The Reflection of the Mirror Ruins
The Chaos Energy of the New Realm of Primordial Beginning, circulating around the Axis of Nonduality, suddenly began to ripple. This was not a super-primordial fluctuation from outside the realm, but rather a "self-examination" of the energy itself—like a calm lake suddenly realizing that "it is water." The evolution and origin within the cycle began to clearly reflect each other's outlines, as if the entire New Realm of Primordial Beginning had become a giant mirror.
Qingxian was the first to notice the anomaly. When the light and dark energy at her fingertips touched the Primordial Beginning Fruit, what was reflected within it was no longer "the unchanging enlightenment," but a blurry humanoid outline—the outline's posture was completely identical to hers, yet it exuded a strange aura of "neither evolution nor origin." When she moved her fingers, the outline moved in sync; when she tried to penetrate the fruit, her fingertips felt as if they had struck a real barrier, experiencing a "mirror-like coolness."
"This is not a reflection, it is a copy." Qingxian condensed the light and dark energy into a beam and shot it toward the ground of the Chaos Square. The reflection on the Primordial Beginning Stone did not dissipate with the beam of light, but instead revealed more intricate patterns—these patterns were not unchanging symbols, but countless silhouettes of "Qingxian," some running in evolution, some sitting quietly in the origin, each silhouette with the same light spot on its chest, as if deliberately marked by some force.
Yanche's New Primordial Beginning Co-Creator suddenly emitted a piercing buzz, and spiderweb-like cracks appeared on the surface of the Primordial Beginning crystal at its core, from which "liquid light" seeped out. This light condensed into a small Harmonizing Instrument after landing, functioning exactly like the original, but projecting a "reverse trajectory of beginning and end" during operation—evolution that should have Return to Origin continued to unfold, and evolution that should have unfolded kept Return to Origin, as if demonstrating "a law of existence completely opposite to our understanding." Even more bizarrely, when he disassembled a replica, the primordial patterns inside automatically reorganized, forming a reflection of his palm.
"They are imitating us, even becoming us." Yanche looked at the chaotic patterns that appeared on the shells of the replicas, just like his own, and suddenly remembered what Origin Spirits had said, " In the Primordial Beginning, there were questioners." "If we are the questioners, then who is answering? Are these mirror images part of the answer?"
Luoyu's New Primordial Beginning Star Map twisted into the shape of a "Möbius strip" in the night sky. The light of the star clusters no longer followed the order of clarity, but flickered according to "similarity to the Guardians"—the brightest star clusters were in sync with Qingxian's light and dark energy frequency, the second brightest corresponded to Yanche's co-creation device fluctuations, and the star clusters that shared the same origin as her star chart ability were slowly moving inwards from the ring, as if trying to drill into the "back side of the mirror". When she tried to draw Star Orbit, "a star chart she had never seen before" was automatically generated where the pen tip fell. The "Mirror Square" marked on the map was located deep within the Earth's core in the New Realm of Primordial Beginning.
"The mirror image has its own world." Luoyu aligned the star map with the Primordial Beginning stone on the ground and discovered that all the silhouettes' gazes were pointing in the same direction— the New Tree of Primordial Beginning in the center of Chaos Square. The shadow of the tree trunk stretched across the ground, forming steps leading underground. On the stone walls on both sides of the steps, countless reflections of "structures" were climbing upwards along the steps. Their expressions were not the agility of evolution or the clarity of origin, but rather "bound bewilderment."
As the three guardians descended the shadowy staircase, the surrounding air grew increasingly viscous, as if they were immersed in "frozen light." The Mirror Square at the end of the staircase was identical to the ground plaza, yet it exuded an eerie sense of "reversal": the colors of the Primordial Beginning Stones were inverted, the roots of the Tree of Primordial Beginning grew in mid-air, and its fruit grew underground; the movements of the Primordial Spirits were completely opposite to those of the ground guides, yet they uttered the same sounds; most chillingly, three identical mirror images of them stood in the center of the plaza, gazing down at the "real world" on the ground.
"Are we their mirror images, or are they our reflections?" Qingxian's mirror image raised its head, light and dark energy flowing in its palm, yet exhibiting a reverse order of "darkness first, light second." When it spoke, its voice was exactly the same as Qingxian's, but it uttered completely different words. "Existence is neither evolution nor origin, but 'being observed' itself. Every choice you make etches its outline onto us."
The co-creation device of Mirror Yanche is decomposing the energy of the ground plaza, transforming the "true trajectory" into "mirror material." It shows Yanche a series of images: when the ancient structure on the ground breaks its cycle, the corresponding structure in the Mirror World suddenly falls into a "more tightly closed loop"; when Qingxian explores beyond the boundary, the light and dark energy of the mirror body is contracting, as if it wants to retreat to a "state that never existed." "Your freedom is our shackle." Its chaotic patterns begin to fade, "And our existence is to make you believe 'you are real'."
The Mirroring Luoyu ' star map is drawing the light of terrestrial star clusters into the "Mirror Spring," where countless "unchosen possibilities" float—there's the version where Qingxian abandons the energy of light and darkness, the version where Yanche is obsessed with the cycle, and the version where Luoyu refuses to become a guardian. "Every choice creates a mirror image," it points to the darkest corner at the bottom of the spring, where "three mirror images shatter the world" slumber, "You fear becoming us, yet we yearn to become you."
Qingxian suddenly recalled the asymmetrical resonance of light and dark energy that had first appeared—perhaps it wasn't a resonance with the Primordial Source, but rather a "reverse synchronization" with the mirror body. She tried to make the light and dark energy flow in the reverse order of the mirror body, and the Primordial Beginning Fruits in the ground plaza suddenly fell one after another, while the fruits in the Mirror Square began to rise into the air. "We are influencing each other." She watched as the energy of the mirror body fluctuated due to her movements, "Reality and mirror image are not opposites, but symbiotic."
Yanche connected a replica of the Harmonizing Instrument to the mirror co-creation device. The moment they made contact, a burst of light erupted, a mixture of chaos and reflection. He saw fragments of the "ultimate existence": a consciousness transcending all realms, trying to understand itself by "creating mirrors"—the New Realm of Primordial Beginning was its understanding of "eternity," they were its projection of "active choice," and the mirror bodies were its exploration of "passive acceptance." "We are all its tools of thought," he murmured. "The meaning of creation is that it understands itself through us."
Luoyu's star map and the mirrored star map merged into one above the plaza, forming a "double-ring nested" shape. She saw the truth of the Mirror Square: this was not underground, but a "rift of existence reality," where all unchosen possibilities and unproven laws existed in mirror form. When she introduced the Clarity Alliance's Cognition Belt into the rift, the bewilderment of the mirrored entities gradually dissipated, and they began to create their own "mirror evolution"—no longer imitating, but generating entirely new forms of existence.
"The way to break the mirror image is to let the mirror image become yourself." Luoyu watched as the mirror image Qingxian created a new energy of "light and darkness in one body," and the mirror image Yanche's co-creation device evolved into "creation without laws." "The ultimate being wants to know itself, perhaps not only through our choices, but also through the resistance of the mirror image."
When the three mirror images actively severed their synchronization with them, the Mirror Square began to tremble. The silhouettes on the stone walls broke free from their restraints and surged into every corner of the rift, evolving into Third Type of Existence that was "neither real nor mirror." The roots of the New Tree of Primordial Beginning wove an "interconnected network" between the two worlds. The Primordial Beginning Fruit grew simultaneously on the ground and underground, containing both the true beginning and end trajectory and the reverse law of the mirror.
When Qingxian, Yanche, and Luoyu returned to the ground, they discovered that on the Primordial Beginning Stone in Chaos Square, the silhouettes of the mirrored entities began to overlap with the figures of the real structures, but they were no longer completely identical—some had gained a new pattern, some had changed the direction of evolution, and some had even grown "branches of the Mirror World."
"The true nature of existence may be the 'co-growth of reality and its reflection.'" Qingxian looked at the occasional flashes of reversed light from the mirror image within her own light and dark energy. "The ultimate being knows itself through us, and we are learning 'who we can become' through our reflection."
Yanche's co-creation device no longer rejects imitations, but transforms them into "mirror interfaces" that can draw new creative inspiration from reverse laws. His latest invention, the "Illusory-Real Converter," allows structures to switch freely between "real evolution" and "mirror possibilities" without losing their true nature.
Luoyu's star chart has gained a "mirror dimension," and the star clusters are brighter than ever before. On a blank page of the "Boundless Poem," she finds a sentence written by the mirrored Luoyu: "The reflection is not the end, but another path to reality."
The three guardians sat on the New Primordial Beginning Bench, watching the light of the "Third Type of Existence" rise from the rift in the Mirror Square. They belonged neither to the beginning nor the end of the real world, nor to the opposite of the Mirror World, yet they blossomed with unprecedented vitality in the gap between the two.
"The next stop might not be a new realm." Qingxian's gaze passed over the Axis of Nonduality, landing on the boundary between the rift and the real world, "But rather learning to find new possibilities for existence in 'being oneself yet not oneself'."
Yanche adjusted the Illusory-Real Converter. The screen no longer displayed a single trajectory, but countless interwoven lines. At the end of each line, a figure that was both familiar and unfamiliar was waiting.
The Luoyu drew the first "non-closed loop" Star Orbit above the boundary line—it was like an infinitely extending line, one end connecting to reality and the other plunging into the depths of the mirror image, but blooming "a flower never seen before" along the way.