The moment Lin Qing crossed the threshold of the palace, the world snapped into silence.
Not normal silence—
deep silence.
The kind that swallowed footsteps and erased breath.
He turned.
Yin Luo, Tian Ke, and Li Chun were still behind him—but they were frozen in place.
Not trapped.
Not harmed.
They simply… couldn't follow.
It was as if a sheet of invisible glass separated him from them. Their mouths moved, but no sound reached him. When they tried to step forward, the air folded and gently pushed them back.
A single line glowed beneath Lin Qing's feet:
Only the Heir may proceed.
Lin Qing sighed.
"Of course. Wouldn't want to traumatize the whole group."
He stepped deeper into the palace.
And the world changed.
The interior wasn't a hall.
It wasn't even a structure.
It was a void filled with floating mirrors, suspended like stars on invisible strings. Each one rotating slowly, catching faint glimmers of silver light.
None of them showed Yin Luo.
Or Tian Ke.
Or Li Chun.
They showed… nothing.
Blank reflections.
Pure surface.
Lin Qing walked forward.
With each step, another mirror drifted into position, aligning itself directly in front of him. The air vibrated with a low hum—something ancient thinking, remembering.
Finally, one mirror stopped just inches from his face.
Its surface rippled like liquid metal.
A line of text shimmered across it:
[First Trial – Witness Yourself.]
Lin Qing frowned. "That sounds unnecessarily ominous."
The mirror brightened.
And the world around him dissolved.
He stood somewhere else entirely.
A memory.
Not Earth, not his previous life.
A moment from this life—the first night he arrived in the Blood Moon Sect, sitting alone on the straw mattress, staring at the brazier's weak flame.
His own face stared back at him in the memory—confused, terrified, pretending to be confident when he wasn't.
Then the memory shifted, to the Mortal Vein breakthrough, qi flooding through him like fire.
Then again—
To the courtyard full of disciples breathing in awe.
To Elder Hei kneeling after he "fixed" the formation.
To the cultivators whispering Blood Heir with reverence.
All of them were him.
Fragile.
Confident.
Terrified.
Calm.
Lost.
Sharp.
Every contradictory version layered over itself, forming a chaotic storm of identity.
Silver text shimmered across the memory:
[Before you carry a legacy, you must know which self will hold it.]
Lin Qing felt the Mirror Domain reacting on its own—stabilizing, adjusting, aligning the chaos into a coherent shape.
A single version of himself remained in the reflection.
Not Earth Lin Qing.
Not the terrified ritual-lin-qing.
Not the newly empowered cultivator.
This one:
The Lin Qing who walks forward despite not knowing anything.
The Lin Qing who lies convincingly.
The Lin Qing who refuses to die again.
The mirror pulsed.
Accepted.
The illusion shattered like glass struck by a hammer.
When vision returned, Lin Qing stood before a floating stairway formed from overlapping mirror-plates. At the top hovered a glowing lotus—petals made of transparent silver flame, turning slowly in the air.
The Mirror Heart Lotus.
Its aura pressed into Lin Qing's mind like cool fingers reaching toward his thoughts.
He stepped onto the staircase.
Every step tightened the pressure.
Like someone weighing his memories, peeling back layers of thought.
When he reached the top, the Lotus opened fully—
and a wave of piercing clarity swept through him.
His vision went white.
The Mirror Domain inside him quivered.
Then.. expanded.
What had been a small pulse of perception stretched outward in every direction, turning into a translucent mental sphere. The reflection-sense flooded with new detail:
Every thought in his mind became sharp as blades.
Every fragment of qi around him lit up like stars.
Every illusion, lie, or mental distortion within a hundred meters couldn't hide.
He gasped as the Lotus dissolved into threads of silver and surged into his chest, settling deep behind his heart.
A line of text formed in the void:
[Mirror Heart Lotus Acquired]
Mind Realm: Peak of Spirit Sea (Near True King Threshold)
Mirror Domain – Stage II Unlocked
– Perception radius vastly expanded
– Illusions nullified
– Mental attacks reflected
– Ability to observe "intent echoes" unlocked
Lin Qing exhaled, staggering slightly.
"That… was a lot."
And then—
the palace trembled.
A shadow moved within the mirrors. Something enormous, slow, and patient began circling the void.
A ripple of intent washed over him:
Hunger.
Recognition.
Expectation.
Lin Qing straightened, breathing shallowly.
"…Of course there's a second trial."
A voice—neither male nor female, neither loud nor soft—echoed through the mirrors:
"What remains of his final obsession… now tests you."
The mirrors around him cracked.
A shape crawled out of one, something made entirely of shattered reflections, towering, shifting, breathing in broken breaths.
The Mirror Emperor's last mental beast.
Lin Qing rotated his neck.
"Alright," he muttered. "Let's see if this new mind of mine can save the old one."
And the beast lunged.