A World Born from the Ashes of the Self
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The white void that Lang Xian ended up in resembled a blank page untouched by the pen of creation. But gradually, details emerged like magical ink: a land of black glass reflecting countless faces, a sky of withered copper, and trees of blue crystal growing downward instead of up. In this inverted world, he found himself standing on a massive mirror that reflected a different part of his past with every step.
The child Jin sat on the edge of the mirror, playing with a butterfly made of light whose wings shifted between gold and black with every flutter. But the child was no longer how Lang Xian remembered him—his eyes now glowed with wisdom far beyond his age, as if he carried the memories of a thousand generations.
Lang Xian: (touching his nearly transparent body)
"Where… are we?"
Jin: (without lifting his eyes from the butterfly)
"A place that no longer has a name… because you haven't named it yet."
Suddenly, the butterfly shattered between his fingers, turning into a cloud of golden dust. From that dust, a familiar face emerged: Lian Hua, though she now looked like a celestial being with star-filled eyes.
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The First Encounter: The Mother That Never Was
Celestial Lian Hua: (her voice like distant bell hymns)
"Every world born from your pain… needed a mother to hold its hand."
But Lang Xian didn't respond. One look into her eyes told him she wasn't his real mother… just a reflection of his desire to fix the past.
Jin: (approaching him, his small hand touching the mirror)
"Do you know why the butterfly died? Because it tried to fly outside the frame."
The mirror beneath their feet began to crack. Within each fissure appeared scenes from his past worlds:
The burning village of Yanlu rebuilding itself by the hands of ghosts.
Golden wolves melting into a light that devoured their tails.
His hybrid self watching from afar, her eyes shedding mercury tears.
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Descent into the Mirror's Heart: A Maze of Scattered Memories
Lang Xian chose to descend through the largest crack. A spiral staircase emerged, made from human bones coated in a layer of black ice. Each step reminded him of victims from his past:
Here… a bone from a man who once tried to rob him as a child.
There… the skull of a child killed in a massacre fueled by his revenge.
At the bottom, he found a circular room with walls made of pulsating flesh. On the ground lay dozens of lullabies in bowls of frozen blood.
Jin: (suddenly appearing beside him, holding a bowl of black water)
"These are the songs never sung… the cries of those you never knew."
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Confronting the Final Shadow: The Wolf That Was Never Born
From the darkness emerged a hybrid creature—half-wolf, half-human. But it wasn't a dark version… rather, a glass-like being glowing from within with a golden heart.
The Transparent Shadow: (voice echoing from an unborn world)
"I am what you could have been… if you hadn't chosen darkness."
The irony was cruel: this being was the "good" version of him, the one who had let go of vengeance. But its presence here meant even pure goodness could lead to a different kind of ruin.
Lang Xian: (gripping an ice dagger that suddenly formed in his hand)
"Why show me this now?"
The Transparent Shadow: (pointing at Jin)
"Because even in worlds that haven't been created… you're cursed to repeat your mistakes."
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The Final Ritual: Blood of the Lost Generations
Lang Xian decided to break the cycle in a way he had never dared before. He gathered:
A drop of blood from his nearly transparent heart.
A tear from Jin's eyes.
Dust from the dead butterfly.
He mixed them in the bowl of lullabies and began chanting a hymn he learned from the forest's whispers in childhood. The room shook. The flesh walls began to melt, releasing the screams of souls trapped between worlds.
Celestial Lian Hua: (appearing as a golden ghost)
"This ritual will erase you from existence… Are you ready?"
Lang Xian: (looking at Jin one last time)
"Existence was my game… and erasure is my freedom."
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The Great Collapse: A Universe Born of Tears
When he drank the mixture, everything exploded. Mirrors shattered, worlds merged, and time itself rewound like an unraveling ribbon. In the final moments before disappearance, he saw:
Jin holding hands with the hybrid version, his eyes crying white light.
The golden wolves soaring in a new sky, free of symbols.
A version of himself dressed as a humble shepherd, smiling at his golden-eyed daughter.
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The Final Awakening: A Flower in the Desert of Memory
When he opened his eyes, he stood in a barren desert glowing under a black sun. In front of him, a single red flower bloomed from the sand. When he touched it, its petals opened to reveal a peaceful village inside… no watchtowers, no wolves, no blood.
His real mother's voice—not the ghost—emerged from the flower:
"My son… you have finally earned your rest."
But just before his hands touched it, a black shadow appeared… the masked knight, but this time, the mask was cracked, revealing a face that looked just like his own.
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The Endless Ending: Seeds Yet to Be Sown
The knight raised a bow made from golden wolf bones and fired an arrow at the flower. But Lang Xian leapt in front of it, the arrow piercing his transparent heart.
His golden blood spilled onto the sand, turning it into a small river. Along its banks bloomed countless red flowers. Each flower held a different world… each with a story yet to be told.
Jin: (now appearing as a grown man with mismatched eyes)
"The game won't end… but the rules will change."
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As the black sun set, Lang Xian turned into a golden salt statue by the riverbank. The masked knight vanished into the sand, and the red flowers began to sing an old lullaby his mother used to hum.
In a faraway village inside one of the flowers, a child was born with golden eyes… and this time, his mother sang to him of a wolf who turned his pain into seeds of life.