**The Trumpets of War**
The world held its breath.
From the ashes of shattered pride, from the ruins of legacy and sect, a new legend had taken its first step. Xiao Tian — the fallen star, the chaos sovereign reborn — now stood unchallenged.
But in the heavens above...
The Jade Celestial Palace erupted in fury.
---
Inside the Imperial Hall of Heaven
The atmosphere was heavy with divine pressure. Celestial pillars trembled. Ethereal clouds dissolved from the sheer weight of spiritual energy surging within.
At the heart of it all sat the Heavenly Emperor — his face unreadable, carved in stone and wrath.
The grand hall's silver doors swung open.
Ten figures entered.
They wore golden armor forged in the heart of stars. Each of them bore a distinct heavenly aura — not of mortals, not of immortals, but of those who had once slain gods.
They were the Ten Heavenly Generals.
And they bowed as one.
> "Awaiting your command, My Emperor."
The Emperor rose slowly. His hair was snow-white, bound with a crown carved from fragments of the Primordial Dao Tree. Behind his back, a shadow flickered — it had wings of time and eyes of judgment.
> "The heavens have been defied."
He spoke not as a ruler but as a law unto existence.
> "Dispatch the first three generals. Seal the Mortal Plane. And bring me the head of Xiao Tian."
---
Heaven Oracle's Chamber
The Oracle stood before a pool of water that reflected not ripples, but fates.
Her brows were furrowed.
The strings of destiny twisted unnaturally around one soul — Xiao Tian. His thread burned with fire and void, rejecting all celestial bindings.
> "The Dao refuses to control him…"
She whispered.
> "This... has never happened before."
Behind her, a figure cloaked in starlight stepped forward.
> "What did you see?"
She turned, eyes filled with dread.
> "Not a cultivator. Not a sovereign. But a calamity… disguised as a man."
---
Mortal Realm – Within the Phoenix Empire
Xiao Tian stood on the highest balcony of the royal sect, his robes fluttering under a sky that bled streaks of violet and gold.
Behind him stood the Empress, now humbled yet unafraid.
> "They're coming, aren't they?" she asked.
He didn't reply for a long moment.
Then he raised his eyes — and gazed through dimensions.
> "Yes. But not just soldiers or sects."
> "The heavens will send gods."
She frowned.
> "And you'll fight them alone?"
He smiled.
> "No."
He turned slightly, voice low but thunderous.
> "I have something they don't."
She blinked. "What?"
> "The will to burn it all down... and rebuild it in my name."
---
In the Depths of the Eastern Seas
A monstrous serpent opened its ancient golden eyes.
> "The Star of Ruin... has risen once more."
> "The pact shall be tested again."
---
Northern Ice Abyss
A woman with white hair opened her palm. In it, a soul flame pulsed — and in its rhythm, she whispered:
> "Tian… you still remember me, don't you?"
> "Our promise... beneath the frozen stars?"
---
Southern Deserts – Crimson Sand Sect
The Grand Elder looked at the blazing skies and sighed.
> "That boy will either save us all... or drag every realm into oblivion."
---
Back at Xiao Tian's Side
The Empress looked at him once more, this time not with pride, not with fear — but with something different.
Hope.
> "Then what now?" she asked.
Xiao Tian stepped forward, raising the Chaos Spear to the skies.
> "Let the heavens send their champions."
> "I will show them what it means... to defy fate."
And far above…
The first heavenly portal opened — golden chains cracking the clouds, as a divine figure stepped through.
The war had begun.
**Heaven's Blades Descend**
The world darkened—not with the fall of night, but under the weight of divinity.
As the first heavenly portal cracked open like a celestial wound, the sky bled with radiant fury. Every cultivator—no matter their realm, their sect, their allegiance—felt it.
A god was descending.
---
Above the Mortal Plane
From within the portal emerged a man clad in flowing silver-white robes, his feet untouched by the ground. His eyes held no emotion, only the silent judgment of law. Around him danced countless divine seals, orbiting like planets around a sun.
This was General Mo Tianxu, First Blade of Heaven.
He spoke not a word.
But when his gaze swept across the lands, mountains cracked and seas stirred.
> "So this… is the mortal that defied heaven?"
---
Phoenix Empire – Royal Sect Grounds
Thunder rolled unnaturally, not from clouds but from the very folds of space.
Xiao Tian looked up calmly. The spear in his hand pulsed—not with chaos, but with something more ancient. Something that remembered the true beginning.
The Empress, standing beside him, whispered:
> "He's no ordinary opponent…"
Xiao Tian smirked.
> "Good."
He stepped forward.
---
Heavenly General Mo Tianxu's Descent
The general raised one hand.
Instantly, ten thousand blades of divine light rained down—each one capable of annihilating a grand sect.
They tore through the sky like judgment incarnate.
But before they could reach the ground...
BOOM!
A ripple tore through the air, and the blades froze—suspended in time, quivering.
Xiao Tian had not moved.
He had simply raised a finger.
> "Your tricks belong to an age that's dying," he said coldly.
"Let me show you what comes next."
With a snap—
The blades turned, mid-air—and shot back toward the general.
Mo Tianxu's eyes narrowed for the first time in eons. He struck out with his palm, and a glowing Heavenly Mandate Circle appeared, swallowing the attack.
> "You've inherited forbidden chaos," he muttered.
"An anomaly."
> "I'm not an anomaly," Xiao Tian replied, stepping into the air.
"I'm the correction."
---
Across Realms
Sect masters and grand elders watched through ancient divination mirrors. Even forbidden clans hidden in the shadows of the world turned their attention.
From the west, the Obsidian Bone Sect's blind prophetess whispered:
> "He dares fight the heavens with a mortal body… and he's not losing."
From the depths of the Earthfire Abyss, an ancient voice echoed:
> "He carries the scent of the Void… like the one who once shattered the Celestial Seal."
---
The Battle Intensifies
Mo Tianxu unleashed his Heavenly Form — four glowing arms of law behind him, wielding relics lost to mortals.
He summoned the Golden Halberd of Judgment, forged from the breath of stars.
Xiao Tian answered with a smirk.
He twisted his Chaos Spear — and it screamed.
> CRACK!
As the two clashed, the air shattered.
Every cultivator within a thousand leagues was thrown to their knees. Time wavered. Reality shook. The sun dimmed.
And still…
Xiao Tian pressed forward.
> "You're strong," the general said, blood at the corner of his lip.
> "You're late," Xiao Tian replied.
> "Late… to stop me."
---
Heavenly Palace – Jade Throne Hall
The Heavenly Emperor rose from his throne, eyes burning with celestial flame.
> "He is not an accident."
> "He is a message."
> "Seal the lower realms. And prepare the Divine Tribunal."
---
Back on the Battlefield
As Mo Tianxu prepared his final strike—a blade formed from the laws of fate—Xiao Tian gathered his power into a single point.
His eyes burned with colors unknown.
> "I told you once," he said.
> "Let the Age of Chaos begin."
And with a final thrust of his spear—
He shattered the Heavenly General's weapon…
…and pierced through his chest.
The skies screamed.
The portal pulsed violently before snapping shut, and Mo Tianxu's divine body crashed to the earth in a storm of broken light.
Xiao Tian stood above him.
Victorious.
---
Far away, beyond the veil of realms...
A group of cloaked figures watched through an obsidian mirror.
One whispered:
> "He killed the First General."
Another replied:
> "So the Fallen Star has begun to burn."
And the eldest among them simply said:
> "Then we have no choice."
> "We must awaken... Her."
**The Goddess in Chains**
The world was still reeling from the fall of Heaven's First General. Across realms and ruins, temples and thrones, the same name echoed like thunder in the hearts of the mighty and meek alike:
**Xiao Tian.**
He had not just defied the heavens.
He had *broken* them.
---
**Far Beyond the Mortal Plane – The Forbidden Celestial Prison**
In the furthest reaches of the Divine Realms, past the rivers of starlight and the broken staircases to godhood, lay a realm sealed away since the First Era.
Here, the winds carried no sound.
The sky was a grey void.
And at its center stood a single temple, bound by nine heavenly chains made of law, karma, fate, time, and more.
Within that temple, on a floating lotus made of obsidian, she slept.
Her presence twisted the laws of existence.
Even bound and asleep, her divinity radiated with a beauty and horror no mortal could comprehend.
They called her **"The Goddess in Chains."**
Once, she was the fiercest light of the heavens.
Then she rebelled.
Now, she was the most dangerous prisoner the gods had ever held.
---
**The Council of Nine Divine Lords**
In a hall of shifting stars, nine thrones floated, each holding a Divine Lord.
Clad in robes of planets and adorned with crowns of galaxies, these were the rulers of the celestial hierarchy.
The First Lord spoke:
> "The First General has fallen."
The Seventh Lord answered:
> "To a *mortal* with no divine rank. Blasphemy."
The Fifth Lord, oldest among them, opened a scroll made of time itself.
> "The prophecy stirs."
> "The Fallen Star has lit the sky. The Chaos Path is awakening."
The Second Lord narrowed her eyes:
> "If he defeats one more, the Divine Balance will break."
The Ninth Lord — quietest, but feared the most — spoke just one name:
> "Her."
Silence followed.
The First Lord sighed.
> "Break the seal. Wake the Goddess."
---
**The Chains Begin to Shatter**
One by one, each Divine Lord raised a hand. The seals of the nine chains glowed and cracked.
Fate unraveled.
Time reversed.
Law bent.
And in the Temple of Chains, the obsidian lotus trembled.
Her fingers moved.
Her lips curled.
Her eyes, sealed for eons, opened.
Crimson and gold.
The same colors as Xiao Tian's.
She smiled.
> "So..." she whispered, her voice like a song of stars dying,
> "He has finally returned."
---
The blazing storm of crimson-gold lightning had vanished.
But what remained was worse.
Silence.
A silence so deep, so absolute, that even the spirit beasts in the distant mountains stopped howling. The wind itself seemed to freeze. Birds that had taken flight during the chaos now plummeted from the sky, their wings stiff, their bodies lifeless.
In the center of that ruined battlefield stood Xiao Tian, surrounded by molten rock, shattered skyward stones, and crackling embers. He didn't move. He didn't need to.
Because the world was now moving around him.
An invisible pressure rippled from his form, so vast that even the great sect leaders watching from thousands of miles away felt their protective formations tremble. One of the lesser sect masters even coughed blood as the aftershock brushed against his senses.
"What... is he?" someone whispered.
They were no longer watching a human.
They were witnessing a force of nature.
Meanwhile, Flame Empress Huo Lian stood on her high balcony, golden eyes narrowed. Her robes of living fire flowed around her as though reacting to the tremors in the world.
"The Age of Chaos... truly has begun," she murmured.
One of her closest attendants knelt beside her. "My Lady, shall we prepare the Eternal Flames for war?"
"Not yet." Her voice was calm, but beneath it simmered something else—curiosity, perhaps even anticipation.
"Send the Fire Venerable. I want to test his soul."
Elsewhere, deep within the frozen North, the Ice Phoenix Matriarch awoke from her slumber, her eyelashes fluttering against a sheet of frost.
"He has awakened... the Forbidden Pulse," she whispered, a hint of fear in her breath.
In a ruined mountain temple, a blind old monk slowly opened his third eye—a glowing sigil on his forehead.
"The stars scream. The balance tilts. A star falls, and a god may rise."
He sighed.
"Let us pray... it does not rise alone."
Back in the center of the devastation, Xiao Tian finally moved.
He took a single step forward.
And the earth cracked beneath him.
With each step, the world seemed to groan in protest.
And as he raised his head, eyes glowing with chaos-born clarity, he smiled.
"Now... let the world try to stop me."
The Age of Chaos had begun.
And the Heavens, once unshakable, would tremble with every breath he took.
To be continue