"That’s right!"

Leon suddenly raised his head and stared hard at Aiden.

"He believed that if evolution meant giving up the identity of being human, then every person on Earth had the right to choose for themselves whether they wanted to take that path."

"So he did not choose to merge with the Primordial. Instead, with power beyond imagination, he sealed the Seven Divine Pillars, rebuilt the Golden Great Wall, and forcefully delayed the arrival of the Great Destruction."

"He used his own life to buy all of human civilization five hundred years to think."

A sudden gale rose inside the study, making the pages of the books rustle loudly.

A storm surged in Aiden’s heart.

That legendary man, the one who had held back the Abyss by himself and rebuilt the Golden Great Wall, had done it all to give humanity the right to choose.

"As for me, I do not agree with his gentle approach, but I respect his greatness."

Leon stood with his hands behind his back. His body slowly began to fade, a sign that the Strength sustaining his projection was almost gone.

"For the past five hundred years, I founded the Dawn Society and pushed events from the shadows, all while waiting for one person to appear."

"Someone who could finish what Yves could not, and also finish what I could not."

Leon’s gaze locked firmly onto Aiden, filled with an almost sick kind of obsession.

"You should have felt it by now. That person is you."

"Aiden, you possess the 10,000x critical hit. You control the four supreme laws. You caused the Seven Divine Pillars to resonate."

"You are the one chosen by fate!"

Aiden’s face remained calm and cold. A sharp chill flashed through his double-pupiled eyes.

After countless battles and killings, his mind had long since become firm as stone. Naturally, he would not be stirred by Leon’s words.

"What exactly is it that you could not finish?"

Aiden’s voice was calm and strong, carrying the unquestionable authority of an Intermediate God.

Leon looked at Aiden, and a strange smile slowly curved at the corner of his mouth.

"Back then, before Yves sealed the Seven Divine Pillars, he left behind one sentence."

"’I choose not to make this decision.’"

"Everyone thought he was talking about sealing the Seven Divine Pillars, or refusing to merge with the Primordial."

"But only I know what he really meant. He was talking about the choice he faced after pushing open that golden door and standing before the Lord of the Primordial."

Leon’s figure had become almost completely transparent, as if it might vanish with the wind at any moment.

"The Lord of the Primordial once asked him a question."

"Yves could not answer that question on behalf of everyone, so he backed down. He left the core."

"But I will answer it for everyone!"

Aiden took a step forward. The terrifying pressure of an Intermediate God came crashing down, trying to force Leon’s projection to remain.

"How will you answer?"

Facing Aiden’s terrifying pressure, which seemed powerful enough to crush the void itself, Leon did not look afraid. Instead, he laughed.

He looked straight into Aiden’s mysterious double-pupiled eyes. His voice echoed through the study, layer after layer, like an ancient whisper.

"Once you open the door, you will naturally know."

Boom!

As soon as he finished speaking, Leon’s figure completely turned into countless specks of dark gray Primordial dust, scattering into the void.

Only Aiden remained, standing in the broken and reformed void, silent for a long time.

...

Inside the study, the dark gray Primordial dust slowly spread out like smoke.

That was Leon’s projection, just moments away from disappearing.

But in the shattered void, a strange ripple suddenly spread out.

Aiden raised his head. In his double-pupiled eyes, four colors of divine light suddenly blazed.

"You want to leave?"

"Did I say you could?"

His cold voice was like thunder falling from the highest heavens, instantly booming over the entire Celestial Imperial City.

Rumble!

Aiden clenched his fingers in the air, and the silent strength of the four supreme laws inside him erupted at that moment.

The Law of Space locked down the void in every direction.

The Law of Thunder turned into thousands of silver serpents, forcefully trapping the dark gray dust that was about to fade away.

The Law of Light wove together with the traces of the Primordial, forming a prison of rules that could not be crossed.

[Ding! Hidden system container reading: 105!]

[Law resonance: 66%!]

The terrifying pressure of an Intermediate God crashed down like a hundred thousand mountains.

Buzz-

The dark gray dust that had already scattered completely began to flow backward under that overwhelming power.

It was as if time itself had reversed in that moment.

Countless specks of dust gathered again, forming Leon’s shocked face once more.

"This... this is the Strength of an Intermediate God? No, that’s impossible!"

Leon’s projection stared hard at Aiden, his eyes full of disbelief.

He had already become a half-Primordial being. In theory, there should be no Strength on Earth capable of forcing him to stay.

But Aiden had done it.

Aiden slowly stood up. With one step, he appeared right in front of Leon.

He looked down at this madman who called himself a pioneer of humanity. There was no anger in his eyes, only endless coldness and depth.

"Leon, you have been giving me choices all along."

Aiden spoke slowly. His voice was low, but it carried an unquestionable force.

"Plan one: I clear the trial by myself, merge with the Primordial, and complete the leap."

"Plan two: I work with you. The Dawn Society gives everything it has to help me open the door."

"Plan three: you trigger the Seven Pillars yourself and force me to push open that golden door."

With every sentence Aiden spoke, the divine power in the void grew heavier.

"But do these three plans really lead to different endings?"

Leon looked at Aiden and took a deep breath, forcing down the shock in his heart.

"The ending, of course, is to open the door, evolve, and lead all of human civilization away from this dying Earth!"

Leon’s voice was a little hoarse, but it still carried that almost obsessive passion.

"Aiden, do you think we have any other choice?"

"This is the only path to survival!"

Hearing this, Aiden’s mouth slowly curved into a mocking smile.

"I don’t know if there is another one."

"But that sentence Yves left behind... did you truly understand it?"

Aiden stared into Leon’s eyes and said each word clearly.

"’He was not wrong either.’"

"Yves was talking about you, Leon."

Leon froze slightly, his brows tightening.

Aiden continued, "Both of you, whether it was you or Yves, fell into a blind spot that you took for granted."

"You both assumed that once humanity completes the ’evolutionary leap’ and walks through the golden door, humans will become stronger and safer."

"But have you ever thought about one question?"

Aiden’s voice suddenly rose, deafening like the judgment of a god.

"If the evolutionary leap can truly bring absolute safety..."

"Then where did the Heavenly Demon Clan come from?"

Boom!

Those words struck deep into Leon’s soul like world-ending thunder.

Leon froze as if he had been hit by lightning. He stared at Aiden, and even his breathing stopped in that moment.

"Heavenly Demon..."

He muttered to himself, a look of confusion flashing through his eyes like never before.

The Heavenly Demon Clan lived in the highest level of the Abyss. They were a Divine-rank and Imperial-rank race, and they had once been humanity’s greatest nightmare.

Aiden took another step forward. His terrifying divine pressure made the void crack and groan.

"What if the Heavenly Demon Clan was the last civilization that successfully completed the ’evolutionary leap’?"

In Aiden’s double-pupiled eyes, it was as if stars were being destroyed.

"The evolutionary leap did help them escape their mortal bodies and gain the Strength to destroy worlds."

"But what happened after they became stronger?"

"They crossed the golden door and entered a higher universe, only to find that it was not heaven at all. It was an even more terrifying Abyss!"

"On that far crueler path, they met beings they could not fight against. In the end, they were twisted, polluted, and degraded into the monsters now occupying the highest level of the Abyss, madly plundering other civilizations!"

"The so-called ’evolutionary leap’ is not the final point of safety!"

"It is only a ticket to a crueler and more dangerous path!"

Silence.

A deathly silence.

The entire study, and even the whole Celestial Imperial City, fell into absolute stillness at that moment.

Leon’s projection froze in place.

On the face formed from Primordial dust, there was shock at first, then denial, and finally endless fear and confusion.

One second.

Ten seconds.

One minute.

For a full three minutes.

This "Leon," who had sat alone in the Earth’s core for five hundred years and thought he had seen the future of civilization clearly, did not say a single word.

At that moment, his view of the world was smashed apart by Aiden’s cruel but perfectly reasonable logic.

He had always believed that opening the door meant salvation.

But what if opening the door only drove the sheep into a wilderness filled with even more wolves?

"This possibility... I never thought about it..."

Leon’s voice trembled badly. Even his projected body began to show signs of unstable collapse.

He looked at Aiden. The fanaticism and superior attitude from before were gone from his eyes. All that remained was endless bitterness.

"I sat in the Earth’s core for five hundred years. All I thought about was how to open the door faster, how to make humanity complete its evolution..."

"But I never asked myself one question."

"After evolution, what exactly will we face on the other side of the door?"

Aiden stood tall. Around him, the four-colored laws shone brilliantly, making him look like a supreme god who ruled over heaven and earth.

"So I choose a third path."

Aiden’s black hair whipped wildly around him, and brilliant divine light burst from his double-pupiled eyes, bright enough to light up the night.

"I’m not in a hurry to open the door."

"Before I push that door open, I will make sure we are fully prepared on this side."

"And I don’t mean only myself."

"I mean the entire Earth, all of human civilization, must have the power and confidence to overturn everything!"

Leon closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

This time, his form could no longer hold together. It turned into true nothingness and faded from the world.

Only a sigh filled with complicated emotions remained, echoing through the study for a long time.