The ten young Golden Crows looked up, their bodies frozen in place. They were unable to move even an inch.
Di Jun and Chang Xi vanished from the platform in a flash of golden light. They reappeared outside the Divine Sun and now floated in the void, their faces worried.
"What kind of tribulations do you think they'll face?" Di Jun asked, his voice clouded with worry.
He was so concerned that he forgot this was their first time witnessing a Celestial Tribulation.
"I only hope the Creator is merciful enough to restrain the Celestial Mandate," Chang Xi replied softly. "Without limits, no one could hope to advance."
Hearing this Di Jun's face relaxed, "They would pass through it." he said. If the creator was really as easygoing as I saw, then they would pass." he thought.
Chang Xi glanced at him, uncertain if Di Jun was truly confident or merely optimistic.
Her gaze then shifted toward the colossal eye looming above the Divine Sun.
"I hope so," she murmured.
[Beginning Tribulation: The Burning of the False Self]
"What does that even mean?" said the chubby one, confusion thick in his voice, as his body fell to the platform, he looked around and he could see his siblings also lying on the ground fighting to stay awake but couldn't succeed.
••••
The eldest, Yanri, opened his eyes and found himself alone in an endless starry sky. Glowing stars hovered in the abyss around him like silent watchers.
He floated weightlessly at first, then took a cautious step forward, only to find that the void supported him as solid ground might.
"What is this place?" he muttered, his eyes looking around.
Then, without warning, a glowing eye manifested in the sky above him.
[New Law Bearer: The tribulation you shall undergo is — The Burning of the Self.]
Then as it faded a golden crow materialized before him.
It looked identical to him in every way, but this doppelganger's eyes were colder, sharper, and crueler than Yanri's.
"A copy, is the test defeating this copy, no it can't be that easy, the mandate wouldn't make a weak tribulation like this."
"Indeed am not a copy, I am the true Yanri, the one you pretend not to be," the doppelgänger said, his voice like molten steel, its golden wings unfurled.
"The prideful son. The one who thinks his siblings are weak. The one who fears not living up to Father's image, but wants to be greater than him."
Yanri's jaw clenched. "You're not me, you are just a test."
"Am I?" the false Yanri sneered. "You hide behind duty and discipline. You pretend you're guiding them. But you crave control. You resent their childishness. Deep down, you wish they'd just obey."
The void trembled as the false Yanri spread his wings, golden flames wreathing his form. "You want the Sun Law to recognize you alone. You believe you're the true heir."
"No." Yanri transformed to his true form, his feathers burning golden. "That's not true."
"Then show me," the false self challenged. "Prove I'm not you."
Flames erupted from beneath Yanri's feet, as he began to fight his doppelganger.
••••
In the other dimensions scattered across the folds of celestial Mandate tribulation space, the other Golden Crows faced their own False Selves.
Each stood in a realm molded by their minds, some amidst storming suns, others in barren voids or radiant halls made of rare materials.
But the trial for all of them was the same.
They fought their false selves. But the more they fought, the more they faltered.
Their False Selves anticipated their every move. Every punch met a perfect block. Every step was mirrored. Every trick had already been tried, by the very being before them.
The second‑eldest staggered in his tribulation space, His body, battered and breathless. "Damn it, he knows my every move before I even make it!"
••••
The lean one, Shenri, leapt and unleashed a blazing arc of solar fire, only for it to be deflected effortlessly.
The False Shenri laughed. "Is this all you've got? No wonder Father always looked to the eldest.
Shenri's heart shook, not from the deflected fire attack , but from the truth hidden in the words.
••••
Meanwhile, the chubby one, Lumao, panted, clutching his scorched side. His False Self stood tall, refined, disciplined, nothing like the messy, cheerful self he'd always been.
"You'll never grow stronger clinging to comfort.
That joy of yours is weakness in disguise."
Lumao's breath caught; doubt rippled through his ruffled feathers. "Is this true? Have I been hiding my fears behind my laughter all along?"
"Yes." replied the false self, "I am you: the part you bury deep. You dread being last, the weakest among them, so you mask it with bright smiles. You laugh to hide the worry that you'll sully Father's honor."
The False Self's voice coiled around him like smoke, soft but merciless.
"You laugh too easily. You smile when you should scream. I know why."
Lumao flinched as he felt uncomfortable. "No, you don't."
"I am you, the one who hears every praise for the eldest, every affection for the youngest, and wonders if there's anything left for us."
Lumao's breath caught in his throat again before he could talk back.
"We're the runt. The slowest. The softest. So we made joy a shield. A mask. We think if we can make them laugh, maybe they won't notice how afraid we are… of being left behind."
"I…" Lumao's voice cracked. "I'm not afraid."
"Aren't you? Why else hide behind the one thing they can't criticize? Eating. Feasting. Gorging ourselves until we forget we're less." the false self continued.
The words sank deep, cutting past every excuse he'd ever whispered to himself in the silence.
Lumao laughed then, but not out of joy. It was a brittle, broken sound.
"So that's what I am, what I couldn't see, a jester with a bottomless stomach. Not a leader. Not a warrior. Just a joke."
"Then make them choke on that joke." The false self voice said.
"What?" Lumao exclaimed.
"There's nothing wrong with hunger. But stop using it to hide me. Use it to consume. Devour the weakness. Devour the doubt. Devour the very Sun."
The illusionary eternal flame which lex embedded in every creature lit up in Lumao's chest. Small at first. Then increased in intensity.
"I am not less," Lumao declared.
"No, we are not," replied the false self.
"I am not weak."
"No, we are not."
"I am hungry."
"Yes, we are."
"I will turn my voracious appetite into power. My joy into sun fire. My shame into fuel."
His wings flared wide, brilliant -gold flames erupting from his back. His real body swelled with light as the surroundings shuddered.
"I am the Sun-Devouring Crow!"
A thunderous voice boomed across the Celestial Mandate.
[Candidate Lumao has passed the trial. You may proceed to the Law Bearer Realm.]
As the void pulsed with radiance, Lumao stood tall, radiant eyes blazing with conviction. For the first time in his life, he didn't smile to hide.
He smiled because he knew who he was becoming and was prepared for the consequences that came with it.
••••
At the same time, solar spears rained down, and blazing tornadoes howled around Yanri as if they were wrathful gods.
The storm raged on relentlessly, as did the silence within him—a silence filled with questions he had long refused to ask.
His doppelgänger mirrored his every move, thought, and flame.
"Why...why is he always ahead of me?" Yanri growled through gritted teeth. "Why does he never falter?"
Then, after dozens of exchanged moves, clarity struck him.
"Because he is me. He's not a copy of me conjured by the mandate, nor is he an invader. But me. The unspoken, unacknowledged half. The part of myself that I buried to appear whole."
He fights like me because he is me. He knows what I'll do because he is what I refuse to face."
His golden flames surged once more, only to be met with perfect resistance. For every burst of fury, the false self responded with calm precision.
Yanri staggered back, breathing hard. Not from exhaustion, but from clarity.
"I keep trying to defeat him like an enemy. But how can you conquer yourself with fire alone?"
The realization unfolded like a flower in the inferno.
"I'm not fighting an enemy—I'm wrestling with a mask I never removed."
His fists lowered. His breathing steadied. He looked at the false self, not with rage but with recognition.
"Resisting my false self... resisting myself... with force is futile."
His voice was quiet and almost reverent.
"To ascend, I must burn not the body, but the lie. The illusions I once called truth must be consumed in my own flame."
With that, the firestorm began to slow, not because it was extinguished, but because it no longer needed to rage.
The battlefield was no longer a war zone. It had become a place of revelation.
The False Self with feathers scorching with golden sun fire, eyes cold and unyielding, ceased its relentless assault.
It hovered in silence, its bowstring feather drawn taut, yet it did not fire. Instead, it tilted its head slightly, as though curious.
It no longer attacked but instead, watched.
Yanri's chest rose and fell with heavy breaths. But he did not move to strike. Instead, he stood still, his expression calm and his gaze turned inward.
The battlefield, once a crucible of fury and flame, had transformed into a silent sanctuary for introspection.
Still breathing heavily, he transformed into humanoid form, then lowered his legs and sat cross-legged in the void with his back straight, his eyes closed.
In that stillness and calmness, he understood the profound truth:
"This false self is not a demon I must slay. It is a question I have never answered." he then opened his eyes and found himself in his nascent soulsea, where the false self even followed him.
He stared at his false self—perfect in form, flawless in execution, bearing all the confidence, all the certainty, that he had forced himself to wear.
"I feared breaking, so I became unbreakable." he said as he moved toward it.
"I feared failure, so I allowed no room for doubt." he now stood in front of it.
"I feared weakness, so I buried it, until only the image remained."
"And now, I fear that without the image, I am nothing."
That was the moment, he understood the crux of the matter. He lowered his hands and sat infront of the false in acceptance.
And in the depth of his heart, a whisper bloomed "Only those who see themselves clearly will rise. Only those who accept the truth of their weakness can burn it away."
At the same time other began to question themselves; each Golden Crow began to understand
This was not a battle of might. But a reckoning of true self.
••••
Back in the Divine Realm, the rushing primordials surged faster toward the Divine Sun, like vultures drawn to the scent of blood and treasure.
"Hmph. They rush as if the entire wealth of the universe were buried here," Di Jun muttered, his gaze cast down from above. "Greedy, every last one of them."
"Don't worry," Chang Xi said gently. "I can sense it, none of them are beyond early Rank Seven."
Di Jun nodded slowly. "I know, but there are too many. A dozen, I could handle—even chained as I am." His gaze sharpened as it swept over the horizon.
"But now, I can't move recklessly. I have to hold this line until they wake."
Whoosh!!
A massive wind howled as three hundred primordials arrived, hovering outside the Divine Sun.
None dared step onto its blazing surface— as they sensed the aura of the Celestial Mandate radiating from within like a storm that could not be challenged.
Their eyes turned upward toward the platform suspended above the molten surface of the sun, where ten young Golden Crows lay dormant in their true forms, glowing faintly with nascent law.
"So the Celestial Mandate deigned to descend, for fledgling?" one primordial rumbled, his voice like tectonic plates grinding.
"What power do hatchlings wield to summon the Eye?" asked another, his gaze sharp as a blade. "There is more at play here than mere bloodline."
"Where is Di Jun?" Xuan Wu, the old tortoise of the Divine Northern Depths, muttered with low thunder in his voice. "This is his sun. Has he abandoned it in arrogance or in fear?"
"Who among us cares for an absent ruler?" spat a shadowed figure. "If a powerful treasure is here, the first law holds, we fight for it. The strongest claims it."
But before their ambition could sharpen further.
A golden flare erupted.
In an instant, Di Jun stood before them, His form blazing with molten brilliance and burning law. His presence folded the air. The sun itself pulsed behind him like a loyal beast.
Behind him, Chang Xi remained, silent and watchful, her moonlight barrier still shielding the ten crows. But her aura flared with warning.
Di Jun's voice rang out, "Which among you dares encroach upon the Domain of my sun-lineage."
The heat of his words scorched the void