1. Thunder Before the Storm
On the final day of the Heaven List preliminaries, black skies loomed overhead.
There was no sunrise. No birdsong. Just wind—sharp and whispering of death.
Lin Bufan stood alone at the edge of the arena.
He was now ranked sixth.
The crowd chanted his name.
But his gaze wasn't on them.
He stared across the platform at the figure who waited there.
Clad in black, face veiled, and aura sheathed. Yet, every inch of their presence screamed one thing:
Sword Cultivator. Peak tier. Not from any known sect.
The announcer hesitated for the first time in the entire tournament.
"The final match of the day is: Lin Bufan versus... Unknown Challenger."
2. The Blade Speaks First
The challenger didn't introduce himself.
He just moved.
In a flash of silver, the first strike came—not at Bufan's body, but at his shadow.
Bufan flinched as a sharp pain shot through his leg. Blood.
"He's targeting dimensional layers?"
[Warning: Unknown Sword Technique Detected."
[System cannot analyze source. Defensive protocols compromised."
The man spoke at last.
His voice was calm but cold enough to freeze bones.
"You climb like a beast. Loud. Wild. But beasts don't belong on the stage of swords."
Bufan spat blood. He smiled.
"Funny. I was thinking the same."
He dashed forward.
1. Thunder Before the Storm
On the final day of the Heaven List preliminaries, black skies loomed overhead.
There was no sunrise. No birdsong. Just wind—sharp and whispering of death.
Lin Bufan stood alone at the edge of the arena.
He was now ranked sixth.
The crowd chanted his name.
But his gaze wasn't on them.
He stared across the platform at the figure who waited there.
Clad in black, face veiled, and aura sheathed. Yet, every inch of their presence screamed one thing:
Sword Cultivator. Peak tier. Not from any known sect.
The announcer hesitated for the first time in the entire tournament.
"The final match of the day is: Lin Bufan versus... Unknown Challenger."
2. The Blade Speaks First
The challenger didn't introduce himself.
He just moved.
In a flash of silver, the first strike came—not at Bufan's body, but at his shadow.
Bufan flinched as a sharp pain shot through his leg. Blood.
"He's targeting dimensional layers?"
[Warning: Unknown Sword Technique Detected."
[System cannot analyze source. Defensive protocols compromised."
The man spoke at last.
His voice was calm but cold enough to freeze bones.
"You climb like a beast. Loud. Wild. But beasts don't belong on the stage of swords."
Bufan spat blood. He smiled.
"Funny. I was thinking the same."
He dashed forward.
5. The Sword from the Dark
But then—
A flicker.
An unseen second blade whispered through the air.
Clang!
The challenger's sword was deflected—just barely—by another.
A girl landed beside Bufan.
Hooded. White robes. Ink-black hair.
She didn't speak.
But her sword was drawn.
It glowed.
The challenger took a step back. His voice shifted. "You..."
"Go," she said to Bufan without turning around. "You've done enough today."
He tried to rise.
She didn't let him.
"You'll die," she said softly. "And I don't want to see that yet."
She turned to the swordsman.
"I'll handle this."
6. System Awakens · New State
As the girl stepped forward, Bufan's system surged.
[System Emergency Protocol Unlocked]
Condition: Near-death interference by external force
[New Path: Parallel Override Mode.
Active during critical threat.
Passive Boost: Mind-State Split/Energy Leak Reversal
Host recognized: "One Watched by the Abyss."
Bufan's eyes widened.
Watched by the Abyss?
He looked at the girl again.
Her blade moved, and the air around it warped.
"What... are you?"
7. The Duel That Didn't End
Their swords met only once.
But the sound of it echoed through the entire city.
The challenger stepped back, blood dripping from his palm. It was the first time he had bled.
Then, he smiled.
"Very well," he said. "Let the game continue."
And he vanished.
8. The curtain falls.
Later, on the highest platform, the Heaven List was updated one last time.
Xie Yu: 6 wins
Bai Linyue — 6 wins
Lin Bufan — 6 wins (conditional match)
Special note: "Unrecognized challenger appeared — match validated by sect judges."
Risk Level Increased: Monitoring advised.
And in the crowd...
Eyes Glowed. Notes were taken. Kill orders were drafted. Offers were prepared.
A new name was on everyone's lips:
"The Butcher of the East."
"The Wild Star."
Lin Bufan.
9. The Council Reacts
Far above the arena, in a floating chamber shielded by ancient arrays, representatives from the major sects gathered:
Sword Sect: Heaven Sound Pavilion. Firecloud Hall. Even a shadow from the Demon Abyss Sect was present.
They all stared at the replay crystal.
The girl's single slash.
The impossible blade arc.
The unknown energy signature.
"She used Void Edge," said a calm voice. "That art was lost a hundred years ago."
"Not lost," a second voice corrected. "Erased."
A third voice stood up. "We cannot allow a descendant of the Abyss Sword Lineage to walk freely."
"She's protecting him," someone else said. "The boy."
All eyes shifted to Lin Bufan.
Lin Bufan.
Young. untamed. Disruptive.
Variable. Dangerous. Necessary.
10. Recovery Room: Questions with No Answers
Bufan woke up in a sealed chamber. He was bandaged, weak, and angry.
Mu Qingxue was sitting nearby.
"How long?" he asked.
"Two days."
He gritted his teeth. "Where is she?"
"Gone."
He tried to rise. He failed.
"I had him," he muttered. "I would've—"
"No," Qingxue cut in. "You wouldn't have. And that's okay."
She looked at him. For once, there was no sarcasm. No teasing.
Just truth.
"You almost died. But you didn't. Now, everyone's watching."
Bufan's jaw clenched. "Let them."
Then he paused.
He whispered, "Who was she?"
Qingxue didn't answer.
11. System Deep Glitch: Hidden Protocol Triggered
That night, when he was alone, the system flickered again.
But this time, it spoke first.
"Host, are you afraid of what you're becoming?"
[Override permission detected.]
Backup memory recovered — fragment 1 of 7.
Image projection: A man in black bleeding into the snow. A girl crying. A sword falling through the stars.
Bufan gripped his head.
The images felt familiar.
Too familiar.
What is this? Whose memory is this?"
The system answered simply:
Yours. From a timeline that no longer exists."
12. The Girl with No Name
Elsewhere, far from the arena, the girl in white walked along a forest trail.
She was alone.
But she was not unobserved.
From the shadows emerged three assassins—sent by someone who'd seen too much.
"Return the sword," the leader hissed. "Or return your life."
She didn't stop walking.
"You're not qualified to make demands."
A pause.
Then, slaughter.
She killed them without fully drawing her blade.
Afterward, she whispered to herself:
"I wasn't supposed to interfere. Not yet."
But he reminded me of him."
13. The Real List
Three nights later, a scroll was unsealed in a hidden chamber of the Heaven List's true keep.
It was a list the public never saw.
It held only ten names.
Nine were crossed out.
Now, one more name had been added.
Name: Lin Bufan
Status: Awakened Host
Classification: Anomaly Tier
Fate Trajectory: Unstable
Kill Level Authorization: Delayed
Someone chuckled in the dark.
"Another wolf joins the game."
14. Volume I: End
At dawn, Lin Bufan stepped out of his quarters.
His wounds had healed. His eyes were sharper. His mind was quieter.
He looked at the rising sun.
Something's coming. Something bigger than what I've trained for.
But that's fine.
I'm not running anymore.
The wind stirred.
Somewhere, deep in the unseen corners of the world—
—the game had begun.
15. The Letter She Left Behind
When Lin Bufan woke up for the second time, he found a scroll waiting beside his bed.
No seal. No name.
There was just a single stroke across the paper—curved like the crescent moon and thin as a breath of air. It was the same style as the girl's blade.
He hesitated, then opened it.
"You shouldn't know who I am. Not yet."
"But I saw you stand when you should've fallen. I saw something else, too—something that doesn't belong in this world."
"You carry a system, but the system is not what you think."
When it breaks, don't run. Let it burn. Only in that fire can you remember who you were."
"Until then, live. Survive."
"I'll be watching."
There was no signature.
Only one final line was written in ancient script:
"Abyss-born do not kneel."
Bufan stared at it for a long time.
His hand was shaking, but he didn't know why.
16. Legacy Unspoken · Hinted in Dust
Later that night, an elder from the outer sect approached him.
The old man had cloudy eyes and a limp.
"You remind me of someone," he muttered. "A boy who stood here forty years ago. Same eyes. Same fire."
Bufan narrowed his gaze. "You knew my parents?"
"No," the old man said, smiling faintly. "But I knew you."
Before Bufan could ask any questions, the elder turned and vanished into the mist.
Yourselves?
The word echoed in his mind like a riddle.
Past life? Timeline? Illusion?
He clenched his fists.
No more riddles. I'll carve the truth out myself."
17. The Sword Sect Moves
In a silver hall atop the sect's floating citadel, three envoys knelt before a throne.
On the throne sat a man whose face was obscured by a curtain of light.
"Is the anomaly confirmed?" he asked.
"Yes, Master."
"And the girl?"
"She's returned to hiding. But she's using techniques that were thought lost in the Black Sword Cataclysm."
The man tapped the hilt of a sealed blade beside him.
"Let him rise," he said. "Let them all rise."
There was a pause.
"Then we will strike down those who dare fly too close to the sun."
18. End of the Beginning
Two days later, Lin Bufan stood alone on the cliff just outside the city.
The wind was cold. The stars were unusually clear.
His system pinged.
[Chapter Complete.]
[Progression Milestone: Volume I — Initiation Phase Cleared."
[New System State Available: Instinct Sync Mode.
→ Condition: The host embraces a path beyond programmed limits.
Side note: Congratulations, player! You broke the game."
Bufan smirked.
"Then let the next game begin."
He turned.
The road ahead was long.
But, for the first time, he wanted to walk it.