Jiu Jia Yi turned his head away on instinct, but out of the corner of his eye, he still saw a woman identical to Yan Zhi in one of the fragments. She slowly reached toward him, her eyes pleading, her lips parting.
"Do you really believe she's the person you knew?"
With a furious roar, he punched the fragment. It shattered into pieces that scattered like dust.
"I believe her," he said, his tone leaving no room for doubt.
Yan Zhi trembled slightly. Her gaze settled on him, and only after a moment did she say softly, "Then let's end this together."
She gripped her short blade and raised it before her forehead. As she chanted under her breath, the entire Mirror Realm began to shake violently. The iris of the Eye of the Center slowly expanded outward, as though it was about to open.
"Once I enter the Core of Consciousness, I can't hold on to any emotions." Her voice was almost cold. "If I change and don't recognize you—"
"Then I'll knock some sense into you again," Jiu Jia Yi said quietly, his gaze unwavering.
She looked up at him. Complicated emotions surfaced in her eyes before settling into a faint smile.
"Then you'd better be ready to get bitten."
The rainbow light flared again, and together they stepped through the "door" that had never been opened.
Beyond that "door" lay something deeper, older, and stranger than the Mirror Realm. The Core of Consciousness, which even the Eye of the Center could not fully control, was slowly opening its unseen gaze.
Under the rainbow light, Yan Zhi and Jiu Jia Yi gradually vanished into the vast, invisible "door." The edges of space began to blur, and time itself seemed to stop under some unseen force. Everything around them twisted beyond recognition. Every fragment, every play of light and shadow, every trace of presence in the Mirror Realm seemed less and less real. They were no longer within the Mirror Realm's physical space. Even their very existence had begun to grow elusive.
Yan Zhi felt the space around her compress into a tiny point. She could find no direction, nor could she tell where the path ahead lay. She closed her eyes and tried to sense the hollow Core of Consciousness, but no matter how hard she tried, the darkness wrapped tightly around her. It was as though there were no way out.
A strange feeling rose within her—the long-forgotten sensation of weightlessness, as though the whole world had abandoned her and severed every connection. She had once thought she had reached the end, bound within this void, where her emotions, memories, and even her sense of self slowly began to fade.
"Yan Zhi?"
A familiar voice came from behind her, low and anxious, with a slight tremor. It was like an invisible thread gently tugging at her lost soul.
She spun around. Jiu Jia Yi stood there, confusion and tension in his eyes. He crossed the distance between them in a few strides. He had clearly sensed that something was wrong here too. Unease showed on his face as he took her hand. The warmth of his palm and his familiar presence made her heart stir.
"You're still here," he said softly, sounding relieved. "I thought you'd disappeared."
Yan Zhi felt the strength in his hand. His certainty and resolve seemed to make the endless darkness less oppressive. She shook her head slightly, her voice hoarse. "I haven't disappeared." But she knew she had not truly come to her senses either. Everything before her still seemed to be dissolving, still changing.
Before you continue