Ren Xiang sat upright for the first time since the battle, legs crossed, breath steady, though every exhale felt like a negotiation with the fractured currents inside him. His Inner Sea rippled faintly, cracked but alive. The Mirror-Void breathed within him like a sleeping creature.
Mira hovered nearby, pretending to organize herbs while secretly watching him every ten seconds.
Taro slept with his face smashed into a pillow, muttering about "shadow taxes" and "Ren owing him five steamed buns."
Ilvara stood by the open doorway, speaking quietly with Elder Junya. Their words were hushed, tense. Even without hearing them fully, Ren Xiang sensed the anxiety vibrating through the room.
Finally, Junya said, "He must be brought before the Council."
Ilvara replied sharply, "Not yet. He barely survived."
Junya shook her head. "Precisely why we must act."
Ren Xiang opened his eyes."I can walk."
Mira turned instantly. "NO. You just—"
He stood.
Mira froze.
Taro woke with a scream as if startled by spiritual lightning. "WHAT—WHO— Ren? You're alive again?! Stop doing that!"
Ren Xiang steadied himself on the bed's edge. "I'm going to the Council Hall."
Ilvara's expression softened — just for a heartbeat."Then let's go."
The Celestial Meridian Sect's Council Hall was carved into the mountain's peak, its walls of polished stone reflecting lantern-light like mirrored starlight. High elders sat in semicircular thrones, their robes heavy with authority.
As Ren Xiang entered, silence fell.
Elder Karyon stood behind him like a pale, rusted pillar. Ilvara walked at his left. Mira and Taro remained behind in the corridor, though Mira's gaze followed him like a tether of worry.
Elder Junya gestured to the central platform. "Ren Xiang. Step forward."
He did.
The hall vibrated with subtle power — the accumulated weight of centuries of decisions, victories, sacrifices, and failures.
Elder Suyin, the oldest among them, spoke first. "Child… you faced a threat beyond our sight. Beyond our lore. Beyond our contingency."
Her voice was not unkind.
"But we must understand what you are."
Ren Xiang inhaled slowly."The same as I was before. Human."
A few elders exchanged uneasy glances.
Suyin's eyes narrowed. "The shadow called your name. It marked you. It… remembered you."
Ren Xiang swallowed. "I know."
Junya's voice cut through."You said you fought Nocturn before."
Ren Xiang nodded.
"Impossible," murmured Elder Ryou. "No human has survived direct confrontation."
Ren Xiang met his gaze. "I didn't survive."
The hall froze.
He continued:
"In my previous life, I studied resonance and energy structures. I created systems that could interact with anomalous distortions — what you call Abyssal tears. One of those experiments… awakened something. A sliver of Nocturn's consciousness."
Suyin leaned back."And it killed you."
"Yes."
Silence blanketed the hall.
Ilvara folded her arms, gaze drilling into him with rare softness."This child did not ask for reincarnation. Nor for the Abyss to hunt him."
Elder Ryou countered sharply, "Nor can we pretend he is merely a disciple. His presence alters fate."
Karyon stepped forward. "His body contains a shard of Nocturn's echo-mark."
The hall erupted in whispers.
Suyin raised a hand. "Explain."
Karyon tapped his staff on the floor. "When the Echo attacked, Ren Xiang did not simply repel it. He resonated with it. His meridians—both real and mirrored—absorbed a fragment of its imprint."
Ryou hissed, "Then he is a risk."
Ilvara shot him a glare sharp as a blade. "He is a shield, not a risk."
Junya's tone was cool, analytical. "If the Abyss marked him once, it will mark him again."
Ren Xiang stepped forward.
"I absorbed the shard," he said quietly. "But I have sealed it."
Suyin's eyes narrowed. "Sealed how?"
Ren Xiang hesitated.The Void Sutra pulsed inside him — alive, waiting.
"Through a method the Mirror-Sage left behind."
Gasps rippled through the hall.
Elder Ryou stood. "Impossible. The Mirror-Sage died centuries ago and took his secrets with him!"
Ren Xiang's voice was steady. "He carved instructions in mirrored resonance. Hidden inside the Mirror Core's dimensional reflection. I saw them when my Inner Sea shattered."
Suyin's eyes widened. "You entered the Mirror-Void State?"
Ren Xiang nodded.
Ryou slammed his hand on his throne."Unacceptable! A novice practicing forbidden techniques, harboring Abyssal remnants, claiming impossible visions—"
Ilvara snapped,
"He killed a projection of Nocturn."
Ryou froze.The hall silenced instantly.
Ilvara stepped toward the Council. "No Elder present managed to halt the shadow's hand. But Ren Xiang did."
Her voice cut the air like a blade.
"He bought us time with his life."
Suyin stared at Ren Xiang with new weight."Child. What did you see in the Mirror-Void?"
Ren Xiang hesitated, then said the truth.
"A path. Broken. Dangerous. But mine."
"And the shard?" Suyin asked.
"It is dormant," Ren Xiang replied. "I can feel it. Like cold fire under my ribs. But I am not controlled by it."
Ryou scoffed. "Yet."
Karyon glared at him. "If the child were corrupt, he would have turned during the confrontation. The Abyss had direct access — and yet he resisted."
Ryou countered, "Or the Abyss is waiting."
Suyin raised a hand."Enough."
She turned to Ren Xiang.
"Your fate is no longer simple."
Ren Xiang bowed his head."I understand."
Suyin continued,
"We elders have discussed your path. We believe the Abyss will strike again soon. And your presence inside the Sect could endanger thousands."
Ren Xiang raised his eyes.
Suyin spoke the verdict:
"You must leave the Sect."
Mira — listening from outside — gasped.Taro whispered, "No…"
Ilvara clenched her jaw.Karyon bowed his head — in respect or regret, Ren could not tell.
Ren Xiang did not flinch.
"I already knew," he said quietly. "My path leads north."
Suyin nodded. "To the Hollow Mirror Forest."
Junya added, "Where the Mirror-Sage walked his final steps."
Ryou added darkly, "Where the Abyss's first tear scars the world."
Ren Xiang bowed in acceptance.
"When must I leave?"
Suyin's expression softened — painfully so."When you can stand without trembling."
Karyon stepped forward. "Your meridians require rest. One full day."
Ilvara placed a hand on his shoulder."And then we travel with you."
Ren Xiang blinked. "You…?"
Ilvara nodded.
"I will escort you to the forest's edge."
Karyon added, "And I will guide your first attempts to use the Void Sutra."
Suyin stood."Prepare yourself, Ren Xiang. The Hollow Mirror Forest has devoured heroes greater than any alive today."
Ren Xiang bowed deeply."I will return."
Ryou muttered, "If you return."
Ren Xiang's eyes hardened."I will."
Ilvara smiled faintly."You'd better."
Suyin dismissed the meeting with a wave.
"Rest, child. Tomorrow, your journey begins."
Outside the hall, Mira stood waiting.
Her eyes were bright with anger and fear.
"So. They're sending you away."
Ren Xiang nodded.
Mira stepped closer. "Are you… really going to go?"
"Yes."
"Alone?"
Ren Xiang shook his head. "Ilvara and Karyon will escort me to the edge."
"That's not alone," Mira snapped. "I meant when you go inside."
Ren Xiang hesitated. "Once inside the forest, no one can follow. It mirrors your steps. Shifts reality. Swallows cultivators."
She bit her lip."Then I'm coming too."
Ren Xiang stiffened. "Mira—no."
She grabbed his front collar.Her hands shook.
"Listen to me," she whispered."I watched you die in the courtyard. I felt your breath stop. I thought—"
Her voice broke.Ren Xiang froze.
"I thought I lost you forever."
He opened his mouth — but she pushed him back.
"If you think I'm letting you walk into that place alone—"
"Your path is not mine," Ren said gently.
"My path is wherever you stubbornly walk," Mira snapped.
Taro rushed up. "REN! MIRA! I'm coming too! I won't let shadows take my—WAIT WERE YOU TWO HAVING A MOMENT—"
Mira punched him in the stomach.Taro collapsed dramatically."I'm dying…!"
Mira ignored him.
Ren Xiang exhaled, a faint smile on his lips.
"Mira… I won't stop you from walking your path. But the Hollow Mirror Forest is not a place you can enter without awakening."
Mira blinked. "Awakening?"
Ren Xiang nodded."You have a latent bloodline. I sensed it during the courtyard battle."
Mira froze.
"…What kind of bloodline?"
Ren Xiang stepped closer, gently placing two fingers against her wrist.
A faint pulse —a resonance —warm and bright.
Not Mirror.Not Abyssal.Not elemental.
Something ancient.Something that felt like… starlight.
"You carry the Celestial Pulse Affinity," Ren Xiang whispered. "Your ancestor was a star-born cultivator."
Mira's breath stopped.
Ilvara, from behind them, murmured,"That… explains much."
Ren Xiang continued.
"You'll awaken soon. Your meridians already hum in harmony. When that happens… you might walk beside me."
Mira swallowed hard.
"But until then—" Ren Xiang said softly, "you cannot come."
Her eyes shimmered — with hurt and fury.
"You always push ahead," she whispered."You always step where no one else can reach."
Ren Xiang lowered his head.
"That's my curse," he said.
Mira's voice cracked."And my curse… is caring."
She turned, walking away quickly, wiping her eyes.
Taro limped behind her, whining, "Wait for me—! And also don't hit me again please—!"
Ren Xiang watched them go.
His chest ached —more painfully than the shattered Sea.
Ilvara stood beside him.
"You know this path will break her."
Ren Xiang nodded.
"And you?" Ilvara asked.
He closed his eyes, remembering the Mirror-Sage's reflection, the Void Sutra, Nocturn's colossal silhouette.
"I broke a long time ago," he whispered.
Ilvara didn't argue.
That night, while the Sect slept, Ren Xiang sat at the highest point of the mountain, overlooking the distant northern horizon.
Cold winds lashed his face.
But inside—
His Inner Sea pulsed.Cracked.Alive.Growing.
And the sealed shard of Nocturn's echo-mark glowed faintly.
He breathed.
Warm and cold.Real and mirrored.
He whispered into the night:
"Hollow Mirror Forest… I'm coming."
Far above him —the crack in the sky quivered,as if amused.
As if waiting.
As if hungry.