CHAPTER 23: A VOW

Tian Lei watched it all unfold like a ghost.

Then—

A hand touched his shoulder.

He turned.

Behind him stood a radiant figure cloaked in gold. Feminine in shape, yet indistinct—as if carved from divine flame.

Where her face should be was only a blinding glow... but her presence calmed everything inside him.

His broken heart.

His fractured soul.

His fading will.

She spoke without words, her voice resonating in his mind like a celestial bell:

"Which path do you choose?"

Tian Lei tried to speak... but no sound came.

His lips trembled. His voice caught in his throat, heavy like stone. In front of him, the void shifted.

The golden figure raised a hand.

And three doors shimmered into being—each suspended in the nothingness of the soul realm, radiating with their own dreadful finality.

One was black—twisted and burning with crimson runes, leaking tendrils of rage, betrayal, and bone-deep pain.

One was silver—cold and perfect, glowing with serene detachment, a path of erasure.

And the last, the third, flickered like a glitch in the cosmos. Fractured. Unstable. A paradox. A mirror of Tian Lei himself.

But she only pointed to the first two.

"Two choices, Wielder of the Infinite Fortune Core."

Her voice rang out—not with demand, but with divine resonance. It echoed through his marrow.

"One door will lead you back—to where you are now. You may rise, fueled by hatred, loss, and vengeance. Let pain carve your purpose. Slaughter those who took her. Crush the sect that betrayed you."

She gestured toward the black door. The void behind it pulsed with images—Yuyan’s severed head. Xiao Feng’s sneering face. The Sect Leader’s cold betrayal.

"Or..."

Her hand shifted, now motioning to the silver door.

"You leave this life behind. The pain. The love. The names. Even... her."

"Cross through and be reborn in another world. With a new face. A new path. A new destiny. A clean slate. This door is your escape, granted by me—your Core Spirit."

Tian Lei’s eyes narrowed.

"...You’re the Infinite Fortune Core?"

She nodded, eyes shimmering like a dying star.

"Yes. I am your Core. I am possibility incarnate. And I have given you this choice not as mercy—but as your right as my current Master."

"You have infinite time. So, choose wisely."

Silence followed.

Tian Lei looked at the doors.

Looked at her.

He clenched his fists.

The black door hissed, whispering vengeance, dripping crimson promises.

The silver door shimmered like salvation—cold, painless, clean.

And still... that third door flickered in his periphery—unacknowledged by her. Broken. Chaotic. Neither vengeance nor escape.

Tian Lei turned toward it.

"What... is this third door?" he asked, voice hoarse, hollow yet awakening.

The golden figure—his Core Spirit—simply replied.

"That door... is you, unshaped by me."

Her eyes bore into him.

"If you choose it, I will grant no extra powers. No power boosts. No abilities. I will remain as I am, like before silent, until you achive something great. "

"Basically, you will only have access to basic functions of mine, the one you currently have"

Tian Lei stood silent. Then he smiled bitterly.

"I see."

"I was the reason she died... and that’s why I can’t run away."

The black door pulsed with wrathful seduction. The silver door shimmered with forgetting.

But he stepped toward the broken third.

The golden woman raised her brow.

"Then it is the path of vengeance?"

"No."

His voice, soft—shaking—yet resolved.

He closed his eyes. And remembered her.

That day...

Walking back from a mission. She had laughed and asked, "What would you do if I died before you?"

He had smiled and said he’d follow her to the afterlife.

She had gotten angry—smacked his shoulder and said, "Idiot. I want you to live on. Smile. Laugh. Find happiness again. Only then can my soul rest peacefully."

A tear slid down Tian Lei’s cheek as he murmured,

"She wouldn’t want me to become a demon driven by hate."

He placed his hand on the third door.

"This... is my path."

He blinked—

And was back in the freezing stone cell. But this time, his eyes weren’t hollow.

They were cold. Clear. Purposeful.

"Sister Yue."

From his soul domain, the Spirit of Muring Yue emerged, guilt hidden in her expression.

"Help me escape."

His voice was calm. Flat. Lethal.

She looked at him. Then sighed, ashamed.

"Even I didn’t think a so-called righteous sect could be this monstrous..."

Her aura pulsed.

"If you want, I can end them all right now. With my current sealed state, wiping Xiao Feng off the map would be easy—and with the Great Void Art, we could vanish instantly."

Tian Lei shook his head slowly.

"No."

"He doesn’t get to die cleanly."

"I want him to suffer. Slowly. Until he begs for death. The way... she suffered."

Muring Yue looked at him—and nodded, her form darkening slightly as if resonating with his will.

She raised her hand.

"Then let’s begin. I’ll use the highest amount of Qi I can spare without shattering your mortal body. This technique will teleport us about 10,000 kilometers away."

A black void split open before him, space itself shuddering.

"But we’ll need to jump several more times to truly disappear from their reach."

Without hesitation, Tian Lei stepped through the crack.

On the other side—10,000 kilometers away—he collapsed on a grassy plain, gasping.

Blood at the corner of his lips.

His body trembled, yet he didn’t scream. He didn’t vomit. He didn’t curse.

Muring Yue appeared beside him, kneeling down.

She placed a hand on his shoulder.

"It’s your first time jumping through void with a shattered meridian. Not vomiting is... a decent start."

He didn’t smile.

But he nodded.

"Okay. First step—repair your meridians."

Muring Yue’s voice was quiet, yet firm.

"We already have the Sun and Moon Nectar. With that, we can accelerate the healing process."

"though, that will come after we are far away from here"

She raised her hands, channeling the colourless Qi, that made him raise his brow.

In seamless coordination, they vanished once again.

Another void jump.

And then another.

Six in total.

By the time they emerged—deep within an unfamiliar empire—Muring Yue was trembling, her ethereal body visibly dimmer, flickering like a candle in the wind.

She had used the Great Void Art far beyond safe limits.

No Spirit Qi remained in her.Only soul power—and even that was dangerously low.