The seven-ringed obsidian platform pulsed beneath Lin Xuan's feet.
Each ring glowed with a colorless light, flickering like a memory trying to forget itself.
The celestial decree boomed once more—not with words, but with void-filled intent:
"Trial Three: Face the Null Origin.""Face the Path you walk.""Face what you may become."
The Null Origin
At the center of the platform, the floor split open.
Rising from below was a colossal humanoid figure, thirty feet tall, composed of erasure.
Its form was incomplete—chunks of reality missing from it, as if it had been carved from the world using absence instead of stone.
No eyes. No mouth.
Only a swirling vortex where its chest should be.
Nie Qing whispered behind Lin Xuan:
"That's no construct…"
"That's a failed Void Emperor."
"A path that consumed its own soul."
The Mindscape Pull
The Null Origin did not attack.
Instead, it reached out—not physically, but conceptually—and pulled Lin Xuan into its mindscape.
There was no warning.
No transition.
One breath, he was on the platform.
The next—
He stood in a desolate world of grey oceans and black suns.
Inside the Broken Will
The sky wept ash.
The seas were made of flickering symbols—incomplete Dao scripts, each one representing a law abandoned, forgotten, or erased.
And at the center stood a man.
Or what was left of one.
He wore ancient robes burned at the edges, and where his eyes should have been, only hollow pits stared at Lin Xuan.
"You carry the Bloom," the man said.
"Then you must understand…"
"This Path has no end. Only… absence."
Lin Xuan said nothing.
The voice trembled, half-mad:
"I was the Third Void Heir. I reached the edge. I looked past Heaven. And I found…"
"Nothing looked back."
"The Void does not free you. It unroots you. From yourself. From cause. From being."
He raised a hand—and the entire mindscape shook.
"If you walk this path, you will erase even your reason to walk it."
Mind-Duel: Void vs. Void
The specter of the Null Origin struck.
Not with qi. Not with force.
With self-negation.
Memories of Lin Xuan's childhood began to flicker—his pain, his ambition, even his mother's voice—all unraveling like threads under fire.
"Do you understand now? There is no Void Dao," the specter whispered."There is only collapse."
But Lin Xuan stood firm.
He focused not on what he was losing, but on what could not be taken.
He stepped forward.
"You speak of void as if it is rot. Decay. Ending."
He raised his hand—summoning not a technique, but a concept.
"But I have seen the Void through silence. Through solitude."
"I do not walk toward destruction."
"I walk toward freedom."
Void Avatar Awakens: Eclipsed Form of the Hollow Crown
Behind Lin Xuan, a faint silhouette formed—a massive shadow cloaked in inverted starlight. It wore no face, no name, but a crown of broken laws hovered above its head.
It reached out—and grasped the Null Origin's form.
And hugged it.
Not in pity.
In acceptance.
Null Origin Fades
The broken will shuddered.
Then laughed—a brittle, broken sound.
"Perhaps…"
"You will succeed where we failed."
The mindscape collapsed inward.
Return to the Platform
Lin Xuan opened his eyes.
He stood once again on the seven-ringed stage.
Nie Qing stared at him in awe.
Others had fallen. One cultivator's soul had fled. Two others now wandered aimlessly, minds fractured by the Null Origin's sorrow.
But Lin Xuan stood unchanged.
No—not unchanged.
Refined.
Void Cultivation Breakthrough Achieved
Stage: Void Embodiment – Perfection Layer Ability Gained: Crown of Null Recognition‣ Passive: All techniques aimed at Lin Xuan's sense of identity, purpose, or fate have greatly reduced effect.‣ Active: Project a field where falsehoods, illusions, and self-doubt cannot exist.
The sky pulsed.
A new decree unfurled:
"Subject: Lin Xuan – Phase Three Incomplete.""He does not reject the Void. He defines it."
"Initiating Trial Four…"