The collapse didn't sound like stone breaking.

It sounded like something screaming without a mouth.

The Under-Hall folded inward on itself, walls bending like paper dipped in water, runes shattering mid-air and reforming into symbols Yun didn't recognize yet but somehow understood. Shen Yu grabbed Yun's shoulder hard, fingers digging in.

"Focus," Shen Yu snapped. "Don't let the Calling pull you apart."

Yun gritted his teeth. His vision was wrong again. Too many layers. He could see the hall, but also see above it, beyond it threads of light stretching upward, sideways, into places that weren't places. His newly awakened eyes burned, not painful, just… demanding.

"I'm trying," Yun muttered, voice shaking but not breaking. That alone surprised him.

Lan'ruo floated beside them, her form flickering like she wasn't fully here anymore. She looked tired. Older. And for the first time, scared.

"The Hunters found the resonance," she said quietly. "Not here yet. But close enough to taste."

That word—taste—made Yun's stomach turn.

He took a slow breath, like Shen Yu taught him. One in. One out. He pressed his palm to the floor as the Under-Hall shattered fully, and for a moment everything went white.

Somewhere Far Above – The Cosmic Void

Yun's parents stood back to back.

Emperor Lianxing's armor was cracked now, entire constellations dimmed across his chestplate.Blood,star blood—dripped into the void and evaporated into sparks. Empress Yueran's hair was loose, her breathing uneven, one arm trembling as she maintained a barrier the size of a small world.

"They're learning," she said softly, not looking back. "The Hunters are adapting to Yun's awakenings faster than expected."

Lianxing laughed once, sharp and bitter. "Of course they are. That's what they do."

A Hunter Lord hovered before them, its form fractured into angles that hurt to look at. It didn't attack yet. It waited. Always waiting.

"You should have let the child sleep," it said, voice echoing across dead galaxies. "Now he shines too bright."

Yueran's eyes hardened. "Then you should have learned to look away."

She released the barrier.

The void exploded into war again.

Yun hit the ground hard.

Not stone. Not dirt.

Ink.

Black, flowing, endless ink stretched beneath him, reflecting stars that weren't real. The air smelled like old paper and rain. Ahead stood a long table, brushes floating above it, each one humming with pressure.

Shen Yu landed beside him, already kneeling. "This is the next trial," he said. "The Brush Master's true domain."

A figure formed at the end of the table.

Old. Thin. Straight-backed. Eyes sharp enough to cut fate in half.

Daiost. Brush Master.

Or what remained of him.

"You hesitate less now," the illusion said, voice calm but heavy. "Good. Fear dulls the stroke."

Yun stood. Slowly. His legs shook, but he didn't hide it.

"I'm not fearless," Yun said. "I just stopped letting it decide for me."

Daiost's mouth twitched. Almost a smile.

"Then choose," he said.

The brushes moved.

Each one showed a future. One where Yun ruled. One where he burned. One where he saved his village but lost the cosmos. One where he abandoned everything and survived alone.

And one—quiet, dim—where he walked forward with others.

Yun's eyes ached. Blood slid from the corner of one eye, but he didn't wipe it away.

He reached.

Not for the brightest brush.

Not for the safest.

He chose the one with too many unknowns.

The ink beneath him surged.

Lan'ruo gasped. Shen Yu's eyes widened just slightly.

Daiost laughed, deep and approving.

"Schemer," the Brush Master said. "Good. The heavens fear those more than heroes."

The domain cracked again—but this time, it didn't feel like collapse.

It felt like opening.

And far away, across the stars, something ancient finally turned its gaze fully toward Yun.

Not as prey.

But as a problem.

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