The Sanctuary did not merely tremble-
It fractured.
Stone pillars cracked from the force of that barely visible needle of darkness. Ancient runes flickered like dying embers. Even the air warped, as though the entire space wanted to fold in on itself.
Yun Xi's scream echoed desperately, tearing through the collapsing chamber.
"NO! DON'T LET IT TOUCH THE PORTAL!"
But the attack was already moving-
silent, thin, merciless.
A thread of destruction aimed directly at Xiao Wang's only path back.
The silver-haired girl lurched forward, pure instinct driving her legs.
"STOP-!"
Yun Xi grabbed her before she could take more than two steps, arms wrapped around her waist.
"DON'T!" she cried, voice shaking violently. "If you get near him now, the Hunter will mark you too!"
"But if that thing hits the portal-" the girl choked, her breath breaking, "-Xiao Wang will die inside!"
Yun Xi's grip tightened until her knuckles went white.
"I know," she whispered.
Her voice cracked.
"I know…"
The Silent Eraser did not listen.
He didn't need to.
He moved with calm inevitability, a reaper delivering a pre-written ending.
The needle reached the portal.
But at the very last heartbeat-
CLANG.
A metallic chime split the air.
The thread of darkness hit something-
something thin, sharp, silver.
A blade?
No. Not a blade.
A sword intent barrier, only one person could've created.
Sword light crackled in the air like a ringing bell. The space rippled with overlapping layers of sword aura-refined, ancient, impossibly sharp.
Yun Xi's eyes widened.
"No… that isn't Xiao Wang's power-"
The silver-haired girl gasped, "Then whose-"
A voice rose.
Calm. Cold. Sharp.
A voice that carried a weight even Heaven still feared.
"You dare touch what belongs to me."
For a split second, reality bent.
A shimmering silhouette appeared above the portal-
a hazy outline of a man with long, pale hair and a robe stitched with stars. His expression couldn't be seen clearly, but the pressure he released drowned the entire Sanctuary.
The Silent Eraser's head tilted.
"Interference detected."
Yun Xi's breath hitched.
"It's… him."
The silver-haired girl blinked. "Him?"
"The First Sword Ancestor," Yun Xi whispered. "He didn't fully leave Xiao Wang's body. A trace… a shadow… a spark of his awareness remained."
The Ancestor's silhouette pointed at the Silent Eraser, expression unreadable.
"You lack respect," he said. "He entered a trial of my making. He is under my sword domain. Your intrusion…"
A thin smile cracked across the shadow's face.
"…is unacceptable."
The Silent Eraser didn't flinch.
"You are merely a fragment. A dying echo. You cannot harm me."
The Sword Ancestor's shadow didn't argue.
He only lifted two fingers.
Reality bent.
Sword qi formed around the attack-
threads of light weaving into a perfectly shaped pattern.
Folding around the Hunter's needle.
Compressing it.
Crushing it.
SNAP.
The darkness shuddered-
then collapsed like glass breaking inward.
The needle vanished.
The space around the portal stabilized-barely.
The silver-haired girl dropped to her knees in relief, tears slipping down her cheeks.
"He… he saved him…"
Yun Xi exhaled sharply. "He bought us a moment. No more. The Eraser won't retreat."
And she was right.
The Silent Eraser didn't seem disturbed. Didn't seem angry.
If anything, he looked… almost curious.
"You used a forbidden sequence," he said. "A memory that should have perished."
The Ancestor's shadow tilted his head.
"I don't perish."
He lowered his hand.
"But I do leave warnings."
The shadow turned to Yun Xi and the silver-haired girl.
"When he returns… prepare him. The Trial of Soul is not kinder than Heaven's Hunters."
His form flickered-
fading like smoke caught by the wind.
The Sanctuary dimmed.
The shadow vanished.
Leaving them alone with the Ninth Hunter.
The silver-haired girl stared at the spot where the Ancestor had been.
"Will… will Xiao Wang be okay?" she whispered.
Yun Xi swallowed hard.
"I don't know."
She looked at the Silent Eraser.
He made no move to flee.
No move to attack.
Just… waited.
"Why isn't it coming after us?" the silver-haired girl whispered.
"Because we're not the target," Yun Xi replied bitterly. "Heaven doesn't see us. Only him."
The Eraser lifted his head slightly.
"Time passes differently inside the Trial," he said in a flat tone. "For every hour out here…"
He paused.
"…days pass in his soul world."
The girl paled.
"How long?" she whispered.
The Hunter didn't hesitate.
"Seventy-two hours."
Yun Xi felt her heart sink.
"Three days inside the trial… for every hour… out here…"
She covered her mouth, trying to breathe.
"That's… that's torture…"
The Silent Eraser's voice, calm and deathly cold, cut through the air once more.
"Your Emperor will suffer."
The silver-haired girl's eyes shook with fury.
"Don't call him that! He's not-!"
The Hunter didn't react.
He turned his gaze toward the portal-
expressionless, unreadable, patient.
"I will wait."
And that was somehow worse than any attack.
Yun Xi clenched her fists.
She could feel her heartbeat trembling in her chest, each beat filled with real fear-fear not for herself, but for the boy who had just stepped into a trial more dangerous than the Hunters themselves.
Xiao Wang… please survive.
Inside the trial, Xiao Wang had no idea what awaited him.
But the Silent Eraser did.
His voice drifted softly, like mist.
"When he emerges… I will erase him."