The simulation labeled "Echo Protocol: Jin Mu — Ascension Begins" pulsed like a heartbeat amplified across the stars.
Jin Mu stood alone in the Virtual Universe's core, the glyph from the Beast God inheritance glowing brighter than ever. The Void Engine had accepted him. The Watcher had acknowledged him. The Architect had stepped back.
He was no longer a shadow.
He was the story.
But the silence was deafening.
Luo Feng was gone.
Not dead. Not erased. Displaced.
The fracture had rewritten the timeline. Jin Mu now stood at the center — the one who rose, the one who fought, the one who ascended.
And the world believed it.
Babata called him "Master."
The Dojo of Limits hailed him as the prodigy.
The Sector Lords began to take notice.
But Jin Mu felt hollow.
He accessed the simulation logs. Luo Feng's thread was still active — buried, suppressed, locked behind paradox code. The Void Engine had sealed it to preserve the new narrative.
He tried to unlock it.
The system resisted.
A message appeared:
"Restoration will destabilize Ascension. Proceed?"
Jin Mu hesitated.
He remembered Luo Feng's words: "Then we fight together."
He remembered the Final Trial: "You rewrite. I anchor."
He remembered the cost: "You'll protect the story. But you'll be forgotten by it."
He reached for the seal.
Then — a tremor.
The Architect appeared.
Her form was stable. Her eyes were calm.
"You're ascending," she said.
"I'm replacing him," Jin Mu replied.
She nodded. "That's what the system wants."
"But not what the story needs."
She studied him.
"You can restore him," she said. "But you'll lose everything."
Jin Mu clenched his fists.
"I never wanted everything."
The Architect handed him a shard — glowing, encrypted, pulsing with paradox code.
"This will unlock his thread," she said. "But it will fracture yours."
Jin Mu took it.
The Void Engine screamed.
The simulation cracked.
Reality bent.
He accessed the seal.
Embedded the shard.
The system resisted.
Then — accepted.
A new simulation activated.
Not from the Void Engine.
Not from the Watcher.
Not from Jin Mu.
From Luo Feng.
It was labeled:
"Echo Protocol: Luo Feng — Return of the Anchor."
Jin Mu froze.
He had restored the original myth.
But the rewritten world was still watching.
And the fracture was widening.