The ancient stone doors to the Celestial Throne Ruins creaked open as if awakening from millennia of slumber. Li Tianxuan stepped forward, a thin stream of cosmic mist brushing against his cheeks. It smelled faintly of starlight and blood.
Xiao Qingyu stood beside him, fingers tightening subtly on his sleeve. "This place…" she whispered, "it remembers everything."
Behind them, Mei Yuelan followed in silence, eyes scanning every glyph etched into the pillars, every fracture in the stone.
Tianxuan nodded solemnly. "The Trial of the Star Throne… if the legends are true, no cultivator has passed it in 3,000 years."
"And yet you charge in like you're going for a morning stroll," Mei Yuelan murmured with faint amusement.
"You're here too."
"Only to collect your ashes, in case you fail."
Xiao Qingyu chuckled under her breath. "Well, at least I'll be here to help sweep him up."
Tianxuan sighed. "I'm surrounded by kindness."
---
The First Trial: The Star of Reflection
As they stepped into the core of the ruins, the ground beneath them shifted. The three were pulled apart by invisible forces, each cast into a separate pocket realm.
Tianxuan blinked. The trial realm looked like a version of the Void Sea, yet frozen in time. Beneath his feet floated mirrors — hundreds of them — each reflecting an alternate version of himself.
A voice boomed in the sky:
"The First Trial — Face the Self You Could Have Become."
Tianxuan stared into one mirror.
It showed him ruling over galaxies, dressed in imperial robes, cold and cruel, a tyrant who slaughtered sects without blinking. The next mirror? He was a merchant, greedy and lowly. Another — he was dead before age twenty.
Each version of him stared back, full of judgment.
"You've been running from what you could become," the trial whispered. "But only those who accept all versions of themselves can ascend."
Tianxuan closed his eyes. Pain surged in his heart — the doubt, the anger, the loneliness from his childhood on the refugee planet. The moment he had awakened the Codex. The voices that called him 'trash' before he unlocked his veins.
But slowly, he reached out and touched the mirror of the tyrant.
"I am not you," he whispered, "but I could be. And I will not pretend I'm above that."
Then he reached for the poor merchant. "Or you. I might've been helpless."
One by one, he embraced each reflection. And as he did, they shimmered and dissolved into stardust, rejoining him.
The mirrors broke.
A golden star mark appeared on his palm.
"Trial One: Passed."
---
The Second Trial: Heart of Bonds
Xiao Qingyu found herself in a silver grove where time flowed erratically. Trees bloomed and withered in moments. Ahead of her floated a clock made of stars.
"Show what binds you to this path," the trial intoned. "And what you would give up."
A projection of Li Tianxuan appeared.
He smiled, reached out a hand. "Will you stay?"
Her breath caught. The feelings she buried surged up — the first time she saw him smile through pain, the way he defended her from a pirate's blade, how he never treated her like a half-machine anomaly.
"I…" She reached toward him — but the projection shimmered and pulled away.
"Would you give up your freedom for him?" the voice asked.
Then came another projection — her younger self, imprisoned in a lab, wires in her back, eyes hollow. "Or would you let yourself be chained again?"
She dropped to her knees. "I want freedom. But I also want…"
The real Tianxuan's voice echoed faintly in her mind: You don't have to choose between being human and being loved.
Xiao Qingyu stood tall. "Then I'll walk the path with him. By my own will."
The grove exploded into a rain of chronoglass petals.
Trial Two: Passed.
---
The Third Trial: Blade of Frozen Flames
Mei Yuelan stood at the center of a battlefield. All around her, burning ice fell from the sky. Phantom enemies rushed her, wave after wave.
The trial called to her:
"Your blade is strong. But is your heart frozen?"
She slashed down one phantom after another. Her robes rippled, sword flowing like wind. But the ghosts kept reforming — not enemies, but people she once loved and lost.
Her master.
Her younger brother.
And finally… her mother, who had died shielding her from the Flame Dragon Sect's betrayal.
Tears welled in her eyes. She dropped to one knee, gripping her sword.
"I swore never to feel again… so I would never break."
But the image of Li Tianxuan rose in her mind — not as a lover, not yet, but something harder to define. The warmth of someone who saw her pain, and did not flinch.
She stood.
And spoke the hardest truth of all:
"I want to feel again."
Her blade burst into blue fire, then stilled, glowing softly.
Trial Three: Passed.
---
The Final Trial: The Throne of Stars
The three reappeared at the center of the ruins, standing before a massive throne made of pure astral crystal. Runes spiraled from its base like vines of light.
The voice returned.
"Only one may sit upon the Star Throne. Only one may ascend."
Tianxuan looked at the girls.
Mei Yuelan shook her head. "This isn't my path. But yours may guide mine."
Xiao Qingyu smiled. "Go, before we start arguing about it."
As Tianxuan stepped toward the throne, the relic in his chest pulsed. His entire body shimmered with runes. His hair lifted as starlight flowed into him.
When he sat upon the throne, it did not shatter.
It welcomed him.
A beam of celestial power surged into the sky, splitting the clouds, visible from neighboring planets.
---
Elsewhere
In the Obsidian Empire, Jin Moyan snapped her eyes open. "The Codex has chosen him."
In the Flame Dragon Sect, the Grand Patriarch rose from meditation. "A Star Emperor reborn…"
In the Lightstream Pirate Citadel, a bounty board updated:
> Target: Li Tianxuan. Reward: 9 Million Star Stones. Condition: DEAD OR ALIVE.
---
Aftermath: Emotions Beneath the Stars
Back at their ship, the Broken Dream, they sat on the observation deck watching the constellations realign around the ruins.
Tianxuan lay against a wall, exhausted. His head tilted toward the sky.
"You alright?" Xiao Qingyu asked, sitting beside him.
"Just… processing. I thought the throne would kill me. Or test me more."
Mei Yuelan smirked. "You passed. Don't overthink it."
Tianxuan glanced between them. "You two… you didn't have to risk it. Those trials—"
"We did it because we chose to," Mei said softly.
Qingyu added, "You're not alone anymore. Not in pain, not in glory."
He looked away, cheeks warm. "I'm not sure what I feel. But I'm glad you're both here."
Mei's fingers brushed his hand.
Qingyu leaned her head on his shoulder.
Tianxuan swallowed hard.
He wasn't ready to call it love.
Not yet.
But the stars felt warmer now. Less distant.
And maybe, just maybe… this broken universe could be whole again.
---