face, and I drove her straight into the ground with Divine Smite. The earth shattered on impact, shockwaves tearing outward as the light of divinity burned into the stone.

"Where is my daughter?" I demanded coldly.

The disguise had been immaculate. Her clothes, her power fluctuations, even the smallest mannerisms had been flawless. Anyone else would have believed it unquestioningly.

The only thing missing was the thread of faith.

The bond that connected me to my people was absent.

Gu Jie's form twisted and unraveled, the illusion shattering like glass. In her place stood my counterpart, clad in dark armor, a crimson cape hanging from his shoulders, his lips curled into a disdainful smile.

"She's fine," he said casually. "At this very moment, she's facing my disciple."

Before I could react, my arm exploded with pain.

Reflect.

The timing was impossibly precise. My arm shattered as the force rebounded, and a blade struck from my blind spot. I barely managed to react, donning my white armor and golden, flame-like cape in the same breath.

The blow sent me flying. I skidded across the ground, carving deep trenches before finally digging my feet in and stopping myself.

My counterpart, David, stood upright, stretching his neck as if bored. He yawned.

"How disappointing," he said. "Is this really all you've got? What were you thinking, coming here and picking a fight with me?"

I reached into my pocket dimension and drew Silver Steel, the familiar weight of the longsword settling into my hand.

"You're about to find out," I told him.

David brandished his own longsword, its edge humming with restrained power. "I'm not particularly interested," he replied. "I'd rather finish this quickly and be done with it."

I summoned the helm of my armor, fitting it into place.

He did the same.

Two knights stood facing one another in the heart of the Promised Land, mirror images born of the same origin, about to decide which of us would be allowed to continue existing.

David vanished in a burst of light with Flash Step.

He reappeared right in front of me, blade already descending, Searing Smite igniting along its edge. I reacted on instinct, meeting his strike with Flash Parry and chaining it into Thunderous Smite, lightning roaring down my sword.

He intercepted it.

His own Flash Parry snapped into place, cleaner and faster, as if my sword had been moving through water while his cut through air. The shock rattled my arms as he forced his way in, steel screaming as he pressed forward.

Then he began to truly fight.

His swordsmanship flowed with ruthless precision, every movement layered with a malevolent intent that seeped into each swing. I struggled to keep up, my footing tightening, breath shortening as the pressure mounted.

David laughed.

"Ah, this is great," he said, increasing both rhythm and force. "Deep underground, isolated, no interruptions. We can really compete with skills like this. So, no big skills, right?"

"I'm sorry," I replied through clenched teeth, parrying another brutal strike, "but I don't plan on limiting myself."

I could feel his anger, carefully buried but unmistakable to my Divine Sense. The dark lake beside us wasn't just scenery. It was a pathway, a vital artery he could use to move freely between the Hollowed World and the Greater Universe.

That was why he was here.

That was why he couldn't afford to lose control of this place.

I stopped holding back.

My Divine Zone flared, and Heavenly Punishment descended without warning. A colossal golden sword tore through space itself, crashing down from nowhere and nearly cleaving David in half.

He leapt back just in time.

I fed more quintessence into the Hollow Star, and more Heavenly Punishments followed. The underground shook violently, stone cracking as divine blades rained down, forcing David into a frantic retreat.

Then he was beside me again.

The movement technique he used wasn't Flash Step. It was something else and alien. My instincts screamed too late.

His blade pierced my heart.

Pain exploded through my chest, but I didn't let go. I seized his shoulder and drove my sword into his liver in the same instant.

He leaned close, voice cold. "A copy like you should know his place."

I spat blood and laughed. "You're just scared of getting trapped in this world."

His expression darkened. "That's true," he admitted. "And even if it tears me apart, I'll kill you, an unfortunate fake dragged into a game he doesn't belong in."

I met his gaze. "Bitch. I'm the real deal."

I uttered a single word.

"Egress."

The world lurched. The sensation was like being ripped upward by invisible hands, while below us the dark lake snapped and surged, pulling greedily at both of us. Space warped, systems clashing violently.

David kicked me away, trying to escape the pull.

I willed the darkness to close.

It swallowed him instantly.

We stood within that abyss, still able to see one another, his scowl sharp even in the void. He turned on me, fury blazing.

"What are you playing at?" he demanded.

"I just want to fix what you broke," I said calmly. "But first, I'll destroy you. Then I'll heal this world."

He sneered. "You're a fool."

I shook my head. "And you're an even bigger one if you think this is just a game."