---
Yun Che stood in a realm without sky.
The white flame above gave no heat. The black glass beneath his feet gave no reflection.
And in front of him, his mirror self waited. Same body. Same voice. Same strength.
But the eyes…
Those weren't his. They belonged to something that had never bowed.
"Do you know what the Mirror showed me first?" the reflection said, taking a step forward. "It showed me a Yun Che who never loved. Who never broke. Who never lost."
Another step.
"That Yun Che burned the world and felt nothing."
Yun Che raised his arm. Hong'er responded, forming in his hand with a hungry hum.
But the mirror self laughed. And drew its own sword. Not Hong'er. Not any blade Yun Che had ever held.
It was a blade shaped like memory. Made of every regret he had swallowed. Every name he had failed to save.
"You carry the weight of those you lost," the reflection said. "I carry the weight of those you abandoned."
---
They clashed.
Not with explosions. Not with sound.
With silence. With sparks that burned without flame.
Each strike shattered memory:
Yun Che kissing Jasmine under falling moonlight.
Cang Yue's hand reaching for him across an ocean.
His daughter's laugh — fading into dust.
And yet — he stood. Bleeding. Breaking. Remembering.
His reflection snarled.
"Why won't you fall?!"
Yun Che didn't answer. He let the blade cut deeper.
Then whispered, "Because I carry them too."
And drove Hong'er through his reflection's heart.
---
The realm screamed. The sky cracked. The white fire dimmed.
And the Mirror began to close.
---
But it wasn't over.
---
Yun Che stumbled through shadow. He wasn't in the mirror realm anymore, but he hadn't yet returned. This was the space between — a realm where echoes waited.
He could hear their voices.
Father… Husband… Master…
They weren't real. And yet, they were more real than anything he'd touched in years.
One figure emerged from the mist. It was Lingxi.
She wore the robes she'd died in. Her eyes held no judgment — only the ache of memory.
"Will you finally let me go?" she asked.
Yun Che fell to his knees.
"I never held on to punish myself," he said. "I held on… so I'd never forget."
She smiled, sad and soft.
"Then live. And let me be your light, not your chain."
She turned.
And the void opened.
---
Back in the real world, Jasmine knelt before the Mirror. Her hand trembled over the surface.
Then… it pulsed.
The Mirror cracked. Light spilled out.
And Yun Che stepped through.
Bloodied. Shaking. Alive.
Their eyes met. And neither spoke.
Because now they both knew — The greatest enemy he would ever face was the part of himself that almost gave up.
Jasmine reached out — slowly, as if afraid he'd vanish. But when her hand touched his chest, she felt his heartbeat. Strong. Present. Real.
He collapsed to his knees. She caught him. And in silence, she held him against her chest as the Mirror behind them shattered into dust.
---
Far away, within the folds of the Divine Council's hidden plane, a light trembled. A seer opened her blind eyes.
"The traitor has touched the Ancestral Wound."
A new voice answered, deep and old:
"Then Heaven will bleed."
---