---
The wind changed the moment he saw my eye.
Just one look.
Just one breath.
And the petals trembled like they knew what I had become.
> He saw me. He saw me.
And then…
He ran.
Through peach trees warped by decay.
Over roots that pulsed under the moss.
Past blossoms that tracked his movements like living eyes.
His boots scraped against stone.
His breath hitched.
> THUD THUD THUD.
(Heartbeat? Footsteps? Both?)
---
"Wow," Qiuyue sighed, floating beside me with her arms behind her ghostly head.
"Dramatic. Hot. Unstable. That one's dangerous. I like him."
I didn't say anything.
I was watching.
Watching the way he stopped halfway down the hill.
The way he turned, once — his hand hovering near his sword.
Like he wasn't sure whether to fight the thing behind him…
or come back for another look.
---
> [SYSTEM ALERT:]
New Player Registered: SHEN LIANSHENG
Affinity Level: High
Danger Rating: ???
Status: Rattled.
Inner Thought: "It can't be him. He's dead."
---
Qiuyue hovered upside-down again, her long black hair dripping like ink into the air.
> "He thought you were a ghost," she said. "He's not completely wrong."
> "I'm not a ghost," I rasped, my voice like cracked stone.
> "You're worse," she said, grinning. "You're a reborn."
---
[LOTUS SYSTEM QUEST UNLOCKED:]
> Title: "Return to the Surface"
Objective: Reclaim your body. Pass through the Mirror Pond. Prove you still belong to the living.
Reward: Access to External Cultivation / Appearance Stabilization / First Technique Unlocked
---
> "C'mon, monster-boy," Qiuyue said, flicking a glowing lotus petal toward my face.
"Time to earn your limbs."
---
🩸 Scene Shift: The Mirror Pond
It was exactly where they left me — halfway down the old mountain path, hidden behind thorned vines and spiritual wards made of broken promises.
The water was still.
Black.
Flat as obsidian.
It showed no reflection. Not unless you were ready to see the truth.
> "You really want me to look into that?"
> "No," Qiuyue said. "I want you to survive it."
---
I knelt at the edge. My hands were shaking.
One petal fell from my chest into the surface.
And the pond… rippled.
Not once.
But twice.
---
A second version of me appeared — inside the water.
Eyes hollow. Skin pale.
Lips stitched shut with red string.
He looked at me.
Then smiled, slow and bloodless.
> "I remember everything you threw away."
---
> [MIRROR TRIAL INITIATED]
Emotion Lock: Grief
Begin internal combat…