The simulation labeled "Final Trial — Rewrite vs Anchor" pulsed with a rhythm that felt like fate itself.
Jin Mu stood beside Luo Feng at the threshold, the glyph from the Beast God inheritance glowing faintly in his palm. The Void Engine had triggered the trial, but the Watcher had authored it. That meant it wasn't a test.
It was a judgment.
They entered.
The simulation was a world split in two.
On one side: a city of light, where humanity had ascended, the Sector Lords had fallen, and Luo Feng stood as a cosmic sovereign. But Jin Mu was gone. Erased. Forgotten.
On the other: a fractured realm, where Jin Mu had rewritten the story, saved lives, prevented wars — but Luo Feng had never risen. The timeline was stable. But the myth was dead.
At the center stood a console.
Two glyphs hovered above it:
Rewrite — Jin Mu's path.
Anchor — Luo Feng's destiny.
Jin Mu stepped forward.
Luo Feng stopped him.
"We need to choose together," he said.
Jin Mu hesitated.
"I've already chosen," he said. "I anchored myself."
Luo Feng frowned. "But the story is asking again."
Jin Mu clenched his fists.
"I don't want to rewrite," he said. "I've seen what it costs."
Luo Feng studied the two realms.
"I don't want to ascend alone," he said. "Not if it means losing you."
The simulation trembled.
The Watcher appeared.
Not as a figure.
As a presence.
"One must anchor. One must rewrite. The story cannot hold both."
Jin Mu turned to Luo Feng.
"I'll anchor," he said. "You rewrite."
Luo Feng shook his head.
"No," he said. "You rewrite. I anchor."
Jin Mu froze.
"What?"
Luo Feng stepped forward.
"You've protected me. Guided me. Saved me. But you've never lived."
He touched the Rewrite glyph.
"I want you to live."
Jin Mu staggered back.
The simulation cracked.
The glyphs pulsed.
The Void Engine screamed.
The Watcher spoke again.
"Rewrite accepted. Anchor rejected. Divergence imminent."
Jin Mu tried to stop it.
But it was too late.
The simulation collapsed.
He landed in the Virtual Universe's outer shell, gasping.
But something was wrong.
Luo Feng was gone.
Not dead.
Not erased.
Displaced.
The timeline had fractured.
And Jin Mu was now the center.
The Architect appeared beside him, her form flickering.
"You didn't choose," she said.
Jin Mu looked at the stars.
"He chose for me."
Then — a tremor.
A new simulation activated.
Not from the Void Engine.
Not from the Watcher.
From the fracture.
It was labeled:
"Echo Protocol: Jin Mu — Ascension Begins."
Jin Mu froze.
He was becoming the story.
And the cost was everything.