CHAPTER 114 — Trial of Truth: What Lies Within a Seed-Child
The world dissolved.
Gold, white, and void blurred together until Lin Xuan no longer felt ground beneath his feet.
No sky.
No air.
No sound.
Only a vast, starless expanse—
silent, empty, infinite.
Then—
A single heartbeat echoed across eternity.
Boom.
Lin staggered as the darkness around him pulsed with a strangely intimate force…
his own heartbeat.
A voice, neither Solarius's nor the Primordial Dragon's, whispered beside his ear:
> "Welcome… Lin Xuan."
Lin whipped around—
and froze.
A silhouette stood before him.
A man wearing plain blue robes.
Hair tied simply.
A wooden spear strapped across his back.
His face—
Lin felt the world tighten around him.
It was his face.
But older.
Sharper.
Eyes deeper, like bottomless voids holding countless worlds.
> "Who are you?" Lin asked quietly.
The figure smiled faintly.
> "I am the you that your heart fears most—
and the you that your soul wishes to become."
---
1. Truth of the Soul — The Future Self
Lin Xuan tried to circulate his qi—
but nothing responded.
His spear would not materialize.
Suns and planets refused to form.
His cultivation base felt… sealed.
This place stripped him to his essence.
The future Lin spoke again:
> "This trial has no dragons. No flames. No armies."
"Only you."
He raised his hand.
Instantly—
Worlds formed behind him.
Dozens.
Hundreds.
Each one fully realized, swirling with life, laws, and power.
Lin's breath caught.
A fully-evolved world seed…
No—
many world seeds.
A multiverse.
The future Lin tilted his head.
> "Tell me, Lin Xuan."
"What do you want?"
The question struck deeper than any dragon claw.
Lin clenched his fists.
"What do you mean?"
> "Strength?"
"Revenge?"
"Survival?"
"Or do you dream of something greater?"
The figure's voice reverberated like truth itself.
> "The world will demand an answer."
Lin swallowed hard.
He thought of Bai, spear raised in loyalty.
Of Mu, determined despite her fears.
Of Wen, steady and reliable.
Of the Saint rebuilding his life inside his inner world.
Of the sect.
Of the fallen.
Of the abyss looming ever closer.
And yet—
He also thought of the world inside him.
A young planet with life beginning to stir.
A place with potential to become something unimaginable.
Slowly, Lin answered:
"I want… to protect the ones who stood by me."
"And I want… to build a world where no one under me ever fears death again."
The future Lin smiled.
> "A noble answer."
Then his spear appeared in his hand.
> "But words are not enough."
He pointed the spear tip at Lin's chest.
> "Prove it."
---
2. The Trial of Purpose — A Mirror Battle
The realm shifted.
Suddenly Lin was standing on a vast plain made of starlight.
Across from him stood his future self—
calm, composed, terrifying.
Lin instinctively raised his hand to summon his spear—
Nothing.
His powers were still sealed.
The future Lin spoke:
> "This battle tests not strength, but truth."
"I will not use my full power."
"But you must face what you fear most—"
He thrust forward.
CRACK—!
The world ripped open as the spear moved.
> "—your own potential."
Lin barely dodged.
His heart raced.
The future Lin fought exactly how he someday could fight—
flawless technique, perfect footwork, seamless control.
Lin tried to counter—
CLANG!
The future Lin's spear swept under his guard and slammed into Lin's ribs, sending him skidding across the shimmering floor.
Pain tore through him.
> "Your potential is vast."
"But potential without purpose is hollow."
Lin staggered to his feet.
"No…
I'm not done."
The future self blurred forward—
BOOM!
Lin raised his arms to block—
but the strike blasted him off his feet again.
He rolled across the starlit plain, coughing blood.
He tried to rise—
and a spear tip pressed against his throat.
The future Lin gazed down at him, unblinking.
> "You say you want to protect."
"But you hesitate."
Lin trembled.
"...Hesitate?"
> "You hold back."
"You fear becoming a tyrant."
"You fear losing yourself."
"You fear becoming what you hate."
Lin's eyes widened.
His throat tightened.
"...Yes."
His future self knelt, pressing the spear gently against Lin's chest—not to kill, but to judge.
> "Yet your fear is what limits you."
"Your enemies do not hesitate."
"The abyss does not hesitate."
The future Lin stood and turned, the worlds behind him shimmering.
> "Lin Xuan."
He extended a hand.
> "Will you ascend by following a path?"
"Or will you carve a new one?"
Lin's breath caught.
His heart pounded.
Slowly…
He reached out.
And seized the future hand.
---
3. The Truth of What He Will Become
The instant their hands touched—
Lin's world exploded into visions.
He saw:
Himself standing atop a star, dragon coils behind him
Countless enemies kneeling as his world's laws suffocated their existence
Bai—dragon and spear—devouring worlds of lightning
Mu, Wen, Sheng—radiant figures leading civilizations birthed inside Lin's inner earth
The Saint, returned to the Saint realm with a halo of worlds behind him
The abyssal ancestor, shrinking back from Lin's evolving cosmos
Lin's inner world…
growing…
and growing…
until it became a multiversal cosmos.
The visions ended abruptly.
Lin gasped.
He was kneeling back on the starlit plain, chest heaving.
His future self stood over him—
but now smiling warmly.
> "You will not walk the path of any mortal.
Nor the path of any immortal."
He lowered his spear.
> "You walk the path of a World Sovereign."
The title struck Lin like a bolt of heaven's lightning.
A path beyond Saint.
Beyond demigod.
Beyond godhood.
The future Lin began dissolving into motes of light.
> "Grow your world."
"Protect its people."
"And become the man your fears said you could never be."
Lin rose as the void cracked—
And Solarius's voice thundered across the realm:
> "TRIAL OF TRUTH… PASSED."
A beam of radiant dragon light consumed Lin—
And the world of trials vanished.