The shift from Layer Six into Layer Seven didn't feel smooth this time. It was like Yun's whole body got pulled through a hole too small for him, stretched thin like he was made of wet paper. His vision blurred, then snapped back, then blurred again, like the illusion itself couldn't decide what shape it wanted him to suffer in.

He staggered forward and almost fell on his face.

Layer Seven was… quiet.

Too quiet.

No monsters.

No shadows.

No teachers.

No Shen Yu rants.

No cosmic voices humming warnings.

Just stillness.

Like the entire world was holding its breath.

Yun swallowed hard. "Ah… this one's weird already…"

A cold wind blew past him, carrying a faint smell—dust, smoke… and something metallic. Something he didn't want to identify. The sky above him was completely gray, like an old painting left out in rain too long.

Then he saw it.

His village.

Starfall Village—but ruined. But not like the raid or the monster attack. This was worse. Everything burned down to black ash. The well collapsed. Trees broken like bones. No movement anywhere. The entire place looked dead.

Yun's chest tightened so hard he had to grab his shirt.

"No… no this isn't real. This is… it's the illusion. Just the illusion."

He said it out loud, but his voice didn't sound convinced at all.

He walked slowly toward the ruins, each step feeling heavier than the last. At some point he didn't even remember deciding to move. He just drifted forward like something inside him was pulling him.

Then he heard crying.

A child's voice. Weak. Fading. Coming from the broken remains of Aunt Mei's house.

Yun froze.

His deepest fear wasn't losing himself.

It wasn't death.

It wasn't even the Hunters or the cosmos chasing him—

It was failing to protect the people he loved.

He ran.

He kicked aside burned beams and broken pottery—

And saw himself.

A small version of himself, maybe six years old, crouched under the rubble, hugging his knees and crying. "Why didn't you save us…? Why didn't you save me?"

Yun's breath caught in his throat.

"No. Stop. Stop this. This isn't fair, this isn't—"

But the illusion didn't stop.

The child-Yun looked up at him, eyes full of hurt.

"You keep training… but you always too late. You too weak. You too slow. You're the reason everyone dies."

Yun stepped back so fast he nearly fell. His legs felt jelly-like. His head pounded. Something old and bitter twisted inside his chest.

"I'm trying…" he whispered. "I'm trying so hard…"

"But trying is not enough."

Those words didn't belong to child-Yun.

A new voice echoed from behind him—deep, cold, sharp enough to cut sunlight.

He turned.

A tall figure stood at the end of the ruined street. Cloaked in black and silver. A mask shaped like a cracked star covered his face.

Yun's heart dropped.

He didn't know who this was…

Yet somehow, he did.

Something inside him recognized the aura, the way space bent around the figure, the faint cold pressure like the freezing side of the moon.

Bloodline recognition.

This assassin-like figure…

was tied to him.

The masked figure pointed a finger at Yun.

"You will lose everything unless you stop being soft. The heavens do not pity the weak."

Yun clenched his fists, shaking.

"I'm not weak anymore," he said, trying to steady his voice. "I'm changing. I—I want to protect them."

The masked figure stepped closer.

"Then prove it."

The ruins burst into white flames around them. The illusion collapsed into a battlefield of swirling light and shadows. The masked figure moved like lightning, appearing behind Yun in a blink.

Yun barely ducked.

He rolled, scrambled up, summoned his star energy but it flickered badly, reacting weird inside the illusion almost like the illusion wanted to suppress him.

The masked figure's voice boomed:

"FEAR is your real chain."

A spike of pure mental energy stabbed into Yun's mind, flashing images—

Shen Yu dying

His mother turning to ash

His father falling in a pool of silver blood

His village destroyed again

Hunters ripping through space toward him

Cosmic beasts swallowing entire stars

Yun screamed and stumbled back.

"STOP—STOP IT—ENOUGH!"

But the more he screamed, the stronger the illusions grew.

The masked figure raised a hand and the whole world started collapsing inward, the sky folding like torn paper.

Yun fell to his knees, teeth clenched, eyes burning.

He couldn't take this pain.

He couldn't take this fear.

He wanted to run.

He wanted to curl up like that child version of him—

But something inside him snapped.

No. Not again. Not ever again.

He stood up slowly, barely able to breathe, but he forced his legs to straighten. His vision blurred—but through the blur he saw the child-Yun crying.

He walked over, knelt, and touched the child's head.

"You're wrong," Yun whispered softly. "I won't let you—any version of me—be alone again."

The child sobbed quietly. Then the child began dissolving into silver dust. Yun watched it, trembling.

And that's when it happened.

His bloodline erupted.

A pulse of silver and deep blue shot from his chest like a star detonating inside him. His hair floated, glowing faintly. His eyes turned bright silver. Symbols he'd never seen before spiraled across his skin.

Far away across the cosmos—

His Parents Felt It

The cosmos shook violently.

Yueran gasped and nearly dropped the starlight tablet she was holding.

"That pulse Lianxing, that was him. That was Yun!"

Lianxing stood up so fast the star throne cracked.

"He awakened the Second Vein of the Starcore Bloodline… inside a mere illusion?! Impossible—unless the illusion is forcing him into trauma-level growth!"

They both turned toward the distant Nebula Rift.

Because something massive moved there.

Something monstrous and ancient.

An eye the size of a moon opened in the rift.

Lianxing cursed under his breath.

"The Hunters found a tracking thread… someone is guiding them."

Yueran's expression turned grim. "We must hurry. He is growing too fast… and that speed will attract every enemy we ever made."

Back Inside the Illusion

The masked figure stumbled back, genuinely surprised.

"You awakened another layer? In here?"

Yun stood tall, breathing hard but steady, silver energy swirling like mist around him.

"I'm done being scared," Yun said, voice low but strong. "Fight me properly."

The masked figure tilted his head.

"Very well. You passed the first part of Layer Seven."

The battlefield shifted again.

But before it changed completely, a girl suddenly appeared beside Yun—out of thin air.

She was around his age, with white hair that glowed like moonlight and strange markings under her eyes. Her aura felt ancient but familiar.

She looked confused, blinking. "Um… where am I? This doesn't look like the trial I was doing…"

Yun stared. "Who—who are you?!"

She blinked again. "I—uh—don't know? My memories are kinda scrambled. I think the illusion grabbed me? Anyway hi, I guess I'm stuck with you for now."

Yun felt his stomach drop.

A real person.

Pulled into his illusion world.

That wasn't supposed to happen.

The masked figure chuckled darkly.

"Good. Two of you may not survive… but if you do, you will become monsters worthy of the higher world."

The ground cracked beneath their feet.

Layer Seven had only begun.

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