Heavenly Master, Divine Lord: Divine Punishment

Endless darkness swept over his consciousness like a tide, cold and lifeless. Even the passage of time seemed meaningless.

Zhou Di felt like a lone boat tossed about on a stormy sea, his soul repeatedly torn apart in the void. Just a moment ago, his memories had still been anchored in a sweltering evening at summer’s end.

Flames soared into the sky, and thick smoke billowed. The old apartment block in the city’s historic district looked like a giant chimney. Tongues of fire lashed wildly at the night sky, while a child’s heart-wrenching cries were drowned out by the crackling blaze. Without a moment’s hesitation, though he was nothing more than an ordinary office worker and had only a wet towel in hand, he covered his mouth and nose and charged inside.

The sharp crack of a collapsing beam, the searing pain of flames on his skin, the relief he felt as he passed the child out through the window, and finally, the thunderous crash of the load-bearing wall collapsing behind him…

“Boom!”

That was the sound of his body being destroyed, and the death knell marking the end of his previous life.

Pain! A pain that pierced his very soul!

It didn’t feel like the peace of death. Instead, it was as if countless red-hot steel needles were being forced into the depths of his soul, hard-driving another vast, ancient, and boundless set of memories into him. Those memories were beyond the mortal realm, filled with the sounds of the Great Dao and the thunder of armies clashing.

“The Zhou lineage has inherited the decree of the Three Pure Ones and governs the punishments of Heaven and Earth…” “After nine lifetimes of tribulations, the soul returns to the Great Void. Today, your merits are complete. It is time to take your place!”

A voice, majestic yet ancient, seemed to pierce through countless ages of time and space, ringing in his mind like a great bell. Zhou Di shuddered violently. Deep within his soul, it was as if a shackle that had lain dormant for ten thousand years had finally snapped.