Void Sovereign: rebirth of the sect master

“Sect Master… forgive us.”

Lu Tian heard from behind him as he felt a sword pierce his back cleanly and emerging from his chest quickly. For a brief and almost absurd moment, Lu Tian found himself staring at the shining tip protruding from his robes, as though it belonged to someone else.

Lu Tian had heard that voice before at oath ceremonies, at council gatherings, during solemn discussions of the sect’s future. It was the voices of men who believed themselves righteous. The voices belonged to the sect elders who are the foundations of the sect.

Behind him, disciples shouted in horror.

“Protect the Sect Master!”

“How dare you…” A wave of pressure exploded outward from Elder Fang’s palm. Hundreds of disciples were slammed into pillars, coughing blood.

Lu Tian exhaled once. “So, it has come to this”. He whispered as he turned to face the crowd

A murmur spread through the disciples gathered below the summit plaza. They all stared in disbelief as the elders harmed the Sect Master. They all heard the bell for them to gather at the Azure peak but the announcement they had been expecting now turned into to them witnessing the death of their Sect Master.

Lu Tian remained standing.

The Grand Elders stood before him in a half-circle, their robes fluttering in the violent wind that had begun to coil around the mountain. Five men who had guided the sect for decades. Five men who had once knelt to him and sworn loyalty when he inherited the position of Sect Master.

Lu Tian’s chest rose and fell heavily as he stared at them, his mind struggling to reconcile the reality before him with the memories of the years they had spent fighting side by side.

“Why?” he finally asked.

His voice was hoarse, yet it sounded clearly across the silent plaza.

None of the elders answered immediately. It was Elder Fang who eventually stepped forward.

“You should not have resisted the inevitable,” Elder Fang said, his expression grave but not cruel. “The times have changed.”

Lu Tian felt his blood pour out of the hole in his chest, soaking into his robes, trickling down onto the ancient stone engraved with the sect’s insignia. The formation lines beneath his feet flickered in response to his weakening spiritual aura.

“So, it was you,” Lu Tian replied, a bitter smile forming on his lips despite the blood that trickled from the corner of his mouth. “All this time, the collapse of the formation… the disturbances in the spirit veins… I suspected an enemy from outside the sect.”

His eyes hardened. “I never imagined the enemy would be standing beside me.”

The elders remained silent but that silence was more damning than any confession.

Lu Tian slowly lifted his gaze to the elders. “You diverted the formation resources,” he said quietly.

Elder Fang did not deny it. “We did what was necessary.”

Lu Tian felt something inside his chest tighten from the crushing realization that the sect he had devoted his entire life to protecting had been undermined from within.

The formation beneath his feet flickered again, its light dimming further.

Above them, the sky began to fracture. It started as a thin distortion but within seconds it widened into a jagged tear stretching across the sky. Golden runes that had once formed the Heaven-Sealing Formation trembled violently, cracks racing across their radiant surfaces like lightning through glass. The barrier that had protected their Small World for ten thousand years was failing and it was failing from within.

“So, the invasion begins now,” he murmured.

Below the summit, terrified disciples fell to their knees as the pressure descended upon them like the weight of an entire world.

Lu Tian laughed softly, though there was no joy in the sound.

“All of this… just to open the rift for them.”

His gaze slowly swept across the elders standing before him.

“You betrayed the sect. You betrayed this world.”

Elder Fang did not deny it.

Far below the mountain, alarm bells began to ring. Disciples rushed out in confusion. Some looked up in horror as oppressive auras descended from the widening tear in the sky.

They were beings from outside their world who introduced themselves as members of the Upper Realm when their envoys first came to their world years ago. It was a top secret with the Royal family and Sect Masters of the different sects but now they have appeared before the whole world.

The figures clothed in silver and crimson robes emerged through the rupture, each radiating a pressure so vast that the spiritual energy of the Small World recoiled. The air itself seemed to grow heavier, thinner, as though reality strained under their presence.

Lu Tian felt it press down upon his shoulders. He had fought his entire life to reach the Nascent Soul stage, to protect this sect and the fragile equilibrium of their world. Yet, compared to what now descended, he was insignificant.

“Do not struggle, Sect Master,” Elder Mo said calmly. “Your resistance only makes this uglier.”

Lu Tian laughed and blood trickled from the corner of his lips.

“Ugly?” His voice was hoarse but steady. “You have already sold your souls.”

One of the Upper Realm cultivators stepped forward, hovering above the peak as though gravity no longer concerned him. His gaze swept over the mountain halls, the disciples, the elders, and finally rested upon Lu Tian.

The air itself screamed as foreign spiritual laws pressed down upon the Small World. Disciples collapsed by the hundreds and the Heaven-Sealing Formation shattered.

Elder Fang lowered his head toward the descending figures.

“The Eastern Pillar has fallen,” he said respectfully. “As promised.”

“So, this is the final pillar,” the man said, his voice resonating with a strange, layered echo. “Your cooperation is appreciated.”

Elder Fang bowed deeply.

The sight hollowed something inside Lu Tian far more painfully than the wound in his chest.

Cooperation. There was no coercion but agreement. Agreement that involved the destruction of the sect they swore to protect, all for whatever benefits they were promised.

The truth crystallized in that moment with unbearable clarity. The shortages, the sudden policy shifts, the “failed” maintenance cycles of the Heaven-Sealing Formation and the missions that had sent promising disciples to their deaths under suspicious circumstances.

It all made sense to him. The sect had not decayed by accident. It had been dismantled deliberately for ascension and promises whispered from above. He had tried so hard in his capacity as the Sect Master to keep the sect alive but the years showed constant failure. He finally understood that his trusted elders were behind the ailing state of his sect.