The world stabilized around Lin Qing, but only barely.
The Marsh wasn't quiet anymore. It wasn't watching.
It was listening.
Every breath echoed faintly. Every heartbeat sent tiny ripples across the mirrored ground. Every stray thought seemed to brush against the air like a whisper.
Li Chun clung to Tian Ke's sleeve the entire time. "Heir Lin Qing… I think the Marsh knows what I'm thinking."
"It definitely does," Yin Luo said.
Li Chun went pale. "Then it already knows I want to go home."
"Yes," Yin Luo replied.
Li Chun looked like he was about to cry. "And it knows I'm not going home?"
"Yes."
Li Chun sobbed into his sleeves. "This is the worst day of my life…"
Lin Qing didn't stop walking. The embryonic Mirror Domain pulsed quietly inside him, stabilizing enough to gently push the Marsh's intent away from his mind. Not completely. But enough that the pressure was no longer suffocating.
It made navigating the twisting labyrinth easier.
Pathways that bent for others straightened for him. Illusions that tried to form around Li Chun burst before taking shape. Reflections that stalked Tian Ke shattered when they entered Lin Qing's presence.
Yin Luo kept glancing at him from the corner of her eye. Not with fear. With calculation.
"Heir Lin Qing," she finally said, "your presence here is… altering the Marsh."
"How much?"
"Enough that we might be walking through sections normally meant for True King cultivators."
Li Chun shrieked. "What do you MEAN normally?!"
Lin Qing sighed. "We'll be fine."
"HOW DO YOU KNOW?" Li Chun wailed.
"I don't," Lin Qing said. "But panicking won't help."
Li Chun inhaled sharply. "It helps ME."
They continued deeper.
The Marsh abruptly shifted.
The mirrored plains narrowed into a corridor of floating crystals—shards suspended in the air without support. Some were the size of knives. Others were the size of buildings. All of them spun silently, reflecting distorted images of anyone who passed near.
The air grew colder.
Lin Qing felt it before he saw it:
Another presence. Calm. Measured. Almost polite.
A voice drifted through the crystal corridor. "You walk loudly, Blood Mirror Heir."
Lin Qing stopped.
A man stepped out from behind a massive crystal shard, robes pure white, hair long and tied with a jade ring. His features were delicate, refined—more scholar than warrior. His eyes, however, were unsettling.
He didn't blink.
Not once.
Yin Luo exhaled slowly. "Careful. This one isn't simple."
Tian Ke whispered, "Heir Lin Qing… that's Yue Zixiu. The Mind-Lotus Prodigy."
Li Chun froze mid-sob. "N-No. No no no. The mind illusion specialist?! The one who broke a Saint's mental defense at sixteen?!"
Lin Qing blinked. "I feel like this information would've been nice to know earlier."
Yue Zixiu approached with slow, graceful steps. He wasn't hostile. He wasn't smiling. He was simply… present. Too present.
When he spoke, the air didn't carry his voice correctly. It sounded like the words formed inside their heads instead of outside.
"You disturb the Marsh," Yue Zixiu said. "It bends around you. It listens to you."
"I didn't ask it to," Lin Qing said.
"That is why it chooses to," Yue Zixiu replied.
Li Chun whispered, "Heir Lin Qing, I… I don't think I like him."
"No one likes him," Tian Ke muttered.
Yue Zixiu stopped a few paces away. He placed one hand behind his back, the other resting lightly on a floating shard.
"Interesting," he said softly, studying Lin Qing. "Your mind is loud."
"Sorry?" Lin Qing said.
"I can hear it clearly," Yue Zixiu continued. "Most minds tremble when the Marsh presses on them. Yours… pushes back."
Lin Qing narrowed his eyes. "Are you trying to read my thoughts?"
"No," Yue Zixiu said. "Your thoughts are reading me."
That confused everyone.
Even Lin Qing.
"What does that mean?" he asked.
Yue Zixiu lifted his gaze slightly. "Your Mirror Domain. Even in its infant state, it reflects intent around you. You saw my approach before I made it."
Lin Qing frowned. "No I didn't."
"But your Domain did," Yue Zixiu said. "Complicated, is it not? When a power begins thinking before its user does."
Li Chun whispered, "I hate this man."
Yue Zixiu turned toward him, smiling faintly with his eyes—not pleasantly. "I know."
Li Chun fainted on the spot.
Yin Luo muttered, "Expected."
Tian Ke sighed and carried Li Chun under one arm like a sack of potatoes.
Yue Zixiu shifted his attention back to Lin Qing. "I have no desire to fight. Not yet. If I wished to harm you, I could have done so the moment you entered the Marsh."
Lin Qing raised an eyebrow. "Comforting."
"I came only to see whether the rumors were exaggerated," Yue Zixiu said. "They were not."
He stepped aside, motioning deeper into the corridor of crystals.
"The center waits for you," he said gently. "Do not be late. The Marsh closes parts of itself quickly."
Lin Qing didn't move yet. "And what about you?"
Yue Zixiu's eyes softened, which somehow made him more unnerving.
"I already passed this layer," he said. "But I am curious how far a mind like yours can go before it breaks."
He turned into the mist.
And vanished without a sound.
Lin Qing stood still for a long moment.
Tian Ke finally asked, "Heir Lin Qing… are we following him?"
"No," Lin Qing said. "We're going where the Marsh wants us."
"And where's that?" Tian Ke asked.
Lin Qing took a breath.
The embryonic Mirror Domain pulsed. A faint silver line appeared beneath his feet—visible only to him—pointing toward the heart of the Marsh.
He started walking.
"Somewhere dangerous."
Yin Luo nodded. "That much was obvious."
Li Chun groaned weakly from under Tian Ke's arm.
The corridor ahead slowly opened into a wide chasm filled with spinning fragments of mirrored stone. Each fragment showed flashes—
—not of them,—but of someone else.
Each shard showed glimpses of a man with silver eyes and a broken mirror crown.
The Mirror Emperor.
The feeling of being watched returned—stronger than before.
Almost impatient.
Lin Qing exhaled.
"Let's go find whatever's calling me."
They stepped into the chasm.
And the Marsh closed behind them.