Legend of the Embroiderer

Chapter 377 Mysteries of Origin

Lingyue staggered and grabbed the broken stone wall for support. The blood that welled up in her throat tasted rusty, and every breath was accompanied by a stinging pain, as if her chest cavity was filled with tiny shards of glass.

The collapsing space around her continuously sheds black debris, like an endless black snowstorm. These debris lands on her skin and wriggles like living things, trying to burrow into her pores.

Li Zhao, whom she held in her arms, was breathing weakly. The source of light at the wound on his chest was dimming at a visible speed, like a candle flame about to be extinguished. Every flicker tugged at her heartstrings.

The distant, floating altar drew closer, and the figure that looked exactly like her raised a dark disc. The runes flowing on the disc's surface perfectly matched the patterns on the remaining fragment on her forehead, as if foreshadowing some kind of fated connection.

"This is impossible..."

Lingyue's murmurs were drowned out by the roar of time and space being torn apart.

She suddenly noticed that dark patterns identical to the figure in the center of the altar had appeared on her wrist. The patterns seemed to wriggle under her skin like living things, bringing waves of tingling and stinging.

Even more bizarrely, the remaining light from the ground array began to flow in reverse, elongating her and Li Zhao's shadows and projecting them onto the rock wall—in the shadow, she held a dark scepter, her eyes cold and evil, while Li Zhao's face overlapped with the black-robed shadow, a cruel smile on his lips.

The eerie sight sent chills down her spine, sending a shiver down her spine from the soles of her feet to the top of her head.

Wenli's fragments suddenly rose from the ruins and hovered in front of Lingyue. Blood-red characters appeared on the surface of the fragments: "When the twin mirror images overlap, the power of the origin will awaken."

The handwriting resembled a string of dancing flames, radiating an eerie light. Before she could decipher it, a sharp whooshing sound came from the direction of the altar, and twelve bone wings ripped through the void, a dark shadow descending amidst the turbulent currents of time and space.

Wherever the shadow passed, space distorted like a shattered mirror, and the light of the stars was completely swallowed up.

The dark emblem on its palm resonated with the dark disc, and the entire space began to collapse toward the altar. The immense pressure almost ruptured Lingyue's eardrums, and she felt as if she were in a shrinking iron cage.

"Lingyue, watch out behind you!"

Li Zhao suddenly began to mutter in his delirium. Ling Yue instinctively rolled to her side, and a beam of eerie blue light grazed her hair, melting a bottomless black hole in the rock wall. Black smoke billowed from the hole, emitting a pungent odor.

She turned her head and saw another "self" standing ten steps away, the pressure emanating from the dark disc in her hand causing the fragment in her hand to tremble.

That "self" was dressed in a black robe, his eyes filled with indifference and mockery, and every move he made exuded a familiar yet strange aura.

"You think finding the Key to Reversal of Fate will turn everything around?" Mirror Moon's voice was sharp and piercing, like two pieces of metal rubbing against each other. "Look at your own eyes."

Lingyue's pupils contracted sharply. Deep within the other person's pupils, she saw her own reflection being swallowed by darkness: her face was distorted, her eyes turned deep black, and the corners of her mouth turned up in a mad smile.

Even more terrifying, she discovered that the source of light within Li Zhao's body was resonating with the dark disc. Strands of white light drifted out from his wounds and merged into the disc, as if being forcibly pulled towards it by the dark forces.

Li Zhao's body began to tremble slightly, his brows furrowed, and a pained expression appeared on his face.

The shadowy figure let out a hearty laugh, and twelve pairs of bone wings unfolded to form a massive cage, casting shadows over the entire space.

“Foolish ants, so-called containers are born to bear the will of darkness. Li Zhao’s source of light is merely the key to unlock the final seal.”

With a wave of its hand, the golden chains of the ground array suddenly turned against Lingyue, binding her limbs.

The runes on the chains flickered with an evil red light, constantly draining the power from her body. She felt her body growing weaker and weaker, as if her life force was being squeezed out bit by bit.

At the critical moment, Wenli's fragments suddenly burst forth with dazzling golden light.

Lingyue recalled Wenli's last memory: on the ancient battlefield, Wenli split her essence in two, injecting one half into an unformed container embryo—and that embryo had an outline similar to Lingyue's.

"So it turns out I was the one..."

Lingyue's pupils dilated in shock, a complex mix of emotions welling up inside her—surprise, fear, and a hint of unease.

At this moment, the dark disc suddenly emitted a piercing buzz, and the entire altar began to spin rapidly. The powerful centrifugal force made Lingyue almost lose her balance.

Li Zhao's body floated up, and a complete yin-yang fish pattern appeared between his eyebrows. Light and darkness collided wildly in the pattern, like two giant dragons fighting fiercely.

Taking advantage of the moment, Mirror Spirit Moon pressed the Dark Disc against his chest, and the runes on the disc's surface became chains, binding Li Zhao's soul.

Lingyue felt that a certain connection between herself and Li Zhao was breaking down; it was a spiritual bond that was gradually disintegrating as the dark forces eroded it.

She struggled desperately, but the dark lines on her wrist tightened like shackles, causing her wrist to ache, and blood dripped down the lines.

"Stop her! She is the vessel of the dark will!"

An urgent fluctuation emanated from Wenli's fragment. Lingyue bit her bloodied teeth and poured her last bit of power into the fragment.

The fragment suddenly transformed into a stream of light, resonating with the yin-yang fish pattern between Li Zhao's eyebrows, and a golden beam of light shot into the sky.

Within the pillar of light, she witnessed an astonishing scene: at the source of time and space, two identical embryos were vying for the source of light, while the true form of the shadowy figure was an evil consciousness separated from one of the embryos.

That evil consciousness was like a huge black vortex, greedily devouring all the light around it.

Mirror Spirit Moon let out a sharp scream, her body began to turn transparent, and a look of terror appeared on her face.

The shadowy figure furiously flapped its bone wings, and the spacetime prison began to collapse, with shattered spatial fragments flying everywhere like sharp blades.

Li Zhao opened his eyes in the pillar of light. At this moment, half of his pupils were as bright as the sun, and the other half were as deep as the night: "Lingyue, do you still remember our vow? This time... it's my turn to protect you."

With a wave of his hand, the yin-yang fish pattern transformed into chains, binding the black shadow's bone wings.

Just when the situation seemed to be turning around, a deep abyss suddenly split open in the center of the altar, from which a giant hand covered in scales emerged.

The hand was enormous, its scales shimmering with a cold luster, and black mist swirling around its fingers.

The giant hand grasped the dark disc and forcibly fused it with Li Zhao's body.

Lingyue watched in despair as Li Zhao's eyes were gradually swallowed by darkness, their initial unwavering brightness slowly turning empty and cold, while the shadowy figure's laughter echoed in the abyss: "The true vessel is finally complete..."

The entire space began to collapse rapidly. Before being swallowed by the darkness, Lingyue saw a strange smile on the lips of the mirrored Lingyue, and her body was slowly merging into Li Zhao's back, as if the two were one. This bizarre scene filled Lingyue's heart with endless fear and doubt, and the future path became even more confusing and unknown.