The room was quiet.
Kun JiaNing sat cross-legged on the cool wooden floor of his dormitory at Sky University. No hum of machines, no clatter of coils or glass—just the stillness of stone, gravity, and the distant song of wind brushing past his open window.
The light of dusk filtered in through the hanging blinds, painting golden bars across the floor. His round, steel-rimmed sunglasses rested on the shelf nearby, folded neatly. Tonight, he didn't need them.
This night, he felt it—something ancient stirring beneath his skin.
His body, tall and thickly built, was still wrapped in his loose sky-blue student robe, sleeves tied up to reveal his forearms—snow-white fur emerging faintly from beneath the skin. Not yet fully awakened. Not yet whole.
But the XuKun Gen, the mutative lineage of the Fifth Guardian Beast—the legendary gorilla-bodied, stag-legged creature with white arms that glowed under moonlight—had begun to pulse inside him like a distant drumbeat.
He closed his eyes.
All around him, the walls of his room—simple pine panels reinforced with gravite alloy—seemed to hold their breath.
Then it came.
A rupture—not physical, but internal.
Like the earth beneath his feet had shifted its bones.
The room grew heavier. Not metaphorically—literally. The air thickened with graviton pulses. Dust rose, then froze midair. His lungs compressed. His heartbeat thumped once, twice, then began to echo louder, syncing with something vast and buried.
The Final Breath Tribulation had begun.
His muscles tensed instinctively. White fur broke through his forearms as his body adapted to the ancestral trial. The dormitory's floor groaned beneath his weight as gravity thickened, crushing down as if a mountain were descending upon the room.
Stone bloomed from the center of the floor.
Rising.
Forming.
Becoming.
The creature emerged from the stone—a massive figure, eight feet tall. A gorilla-like beast with stag legs, its hooves clacking sharply against the floor. Snow-white fur cascaded down its titanic arms, and its head turned toward him with eyes like obsidian glaciers.
It was him—and yet it was not. A guardian reflection of the bloodline he carried. The XuKun Beast's spirit forged into trial.
It roared, and the windows shattered.
Kun JiaNing did not flinch.
Instead, he rose slowly, dust clinging to his robe. His stance was wide, hooved legs anchoring him to the room's trembling foundation. Arms fell to his sides, knuckles cracking.
He inhaled—felt the weight of ancestral muscle pulling into his limbs.
Mutation Technique: Stoneveil Coil.
A spiral of stone circled his form, each ring floating mid-air—slabs of mineralized energy aligning like a shield and sword at once. The room shook, but his footing was perfect.
The Trial Beast lunged.
Its fists crashed down like avalanches.
Kun JiaNing rolled aside, then kicked off the floor with a gravitational burst.
Mutation Technique: Gravity Crater Arc Step!
He slid along the floor like a tectonic plate shifting, carving a shallow trench behind him. He flipped forward, bringing his foot down.
Mutation Technique: Seismic Horned Slam!
A gravity-infused stomp burst into the floor, sending cracks radiating outward in a six-meter radius. The Trial Beast was caught in the shockwave, thrown backward into the wall with a deep crunch.
It roared again, but this time with fury. Its arms glowed with dark, tarry energy—compressing gravity into a mallet-shaped strike.
Kun JiaNing exhaled.
His back touched the window frame.
He whispered.
Mutation Technique: Spine of the Earth.
A trail of stone spines burst upward beneath his heels, launching him skyward. He twisted mid-air and collided fist-to-fist with the beast. The room exploded with force, wind howling through the broken panes. The pressure alone could've crushed a weaker gen-user.
But Kun JiaNing wasn't weak.
He gritted his teeth as they landed hard, smashing through his own floor into the support structure beneath. Both rolled, fists locked.
The Trial Beast tried to pin him—but he released the breath he'd been holding.
The final breath.
It resonated. Ancient.
His heart ceased for a moment.
Then came the shift.
A tectonic silence washed through him. In that heartbeat of stillness, he saw it: The XuKun Guardian kneeling not in violence, but in offering—white-furred arms bowed to him. Accepting him. Choosing him.
His eyes widened.
Final Breath Reached.
His aura erupted.
Gravitational pulses exploded outward, silencing the entire room. Floorboards hovered. Pebbles floated, spinning around his form like moons.
His hooves settled gently on the air itself—he no longer stood on the ground.
Legend Pose: Heavenly earth overlord
His figure now shimmered with pale silver light. White fur fully emerged across his arms. Glowing stag-marks lined his cheekbones, and his eyes—once a calm brown—now reflected the pale glow of the moon.
The beast rose again, though trembling.
Kun JiaNing extended one palm outward.
Legend Technique: Gravitational Spine.
Dozens of crystal-tipped spikes erupted from the space behind him, crossing downward in a pattern like an avalanche falling in slow motion. They slammed into the Trial Beast's form—pinning it in four axes: sky, stone, shadow, and soul.
The beast screamed once.
Then stilled.
Stone crumbled around it. Its fur unraveled into petals of light. It bowed once more before dispersing into ash and gravity.
Silence returned.
Kun JiaNing remained floating, breath slow and even. He touched his chest—felt the echo of his ancestors humming through marrow and blood.
Then gravity returned with a pulse.
He dropped gently back to the ruined floor, hooves clicking once before shifting back to human feet. The fur receded. His breathing slowed.
He adjusted his round sunglasses again, slipping them on with deliberate calm.
His voice was low, barely audible.
"…I understand now."
Not a boast. Not a statement of power.
A quiet realization.
The XuKun Gen was no longer dormant. It had chosen him not just as heir—but as embodiment.
He walked slowly across the cracked dormitory floor, stepping over broken wood and stone. He sat at the edge of his bed, staring at the gentle blue sky fading beyond the shattered windows.
Far off, Sky University bells chimed.
Normal life would resume.
But nothing within him was normal anymore.