Ren Zu hovered on the fragile threshold between existence and oblivion.
The Cavern of Eternal Night was no longer merely dark; it was a physical weight, a mountain of nothingness pressing the air from his lungs and the heat from his marrow. His heartbeat had slowed to a terrifyingly faint rhythm, a dying drum in a vast, empty hall.
His left hand remained clenched, clutching the only solid thing in this void.
It was Regulation Gu.
It felt cold, colder than the deepest ice. It was heavy, denser than lead. But mostly, it was sharp. It was a perfect, unyielding Square. Its four pointed corners dug painfully into Ren Zu's withered palm, piercing the skin.
"Square..." Ren Zu's thoughts drifted like smoke in a thick fog. He tried to think, to plan, but without Wisdom Gu, his mind was a swamp. He couldn't form complex thoughts. He only had feelings.
It hurts, he thought. It's hard. It's stuck.
He tried to push the Gu worm with his thumb, but it wouldn't budge. It was stubborn. It sat in his hand like a dead stone.
"Stone..." Ren Zu mumbled internally. "Regulation is a stone. It stops. It blocks."
But he needed to catch Time.
Time doesn't stop. Time runs. Time flies.
You can't catch a flying bird with a sitting stone, his instinct whispered.
Ren Zu felt a surge of panic. If Regulation was just a wall, how could he chase anything? He needed something that could move. He needed something that didn't have corners that got stuck in the mud.
What moves?
He strained his dim eyes against the darkness. He looked down at his chest.
The Hope Gu was pulsating there.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
The light wasn't a block. It didn't have sharp edges that hurt.
It washed over his hands like water. It glowed in a soft, expanding shape.
It was Round.
Ren Zu stared at the round halo of light. A memory flashed in his mind—not a thought, but a picture.
He saw a pebble on a hill. The pebble was round. When the wind blew, the pebble rolled. It rolled all the way down to the valley.
He saw the sun. It was round. It rolled across the sky every day.
He saw a drop of water. It was round. It ran through his fingers.
Round things run, Ren Zu realized. Round things roll.
He looked at the sharp Square in his hand. This one is the Stop.
He looked at the empty darkness. I need the Go.
He didn't know why the world worked this way. He didn't understand the geometry or the philosophy. He just felt it in his gut. The world wasn't just made of walls; it was made of paths.
If Regulation was the Wall that stood still...
Then the other one... the one that moved... the one that flowed...
It wasn't a calculation. It was a feeling. It was the feeling of following a track, of water flowing down a riverbed, of the sun following its course.
The word bubbled up from his soul, unbidden. It wasn't a word he chose; it was the only word that fit the empty space in his heart.
"Rules," he whispered.
The sound was faint, a mere rasp of dying embers, but it carried the weight of pure instinct.
The darkness trembled. The oppressive silence of the Cavern of Eternal Night shattered.
The sharp, cutting voice that had mocked him earlier suddenly laughed. It was not a laugh of complex riddles, but a sound of bright, simple delight—like a child finding a hidden toy.
"Correct," the voice rang out, vibrating through Ren Zu's bones. "You feel it, don't you? The Square stands, but the Circle spins! Without Rules, the world is just a pile of rocks. I am the flow. I am the cycle. I am Rules Gu."
From the void, a second shape condensed.
It wasn't heavy or sharp like the block in his left hand. It was composed of smooth, flowing white jade.
It was perfectly Round. It had no corners to get stuck. It felt like a wheel waiting to turn.
It flew down from the darkness and landed gently in Ren Zu's right hand.
Ren Zu held the Square in one hand and the Round in the other. He didn't fully understand them, but he felt the balance. One to stop, one to move.
Finally, he was complete.