Chapter 486: The Conspiracy in the Reflection

On the carriage returning, Ao Li stroked the newly formed Crack on her jade pendant; the fissure seeped fine, thread‑like violet mist under the moonlight, coalescing into a translucent little snake that slipped into her cuff. Lín Jìn suddenly pressed her wrist; the pocket‑watch chain had somehow tangled both their fingers, and the Crack on the inner side of the watch face pulsed in sync with the jade pendant's pattern.

"You have scales beneath your eyes," he whispered, lowering his voice, the bronze mirror in his sleeve reflecting a snake shadow moving deep within Ao Li's pupils. Outside the carriage window a child's pure singing drifted in, perfectly matching the verses of the dungeon serpent demon's humming lullaby, while the official road's sides were utterly deserted.

**I. Living Scars**

Blue blood seeped from the stone steps before the Mountain Gate of Lingxiao Pavilion. When Ao Li stepped onto the third step, the Dragon Chant Sword at her waist suddenly let out a mournful wail, and the black blood that had solidified on the Sword Sheath began to writhe, forming tiny formations that gnawed at the blade. Elder Xuanjing's pure bottle tilted at that moment, and Jade Pool water poured onto the steps, steaming into humanoid mist—the outline unmistakably that of a Zhen Pavilion disciple who had fallen in battle three days earlier.

"Purification requires three days and nights," Elder Xuanjing said, his golden thread winding around the Dragon Chant Sword, but when it touched the hilt it reverberated back, producing a Crack. Lín Jìn noticed the star‑map fragment that had slipped from his cuff, which was forged from the Black Blood Soil that Shen Mo had secretly kept last night.

**II. The Weave of Lies**

The crystal dome of the Council Hall reflected a projection of the nine‑star conjunction. When Pavilion Master Xuanfeng unfurled the defensive formation diagram, Ao Li saw that those formation lines perfectly overlapped the Crack on her jade pendant. "We must rebuild twelve Soul‑binding Towers within seven days," the Pavilion Master said, his fingertip tracing the Northern Snowfield; the ice crystals on the Sand Table suddenly revealed a blood‑colored camp, where five women identical in appearance to Ao Li were pouring Silver Slurry at the base of a tower.

Shen Mo suddenly coughed, and as his black robe billowed a clay jar at his waist became visible. Fluorescent Vines sprouting from the jar's mouth crawled along the floor cracks, silently coiling around an elder's ankle. Lín Jìn's pocket watch at that moment emitted a grinding screech, its glass reflecting the Pavilion Master's nape—there a snake scale was fading.

**III. Twin Hourglasses**

In the late‑night Library, Ao Li used the jade pendant's faint glow to search through ancient books. The *Chronicle of Celestial Expansion* that recorded the nine‑star conjunction was missing a crucial page, its torn edge stuck with the juice of Fluorescent Vines. When she pulled out the *Study of Mirror Abyss*, the reflection of the entire bookshelf suddenly extended countless pale arms.

"Watch the reflections," Lín Jìn's voice came from behind, the pocket‑watch chain tightening around her neck. The real him was surrounded by twelve bronze mirrors, each reflected figure holding a blood‑stained star map. Ao Li swung her sword, shattering the bronze mirrors; the flying shards revealed a horrifying scene: Pavilion Master Xuanfeng kneeling before a Double‑sided Deity Statue, thrusting the Dragon Chant Sword into the chest of a woman who was an exact duplicate of Ao Li.

**IV. Midnight Duel**

The night‑patrol disciple's lantern lit the corridor, its light and shadow painting a moving nine‑star formation on the paper windows. Shen Mo spread the blood‑stained soil in a dark room, and a miniature altar rose from the black mist. Five clay jars surrounded the black blood scraped from Ao Li's Sword Sheath, and the snake‑shaped Zhengtong on the jars' surfaces resonated with the dungeon chains.

"The seventh Container is ready," he whispered into the void, a scar shaped like a starburst where a throat‑scale had fallen off. The blood‑stained water in the bronze basin suddenly reflected Lín Jìn's face—the pocket‑watch's internal gears were reassembling, forming a miniature Shenyuan Gate. At the deepest part of the basin, the real Pavilion Master Xuanfeng floated with his eyes closed, seven chains piercing his body, the ends each tethered to a Moon Wheel from another of six temporal realms.

**End, Reverse Dawn**

When the first ray of sunlight pierced the clouds, all anomalous marks evaporated like dew. Ao Li watched the intact pupils in the mirror, the little snake at her cuff turning into black vapor and slipping back into the jade pendant. A dispatch came from the Council Hall: the northernmost Soul‑binding Tower had been completed ahead of schedule. Only Lín Jìn noticed that within the jade carving on the Sand Table representing the tower's body was embedded a half‑piece of a snake scale still turning.

Morning wind brushed the ruins of the Library, and a torn page of the *Record of Subduing Demons* suddenly ignited, its charred marks forming a new hexagram: nine stars encircling an inverted hanging sword. At that moment, an urgent border war report arrived— a village that had just been purified the previous night, whose villagers' reflections no longer followed their bodies.