"Fascinating... This isn't a simple Undetectable Extension Charm. It involves magic at a much higher level—the Law of Causality."
His Soul Power spread out like flowing mercury as he began to analyze the room's nature.
"It can change its shape and furnishings according to the intruder's most urgent 'need'... I see."
"A Law of Causality Magic Artifact capable of turning 'thoughts' into 'reality.' Its operating principle... is to sift through and reshape the 'possibilities' of this world. Brilliant. Truly brilliant! Its value even surpasses that little Magic Stone!"
Lin Yuan's eyes blazed with a light even more fervent than when he'd discovered the Soul Artifact.
This room was the greatest "miracle" in this world!
Analyze it!
If he could uncover even one ten-thousandth of its secrets, his mastery of Words Become Law would no longer be an unattainable dream!
While Lin Yuan was immersed in the rapture of discovering a whole new world, Harry, who had just recovered from his shock, found himself utterly captivated by an object in the center of the room.
It was a huge mirror, almost as tall as the ceiling.
Its ornate golden frame had claw-like feet that gripped the floor, and a line of twisted, cryptic writing was engraved along the top.
"Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi."
Curious, Harry walked up to the mirror and peered into it.
He saw his own reflection: a small, bespectacled boy with a somewhat nervous expression.
But... he wasn't alone in the mirror.
A woman stood behind him.
She was tall and slender, with beautiful dark red hair. Her eyes... Harry's heart gave a sudden lurch. They were bright emerald green, exactly like his own.
Her hand rested tenderly on his shoulder, and her face wore a loving smile he had only ever seen in his dreams.
Beside her stood a tall man.
He had untidy, unruly black hair and wore glasses, too.
He smiled, his arm affectionately around the woman's shoulders. His eyes, fixed on Harry, were full of pride and love.
It was... Dad... Mum...
Harry felt his breath catch in his throat.
He spun around. There was no one behind him.
Only the cold, empty room.
He turned back to the mirror.
They were still there, smiling at him.
Many more people stood behind them—his family, grandparents he had never met, members of the Potter Family.
They were all there, gathered around him, gazing at him with warm, loving eyes.
He was no longer an orphan living in a cupboard.
He was surrounded by love.
"Dad... Mum..."
Harry reached out and, trembling, touched the cold glass, as if he could pass through the barrier between life and death and embrace the warm figures in the mirror.
Two streams of hot tears slipped uncontrollably from his emerald eyes.
Lin Yuan stood silently in the shadows, watching the scene before him.
"So that's what it is—the Mirror of Erised."
His Spiritual Sense had already analyzed the mirror's operating principles in full.
"A high-level mental projection Magic Artifact. It captures the observer's strongest subconscious impulses—the so-called 'desires'—then uses fragments of the observer's memories and imagination to construct a false yet perfect illusion in the mirror, satisfying those desires."
"At its core is a composite magic array that amplifies emotions and resonates with the mind. It doesn't create anything itself; it's merely an 'amplifier' and a 'projector.' For someone with weak resolve and deep-seated obsessions, this truly is a dangerous object—one they could lose themselves in until death."
There wasn't the slightest ripple in Lin Yuan's eyes.
As he watched Harry sobbing before the mirror, he had only one cold assessment:
"Because he was deprived of familial love as a child, his longing for 'family' has become his strongest obsession for now. That obsession is both his weakness and the wellspring of his future strength. A typical example, rife with the contradictions of human emotion."
He shook his head, losing interest in the mirror.
"This low-level Magic Artifact, which can only reflect mortal feelings and desires, is useless to me."
His heart was as still as an ancient well.
Ever since he had crossed into this world, his Dao Heart had held only one goal—to attain immortality and roam freely between heaven and earth.
It was a grand, abstract pursuit, beyond the mortal realm of the seven emotions and six desires.
His heart was as clear as crystal, his resolve as firm as rock.
He had no "desires" for the mirror to exploit.
Wealth?
Power?
Beauty?
Family?
Friendship?
These were all no more than dust and passing travelers on the path of cultivation.
He believed that if he stood before the mirror, all he would see was his own reflection.
A calm seeker of the Dao, untouched by joy or sorrow, pursuing the Great Way.
The mirror would have no effect on him.
At last, Harry wiped away his tears, overcome by sorrow and exhaustion.
He took one final, lingering look at his parents in the mirror, then put on his Invisibility Cloak and left the room that made him feel both love and pain, looking utterly lost.
Lin Yuan's goal was the Room of Requirement.
He planned to stay and thoroughly analyze every inch of this "Law of Causality Magic Artifact"—every part of its spatial structure and every trace of its fluctuations in the laws, from the inside out.
He turned and started toward the other side of the room, intending to touch the walls that formed this "spatial bubble."
But the instant he turned around—
The corner of his eye happened to catch the enormous, ornate Mirror of Erised.
Just a casual glance.
Yet his feet stopped dead, as if bound by the most powerful Immobilizing Charm.
There was indeed a reflection of him in the mirror.
An East Asian boy with black hair and dark eyes, wearing a Hogwarts school uniform.
But...
That wasn't all.
The "him" in the mirror was utterly different from the one in reality.
In reality, his eyes were calm and profound, like a fathomless, icy pool.
But the "him" in the mirror had no calmness in his eyes, no detachment, not even the slightest trace of "humanity."
What kind of eyes were those...!
In them, Lin Yuan saw the birth and destruction of the universe, the gathering and scattering of Stars, the ceaseless flow of time, and the infinite expanse of space.
He saw the four fundamental elements—earth, water, fire, and wind—winding around his fingertips like obedient threads.
He saw the cycle of life and death, like an intricate gear he could turn at will.
He saw the past, present, and future—three ceaselessly surging rivers converging beneath his feet, docile as house dogs.
The background in the mirror was no longer the empty room.
It was an endless void, impossible to describe in words, filled with both chaos and order.
Countless radiant threads, formed from the purest "laws," extended from the void, weaving together like a spiderweb to form the skeleton of the entire world.
And the "him" in the mirror stood silently at the center of this "web of laws."
He was the center of the "web."
He was the "Dao" itself.
Each breath he took was the ebb and flow of the universe.
Each thought he had brought the laws into being or extinguished them.
He reached out and lightly pointed forward.
The entire mirror shattered with a crash in his Spiritual Sense!
Before you continue