The ground still smoked from the aftermath of Mo Tian's forbidden technique. Trees had vanished. Mountains turned to craters. The forest, once eternal and unshakable, had become a scar on the land.
And yet, Ye Qingyu still breathed.
Barely.
Only because someone else now stood in front of him—tall, ethereal, faceless.
> "Who are you?" Mo Tian asked.
The masked woman didn't answer immediately. Her silver robes drifted without wind, and behind her floated a spinning mirror—not made of glass, but of flowing silver liquid that bent reality around it.
> "Your Dao is corrupted," she finally spoke. Her voice was neither angry nor fearful. It was… ancient.
> "I've walked this world for a hundred lifetimes. I've seen tyrants become legends, and saints drown in mud. But never have I seen someone twist the Dao like you."
Mo Tian's eyes narrowed. "So you've come to stop me?"
> "No," she said. "I've come to understand you."
---
The Mirror of Eclipsed Origins
The silver mirror behind her began to glow, and before Mo Tian could react, his own reflection stepped out from it.
It looked exactly like him—except this version smiled with kindness, not cruelty.
> "What is this trick?" Mo Tian growled.
The woman said nothing. The mirror image walked toward him, hand outstretched.
In that moment, a powerful wave of memory flooded Mo Tian's mind—
He saw himself as a child, before the hatred. Before the murder. Before the flames. A time when he still wanted to join a righteous sect. When he still dreamed of becoming a hero.
The version of him that could have existed… had the world not broken him.
> "Do you regret it?" the illusion whispered.
Mo Tian didn't speak. His halberd slowly lowered. His breathing changed.
And then—
> CRACK!
He shattered the reflection with a single punch.
> "Regret?" he spat. "Only the weak regret. I've slaughtered regret."
---
The Woman's Identity
The mirror dimmed.
And the woman finally removed her mask.
Mo Tian's eyes narrowed.
She looked no older than twenty—but her irises glowed with silver runes, and a faint shadow of wings lingered behind her back. She was no ordinary cultivator.
> "You're not human."
> "Not anymore," she said. "I am known as Shi Yue, Guardian of the Forgotten Cycle, bearer of the Mirror Dao. I live to preserve the balance between cause and effect."
Mo Tian laughed darkly. "Balance? The heavens never cared for balance. They let monsters rise and saints die in silence."
> "Which is why I no longer serve the heavens," she said flatly.
She turned to look at the still-unconscious Ye Qingyu.
> "That one was meant to become the next Celestial Guardian. But you've ruined that fate."
Mo Tian smirked. "Good."
---
Offer in Shadow
But then, unexpectedly, Shi Yue looked at Mo Tian—not with hatred, but with interest.
> "Your Dao is monstrous, but also unique. It does not simply destroy—it reshapes meaning. You devour paths, but you leave behind something… new."
Mo Tian said nothing.
> "There is a secret," she continued, "beneath the Immortal Abyss. Something even the heavens fear. You are the key."
> "Come with me," she said softly. "I offer no alliance. No friendship. Only a… deeper truth."
Mo Tian raised his halberd, eyes dark.
> "And if I say no?"
> "Then I fight you now. I die. But the mirror remembers, and you will be hunted by echoes of me in every timeline until the stars rot."
A long silence.
Mo Tian lowered his halberd.
> "Fine," he said at last. "But don't expect obedience."
She nodded once. "I never do."
---
Elsewhere — In the Depths of the Divine Sealing Vault
Far from the battlefield, in the sealed vaults below the Ten Thousand Scripture Sect, an ancient talisman cracked.
A pair of glowing eyes opened in the darkness. A whisper echoed through the void:
> "He has begun to devour Fate itself."
> "The Devourer is no longer just a villain…"
> "He is becoming a curse upon reality."
---
Please wait for Chapter 8.