In a time-accelerated corner of Fang Yuan's immortal aperture, another clone stirred.
He had not seen the Final Step Gu. He had not touched the Abyssal Root. But he had felt the silence that followed.
The clone had been cultivating quietly within a sealed timeline loop, revisiting killer moves and strategies lost to history. Yet something had shifted. The air had grown… quieter.
He opened his eyes. The time-flow trembled.
"I see," he said to no one. "One of us found something."
He was still loyal. He had not diverged.
But now, he wondered: If one thread can form in a place where none should… could it happen here too?
He reached into his soul core—and hesitated.
It was still synchronized with Fang Yuan. But there was a rhythm he did not recognize.
A heartbeat from the Gu that should not be.
He sat back down.
And he began to listen.