chapter 58: the judgment of the watchers

The sky cracked like fragile glass, and from the void beyond, the Watchers descended. Each of them was a concept made manifest—forms shifting between light, shadow, and the ungraspable essence of the infinite. Their presence alone distorted space, rewriting the very laws of existence with every breath.

Shen Tian stood at the heart of the storm, unwavering. His robes fluttered as waves of cosmic force crashed against him, but he did not yield. The Watchers sought to judge him, to determine if his vision of existence was worthy.

"You defy the natural order," one of them intoned, its voice resonating with the weight of untold eons. "We have observed countless beings like you, each believing they could reshape the multiverse. All have failed. Will you be different?"

Shen Tian chuckled softly. "Failure is a lesson, not a fate. And you—you're mistaken if you think I am like the others you've seen."

The Watchers did not respond with words. Instead, they attacked.

The First Trial: The Collapse of Reality

The sky folded inward, the ground became an abyss, and the very fabric of existence unraveled. Everything around Shen Tian ceased to be, swallowed by a conceptual void where only thought remained.

The Watchers had cast him into a space where even the supreme cultivators of countless realms would fade into nothingness.

But Shen Tian merely exhaled.

"Creation is not bound by limitations. If reality is taken from me, I will forge my own."

With a single thought, golden runes appeared, blooming like lotus flowers across the void. His presence stabilized the abyss, forcing it to acknowledge his will.

The Watchers observed in silence. One of them, a being of pure entropy, stirred.

"Interesting. You persist."

The Second Trial: The Rejection of the Self

A mirror formed before him. But this was no ordinary reflection—it was Shen Tian himself, stripped of his name, his identity, his memories. This was what remained if all that defined him was erased.

The Watchers sought to see if he could withstand oblivion.

The reflection spoke. "If you are nothing, then what meaning does your journey hold?"

Shen Tian smiled. "Existence does not require meaning to persist. I will continue because I choose to, not because the universe dictates it."

His hand moved, and the mirror shattered.

The trial failed to break him.

The Third Trial: The Wrath of the Watchers

The Watchers, seeing his defiance, abandoned subtlety. Their forms shifted, growing immense, their power eclipsing entire universes. If logic could not judge him, then force would.

The battlefield became a cosmic tempest, where every strike could birth or erase galaxies.

Shen Tian stood alone.

And then he laughed.

Not in arrogance, but in exhilaration.

"This is what it means to challenge the infinite!"

He raised a single hand, and the multiverse quaked. The essence of countless Dao converged upon him—Time, Space, Creation, Destruction, all bowing before his will.

His power erupted, clashing against the Watchers in a battle that defied all logic.

For the first time in eternity, the Watchers knew uncertainty.

The Unknown Future

As the clash continued, something unexpected happened. The Watchers, beings who had always stood outside of fate, glimpsed something beyond their understanding.

A future that even they could not predict.

And in that future… Shen Tian stood above all.

They faltered.

"Impossible…"

But Shen Tian did not hesitate. With a final step forward, he reached out—

—And shattered the judgment of the Watchers themselves.

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End of Chapter 58