Are You Content to Be a Waste?

The familiar yet bone-chilling words struck deep into Shen Nanxun's mind like an ice pick that had been sealed away for years.

Eight years later, he heard once more the voice that had pronounced his fate.

Before him stood the Martial Soul Awakening Platform of North Sea City. The sunlight was blindingly bright, yet as it fell upon his tender, young body, it offered nothing but a bone-deep chill.

At six years old, his frame was so thin he seemed as though a gust of wind could topple him, standing all alone in the center of the high platform.

In those eyes, still clear and untainted, were reflected the gazes of everyone around him—some pitying, some disdainful, others mocking.

Innate soul power level two, no Martial Soul.

Those seven short words, in a world where Martial Souls were supreme, were the label of a complete and utter cripple.

"What a pity. To be born into a top-tier military family like the Shen Family, only to be a waste."

"No wonder I've never seen him cultivate. It turns out he has no Martial Soul to rely on; he is destined to have no path as a Soul Master."

"I heard he was an orphan the master adopted years ago. It's true, his bloodline is impure; he cannot uphold the foundation of the Shen Family."

"Deputy Legion Commander Shen is exceptionally gifted and holds a high position at such a young age. How could he have such a drag of a younger brother?"

The clamor of discussion surged in like a dense tide—noisy, grating, piercing his eardrums and entangling his spirit, transforming into the sharpest of illusory shackles.

The illusion perfectly replicated every scene, every word, and every look of contempt from that year.

It was terrifyingly real.

Shen Nanxun lowered his head to look at his own slender, childish palms.

There was no Angel God power, no Dragon Prince bloodline, no God-level Soul Spirit that had accompanied him for half his life. He was empty, frail, and powerless.

"Sister Xue, Sister Xue..."

He called out subconsciously, but received no reply.

At this moment, he was exactly the natural-born failure the world claimed him to be.

Obsession surged wildly, tightly binding his Dao heart.

Unreconciled.

A monstrous, overwhelming lack of reconciliation!

He refused to be born mediocre, refused to be wantonly pointed at and despised by others, and refused to live his whole life in the shadow of the Shen Family's prodigies, defined by everyone as a waste!

This obsession was the firmest shackle in the deepest part of his mortal heart before he awakened his God-level Soul Spirit, and it was the root of the delusion mentioned by the God of Destruction.

The root of delusion.

Only when a god is free of obsession can they be pure.

If a mortal heart cannot let go, it becomes a demonic barrier.

Within the illusion, time flowed slowly, and the surrounding scenes shifted constantly.

He saw his younger self hiding in a corner of the North Sea Academy, watching as every student possessed a brilliant Martial Soul and vast soul power, while he sat alone in the shadows, ignored by all.

He saw his former playmates turn to mock him, saw those once close to him drift away, and saw how everyone had already predetermined his fate as a mediocre failure.

He saw his younger self gritting his teeth, cultivating bitterly day and night—while others rested, he practiced physical training; while others played, he condensed his energy. Countless days and nights of torment, all to break free from a fate of unwillingness.

Scene after scene of what would have happened without a Soul Spirit unfolded, each instance of obsession surfacing.

Obsession with love, with fame, with honor and disgrace, with unwillingness... thousands of delusions transformed into wisps of gray mist, drilling into his spirit through his limbs and bones, constantly magnifying the paranoia in his heart.

These scenes were, in fact, things the young Shen Nanxun had once imagined—everything that might have happened had he not awakened a God-level Soul Spirit.

It was both imagination and obsession.

If he could not break free, today's obsession would completely devour his divinity.

From then on, he would no longer be a quasi-god controlling annihilation, but would merely become a killing puppet controlled by his own unwillingness, using the power of destruction to vent his delusions, slaughtering all living things, and falling into eternal darkness.

In his sea of consciousness, the indifferent voice of the god sounded once more, devoid of any emotion:

"Obsession is the root of the living, but also the tribulation of the gods."

"To hold on and refuse to accept is to be trapped in a mortal shell; only by severing the illusory can one enter the path of the gods."

"Sever, or be trapped. It is all in a single thought."

The sunlight in the illusion remained warm, yet Shen Nanxun's spirit had already endured thousands of torments.

Outside, the Divine Domain of Annihilation remained motionless. His body stood quietly, eyes tightly shut, his aura fluctuating.

Above the manor, Shen Yue's Rock Dragon Domain firmly shrouded the surroundings, the red-gold dragon-scale barrier unmoving.

The old man stood in the night, his aura as a nine-ring Titled Douluo completely restrained. His brows were tightly furrowed, his gaze locked onto the direction of the cultivation room, his eyes filled with gravity.

He could not understand the origin of that purple-black energy, nor could he read the opportunities and dangers his grandson was currently facing.

But he knew clearly that this was, without a doubt, a transformation.

Within the illusion, time passed.

The young body remained frail, but the impatience and unwillingness in Shen Nanxun's eyes had long since faded.

He stood quietly on the Martial Soul Awakening Platform, facing all the mockery and contempt around him, no longer angry, no longer stifled, and no longer wishing to desperately prove himself.

By now, he had long since understood.

The strong never need to prove anything to anyone.

The mediocre are trapped by rumors, obsessed with honor and disgrace, confined by the gazes of others, and shackled by worldly definitions of success and failure.

Yet the Dao of Destruction is, by nature, about leaping beyond shackles, breaking rules, ending falsehoods, and forging new beginnings.

His unwillingness to accept his lot was a mortal's obsession with survival, a weakling's obsession with turning the tables, and a vanity born from reliance on worldly judgment.

This obsession had made him stronger, but it would ultimately trap his future.

If he remained fixated on shedding past humility and erasing former humiliations, he would never break free from the shackles of a mortal heart; he would forever be a mortal controlled by his past, unworthy of wielding the Power of Annihilation.

Destruction is not for the sake of avenging past slights, nor for venting old grievances.

To destroy all things is to clear away shackles; to end falsehoods is to pave the way for a new birth.

Shen Nanxun slowly raised his youthful head, and in those eyes that had once been clear, a point of profound, deep purple-black light suddenly ignited.

Within the child's skin lay a transparent Dao heart, tempered by life and death and touching upon the path of the gods.

The surrounding sounds of mockery gradually grew blurred in his ears.

Those honors, prejudices, and definitions of status that trap ordinary people for a lifetime were, before the absolute Great Dao of the gods, nothing but dust and falsehood.

"I am obsessed with honor and disgrace, thus I have joy and sorrow; I am trapped by the past, thus I have shackles."

The youth spoke softly; his voice was childish, yet his tone was incredibly firm and cold, piercing through the layers of noise:

"Today, I, Shen Nanxun, sever the thought of unwillingness, sever the obsession with honor and disgrace, sever the world's false definitions, and sever all shackles of this mortal shell!"

The moment his words fell!

The entire illusion trembled violently, the bright sunlight dimmed instantly, and the mocking figures filling the sky shattered like broken glass.

The unwillingness, grievances, paranoia, and resentment that had coiled around his mind—all the delusions rooted in the depths of his heart—were instantly severed by a nascent Power of Annihilation.

He was no longer obsessed with past humility, no longer tangled in the evaluations of others, and no longer trapped by worldly notions of talent, strength, or status.

Old thoughts were extinguished, and the mortal heart faded away!

The next second, the light filling the sky suddenly retracted.

The blinding warm sun and the familiar old house!

The scene of his six-year-old self shattered completely.

The pitch-black, desolate Divine Domain of Annihilation came back into view.

The floating broken stars, the fractured ancient mountains and rivers, and the dead, barren world returned once more.

The restraint on his Dao heart that had been suppressing his body shattered with a roar!

The origin of destruction, sealed deep within his meridians, surged and churned instantly, and a pure Divine Nature of Annihilation completely washed through his limbs, bones, soul, and sea of consciousness.

The youth stood in the center of the Divine Domain, his figure still standing tall.

In his sea of consciousness, the voice of the God of Destruction sounded once again.

"The trial of severing delusions, passed."

"The shackles of the mortal heart are broken, and the obsessions of falsehood are gone."

"The Dao heart is initially set; you may bear the Annihilation."

"Immediately, begin the second trial—Extinguishing the Void."

Before the words had even faded, a fierce wind rose across the entire silent Divine Domain of Annihilation!

The broken stars filling the sky began to spin crazily, the phantoms of fractured mountains and rivers reorganized layer by layer, and countless illusions, indistinguishable from reality, quietly sprouted from the void, surrounding Shen Nanxun.

Greed, anger, ignorance, fear, desire... all the inner demons and falsehoods of the world took shape, waiting for him to break the impasse!

The second trial: break through all falsehoods, hold fast to one's original heart, and do not be consumed by the Power of Annihilation.