"Young Master, NO!" Li Qiang's desperate shout cut through the chaos as the loyal servant threw himself between Du Yanze and the descending technique. The man who had served the Du family faithfully for decades spread his arms wide, his meager cultivation flaring desperately as he tried to shield his master.

The beam of concentrated Xuan Yi struck Li Qiang dead center. Unlike the techniques that had merely killed the guards, this one was designed for complete annihilation. Du Yanze watched in horror as his oldest friend simply... unraveled. Not burned or crushed, but undone on a fundamental level, his very existence questioned out of reality.

"Li Qiang!" Du Yanze's scream tore from his throat as he lunged forward, but there was nothing left to catch. The man who had believed in him when no one else would, who had fabricated reports of his greatness and protected his fragile ego through years of humiliation, was simply gone.

"Loyal to the end," the Tribunal member murmured. "Such devotion wasted on corruption. A pity."

Rage flooded through Du Yanze's spiritual channels, his grief and fury mixing with the Mandelbrot Recursion pattern in ways that made his vision go white around the edges. He raised his brush with shaking hands, pouring everything he had into the technique: Heaven's Wrath Answers Mortal Pain.

The attack was more powerful than anything he'd managed before, driven by raw emotion rather than skill. Golden fire erupted from his calligraphy, washing over the nearest Tribunal member in a wave of superheated Xuan Yi.

For a moment, Du Yanze thought he might actually hurt them.

Then the Tribunal member simply wrote Emotions Are Temporary, Truth Is Eternal and Du Yanze's technique guttered out like a candle in a hurricane.

"Grief can indeed amplify power,” the tribunal member nodded. “But without proper foundation, it remains merely noise."

Around them, the defensive battle was already turning into a massacre.

The converted guards launched their own techniques, water spears, earth barriers, wind blades, but their attacks simply evaporated against the Tribunal members' casual defenses. A gesture from one white-robed figure sent a wave of golden fire rolling across the courtyard, and Du Yanze watched in horror as a dozen men who had served him faithfully were consumed in an instant.

"I won’t let you kill them!" Feng Zhaoyang roared, launching himself at the nearest Tribunal member despite his injuries. His technique was more sophisticated than the guards', a complex binding formation that attempted to trap his opponent in crystallized certainty.

For a moment, it looked like it might actually work.

Then the Tribunal member simply wrote Freedom in the air, and Feng Zhaoyang's technique unraveled like a poorly tied knot.

"Former City Lord," the Tribunal member said with what sounded almost like pity, "you were once a proud servant of the realm's truth. To see you fallen so far is genuinely tragic."

The white-robed figure's next technique was brutally simple: End Suffering Through Death.

Feng Zhaoyang tried to dodge, but his injuries slowed him fatally. The beam of concentrated Xuan Yi struck him center mass, and Du Yanze watched the man who had become his friend and ally ceased to exist.

"City Lord!" several of the guards screamed, their formation discipline breaking as they witnessed their leader's annihilation.

The Stone Emperor's roar of rage shook the entire courtyard. "You dare harm those under my protection?!" The massive boulder launched himself at the Tribunal members with surprising speed, his stone form glowing with accumulated earth energy.

Three of the Tribunal members raised brushes simultaneously, their combined technique reading: Mountains Bow Before Heaven's Authority.

The Stone Emperor's charge stopped as if he'd hit an invisible wall. His massive form hung suspended in mid-air for a moment, straining against the technique's power, before being slammed back to earth with enough force to crack his stone hide.

"Uncle Rocky!" Little Bloom's tiny voice was barely audible over the sounds of battle.

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The ancient oak's branches swept down, trying to shield both the Stone Emperor and the tiny sapling, but one of the Tribunal members was already moving to intercept.

"Corruption spreads through all who embrace doubt," the figure declared, writing Purifying Fire Cleanses All Taint.

"Papa!" Little Bloom cried out as golden flames began consuming the ancient oak's bark. The massive tree thrashed in agony, his branches writhing as the fire ate away at wood that had stood for millennia.

Du Yanze watched in helpless horror as the oak tried desperately to shield Little Bloom with his burning branches, even as the purifying fire consumed more and more of his ancient form. The tree's dying effort managed to create a small pocket of protection around the tiny sapling, but it was clear the flames would reach her soon.

"Please," the ancient oak's voice was barely a whisper now, most of his spiritual essence already consumed. "She's just... just a child. She doesn't understand..."

"Children grow into adults," the Tribunal member replied coldly. "Corruption must be cleansed at the root."

The figure raised their brush again, preparing the final technique that would incinerate Little Bloom.

Du Yanze moved without thinking. His body launched itself forward, Xuan Yi flooding his muscles to give him speed he'd never possessed before. The Tribunal member's technique was already forming, Innocent Lives Claimed by Corruption Must Be Saved Through Death, when Du Yanze interposed himself between the golden fire and the tiny sapling.

The pain was indescribable.

It felt like being struck by a falling star, every cell in his body simultaneously burning and freezing and tearing apart. He could feel his spiritual cultivation being ripped away, the Mandelbrot Recursion pattern in his channels shattering under the assault of Xuan Yi.

But Little Bloom was safe behind him. That was what mattered.

Du Yanze hit the ground hard, his vision already going dark around the edges. He could feel his life force ebbing away, could sense his consciousness beginning to fragment as the Tribunal technique completed its work.

"Big Brother Yanze!" Little Bloom's tiny branches wrapped around his head, her voice breaking with sobs. "No, no, no! Don't go to sleep! Please don't leave Little Bloom alone!"

Her small form pressed against his cheek, and he could feel her tears, actual water droplets that tiny saplings shouldn't even be able to produce, falling onto his skin.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, though he wasn't sure if he said it aloud or just thought it. "I'm sorry I couldn't... couldn't protect..."

The world faded to black as Little Bloom's desperate pleas echoed in his fading consciousness. The last thing he felt was her tiny branches stroking his hair, trying to comfort him even as her own world collapsed around her.

"Don't leave me," she whispered. "Please don't leave me all alone..."

Then everything was darkness.

Then everything was light.

Du Yanze jerked upright with a gasp that felt like it might tear his throat apart. He was sitting in a comfortable chair in the City Lord's private library, surrounded by floating formations and jade shelves exactly as they had been a few days ago. Golden afternoon sunlight streamed through the windows, and there was no sound of battle, no screams, no smell of burning flesh and wood.

His hands flew to his chest, expecting to find the gaping wound where the Tribunal technique had torn through him. Instead, he found unmarked skin beneath his robes and a cultivation base that hummed with full Paramount Sovereign power.

The time loop had worked.

"Divine being?" he called out internally, his voice shaking as the memories of watching everyone die crashed over him in waves. "Ke Yin? Are you there?"

Silence.

He tried again, more desperately. "Please, I know you said you had to leave, but I need help. They all died. Everyone died, and I couldn't stop it. I couldn't save any of them."

Still nothing. Just the quiet hum of his own spiritual energy and the distant sounds of a city that didn't yet know it was doomed.

Du Yanze buried his face in his trembling hands as the full weight of his situation settled over him. The time loop had reset everything to two days ago, just after his breakthrough to World-Writ Sovereign. Everyone was alive again: Feng Zhaoyang, the Stone Emperor, the ancient oak, Little Bloom. But they had no memory of what was coming.

The divine being had warned him this would happen. Ke Yin had explained that the time loop would isolate him, make him the only person who remembered each reset while everyone else remained trapped in their limited perspective. But hearing about it and experiencing it were completely different things.

Tomorrow, the first Tribunal contingent would arrive: one World-Writ Sovereign with six Crowned Heart Realm escorts. The divine being Yuan Zhen had defeated them with a single golden hand technique, but Yuan Zhen was gone now, and that burden would fall to Du Yanze.

Could he replicate what Yuan Zhen had accomplished?

Could he capture seven Tribunal members without anyone getting hurt?

The divine being had made it look effortless, but Du Yanze knew his own limitations. His calligraphy was mediocre at best, his combat experience practically nonexistent when compared to cold-blooded soldiers.

Even if he somehow managed to defeat the advance force, it would only buy them one more day.

The next morning would bring the real threat: five World-Writ Sovereigns leading dozens of specialists, coming specifically to exterminate every Disbeliever in the city. Those were the ones who had butchered everyone, who had erased Feng Zhaoyang from existence and burned the ancient oak alive while Little Bloom screamed.

The Mandelbrot Recursion pattern in his spiritual channels pulsed steadily, ready to reset time again if necessary. Infinite chances to get it right, just as Ke Yin had promised.

But as Du Yanze sat alone in the library, surrounded by the knowledge that had failed him so completely, he couldn't help but wonder if infinite attempts would be enough when each failure meant watching the people he cared about dying over and over again.

He had eternity to figure it out.

He just hoped his sanity would last long enough to find the solution.