Evil Emperor Zun

Chapter 2020 Distinguishing Loyalty from Treachery (Part 2)
This message was merely a brief interlude in this night destined to be turbulent.

Chen Shiyu didn't have much time to think about Chu Tianyao; he had more pressing matters to attend to.

What he had wanted to ask Ye Yunyan was that the two of them each condense a stream of energy, bind them together, and act as "coordinates" to lock onto the origin. Once he entered the unknown mirror space, he would continuously release energy streams like releasing a ball of yarn. Even if something went wrong and he lost his way, he could follow the marks left along the way to find his way back.

Ye Yunyan readily agreed to help if she could. The two tested it indoors first to confirm that there were no oversights, and then Chen Shiyu resolutely raised a hand and placed it on the mirror surface—effortlessly reaching inside.

As expected, a suction force was pulling him from the depths of the mirror, and a mysterious world was opening its doors to him. This time, he did not resist, but instead leaned his entire body into the mirror.

He felt as if he were passing through a curtain of water.

He felt himself falling into darkness.

The shift in space came so suddenly that Chen Shiyu didn't realize what was happening for a while.

He seemed to have sunk to the deepest seabed, lying there alone for a very long time. The moment he stepped across that mirror, all sound, color, and light were washed away, and the world froze into nothingness.

Is this the Mirror Space? Why is it like this in the mirror? How did Jing Shiyu find himself in this environment? A thousand thoughts, like a string of bubbles rising in the deep sea, condensed halfway into clumps of turbid, viscous paste, accumulating in Jing Shiyu's mind, filling every gap in his thoughts, making his consciousness, along with his entire body, become increasingly stiff and sluggish.

No… I can’t linger here too long. I need to get up quickly and find some clues… As soon as this thought crossed my mind, it was as if some unknown force propelled me to stand upright. The dark, oppressive sea around me was no longer there, but instead, an endless tunnel stretched out before me, its destination unknown.

The perspective changed from looking up to looking straight ahead, but there was no sense of solid ground beneath his feet. What was below? Just as he had the thought of "looking down," the perspective before him changed again from looking straight ahead to looking down. A sliver of light, shrouded in darkness, sank downwards at an angle, as if it were a stairway to the underworld.

Everywhere was pitch black, with no reliable landmarks and his senses about his body were unusually vague. He couldn't accurately judge his posture or the direction he was facing. Only each time he tried to turn his gaze, a faint light source would appear at the edge of the darkness, creating a path that allowed him to move forward. It was like a panoramic sphere that could be manipulated 360 degrees with a thought. This space was truly eerie.

And the longer he stayed there, the more he felt than fear; instead, he felt a sense of belonging, like returning to the womb. He felt so at ease that he just wanted to close his eyes completely, to see nothing, to think nothing, and to let himself drift into a deep sleep, until he became one with the mirror.

In these moments of semi-consciousness, a wave of energy, seemingly transmitted from another distant space, suddenly propelled his magic power to vibrate rhythmically.

It was an energy beam! Perhaps Ye Yunyan discovered that her own energy was gradually weakening through the energy beam that bound them together. She didn't know what had happened and couldn't contact herself, so she could only activate her spiritual power, hoping to "awaken" herself through the resonance of the energy beam.

Stimulated by this external force, Chen Shiyu did regain some of his senses. He wiggled his little finger to confirm that the energy beam was still firmly wrapped around his fingertip. This was his confidence—the confidence to find his way back no matter which direction he went!

Since there's no difference between any directions, let's just choose one and go.

Chen Shiyu was unaware that, besides him, there were other groups of people who had also experienced entering the mirror space. However, the situations that Ye Shuo, Huangfu Li, and others, who were in the training class at the time, encountered in the mirror were completely different from his, ultimately due to the difference in their "form of existence."

To illustrate, imagine shrinking a normal human body and placing it inside a machine. All it would touch are various sophisticated circuit boards. However, if its entire being were replaced with a string of data, it could enter a "virtual" space. This is analogous to the distinction between hardware and software.

The mirror image is gradually swallowed by the mirror, precisely because of the "homogenization" of its form of existence. Homogeneous things merge upon contact; tiny matter becomes part of a larger matter, and the original individual can no longer be distinguished. Chen Shiyu often feels himself floating when walking in the darkness, as if his consciousness would slip away like a balloon with a broken string if he is not careful.

The world in the mirror must have some connection to the outside world, which is why Kagami Touyu was able to come before him... A mirror image can appear anywhere the original body is reflected, but now there is no "original body" that can be reflected. Could this be the reason why he is trapped in the void...?

Once you enter the mirror, you'll be out of sync with the outside timeline... Although there's no longer a "original body" at this point in time, there are other points in time... Go back, go back to before everything began...

In the endless darkness, countless stars suddenly lit up. In the blink of an eye, those tiny particles of light fell like comets, expanding into fist-sized transparent spheres as they approached Chen Shiyu, floating lightly around him. Each sphere flashed with a scene, depicting various versions of Chen Shiyu. It seemed these were moments from his past, reflected in the mirror.

That must have been back in the early days of Tian Tan. Other players would occasionally appear in the scene, all of them looking quite young and inexperienced. What particularly caught the audience's attention was Chen Shiyu's strikingly different aura.

It was an absolute, icy indifference that seeped into his eyes and permeated his very bones. Even if the entire Tiantan were to instantly turn into a desolate wasteland before him, he wouldn't even flinch. Accompanying this ruthlessness was an unparalleled air of noble dominance, as if he were a king walking among men, awaiting the kneeling worship of all living beings.

The sphere only plays images; no sound is heard, so the detailed process remains unknown. The biggest question now is: is this a real scene, or an illusion created by a mirror space?

Because the audience can only follow Shui Wunian's perspective, only events he personally witnessed and remembered will be played in the Rabbit Orange Crystal Ball. However, he happens to be the last of the three witnesses to arrive; by the time he arrives, more than half of the story has already passed. Chen Shiyu, who first appears, is the sunny young man everyone is familiar with. As for what he was like in his early days, no one really knows for sure.

Chen Shiyu walked through the various scenes without looking to the side. His consciousness seemed to be telling him that this was not the place, this was not his "home". When he left them behind, the abandoned spheres burst open like dim soap bubbles.

As he walked, the scenes shifted. It's unclear when it started, but Chen Shiyu in the "memories" changed; his smile became more frequent, and many friends gathered around him. Some scenes were identified by netizens as actual clips that had been broadcast on the show. It seems these mirrored fragments appear in a pattern and order. Like time itself, they offer only one chance to be chosen; once it's gone, it's gone forever.

Chen Shiyu finally stopped, gazing intently at the spherical image suspended before him. The image was quickly magnified, first expanding to his height, and then the entire space became like a panoramic projector, displaying the image everywhere—up, down, left, right, and in all directions.

In the picture, I am bending over and washing my face in front of the bathroom mirror, my movements are slightly stiff.

Chen Shiyu immediately recognized the timing of this scene. It was right after Ye Yunyan had asked him to use his pupil technique to investigate the Devouring Clan. In order to avoid the risk of being corrupted, he came up with the plan to clone people. Before taking action, he specially washed his face and adjusted himself to his best condition.

That's where the gears start to turn. And that's where you can still apply the brakes.

After washing his face, he encountered Mirror Ten Feather, who had come to warn him. It wanted to persuade him to give up, unwilling to suffer the same fate as it. At that time, he was full of fighting spirit and could never have imagined that this ominous prophecy would come true. Now, it was his turn to be trapped in the mirror, staring at his past "self" outside the mirror.

Everything seemed like a predetermined cycle of fate. Next, he could choose to warn "him," sternly warning him not to do anything unnecessary and to abandon the cloning project. In that case, his past self could live a normal life, a life completely unrelated to his present self.

However, he will no longer be able to experience the sunshine and rain, the treasures and opportunities, the romance and love that he once enjoyed. He will move towards a future full of infinite possibilities, while his own fate may be to perish alone in a mirror or in a copying machine.

There's another option: to seize "his" body while his past self is still unaware and unprepared! It's his original identity, nothing has changed. Once he "wears" "his" body, he can easily reclaim everything that belongs to him. As long as he stops meddling in the affairs of the Devouring Clan, he won't get involved in any messy entanglements with people from the future… That's right, it's like reloading a save file; as long as he cuts off the "branches" that have temporarily gone astray, he can get back on track.

The perfectly intact body before him, completely unaware of what was happening, looked so alluring, like a delicious meal waiting to be devoured.

A rapidly surging desire pounded against Chen Shiyu's chest like drumbeats. At this moment, how could he not know where his heart lay? And it was because of this that it was as if the heavy cloth that had long covered a black box had been lifted, and his heart was suddenly filled with clear light.

In that moment, he truly experienced for the first time the mindset of "viewing the past self from the perspective of the future self." What the former desires is to seize the latter's life, to relive it in their prime. In their eyes, the latter is a tailor-made spare container, the price to pay for wrong decisions, an opportunity to escape from a desperate situation, but never a living, breathing person independent of themselves, with their own will and emotions that they do not want to be replaced, worthy of respect.

Thanks to this unpleasant experience, he was able to realize that people from the future could not possibly have any good intentions towards him!

Moreover, judging from Ye Yunyan's description, once a person is corrupted, they will exhibit a completely "id" state. Nothing external will have any restraint on them; they will be absolute egoists. Their standards of right and wrong will be simply divided into "want" and "don't want." They will decisively refuse to do things they don't want to do, and they will naturally fight for what they want without any scruples. People transformed into this kind of person will be even more cruel and greedy when facing the struggle for survival than they are now.

It doesn't matter whether Jing Shiyu or Hei Shiyu is your future self. The genuine product and the counterfeit are equally untrustworthy. Just treat them all as enemies.

The heart-wrenching anxiety that Jing Shiyu felt when it warned him was still vivid in his mind. However, when Chen Shiyu switched places with it and looked back at its actions, he couldn't help but understand another layer of meaning.

It probably truly doesn't want to become a mirror image. Because it can no longer return to an earlier point in time, it is its last hope. If it also becomes a mirror image, there's no point in it "possessing" this body again.

Upon seeing this, Hua Banxia seemed to understand.

Based on Feng Yi'er's account of her experiences, she suddenly understood why those who died in the Lost Galaxy became vengeful ghosts from the past.

They perished in a terrifying wasteland, their souls trapped there, unable to reincarnate. In this unprecedented despair, perhaps one of the first ruthless individuals conceived of using the spacetime distortions here to decisively attack his past self, seize his body, and be reborn!
Perhaps someone did create a successful precedent, or perhaps everyone driven to the brink eventually takes the same path. In any case, since when, this has become the fixed trend in the Lost Galaxy. Those who die violently will return to hunt their past selves, and after those past selves die, they will attack even earlier past selves. The cycle of death and reincarnation that shrouds the Lost Galaxy is not a trap of the perilous place itself, but rather a trap created by the adventurers who wander here!

Upon closer examination, there is actually a reason for making such a choice. After all, people are not necessarily good to "themselves." Rather, it is precisely because it is themselves that they feel more at ease taking from others.

For many people, only the self they are in the present moment, the self they can feel and the self they can freely control with their consciousness, is the real self. They will only consider their own interests in this present moment.

To give a simple example. Indeed, few people will directly confront the extreme situation of "taking over the past self," but common examples such as wasting time in youth by being lazy and indulging in pleasure, leaving life's problems to be faced by the future self, have long been the footnotes of too many failures. As for those selves living at other points in time who will not be synchronized with every drop of sweat and every bit of pain, they are merely the present self's natural "escape route."

Chen Shiyu's current predicament is very similar to "being hunted by his future self and then returning to the past." However, a mirror image can only return to the place where the original body is reflected in the mirror. If the ghosts of lost star systems also have the same principle, such as the return conditions being related to vision and only being able to return to places that the original body has seen with its eyes, then the adventurers' use of blindfolding to resist causality might actually have some basis.

However, following this line of thought, Hua Banxia began to feel a strong sense of worry, which she couldn't stop.

For the ordinary people living under this sky, time should be moving forward like a straight one-way street. However, what happened to the Lost Galaxy and Chen Shiyu broke this rule. It was like placing a powerful hair dryer next to a thin thread. The thread was shaken by the strong wind and knotted. The past, present, and future were all intertwined, interfering with each other and becoming cause and effect, giving rise to a series of unsolvable paradoxes.

Both of these unusual events are related to the Gnawing Clan.

Hei Shiyu said the Devourer King was a gigantic Devourer, and Feng Yi'er said she saw a gigantic Devourer corpse in the Lost Star System. Coincidentally, both times the order collapsed when the phantom of the king appeared.

Although the reason is unknown, the malfunction itself points to the source of the error.

The outer space cannot accommodate the mature forms of the Gnawing Clan.

If the spacetime disorder continues to expand... and the existing system of laws ceases to exist, the world will fall into total collapse! Could this be the truth behind the "Devouring Clan King bringing about the apocalypse"?!
Hua Banxia and Chen Shiyu were both immersed in their own shock. During this time, the past version of Chen Shiyu had already washed his face and left the bathroom.

Without a reflection, the scene before them quickly dimmed, and the surrounding projections vanished in an instant, plunging the entire space back into darkness, like a silent shattering. This exit from the point of return was also closed.

Chen Shiyu paused for a moment to calm himself down, then continued walking forward.

The last time his past was reflected in the mirror was in front of the Gnawing Clan's cage. He held the notebook, gazing intently at the Gnawing Clan's image in the mirror, his hand holding the pen moving rhythmically. This would be a long record-keeping process, lasting several hours.

Looking at "himself" from this angle was indeed rather strange. Those two probing and wary gazes seemed to be fixed directly on him. However, unless he actively pressed the mirror, exposing his presence to the outside world, his past self would only see a normal reflection. "He" and the gnawing race behind him...

No, wait… Chen Shiyu suddenly grasped something from his turbulent thoughts. It was like prey that darted past him, disappearing in an instant, yet leaving a blinding reflection in the distance. He knew it was there; if he patiently walked over, parted the grass, and found it again.

—The Gnawing Clan left their image in the mirror.

—And now I am in the world of mirrors.

That means...

Chen Shiyu's body stiffened instantly. He felt a distinct, heavy weight fall on his back.

He slowly turned his head around.

The massive, overwhelming army of the Devouring Clan, stretching as far as the eye can see and as far as the sky can see, like a towering mountain range...

Right here in this space.

Right in front of him.