The golden light vanished.
Cold replaced it so quickly that Chao Lun Hui’s first breath caught in his throat.
Snow stretched across the world in every direction.
There were no ruins, no mountain gate and no qualification boundary.
The sky was a pale, colourless expanse, and the ground beneath Luo Yanhe’s boots looked untouched by any living thing.
Shen Yan Ting stood beside him, watching the distance with unusual concentration.
A bare tree rose from the snow ahead.
Beneath it stood a child dressed in robes too thin for the cold.
His face could not be seen clearly.
Snow and pale spiritual light blurred every feature whenever Chao Lun Hui tried to focus on him.
Luo Yanhe’s body reacted before Chao Lun Hui understood why.
His chest tightened.
His feet shifted forwards by half a step.
An impulse to cross the snow and place something warm around the child arrived with no memory attached to it.
Chao Lun Hui stopped himself.
The trial might be showing Luo Yanhe’s past, but that did not make the memory his.
Luo Yanhe : “Master, does that child look familiar?”
Shen Yan Ting did not answer immediately.
Snow settled on his shoulder and dissolved into mist.
Shen Yan Ting : “No.”
Luo Yanhe narrowed his eyes.
Luo Yanhe : “Master answered too slowly.”
Shen Yan Ting : “I answered.”
Luo Yanhe : “That is not the same thing.”
Shen Yan Ting : “It is enough.”
Chao Lun Hui sighed.
Shen Yan Ting possessed a remarkable ability to say very little while inspiring other people to demand considerably more.
Attempting to shake the answers out of him would be dangerous.
Chao Lun Hui enjoyed living.
The child began to walk towards them.
His small feet crossed the snow without leaving a single footprint.
The wind moved around him but never touched his robes.
Luo Yanhe : “He is not real.”
Shen Yan Ting : “He is a memory.”
Luo Yanhe : “That was not comforting.”
Shen Yan Ting : “It was not intended to be.”
Luo Yanhe : “Master could occasionally surprise this disciple with kindness.”
Shen Yan Ting : “You are still standing beside me.”
Chao Lun Hui glanced at him.
Luo Yanhe : “Master presents evidence in very inconvenient forms.”
The child stopped several steps away.
Although his face remained hidden, Chao Lun Hui could feel the direction of his gaze.
It rested upon Luo Yanhe’s body with a familiarity that made the cold feel sharper.
The snowy field shifted.
Wooden houses appeared around them, their roofs buried beneath white drifts.
Lanterns hung beside closed doors, glowing weakly through the storm.
A woman called from somewhere beyond the street, but the wind tore her words apart before they could be understood.
No one came outside.
The child stood alone in the centre of the village, clutching a small object against his chest.
Chao Lun Hui stepped closer.
Snow cracked beneath his boot.
The child flinched.
Pain moved through Luo Yanhe’s body with such force that Chao Lun Hui nearly stopped breathing.
It was not a memory.
No image accompanied it.
Only the certainty that the child should never have learnt to fear approaching footsteps.
Luo Yanhe : “Master, I think he is afraid.”
Shen Yan Ting : “Do not interfere.”
Chao Lun Hui turned towards him.
Luo Yanhe : “He is a child.”
Shen Yan Ting : “He is a memory.”
Luo Yanhe : “Memories can still hurt.”
Shen Yan Ting’s gaze shifted to him.
The look held no answer, but his hand loosened slightly from the hilt of his sword.
Chao Lun Hui approached the child anyway.
Shen Yan Ting did not stop him.
Perhaps his master knew resistance would be useless.
Perhaps he wanted to know whether the memory would respond.
Chao Lun Hui crouched at a careful distance.
Luo Yanhe : “Little one, are you lost?”
The child lowered his head.
Then he extended both hands.
A small grey stone rested in his palms.
It was rough, plain and immediately recognisable.
Luo Yanhe : “Truth Stone?”
The child offered no confirmation.
Chao Lun Hui reached towards it.
His fingers passed through the child’s hands as though both boy and stone were made from winter mist.
The child vanished.
The Truth Stone remained for half a breath before dissolving into snow.
Chao Lun Hui’s hand stayed suspended in the empty air.
The disappointment that followed belonged to his body, but he felt it clearly enough.
Luo Yanhe : “Master.”
Shen Yan Ting : “Hm?”
Luo Yanhe : “This trial has terrible manners.”
Shen Yan Ting : “You say that about most ancient things.”
Luo Yanhe : “Most ancient things deserve criticism.”
Golden characters appeared in the air where the child had stood.
『MEMORY CANNOT BE TOUCHED 』
A second message formed beneath the first.
『THE HEIR MAY WITNESS BUT MAY NOT CONTROL 』
Chao Lun Hui rose.
Luo Yanhe : “Then why allow this disciple to approach?”
『DO YOU SEEK CONTROL OR TRUTH?
』
Luo Yanhe : “This disciple asked first.”
The trial did not answer.
Luo Yanhe : “See?
Terrible manners.”
Shen Yan Ting : “It answered with another question.”
Luo Yanhe : “That is not communication.
That is scholarly evasion.”
The village dissolved before Shen Yan Ting could reply.
Snow lifted from the ground in thousands of bright fragments.
The wooden houses, weak lanterns and empty street vanished within them.
When the light settled, Chao Lun Hui and Shen Yan Ting stood inside an enormous palace.
White jade pillars supported a ceiling hidden beyond floating spiritual lamps.
Golden inscriptions covered the walls in patterns too old for Chao Lun Hui to read.
Long tables stood prepared beneath the lamps, but no one occupied them.
Silk curtains moved despite the absence of wind.
The palace had not decayed.
It had simply been left without witnesses.
Luo Yanhe : “This place does not feel abandoned.”
Shen Yan Ting surveyed the hall.
Shen Yan Ting : “No.”
Luo Yanhe waited.
Shen Yan Ting’s attention moved across the empty seats and sealed doors.
Shen Yan Ting : “It feels forgotten.”
The word travelled through the palace and returned in a softer echo.
Chao Lun Hui looked at the inscriptions.
The Luo records had been deliberately removed.
The mountain had rejected external recording talismans.
Even this palace seemed preserved in a condition history had refused to acknowledge.
Luo Yanhe : “Master is defending another ancient structure.”
Shen Yan Ting : “No.”
Luo Yanhe : “This is becoming a pattern.”
A soft sound travelled from the far end of the hall.
The child appeared between two pillars.
A black-robed figure stood several steps behind him.
Distorted light concealed the figure completely.
Chao Lun Hui could not determine a face, voice, build, cultivation signature or even whether the outline before him was accurate.
The memory seemed determined to prevent identification.
The child held the Truth Stone again.
He lifted it towards the black-robed figure.
The figure accepted it with both hands.
After a moment, one obscured hand rested lightly upon the child’s head.
The gesture was simple and unreadable.
It might have been reassurance, farewell, instruction or ceremony.
Luo Yanhe’s body responded with grief.
Chao Lun Hui’s eyes stung before he could prevent it.
He had no right to understand the scene.
He did not know either person.
Yet the sight carried the ache of something important being handed over because no better choice remained.
Beside him, Shen Yan Ting moved forwards.
Only half a step.
His breath caught.
One hand pressed briefly against his temple as a broken sound passed through the palace.
It contained no words, only pressure and the impression of a voice cut apart before meaning could form.
Shen Yan Ting’s spiritual energy shifted sharply.
Chao Lun Hui caught his arm.
Luo Yanhe : “Master.”
Shen Yan Ting steadied himself and lowered his hand.
Shen Yan Ting : “I am fine.”
Luo Yanhe : “Master uses that sentence whenever evidence suggests the opposite.”
Shen Yan Ting : “Release my arm.”
Luo Yanhe did not.
Luo Yanhe : “Master should consider becoming slightly less stubborn.”
Shen Yan Ting : “Impossible.”
Chao Lun Hui looked at him.
Luo Yanhe : “At least Master admits it.”
Shen Yan Ting removed his arm with controlled patience, but he remained closer than before.
The child turned towards them.
His face stayed hidden.
The palace shattered into drifting frost.
Chao Lun Hui reached for his sword as the polished floor became frozen earth.
Broken weapons stood across a battlefield covered in snow.
Torn banners moved beneath a dark sky, their emblems blurred beyond recognition.
Figures fought in the distance.
The trial showed no faces.
It offered only fragments: a formation collapsing, someone falling beside a broken standard, a hand reaching through frost and an empty stretch of ground where another person should have stood.
No voice explained the battle.
Chao Lun Hui walked carefully between abandoned swords.
Luo Yanhe’s body knew where danger had once moved.
His feet avoided invisible lines before he consciously noticed them.
He hated that familiarity, not because it felt false, but because it felt too natural.
Shen Yan Ting stopped beside a shattered banner.
His fingers tightened around his sword hilt.
Luo Yanhe : “Master?”
Shen Yan Ting’s expression remained controlled, but pain drew a brief line between his brows.
Shen Yan Ting : “Continue walking.”
Luo Yanhe : “That was not an answer.”
Shen Yan Ting : “It was an instruction.”
Luo Yanhe : “Master is using authority to avoid emotional honesty.”
Shen Yan Ting looked at him.
Shen Yan Ting : “Walk.”
Chao Lun Hui walked.
Not because he was frightened.
He simply respected efficient instructions, especially when the person giving them could defeat him before breakfast.
Arguing with Shen Yan Ting inside an ancient trial was as useful as arguing with a mountain.
The mountain usually had fewer opinions, but the result remained the same.
The battlefield narrowed into a path between broken swords.
At its end, the child waited beneath falling snow.
The Truth Stone rested against his chest.
Golden writing appeared above him.
『IF YOU REMEMBER, WILL YOU STILL CHOOSE THE SAME PATH?
』
Neither Chao Lun Hui nor Shen Yan Ting answered.
Chao Lun Hui did not know what had been chosen, who had chosen it or why the question pressed against Luo Yanhe’s ribs like a hand over an old injury.
Shen Yan Ting stared at the message with the stillness of someone listening for words that refused to return.
The child lowered his head.
Then the battlefield disappeared.
Darkness enclosed them, neither cold nor warm.
There was no ground beneath their feet, yet they remained standing.
A single message appeared.
『CAN MEMORY BE CHANGED?
』
Luo Yanhe : “No.”
Another followed.
『CAN MEMORY BE FORGOTTEN?
』
Shen Yan Ting answered this time.
Shen Yan Ting : “It can be hidden.”
The darkness waited.
Shen Yan Ting : “That is not the same as forgetting.”
Golden light moved faintly around them.
『WHY DOES THE HEIR SEEK THE PAST?
』
Chao Lun Hui considered the question.
At first, he had wanted proof that Luo Yanhe’s history had nothing to do with him.
Then he had wanted an explanation for why the body, bloodline, Truth Stone and ruins recognised him.
Now the past had shown him a lonely child, a forgotten palace and a battle that refused to identify its dead.
He still did not claim those memories.
He did not need to claim them to understand that erasing them had caused harm.
Luo Yanhe : “Not to control it.”
The darkness remained attentive.
Luo Yanhe : “Not to replace it with something easier.”
He looked towards the place where the child had disappeared.
Luo Yanhe : “This disciple seeks the past because what happened deserves to be understood.”
The trial answered.
『MEMORY CANNOT BE ALTERED 』
『MEMORY MUST NOT BE ERASED 』
『ONLY THOSE WILLING TO FACE TRUTH MAY INHERIT TRUTH 』
Light returned in widening circles.
The darkness broke into countless fragments, each carrying a brief trace of snow, a silent palace lamp or a sword half buried in frost.
None remained long enough to form a complete history.
The trial was measuring what Chao Lun Hui would do with a memory, not giving one to him.
A jade gate appeared ahead.
『TRIAL OF MEMORY PASSED 』
Chao Lun Hui released a breath he had not realised he was holding.
Luo Yanhe : “That was surprisingly reasonable.”
Shen Yan Ting : “You complained throughout it.”
Luo Yanhe : “Those matters are unrelated.”
The jade gate opened onto a vast stone platform beneath an artificial sky.
Shen Yan Ting stepped through beside him.
The snowy world closed behind them.
A new symbol ignited above the platform.
『NEXT TRIAL: STRENGTH 』
Chao Lun Hui stared at it.
Luo Yanhe : “Master.”
Shen Yan Ting : “Hm?”
Luo Yanhe : “This disciple has a bad feeling.”
Shen Yan Ting : “Good.”
Luo Yanhe : “Why is that good?”
Shen Yan Ting : “You are paying attention.”
Luo Yanhe looked towards the ancient formation.
Luo Yanhe : “Can this disciple return the inheritance?”
The response appeared immediately.
『REQUEST DENIED 』
Chao Lun Hui covered his face.
Luo Yanhe : “Even ancient inheritances bully people.”
Shen Yan Ting walked towards the unopened Strength gate.
Shen Yan Ting : “Rest while you can.”
Luo Yanhe lowered his hand.
Luo Yanhe : “That instruction contains a threat.”
Shen Yan Ting : “Perhaps.”
Shen Yan Ting quietly walked past him toward the First Trial.
For the first time since entering the ruins… He looked genuinely at peace.
Behind them, the gate of memories slowly closed.
The mysterious child… Had disappeared without leaving a single footprint behind.
The chapter has now been updated to the latest revised version.
I truly appreciate everyone who waited and continued supporting this story while I worked on improving it.
I hope this updated version gives you a smoother and more enjoyable reading experience.
Thank you for staying with me.
Happy reading!