The world vanished the instant Xiao Wang stepped through the portal.
No sound.
No walls.
No Sanctuary.
No voices calling his name.
Just emptiness.
An infinite void—silent, cold, weightless.
Xiao Wang hovered in darkness, as if hanging between past and present, life and death. Nobody. No breath. Only thought and a faint echo of his own heartbeat.
Then—
A soft ring trembled through the space, like a distant temple bell stirring forgotten ghosts.
Light rippled outward.
The void peeled open.
And a world formed.
A world he did not recognize… yet felt carved into his bones.
A World Before Heaven Tried to Kill Him
Xiao Wang's feet touched ground—warm stone beneath his boots. A breeze brushed his cheek, carrying the scent of blossoms that had no earthly name. When he looked up, his breath stilled.
He stood in a courtyard so vast it could cradle entire continents, its floor paved with starlight tiles. Palaces floated above him in spirals of gold and obsidian, suspended by nothing at all. Rivers of light flowed through the sky like molten silver.
"This wasn't an illusion."
It was a memory.
And not the memory of a mortal.
The memory of an emperor.
Xiao Wang exhaled slowly. "So this is the Trial of Souls…"
Then a voice echoed behind him.
"Welcome home."
Xiao Wang spun instantly, Devouring Sword manifesting in his grip reflexively.
A woman stood at the archway.
She didn't walk toward him—she glided, every movement graceful, calm, ethereal.
Her hair was long and midnight-black, shimmering like the sky before dawn. Her eyes were warm gold, the same shade as the imperial throne he had glimpsed in fragments. Her presence was soft, gentle… unbearably familiar.
She smiled.
"Did you forget me so easily?"
Xiao Wang's heart thumped painfully against his ribs.
His lips parted—
But no words came out.
Yun Xi had warned him before he entered.
"You will see her."
"This was the woman the Emperor Fragment had once loved."
The woman he trusted above armies and gods.
The woman who, in his last life, stabbed him through the heart.
She stepped closer, the warmth of her aura brushing his skin.
"My emperor," she whispered, tilting her head lovingly, "you stare as if you've seen a ghost."
Xiao Wang swallowed hard.
"You're not real," he said quietly. "Just a trial."
She chuckled softly, eyes glittering like starlight.
"Perhaps. But trials are made from truth. And truth… is far harder to kill than you remember."
She reached for his cheek.
Xiao Wang pulled back.
Her smile dimmed—but not with anger. With sadness. Deep, aching sorrow.
"You really don't remember anything, do you?"
She stepped closer again, slower this time, as if afraid he might shatter.
"In your last life… You held me in your arms beneath those floating pavilions." She pointed to structures glowing high above. "You swore the heavens would fall before harm ever reached me."
Her fingers brushed the air near his hand.
"And I believed you."
His jaw tightened. "You betrayed me."
Her movement paused.
A single breath hitched in her throat.
Then she nodded once, painfully slow.
"…Yes. I did."
She turned away, "walking toward a stone railing overlooking endless space."
"But not the way you think."
Xiao Wang followed at a distance. The landscape is shifting subtly around them. The halls grew taller. The sky dimmed into twilight. Stars drifted lazily like petals.
"You want answers, don't you?" she asked quietly.
Xiao Wang didn't respond.
She continued anyway.
"In this trial… You will see the truth Heaven hid from you. The truth they sealed. And the reason I—"
She stopped mid-sentence.
Her fingers trembled.
Her eyes glistened with memories that clearly hurt more than any blade.
"…the reason I did what I did."
She turned back toward him, her voice barely above a whisper.
"Will you walk with me?"
Xiao Wang hesitated.
His other personality made a tired sound inside his mind:
"Oh boy. Emotional confrontation with our murderous ex. Fantastic."
The Devouring Sword spirit vibrated in warning.
"Be careful, her soul imprint is real. She may not be alive—but the trial uses true echoes."
Ignoring both, Xiao Wang stepped forward.
And she smiled—a small, fragile smile that fractured something in his chest.
A Memory He Never Asked to Relive
She guided him through the glowing palace corridors, each step echoing centuries of forgotten power. Servants appeared in the distance—mere silhouettes, echoes with no faces—bows frozen mid-motion, like statues.
"They aren't alive," she murmured. "Only fragments."
Xiao Wang nodded.
But then a memory slammed into him—
A vision not from her, but from himself.
A throne.
A crown of collapsing stars.
A universe kneeling.
He staggered.
She caught his arm instantly.
"Careful."
He shook her off, breath ragged.
"What… was that?"
"A flash," she said softly. "Your soul is trying to remember." Her eyes softened. "It will hurt."
"I'm not afraid of pain."
"You should be."
She stopped before a tall obsidian gate that pulsed with living light.
"This… is the first door."
"What's behind it?"
Her expression turned unreadable.
"Your first forgotten truth."
The gate opened without being touched.
A scene formed—a battlefield carved into the fabric of space itself. Celestial bodies shattered. Rivers of burning qi tore through the void. Divine corpses drifted lifeless among the stars.
Xiao Wang felt his chest tighten painfully.
"Your war," she whispered. "Your rebellion against Heaven."
He watched himself—his past self—standing atop a mountain of wreckage, robes soaked in divine blood. He wielded a sword dripping with the essence of slain immortals.
Not the Devouring Sword.
A different weapon.
A sword forged from pure, concentrated emperor will—its blade jagged like a broken star.
Xiao Wang couldn't breathe for a moment.
"That… was me?"
"Yes."
"Why was I fighting Heaven?"
Her gaze hardened.
"Because they took everything from you."
He turned toward her slowly.
"What did they take?"
She didn't answer.
Instead, the battlefield dissolved.
Another door appeared.
This one radiated warmth… comfort.
Fear.
"Behind this door," she murmured, "is your second truth."
The door creaked open—
Revealing him.
His past self.
Laughing.
Holding her hand.
Spinning her in a courtyard of floating lanterns. Her laughter was pure, bright, unrestrained. They were happy. Radiantly so.
Xiao Wang stared silently.
She whispered, "This was the last night before everything ended."
He watched his past self kiss her forehead. Felt a faint echo of warmth that no memory should've preserved.
Then—
A spear of celestial light pierced the sky.
Past Xiao Wang pulled her behind him, sword raised—
Too late.
The spear struck her directly.
Xiao Wang froze, eyes wide.
She collapsed.
Blood was soaking the ground like molten gold.
His past self caught her, screaming her name.
The ground trembled with rage.
Rage so absolute it warped the stars.
Xiao Wang's current body trembled.
"You died… because of me?"
She turned toward him slowly, golden tears sliding down her cheeks.
"They sent the spear to kill you."
She touched the place over her heart.
"I took the blow instead."
Xiao Wang swallowed hard.
His other personality whispered, stunned:
"…We really lost her once."
The Devouring Sword spirit murmured, "Do not lose yourself." "This is only a memory."
But Xiao Wang shook with something Deeper than memory.
A hollow pain.
A forgotten grief.
He clenched the sword instinctively.
"Then why… why did you betray me later?!"
Her eyes closed, anguish twisting her features.
"That… is the final truth."
The world trembled.
A third door materialized—cracked, sealed with chains of light, covered in divine sigils.
She backed away from it, her breath trembling.
"I cannot open that door," she whispered. "Not in this trial. Not yet."
Xiao Wang stepped forward.
"Why?"
Her voice broke.
"Because the truth inside… will break you."
He reached for the seal.
The chains rattled violently.
The room shook.
Her voice cracked desperately, "Xiao Wang, stop! You're not ready—!"
But Xiao Wang pressed his palm onto the seal.
Light erupted—
Not white.
Not gold.
Black.
A tidal wave of black flame exploded outward, hurling both of them across the room. The door screamed like a living thing. Cracks spiderwebbed across its surface.
Behind the cracks…
A voice spoke.
A voice that mirrored Xiao Wang's own.
Cold. Vengeful. Shattered.
"Do not open this door."
Xiao Wang staggered, breath shaking. "Who—"
"Your Emperor self," she whispered, horrified. "He is protecting you from the truth."
Xiao Wang stood still for a long moment.
Then he turned to her.
"What did I do? What did you do? What did Heaven do?"
She shook her head slowly.
"You will know. But the trial will reveal it piece by piece."
She reached for his hand, her fingers trembling.
"But until then… You must survive."
The world began to crack.
The trial shifted.
Light distorted violently.
She stepped closer, breath warm on his cheek.
"Xiao Wang…" she whispered, voice soft with longing and regret.
"I don't know if you will ever forgive me. I don't know if you'll ever understand why everything happened."
Her fingers brushed his jaw gently.
"But I need you to remember one thing."
Her eyes locked onto his—golden, heartbroken, true.
"I loved you."
The world shattered.
Xiao Wang gasped—
and a new trial chamber formed around him.
Dark.
Silent.
Filled with footsteps, he recognized.
His own.
And a shadow stepped out of the darkness—
Long hair.
Cold eyes.
Sword dripping with starlight.
Him.
Not the Emperor Fragment.
Not the Sword Ancestor.
A third version.
The one sealed in the third door.
The one even Heaven feared.
He spoke one word—
Low, deadly, claiming everything.
"Imposter."
Xiao Wang's blood ran cold.
The trial had only just begun.