The Virtual Universe shimmered like a dream — endless cities, floating continents, and training arenas carved from pure data. Luo Feng had entered the system officially, guided by Babata's voice and the meteorite's legacy. Jin Mu watched from the outer shell, cloaked in probability, his presence flickering like a ghost.
He couldn't approach Luo Feng directly.
Not yet.
The Architect's warning still echoed in his mind: "The universe is tired of heroes."
Jin Mu knew what that meant. The Order wasn't just trying to erase Luo Feng — they were trying to rewrite the very concept of ascension. To fracture the myth of the lone cultivator rising against cosmic odds. To replace it with entropy.
And their next target was the Beast God inheritance.
He accessed the encrypted shard Echo had given him. It pulsed with coordinates — a hidden simulation buried beneath the Virtual Universe's core. Jin Mu followed the path, bypassing firewalls and quantum locks, until he reached a chamber unlike any other.
It was dark.
Not the absence of light — but the presence of something older. Something primal.
The chamber was circular, lined with holographic glyphs that pulsed like heartbeats. At the center stood a statue — massive, muscular, carved from obsidian and flame. The Beast God.
But something was wrong.
The statue's eyes glowed red.
Jin Mu stepped closer. The glyphs twisted. The chamber pulsed. And then — a voice.
"You are not Luo Feng."
He froze.
The statue moved.
Not physically — but spiritually. Its aura surged, pressing against his soul. Jin Mu summoned the Sigil, anchoring himself to the timeline. The pressure eased.
"You carry the Echo," the Beast God said. "But you are not the chosen."
"I'm here to protect the chosen," Jin Mu replied.
The statue's eyes narrowed. "Then you must face the Trial."
The chamber shifted. The walls dissolved. Jin Mu found himself in a battlefield — endless plains, shattered weapons, and beasts of impossible size. A simulation. But not just any simulation.
A memory.
The Beast God's final war.
Jin Mu ran, dodged, fought. The beasts came in waves — serpents of lightning, wolves of gravity, dragons of silence. He bent probability, rewrote causality, turned death into delay. But the simulation adapted. The beasts learned. They began to counter his powers.
He was losing.
Then — a roar.
The sky split.
A figure descended — massive, cloaked in flame, wielding a blade of stars.
The Beast God.
Not a statue. Not a memory. A fragment of the real thing.
"You fight with tricks," the Beast God said. "But do you fight with purpose?"
Jin Mu stood, bleeding energy. "I fight to protect the story."
The Beast God paused.
Then nodded.
The battlefield vanished.
Jin Mu was back in the chamber. The statue pulsed once, then dimmed.
"You are not the chosen," it said. "But you are the shield."
A glyph detached from the wall — a fragment of the inheritance. Not the full power. But a key. A safeguard.
Jin Mu took it.
And the chamber collapsed.
He emerged into the Virtual Universe's outer shell, exhausted. The Order had tried to corrupt the inheritance. He had stopped them — for now.
But the war was escalating.
Luo Feng was rising.
The Sector Lords were watching.
And the Architect was building something new.
Jin Mu looked at the glyph in his hand — a symbol of strength, sacrifice, and story.
He would walk beside the chosen.
And when the stars trembled again, he would be ready.