Legend of the Embroiderer

Chapter 491 The Mystery of the Abyss of Reincarnation

The gray light of the spacetime rift closed behind him, and the guardian stood at the entrance to the Abyss of Reincarnation, feeling the blood in his body slowly congealing.

The air here is thicker than in the Void Realm, and every breath carries a rusty, sweet smell. The ground beneath our feet is made of countless intersecting chains, and faint wailing sounds come from deep within the chains, as if countless souls are imprisoned within them.

The old man in the gray robe maintained his smile, his face hidden in the shadow of his hood, with only his gray beard visible on his chin.

The gray flame of the oil lamp flickered without wind, casting long shadows of the two people onto a stone tablet inscribed with the words "Reincarnation is endless, the beginning is the end".

The stone tablet is made of material resembling the skeleton of some kind of creature, with its surface covered with fine holes from which a pale purple mist seeps out. When the mist encounters the air, it transforms into tiny symbols that linger briefly in the air before dissipating.

"Welcome to the Abyss of Reincarnation, Guardian."

The old man's voice was hoarse yet gentle, like a dried-up riverbed whispering, "I am the guardian of this place, and I have been waiting for you for a long time."

He raised the oil lamp, and the gray flame illuminated the groove on the side of the stone tablet, the shape of which perfectly matched the black stone tablet in the guardian's hand.

The Guardian gripped the stone tablet tightly, and the Observer's Mark on his palm suddenly became hot. The gray symbol inside his white robe also lit up, bringing a slight stinging sensation.

"You knew I was coming?"

He stared warily at the old man, the hilt of the Chaos Lightsaber trembling slightly in his palm, the three feathers on the blade emitting a faint warning light.

The Guardian chuckled softly, his laughter rippling across the chained ground: "From the moment the first Guardian stepped into this place, the inheritors of each era have come to the Abyss of Reincarnation."

"Did you understand the words on the stone tablet?" He pointed the oil lamp at the tablet. "Reincarnation is not a simple repetition, but a spiraling trial."

As the guardian approached the stone tablet, the purple mist seeping from the holes in the bones suddenly condensed, forming a flowing image:

An observer who looks exactly like him stands before the same stele, inserting a stone slab into the groove in his hand, which is then bound by chains and transformed into a new stele.

The scene shifts, and another guardian appears, repeating the same actions, only the writing on the stone tablet changes slightly each time.

"These are... the fates of the guardians throughout history?"

The guardian's pupils contracted sharply. He noticed that when each guardian transformed into a stone tablet, gray symbols flickered inside their white robes, exactly the same as the symbols on his own body.

The guardian suddenly extinguished the oil lamp, plunging the surroundings into absolute darkness, with only the stone tablet emitting a faint white light.

"You think the power of balance is a gift?"

His voice came from the darkness, its direction constantly shifting, "That's a curse! Every guardian who controls the balance will eventually become part of the cycle, forever trapped in the gap between beginning and end."

Countless chains emerged from the darkness, coiling around the guardian's limbs like venomous snakes.

He swung his sword and severed the chains, but the broken chains transformed into black bats that lunged at his face.

As the bat passed through my body, countless fragmented memories flooded my mind:

The agonizing screams of the man in black robes injecting the Chaos Serum in the laboratory, the cold gaze of the Goddess of Fate piercing the body of Chaos, the final smile before the fusion dissipated... These memories, carrying a strong emotional impact, caused his consciousness to waver.

"Do you see that? This is your future."

The voice of the Guardian of the Abyss rang in my ears, carrying a seductive power.

"Accepting reincarnation will free you from suffering. Resisting will only prolong the torment."

The guardian felt the gray symbol inside his white robe growing hotter and hotter, and the gray seed deep in his consciousness began to sprout, growing into entwining vines that tightened around his nerves.

His movements slowed, and the light of the Chaos Lightsaber gradually dimmed. Just as the chains were about to wrap around his neck, the light feathers on the blade suddenly burst out with golden light, driving away all the black bats.

The image of the merged entity reappeared, this time much clearer than before. Her white robe was free of gray stains, and her gaze was resolute.

"The Guardian of the Abyss is the embodiment of the consciousness of the Abyss of Reincarnation. He will shake your will with the most terrifying memories."

The grooves on the stone tablet are not for inserting stone slabs, but rather…

The image suddenly shattered, turning into countless points of light that merged into the lightsaber.

The guardian suddenly realized what was happening. He turned his sword around and used the back of the blade to strike the groove on the side of the stone tablet.

The stone tablet, made of skeletal material, emitted a hollow echo, and golden runes identical to those on the lightsaber appeared on its surface.

The Guardian roared angrily in the darkness, and countless chains surged from the ground, forming a huge net that enveloped both the Guardian and the stone tablet.

"You broke the rules!"

The guardian's voice lost its gentleness and became sharp and piercing: "The Abyss of Reincarnation will devour all beings that are different!"

The chain net began to shrink, the runes on it glowed red, emitting a strong corrosive energy, and countless holes were burned into the guardian's white robe.

He plunged the Chaos Light Sword into the ground and simultaneously pressed the black stone slab against the front of the monument. The moment the two forces came into contact, the monument suddenly cracked open, revealing a hollow interior.

Floating inside is the luminous feather of the fourth Key of Destiny, surrounded by golden chains. At the end of the chains are twelve tiny bones, each engraved with a name.

"These are... the remains of the Guardians from past generations?" The Guardian stared in shock at the bones, one of which bore a name that perfectly matched the name of the first Observer mentor from his memories.

Sensing his presence, the light feathers suddenly broke free of their chains and flew toward his lightsaber, forming a diamond-shaped array with the first three light feathers. The burst of light caused cracks to appear in the chain net.

Seeing this, the guardian of the abyss transformed his body into countless chains, merging into the giant net, causing the mesh to shrink to the size of a pinhead:

"Since you refuse to submit, then become the new stone tablet!"

Just as the chains were about to pierce the Guardian's body, he suddenly remembered the final action of the merged image.

She once drew a yin-yang symbol in the air with her finger. The guardian no longer resisted, allowing the power of the light feathers to flow within her body, guiding the power of creation and chaos to form a rotating two-colored sphere of light at her chest.

The moment the chains touched the sphere of light, they melted like ice and snow meeting fire, turning into pure energy that was absorbed by the sphere of light.

"Impossible!" The Guardian's voice was filled with disbelief. "How could you possibly control the true power of balance?"

The sphere of light gradually expanded, enveloping the entire chain net. The chains that had been swallowed began to disintegrate, revealing the imprisoned souls within.

These were the consciousnesses of the guardians throughout history. Their figures nodded to the guardians, then transformed into specks of light and merged into the lightsaber. The fourth feather of light fully awakened, and a complete cycle of reincarnation runes appeared on the blade.

The Guardian of the Abyss revealed its true form in the light—a gigantic skeleton entwined with countless chains, its empty eye sockets burning with gray flames: "Even if you pass the trial, you cannot escape your fate! Look at your arms!"

The guardian looked down and saw that the gray erosion on his left arm had spread to his shoulder, and the flowing chain patterns could be vaguely seen under the gray skin.

What alarmed him even more was that the runes on the black stone slab were reorganizing, forming the same pattern as the one in the eye socket of the Guardian of the Abyss.

"The symbols on the white robe are the reincarnation contract. From the moment you put it on, you become part of the cycle of reincarnation."

The guardian's skeleton began to crumble. "The fourth feather of light will guide you to the Heart of Time and Space, but then you will understand that the so-called balance is nothing more than a higher level of imprisonment..."

As he dissipated, the Abyss of Reincarnation began to tremble violently, and the chained ground gradually became transparent, revealing a bottomless purple vortex beneath, in which countless bones identical to the stone tablet floated.

The black stone tablet in the guardian's hand suddenly flew up, pierced the void, and projected the coordinates of the fifth Key of Destiny—"Mirror City".

As the new spacetime rift unfolded before him, the Guardian felt the gray seed deep within his consciousness suddenly blossom, blooming into a gray flower made of chains.

A scene flashed before his eyes: in the center of the Mirror City, a figure exactly like him was waiting, holding the Heart of Time and Space in his hand, the gray symbol inside the white robe had turned pure black.

A familiar aura emanated from the other end of the crack—the energy fluctuations of the fused entity, but mixed with a faint trace of chaotic power.

The guardian gripped his lightsaber tightly, and the four feathers on the blade pointed simultaneously into the depths of the rift, as if urging him to move forward.

The moment he stepped into the crack, the strokes of the four characters "Beginning is End" on the reconstructed stone tablet behind him began to flow, eventually becoming "End is Beginning".