The aftershocks of the contraction of the space-time vortex shook Lin Xiaoman's ears, and the carving knife in her palm still retained Li Chengqian's body heat. When the golden light dissipated, seven fragments of clay pots were scattered on the bricks of the broken temple, each engraved with the medical theory of a different era -- both a summary of the Yellow Emperor's Internal Canon from the Tang Dynasty, and the sterilized flow chart of modern medicine. Li Chengqian suddenly staggered and fell to his knees, and the Beidou birthmark on the side of his neck, which had already faded away, was now resurfacing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"The Mirror Abyss's backlash is still going on." He tore off his blood-soaked cuffs, revealing the ghostly blue patterns spreading on his arm, the very patterns on Li Tai's broken clay pots, "Even though Li Tai dissipated, he used a forbidden technique to plant a space-time anchor point in my body." Lin Xiaoman immediately pulled out a silver needle, but found that the "Xiaoman" engraving on the end of the needle was glowing, forming a weird resonance with the pattern on Li Chengqian's arm.
Meanwhile, in the microbiology lab in modern Xi'an, Xiao Chen stared at the petri dish and exclaimed in shock. The dysentery bacilli are automatically arranged to form the silhouette of Li Chengqian, and in the heart of the silhouette, the simplified Chinese characters for "Mirror Abyss Not Yet Stable" are clearly visible -- the same simplified characters Lin Xiaoman taught to the Tang dynasty's medical officials. What's even more bizarre is that the seven fragments of "Xiao Man Tang" pots in the lab safe are beeping at the moment, and the gaps around the edges of the fragments are growing slowly, as if they are trying to fit together on their own.
"In the 72 hours since Dr. Lin disappeared, these pots have been receiving some kind of signal." The lab director pushed up his glasses and pulled up the surveillance footage, "At three in the morning, all the instrument pointers were pointing towards the Daming Palace ruins, like they were waiting for some kind of ceremony." Xiao Chen suddenly pointed at the screen, "Look! That man in the Tang suit!" In the screen, Li Chengqian's figure flashed past, and what he was holding in his hands was the remnants of the Time and Space Medical Codex that Lin Xiaoman had used in the Tang Dynasty.
Inside the Imperial Doctor's Courtyard during the Zhenguan period, Doctor Zhang was frowning at the bronze ancient mirror. The mirror should have shown the image of a modern emergency room, but at the moment it was shrouded in a grayish mist, and only the light of the silver bracelet on Lin Xiaoman's wrist pierced through the mist. "Even though the Seven Orifices Pottery Jar has been completed, if the Mirror Abyss core cannot be repaired, the two time periods will eventually be like broken pieces of pottery..." The old man's words were interrupted by the sound of rushing footsteps, and the little medical officer barged in holding a blood-stained bamboo slip, "Elder Zhang! Li Tai's remnants are spreading the rumor of 'Demoness Cholera' on Vermilion Bird Street, and the people have already begun to burn the sterilized clay pots!"
Li Chengqian suddenly grabbed Lin Xiaoman's hand and brought her to the ancient well. The well reflects two overlapping worlds: modern-day her is being surrounded by a scientific research team, while Tang Dynasty her is being hunted down by the Jinguwei for her "demonic arts." "The core of the Mirror Abyss is a twin mirror image." He scratched sparks on the wall of the well with a carving knife, "We must have the 'Lin Xiaoman' of both time periods complete the Healing Ceremony at the same time in order to completely stabilize the rift."
At the site of the modern Daming Palace, Lin Xiaoman's colleagues are preparing to dig an ancient well. The moment the Luoyang shovel touches the wall of the well, all electronic devices suddenly malfunction, and a scene from the Tang Dynasty's Imperial Hospital emerges from the water of the well -- Dr. Zhang is holding up a blood-stained bamboo slip and gesturing desperately to her, "Zi Zi Shi, seven-star clay pots." Xiao Chen suddenly remembers something and pulls out the silver ring left behind by Lin Xiaoman from her backpack: "The engraving on the inside of the ring is glowing!"
The bell at the stroke of midnight rang, and Lin Xiaoman of the two time periods simultaneously dipped the pottery jar remnants into the well water. Inside the broken temple of the Tang Dynasty, Li Chengqian used a carving knife to chisel a modern first-aid flowchart on the seventh fragment; in the modern laboratory, Xiao Chen followed the arrangement of germs under the microscope and drew the double helix structure on the back of the fragment. When the last carving is completed, the seven fragments suddenly rise up into the air and are assembled at the wellhead to form the complete "Xiaomantang" pot.
"Use the medical path as a guide, use benevolence as an anchor!" Lin Xiaoman of the two time zones whispered at the same time. The pottery jar erupted with sun-like light, and the mist of the Mirror Abyss began to dissipate, replaced by clear images of space-time: the sterilizing lamps of a modern emergency room mirrored the candlelight of the Imperial Hospital of the Tang Dynasty, and the models of germs under the microscope corresponded word-for-word to the medicinal prescriptions on the bamboo slips. The ghostly blue lines on Li Chengqian's arm gradually receded, and the Beidou birthmark on the side of his neck and the silver bracelet on Lin Xiaoman's wrist formed a perfect yin and yang fish pattern in the light.
However, just as the fissure was about to completely stabilize, a metallic friction sound suddenly came from the bottom of the well. A stone slab engraved with cuneiform characters slowly rose up, which was the legendary "Time and Space Cornerstone" of the Persian caravan. Li Chengqian's pupils shrunk: ''This is what the Persian priests tried to destroy back then! It contains the forbidden art of opening the permanent rift..." Before the words left his mouth, the writing on the stone slab suddenly burned on its own, casting a warning in the well water, "The day the seven jars return to their place is also the time when the Twins perish."
Lin Xiaoman finally realized that the so-called Twin Lives Mirror Image was not only a symmetry of space and time, but also a choice that the her of the two worlds had to make -- if she wanted to completely close the rift, the modern-day her would lose the ability to travel forever; if she retained the rift, the Tang Dynasty her would suffer from the Mirror Abyss's continuous backlash. Li Chengqian held her hand, carving knife and silver needle overlapping in his palm: "Remember what you said? There is no ancient or modern way of healing, what matters is the choice at this moment."
When the first ray of sunlight illuminated the mouth of the well, seven clay pots were suspended in the center of the time-space rift, each engraved with a medical motto from a different era. The monitoring of the modern laboratory returned to normal, with a small line displayed on the screen, "The rift has stabilized, please do not touch it easily." And at the broken temple in the Tang Dynasty, Li Chengqian carved the last cornelian leaf with the "Xiao Man Tang ' emblem, turned to Lin Xiaoman and smiled, 'This time, how about I be your space-time anchor point instead?"
The water in the well returned to calm, but left a new engraving at the bottom - it was a double flower pattern drawn with a carving knife and a silver needle, one blooming in the moonlight of Zhenguan, the other in the sunlight of modern times. Lin Xiaoman knew that this journey of healing across the millennia was far from over, and that the light of the seven clay pots would forever illuminate those corners of space and time that were shrouded in sickness.