That must be Jing, right?
A pale, skeletal hand reached out of the gray mist. It should have been a terrifying sight, yet as the strange being knelt there, reduced to white bones, and that hand gently stroked the top of his head before brushing his half-skeletal cheek, Su Bai felt he could sense just how gentle Mr. Mirror had once been.
Perhaps only someone so gentle could have made a Long-Life Species, already reduced to bones, choose to wait alone in this lonely Mirror World for such long, endless years.
This time, both Su Bai and Feng Ling heard a strange sound. Rather than appearing in their minds, it was a low cry like that of a newborn beast that knew no language. It sounded sorrowful, yet joyful, like a sob escaping the skeleton before them.
"I knew you must still be alive."
For some reason, although the strange being was clearly not speaking to Su Bai and Feng Ling, his voice still appeared in their minds, as though some connection between them had yet to be severed.
"Don't be stupid. Who would be foolish enough to stay in this hellhole for so long just to keep a promise?"
"But the mirror shattered because of me. I brought those madmen to you. It was all my fault."
"So until you came back, I was going to keep waiting here."
"Welcome home."
"But I might... not be able to hold on any longer."
Throughout those long years, the strange being before them had prayed for a miracle, even as the knowledge of how unlikely that miracle was allowed despair to eat away at him. At the same time, he had kept convincing himself that a miracle would surely happen. Ordinary people would have struggled to understand such contradictory thoughts. Yet