William stood within the translucent barrier.
Beyond it stretched an endless void.
In front of him stood the old man.
For several minutes, neither spoke.
William was still trying to process everything he had learned.
The fundamental energies.
The cosmic forces.
The Immortal Body.
The Cosmic Throne.
The Tournament.
All of it was far greater than anything he had ever imagined.
Eventually, he broke the silence.
"I think I'm finally starting to understand."
The old man laughed.
A short laugh.
Then he shook his head.
"No."
William froze.
"What?"
"You understand nothing."
William frowned.
The old man continued calmly.
"In fact..."
"Most of what I told you when we first met was nothing more than simplifications."
Silence followed.
Then William spoke slowly.
"Simplifications?"
"Yes."
The old man sighed.
"When I first met you, you were merely a young man who had just stepped beyond the limits of his world."
"If I had told you the truth from the beginning, you wouldn't have understood a single word."
"So I used concepts you were capable of grasping."
He gestured toward the endless void surrounding them.
"Atoms."
"Energies."
"Physiques."
"Ranks."
"They are all merely names."
An uncomfortable feeling settled in William's chest.
"But they're real."
"They are."
The old man nodded.
"But not in the way you imagine."
He took a step forward.
Then asked:
"Do you know the greatest mistake made by cultivators, seekers, and candidates alike?"
William shook his head.
"They mistake words for truth."
A brief silence followed.
Then he continued.
"Words are cages."
"The truth..."
His gaze drifted into the darkness.
"...is far too vast to be trapped inside them."
William stared at him quietly.
Then asked:
"What about the Immortal Body?"
For the first time in a long while, the old man's smile disappeared.
"The Immortal Body..."
He repeated the name slowly.
"...is not a body."
William froze.
"What?"
"It is not a body."
The old man repeated.
"It never was."
For a moment, William felt the ground vanish beneath his feet.
Everything he thought he knew.
Everything he believed.
Began to shake.
The old man raised his hand.
A small sphere of light appeared above his palm.
"Matter."
The sphere vanished.
In its place appeared a swirling mass of energy.
"Energy."
That vanished as well.
Then the old man looked directly into William's eyes.
"At higher levels..."
"There is no true distinction between the two."
William's pupils contracted.
The old man continued.
"What you call the Immortal Body is not an organ."
"It is not a bloodline."
"It is not a biological structure."
His voice grew deeper.
"It is a vast concentration of possibility."
"A force capable of influencing matter."
"Influencing energy."
"And influencing things that transcend both."
Silence followed.
For the first time in a very long while...
William felt as though he had returned to the beginning.
After several moments, he finally asked:
"And the race you told me I belonged to?"
The old man fell silent.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three.
Then he answered.
"Forget it."
William stiffened.
"What?"
"Forget everything I told you about that."
His voice rose.
"How am I supposed to forget it?!"
The old man's expression remained calm.
"Because it isn't important."
He paused.
"More importantly..."
"It may be harmful."
William's eyes narrowed.
The old man continued.
"There are truths that should not be given to candidates."
"There are truths deliberately planted."
"And there are truths created solely to control them."
A chill crawled down William's spine.
"Control them?"
The old man nodded.
"The candidate who believes he already knows the truth..."
"Stops searching."
"The candidate who believes his destiny has already been decided..."
"Stops choosing."
He stepped closer.
"You are a promising candidate."
"And for that reason..."
"I refuse to let those chains remain inside your mind."
Then the old man raised his hand.
William immediately sensed danger.
"Wait—"
But it was already too late.
The old man's fingers touched his forehead.
And suddenly—
The world shook.
There was no pain.
No attack.
No destruction.
Only a sensation so strange that William couldn't describe it.
It felt as though an entire library was being erased from his mind.
As though thousands of pages were being torn away at once.
Memories surfaced.
Fragments of information.
Names.
Explanations.
Concepts.
Theories.
And then...
They began disappearing.
One after another.
Vanishing.
Effortlessly.
As though they had never existed at all.
Several minutes later, William opened his eyes.
He staggered backward.
Then another step.
And another.
His hand instinctively rose to his forehead.
A strange lightness filled his mind.
As though an enormous burden had been lifted.
He looked at the old man.
"What did you do?"
The old man answered simply:
"I removed the chains."
"The chains?"
A faint smile appeared on his face.
"False knowledge is more dangerous than ignorance."
Then he pointed toward the endless darkness surrounding them.
"From this moment onward..."
"You will not pursue truth because someone told it to you."
His gaze sharpened.
"You will pursue truth because you discover it yourself."
William remained silent for a long time.
Then he turned his gaze toward the infinite void.
For the first time since his journey began...
He felt as though he knew nothing.
Strangely...
The feeling wasn't frightening.
It was liberating.
The old man smiled.
Then turned toward the darkness ahead.
"Come."
William looked at him.
The old man's voice echoed softly through the emptiness.
"It is time for you to learn how to doubt everything."
And in that moment—
William felt as though his true journey had begun once again.