Yun Lintian stood motionless, his senses expanding to take in the featureless expanse.
"More riddles?" he said coldly.
Gu Tianyi’s laughter rippled through the void.
"No. Truth."
Suddenly—
Images flashed through the emptiness.
The birth of the Chasm, a gaping wound in reality itself.
The Primordial Gods, their faces twisted in fear as they fled from it.
Nian Shi, standing alone at the edge of oblivion, his hands outstretched—not to seal it, but to harness its power.
The final image lingered...
Yun Lintian himself, standing tall, his body dissolving into motes of light.
"This is your fate," Gu Tianyi whispered. "The only future where Nian Shi loses."
The vision shattered, leaving Yun Lintian alone in the white void once more.
Yun Lintian raised his brow slightly.
"You an... to achieve this, I must sacrifice myself?"
Silence.
Then—
"I want you to choose," Gu Tianyi corrected. "Freely. With full understanding."
Yun Lintian stood in the endless white void, his expression unreadable as Gu Tianyi’s words echoed around him.
"There’s no point," Yun Lintian said calmly. "I’ve already prepared to sacrifice myself if it ans defeating the Chasm and Nian Shi."
Gu Tianyi’s hollow eyes seed to deepen, the swirling voids within them pulsing with sothing akin to amusent.
"Do you?" he asked softly.
The two words carried an unbearable weight.
Yun Lintian frowned slightly.
Gu Tianyi continued, his voice dry yet cutting.
"You must have known... that there have been many Seeds of Fate before you."
A pause.
"And every single one of them... swore the sa thing."
His skeletal fingers flexed, as if plucking invisible threads from the air.
"They all claid they were willing to die for this cause. That they would gladly give their lives to seal the Chasm."
Another pause.
"But when the mont ca... not a single one of them actually did it."
His voice dropped to a whisper.
"They all hesitated."
Yun Lintian’s gaze remained steady, but sothing flickered in his eyes—sothing unreadable.
"I’m different," he said simply.
Gu Tianyi chuckled, the sound dry and brittle.
"Oh? And how will you prove that?"
Silence.
Yun Lintian did not answer.
Because the truth was...
He couldn’t.
Not yet.
Not until the final mont ca.
Gu Tianyi smiled, his lipless mouth stretching into sothing that was almost kind.
"Then let test you."
He raised his hand—
And the world shattered.
The white void lted away, replaced by a familiar scene—
The Misty Cloud Sect, Yun Lintian’s first ho in this world.
But it was burning.
Pillars of smoke coiled into the sky, the scent of charred wood and blood thick in the air. Screams echoed from every direction as disciples fell, their bodies pierced by blackened spears of shadow.
At the center of the destruction stood Nian Shi, his face hidden beneath a hood, his fingers dripping with golden blood.
And at his feet—
Yun Qianxue, her body broken, her azure robes soaked crimson.
Her lifeless eyes stared upward, frozen in horror.
Yun Lintian’s breath caught.
This wasn’t real.
It couldn’t be real.
And yet—
His hands trembled.
"This is one possible future," Gu Tianyi’s voice whispered in his ear. "If you hesitate... if you fail... this will happen."
Yun Lintian’s jaw clenched.
Then—
He stepped forward, his movents calm, deliberate.
He knelt beside Yun Qianxue’s corpse, his fingers brushing her cold cheek.
A single tear traced down his face.
But his voice, when he spoke, was steady.
"I will make sure this never happens."
The vision shattered.
Darkness.
Then—
Yun Lintian stood before a mirror.
But the reflection wasn’t him.
It was a monster—a twisted, skeletal thing with hollow eyes and a mouth full of fangs.
"This is what you will beco," Gu Tianyi murmured. "If you embrace the Chasm’s power to defeat Nian Shi... this will be your end."
The reflection leered, its voice a perfect mimic of Yun Lintian’s own.
"Is it worth it?" it whispered. "To lose everything you are... just to win?"
Yun Lintian stared at his monstrous reflection.
Then—
He reached out and shattered the mirror with his fist.
"I don’t care."
The glass exploded, the shards dissolving into black mist.
The void shifted once more.
Now, Yun Lintian stood at the edge of the Chasm of Uncreation—a yawning abyss where reality itself frayed into nothingness.
Before him floated two doors.
One glead gold, radiating warmth, life, hope.
The other was pitch black, its surface swirling with primordial darkness.
Gu Tianyi’s voice echoed from nowhere and everywhere:
"The golden door leads ho. To your loved ones. To safety. You can leave right now, and none of this will be your burden anymore."
A pause.
"The black door leads to your fate. To the end of your story."
Silence.
Then—
"Choose."
Yun Lintian did not hesitate.
He walked forward—
And pushed open the black door.
Darkness.
Then—
Light.
Yun Lintian stood once more in the white void, Gu Tianyi before him.
The Overseer’s expression was unreadable.
"You didn’t even pause," he murmured.
Yun Lintian t his gaze.
"I told you. I’m different."
A long silence.
Then—
Gu Tianyi smiled.
"Yes. You are."
He raised his hand—
And the world faded to black.
The darkness receded like ink dissolving in water, revealing the familiar chamber once more.
Yun Lintian stood before Gu Tianyi, the Overseer’s skeletal fingers still raised from where he had cast the illusion. The others—Long Qingxuan, Long Chen, Yue Zhihe—stood frozen, their expressions locked in ti, unaware of the trials Yun Lintian had just endured.
Gu Tianyi lowered his hand slowly, his hollow eyes gleaming with sothing akin to approval.
"You truly are different," he murmured.
Yun Lintian exhaled, his breath steady despite the weight of the visions. "I told you. I won’t hesitate."
Gu Tianyi chuckled, the sound dry as autumn leaves. "So you did." He leaned back, his tattered robes rustling. "But the test was never about willingness alone. It was about truth."
Yun Lintian frowned. "Truth?"
"The truth of your heart," Gu Tianyi said. "The test ca from the deepest part of it, reflecting your truest intention. The fact that you answered every trial, committing to sacrifice yourself at all costs, ans that this is not just resolve—it is your nature."
A pause.
"You are the first Seed of Fate who did not waver."
Yun Lintian studied him for a long mont before speaking. "Then why bother testing further? Why trap here?"
Gu Tianyi sighed, his skeletal shoulders sagging. "I wish I didn’t have to. But I am bound."
"By who?" Yun Lintian’s voice sharpened. "Nian Shi? The Chasm?"
Gu Tianyi shook his head. "Neither."
"Then who?"
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