Mirror Abyss stood atop the Empathic Prism Tower in Mirror Abyss City, his transparent fingertips gliding over the mirror surface, which reflected the rolling gray mist at the edge of the Symbiosis Realm. Ever since he had merged into the Symbiosis Realm, the four-petaled sword seal in his palm had seeped faint light each day. Yet today, it had suddenly turned scorching hot—the law fluctuations from a realm deep within the gray mist were abnormal, eerily similar to the mirror distortions he had often used as the Shadow of Nothingness.
"Brother Mirror Abyss, it hurts!" Hong Meng's voice came from below. The little girl staggered over while clutching the World Creation Pen, the sword seal between her brows resonating with his core. "There are so many crying people in the mist!"
Chu Mo and the other two followed close behind. Yun Che's Time Reversal Mirror reflected scenes within the gray mist: blood servants of the Dark Realm saw themselves kneeling before the light and begging for mercy; priests of the Order Holy Land watched their holy scriptures turn to ash; even the remnants of the demon realm were tormented by their own yearning to be accepted. "The Mirror Law is devouring emotions!" she cried. "Those living beings are trapped within their own negative reflections and cannot break free."
The Collapse of the Mist Nightmare Realm
Su Hanxue's World Suppressing Seal abruptly lit up, and the sword intent of her mother, Chu Muxue, emerged upon its surface. "This is the Mist Nightmare Realm, an emotional graveyard the First Generation Sword Master once sealed with the Mirror Law." She pointed toward an upside-down city at the heart of the gray mist. Its walls were built from countless Mirrors of the Heart, each one replicating the most terrifying scene in a living being's mind. "Mirror Abyss, your core shares the same origin as the Mirror Law here. Could it be you..."
Mirror Abyss abruptly stepped back, ripples spreading across his transparent body. "I only wanted to see what I could do..." His voice trembled. The sword seal in his palm was resonating with the core of the Mist Nightmare Realm. "I never thought it would awaken the mirror guards here!"
Deep within the Mist Nightmare Realm, twelve "Mirror Demons" condensed from negative emotions stepped forth upon mirrors. Their bodies were half-transparent, and the jealousy, fear, and betrayal churning within them could be seen clearly. The leading Mirror Demon opened its mouth, spewing not energy, but the most agonizing fragments of memory from Chu Mo and the other two: Su Hanxue saw her mother, Chu Muxue, turn into motes of light beneath a broken sword; Yun Che watched Chu Mo's figure disperse when the Time Reversal Mirror shattered; and Chu Mo... saw his Demon God Void swallow Hong Meng's World Creation Pen.
The Resonance of the Empathy Prism
Hong Meng suddenly raised the World Creation Pen. Its tip and Mirror Abyss's core lit up at the same time. She drew Mirror Abyss's constellation in the void, pouring into every star the trust he had received in Mirror Abyss City—the reverse-scale flower seeds sent by Grand Duke Blood River, the Symbiosis Vow carved upon a prism by the Lord of Legal Principles, and even the first smile offered to him by a gray-robed scholar among the remnants of the demon realm.
"Brother Mirror Abyss isn't bad!" Her Dew of Empathy fell upon the Mirror Demons, and faint light unexpectedly appeared across their bodies. "Look, there's light in their hearts too!"
Mirror Abyss stared blankly as the negative emotions within the Mirror Demons were dyed pale gold by the Dew of Empathy. He suddenly recalled the warmth of receiving his first gift in Mirror Abyss City. He raised his hand. For the first time, the Mirror Law did not feed upon nothingness, but took empathy as its guide, drawing patterns of acceptance across the Mirror Demons' mirrored hearts. "So the Mirror Law doesn't only replicate pain..."
The Dance of Chaos and Mirrors
Chu Mo's Chaos Sword Body erupted with dark-gold flames, yet he deliberately avoided the Mirror Demons' mirrored bodies. "Mirror Abyss, use the mirror images to reflect my Chaos Sword Domain!" The flames split into tens of millions of tiny sparks across the mirror surfaces. Every spark illuminated the true memories imprisoned within the Mirror Demons—one of them had once been a Mirror Guard who protected the Symbiosis Realm, only to fall because he feared being abandoned.
Yun Che's Eyes of Reversed Time froze the Mirror Demons' spreading reflections, while Su Hanxue's World Suppressing Seal became like an eraser, gently wiping away the twisted incantations on the mirror surfaces. At last, Mirror Abyss no longer resisted his power. His transparent palm pressed against the core of the Mist Nightmare Realm. For the first time, the Mirror Law resonated with the four great laws of chaos, order, time, and purification, turning the inverted city upright and making the Mirrors of the Heart reflect no longer fear, but the courage unnoticed in every living being's heart.
The Resonance of Hong Meng's Twin Hearts
When the final Mirror Demon shattered into butterflies of light, the core of the Mist Nightmare Realm was revealed—a colorless core identical to Mirror Abyss's, though covered in cracks. Hong Meng suddenly reached out and hugged Mirror Abyss. The World Creation Pen and his core produced a blinding resonance, and Chu Mo and the other two watched in shock as the two cores formed the complete sword seal of the First Generation Sword Master in midair—at the center of the four-petaled diamond, the lights of empathy and creation shone against one another.
"This is... Hong Meng's Twin Hearts." Mirror Abyss touched the cracks in the Mist Nightmare Realm's core, recalling the scene Yun Che had seen in the Time Reversal Mirror: when the First Generation Sword Master split apart, he had deliberately separated the core of empathy from the core of creation. "He knew that only by letting us learn emotion and creation in different worlds could we truly understand symbiosis."
Su Hanxue's World Suppressing Seal suddenly released an unprecedented brilliance. The First Generation Sword Master's complete message appeared upon its surface: "When empathy can illuminate the cracks in mirrors, when creation can stitch the wounds of nothingness, only then do the gears of the Primordial Chaos Era truly begin to turn—To my twin hearts, Mirror Abyss and Hong Meng."
Rebirth and Warning
The gray mist of the Mist Nightmare Realm dispersed, revealing its true form—a "Mirror Memory City" floating at the edge of the Symbiosis Realm, every building a manifestation of some human's memories. Mirror Abyss watched the former Mirror Demons transform into Mirror Guards and protect the Memory Prisms throughout the city. At last, he revealed his first genuine smile. "So my existence was never meant to destroy mirror images, but to let every mirror image see its own light." Hong Meng suddenly pointed at the lake in the center of Mirror Memory City. Its waters reflected the futures of living beings from myriad worlds: a young boy of the Dark Realm learning to paint with shadows in Mirror Abyss City; a holy disciple of order seeing possibilities beyond the law at Mirror Memory Lake; even the remnant soul of the Annihilation Divine Venerable seeing, for the first time in a reflection, what he looked like after laying down his reverse scales.
Chu Mo looked at Mirror Abyss's gradually solidifying body and discovered that his silver hair had somehow grown three-colored tips identical to Hong Meng's. "Mirror Abyss, do you know? What the First Generation Sword Master left us was never perfect laws, but the courage to allow imperfection to coexist."
The wind passed through the prisms of Mirror Memory City, weaving Mirror Abyss's laughter and the sound of Hong Meng's paintbrush into a song. At the end of that song, Mirror Abyss's core finally developed a heartbeat in the same rhythm as Hong Meng's. Deep within the rings of the Symbiosis Tree, the remnant soul of the First Generation Sword Master closed his eyes in contentment—his twin hearts had finally begun their true journey of symbiosis.
Yet within the deepest prism of Mirror Memory City, a thread of nearly imperceptible black mist was seeping through the crack in Mirror Abyss's core. It was the Demon God Remnant Thought from before the era, waiting for a moment of weakness to drag the Mirror Law back into the abyss of nothingness.
(End of this chapter)
Before you continue