The Council of Architectures materialized as Wei Liang's power collapsed back to ninth-stage levels. His blood-avatar form flickered unstably as the fundamental energies supporting it were stripped away by the Architect's betrayal.
"Predictable outcome," Structure observed with mathematical coldness. "Subject exhibited 98.7% probability of betrayal response when deception was revealed."
"The experiment has yielded valuable data," Authority added. "Consumption-based entities cannot achieve genuine transcendence through external guidance. Core patterns remain unchanged regardless of surface modifications."
Wei Liang struggled to his feet, his blood-form barely holding together. The rage that had sustained him through countless battles now felt hollow in the face of cosmic indifference. These beings saw him as nothing more than a laboratory specimen.
"Wait," he gasped, addressing the Council directly. "I can still complete the trials. Give me another chance to prove—"
"Impossible," the Architect interrupted. "Pattern analysis indicates zero probability of success without external support. The subject's fundamental nature precludes genuine cooperation or sacrifice."
The sixth Council member—crystallized time itself—spoke with finality: "Dissolution protocol initiated. Timeline revision will commence in thirty seconds."
Wei Liang felt reality beginning to unweave around him. His past was being erased, his achievements nullified, his very existence prepared for retroactive negation. In moments, he would never have been born.
But the Iron Blood Manual's deepest teachings had prepared him for even this extremity. The ninth stage included techniques for surviving conceptual annihilation—methods for maintaining existence even when reality itself rejected you.
Blood Sovereign Immortality—Ninth Form: Existence Denial Reversal!
Wei Liang's consciousness scattered into billions of microscopic fragments, each one carrying a complete copy of his identity and power. As the Council's dissolution wave swept over him, the fragments slipped between the cracks of causality itself, hiding in the spaces between cause and effect.
The wave passed. From the Council's perspective, Wei Liang had been successfully erased. The timeline revised itself, removing all traces of his existence from history. The Architect's garden returned to peaceful normalcy as if the troublesome student had never existed.
But in the quantum foam beneath reality's foundation, Wei Liang's scattered fragments began the slow process of reassembly. The technique was crude and dangerous—many fragments were lost to the void, taking portions of his memories and abilities with them. But enough survived to maintain core identity.
It took seventeen universal cycles for Wei Liang to pull himself back together. When he finally reformed, his blood-avatar body was weaker than before, his cultivation base damaged by the traumatic dispersal. But he had achieved something the Council thought impossible—he had survived conceptual erasure through his own power.
More importantly, the process had torn him free from the Architect's domain entirely. He drifted now in the spaces between structured reality, no longer bound by the hierarchies and limitations that had constrained him.
I trusted them, Wei Liang thought bitterly as he assessed his reduced capabilities. I allowed myself to believe in guidance and cooperation. Never again.
The betrayal had burned away his last vestiges of faith in others. The Architect's manipulation, the Council's cold dismissal, even Ling Tian's acceptance of servitude—all of it proved that power was the only truth that mattered. Everything else was deception designed to keep the strong from claiming their rightful dominance.
They thought they could erase me, Wei Liang's eyes blazed with renewed fury. But I am Wei Liang. I bow to no one. I trust no one. And I will make them all pay for their arrogance.
But first, he needed to rebuild his strength. The conceptual erasure had scattered him across dimensional boundaries, and he could sense vast new territories of existence beyond anything he'd previously imagined. Realms where his current power level would be considered merely the beginning.
Perfect hunting grounds for a predator ready to start his climb anew.