Legend of the Embroiderer

Chapter 373 The Mystery of the Mirror Palace

The moment Lingyue's fingertips touched the cool mirror surface, a piercing scraping sound suddenly echoed throughout the palace, as if thousands of iron nails were scraping against metal at the same time.

Hundreds of mirrors simultaneously emitted inky mist, which surged as if it were alive, gradually condensing into a solid form.

The eyes of the "she" figures in the mirror, each holding a staff, suddenly flashed red light. Their hands, gripping dark scepters, rose in unison, and a barrage of eerie blue beams erupted from the tips of the scepters like a torrential downpour.

In the nick of time, she instinctively rolled to the side to dodge. The beam of light grazed past her ear, and the air was instantly filled with the smell of burning. Smoldering char marks appeared on the ground, with eerie blue edges.

Welcome to the Realm of Choice.

Familiar voices came from all directions, echoing, as if they came from a distant abyss, or as if they were whispering in one's ear.

Lingyue turned around abruptly and saw twelve phantoms of Li Zhao emerge from the mirror. Six of them were dressed in black robes and shrouded in black mist. The sound of chains being dragged could be faintly heard from within the black mist. With each step they took, black footprints were left behind, like the marks of demons.

The six people were clad in silver armor that shimmered with holy light, yet the light carried a strange dark pattern that flickered on the surface of the armor, and each of them wore that unsettling smile.

In the scene, a black-robed phantom waved his staff, causing the ground to crack open with spiderweb-like fissures. Countless chains burst forth from the earth, their surfaces covered with sharp barbs and emitting a nauseating stench: "Want to find the real vessel? First, survive the lies."

The chains, carrying a bone-chilling cold, wrapped around Lingyue's ankles. The chill instantly spread through her veins, corroding her body like a venomous snake.

She gritted her teeth and swung out a light blade formed from the fragments. Where the light blade passed, the air emitted a sharp screech.

The severed chains instantly regenerated in the mirror, the chains in the mirror like a reflection of the mirror world, the destruction in reality becoming nourishment for the mirror world.

Suddenly, the silver-armored phantom on the right threw out a spear, its tip gleaming with a cold light. But just before it touched her, it transformed into a stream of light and disappeared into the body of the black-robed phantom, as if the two phantoms were conducting some kind of strange energy transfer.

The twelve figures simultaneously uttered a reverberation: "Every attack here will become part of the opponent's strength." The voices overlapped, causing Lingyue's eardrums to ache and her head to buzz.

Lingyue pressed her back against the mirror, feeling the eerie pulse emanating from it. The pulse was like the beating of a heart, striking her back again and again.

As the black-robed phantom launched another attack, she suddenly plunged her light blade into the ground beneath her feet—cracks spread like a spiderweb across the mirror, and the "she" in the mirror, holding a staff, began to twist, her expression becoming ferocious and terrifying.

"These mirrors are the hubs of the energy cycle!" A glint flashed in her eyes, and the power of the fused fragments and the source of light flowed through the cracks, causing the entire palace to tremble violently. The crystal chandeliers on the ceiling fell and shattered.

The moment the last mirror shattered, all the phantom images suddenly turned into black mist and surged into the central mirror.

Li Zhao's smile in the mirror became clearer and clearer, a smile that seemed both real and fake, making it hard to understand.

He raised his hand and shattered the mirror. The moment he stepped out, his black robe and silver armor shattered simultaneously, revealing the faint yin-yang fish pattern on his chest. The pattern shimmered with a faint light, as if it contained the mysteries of the universe.

You think you can escape by breaking the mirror?

His voice carried both a bright clarity and a dark hoarseness, the two voices intertwining to form an eerie harmony. "In the cracks of time and space, truth and falsehood are the most ridiculous lies."

Before the words were finished, the palace dome collapsed with a roar, revealing a huge chessboard floating above.

On the chessboard, black and white stardust flowed like two intertwined dragons, transforming into countless soldiers fighting each other.

The soldiers' shouts of battle were deafening, and sparks flew from the clash of weapons.

Li Zhao raised his hand and summoned his scepter. The source of light from the shattered head of the scepter suddenly burst forth, splitting the chessboard in two: "It's your turn to make the moves in this game."

His words carried an unquestionable authority, as if Lingyue's choice would determine the fate of the entire world.

Lingyue gripped the fragment tightly and discovered a familiar figure appearing on the chessboard—the silver-armored legion was besieging a burning city, thick smoke billowing from the city, flames soaring into the sky, and the cries of the people rising and falling.

In the center of the city, another version of herself held aloft a disc that emitted an evil light, while Li Zhao, covered in blood, stood in front of her, his wounds gushing blood that stained the ground beneath his feet.

“This is the future that is about to happen,” Li Zhao said, pointing to the chessboard with his black and white pieces intertwined, his voice low and serious, “or rather, the past that you can rewrite.”

When Lingyue's gaze fell on the lower left corner of the chessboard, her pupils suddenly contracted.

There was a frozen altar, covered with a thick layer of ice, radiating a bone-chilling cold.

In the center of the altar, Wenli's phantom was curled up, her hands pierced by chains with eerie runes flashing on them. She clutched a half-cracked fragment in her arms, the cracks on the fragment seeming to represent her shattered soul.

"You want the Key to Defy Fate?"

Li Zhao's breath brushed against her ear, warm yet icy cold. "Answer me first—if saving Wenli would lead to the destruction of the universe, would you still do it?"

Suddenly, blood-red ripples appeared on the chessboard, like a boulder being thrown into a calm lake.

The silver-armored legion's spear pierced the chest of "Lingyue" on the chessboard. In reality, Lingyue felt a sharp pain in her chest, staggered to one knee, and blood gushed from her mouth.

She looked up at Li Zhao and saw the yin-yang fish pattern on his palm spinning rapidly, distorting the surrounding space and sucking the entire palace into it.

When she opened her eyes again, she found herself in a blood-red desert, the sand beneath her feet like congealed blood, emitting a pungent, fishy smell.

In the distance stood a familiar bronze gate, its runes seeping blood and piecing together the words: "The truth you choose is always what others want you to see."

Heavy footsteps sounded behind her, each step feeling like it was pounding on Lingyue's heart.

Lingyue gripped the fragment and turned around, only to see three Li Zhaos appear in her field of vision at the same time: the black-robed Li Zhao on the left was surrounded by the aura of a shadow guard, exuding a suffocating dark power, and the surrounding air was distorted because of his presence.

On the right, Li Zhao, clad in silver armor, had a luminous mark flashing between his brows, but the light carried a strange dark red hue, as if darkness was hidden within the light.

In the center, Li Zhao's pupils were clear and bright, his eyes filled with contradictions and struggles. He held a broken disc in his hand, the cracks on the disc resembling his shattered heart.

The three of them said in unison, "This is our last chance—" Before they finished speaking, the desert suddenly split open into a deep abyss, from which roars came from. Countless chains stretched out from the abyss, with broken corpses hanging from them.

At the very end of the foremost chain, Wenli's bloodstained half-piece of flesh was clutched. Dragged along by the chain, the fragment emitted a faint glow, as if pleading for help...