The crack left by the ancient giant hadn't disappeared.
It hovered in the sky like a scar across reality itself, stretching endlessly above the Forgotten Battlefield.
Ash drifted downward.
The crimson rivers had become strangely calm.
Even the eternal screams that once echoed across the plains had faded.
Silence.
The kind of silence that warned something far worse was coming.
Kai stood motionless.
The silver flame inside his chest pulsed steadily.
The Coreless Heart had absorbed another fragment of forgotten authority, yet instead of becoming stronger...
It felt heavier.
As if invisible chains had wrapped around his soul.
Beside him, Lyra frowned.
"...Something is wrong."
She looked toward the horizon.
"The battlefield..."
"...is breathing."
Kai closed his eyes.
He felt it too.
A pulse.
Slow.
Ancient.
Each heartbeat caused the ground beneath them to tremble.
Boom...
Boom...
Boom...
The battlefield wasn't dead.
It had never been dead.
It had merely been sleeping.
Without warning—
The crimson earth split apart.
Thousands of enormous pillars erupted from below.
Each pillar carried glowing runes.
Each rune represented a fallen civilization.
The empire of dragons.
The celestial kingdoms.
The abyssal tribes.
The forgotten gods.
Millions of names.
All erased from history.
Yet their memories remained inside these pillars.
As they rose into the heavens, the entire battlefield transformed into a massive circular arena.
A voice echoed everywhere.
Not loud.
Not soft.
Simply unavoidable.
"The Trial of Worthiness begins."
Every living being inside the battlefield froze.
Monsters.
Cultivators.
Spirits.
Even the shadows.
Everyone heard it.
Far away—
A blood-covered cultivator looked upward.
"The trial...?"
Another old monster widened his eyes.
"It awakened..."
"Impossible..."
"It should have remained sealed for another thousand years!"
Panic spread across the battlefield.
Those who understood immediately turned pale.
Because this trial wasn't meant for ordinary cultivators.
It judged existence itself.
Kai looked around.
No enemy.
No monsters.
Only silence.
Then—
A single figure appeared before him.
It wore black robes.
No face.
No aura.
No life force.
Yet the space around it bent unnaturally.
It slowly raised one hand.
"...Who are you?" Kai asked.
The figure remained silent.
Instead—
It pointed at Kai's chest.
The Coreless Heart.
Then another voice echoed inside Kai's mind.
"Show your existence."
The instant those words finished—
Everything vanished.
Lyra disappeared.
The battlefield disappeared.
The sky disappeared.
Kai found himself standing inside endless white space.
Nothing existed.
No light.
No darkness.
Only emptiness.
Footsteps.
Someone approached.
Kai turned.
His pupils contracted.
Standing before him...
...was himself.
The same face.
The same silver eyes.
The same black hair.
Even the same scar on his left hand.
The only difference—
The other Kai possessed a glowing golden core.
Perfect.
Radiant.
Complete.
The opposite of everything Kai had become.
The duplicate smiled.
"I wondered when we'd finally meet."
Kai tightened his grip.
"...Who are you?"
The duplicate laughed softly.
"I am the life you abandoned."
"The future you rejected."
"The version of yourself who chose power instead of freedom."
Kai's heartbeat accelerated.
Illusion?
Memory?
Neither.
The Coreless Heart vibrated violently.
As if recognizing the stranger.
The duplicate slowly walked closer.
"You believe becoming Coreless makes you special."
"It doesn't."
"It simply makes you incomplete."
Kai remained silent.
The duplicate continued.
"You seek freedom."
"But freedom without power..."
"...is merely another form of weakness."
The words struck deeper than any blade.
Because part of Kai...
...believed them.
Outside the white world—
Lyra watched helplessly.
Kai stood frozen with empty eyes.
One minute passed.
Then five.
Then ten.
He never moved.
Around him, more cultivators entered the trial.
Some screamed.
Some laughed.
Some instantly collapsed into dust.
One by one...
The battlefield chose who was worthy.
Inside the endless white space—
The duplicate extended his hand.
"No more suffering."
"No more impossible battles."
"No more loneliness."
"Accept your true destiny."
A golden cultivation core appeared between them.
It radiated unimaginable power.
The very power Kai had dreamed of possessing as a child.
A perfect core.
One capable of surpassing every genius.
One capable of reaching immortality.
Without pain.
Without sacrifice.
Without becoming Coreless.
"You can still return," the duplicate whispered.
"Take it."
"For once..."
"...choose yourself."
Kai stared silently at the glowing core.
His fingers twitched.
For the first time since beginning his journey...
He hesitated.
And in that single moment of hesitation—
The white world cracked.
Not because Kai attacked.
Not because the duplicate moved.
But because something even older had noticed the trial.
Deep within the void beyond existence, an unseen presence opened its eyes.
It spoke only three words:
"He remembers nothing."
The trial trembled.
Kai looked up sharply.
The duplicate's confident smile vanished for the first time.
Somewhere beyond the white sky...
Something far more ancient than the Trial of Worthiness had begun to awaken.