Chapter 13: Mirror of Futures
The platform faded.
The rings melted like ink in water.
Lin Xuan stood alone.
No sky.
No ground.
Just a void of dull silver light… and a single structure before him.
A mirror—tall as a mountain, rippling like liquid, framed by bones that grew backward.
A decree echoed:
"Trial Four: The Mirror of Futures.""Witness what the world demanded of you. Choose who you will kill. And who you will become."
The Mirror Shows
The surface rippled.
Then—images formed.
Each one a different Lin Xuan.
A genius alchemist, smiling gently among crowds, teaching spiritual refinement.
A sect heir, righteous and powerful, shining with golden light, robes untouched by dust.
A bloodthirsty warlord, surrounded by corpses and hellfire, eyes dead of compassion.
A slave, beaten and obedient, begging before celestial thrones.
A hero, praised, beloved—yet shackled by the laws he swore to uphold.
A villain, feared by all, exiled from every place he once loved.
And finally… a Lin Xuan who never cultivated. An ordinary mortal. Sick. Forgotten. Dying quietly in a nameless hut.
The real Lin Xuan stared in silence.
The mirror whispered.
"Choose.""All of them are you.""You cannot walk the Void Path while being bound to what you could have been.""Kill one. Or kill all.""But if you choose none—your Path will fracture."
The War of Selves Begins
Suddenly—the reflections moved.
Each stepped from the mirror like a shadow turned solid.
They attacked.
Each fought with different Dao:
The hero wielded Divine Righteousness Blade.
The warlord cast Flame Blood River Slash.
The alchemist summoned spiritual beasts of rare essence.
The slave wept, begging to be spared—then stabbed from the back.
Lin Xuan didn't retreat.
He didn't counter.
He simply stood, eyes dark with certainty.
Then raised his hand.
Technique: Crown of Null Recognition – Judgment Field
A pulse of void erupted around him.
Each future-self slowed… and froze.
Their blades, their spells, their pleas—all unraveled.
"You are what others tried to force upon me," he said.
"The version of me Heaven could control. Love. Fear. Chain."
"I deny you."
He pointed to the sect heir version.
"You shine because they made you bright."
The reflection cracked.
Then he looked at the slave version.
"You knelt because they told you that was the only way to survive."
It shattered.
"You, the warlord—you believed strength meant solitude."
Gone.
"You, the hero—you saved everyone but lost yourself."
Gone.
One by one—
He erased them.
Not with hate.
Not with rage.
With truth.
Until only one remained.
The mortal Lin Xuan, weak and coughing, knelt before him.
Eyes full of tears.
"I didn't ask to be forgotten," he said. "I just wanted peace…"
Lin Xuan knelt before him.
And embraced him.
"I don't reject you," he said softly.
"I began as you."
The mirror pulsed.
Then shattered.
Evolution: Void Path Recognition Deepens
Lin Xuan has now severed all false potential. What remains is pure void: freedom from imposed fate. His presence now causes weaker cultivators to hallucinate alternate lives.Gains partial immunity to Heaven's narrative bindings.
Celestial Commentary
In the upper heavens, the judge-scribes whispered.
"He refused every path we offered."
"He even accepted mortality—but not as destiny."
"Subject: Lin Xuan has become narratively unbound."
One final note was etched in golden script:
"This cultivator… cannot be written."
As Lin Xuan stood in the shattered mirror-space, a portal opened—spiraling downward, lined in silver flame.
Trial Four was complete.
But the next step…
Was not Heaven's.
It was the Void Emperor's tomb—long lost, once sealed by the heavens themselves.
A voice echoed from the depths.
"Descendant… come forth."
"Claim what was stolen from us."