Jin Mu stood at the edge of the simulation chamber, watching Luo Feng spar with a Sector Lord avatar. The boy moved with growing confidence — his spiritual force sharper, his instincts faster. Babata's guidance was working. The timeline was holding.
But Jin Mu felt… fractured.
It had started two days ago — flashes of memories that weren't his. A woman's voice calling him "Zhen." A battle on a moon that didn't exist. A child with silver eyes whispering, "You failed me."
He had dismissed them as echoes — remnants of corrupted simulations. But now, they were growing stronger. More vivid. More personal.
He accessed his neural core and ran a diagnostic.
The results chilled him.
His memory matrix was bleeding.
Fragments from failed reincarnations — Echo Protocols #3 and #5 — were leaking into his consciousness. He saw their deaths. Their regrets. Their final moments. And worst of all, their warnings.
"Do not trust the Architect."
Jin Mu clenched his fists.
He had already faced her once — the child-shaped entity who built entropy into the timeline. But the echoes suggested she was more than a tool of the Order. She was a survivor. A failed Paradox Wielder who had chosen corruption over collapse.
And she was watching Luo Feng.
Jin Mu activated a stealth protocol and entered the simulation chamber's backend. He traced the data streams flowing into Luo Feng's training environment. Most were clean — standard Virtual Universe protocols. But one thread pulsed with entropy.
He followed it.
It led to a hidden subroutine — buried beneath layers of camouflage. A trap.
The Order had embedded a false trial into Luo Feng's training path. A simulation designed to mimic the Beast God's inheritance — but twisted. If Luo Feng entered it, he would be corrupted. His spiritual force would fracture. His destiny would derail.
Jin Mu had minutes.
He raced through the code, rewriting probabilities, embedding counter-sigils. The simulation resisted, adapting, fighting back. He felt the Architect's presence — playful, mocking.
"You're too late," she whispered. "He's already inside."
Jin Mu froze.
Luo Feng had entered the trial.
He dove into the simulation — a forbidden act. The Sigil screamed in protest. Reality bent. Time slowed.
He landed in a desert of glass, beneath a sky of bleeding stars.
Luo Feng stood at the center, facing a beast of shadow and flame. The false Beast God.
Jin Mu ran.
The simulation twisted around him — illusions, traps, echoes. He reached Luo Feng just as the beast struck. Jin Mu raised his hand, summoned the Sigil, and bent causality.
The blow missed.
Luo Feng staggered back, confused. "Who—?"
"No time," Jin Mu said. "This isn't real."
He embedded a counter-sigil into the simulation's core. The desert cracked. The sky screamed. The beast roared and dissolved.
Luo Feng collapsed.
Jin Mu caught him.
The simulation ended.
They landed in the real chamber, gasping. Babata's voice echoed in the air, demanding diagnostics. Luo Feng looked at Jin Mu — truly looked.
"You saved me," he said.
Jin Mu nodded. "I'm not supposed to be here. But I am."
Luo Feng frowned. "Why?"
Jin Mu hesitated.
"Because the universe needs you to win. And someone needs to make sure you do."
He turned to leave.
But Luo Feng grabbed his arm.
"Wait," he said. "What's your name?"
Jin Mu paused.
"Call me Echo."
Then he vanished.
The timeline was safe — for now.
But the memory bleed was worsening.
And the Architect was preparing her next move.