Sunset draped the Celestial Meridian Sect in amber light, turning pavilions into silhouettes of ancient guardians. The sky above bled from orange to violet, then dimmed into a quiet twilight that seemed to hold its breath.
Ren Xiang stood at the edge of the training cliffs, overlooking the endless forests below. His meridians pulsed faintly beneath his skin — still damaged, still aching, still volatile — but steadier than before. Mira had insisted on walking him to the cliffs, though she lingered at a respectful distance, pretending not to worry.
"You don't look convinced about this training," she said finally.
Ren Xiang exhaled. "I'm not unconvinced. I'm… curious."
Mira snorted. "Curiosity got you half-dead last time."
"And yet it saved the valley," he replied gently.
Mira flinched, remembering the Whisper-Echo. "Just… don't die tonight."
Ren Xiang nodded. "I won't."
"You say that as if you control everything," she said softly. "But you don't. Not yet."
He didn't argue. She was right.
"Stay alive," she whispered. "Because I'm not done yelling at you yet."
Ren Xiang almost smiled — almost.
Footsteps approached. Elder Ilvara emerged from behind an archway, robe fluttering in the wind like a white blade. Her expression was unreadable, though Ren Xiang sensed weight behind her calmness.
"Xiang," she said. "It's time."
Mira bowed lightly, eyes heavy with unspoken fear. "I'll wait here."
Ren Xiang nodded and followed Ilvara into the cliffside passage.
The passage sloped deeper into the mountain, carved with symbols Ren Xiang did not recognize. These were not the elegant loops of the Celestial Meridian Sect's diagrams. These were older. Sharper. A language carved for war, not healing.
Torches flickered as Ilvara walked ahead, their light dancing across the stone, revealing murals of ancient battles — silhouettes of human cultivators facing indescribable entities: shadows with too many limbs, creatures made of spirals and angles, giants with hollow faces.
Ren Xiang paused before one mural.
A figure stood alone against a host of shadow creatures. His meridians glowed like mirrors reflecting starlight. The creatures melted under his touch.
Ren Xiang frowned. "Who is this?"
Ilvara paused. "He was called the Mirror-Sage."
Ren Xiang felt the name settle inside him like a falling stone. "He used the method you're about to teach me."
"Yes."
"Did he… die from it?"
Ilvara hesitated.
"He did."Her voice softened."But he took an army of shadows with him."
Ren Xiang traced a hand across the mural's stone lines. The Mirror-Sage was alone. Surrounded. Terrifyingly resolute.
Ilvara continued walking.
They reached a wide chamber carved into the mountain's heart. The room was circular, its floor inlaid with thousands of thin silver lines that formed a massive mandala. At the center stood a stone pedestal holding a mirrored disc — ancient, cracked, shimmering faintly with shifting reflections.
Ilvara motioned to it."This is the Mirror Core."
Ren Xiang stepped forward. "It looks alive."
"It is," she replied. "But not in a way life understands."
Ren Xiang studied the disc. Its surface wasn't smooth — it rippled faintly, distorting reflections. His own face appeared, twisted slightly by the mirror's strange geometry — not deformed, not monstrous, but subtly altered. As if the mirror was trying to see something beneath his skin.
Ilvara's voice echoed."Before you begin… there is something you must understand."
Ren Xiang turned.
"The Mirror Meridian Method does not strengthen your meridians," she said."It duplicates them."
Ren Xiang blinked. "…duplicates?"
"Yes. It creates a mirrored overlay — a second network that forms atop your natural one. A reflection with its own pathways and rules."
She stepped closer, eyes sharp.
"Your true meridians remain broken, fragile. But the mirror-meridians borrow from their structure and sustain themselves. They allow you to cultivate without using your damaged Inner Sea."
Ren Xiang's pulse quickened. "So it… bypasses the damage."
"It does," Ilvara said. "But there is a price."
Ren Xiang inhaled. "What price?"
Ilvara's voice turned grave.
"If your mirror-meridians ever grow stronger than your real ones… they will consume them."
Ren Xiang froze. "Consume?"
"Your real meridians will collapse," Ilvara said softly. "Your Inner Sea will shatter. You will die."
Silence—heavy and suffocating—filled the chamber.
Ren Xiang's heart beat faster, but not with fear.
It was familiarity.
In his first life, he had built systems that could simulate impossible structures. Quantum pathways that reflected one another. He had always pushed limits — knowing full well that unstable dual systems could collapse.This path… felt like an echo of his past.
"I understand," Ren Xiang said quietly. "Teach me."
Ilvara studied him for a long moment."There were four practitioners of this method in the last thousand years."
"What happened to them?"
"Two went mad. One disappeared. The last—the Mirror-Sage—burned himself out facing an entity we never identified."
Ren Xiang nodded."I still want to learn."
A faint smile tugged at Ilvara's lips — not joy, but respect.
"Place your hands on the Mirror Core."
Ren Xiang stepped forward. The mirror hummed before he touched it — as if it recognized him.
He placed both palms onto its cold surface.
Ilvara began chanting.
The silver lines on the floor pulsed.
A wind rose from nowhere.
Ren Xiang felt the mirror's surface soften under his hands — liquid, living, cold. He inhaled sharply as something reached through the disc and into him — not physically, but through his meridians. The sensation was unlike anything he'd ever felt. Not warmth, not heat, not pressure.
Reflection.
His meridians flickered in the mirror's surface — faint glowing lines inside his body, replicated as shimmering strands across the mirrored disc. His damaged meridians — cracked, uneven, fragile — appeared clearly.
Ilvara's chanting grew louder.
The chamber darkened.
The mirror brightened.
Ren Xiang's reflection split — separating from his body like a smoke-liken outline. The mirrored figure lifted its arm, and light traced through a network of glowing lines — a second lattice, a twin.
Ilvara's voice cracked with power.
"Mirror that which is broken. Reflect that which is hidden. Duplicate that which is lost.Mirror Meridian Method —FIRST AWAKENING!"
The mirror flared violently.
Ren Xiang screamed.
His meridians burned — not like pain, but like ice, cold and sharp.His Inner Sea trembled violently, nearly shattering.His bones vibrated with resonance so intense he thought they would explode.He couldn't breathe.The mirror pulled at him — not physically, but spiritually —
It was copying him.
Every meridian. Every crack. Every flaw.Every fragment of the star-node pattern.Even the faint shadow-mark left by the Whisper-Echo.
The mirror read everything.
And then — it imitated.
A second network bloomed beneath his skin — silver, translucent, pulsing faintly like living glass.
Ren Xiang gasped, collapsing to his knees.
Ilvara caught him before he fell.
"Steady," she whispered. "You're still yourself."
Ren Xiang clutched his chest, gasping. "What… what is this feeling?"
Ilvara looked into his eyes."The sensation of two meridian systems overlapping. Your body is adjusting."
Ren Xiang inhaled shakily. "It feels… wrong."
"It will," she whispered. "Until the reflections settle."
He trembled violently.
Half his meridians throbbed with familiar pain.
The other half felt cold and sharp — like reflective glass resting under his skin.
Ilvara placed a cloth over the mirror, extinguishing its light. The chamber dimmed.
"You have begun the Mirror Meridian Path," she said. "But this is only the first awakening. The next will be far more dangerous."
Ren Xiang forced his breathing to slow. He felt the dual meridians settle — imperfectly, like a broken reflection aligning with itself.
Ilvara continued, "For now, sleep. Tomorrow, you will learn to control two breaths."
Ren Xiang frowned. "Two breaths?"
"Yes," she said softly. "Your real meridians breathe. So do the mirrored ones. You must learn to synchronize them without collapsing the whole system."
Ren Xiang nodded faintly. "Synchronization… I can do that."
"Good," Ilvara murmured. "Because if you cannot — the mirror will devour the real."
Mira was still waiting outside when Ren Xiang emerged.
Her eyes widened instantly. "Ren… you look pale. What happened? Are you okay? Why are you shaking? Did she do something insane? Did you nearly die again?"
Ren Xiang tried to speak.
Failed.
She stepped closer, worry written all over her face. "Ren…"
He finally answered softly."I have two meridian systems now."
Mira froze.
"…what?"
"One real," he said. "One mirrored."
Mira stared, horrified. "Is… is that good or bad?"
"Both," Ren Xiang whispered.
Mira exhaled shakily. "Wonderful. Truly wonderful. You're becoming a walking contradiction."
Taro ran toward them from across the courtyard."REN! REN! Mira said you grew extra bones! Is that true?! Did you grow new bones?!"
Mira slapped the back of his head. "No, idiot — he didn't grow bones, he grew problems."
Ren Xiang coughed into his hand. "Both of you… are very loud."
Mira helped him walk back toward the dormitory.
Taro hovered uselessly. "Do we need to carry you? Should I get a wheelbarrow? Can you still breathe? Can you eat? Do you even have one stomach now or two—"
Mira hit him again.
Ren Xiang smiled despite himself.
Even as he stumbled through his steps, he felt something new — a faint hum under his skin, a second rhythm, a second breath.
The mirror-meridians were alive.
And they were hungry.
Night settled over the Celestial Meridian Sect.
Ren Xiang lay in his dormitory bed, staring at the ceiling. Mira had reluctantly gone to sleep. Taro had passed out before asking ten thousand more questions. Ilvara had returned to her duties.
The moonlight spilled through the window, painting silver on his skin.
He closed his eyes.
Inside his body, two systems pulsed.
The first — his real meridians — beat slowly, with familiar warmth and pain.
The second — the mirrored meridians — beat coldly, sharply, with a clarity that felt alien.
The two systems pulsed out of sync.
Ren Xiang inhaled.
And gently aligned them.
The rhythm shifted.
Not unified — not yet — but closer.
He felt something unlock.
A faint note of energy flowed through him —Clear.Sharp.Precise.
A new kind of cultivation.A path only he could walk.
A shadow flickered in his mind —the Whisper-Echo's mark pulsing faintly with resentment, warning, hunger.
Ren Xiang opened his eyes.
"Come," he whispered.
"I'll be waiting."
Far above the Sect, the crack in the sky pulsed faintly.
Something stirred.
Something old.
Something vast.
And somewhere deep in the Outer Abyss—
A pair of unseen eyesopenedand looked directly at him.