The first thing Yun felt was pain, but not the sharp kind. This one was slow, spreading, like someone was pressing two burning coins behind his eyes and refusing to let go. He groaned and tried to sit up, but the world twisted sideways and dumped him back onto cold stone.

The Under-Hall was breaking.

Cracks ran through the ancient floor like veins, glowing faintly silver-blue. Pillars that had stood for who knows how many eras were crumbling, dust falling in lazy spirals, as if gravity itself had grown tired. Shen Yu stood a short distance away, his hand gripping his blade, eyes sharp and alert, but even he looked tense now.

"Don't move yet," Shen Yu said. "Your bloodline is still settling. If you force it, your head might actually explode this time."

"That's… comforting," Yun muttered, though his voice came out hoarse. He swallowed and blinked—and froze.

The world looked wrong.

No, not wrong. Too clear.

He could see the flow of energy in the cracked stones beneath him, thin threads of light leaking upward like mist. He could see Shen Yu's aura, layered and folded, calm on the surface but terrifyingly deep underneath. He could even see the Under-Hall itself breathing, slow and ancient, like a wounded beast.

"I can see…" Yun whispered. "Too much."

Shen Yu's expression shifted, something close to surprise slipping through his usual calm. "Third-stage eyes," he said quietly. "You awakened them faster than expected."

Yun squeezed his eyes shut, but the vision didn't stop. Darkness didn't help. The sight was inside him now.

Before he could ask anything else, the ground shuddered violently.

A deep, echoing boom rolled through the hall, and the ceiling cracked open like old ice. Massive chunks of stone fell, smashing into the floor, sending dust and shockwaves everywhere.

"The Under-Hall is collapsing," Shen Yu said, voice sharp. "It's turning into a trial ground. Again."

"Again?" Yun coughed. "How many trials does this place have?!"

Shen Yu gave a dry laugh. "As many as it needs."

From the shadows ahead, something moved.

Yun's new eyes caught it instantly—no, them. Shapes slipping between broken pillars, their outlines flickering, half-real, half-void. He felt it then, a cold pressure brushing against his chest, like fingers tracing the shape of his heart.

The Calling.

It pulsed once.

Far away—no, not far, everywhere at once—something answered.

---

Cosmic Void – Elsewhere

Yun's parents stood shoulder to shoulder atop a fractured star platform, light and darkness colliding around them. Emperor Lianxing's blade carved through space itself, severing three Hunters in a single sweep, their forms unraveling into cosmic dust. Empress Yueran raised her hand, freezing an entire void corridor in crystalline starlight.

But they were breathing harder now.

"They've locked onto him," Yueran said, blood—actual blood—sliding down her lip. "The Calling is too strong. They're tracking it through his eyes."

Lianxing snarled, his aura flaring like a dying sun forced to burn brighter. "Then we kill every path that leads to him."

More Hunters emerged from the void, their forms distorted, masks etched with ancient symbols that hated the stars themselves.

For the first time in a long while, the rulers of a cosmic empire were being pushed back.

---

Back in the Under-Hall

A shadow lunged.

Yun didn't think. He moved.

The world slowed—not fully, but enough. His feet slid across the cracked floor, his body reacting before fear could catch up. He remembered the Brush Master's teachings, the illusion, the countless deaths he'd lived through in that false world.

One stroke. No hesitation.

Yun lifted his hand.

There was no brush.

But the stroke still existed.

A line of silver light cut through the air, clean and precise. The shadow froze, split down the middle, then dissolved like smoke caught in wind.

Yun stared at his hand, heart pounding. "I… I did that."

Shen Yu's eyes narrowed, something like approval flickering there. "You didn't hesitate," he said. "Good. That means the illusions are working."

Another tremor hit. The hall began folding inward, space warping, walls bending at impossible angles.

From deep within the collapse, a presence stirred—old, vast, and familiar.

Come, it whispered, not in words but meaning. You see now. You cannot turn back.

Yun clenched his fists.

Fear rose—then stopped.

He breathed in slowly, forcing his heartbeat to steady. The Calling pulled at him, yes, but this time he pulled back. Just a little.

"I'm not running," Yun said, voice low but firm. "And I'm not letting you drag me either."

The presence paused.

Shen Yu glanced at him, surprised again. "Careful," he warned. "Talking back to things like that usually ends badly."

Yun smiled faintly, not wide, not soft—just enough. "Then I'll learn to survive it."

Above them, the Under-Hall cracked open completely, revealing a swirling passage of light and shadow—the next trial, the next battlefield, the next step.

And far away in the void, the Hunters turned their masked faces toward the same point.

Yun's eyes burned brighter.

The path had chosen him.

And now he was starting to choose it back.

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