Hey guys, thanks for the well wishes, this ones for yall. TBH this is the last chapter I dreamt up of. Even I don't know what happens after this chapter, except for the true ending.

It wasn't supposed to hurt like this. Lineir had experienced all manner of pain, had had his body torn apart so many times, even felt his very heart turn Undead. But the feeling of feeding his own body into the Black Heart was something else. There was one thing which allowed him to keep going however. He had felt worse...

Master...that time I let you down. Every time, I think back to it, though I try to avoid it. What would it take to get a clean slate? Was it even possible? Or should I have accompanied you to the Yellow Springs that fine day in the Hells?

Bit by bit, his hard-earned cultivation, the strong flesh, indestructible bones, practiced meridians, they all crumpled before the all-encompassing power of the black hole that was growing in his chest. As he lost his body, the Unending Rot was pulled inside the maelstrom as well...and obliterated. It was almost like poison destroying poison, Lineir had burnt away the rot...at the cost of losing the very thing he was trying to save.

Krrr...Krrr...Krrr....

Thoughts trembled through the blackness in that infinitesimal moment as his mind was devoured. It's funny...this close to death...everything seems so slow, but it's never enough time. Memories came and went, it felt like the whole of his life was on replay for him to watch. He realized watching Mei give her life to save him from the Hells, the moment when he had been about to strike down her murderer, even the very moment he had seen Yu die, that everything hinged on a thread. For the first time in his life, it was like he could see the strings connecting cause and effect, the bindings of reality. So this is what Fate itself controls the world with. Karmic Lines. All it would have taken would have been for one thing to be different and all of this would have changed...

Just one thing...

Just one....

Just...

One.

Then it was over. A crushing weight wiped out all the pain, all the thoughts, and Lineir realized that he had fed even his memories, his very identity to the Black Heart. His Third Heart, his Dao, it was all being consumed as well. He no longer had eyes to look at himself, nor much of anything to even process such stimuli even if he did, but a form of Divine Sense remained. A single thought which swirled around in the maelstrom. 

One....

One...

One...

Unbeknownst to Lineir, footsteps were approaching from afar. A trembling voice called at the door, one full of apology, different from the powerful Kings and Lords who had visited before. It was Xiao Gui again. Wearing a flowery blue dress instead of her cultivator's robes, she had returned with an elixir in hand, the flowing blue bottle she held seemed capable of resurrecting even the dead. However, no smile was to be had on her face, for she knew that the elixir was but a pointless bandage, the Unending Rot of her brother was a King class technique, and on someone of Lineir's level...not even the Heavens could save him. 

"I...I  came to give you something. It...it might help...just a bit..." She whispered as she entered through the door of the cave and went to the edge of the cliff where Lineir remained. However, as she came into view of his body, she gasped.

"NO!" She ran forwards as fast as her legs could carry her, so fast the wind in her steps blew bits of ash away and the tattered black robe on the ground fluttered dangerously. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!" Her scream went unheard as she stared at where Lineir should have been. However, instead of a human body, even a rotting one, all that remained was wisps of ash which were rapidly blowing away and a great dark ball about the size of someone's head. Though it was no technique she was familiar with, she could read vaguely what had happened. "You idiot! IDIOT WHY DID YOU GIVE UP!"

Tears sprang forth down her beautiful face and the priceless blue bottle in her hands slipped through her fingers and shattered. On the ground, little shards of glass rolled and bits of grass grew atop the rock as the life force in the potion was spent. It hardly mattered though. Her eyes stared at the little recognizable pieces of Lineir that were left, a finger here...a hair there...and then she could look no more. She choked back a sob, saying goodbye to the boy she had met long ago. Staring at the dark maelstrom which was spinning and condensing, shrinking ever smaller, she whispered.

"You don't deserve my father's  armor...but it can rest with you. May it carry you to the Far Shore safely..." And then she turned on her heel, one last tear falling and shattering on the tip of Lineir's left index finger. It was all that remained of him besides the dark hole. "Goodbye."

When she left, it was with the heavy knowledge of the war to come, and that the disciple of the Nine Paths was dead. Xiao Gui prepared herself to inform her father that it was over and to go into secluded training. All the world was entering a period of merciless war, and though she was saddened greatly, she had no time to dwell on one lost soul, no matter how important. No one watched Lineir's body crumble away after that. The dark maelstrom shrunk and shrunk, until it was but the size of a speck of dust. No one would ever imagine that anything could survive such a process, surely all that would remain would be concentrated darkness. However...deep inside, a singular thought, just a wisp of it remained and a hint of red crackled in the blackness. The last of the Unending Rot was crushed by the Black Heart and burnt away with the ashes. A single finger remained in a pile of white ash and as if drawn to it...the Black Heart descended...and entered it...

One.