With the last embers of his life burning fueled only by the promise of Hope, Ren Zu turned his face toward the northwest.
He did not walk as a conqueror; he dragged himself as a beggar. The journey was a gauntlet of suffering designed to break the spirit. He traversed forests of black thorns that tore at his ragged clothes and flayed his withered skin. He weathered storms where the rain fell like shards of ice, soaking into his brittle bones and turning his marrow to frost.
Every step was a battle against gravity. Every breath was a war against exhaustion. But whenever his legs buckled and his eyes sought the comfort of eternal sleep, the white light of Hope Gu would pulse warm and bright against his ribs, forcing him to take just one more step.
Finally, after a journey that seemed to last a lifetime, the mountain appeared.
It was a titan of stone, a spear of gray rock that pierced the clouds and dared to challenge the heavens. It was steep, treacherous, and unforgiving. There was no path, only jagged cliffs and vertical walls.
Ren Zu looked at his trembling hands, then at the peak. He had no Strength Gu to leap up the cliffs. He had no Wisdom Gu to find the easiest route. He had only his flesh.
He began to climb.
He dug his fingernails into the cracks of the rock, pulling his dead weight up inch by agonizing inch. The stone was sharp, and the wind was cruel. By the time he reached the midpoint, his fingers were bloody pulps. By the time he reached the cave entrance near the peak, his fingernails had been torn away entirely, leaving trails of red on the gray stone. His strength was not just exhausted; it was nonexistent. He was moving on spirit alone.
He collapsed onto the ledge and crawled, panting and bleeding, into the mouth of the cave.
The transition was instant. He moved from the blinding glare of the harsh sun into a world of absolute, suffocating void.
The inside of the cave was pitch black. It was not merely the absence of light; it was a darkness so thick, so heavy, and so absolute that it felt like a solid wall pressing against his eyes. Ren Zu held his hand up to his face, but he saw nothing. It was as if he had ceased to exist.
Ren Zu stumbled forward, his depth perception vanishing in the gloom.
Bang!
His forehead collided with a hanging stalactite, sending a shock of pain through his skull and blood running down into his eyes.
Crash!
His foot caught on a twisted root of stone, sending him sprawling onto the unforgiving floor. His knees shattered against the rock, and the wind was knocked from his lungs.
In this darkness, there was no north, no south, no up, and no down. He was a speck of dust floating in a void. He walked blindly, bruising his fragile body and breaking his skin on unseen obstacles, but he could find no trace of the Gu worms.
He felt as if the cave was a world of its own—an endless, empty universe where time had no meaning. A crushing sense of loneliness and physical agony attacked him from all sides. The darkness whispered to him that he was foolish, that he was lost, and that he should just lie down and let the end come.
Just as his consciousness began to fade, just as he was about to surrender to the void, two voices resonated from the darkness. They did not sound like human voices; they sounded like the ancient laws of the world speaking.
The first voice was rigid, hard, and unyielding. It echoed like the striking of a grand bell:
"Human, are you here to catch us? Go back. This is the domain of Order, and you are a creature of Chaos. Even if you still possessed the mountain-moving power of Strength Gu, you could not catch us by force in this darkness."
The second voice was sharp, precise, and cutting. It echoed like the snapping of a whip:
"Human, leave. We will not take your life, for time will do that soon enough. Go back to the light. Even if you still possessed the scheming mind of Wisdom Gu, you could not find us in this void. We are formless to the blind."
Ren Zu lay on the cold, hard ground, gasping for air. His blood cooled on the stone.
"Strength... and Wisdom..." Ren Zu wheezed, his voice broken. "They left me long ago. I am old. I am at my wits' end. I have no power to force you, and no mind to trick you."
He slowly pushed himself up, his trembling arms struggling to hold his weight.
"But... as long as I have Hope in my heart, I will not turn back! I will not give up!"
Hearing this, the voices went silent. The darkness seemed to hold its breath.
Then, the first rigid voice spoke again, tinged with a strange note of respect:
"I understand. I smell it on you. Human, you have given your entire heart to Hope Gu. You are stubborn. You are illogical."
The second sharp voice continued:
"In that case, we will give you a chance. We are the guardians of order , and an order must be followed. We are standing right in front of you. If you can speak our Names correctly, we will submit to you and allow you to use us."