Legend of the Embroiderer

Chapter 365 Soul Game

Lingyue's nails dug deep into her palms, her hand clutching the shards already soaked in cold sweat. The faint light flickered in the thick, inky darkness, reflecting the turbulent emotions surging in her pupils.

The air around us felt like solidified asphalt, and every breath carried a rusty, fishy sweetness.

Her skirt still bore the marks of the time-space turbulence, yet it was eerily still, as if frozen in a terrifying moment.

Suddenly, the deathly darkness rippled, and the entire crystal city violently spun around amidst a deafening roar.

The suspended ruins emitted a piercing scraping sound, as if thousands of sharp blades were scraping against the metal.

These shattered building fragments transformed into countless mirrors, their surfaces veiled in a thin mist, slicing Lingyue's figure into millions of fragmented reflections.

Each reflection was distorted and warped, with an unnatural curve at the corner of their mouths, as if silently mocking their disheveled state.

"Li Zhao!" she shouted hoarsely into the void, but her voice was like a stone thrown into a deep pool, its echo swallowed up by the darkness.

Suddenly, a crimson mist seeped from a certain mirror, like blood flowing on its surface, and the face of the man in black robes slowly emerged.

Those features, so identical to Li Zhao's, were now filled with chilling malice, and a mocking smile curled at the corners of her lips:

"Want to save him? First, answer my question—are you sure everything you're seeing is real?"

Before Lingyue could react, the mirror shattered with a deafening roar, and sharp fragments floated in the air like raindrops.

Each mirror became a miniature screen, projecting different terrifying scenes: Li Zhao lay in a pool of blood, a man in black robes plunging his hand into his chest, greedily absorbing the light.

In the future, Li Zhao's eyes were empty as he raised his knife and stabbed the unsuspecting Wen Li, splattering blood all over her pale face.

Even Lingyue herself, with a crazed look in her eyes, held the fragments and smashed the Source of Light to pieces, the fragments scattering like snowflakes.

These images flashed through the fragments like a revolving lantern, each scene causing her temples to throb and her stomach to churn with intense discomfort.

"This is... a hallucination!" Lingyue bit her tongue, and the sweet, metallic blood spread in her mouth, the stinging pain briefly bringing her back to her senses.

She raised the fragment in an attempt to dispel the illusion, only to see the words on its surface suddenly twist and deform, turning into a golden chain that wrapped around her wrist.

The chains were icy cold, as if cast from liquid metal, with one end disappearing into the void.

Amidst the excruciating pain, she heard Li Zhao's faint groans coming from the depths of a mirror. The sound was weak and painful, like a dull knife cutting into her heart.

Trapped within nine dark chains, Li Zhao is experiencing unprecedented torment.

Dark red patterns crawled all over his body along the chains, like evil vines growing on his skin, colliding fiercely with the power of the Yin-Yang Sphere fragments within him.

The two forces surged through his veins like equally matched torrents, each impact bringing excruciating pain like thousands of ants gnawing at his bones, as if his body had become a battlefield where light and darkness fought each other.

The man in black robes manipulated the chains to drag him to the front of the black heart, whose surface pulsated like blood vessels, making a sickening "plop" sound.

Li Zhao's face appeared on the surface of the heart, his features twisted into a sinister smile:

"Look, this is your true form—a vessel chosen by the dark will."

"Impossible!" Li Zhao roared, veins bulging on his neck.

The source of light trembled violently in his arms, and the burst of light was like a sharp sword, scorching the surrounding darkness and filling the air with the smell of burning flesh.

But the man in black robes merely waved his scepter, and a ghostly blue flame instantly extinguished the light. The heat from the flames made Li Zhao's eyelashes curl.

"Why do you think you can control the Yin-Yang Orb? Why do the same patterns appear in your body as mine every time you use your power? Because from the very beginning, you were a vessel of light split off from the dark will!"

These words struck Li Zhao like a hammer blow. Memories flooded back uncontrollably: the eerie whispers that echoed in his ears when he first obtained the Yin-Yang Orb fragment, the voices seemingly emanating from the depths of his very bones.

When traveling through time and space, those familiar scenes seem as if they were already destined in fate.

Furthermore, the lines on the black-robed man's neck perfectly matched the marks that appeared after each time he was exhausted, down to the direction and depth.

Cold sweat trickled down his back, soaking his clothes. He suddenly realized that all his "resistance" might be part of the script of the dark will.

Just as Li Zhao wavered, the man in black robes seized the opportunity and pressed him hard against the black heart.

A crack appeared on the surface of his heart, and countless slippery tentacles wrapped around Li Zhao's limbs like living creatures, burrowing into his skin and drawing his life force.

Li Zhao felt his power rapidly slipping away like sand in an hourglass; double images began to appear before his eyes, and his consciousness gradually blurred.

Amidst the excruciating pain, Li Zhao heard Ling Yue's cry pierce through the layers of mirror images: "Li Zhao! Don't forget the words on the fragment—break the mirror image!"

These words were like a lightning bolt cleaving through the fog. Li Zhao suddenly realized that the mirrors around him were not just illusions, but a cage trapping him.

The words of the man in black robes and the hints in his memory are, in a way, another kind of "mirror image".

He forced himself to gather his remaining strength, blood seeping from his seven orifices, and simultaneously gripped the source of light, the fragment of the Yin-Yang Sphere, and the remaining pieces:

"So what if I am just a vessel? My will can never be controlled!"

The moment the light burst forth, all the mirrors cracked simultaneously, producing a crisp sound of shattering glass.

The golden chain on Lingyue's wrist snapped with a snap, sending sparks flying from the break.

She charged into the core battlefield following Li Zhao's source of power, her hair whipping wildly in the energy storm, her eyes burning with unwavering determination.

Enraged at the sight, the man in black robes shattered the gem at the top of his scepter, and the phantom of the three-headed giant wolf transformed into thousands of black arrows that shot towards the two of them.

The piercing whistling of the black arrows was deafening. Li Zhao gritted his teeth and swung his sword, forming a shield of light. The shield's surface was constantly dented by the black arrows, making a clanging sound.

Taking advantage of the moment, Lingyue embedded the fragment into the gap in the black heart. The instant the fragment touched the heart, the burst of light was like a volcanic eruption.

"Shatter!" With Li Zhao's roar, light and darkness collided violently inside his heart.

The entire virtual realm began to collapse, crystal structures fell like an avalanche, and spacetime twisted into a spiral shape.

Cracks also appeared on the black-robed man's body, black liquid seeping from the fissures. He stared at Li Zhao in disbelief: "Why... you were so close to the truth..."

"Because the truth shouldn't be defined by you!" Li Zhao's voice grew even more resolute amidst the roar.

The black heart finally succumbed to its strain and erupted with a dazzling white light, the light interspersed with countless tiny fragments, like a reversed galaxy.

When the light dissipated, Li Zhao and Ling Yue found themselves suspended in a chaotic space. There was no up, down, left, or right; only thick darkness and seven faint, fragmented lights in the distance. The lights were like lighthouses in a dark ocean, yet they also exuded an eerie chill.

Suddenly, the fragment of Lingyue emitted a sharp screech, and one of the beams of light flew rapidly towards them, transforming into a familiar figure the instant they made contact—Wenli, who should have vanished, appeared before them.

But at this moment, Wenli was surrounded by a layer of semi-transparent black mist, and her eyes flickered with a complex light she had never seen before, as if she felt guilty and helpless at the same time.

"You think this is victory?"

Wenli's voice echoed, as if it came from a great distance, "The real game has only just begun..."

Before the words were finished, the chaotic space trembled violently, and countless auras of the same origin as the black-robed man surged in from all directions, making it almost impossible for Li Zhao and Ling Yue to breathe due to the oppressive feeling.

Wenli's body began to turn transparent. She looked at Li Zhao one last time, her eyes filled with guilt and resolve: "Be careful... the 'Shadow Guard' of the Dark Will..."

Wenli vanished again, leaving only a string of shimmering light spots.

As an unprecedented crisis looms, Li Zhao and Ling Yue clutch the fragments tightly, bracing themselves for the unknown challenges to come.

In the surrounding darkness, the faint sound of chains being dragged could be heard, and countless cold gazes, like venomous snakes, were locked onto them...