Whispers of the Jade Saber

Some mirrors reflect your past. Others… show the life you were too afraid to choose."

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I. Conflict: The Vanishing of Liang Yue

The lotus made of ice and blood pulsed softly at the center of the ancient atrium. Lin Feng knelt beside it, trembling fingers brushing the delicate edge. The petals melted under his touch—not with heat, but with memory, seeping into his mind like a bleeding wound.

Visions flooded his senses:

Liang Yue standing alone.

A blade at her throat.

A cold voice whispering from a place between dreams.

> "She was born twice, but belongs nowhere. Return her soul, or lose yours."

> Then silence.

Tian Mian and Jun Feilan emerged moments later, drawn by the explosion of spiritual energy. Jun's face was grim, but it was Tian Mian who knelt and touched the melted lotus.

"Spiritual signature transference," he muttered. "She wasn't taken by force—she was pulled through a gateway. Not to another place…"

Lin Feng looked up. "To what, then?"

Tian's expression hardened.

> "To a Mirror Void. A realm that reflects fate—fractured, rewritten, or suppressed."

Jun Feilan clenched her fists. "She could be lost in a reflection of herself."

Lin Feng rose, the jade saber in his hand already flickering with anticipation.

> "Then I'll find her. Even if I must burn through every false version of her."

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II. Twist: Reflections of What Could Have Been

Tian Mian opened the gate with an ancient talisman pulled from his sleeves—a mirror fragment etched with an obsidian lotus. The air tore open like silk, revealing a vortex of broken light and whispers that bled from the edges.

> "Step carefully," Tian warned. "Every breath in the Mirror Void weighs your heart. It will show you the future you fear—or the one you abandoned."

Lin Feng entered alone.

The world inside was still. Like a painting trapped in glass. A forest of mirrors stretched out endlessly, each pane humming with the echoes of the people he knew, or thought he knew.

In one mirror—he saw Liang Yue. Laughing. Happy. With a version of himself who wore the robes of a celestial elder.

In another—he saw her dead. Slain by his hand.

Each step cut deeper.

Eventually, one mirror pulsed with familiarity. He stepped toward it, and the surface liquefied, drawing him through.

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III. : The Lin Feng Who Never Fought Back

On the other side was a world like his—but broken.

Cultivators walked with collars of spirit-steel. Heaven's laws were not rules—they were brands. The sky shimmered with celestial chains. Temples bore the symbol of a white eye—the Mark of Obedience.

And standing at the gates of the same Wuhen Ruins…

Was Lin Feng.

But older.

Gaunt. Empty-eyed. With no saber. Dressed in a servant's robe, bowing to a celestial priest.

This Lin Feng had never awakened the Ashen Saber.

He had never fought back.

And next to the priest stood Liang Yue—her face cold, her eyes hollow, adorned in divine vestments.

Lin Feng's heart cracked.

This wasn't just a possibility.

This was what the heavens wanted him to become.

Before he could act, the priest turned—and his face was identical to the Soul Reclaimer he had erased in the last chapter, reborn with no memory.

And behind him…

the other Lin Feng raised his head.

Their eyes met.

> "You shouldn't have come," his mirror-self said.

"Because now… only one of us gets to walk away with her."

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"When you gaze into fate, it gazes back… with your own eyes."

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IV. The Self That Never Rose

The stillness between them was unbearable.

Two Lin Fengs.

One, the defiant flamebearer.

The other, a hollow shell who had bowed when the heavens demanded silence.

Mirror Lin Feng's robe bore no markings. His spirit had no shine. He moved like a man already dead, still breathing only because someone told him he was supposed to.

The priest beside him raised a hand.

"She is ours now," he said with an eerie calm, motioning to Liang Yue.

Her body stood upright, adorned in ceremonial white and gold. Her eyes did not blink. Her lips did not move. She looked through Lin Feng as if she couldn't see him.

> "She doesn't remember you," the priest said.

"Because in this version of the world, you never mattered."

Lin Feng's grip on the jade saber tightened.

He stepped forward, but Mirror Lin Feng blocked his path.

> "Don't," the reflection said quietly. "You'll only hurt her again."

"I never hurt her," Lin Feng growled.

> "You did," the reflection whispered. "When you chose to fight. When you forced her back into a world where she doesn't belong. I gave her peace. You gave her a war."

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V. Trial of the Mirror Flame

The sky above twisted like shattered glass.

A ring of mirror shards floated into the air, circling the two Lin Fengs. The priest raised his staff. The world quaked.

> "This Mirror Void has judged you both. Only one of you will carry the flame forward. The other will be erased."

Suddenly, the jade saber pulsed in Lin Feng's hands.

It felt heavier now.

As if judging him too.

The reflection pulled a copy of the saber from his back—dull, lifeless, cracked. Not forged through fire or sacrifice.

Forged through regret.

They clashed.

The first strike shattered the ground. Sparks of memory flew in all directions—glimpses of their past, their fears, their doubts.

Lin Feng struck forward with Ashen Bloom, flames spiraling outward in burning lotus shapes.

Mirror Lin Feng countered with a technique that consumed the flame, turning it into sorrowful mist.

> "You fight with fire. I fight with what's left behind," Mirror Lin Feng whispered.

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VI. The Soul Between Them

Liang Yue blinked.

Just once.

A crack appeared on her forehead, glowing faint blue.

She raised her head slowly as the two Lin Fengs battled, her eyes twitching with the effort of remembering—something… someone…

> "Lin… Feng?"

Both combatants froze.

The priest turned, alarmed. "No!"

But it was too late.

She moved her hand.

And the ceremonial chains binding her shattered into frost.

The fake sky above screamed.

A shard of flame spun between the two sabers—and a memory surfaced.

Not of the past.

But of a promise.

> "If you ever forget me, I'll burn fate until it remembers."

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VII. Cliffhanger: The Mirror Breaks

With a roar, Lin Feng leapt forward, striking not at Mirror Lin Feng—but at the floating mirror rings overhead.

The saber ignited with Origin Severance, cutting through the spiritual projection.

Glass exploded. The Mirror Void howled.

The priest screamed as his body dissolved into golden script, trying to flee.

But Liang Yue raised her hand—and froze him mid-spell. "No more rewriting," she whispered, her voice finally her own.

Lin Feng turned to his reflection—who stared back, no anger in his eyes.

Only pain.

> "You'll forget me," Mirror Lin Feng said quietly. "And one day, you'll wish I had won."

The Mirror cracked.

Lin Feng and Liang Yue were pulled violently back into the real world, crashing onto the stone floor of Wuhen Ruins' inner chamber, gasping.

The mirror fragment Tian Mian had used to open the void shattered.

And in its place—

Lay a small flame, flickering black and blue, whispering a single word:

> "Truth."

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End of Chapter 27