The instant he read those words aloud, every chain of law across the Arena began to tremble and resonate.
As though drawn by a rhythm spanning countless years, the chains' discordant vibrations gradually fell into sync, becoming a single, steady hum.
The words on the peachwood sword lit up one by one with a pink-white glow. Within it appeared countless phantoms of peach blossoms in bloom.
The phantoms drifted from the blade, spread outward, and filled the entire Arena.
It was like the splendor of ten thousand buds bursting open overnight when a spring breeze swept across a desolate mountain.
Peach blossoms filled the Arena, as though a peach grove forgotten by time deep in the spring mountains had been moved, whole, into this tiny space.
The air was thick with the scent of peach blossoms, so rich it was almost tangible.
Phantom Shadow's law of shadow was steadily squeezed, compressed, and driven back by the blossoms filling the space.
Fine cracks began to appear in her pitch-black armor, like a crust of mud splitting across drought-stricken earth.
Pink-white light seeped into every crack, eroding and melting the structure of the shadows.
It had the unstoppable force of dawn piercing the last veil of night.
"You turned your feelings into a domain."
Phantom Shadow's voice came from behind the shadow armor, hoarse with restraint. Beneath that hoarseness lay a rare trace of weakness.
"These peach blossoms are your domain of the law of emotion. I'm trapped inside it."
"You're weaving this cage from the lingering image of someone you loved who died."
Mu Yunyao did not answer Phantom Shadow's questions.
He gripped the peachwood sword and walked forward. Wherever he stepped,
the phantom peach blossoms beneath his feet bloomed more brilliantly, as though spring kept returning to the path he