Under the pale moonlight, Fang Yi stood amidst the wreckage of the village. His slender body trembled like a tendon stretched to the breaking point, and black blood still oozed from his nose. The ground around him is disfigured with scars as deep as those of his million memories.
A woman's voice, with a tone like ancient mountain wisdom, drifted into his head: Every reflection in a mirror has its limits... Even mirrors that are called "souls."
Fang Yi raised his cracked palms, looking at them in amazement: "Are these my hands? Or am I still in Tianluo Cave?"
He seemed to be a stranger to himself. It was as if his skin had become the shell of a soul that would not return to him. Suddenly, new memories flooded before his eyes: A little girl being dragged to a pyre, her eyes blazing with a golden light. The voice of the crowd cries out: "It is forbidden to be born with this light!" The child whispers before turning into ashes: "The border... is a lie."
Fang Yi screamed, wrapping himself in the cold of memory that pierced his bones: "What do you want from me?"
The woman's voice replied softly: "To understand that vulnerability is the door... and the door needs a key made of flesh."
The ground suddenly shook, and three giant shadows emerged from the smoke of the village. On their foreheads were strange drawings: Tangled chains like the ones he had broken in the prison cave.
Fang Yi stepped back, his heart beating like the drums of an ancient battle, his eyes staring in amazement: "I've seen these symbols before. On the walls of my cell!"
One of the shadows let out a sound like the grinding of old metal: "M.I.N.W.O.P."
Fang Yi tried to move, but his feet suddenly froze. In his chest, the golden light began to beat like a second heart.
Another voice emerged from the ashes of the burned child, the voice of the old jailer: "The body is a cage. The soul is an eternal prisoner."
Pain exploded in his bones. He felt as if his body was being blown apart thread by thread. From his cracked lips, blood as black as ink poured onto the floor, drawing words he had never known before: "I... No... Limit."
The shadows creep towards him, releasing a scream that splits the sky. But he can no longer hear. Everything around him turned into an antique mirror, in which he saw:
A version of himself with the features of a one-eyed man, tying the strings of fate.
A version of himself as a mythical demon, burning the universe with his palms.
A version of him as a country boy, planting rice in peace.
Fang Yi laughed tearfully, a mixture of pain and liberation: "Which one am I?"
For the first time, the woman's transparent body appeared in front of him. She wears a white dress that flutters despite the stillness of the wind. Her features are blurry, as if she lives between reality and dream.
"You are the leaf that disturbs the still pond," she said.
She reached out and grabbed his hand. In her touch, time froze.
She whispered: "The boundary you are looking for is not in your body... It's in your fear of being more than what you were created to be."
Fang Yi violently yanked his hand away, screaming in rage: "I'm not afraid! I..."
I interrupted him with a sad look: "You're afraid that the answer is worse than prison."
As her words echoed inside him, he felt his chest open like a cosmic door. Serpents of light, similar to the ones that destroyed the Tianluo Cave, erupted from it. But this time, they were devouring his own body.
Fang Yi screamed as he collapsed: "If this is the price... So be it!"
His features slowly dissipated amidst the storm. On top of Tianluo Mountain, the one-eyed man stood.
He opened an antique book titled "Experiment No. 1,000,00". Next to him, a mirror of the universe floated by, reflecting the image of Fang Yi turning into ashes.
The man smiled for the first time. He wrote in the book in a strange language: "Result: Success. Next stage: Testing his ability to reshape a body out of thin air."
Behind him, the jailer appeared as a black ghost, whispering a single word: "Forbidden... Forbidden..."
The man replied, blinking his one eye: "The only forbidden word... is 'forbidden' itself."
He blew on the book, its pages scattered into the air, and Fang Yi's image was extinguished. On the horizon, a new light began to form...