Who are these people? Is this child… me? Are they truly my father and mother? Was everything that fish demon said in the cavern a lie?

  Timo Yang’s true consciousness stirred vividly within the toddler’s small mind. Curiosity soon lit the young face as he studied Lingfeng Yang, Canglan Ji, and little Yue Yang.

  Why does this feel so warm, so happy? Where is this place? Was this my home once? Father looks so commanding, Mother so beautiful—and she’s lovely too. Is she my sister?

  Wait… she resembles the woman bound in chains. Has something happened to her? What happened… Why can’t I remember anything? Where are my parents? I have no trace of them…

  Lost in these thoughts, tears suddenly welled in the toddler’s eyes.

  Lingfeng Yang, Canglan Ji, and Yue Yang ached at the sight.

  “Little brother, why the tears?” Yue Yang asked gently. “Daddy and Mommy are the strongest essence wielders. This campaign—they’ll surely defeat the invaders.”

  Timo’s deeper awareness pressed too fiercely. Through the child’s lips, his confusion spilled out.

  “Are you really my daddy and mommy?”

  “Silly brother,” Yue Yang teased with a grin, “I found you in a trash bin. They’re my parents only—haha…”

  Lingfeng Yang roared with laughter, leaning in to rub his stubbled cheek against his son’s soft one.

  Canglan Ji watched her son squirm from the scratchy kiss, gently pushing her husband away. She smiled warmly, stroking Timo’s hair, her deep blue eyes brimming with tenderness.

  “Timo, you and your sister are the treasures of our hearts. Yue, you’re growing up—promise you’ll look after your brother, protect him.”

  “Mom, I know! Leave little brother to me. Your daughter’s pretty strong!”

  Yue Yang pinched his plump cheek playfully, a faint blue aura shimmering in her palm.

  “Then I’ll protect big sister too!”

  The toddler beamed radiantly, tiny fists pumping the air.

  The dark-skinned, shaven-headed man from the Iron Law waited patiently at first. But as the family’s joy lingered, his smile faded, and his gaze upon them grew inscrutable.

  High above, a white-haired elder glided past on winds, glancing down at Lingfeng Yang before hastening toward the ceremonial square in the outer camp.

  That elder was the Prophecy Elder—this moment, the last memory Timo Yang held of his parents from childhood.

  On the ancestral rite square, the gathered crowd mirrored their youth and vigor from a decade past.

  Seeing the elder arrive, Lingfeng Yang scooped up his son and led his wife and daughter from the commander’s residence toward the plaza.

  Countless stone statues stood sentinel—each a hero fallen in service to the Watch Legion. At their bases bloomed clusters of white flowers; names etched upon their chests.

  In the center rose a circular stone platform, encircled by statues of past elders.

  The newly arrived elder stood beside his own likeness—upright and robust, carved in his prime. The chisel marks remained crisp, as though finished only yesterday.

  “I thought my days were numbered,” he said softly. “Yet here I stand, granted another year. My thanks to the artisans for this flawless tribute.”

  Rui Guo, Ning Guo, Yong Yuan, Shanhai Wu, Lin Gan, Feiying Lan, Fan Yi, Madam Yi, and others stood nearby with their families.

  Behind them arrayed the artisans’ corps and field legion warriors. Ground forces ringed the perimeter.

  “Father,” Madam Yi said humbly, “the heavens favor the righteous. Your presence is our Legion’s blessing.”

  The crowd echoed her—voices overlapping in praise, calling him “Father.”

  The Prophecy Elder regarded them kindly, his gaze lingering last on Madam Yi’s bowed head.

  “Father, all are assembled,” the dark-skinned man announced.

  The elder turned. Lingfeng Yang approached with his family.

  Joy softened to quiet acceptance in the elder’s eyes. He nodded and ascended the platform.

  At his gesture, Commander Yang, Canglan Ji, Yong Yuan, Fan Yi, and Feiying Lan joined him.

  They channeled five-colored essence into the central pillars. Streams converged; jade columns blazed.

  A pillar of multicolored light pierced the sky, coalescing into auspicious clouds.

  The assembly gazed upward in reverent prayer.

  Then the Purifying Spirit Eye at Canglan Ji’s breast flickered.

  The vibrant clouds darkened—swallowed by black storm.

  Black-robed figures materialized in the air. Their leader—a woman—laughed with mad glee.

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  “Today is the day you all die!”

  The toddler Timo froze. The woman seemed familiar—yet just beyond recall.

  He clutched Yue Yang’s hand tightly as the air rippled, startling him.

  The black-robes summoned dark evil essence, tearing a ragged rift in the sky.

  Seawater cascaded through, flooding the square.

  Countless massive tentacles followed.

  Whoosh after whoosh—screams erupted across the Watch Legion camp.

  “Sea demons!”

  Recognizing those tentacles, the child looked higher—and met enormous green-veined eyes.

  He stood petrified.

  Before he could react, a tentacle seized Yue Yang and whisked her away.

  Lingfeng Yang, Canglan Ji, the elder—all resisted in vain, crushed like eggs against stone.

  Tentacles swept again and again. Everyone fell shielding Timo—devoured.

  “Son—run!”

  “Little brother—run!”

  “Timo—run!”

  Those were the final cries of parents, sister, and all who knew him.

  The scene shattered Timo Yang’s mind—agony eclipsing the fleeting joy.

  “Daddy… Mommy… Sister—no…”

  The toddler wailed, voice raw, as the crowd vanished before him.

  The sea demon swelled ever larger, tentacles multiplying.

  Sated, it advanced on the boy with thrashing limbs.

  His desperate roar met only the beast’s cavernous maw yawning wide.

  A deep inhale—and an ear-splitting bellow.

  Sound waves razed buildings in jagged scars.

  The entire Watch Legion camp collapsed into rubble.

  Blood streamed from the child’s ears and orifices. Consciousness fading, a final tentacle coiled around him.

  With a mighty fling, he soared skyward—like a single droplet—into the fanged abyss.

  He felt teeth rend him to fragments.

  Darkness swallowed all.

  Then—light.

  He stood once more in the warm house.

  The family portrait greeted him.

  Again a toddler.

  To test his suspicion, he pushed open the door.

  Lingfeng Yang descended on winds into the courtyard.

  Fractured Memories

  Timo Yang knew this place could only be the Trial Realm—the one the strange old man had scrawled in the sand. Yet he stood frozen, searching for any clue to completing it, to breaking free.

  Much had slipped from his mind, but the raw, tearing grief still lingered like a fresh wound. He dreaded reliving it even once.

  Will they all die? Have they already died? Are these my memories? The pain is unbearable. Will I be devoured forever?

  Calm down. Fear solves nothing—someone once told him that. Could he warn them about the black-robed figures, about the sea demon?

  While his true consciousness wrestled with these thoughts, the toddler blinked innocently and toddled toward Father.

  Before the boy could speak, Lingfeng Yang took two swift strides, scooped his son into the air, and spun him in delighted circles.

  “My son, your senses grow sharper every day! You might yet awaken wind essence.”

  The toddler gazed at his father’s face, warmth flooding through him. He stretched his arms like wings and laughed brightly.

  Lingfeng nuzzled him again, stubble grazing soft cheeks.

  As Canglan Ji and Yue Yang emerged, the boy quieted.

  Timo sensed disaster looming. His true awareness pressed too fiercely against this fragile young body.

  The fresh horror of their deaths still burned behind his eyes. Yet the toddler, stripped of memory, remained perfectly calm.

  “Daddy, Mommy—sea demons!”

  Driven by that buried urgency, the words spilled out in a soft, milky voice.

  The family burst into fond laughter.

  Canglan Ji stroked his head gently. “Sweetheart, sea demons can’t reach our deep forests. Too many fairy tales before bed, hmm?”

  No matter how grave Timo’s intent, filtered through a child’s tongue, it sounded like pure fantasy.

  “Mommy, it’s true!”

  The toddler pouted, tiny fists clenched.

  “Little brother,” Yue Yang said proudly, ruffling his hair, “even if it were true, Daddy and Mommy, Aunt Guo and Uncle Yuan—they fear no magical beast. What’s a sea demon to them?”

  “Sister’s right!” Lingfeng declared with effortless confidence. “A sea demon? Even the Lord of Ghost Spirits wouldn’t dare trespass here.”

  Across the Spirit-Taming Continent, few could rival Lingfeng Yang’s strength. With his wife at his side, even envoys from the Sacred Domain trod carefully.

  If this were reality, their words would hold.

  Because it was not, Timo swiftly understood: these were not living people.

  Their laughter only deepened his sorrow. He wriggled down from his father’s arms.

  You are not my daddy. Not my mommy.

  The accusation echoed in his core, yet the toddler felt nothing amiss and could not voice it.

  Only when the dark-skinned, bald-headed Iron Law envoy appeared did the family proceed to the ancestral square.

  Everything unfolded exactly as before.

  Timo died again—drowned in anguish and helplessness.

  On the third return to that warm home, the toddler seized colored crayons and scratched a crude outline of the sea demon.

  The beast existed solely to torment him: devouring his family first, saving him for last, for the deepest despair.

  His true mind saw the pattern. Words had failed—then let him draw it.

  Yet a child’s hand produced only a lopsided circle bristling with jagged lines.

  The family praised his imagination and nothing more.

  Every gesture, every word repeated from the first cycle.

  Thus Timo grew certain: this was all illusion, tied somehow to his lost past.

  Yet straining to remember brought only splitting pain.

  This time the toddler did nothing. Events replayed without change. Even the child’s innocent grief washed over him again and again.

  On the fourth return to the cozy house, Timo’s true awareness dimmed noticeably. His thoughts began to align with the toddler’s.

  What’s happening? I want candy—it’s too high! Wake up… I can’t sink in. If I forget myself, will I never escape?

  No—stay awake!

  The toddler teetered toward the high shelf. Two wills clashed within.

  He staggered, collapsed onto the thick beast-fur rug, eyelids drooping heavily.

  “Mommy, little brother’s sleepy! Let him rest at home.”

  Yue Yang hurried in at the soft thud, seeing only her brother worn out from play.

  I can’t sleep—the sea demon will devour everyone! I have to defeat it alone. I won’t sleep! Daddy, Mommy, Sister—I’ll protect you!

  With that fierce vow, the toddler’s eyes snapped open. He sat up and grinned foolishly.

  “Son, just waking up?” Lingfeng asked, striding in with his usual swagger.

  Seeing the family reunited, Timo smiled radiantly.

  This time he would act differently.

  They reached the ancestral square once more.

  Auspicious light bloomed—then black clouds swallowed it.

  While his sister bowed in prayer, Timo slipped from the crowd.

  The black-robed figures emerge from those clouds. I won’t let them succeed—I’ll destroy them!

  Wind essence—awaken!

  His true mind roared the command again and again. Illusion or not, he would not watch his family perish before him.

  The fiercer his will burned, the brighter his mind blazed.

  Suddenly everything froze.

  A vision seared across his thoughts: Yue Yang in chains, lashed by heavenly lightning—her cries of agony piercing him.

  Pain lanced through his head.

  “I will never let you come to harm!”

  He forced his eyes open.

  He was no longer a toddler—now a twelve-year-old boy, a meter sixty tall.

  Glancing around, he found himself back in the fish demons’ cavern.

  Before him charged the sea demon, maw gaping wide.

  Timo had no desire to endure the foul, corrosive hell of its stomach acid again.

  “Die!”

  His roar shook the air.

  The demon, recognizing its old foe, grew frenzied with bloodlust.

  Timo faced it unflinching, summoning powerful white wind essence.

  Tentacles whipped toward him in volleys.

  He evaded with blinding speed.

  Wind blades flared from his essence, severing several limbs.

  Yet the beast regenerated endlessly.

  As the barrage thickened like driving rain, Timo surged forward with explosive force.

  He burst from the cavern.

  The instant he emerged, the cave vanished behind him.

  In its place unfolded another realm—the ancestral square.

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