Echoes of the Hollow Domain

Chapter 20: Invasion of Chu Yin Gui



When Shen Jin woke, he was in the quiet chamber at the seal domain's edge.

The array beneath him hummed softly.

Stable.

But he did not open his eyes.

It wasn't unconsciousness.

It was a forced delay in returning.

At the floor of his mind —

a ripple.

Thin.

Hot.

Yet cold.

Like flame sliding beneath his thoughts.

A strand of mirror-fire —

sleek, slick, invasive —

slipped into the weakest crack of his consciousness.

Too fast.

He couldn't seal his mind in time.

It crept in like a serpent.

Up along the cracks in his memory —

into the raw, half-healed wounds where Guiyao's visions still echoed.

And wrapped him whole.

Chu Yin Gui's voice wasn't heard.

It was injected.

Close.

Intimate.

Like someone sliding a knife beneath his skin.

"See it again…"

"And you'll wake."

Shen Jin tried to resist.

But the voice brushed his nerves like cold breath down peeled flesh.

The mirror surged.

Its images splintered outward —

each shard carrying a line of burning memory.

He saw himself.

Again and again.

Walking toward the gate of light.

Every step wrapped in invisible chains.

Blood-soaked fragments crunching beneath his knees.

He saw Guiyao — suspended above the shattered sky.

And himself.

Beneath.

Mouth opening.

No words coming.

Was it Guiyao's memory?

No.

It was something else.

A fear not his own.

Forced upon him.

His mind —

was breached.

Through that tear, mirror-fire seared deeper —

branding over his thoughts.

Layer by layer.

Overwriting.

Smothering.

Even blinking became impossible.

This wasn't a dream.

It was a vessel.

And Chu Yin Gui—

was steering through it.

Using the dream as his river.

Using Shen Jin's mind

as his vessel.

Not gentle.

Not subtle.

Violent.

Deliberate.

Cruel.

Shen Jin's mind spiraled into imbalance.

The mirror-fire spread like molten webbing —

burning, clinging, choking.

He tried to close his consciousness.

Seal the doors.

But every threshold he tried to lock was peeled open by the web —

as if someone had built a second set of doors inside his mind,

without him ever knowing.

"Wake up, Shen Jin.

Wake… and you'll see the real door."

Chu Yin Gui's voice coiled around him.

Soft.

Too soft.

Like something slithering through a crack in his skull.

Shen Jin gritted his teeth.

Summoned his spirit.

For a moment, the mirror-fire retreated.

But only an inch.

Inside the mirror, Chu Yin Gui smiled.

"You don't like this?

Your stele won't save you."

The voice wrapped around his core like a noose.

And then.

From the deepest layer of his mind —

A will.

Not gentle.

Not subtle.

Cold.

Brutal.

The stele.

It did not speak.

It did not show itself.

It simply —

Ripped.

Every strand of mirror-fire.

Gone.

Ripped from the root.

Chu Yin Gui's laughter shattered —

breaking into static.

Shen Jin's mind burned.

Pain surged into every corner of his spirit.

No struggle.

No resistance.

He was yanked back —

out of the dream.

When his eyes opened again,

the chamber was still.

But his body —

frozen.

Cold sweat drenched him.

His spirit —

a storm of vertigo and collapse.

He blacked out.

Deep within the Lingyuan Division.

The old Mirror Tower.

Once used to observe the god-abyss,

now abandoned for a century —

its wards shattered, its arrays dead.

Few dared enter.

Luo Qinghan stood before it.

Wind passed through the broken frames.

Carrying the smell of old copper and rot.

Beneath her feet, the Water Mirror Array flickered faintly.

Guided by her inked sigils.

She traced the thread inward.

"Chu Yin Gui's spell trace… ends here.

He used the remnant mirror…

as his private door to spy on the stele.

All that's left… is a scar."

She whispered.

And stepped inside.

Broken mirrors everywhere.

But at the heart of the tower —

a half-shattered copper mirror.

Still breathing.

Faintly.

She dipped her finger in spirit ink.

Drew the Reversal Invocation upon its fractured surface.

Light spun backward.

And from the mirror —

His scar appeared.

But it was more than she expected.

Not just a spy's trace.

It was a map.

An ancient glyph of Guiyao.

Massive.

Chaotic.

Overlapping.

Like someone had tried to sketch a future into the glass.

Luo Qinghan held her breath.

She understood.

Chu Yin Gui hadn't just left a spell.

He had left —

A trail.

Trying to smuggle the future itself.

The mirror's light shifted.

Luo Qinghan's fingers had yet to pull away.

But the glass cracked on its own —

like someone was peering back at her

from the other side.

It wasn't memory.

It was…

The future.

She saw him.

Shen Jin.

Alone beneath a shattered divine pillar.

No light in the sky.

Silence everywhere.

His body wrapped in chains of bone.

His eyes veiled in blood.

The Keymark burning at his chest —

eating him alive.

He whispered a name.

She couldn't hear it.

But then —

the mirror surged closer.

And the name —

was hers.

Luo Qinghan froze.

She stepped closer.

Tried to see more.

The mirror broke.

The light scattered.

Gone.

She stood before the shattered glass.

Her fingers trembled.

The scroll lay silent in her sleeve.

She didn't write.

Perhaps —

It wasn't that she wouldn't.

It was that —

She couldn't.

The mirror dimmed.

Luo Qinghan turned to leave.

But in the fracture at its heart —

a figure.

Chu Yin Gui.

Emerging like smoke.

His face remained blurred.

This time, he did not look at her.

He looked beyond.

Toward something —

Someone —

unknown.

His voice cracked.

Dry.

Thin.

"Keys…

are not doors.

They are what you choose…

when the road ends."

Her eyes narrowed.

She raised her hand to seal the mirror.

But the mirror-fire lashed out.

Hot.

Sharp.

It threw her back.

Her palm cut.

Blood dripped.

Onto the glass.

The mirror flared.

Swallowed the blood.

And recorded her.

Her gaze.

Her presence.

Written into the scar.

She stood there.

Staring at the shattered mirror.

And whispered:

"Whose choice…

are you waiting for?"

Shen Jin opened his eyes.

He saw the ceiling of the Lingyuan quiet chamber.

Felt the familiar drift of spirit lines.

Heard the soft shuffle of guards outside.

Everything felt normal.

Too normal.

And that's when he noticed.

He couldn't move.

Inside his mind —

the presence of the stele remained.

Not faded.

But tightened.

It wasn't letting him go.

It wasn't letting him wake.

No words.

But the pressure dragged him down.

Down.

Into darkness.

But this darkness —

Was different.

Not Guiyao's broken will.

Not Chu Yin Gui's mirror-fire trap.

Something deeper.

Older.

He fell.

Through layers.

Into a world bathed in pale blue light.

The bottom layers of Yao Abyss —

before the seal.

He heard the sea.

But not the sea of Lingyuan.

The sea inside Guiyao's kingdom —

before the world split.

Above him, the stele's voice descended.

Cold.

Distant.

"Keybearer.

If you hold the key—

you must know what it opens.

If you don't…

Then dream."

Shen Jin whispered:

"This is a dream?"

No answer.

The world opened beneath him.

Guiyao's kingdom.

On the night it shattered.


Tip: You can use left, right, A and D keyboard keys to browse between chapters.