The deeper they ventured into the Hollow Mirror Forest, the more the world bent around Ren Xiang.
Trees elongated and shrank with every step, reflections slid across trunks like liquid silver, and sounds echoed in distorted loops that did not match the movement of mouths.
Karyon moved slowly, copper staff pressed against the earth. "Maintain your orientation through touch and breath. Eyes deceive. Ears lie."
Ilvara walked ahead, blade half-drawn. "We've gone beyond the outer illusions."
Ren Xiang nodded, breathing steadily.
Warm breath.Cold breath.
The Dual Breath kept the forest's distortions from overwhelming him entirely… but the Mirror-Void pulsed beneath his ribs, reacting to the forest as though it recognized a kin.
Ren Xiang frowned.
This place… feels alive.
As if something inside the forest watched him through a thousand mirrored eyes.
They reached a clearing.
Silver barked trees stood in a perfect circle, their roots spiraling together to form a mirrored pool at the center. Mist hovered above the water like a shroud.
Ilvara stopped abruptly.
"We're here."
Ren Xiang scanned the clearing. "Where exactly?"
Karyon answered softly, "The first boundary."
Ren Xiang inhaled. "And beyond it?"
Ilvara's expression hardened. "The forest begins to show what it wants you to see."
Ren Xiang frowned. "What does that mean?"
Karyon tapped the pool with his staff. Ripples spread outward, each ripple reflecting a different version of Ren Xiang's face — younger, older, dead, corrupted, victorious, broken.
Karyon whispered:
"Your past life. Your failures. Your successes. Your regrets. The forest will attempt to weaponize everything you have lived."
Ren Xiang nodded. "Then let it."
His reflection rose from the pool—for a brief moment—and smiled.
Not kindly.Not mockingly.
Knowingly.
Ilvara's blade flashed.
The reflection shattered into a thousand drops.
"Do not underestimate this place," she muttered. "Even I cannot cut every illusion."
Ren Xiang stepped toward the pool—
A violent pulse erupted.
Mist surged upward, swirling into humanoid shapes.
Karyon gasped. "Already?!"
Ilvara spat, "It's too early for this!"
Ren Xiang stepped back instinctively as the mist condensed—
Not mirror-beasts.Not shadows.
Humans.
Figures wrapped in spectral coats, with glowing blue visors and metallic irregularities. Their boots left no footprint on the ground. Their movements were eerily synchronized.
Ren Xiang's eyes widened.
He recognized the uniforms.
Scientists.
Researchers.
From his previous life.
His breath tightened.
Three of them stepped forward.
Their voices echoed with mechanical distortion:
"Subject. You triggered the anomaly.""Unstable quantum field detected.""Prepare for containment."
Ren Xiang froze.
No.
This was a memory from the moment before he died.
In his old world, during the experiment.
He had been surrounded by his team—the containment protocols had triggered—alarms blaring—the resonance engine collapsing—and in the center—
Nocturn's first whisper emerging through the machine.
Ilvara looked at him sharply. "Xiang. Who are they?"
Ren Xiang breathed shakily. "…Ghosts."
Karyon narrowed his eyes. "Your ghosts."
Ilvara's blade trembled slightly — not from fear, but anticipation. "Do they attack?"
Ren Xiang whispered,"They will."
The three scientist-illusions extended their hands.Energy flickered — blue, unstable, crackling.
A distorted voice echoed—
"Subject Ren Xiang—classified anomaly. Eliminate danger."
The illusions fired.
Three beams of unstable energy crackled through the air.
Ilvara reacted instantly, intercepting one with her blade — the weapon hummed violently as the beam collided, but Ilvara twisted her stance and flung the energy aside.
Karyon slammed his staff down, absorbing the second beam into a barrier of pure resonance.
Ren Xiang stood still—
The third beam struck him in the chest.
Ilvara shouted his name—
But Ren did not fall.
Instead—
His mirrored meridians absorbed the blast.
His real meridians trembled.
His Inner Sea pulsed with Void Sutra lines.
Karyon gasped. "He… absorbed it?"
Ren Xiang exhaled."I recognize this energy. It's not real. It's memory."
Ilvara stepped beside him. "Memory or not, it can kill."
The illusions advanced, blue lights flickering.
Ren Xiang's throat tightened as a fourth figure emerged from the mist.
Lab coat.Dark hair tied loosely.Warm eyes.
A familiar face.
Dr. Haru.
Ren Xiang's mentor.His friend.The one who tried to drag him out of the collapsing lab.
Emotion slammed into Ren Xiang like a blade.
Ilvara blinked. "Who—?"
Ren Xiang's voice broke. "He… saved me."
The image spoke with distortion:
"You should not have touched the engine, Ren. You never listen."
Ren Xiang's fists clenched. "You're not real."
"You died because of your arrogance."
Ren Xiang's pupils contracted.
"And you killed me with it."
Ren Xiang staggered.
That—
That was the truth he never voiced.
The guilt he carriedin silencethrough his rebirth.
Karyon stepped forward. "Ren Xiang—focus—"
Ilvara snarled and swung at the illusion of Dr. Haru.
Her blade passed through harmlessly.
The image reformed.
Ren Xiang's breath grew ragged.
Dual Breath faltered.
The forest sensed weakness.
Roots writhed across the ground.Shadows spilled from the trees.Mirrors pulsed violently.
The illusions surrounded him.
Dr. Haru stepped closer.
"Stop running from your guilt."
Ren Xiang shook.
He whispered, barely audible:
"…I am."
"Speak," Dr. Haru said.
Ren Xiang's voice cracked.
"I am guilty."
The illusion smiled — cruelly, sharply.
"Good. Then die with it."
The illusions raised their hands again—
Karyon moved to block—
Ilvara moved to strike—
Ren Xiang raised a hand.
They froze.
Ilvara stared. "Xiang?"
Karyon whispered, "What are you—?"
Ren Xiang stepped forward.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
His two breaths aligned.
Warm.Cold.Past.Present.
Dual Breath surged through his meridians, stabilizing the fragmenting edges of his Inner Sea.
He inhaled deeply—
And exhaled the first words he had never said:
"I did fail them."
Ilvara blinked.
Karyon froze.
Ren Xiang continued:
"But running from it won't change anything."
Dr. Haru's illusion flickered.
Ren Xiang's eyes grew steady.
"In this life… I will not make the same mistake."
The Void Sutra burned across his Inner Sea.
Line by line.Node by node.Possibility by possibility.
He extended his hand.
Void resonance formed.
A sphere of pure mirrored energy.
Not destructive.Not reflective.
Cleansing.
Ren Xiang whispered,
"Void Resonance — Second Form."
The forest inhaled.
The illusions reacted —
Too late.
Ren Xiang unleashed the sphere.
It expanded outward in a silent wave.
Like starlight washing across still water.
The illusions dissolved instantly —like memories washed away by clarity.
Dr. Haru's eyes softened before vanishing.
The scientist ghosts shattered into drifting fragments.
And the forest calmed.
Ren Xiang exhaled.
A weight lifted from his chest that had lingered since his reincarnation.
Ilvara approached him slowly.
"Xiang…"
He raised his head.
For the first time, his eyes looked lighter.
"I'm ready now."
Karyon nodded with profound respect."You have passed the forest's first trial."
Ilvara smirked. "Barely."
Ren Xiang managed a faint smile.
"What comes next?" he asked.
Karyon looked deeper into the trees, where the mist grew darker, thicker, almost black.
"The second boundary," he said.
Ilvara's expression tightened."And beyond that—"
Her voice dropped into a whisper.
"An Abyssal hunter waits."
Ren Xiang's breath sharpened.
His shard pulsed.
Ilvara lifted her blade.
Karyon raised his staff.
Ren Xiang stepped forward.
"I'll face it."
And they walked deeper into the forestwhere reflections hid monsters,and the Abyss waited beyond the next veil.