Becoming a god starting from blacksmithing

Chapter 26 The Man in the Mirror

The morning mist in Crow Town had not yet dissipated.

Shen Chi walked to the window and glanced outside. The window diagonally opposite was closed. The figure behind the paper window was gone.

He stood there for a while. The fog was thick, and only half of the lockstone was visible in the fog, like a row of silent sentinels.

"I'm gone."

Shi Jian's voice came from the doorway, interrupting Shen Chi's thoughts.

"He's waiting up ahead."

Shen Chi didn't ask who it was. He knew Shi Jian was referring to Zhou Xuan.

------

There is only one mountain road leading out of the town.

The low bushes on both sides were shrouded in mist, obscuring their depths. The path was paved with gravel, making a loud sound with every step, as if announcing to others – someone had arrived.

Enter the dense forest.

There was a person standing in the middle of the road ahead.

Shen Chi stopped.

Shi Jian raised his hand to Mo Huaizhou and Azhu, signaling them to step back to the side of the road. Mo Huaizhou pulled Azhu back a few steps and stood behind a withered tree.

The person in front turned around.

Zhou Xuan's face was the same as the one he'd seen at the end of town last night—young, clean-cut, and expressionless. But his eyes were different. Yesterday they were calm, like he was looking at someone who needed to register. Now they were serious, like he was looking at an opponent.

He raised his right hand.

The Lock Yuan energy surged from his palm—not with the overwhelming oppressive force of Gu Cangming, nor with the sharp, menacing killing intent of the executioners of the Judgment Division. Zhou Xuan's Lock Yuan energy was concentrated, quiet, and as natural as water bubbling from a spring.

The locked energy condensed into a black nail shadow about an inch long above his palm.

Hanging in the balance.

The edges of the nail shadow were very clear, as if carved with a knife. It was spinning on its own, as if it were alive.

"The first move."

He flicked his wrist—and the nail flew out of his palm.

It traced an arc along the ground at incredible speed, like a black snake slithering along the earth, aiming straight for Shen Chi's calf.

Shen Chi had no time to think. He slammed the hundred-refined hammer into the ground. The hammerhead struck the ground with a dull thud. Gravel flew up, raising a cloud of stone chips in front of Shen Chi.

But the image of the nail is just as vivid as if it were alive.

It paused for a moment in front of the rubble—like a snake looking up—before dodging the rubble and striking Shen Chi's knee from the side.

Shen Chi didn't have time to retract his hammer. Bronze flames surged from the soles of his feet as he raised his foot and kicked to the side, meeting the shadow of the nail with the sole of his foot.

The nail shadow and the oath fire collided. A muffled thud, like a wooden stick hitting a damp cloth. Shen Chi felt as if someone had tapped his foot with a nail through the sole of his shoe—not hard, but precise.

The nail shadows dissipated.

He put his foot down and looked down—there was a hole in the sole of his shoe, the edges were charred black, and wisps of smoke were rising from it. But he wasn't injured.

Zhou Xuan did not pursue. He stood still, glanced at the hole, and his gaze shifted slightly—not out of surprise, but more like he was confirming something.

Shen Chi lifted the hundred-refined hammer from the ground and gripped it tightly. His feet were still numb.

------

"The second move."

Zhou Xuan spread his five fingers.

Five black threads of energy shot out from his fingertips—though they didn't solidify like the nail shadows, they drifted like smoke at extremely high speeds.

Two snakes coiled around Shen Chi's ankles. Two snakes blocked Shen Chi's escape route. One snake went straight for Shen Chi's throat.

Shen Chi did not retreat. He activated his inner seal, channeling the Oath Flame into the Hundred-Refined Hammer. He swung it in a circle, a ring of bronze-colored flames sweeping across his body.

The moment the Lock Yuan Silk touched the Oath Fire, it retracted like a burned thread, with black smoke billowing from the broken end.

But of the five strands, he only caught four.

A thread came up from behind his ankle, wrapped around his wrist that was holding the hammer, and tightened suddenly.

He gritted his teeth, not loosening his grip on the hammer. Oathfire automatically surged from his wrist, beginning to burn the binding thread. The thread snapped inch by inch in the firelight, turning into drifting black smoke. But the bandage mark remained, faintly still burning.

Zhou Xuan withdrew his fingers. He looked at the marks on Shen Chi's wrist, then at the black smoke remnants left by the burned-out Lock Yuan Silk on the ground. He remained silent for a moment.

That silence wasn't hesitation. It was judgment. Shen Chi gleaned something from that brief silence—Zhou Xuan was assessing him, not testing his strength, but confirming some quality in him.

------

"The third move."

Zhou Xuan clasped his hands together.

The Lock Yuan energy condensed in his palm. The black Lock Yuan energy seemed to be kneaded by an invisible hand, slowly unfolding and solidifying into a mirror half the height of a person, suspended in front of him.

The mirror's surface was as smooth as water, but it couldn't reflect the surrounding mountain path and low forest, only a bottomless darkness. Like a door leading elsewhere.

Shen Chi saw himself.

A figure of Shen Chi stood in the mirror. The same figure, the same wielding of the Hundred-Refined Hammer, the same standing on the mountain path. Even the wrinkles in his clothes and the ring of marks on his wrists were exactly the same.

But the Shen Chi in the mirror had an empty chest. There was no light from the bronze seal, no flickering flame of the oath. Only a grayness—like something had been ripped out of a person's body, leaving an empty void.

Shen Chi stared at the empty space in his chest. His first thought wasn't fear—it was confusion. Was that him? If there were no Heart Imprint, no Oath Flame, would he have become like that?

Zhou Xuan's voice came from behind the mirror, calm and emotionless:

"Look closely. This is the end."

Shen Chi didn't ask Zhou Xuan what he meant. He put the Hundred-Refined Hammer back into his waistband and drew the Heart-Guarding Sword from his storage ring.

The sword's blade was coated with a thick layer of bronze-colored flame. The sword was restless, as if it were even more eager than Shen Chi to shatter the mirror.

Shen Chi gripped the hilt of his sword, stepped forward, and slashed at the mirror with his sword.

The instant the sword fell, he felt the Guardian Sword vibrate slightly in his hand, as if to say: Yes, this is it. At the same time, the seal on his chest jerked, its vibration matching the sword's. It wasn't the seal that was driving the sword; it was the sword that was drawing the seal.

The mirror shattered. It broke into countless black fragments, exploding in mid-air. Those fragments turned into wisps of black smoke and dissipated.

Zhou Xuan took a step back. His gaze shifted from the dissipating black smoke to the sword in Shen Chi's hand. The sword still bore the remnants of bronze firelight. The flowing patterns had been ignited—starting from the hilt, slowly moving along the spine towards the tip, like a lit river.

Zhou Xuan watched for a while.

"You really are different."

Shen Chi, panting, gripped his sword without speaking. The sword had drained much of his strength, but he felt his inner seal was more stable than before, as if it had been solidified by that tremor.

Zhou Xuan withdrew his hand. The locked energy dissipated, as if it had never existed. The remaining energy in the air was dispersed by the morning breeze, and the mountain path returned to silence.

He turned and took a few steps, then stopped without looking back.

"There are people waiting for you ahead. Take care of yourself."

The gray-robed figure disappeared into the depths of the dense forest.

------

Shen Chi sheathed the Guardian Sword. The flowing water ripples returned to their original darkness—it seemed the sliver of light that had appeared earlier was just an illusion. But he knew it wasn't. The Heart Imprint still remembered that frequency.

He glanced down at his right wrist. The dark mark was still there, faintly burning. But the Oath Fire was slowly fading it—like a wound healing itself, only slowly. He moved his wrist; it was fine.

A-Zhu walked to his side and touched the back of his hand again.

Shen Chi looked down at her. Her fingers were cool, like morning dew.

A-Zhu's gaze fell on the marks on his wrist, lingered for a moment, then she looked up at the direction Zhou Xuan had disappeared in.

"His light was gray."

Shen Chi remained silent for a moment. Gray. They weren't there to kill him. People from the Enforcement Hall. People who enforce the rules. They wouldn't kill him, nor would they let him go; they were simply following the rules.

Then he looked at Shi Jian.

"Are all the people in the Enforcement Hall like this?"

Shi Jian thought for a moment, then shook his head: "Zhou Xuan is the most law-abiding of this generation. But that's all he is."

"What do you mean?"

"He won't do more, nor will he do less." Shi Jian glanced into the depths of the dense forest. "Those three moves just now, he's already done what he was supposed to do."

Shen Chi didn't ask any more questions.

The four continued forward.

------

As we left Raventown, the morning mist gradually thinned. Sunlight filtered through gaps in the clouds, casting dappled light and shadow on the mountain path, illuminating the gravel surface. The air began to smell of earth and wild grass—no longer the drab, somber atmosphere of Raventown.

As Shen Chi walked, he was still thinking about the mirror from earlier.

An empty chest. It wasn't an illusion—he could feel it. What was reflected in the mirror was something real. Not his current self, but what he might become. When the Heart-Locking Nails are pressed down to the end, everyone will become like that. Without emotion, without promises, even their hearts are empty. This is the ending Zhou Xuan spoke of.

He glanced at his chest. Beneath the fabric, the bronze seal pulsed gently, warm, with a rhythmic heartbeat. It was still alive. That was enough.

The outline of the mountains can be vaguely seen ahead.

Shen Chi quickened his pace.

Ah Zhu was beside him when she suddenly touched the back of his hand again.

"The person in that mirror," she whispered, "is not you."

Shen Chi paused in his tracks: "How did you know?"

"Because your light is still there," A-Zhu said calmly. "It can shine on you when you don't emit light. But you are already shining."

Shen Chi glanced at the top of A-Zhu's head—the little girl was walking to his right, her steps small but steady. Sometimes, the things she said didn't sound like something a thirteen-year-old would say.

"That's what the monument told me," A-Zhu added, as if answering a question he hadn't asked aloud.

Shen Chi was silent for a moment. The monument. The monument to the hearts of the people of Qingxi Town. After Azhu encountered it, she started saying strange things. He didn't ask further. Some answers could wait until they reached Tian Shu City.

Shi Jian walked behind them. When he heard the word "stele", he paused for a moment, his gaze falling on the back of A Zhu's head. He looked away after a moment.

The mountain road ahead took a turn, and the path became steeper. The gravel surface turned into a dirt road, which felt softer underfoot.

Shen Chi glanced back. The town of Han Ya was no longer visible. The morning mist completely obscured the path they had come from, as if the town had never existed.

"Once we cross that mountain ridge, we'll reach the plains of Tian Shu City," Shi Jian said.

Shen Chi looked ahead. At the end of the road, a gray-blue mountain ridge stretched across the horizon. The highest point was half-obscured by clouds, making it impossible to see what lay beyond.

That's the path they're going to take.

He recalled Zhou Xuan's last words—"There are people waiting for you ahead." Who was waiting? People from the Enforcement Hall? People from the Judgment Division? People from the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion? The old Pavilion Master? Or someone else? He didn't know. But he knew where he was going. Tian Shu City. Wan Juan Lou.

Shen Chi let out a breath. Shi Jian had said that Zhou Xuan had already done what he needed to do in those three moves. So now it was his turn.

He quickened his pace.

Behind us, the morning mist gradually swallowed up the path we had come from.

Ahead, the mountain ridge waited quietly for them in the sunlight.