Alert! The Dragon Lord has emerged from seclusion!

"Furthermore, why didn't you intervene when I fused with the Chaos Seed at the summit of Kunlun?"

"Is it that you can't do it, or... you're afraid to?"

The figure remained silent.

Lin Chen continued, "You are indeed making a plan, but the purpose of that plan is definitely not simply 'burning to save the world.' Otherwise, why go to such lengths to collect the Seven Stars and Nine Suns? Why refine the Chaos Seed?"

He walked up to the figure, and chaotic energy condensed in his palm:

"What you want is not to burn us, but... to harvest us."

"Just like farmers planting crops, they don't harvest when they are seedlings, but wait until they are mature."

"You are waiting for us to grow, for us to integrate, for us to become 'valuable'."

The light and shadow of the figure began to fluctuate.

Lin Chen's voice was resolute:

"So, don't portray yourself as so noble."

"You are not saviors, but a group of thieves hiding in the shadows, coveting the creations of others."

As soon as he finished speaking, the chaotic energy erupted!

The light and shadows shattered with a scream, and the photo wall cracked inch by inch.

The second layer of space began to collapse.

But before it completely vanished, the figure's last voice rang out:

"Even if you see through it, so what... the altar at the top of the tower has already been activated... the return of the seven stars is irreversible..."

"You will all eventually face your predetermined fate..."

boom--

Everything returns to nothingness.

The three of them stood once again inside the empty second floor of the tower.

In the center is a staircase leading to the third floor.

Su Qingxue took a deep breath and looked at Lin Chen: "What happened just now..."

"It's half true and half false," Lin Chen said. "The purpose is to unsettle our minds. If we believe it, we'll doubt ourselves, our Dao heart will be unstable, and the road ahead will be difficult."

Ye Qingcheng gritted her teeth: "You bastard, you're playing dirty tricks!"

Lin Chen frowned: "But he's right about one thing—there might really be an altar at the top of the tower, and it might already be activated. We must speed things up."

He was the first to step onto the third step:

"Each subsequent level will likely present tests targeting our mindset or weaknesses."

"Stay true to yourself, and remember—"

Lin Chen turned around, looked at the two women, and said, word by word:

"Regardless of the past, the future is up to us."

The three figures disappeared into the light curtain on the third level.

……

Outside the tower, chaos surged.

The ninth floor and top of the Tianyan Tower.

A figure in a white robe stood with his hands behind his back by the window, looking down.

He was toying with a chess piece in his hand; the piece was neither black nor white, but rather a chaotic color.

"The second 'karmic tribulation' indeed couldn't hold them for long."

The man in white muttered to himself, placing the chess piece on the windowsill:

"However, the game has only just begun."

"The third is the 'Tribulation of Love,' the fourth is the 'Tribulation of Life and Death,' the fifth is the 'Tribulation of Reincarnation'... each one more exciting than the last."

"Lin Chen, let me see just how far your Chaotic Dao Body can go."

He turned and walked towards the center of the tower.

There, a huge altar was already faintly lit.

On the altar, seven grooves surround a central disc.

The shape of the groove clearly corresponds to the original mark of the Seven Star Body.

On the central disc is engraved a sun pattern—the position of the Nine Suns.

Beside the altar, seven soul lamps float, their wicks burning with flames of different colors.

One of the lamps, with its faint silver flame flickering, was the star core that Luo Yunyi had transformed into.

The man in white robes walked to the edge of the altar and gently touched the star core:

"Almost there...almost all of them will be collected."

"A thousand-year plan will finally come to fruition."

……

The light curtain on the third layer rippled out like waves on water.

The moment they stepped in, all three felt their feet sink into a limpness—not a fall, but as if they had stepped into another person's memory.

The surrounding scenery became clear.

It is the back garden of the Su family's old residence. In late spring and early summer, wisteria flowers hang down like a waterfall.

Young Su Qingxue, about eight or nine years old, was wearing a plain white martial arts uniform and staring blankly at a withered peach tree.

"Miss, it's time to practice your skills," the old butler urged softly from the side.

Xiao Qingxue turned around, her icy blue eyes filled with a silence beyond her years: "Uncle Fu, why did this tree die?"

"Your lifespan has come to an end."

"But Grandpa said it can still live." Xiao Qingxue reached out and touched the dry, cracked bark with her fingertips.

The moment it was touched, a tiny pinkish-white bud trembled and bloomed on the peach tree branch.

The old butler's pupils suddenly contracted.

The scene shifts like ripples on water, transitioning to a study late at night.

With his back to the door, Su Zhenbang said in a heavy voice, "Qingxue's Xuan Yin Body... awakened earlier than expected."

"Master, Miss, she..."

"I know." Su Zhenbang turned around, his eyes filled with struggle and pain, "but the Su family needs this power. She... must also learn to control herself."

"Otherwise, sooner or later, the cold will backfire, and she'll end up like her mother..."

The scene shifts again, showing twelve-year-old Su Qingxue meditating in an ice cave, her body covered in frost, her lips purple, yet she grits her teeth and remains silent.

Su Zhenbang stood outside the cave, his fists clenched.

"Grandpa..." Su Qingxue murmured subconsciously in reality, a flicker of emotion flashing in her icy blue eyes.

"Qingxue!" Lin Chen called out in a low voice.

Su Qingxue suddenly came to her senses and realized that she had taken three steps forward without realizing it, and her fingertips were almost touching the "self" in the memory illusion.

But just as she came to her senses, the memory suddenly shattered!

All the images collapsed and reassembled, transforming into a "mirror image" exactly like Su Qingxue, standing three steps away from her.

The mirror image even had the same expression, with cold, icy blue eyes and an ice sword materializing in its hand.

"Your emotional tribulation stems from confusion about family responsibilities, resentment towards your grandfather's strictness, and—" the mirror image began, its voice identical to Su Qingxue's.

"The fear of being needed rather than being loved."

Su Qingxue's face paled slightly, but she gripped the ice sword tightly in her hand: "Absurd."

The mirror image did not answer; the sword had already thrust forward!

On the other side, Ye Qingcheng also fell into her own memory illusion.

That was New Year's Eve before the Ye family's misfortune.

The hall was brightly lit, and more than twenty members of the family gathered together, clinking glasses and exchanging toasts.

Fifteen-year-old Ye Qingcheng, dressed in a bright red dress, was secretly trying to steal a glass of liquor from under her father's nose when she was caught red-handed by her older brother.

"You little brat, you've got some nerve!" the older brother said with a laugh, ruffling her hair.

"I'll just try it!" Young Ye Qingcheng's eyes sparkled with a wild, fearless spirit. "Anyway, I'm going to be like my older brother, the Ye family's weapon!"

Sitting at the head of the table, Ye's father laughed and scolded, "What kind of talk is this, a girl wielding swords and spears all day long!"

"What's wrong with being a girl?" Xiao Qingcheng raised her chin. "I can fight even better than my second brother!"

The room was filled with laughter.

The screen suddenly went dark.

It was the same hall, but now it was filled with white banners.

The mourning hall was solemn, and the photos showed black and white images of the eldest and second eldest brothers—three years ago, during a family mission, the two encountered an "accident" and their remains were never found.

Ye Qingcheng knelt before the altar, dressed in black, her back ramrod straight, without shedding a single tear.