This was a single—choice question with no right answer.

Did he choose an endless future, or survival right now?

Did he keep his critical hit trump card and barely stay alive, or give up everything in exchange for one year of rapid growth?

Yves had used this system to set up the final and cruelest plan for humanity’s successor.

"Heh."

In the silent hall, a soft laugh suddenly rang out.

Aiden laughed.

There was no despair in that smile. Instead, it carried a mocking, superior look, as if he had seen through everything.

"Zoey," Aiden said calmly.

"Yes?" Zoey opened her eyes and looked at him in confusion.

"Did Yves ever use this function himself?" Aiden asked.

Zoey froze for a moment, then shook her head with a bitter smile.

"No. When he designed this system, he had already reached the rank of Divine Emperor. ’All Things Return to Their Source’ meant nothing to him."

"So this function was never prepared for himself from the very beginning."

Aiden turned around and clasped his hands behind his back. A brilliant divine light suddenly burst from his double—pupiled eyes, so bright that no one could look straight at it.

Boom!

A terrifying divine pressure swept out from his body. At that moment, all the defensive formations of Celestial Imperial City roared together, as if bowing before this young god.

Deep inside his mind, at the bottom of the complete evolution node map formed from the Heavenly Law fragment inside Cheryl, a line of ancient words that had once been dull and unreadable finally appeared in full under the resonance of space and the Law of Thunder.

"This map is for the Heavenly Law successor, the exclusive host Constitution of the 10,000x Critical Hit."

And in the lower right corner of that line, there was a row of tiny dates.

[Thirty—two years before Yves’s fall.]

The corner of Aiden’s mouth lifted slightly. A cold yet burning light flashed in his eyes.

"So you had already calculated this day thirty—two years ago, Yves?"

...

"Thirty—two years before Yves’s fall."

Aiden gently brushed his fingertip over the ancient words. Silver light of space and wild thunder danced on his finger, tearing tiny black cracks into the air.

At that moment, the temperature in the freezing chamber dropped to its lowest point. Even the void seemed to freeze, making sharp cracking sounds.

Zoey floated in midair, her small body trembling slightly. The shock in her eyes could not be described.

"Thirty—two years ago..." she murmured, her voice filled with disbelief. "But when he fell, he was already nearly a thousand years old. Thirty—two years ago, wasn’t he just..."

"He was thirty—two years old," Aiden cut her off coldly, divine light bursting from his double—pupiled eyes.

"It does not mean thirty—two years before his fall. It means that when he wrote this will, there were exactly thirty—two years left until his final fall."

The divine power inside Aiden trembled slightly. The Law of Space turned into an invisible hand and peeled away the void beneath that line of words once again.

Buzz!

Traces of golden primordial crystal wove together in midair. A smaller, more hidden line of golden ancient seal script slowly moved through the void like a swimming dragon.

Aiden stared at the words and read them out one by one, his voice low like rolling thunder:

"If I fail, someone will come."

"He will not be my descendant, and he may not even be a genius."

"But he will be someone willing to make the choice for everyone."

"I do not know his name."

"I only know that ten thousand years later, Earth will still need him."

With every word that appeared, the pressure of the laws inside the chamber grew heavier. In the end, it pressed the void down by several inches.

This was not a safe path left for his descendants.

It was a cold and heavy will, passed down across ten thousand years.

"Someone willing to make the choice for everyone..." Zoey stared blankly at the words, tears flowing before she even realized it.

She finally understood.

When Yves wrote these words, he had only been thirty—two years old. He was still in the prime of his life, and he had not even become a Divine Emperor yet.

But even then, he had already seen the final ending ten thousand years later.

"10,000x Critical Hit, law devouring, vessel purification, All Things Return to Their Source..."

Aiden closed his eyes. Countless system modules flashed wildly in his mind, then finally came together into a cold, closed loop.

"Zoey, do you still not understand?"

"From the very beginning, this system was a ’glutton’ wearing the skin of a divine treasure."

Aiden opened his eyes, and his double—pupiled eyes were filled with cold mockery.

"It devours. It steals. It uses the pleasure of the 10,000x Critical Hit to endlessly increase the host’s greed."

"If the host becomes obsessed with Strength and madly steals the laws, then the moment the vessel is filled, the system will fully turn against him. He will become nourishment for the Lord of the Primordial’s return."

Zoey’s face instantly turned pale, without a trace of blood.

"So... this was a test?" she asked in a trembling voice.

"Yes. A test that lasted ten thousand years."

Aiden gave a cold snort. Thunder exploded around him and turned into a fierce thunder dragon, coiling around his body.

"Only a person who can calmly stop in the face of endless Strength, and say ’enough’ from inside the Abyss of greed, deserves to stand before All Things Return to Their Source."

"If I had been greedy for the 10,000x Critical Hit just now and refused All Things Return to Their Source, then one year from now, I would have become the perfect sacrifice."

A proud, wild smile curved Aiden’s lips.

Yves had spent thirty—two years designing this system, then spent ten thousand years waiting for a madman who would dare to crush the 10,000x Critical Hit with his own hands.

And Aiden was that madman.

"He was not looking for an heir."

Aiden looked at the golden words as they slowly faded. For the first time, a trace of true respect flashed in his eyes.

"He was looking for a person. A second person who could do what even he himself could not."

Back then, Yves had already become a Divine Emperor. He could not give up his own Strength and walk this path, so he failed.

He left his hope to someone ten thousand years later, someone who dared to give up everything.

Aiden took a deep breath and waved his hand. The silver light of space and the thunder filling the air instantly drew back.

The Heavenly Law fragment that carried the complete evolution path and the will turned back into a streak of light and sank into Cheryl’s body.

The freezing chamber fell into dead silence again.

Aiden slowly stood up and looked down at Zoey, who was floating in midair.

"Zoey," Aiden said calmly, yet his voice carried an unquestionable force.

"I’m here..." Zoey lifted her head in a daze.

"From now on, you are not only the Artifact Spirit of the Golden Great Wall."

Aiden turned around. His back looked lonely and proud under the flickering light of the laws.

"You are the last burial object Yves left behind."

Zoey’s small body shook hard. She stood there, frozen in place.

The temperature inside the chamber seemed to freeze completely at that moment.

After a long time, Zoey’s illusion slowly appeared in the fading field of law resonance. She still looked like a little girl with big eyes.

Her eyes were very red. Large tears rolled down her cheeks and turned into specks of golden light in the void.

"He once said..."

Zoey’s voice was hoarse, filled with grief and relief that had been held back for ten thousand years.

"He said that when you saw this will, I should pass a message to you for him."

Aiden’s steps stopped.

He did not turn around, but the fingers hanging at his side trembled slightly.

"What message?"

Zoey looked at Aiden’s back. It was not broad, yet it seemed strong enough to carry the whole Earth.

At last, she could no longer hold back and burst into tears.

"He said, ’I’m sorry. I left you to carry all of this alone.’"

The last bit of cold inside the freezing chamber had not yet faded when the system panel inside Aiden suddenly began to shake wildly on its own.

Buzz!

An extremely sharp wave of law energy exploded in Aiden’s mind without warning.

This roar did not come through any divine power channel that existed on Earth. It even bypassed all the space barriers Aiden had set around himself.

It did not belong to any known language. It was not any script from the Great Shaw Empire or the Abyss myriad races rank.

It was a pure law resonance.

It turned into a vast, ancient, and irresistible will, then branded itself deep inside Aiden’s soul.

That will sent only one cold and clear feeling:

"Now, you may come."

Divine light burst from Aiden’s double—pupiled eyes. Thunder raged in his right eye, while silver space light swept through his left eye like a storm.

His current power had long since passed the limits of mortals. He had reached the middle stage of Intermediate God.

A sixty—six percent understanding of the laws allowed him to move through Earth’s void as easily as walking on flat ground. His divine power surged, yet remained steady.

According to the evolution of Earth’s laws, once a Reclasser stepped into the Intermediate God realm, the physical path to Earth’s deepest core area would automatically open for them.

With a single thought, Aiden’s vast divine sense instantly locked onto the source of that will.

It was a law fault zone located in the deepest part of Earth.

Countless violent law currents crossed and tore at each other there. Any ordinary Venerable would die the moment they touched it.

And at the deepest point of that fault zone stood a huge, ancient golden gate, giving off endless majesty.

"The golden gate..."

Aiden murmured in a low voice. Around him, the Law of Space began to ripple like water. He was already preparing to go to that outer area alone.

With his current strength, he still could not force the gate open, but getting close to it was already possible.

"Aiden!"

Just as Aiden was about to tear through space and leave, the dark ice door of the chamber was suddenly pushed open by an outside force.

Kelsey lifted the hem of her dress and ran in, panting. Her small face was covered with an unusual blush.

Her big eyes shone with a light Aiden had never seen before. Even her petite body was trembling slightly.