Adrian navigated through the layered corridors of the Central Origin Construct toward one of its dedicated training chambers. By the time he arrived, Hestia was already waiting inside. Beyond her, Lysandra and Selena stood near the edge of the central cultivation platform, while Lara remained beside a human disciple who immediately straightened when Adrian entered.
"Your Majesty," the disciple said, bowing deeply. Adrian nodded in acknowledgment as the doors closed behind him. The training chamber possessed an additional Time Formation of its own, preserving the same ratio it had always maintained: four subjective years inside for every single day that passed within the headquarters. Adrian's recent upgrade to the Master formation surrounding the seventeen headquarters worlds had doubled the time available outside, but the inner chamber's personal ratio remained unchanged.
"He is one of the candidates we brought from the Milky Way," Lysandra said as Adrian approached. "He was born on Earth, and Time was his first naturally awakened affinity. Of the four disciples we selected, he has progressed through its knowledge the fastest. He reached the limit of what we gave him while the others were still working through the earlier portions."
Adrian examined the disciple for a moment. The fluctuations around his body remained at the Stellar Stage, and he had yet to combine any of his comprehended concepts into a divine concept. His foundation was still suitable for the inheritance they intended to give him.
The miniature Source Seed had already improved the comprehension of countless cultivators connected to Adrian, but those improvements had never made their abilities identical. Natural aptitude still mattered. A disciple whose first affinity was Time already possessed a familiarity with it that someone approaching the concept for the first time would have to develop, and the seed further strengthened that advantage.
Adrian raised his hand, allowing white-grey radiance to gather above his palm. A knowledge sphere formed within it, carrying fine currents of pale-golden light beneath its surface before floating toward the disciple.
"This contains the Advanced Galactic knowledge of Time, including the final portion that was withheld from you," Adrian said. "You can begin comprehending it now. Once you approach the final threshold, the Will of Time will descend and initiate the Epoch Crucible. Every cultivator who reaches that point must face its trial before completing their comprehension."
The disciple listened without interrupting. Lara and the others had already explained the Crucible, including the danger of having his existence divided across incompatible moments, and he had agreed to continue under Adrian and Hestia's supervision. Hearing the warning again from Adrian himself made his expression more serious, but he still reached toward the approaching sphere.
"I understand, Your Majesty. I will not fail you," he replied. His fingers touched the white-grey surface, and the sphere moved through his hand before sinking into his chest. He closed his eyes as the knowledge spread through his mind, then lowered himself onto the platform and sat cross-legged.
Adrian watched until the disciple's breathing settled before stepping back with the others. A faint screen rose from the formation surrounding the platform and enclosed the seated figure, isolating him from sounds and disturbances elsewhere in the chamber. Its thin boundary offered no protection against the trial he was preparing to face.
"Can the artifact line manage without both of you?" Adrian asked, glancing toward Lysandra and Selena once they had moved away from the platform.
"I wanted to see the Crucible myself," Lysandra replied. "You told us what it does, but I would rather understand what happens before we bring the next candidate here."
"Mira is overseeing the line," Selena added. "She knows we are here, and she can contact us if something needs our attention. You do not need to worry about production for the few hours we will be away."
Adrian nodded and turned back toward the platform. The knowledge sphere had already disappeared completely, but there was no immediate change in the disciple's condition. Receiving the remaining knowledge did not mean he could understand and apply it at once, even with his natural affinity and the miniature Source Seed supporting him.
They settled around the chamber and began cultivating while keeping part of their attention on the platform. Days passed as the pale-golden fluctuations surrounding the disciple gradually deepened. Occasionally, they gathered close to his body before spreading outward again, but each change settled without summoning the presence Adrian was waiting for.
Nearly three months passed within the chamber. Barely an hour and a half had passed through the headquarters beyond its doors, and the others remained where they had seated themselves, their cultivation interrupted only when a change from the platform drew their attention.
Adrian opened his eyes as the pale-golden current revolving around the disciple suddenly stopped.
HUMMM!
An ancient presence descended into the room, and everyone rose from their places. Golden light gathered above the disciple and condensed into a small, dense radiance whose presence pressed against their awareness far more heavily than its size suggested. Adrian recognized the Will of Time before the first golden echo separated from the seated figure below it.
One image retained the disciple's previous posture, while another had already lifted a hand that the physical body still held against its knee. A third leaned forward with its mouth open, although the figure at the center remained upright. Their movements continued at different rates, and the pale-golden mana around them broke into currents that no longer followed the same circulation.
Lara's expression tightened as the images drifted farther apart. The disciple's brow creased, and two of the echoes began drawing toward the central figure. Before they could settle into place, golden light folded between them and formed thin, unmoving walls around each displaced state.
The ordinary screen enclosing the platform was almost invisible beneath the radiance. Through the new partitions, Adrian could still see the disciple and every separated image, but none of them could return naturally to the position from which it had emerged. The Will of Time had sealed the division.
Hestia stepped closer beside Adrian. One of the echoes pressed a hand against its chest while another jerked backward, and the seated disciple's shoulders began trembling. The two images he had brought nearest to himself separated again, their movements becoming increasingly disordered.
Adrian recognized the failed attempt. During his own Crucible, he had tried to force every divided part of himself into the same moment and nearly destroyed the relationships holding his existence together. The disciple had been taught the principle that corrected that mistake, but applying it while the trial continued pulling him apart was another matter.
Adrian extended his willforce toward the platform. He guided it around the nearest golden partition, seeking a connection to the disciple's scattered awareness, but a current descended from the radiance above and struck his approach before it could pass through.
His willforce was pushed back. Adrian adjusted its path and spread it toward a second opening, only for the same golden current to meet it there. The pressure drove every strand away from the divided figures without allowing even the slightest contact.
Beside him, Hestia followed the retreating willforce with narrowed eyes. Lysandra, Selena, and Lara could see the golden response, but they could not perceive the willforce it was rejecting. Their attention moved between Adrian's outstretched hand and the increasingly unstable images beyond the walls.
"It expects him to restore his continuity alone," Adrian thought as he withdrew the rejected willforce. "It will keep rejecting me as long as I try to interfere like this."
The disciple's central figure bent forward. A thin line of blood appeared beneath one nostril, while an echo beside him remained upright with an unmarked face. Adrian's understanding of Time allowed him to recognize how far the displaced states were drifting from one another, and the next attempt to reconnect them failed before the first image could return.
When Adrian had faced this, the golden dot within his consciousness had preserved a stable point around which he could recover his identity. This disciple had never awakened the Chime, much less developed his consciousness to the Anchor stage. The comprehension was within his reach, but he was struggling to hold himself together long enough to use it.
Adrian lowered his hand and walked toward the platform.
The pressure from the Will of Time strengthened as he approached. It pressed against his chest and shoulders, warning him away from the trial while Hestia and the others watched him continue forward.
Before the pressure could halt his next step, white-grey essence emerged from Adrian's body and spread across his skin.
The opposing force continued moving through the chamber, but Adrian no longer felt it resisting him. He passed through it, the Source essence coating his body undisturbed as he approached the first golden wall.
Above the disciple, the condensed radiance trembled. Adrian felt its attention settle upon the white-grey essence, and the weight filling the chamber began to diminish. The pressure against those behind him eased as the golden current that had rejected his willforce withdrew toward the floating presence.
Adrian extended his hand again. This time, his willforce crossed the partition and reached the disciple's scattered awareness without anything moving to stop it. The golden walls remained around the separated figures, but the Will of Time allowed his intervention to pass through them.
Hestia stared at the connection taking shape beyond his fingers.Her gaze rose slowly toward the golden radiance above the platform, then returned to the white-grey essence covering Adrian's body. She already knew that Adrian possessed a Prime Arcane Concept and had long accepted that some portion of his power existed far beyond what conventional cultivation could explain, yet watching the Will of Time withdraw its resistance before that power left even her temporarily unable to speak.
Behind him, Lysandra and Selena followed the retreating golden current toward the presence above the platform. Lara remained focused on the disciple, but even she looked up as the last of the pressure receded. A sense of submission reached them through the golden essence that had filled the room with its authority moments earlier.
Adrian kept his attention on the divided figures. He spread his willforce carefully through the disciple's scattered awareness, steadying the portions that were being pulled farther from one another. His Time comprehension allowed him to follow those changes without forcing the displaced states together.
The disciple's trembling eased. His eyes remained closed, but the pale-golden mana surrounding one of the echoes began moving again, tracing a connection toward the body at the center. Adrian maintained his support as the image approached and gradually settled into the seated figure.
The next attempt faltered halfway through. Adrian strengthened his support, giving the disciple enough stability to correct the disrupted connection before it broke. A second echo returned, and the remaining images began following as the disciple adjusted the currents connecting them. Adrian kept the disciple's awareness steady while the cultivator's own comprehension restored the divided states in their proper order.
When the final image approached, the disciple's body straightened. The displaced figure moved into him without leaving another echo behind, and the walls of unmoving light dissolved into streams of golden essence. As the scattered currents of Time settled around a single body, Adrian recognized that the disciple had completed his Advanced Galactic comprehension.
Adrian withdrew his willforce as the disciple's shoulders slackened. His head lowered, and he began falling to one side before Lara reached the platform and caught him. Hestia moved beside her while Adrian checked the disciple's condition through his perception.
His body, mana, life force, and consciousness remained connected. The trial had exhausted him, but his completed comprehension was stable, and no displaced image remained beyond the figure Lara was supporting. Adrian let the last of his willforce return to himself and looked toward the golden presence overhead.
Its task was finished. The radiance had already begun thinning, the edges fading into the surrounding air as the Will of Time prepared to withdraw from the chamber. Adrian watched it for a moment before speaking.
"Wait," Adrian said, and the golden light immediately stopped dispersing. He kept his gaze upon it as a thought crossed his mind. "I cannot do this for every disciple. I need a permanent solution."
Time was one of the four concepts supporting Origin's foundational inheritance. Eventually, millions or even billions of disciples could follow that path, and his ability to intervene would be of little use to those who faced the Crucible while he was elsewhere. He had yet to decide how to solve that problem, but the Will responsible for the trial was still before him. He intended to find out what could be done before allowing it to leave.
Golden light gathered back into its center, restoring the dense presence that had begun to disappear, before it slowly descended toward Adrian. It halted several steps away at the level of his eyes, its remaining essence held close around it.
Hestia went still beside Lara. Selena stared at the golden presence with her mouth slightly open, while Lysandra's gaze moved from it to Adrian and remained there. Even Lara looked up from the unconscious disciple in her arms. The Will of Time had stopped leaving at Adrian's word and descended to face him, and now it waited before him for whatever he would say next.
To everyone watching, the sight was almost impossible to reconcile with what they had just witnessed.
Only moments earlier, that same ancient Will had divided a cultivator's existence across incompatible temporal states, rejected an Anchor sovereign's interference without hesitation, and filled the entire chamber with enough authority to make every person inside feel its presence. Now it hovered quietly before Adrian.
No matter how much Hestia, Lysandra, Selena, and Lara attempted to control their expressions, the sheer absurdity of the scene was too great to hide.
It looked less like a primordial Will governing one of the universe's fundamental concepts and more like a servant waiting patiently for its master's next command.