At dawn, the Skyroot Plateau was silent.
Ten disciples stood before the Spirit Realm Gate, their silhouettes framed against a swirling cyclone of mist and rune-light. Elders from all major sects lined the high ridge, their expressions unreadable.
The Gate pulsed.
A low, resonant hum vibrated through the earth, as if the mountains themselves held their breath.
Judge Xun stepped forward.
"Ten chosen. One path. The Spirit Realm is not a test of strength alone—it is a forge of fate."
His voice echoed with spiritual resonance, sealing the moment into memory.
"You may find legacies, beasts, relics… or death. The Realm offers only what your will demands. Enter if you dare."
He raised his staff, and with a flash of jade light, the Gate opened.
A vertical slit split the air with a thunderous crack, and mist spilled outward like a waterfall of clouds. Through it shimmered visions—floating islands, twisted forests, rivers that flowed upside-down.
And something darker.
A flicker of a massive chained beast, unmoving… yet watching.
Without hesitation, Jin Yue stepped through first.
Silent, confident, disappearing into the mist.
One by one, the others followed.
Zian was the last.
He stepped forward, corpse flame pulsing faintly in his palm, beast cores shifting like liquid in his veins.
"You carry a fragment," Judge Xun said quietly behind him.
Zian paused. "…A fragment of what?"
"Not what. Whom."
But when Zian turned, Xun was already walking away.
He stepped into the mist.
Spirit Realm – Threshold Chamber
Zian landed on cold stone.
The world spun. Gravity warped and shifted like a wave, and for a breathless second, he felt himself split into ten thousand particles before snapping back together.
He stood in a vast circular hall made of obsidian and bone.
At its center was a monolith—an obsidian fang, etched with beast-language older than memory.
Around him, the others appeared one by one.
Jin Yue.
Mei.
Zhao Ruin.
All silent.
The Gate sealed behind them with a hiss of qi.
Then the air split, and a voice older than the world whispered through the chamber:
"Ten paths… ten fates… only one Sovereign may awaken."
A glowing formation spread beneath their feet, separating into ten smaller rings—one for each disciple.
Mei grabbed Zian's arm.
"They're scattering us!"
"It's the trial. We're being tested alone."
"Be careful—if anything happens—"
Too late.
The rings pulsed.
Light swallowed them all.
Zian's Trial – Realm of the First Beast
Zian stumbled onto soil soaked with blue mist.
The sky above was ash-grey, pierced by jagged stars. A canyon of broken stone stretched in all directions, bones the size of houses littering the floor.
A beast-qi storm raged in the distance—black wind howling with screams.
"This place…" Zian muttered, eyes scanning the ruins. "Isn't just spiritual. It's… ancestral."
Suddenly, the bones before him twitched.
From beneath a skull rose a creature wrapped in mist, humanoid in form, but with beast horns curling from its head and a beast core embedded in its chest.
It spoke in a voice of layered echoes.
"You who carry the Broken Cycle… show your truth."
The creature charged.
Zian dodged just in time, releasing a wave of corpse flame. The figure danced through it, retaliating with a swipe of ghostly claws that cut across Zian's chest.
Pain bloomed. Real.
This was no illusion.
Zian roared, igniting Fang of the Forgotten, blending it with the Panther Step and Tremor Pulse. He surged forward, striking the figure squarely—
Only for it to smile as it dissolved into light.
From the mist came its final whisper.
"You are not yet whole."
Meanwhile – Outer Spirit Realm
Far from Zian's path, Jin Yue stood calmly atop a mountain of obsidian.
A river of blood flowed beneath.
At its edge was a sealed stone gate.
Jin Yue looked down at the red-eyed beast beside him.
"He's awakened it, hasn't he?"
The beast gave a guttural growl.
"Good," Jin Yue said. "Let him find the Sovereign Core. I'll take it from his corpse later."
He turned and vanished into the mountain's shadow.
Back in Zian's Realm
Zian knelt, blood dripping onto the stone.
But he was smiling.
Because even in the pain… he felt it.
A pull.
A presence.
A heartbeat.
Buried deep in the Realm, something called to him.
It wasn't a weapon.
It wasn't a legacy.
It was alive.
And it was his.