Pass

When he realized that the conversation had been coming from his own mouth all along, an indescribable fear inevitably rose from Wei Ke's heart.

"Who the hell are you?!" Wei Ke roared again. "Why can you control my body?!"

There was a tremor in his roar, but it quickly turned calm.

"Because I am you."

"You're talking nonsense!"

Wei Ke clenched his teeth tightly.

He could feel his body rapidly transforming into a wolf, but the transformed parts were completely beyond his control. He had to use his one remaining human arm to support his increasingly massive, heavy body, and it was becoming harder and harder.

"The truth is always hard to accept." Wei Ke's mouth continued answering on its own. "That's why they would never let you discover the truth."

"...What is the truth?"

"The truth is that this so-called trust is fundamentally false," he said. "He doesn't want us to understand betrayal. He doesn't want us to know fear. He only wants us to move forward, endlessly forward. Even in darkness, even when we don't know what lies ahead, we still have to move forward. We don't need to think. We only need to obey. Just like this game, we who are bound in chains can't understand what will happen if we fall, nor do we know that the person on the other side, the one we trust, can kill us with a single misstep."

"That's you! Not me!" Wei Ke continued roaring. "I know everything!"

"Yes." He laughed. "That's why we survived until now, isn't it?"

Wei Ke froze.

In that moment of hesitation, his body's wolf transformation deepened once more.

Relying on just one arm, he could no longer hold himself up. Even though his five fingers had scratched bloody marks into the passageway, his body still kept falling.

...Was it because he knew everything that he had survived until now?

Wei Ke did not understand what that meant. All he could hear was the piercing screech of the iron chain around his waist.

He fell toward the abyss.

Bai Wei silently watched as the chain at the mechanism suddenly sped up, and the restraint around his waist abruptly tightened as well.

It seemed Wei Ke on the other side had run into trouble.

At this rate, in less than three seconds, his body would be cut in half by the chain.

Did that mean his contest with Wildfire would end here?

Bai Wei lowered his head and looked at the rapidly tightening chain, like a prisoner on the execution ground watching helplessly as the guillotine fell.

Then he raised his hand.

Though he would not die, if this body were destroyed here, it would still be quite troublesome. So he decided to withdraw.

But...

Bai Wei narrowed his eyes slightly. After less than a second of thought, he lowered his hand again.

He should trust that kid a little longer.

That was what he thought.

Then, with a clang—

The chain suddenly stopped in the final second before fully tightening.

The piercing noise vanished as well, as if time had frozen at that moment, leaving only stillness.

Bai Wei lowered his head and looked at his waist. The chain had already left deep marks.

But... there was no blood.

Bai Wei smiled.

Drip. Drip.

Blood seeped from between Wei Ke's fingers and dripped into the abyss below.

But Wei Ke had not fallen into the abyss. His limbs—both the human parts and the Silver Wolf parts—were dug firmly into the wall. Like a gecko, he had embedded his body tightly against it.

Panting heavily, he raised his head and looked toward the mechanism's connection point.

With the aid of his wolf-transformed eyes, he could clearly see that the mechanism's chain had not activated.

Which meant the Saintess was unharmed.

Wei Ke pursed his lips, easily climbed back into the passageway with his half-wolf body, then lay down on the spot as if waiting for something.

He had caused far too much commotion this time.

The Saintess on the other side must have brushed shoulders with death.

If so...

Wei Ke slowly closed his eyes, like a sinner awaiting judgment.

Yet second by second, the chain around his waist never descended to carry out his execution.

Which meant...

Wei Ke suddenly opened his eyes and let out a roar.

This roar was louder than all the previous ones, like a sudden release after being suppressed to the extreme.

"I won! I won!" he roared at the so-called "other self" inside his body. "You lost! You lost! Everything you said was fake! You were lying to me, lying to me!"

Wei Ke looked as if he had won the hardest battle of his life and was already about to deliver a victory speech.

But the "other self" did not speak again. In the empty passageway, only his own echo could be heard.

"Why aren't you talking?!" he demanded again.

Still, there was no answer.

His "other" self seemed to have vanished. The sensation of losing control over his body had disappeared as well, as though everything before had merely been an illusion.

...No.

Wei Ke shook his head.

It could not have been an illusion.

This had happened more than once. No matter how dense he was, he could not keep believing it was an illusion.

Which meant there really was something wrong with his mind.

But what exactly was wrong?

Wei Ke could not figure it out.

According to Father Ulu, a part of A De might exist within his body. That was why he could occasionally recall past events from A De's perspective.

But that consciousness just now belonged neither to himself nor to A De. Then who could it be?

Could that be... the Saint?

That was the only possibility Wei Ke could think of.

That person called the Saint was also hiding in his mind, constantly trying to seize his body.

Of course, it was also possible that this was interference from the Trust Trial itself.

But no matter which it was, Wei Ke had won.

At that thought, Wei Ke could not help feeling a surge of excitement. With no specific enemy to face, he threw several hard punches at the air, as if that could knock the invisible "other self" to the ground.

The sharp sounds of air splitting lifted Wei Ke's mood even higher and gave him more motivation.

At that moment, the sound of chains grinding rang out again. But Wei Ke knew the mechanism had not activated. It was the person on the other side—the Saintess—moving forward again.

Sure enough, the Saintess was fine!

He could not waste time here either!

He had to get out quickly and tell Father Ulu everything that had happened here!

So Wei Ke started moving forward once again.

The road ahead brought Wei Ke no further obstacles. He practically sprinted through the rest of the path.

When he opened the wooden door that had been sealed for who knew how many years and saw the light through the swirling dust, his entire body trembled with excitement.

He was out.

Having stayed in extreme darkness for too long, Wei Ke's eyes could not immediately adjust to the light. But he did not close them, nor did he shield them even slightly. Instead, he forced them open wider. Even as the sunlight stabbed painfully into his eyes, he kept them open and tried his best to see everything before him.

Before him stood an even larger door, like a gigantic blade dividing the valley in two, still blocking his path forward.

Which meant he had not yet left the Trust Hall and had not opened the route to the Sacrificial Ground.

But Wei Ke knew the Trust Trial was over, and he... had passed.

"Not bad."

A lazy voice sounded behind him.

After a brief daze, Wei Ke abruptly turned around and found Bai Wei leaning against another door, looking at him with an ambiguous smile.

"Father Ulu? Why are you here..." Before Wei Ke could finish asking, he noticed the chain tied around Bai Wei's waist. After a brief pause, he understood everything. "Father Ulu, were you undergoing the trial with me?"

"Yes." Bai Wei smiled. "That's why I said you did well."

Wei Ke opened his mouth, but could not say a word.

For some reason, his eyes felt sore.

Was this what "trust" meant?

"Yes, you have completely understood what 'trust' is."

"Next comes the final step."

"Saint."

The voice that had disappeared for so long rang out in his mind again.

Wei Ke's smile froze.

"What's wrong?" Bai Wei asked.

"I..." A trace of confusion flashed through Wei Ke's eyes. "It feels like someone is talking to me, but I... can't remember."

Wei Ke furrowed his brows deeply.

"Back in the passageway, it seemed like someone was talking to me too. But, but... I can't remember."

Wei Ke grew increasingly agitated.

"I can't remember... Damn it, why can't I remember?!"

His earlier joy had been completely swept away. He kept clutching at his head, his sharp nails scratching bloody lines across his scalp.

"I clearly remembered that I had to tell you. I clearly remembered..."

"Alright, Wei Ke."

Just as Wei Ke was becoming frantic enough to collapse, Bai Wei suddenly stepped forward and gently rubbed his head, gradually calming him down.

"Soon," Bai Wei said softly. "Very soon, the Final Truth will be revealed. Before that... get some rest."

For some reason, under Bai Wei's soothing touch, Wei Ke relaxed quickly. Then, beneath the sunlight, he tilted his head and fell asleep.

Bai Wei quietly looked at the Pure Silver Wolf before him and softly said,

"Sleep well a little longer."

"As Wei Ke."

Yi Weina cautiously walked out of the passageway. She first saw the enormous mountain gate, then saw Bai Wei waiting leisurely for her before it.

"Saintess, even without a trial in your passageway, it took you this long?" Bai Wei teased. "It seems that if you were paired with this kid, you'd probably get him killed before taking two steps."

Yi Weina pursed her lips. She had been about to defend herself by saying she was injured, but when she saw Bai Wei was still limping on one leg, she immediately found herself without an excuse. She could only mutter, "I'll be faster next time."

At that moment, Wei Ke, who had been dozing beside Bai Wei's feet, also heard the commotion and groggily opened his eyes. "What is it? What is it?"

Yi Weina looked at Wei Ke and found something subtly strange.

Why did his napping posture look like a dog's?

She shook her head but did not voice that thought.

"Now that you have passed the Trust Trial, you can obtain the Final Key."

"The Final Key?"

"Yes, the key to the Sacrificial Ground." Yi Weina stepped forward and reached toward their waists.

But she was not really trying to touch their waists. She was reaching for the chains around them.

With two clicks, the chains came free.

Yi Weina worked on them for a while longer, removing a small "fragment" from each chain before fitting the pieces together.

With a click.

The two fragments formed a token engraved with the Senro Statue.

"This is the Final Key," Yi Weina said.

Wei Ke stared blankly. He clearly had not expected the Final Key to be something like this.

"Then... why didn't you put it together before the trial began?" Wei Ke could not help asking. "Wouldn't that have let us skip the trial?"

"How could you skip the trial?" Yi Weina said seriously. "Grandmother once told me that every step of the trial followed a rigorous process. If any step went wrong, the key could be destroyed."

Wei Ke scratched his head. "But your process doesn't look very rigorous either."

"...Anyway, Grandmother told me that." Yi Weina muttered. "I'm afraid of making a mistake too. And besides, I'm the Senro Saintess. I have to follow the rules here, don't I?"

"Alright, alright." Bai Wei smiled. "Consider it giving the Senro God one last shred of respect. He's dead anyway."

Yi Weina's mouth twitched. She resisted the urge to accuse Bai Wei of blasphemy and obediently handed him the token.

Bai Wei took the token, examined it in his hand, then passed it to Wei Ke beside him.

"You open it."

Wei Ke was stunned and instinctively pointed at himself. "Can I?"

"Don't forget, you are Senro's last Hunter." Bai Wei smiled. "And the truth you seek lies beyond that door. So do you really want me to do it?"

After hearing Bai Wei's words, the hesitation in Wei Ke's eyes gradually disappeared.

He nodded solemnly, then took the token from Bai Wei's hand.

In that instant, he saw himself again.

He saw himself holding the token, his face full of smiles.

"We did it, A De!" he shouted. "We're only one step away! We're going to make it!"

Wei Ke immediately realized this was a memory from half a month ago.

Which meant that half a month ago, he and A De had also passed the Trust Trial.

Of course. How could he and A De possibly fail the Trust Trial?

So the Final Truth had only...

Wei Ke turned around and looked at the majestic giant gate behind him, as though it could split the world in two.

He stepped forward and pressed the token into the groove in the giant gate.

Amid a tremendous rumble, the giant gate slowly opened.