The Sovereign Who Erases
The Azure Dragon threw his head back and laughed. Not polite. Not reserved. It poured out of him, rolling from his chest in a booming, full-bellied peal, low and wild, swelling and cresting, echoing again and again against the wooden beams of the garden hall. Such laughter rose, thundered, then tumbled down in rumbling waves.
"I knew you would ask this question!" he declared, eyes glittering in Lily’s direction. "But allow ask you this — wouldn’t you fear anyone who can bring back the dead?"
The question did not feel rhetorical.
It pressed against them.
Lily shivered exaggeratedly, hugging her arms.
Lily let out a small, nervous laugh and hugged her arms tighter, eyes drifting briefly to the gloom beyond the pillars. She said nothing at first, but her eyes shifted, searching the faces around her while weighing her answer. Finally, she replied, voice faint though edged with sothing more acute, "Isn’t it unsettling, the idea that soone could bring back the dead?" She paused, her brows knitting. "Still... I wonder if that’s really what makes everyone afraid of Otako."
The Azure Dragon’s laughter ca back, richer this ti.
“Ha ha ha ha! Smart girl!”
Red grinned slightly beside him, clearly enjoying the exchange.
"You’re right," the Azure Dragon continued, leaning forward slightly. "He is feared most for his heavenly-defying combat technique. It violates the fundantal law of cultivation: energy cannot simply cease to be. Yet his art bends existence at a point, ignoring the boundaries that normally bind qi and matter."
The atmosphere tightened instinctively.
"The Sovereign Nullity Sutra."
The na alone seed to thin the air.
A tremble of unease moved through the room at the na. Its origin was spoken of only in fragnts. So said the text proved ancient as mory, sealed in secret archives where even immortals would not linger. There existed whispers that the heavens never sanctioned its creation. Certain people said it was born after a lost war, written in silence beneath the world tree as punishnt for a god’s rebellion. So said a single page, read aloud, could erase a bloodline from history. To speak of its creator was to invite misfortune. To seek the Sutra was to draw the gaze of things that watched from beyond the sky.
"...."
Whenever Otako hears this myth, he is left not just speechless but helpless.
Ling Li’s expression stayed still. Only her eyes fell, just barely — a sign of fate.
Four Eyes once again caught it.
The Azure Dragon’s tone changed. Storytelling faded. Reverence took its place.
"Otako does not attack."
A pause.
"He erases physical stability." It is as though the very frawork holding things together is wiped away — not cut, not shattered, simply made to vanish, like a fabric among the threads tugged free until nothing is left to hold the pattern.
For an instant, the bamboo floor under their feet seed to go slack, as if all the fibers in the wood seed about to unravel. It seed like watching a magnificent sculpture dissolve into dust without a sound, leaving only empty space where sothing solid once stood.
The air got thinner, sound seed to grow damp and warped, and a chill tingled along Lily’s arms, as if sothing core in the world had been quietly undone.
Shun’s spine straightened unconsciously.
"When Otako flicks his finger—"
The Azure Dragon lifted his own hand slightly, mimicking the gesture.
"He injects a perfectly compressed strand of immortal qi."
His fingers ca together as if pinching sothing invisible.
"It vibrates. Delicate at first. Then sharper, the pulse tightens. Each wave fracturing what should hold together. A frequency that rocks the bones of existence. It breaks. Just there, at a single point."
Fatty blinked rapidly.
"It bypasses defenses."
Mushu’s eyes darkened.
"It ignores armor."
Shun’s jaw stiffened.
"It ignores protective artifacts."
Ren swallowed.
"It ignores cultivation realm differences."
Shi Min’s pupils contracted faintly.
"Because it does not clash with qi."
The Azure Dragon’s gaze steeled.
"It severs continuity."
A stillness spread, vast and spreading. Sowhere in the distance, a bell that had been tolling abruptly fell quiet; a single candle on the lacquered table flickered low, its fla guttering. At once, the hush thickened as though the earth itself halted, the burden of the words suspended in the halt.
Cold.
"Flesh separates from function." The Azure Dragon continued.
Ren inhaled sharply.
"ridians disconnect from flow."
Lily’s excitent had vanished completely.
"Soul detaches from anchor."
The koi pond rippled, faint and slow. The air itself did not move.
"The victim collapses not from impact..."
The Azure Dragon’s voice lowered.
"But from structural cancellation."
For a mont, no one moved.
Then Fatty whispered, "That’s... insane."
Everyone stared, jaws slack.
The Azure Dragon studied their reactions with subtle satisfaction.
"Why is it terrifying?" he asked, deliberately pausing.
They didn’t blink.
He smiled slightly.
"Because during its execution—"
His voice llowed.
"There is no beam of light.
No sword arc.
No shockwave.
No explosion."
The Azure Dragon flicked his fingers lightly.
"Just a flick.
And a body that falls apart internally."
A cold current passed through the room.
"As observers once stated—"
The Azure Dragon’s eyes grew distant, recalling mory.
"Otako flicked his finger.
The peak Nascent Soul elder stiffened.
Then died."
Mushu’s throat felt dry. He only recently ascended to Nascent Soul.
"No one sees the strike.
They only see the verdict."
The word verdict struck. Again.
Ling Li remained silent.
Four Eyes’ thoughts churned faster now.
The precision.
The judgnt.
The silent authority.
It all corresponded too perfectly with what he had long suspected.
Everyone in the room shivered.
Even Red’s fiery aura seed dimr.
"You may ask why only Otako can use it?" For generations, no one has succeeded in emulating what he does. Yet, there have always been rumors — quiet speculations that sowhere in the vast world, soone might one day grasp a portion of this forbidden technique or bear its destructive force for more than a heartbeat. So ancient writings imply that, under impossible circumstances, a cultivator with an unbreakable soul or a fate warped beyond reason could survive the cancellation for a mont, long enough to leave a mark. But until now, all attempts have ended in catastrophe.
They in the hall nodded almost in unison.
The Azure Dragon grew serious.
"Because to perform this technique—"
"Your internal cultivation must be perfectly stable. No turbulence."
Shi Min’s breathing slowed.
"Your external cultivation has to withstand the recoil of nullifying forces."
Mushu perceived the weight of that line.
"Your soul must be anchored above mortal fragility."
Ren glanced instinctively at her brother.
"Anyone weaker attempting it would..." The Azure Dragon’s tone hardened.
For a mont, he stalled, as if deliberating whether to speak the truth aloud. "They will convulse, every vessel rupturing inward under a crushing, unwinding force — ridians tearing like torn silk as the dantian caves in and the soul itself screams before splintering into numbness. It happens all at once. There is not even ti to cry out."
Fatty paled.
"It requires soone whose body and spirit are unified beyond flaw."
The Azure Dragon leaned back.
"That is only Otako."
The declaration settled. Heavy as a mountain at the center of the hall.
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