---
Qiuyue had warned him once.
"Never answer the same mirror twice. If you do, it starts remembering your face."
Yinan thought it was superstition.
But now, alone in the shrine again, the mirror was smiling.
It was cracked, still, warped with time. But something behind the glass shimmered like water touched by blood.
---
He looked worse than before.
Too pale. Shadowed eyes. Veins that flickered faintly with Qi whenever he tried to suppress a memory. His spiritual pulse trembled like an echo that didn't know what it was echoing.
"I didn't ask to come back," he whispered to his reflection.
"I didn't even ask to be buried."
The mirror smiled wider.
"You never left."
---
Outside, the moon dipped lower.
Inside, the air thickened.
Yinan turned away—
—and saw Jin Suyin, again, sitting where no one had been seconds ago, legs crossed, eyes lazy.
---
"Mirror trauma," Suyin said, sighing dramatically.
"It's always the hot ones."
They leaned back against a broken altar, twirling a bone hairpin between their fingers.
"You could've knocked," Yinan muttered.
"I did. With my eyes."
---
Suyin's crimson gaze slid over him, slow and thoughtful.
"You're stronger than yesterday. That's good. Means the first seal is cracking."
"Seal?" Yinan asked.
Suyin stood.
"You think your power's just grief? That's adorable."
"It's remorse. And it's infinite."
They handed him a scroll, still warm.
The script was written in a language that looked like veins.
---
"I'm not one of you," Yinan said quietly.
"You're not one of them, either."
Suyin tilted their head.
"So maybe… you're mine."
---
Suddenly, the scroll burned in his hand—absorbing into his skin, vanishing into his pulse. His vision flared red, white, then went dark.
---
He collapsed, panting, on the shrine floor.
Qiuyue rushed in, blade drawn.
"What did you do to him?!"
"Upgraded him," Suyin said, grinning.
"He's going to need it."
---
Outside, the wind changed again.
Liansheng was standing at the edge of the cliff, eyes closed, remembering something he'd tried to forget.
A petal.
A grave.
A broken vow.
A boy who never stayed dead.
---
[SYSTEM STATUS — Updated]
> Lotus Qi: 245 / 300
Technique Unlocked: Echo Sutra – Stage I
▸ You can now hear the thoughts of someone mourning you.
▸ Be careful. Some memories want to be remembered.
Hidden Title Unlocked: Echo of the Unfinished Vow
---
And somewhere deep in the Lotus Sect's forbidden archives,
a mirror cracked all on its own.
---