The moment Jason Wu stepped into the fourth circle, the formation didn't flare like before.
It *collapsed.*
The runes—ancient, broken, stubborn—did not activate in sequence.
They detonated.
A pulse of invisible force blasted outward, sweeping the wasteland. Dust spiraled like a storm trying to swallow him whole. Wei Qing shielded her face. Lan Yuren slammed his sword into the ground to anchor himself.
Longwu screamed in Jason's mind—
["BOY! BACK OUT! BACK OUT NOW!"]
But Jason couldn't move.
The ground beneath him split into nine fractures. Light—black, gold, crimson—poured upward like bleeding stars.
And then, everything folded.
Like the world turned itself inside-out.
---
### **THE VOID WITH NO NAME**
Silence.
Jason found himself floating—upright—in a black emptiness that had texture, weight, temperature. His breath fogged in the dark, though no cold should exist here.
Longwu whispered, for once without sarcasm—
["…Where in the nine realms are we?"]
Jason swallowed. "This isn't a circle. This is… somewhere else."
A whisper drifted around him—like distant breaths through broken glass.
*Wu… Wu… Wu…*
Jason tensed. "That's my clan name."
["Great. Always comforting when a horror dimension whispers your family tree."]
Jason walked forward—except he didn't walk. The void simply allowed him to move. The darkness rippled under his steps.
Then—a flash.
A figure appeared up ahead.
Jason froze.
A man stood on a floating shard of broken stone, wearing tattered battle robes marked with the ancient Wu sigil.
He looked young but exhausted—hair tied loosely, knuckles bloodied, back slightly hunched like someone carrying centuries of weight.
His presence felt wrong.
Like he existed outside the idea of "time."
Jason whispered, "Who… are you?"
The man slowly turned.
His eyes were old.
Older than realms.
Older than the concept of cultivation.
But they were also Jason's eyes.
Not a clone.
Not a future version.
Something else—something deeper.
He smiled faintly. "You came far too early, Jason Wu."
Jason's heart pounded. "You know my name."
"Of course," the man said softly.
"I am the one who made your name possible."
Jason felt something coil in his chest—fear mixed with awe.
"Are you…"
"…the First Wu?"
The man shook his head.
"No. I am the one who defied Fate before the Wu Clan ever existed."
Light flared around him—brief, sharp, enough to scorch Jason's vision.
Jason's voice cracked.
"…The First Defier?"
The man nodded.
---
### **THE FIRST DEIFIER SPEAKS**
The First Defier stepped down from the broken stone. The void bent beneath his feet, rearranging itself to accommodate him.
He walked like someone who had lived through wars that no longer existed.
Jason struggled to breathe.
"Why am I here?"
The First Defier examined him with an unreadable expression.
"You triggered the Fourth Severance Circle… the most unstable one."
A pause.
"And the only one linked to my domain."
Jason blinked. "Your domain?"
The First Defier spread his fingers.
The void shuddered.
Shadow, lightning, starlight, memories of the dead, fragments of broken universes—all spun around him.
"I am the one who severed Fate before Fate learned to watch."
"I am the one the Administrators failed to erase."
"I am the mistake the cosmic system no longer knows how to categorize."
Longwu muttered nervously—
["Fantastic. We found the original troublemaker."]
Jason stepped closer. "But why me? Why does Fate keep targeting the Wu? Why do the Riftbound want my bloodline? Why does the Administrator keep—"
"Ssshhh."
The First Defier raised one finger. Jason fell silent instantly—not by suppression, but by instinct.
"You are asking the wrong question."
Jason frowned. "Then what's the right one?"
The First Defier stared at him with those ancient, exhausted eyes.
"Why did you survive?"
Jason stiffened. "What—?"
"The Wu Clan has been erased many times," the First Defier said, voice low.
"Threads cut. Futures rewritten. Realms purged. Time loops used as knives against your existence."
The void trembled with every sentence.
"And yet YOU appeared."
"You—whose birth was not planned by fate."
"You—whose path cannot be predicted."
"You—whose choices keep breaking calculations."
A slow smile spread across the First Defier's face—gentle, proud, dangerous.
"You, Jason Wu, are the first anomaly strong enough to reach me."
Jason didn't know what to say. His throat tightened.
He wasn't chosen.
He wasn't destined.
He simply refused to die.
Refused to break.
Refused to obey.
The First Defier placed a hand on Jason's shoulder. Jason felt worlds collapsing in the man's touch.
"You are not the next Defier."
"You are not my successor."
"You are not my heir."
Jason exhaled shakily.
"You," the First Defier said, leaning close,
"are the one whose arrival Fate feared the most."
Jason's pulse hammered.
He barely whispered—
"…Why?"
The First Defier quietly answered:
"Because I only defied Fate."
"You… will break it."
---
### **THE GIFT THAT SHOULD NOT BE GIVEN**
The First Defier lifted his other hand.
Light gathered—gold, black, silver—spiraling into a shard the size of a finger bone.
Jason felt his soul recoil.
"What is that?"
"This," the Defier whispered,
"is a piece of the original cultivation path I carved—a path that does not come from this reality."
Jason stepped back instinctively. "I—I can't take that. I'm not ready."
"Correct."
A faint smile.
"That's why I'm giving it to you."
Longwu was panicking.
["Jason, don't touch that! Don't even look at it! Pretend you're dead!"]
Jason stared at the shard.
"What does it do?"
"It lets you see the strings of reality…"
"…so you can cut them."
Jason felt his hair stand on end.
"That sounds illegal."
The Defier laughed softly. "It is."
He extended the shard toward Jason.
"Take it."
Jason hesitated.
Then—somewhere behind him—the void cracked open.
A massive, burning eye appeared in the distance.
The Administrator.
Watching.
Hunting.
Closing in.
Jason's heartbeat thundered.
The First Defier whispered sharply:
"Hurry, Jason Wu!"
"Take this shard—"
"Before Fate remembers where you are!"
Jason clenched his fists.
His mind raced.
Every instinct screamed that this was dangerous.
Reckless.
Irreversible.
And yet…
He reached out.
His fingers brushed the shard—
Light exploded.
Reality folded—
---
Jason gasped, collapsing onto the fractured ground of the Broken Core Realm.
Lan Yuren rushed forward. "Jason!"
Wei Qing grabbed his arm. "Your aura—what happened?!"
Jason breathed hard.
Longwu whispered, trembling—
["…You absolute lunatic. You touched it. You touched *his* shard."]
Jason stared at his right hand.
A faint rune—black and gold—glowed beneath the skin.
Not a brand.
Not a mark.
A beginning.
Jason whispered:
"…The First Defier woke up something inside me."
Wei Qing looked horrified.
"What does that mean?"
Jason did not answer.
He only looked up at the sky—feeling something ancient, wrong, and powerful staring back.
And smiling.
-----------