People in the Imperial Music Bureau: The Storytelling Demon Child Nezha

Chapter 294 How are you?

With a wave of her hand, the entire wall of the imperial study transformed into a mirror, and the reflections of everyone emerged from it, wielding weapons identical to their real bodies!

"Mirror Demon Clone!" Li Qiye swung his blade at his own reflection, but the broken blade pierced through the illusion, instead slashing his arm.

Zhong Yue tossed the copper bell into the air, its sound shattering large swathes of the mirror: "These clones share the same senses as the main body; when they attack, they must—" Before he could finish, a blur appeared behind him, sharp claws formed from mirror runes aimed straight for his back!

In the nick of time, Li Qiye blocked Zhong Yue's path with his sword, the broken blade clashing with the claws in a deafening roar. He gritted his teeth, enduring the immense force, the patterns on his star ring resonating with the broken mirror, and a beam of golden light shot out from the mirror, striking the afterimage in the chest!

"Hmph!" The afterimage flew backward, the mirror mark on his chest flashing continuously. "Interesting. But do you think this can hurt me?" He raised his hand and waved, and all the Imperial Guards suddenly self-destructed, the violent explosions knocking them all to the ground.

Amidst the billowing smoke, Huaiqing's voice, filled with the madness of victory, rang out: "Li Qiye, just watch! This is the consequence of your rebellion against the storybook! When the last fragment of the Pisces Jade Pendant is pieced together, the Mirror Demon will descend in full force!"

"We can't let her succeed!" Su Yueli's glass sword flashed across the ground, its vines coiling around the surrounding mirror demon clones like living creatures. "Senior Zhong, is there any way to stop the jade pendant from restoring itself?"

Zhong Yue wiped the blood from his face, a thoughtful glint in his single eye: "The barrier left by the High Priest should have the power to restrain the Mirror Demon, but it's too late to reach the site of the Primordial Mirror now!" He suddenly turned to Li Qiye, "Young friend, your Star Ring emits golden light when it resonates with the broken mirror; perhaps it can temporarily suppress the jade pendant!"

Li Qiye forced himself to stand, pressing his hand to his aching chest: "But I can't control that power at all! And the afterimage is still there..." Before he could finish speaking, the gray-clad afterimage had already solidified again, the mirror-patterned longbow in his hand fully drawn, three arrows glowing with a ghostly blue light pointing directly at the three of them.

"Attack together!" Zhao Ling brandished the Demon-Suppressing Blade and charged forward. The Soul-Suppressing Incantation light on the blade clashed with the Mirror Demon's clone, sending sparks flying. While fending off the clone's attacks, he shouted, "I'll hold off the afterimages! You all go stop the Empress!"

However, the afterimage let out a cold laugh, the arrow vanished instantly, and the next second, three arrows pierced through the air from behind Zhao Ling! Li Qiye's pupils shrank sharply, and he lunged forward with all his might, using his body to shield Zhao Ling from the fatal blow. The arrowheads pierced his shoulder, and the excruciating pain made his vision go black for a moment.

"Li Qiye!" Su Yueli's glass sword erupted with blinding light, countless sword beams weaving into a net that trapped the afterimage within. She cried out anxiously, "How are you?"

Li Qiye gritted his teeth, the patterns on the star ring growing increasingly hot with each passing pain. He endured the agony and pointed the broken mirror at Huaiqing: "Don't worry about me! First...stop the jade pendant!" Golden light flickered within the cracks on the mirror's surface, but it could never coalesce into a power strong enough to suppress the jade pendant.

The mirror array surrounding Huaiqing surged with light, and the last fragment of the Pisces jade pendant traced an arc in the air, about to merge with the other fragments. At this critical moment, Zhong Yue suddenly pulled out a handful of rune powder and scattered it into the air. The powder transformed into a wall of light, temporarily hindering the piecing together of the jade pendant.

Chapter 295 Mirror Space

"This is the Demon-Suppressing Dust left behind by the High Priest; it can only buy us a little time!"

Zhong Yue, panting heavily, said, "Young friend, concentrate! Use the resonance between the Star Ring and the Remnant Mirror! The High Priest's remnant soul is within; awakening him might offer a glimmer of hope!"

Li Qiye closed his eyes, forcibly suppressing the excruciating pain in his body, and concentrated all his mental energy on the Star Ring and the Broken Mirror.

Memories flooded back, and he seemed to see the High Priest merging his own soul into the Primordial Mirror as it was forged. "So that's how it is..." He abruptly opened his eyes; the Star Ring and the broken mirror simultaneously erupted with dazzling golden light, and a phantom image emerged from the broken mirror.

"High Priest!" the crowd exclaimed in surprise.

The illusory figure's face was blurred, yet it possessed a reassuring aura of majesty. He raised his hand, and golden light transformed into a chain, binding the twin-fish jade pendant that was being assembled.

"Mirror Demon, your conspiracy must end!"

The high priest's voice carried an endless sense of vicissitude, "I deliberately left a flaw back then, precisely for this day. You thought that by devouring my soul you could control everything, but little did you know that this was precisely your Achilles' heel!"

Upon seeing this, the afterimage burst into maniacal laughter: "High Priest? Nothing more than a remnant soul! The Mirror Demon already knew your plan; it was all part of the script!"

The mirror-patterned longbow in his hand transformed once more, turning into a gigantic scythe, which slashed towards the high priest's illusory figure.

Li Qiye, Su Yueli, and Zhong Yue exchanged a glance and attacked simultaneously.

The broken blade, the glass sword, and the black iron chains clashed with the scythe, unleashing a deafening roar. Zhao Ling seized the opportunity to rush forward, his demon-suppressing blade piercing the mirror array surrounding Huai Qing, attempting to disrupt the channel through which the mirror demon possessed him.

"sucker Punch!"

A fierce glint flashed in Huaiqing's eyes, and the mirror array suddenly expanded, enveloping everyone within it. Within this mirror space, everyone's power seemed to be constantly weakened, and mirror demon clones surged in like a tide.

Just as everyone was in dire straits, the broken mirror in Li Qiye's hand suddenly trembled violently, and blinding blood light burst forth from the spiderweb-like cracks on its surface. The high priest's phantom began to burn, transforming into countless blood-red runes that merged into the mirror's surface!

"With the soul as the guide, the broken mirror will be mended"—the high priest's voice echoed in the crimson blood, "Li Qiye, now!"

(ahae) Li Qiye had a sudden inspiration and pressed the star ring into the center of the broken mirror.

The star patterns on the ring perfectly matched the cracks in the mirror, and a dazzling galaxy burst forth from the mirror, illuminating the entire mirror space.

Huaiqing let out a shrill scream, and the twin fish jade pendant fragments floating around her suddenly stopped, revealing the same blood-red runes as the High Priest.

No! This is... The afterimage's scythe solidified in mid-air, and the body beneath the gray robe began to crack. You actually hid the Soul-Burning Curse in the Primordial Mirror!

Zhong Yue's one eye suddenly widened: So that's how it is! The High Priest used his own soul as a catalyst for the spell. If the Mirror Demon devoured him, it would be like swallowing a bomb! He yanked off the copper bell from his waist and threw it into the air. Everyone closed their eyes!

The moment the copper bell exploded, the entire Mirror Space shattered like broken glass.

In the bright light, Li Qiye saw Huaiqing's reflection suddenly turn around. The mirrored Huaiqing gave him a strange smile, and uttered a few words between his lips:

Do you think this is over?

The real Imperial Study collapsed with a deafening roar, and everyone fell amidst countless shards of glass. In the final moments before losing consciousness, Li Qiye gripped Huaiqing's wrist tightly. The starry patterns on his star ring spread along her meridians, shredding the mirror-like markings that had appeared on her skin...

Chapter 296 The Real Mastermind

Li Qiye suddenly opened his eyes and found himself standing in a void of darkness. Beneath his feet were countless shattered mirrors, each fragment reflecting a different scene—some familiar memories, others scenes he had never seen before.

"This is... the Mirror Demon's domain?" He looked around warily and found that everyone else was gone, and he was all alone.

“No, this is deep within your consciousness.” A deep voice came from behind.

Li Qiye whirled around and saw a mysterious figure wearing a bamboo hat standing not far away, holding an unfinished bronze mirror in his hand. The mirror was incomplete, yet it faintly gleamed with golden light.

"High Priest?" Li Qiye's pupils contracted slightly.

The man in the straw hat slowly raised his head, revealing a weathered yet dignified face: "To be precise, I am a wisp of obsession remaining in the Primordial Mirror." He waved his hand, and the surrounding darkness receded like a tide, replaced by a burning bamboo forest. "Twenty years ago, when I forged the Primordial Mirror, I had a premonition that the Mirror Demon would one day use it to descend upon the world."

Li Qiye stared at him: "So you deliberately let the Mirror Demon devour your soul?"

“Indeed.” The high priest’s voice was resolute. “The Mirror Demon feeds on ‘narratives.’ The more it resists, the more exciting the story becomes, and the stronger its power grows. The only way to break it is to let it devour a ‘uncontrollable’ soul—for example, a soul that has already set a trap.”

Li Qiye's heart skipped a beat: "The Soul-Burning Curse?"

The high priest nodded: "Once the Soul Burning Curse is triggered, it will dismantle the Mirror Demon's narrative structure from within. But..." He paused, his gaze grave, "the Mirror Demon is not the true source."

"What do you mean?"

"The Mirror Demon is nothing more than a puppet of 'that one'." The high priest raised his hand and pointed, and an image appeared in the void—an ancient bronze gate, covered with strange mirror patterns, with black mist seeping from the cracks.

"The real mastermind is 'the being behind the door,'" the high priest's voice became ethereal. "It is the weaver of all narratives, and the Mirror Demon is merely its pen."

Li Qiye's breath hitched: "What about Huaiqing, Zhao Ling, and the others..."

"They are still in the real world, but the Mirror Demon's narrative has distorted reality." The High Priest's figure began to dissipate. "You must wake up and find the real 'door,' otherwise... everyone will become a character in its story, forever condemned." Before the words were finished, the entire world suddenly collapsed.

0 ······Requesting flowers 0 ····

"Li Qiye! Wake up!"

Su Yueli's anxious voice rang in his ears, and Li Qiye suddenly opened his eyes, finding himself lying in the ruins.

The Imperial Study had completely collapsed, and the sky was shrouded in a strange black mist. Huaiqing was suspended in mid-air, surrounded by a complete pair of jade fish pendants. The light from the mirror array almost swallowed the entire imperial city.

...... .... 0

"You're finally awake!" Zhao Ling rushed over, covered in blood, his voice hoarse. "Senior Zhong won't last much longer!"

Li Qiye looked up and saw Zhong Yue standing alone in front of the Imperial Guards' overwhelming offensive. His black iron chains were broken, and blood was seeping from his single eye, yet he was still desperately holding back the puppets controlled by the Mirror Demon.

"The Mirror Demon's narrative has entered its final stage..." Li Qiye gritted his teeth, stood up, and gripped the broken mirror in his hand. "We must break the mirror array of the Pisces Jade Pendant!"

"How do we break it?" Su Yueli asked anxiously, "Even Senior Zhong couldn't break it!"

Chapter 297 The Boundary of the Storybook

Li Qiye looked down at the broken mirror, but the reflection in the mirror was not himself, but the phantom of the bronze giant gate.

“Because… we’ve always been in the story of the Mirror Demon.” He slowly raised his head, a resolute glint in his eyes. “The real way to break the deadlock is not to confront the narrative.”

"Instead—rewriting the ending."

Li Qiye's voice, mixed with a metallic sweetness in his throat, resonated faintly on the ruins shrouded in black mist.

Su Yue's "940" glass ears twitched suddenly as she saw golden threads seeping from the broken mirror in his palm, climbing up his arm like living things and weaving a spiderweb-like chain of light between the patterns on the star ring.

Ripples spread across the floating mirror array in Huaiqing, and countless overlapping images were reflected in the light spots projected by the Pisces Jade Pendant—she personally fastened the Star Ring for Li Qiye in the Golden Palace, Zhao Ling shielded him from the mirror demon's corruption in the Demon Suppression Division's dungeon, and the black mist seeping from the gaps in the bronze giant gate was quietly climbing onto the mirror blank when the High Priest was forging the Primordial Mirror in the bamboo forest.

“There’s a gap in the Mirror Demon’s narrative chain.” Li Qiye pointed the broken mirror at the jade pendant, and the golden threads in the mirror suddenly surged, outlining the incantation carved by the High Priest before his death in the void. “It thought it could trap us with the ‘closed loop of fate,’ but it forgot that every story needs an ‘observer’—and we have seen scenes that do not belong to this story.”

Zhao Ling suddenly remembered the man in the bamboo forest casting mirrors in the burning bamboo forest, and the veins on his hand gripping the knife bulged: "The afterimage left by the high priest? He had long anticipated that the mirror demon would tamper with memories, and deliberately planted 'foreign objects' in our consciousness?"

Zhong Yue knelt on one knee, his black iron chains wrapped around a shattered pillar, his single eye reflecting the ever-expanding dark spot between Huai Qing's brows: "The Mirror Demon devours reality with 'rationality,' but if we can prove that 'irrationality' is the truth—"

Before the words were finished, a bloody path suddenly parted in the Imperial Guard formation, and a gray-clad figure walked up the steps formed by the mirror-like patterns. The longbow in his hand had transformed into a twisted snake shape, and the tips of the arrows were spewing black mist.

"Ridiculous." The afterimage raised his hand, and fragments of mirror light shot out from Huaiqing's fingertips, each reflecting the terrified expressions of Li Qiye and the others. "You think you can win by stepping outside the narrative? But 'rewriting the ending' itself is the climax I've prepared for the story."

The serpentine longbow suddenly tightened, but the arrows shattered into countless mirror-like patterns the moment they left the bowstring, raining down on the crowd like a storm!

Li Qiye swung his sword, unleashing a fragmented sword aura, only to see the sword light refracting countless afterimages after passing through the lens...

Su Yueli's glass sword spun out a light shield, but the vines turned to ashes the moment they touched the mirror inscription.

At the critical moment, the broken mirror suddenly emitted a buzzing sound, and golden threads in the mirror pierced Huaiqing's chest like sharp arrows, exploding into a galaxy in her pupils—the world before everyone's eyes suddenly distorted, and cracks appeared in all the mirror images at the same time.

"Look!" Su Yueli pointed to the sky, where countless golden edges, like the edges of book pages, were revealed amidst the churning black clouds. "These are the Mirror Demon's 'Storybook Boundaries'!"

Zhong Yue abruptly pulled off the last copper bell from his waist; the demon-suppressing incantation engraved on the bell was already blurred and indistinct. "Young friend! Touch the jade pendant with the Star Ring! The High Priest said that royal blood is the key to unlocking the narrative!"

Li Qiye rushed towards the suspended Huaiqing, only to see that inside her semi-transparent body, the Pisces Jade Pendant was resonating with the fragment of the Primordial Mirror.

The Mirror Demon's dual voice spilled from her throat: "Too late... When the last fragment is put back in place, all the rebels will become the losers in the storybooks, and I will—"

"And you will be forever trapped in the cycle you have woven." Li Qiye grabbed Huaiqing's wrist, and the moment the Star Ring and the Milky Way surged into her meridians, the broken mirror suddenly emitted a blinding bloody light.

Chapter 298 Embedding the Broken Mirror into the Jade Pendant

The high priest's phantom rose from the mirror, holding half of a burning mirror blank in his palm. "Twenty years ago, I deliberately let you intercept the remnant soul, not to be devoured, but to drive a barb into your narrative chain."

The serpent bow, which had been a phantom image, suddenly shattered, and black mist, like ink, seeped from the body beneath the gray robe: "You... knew all along that the Mirror Demon was a puppet?"

“When I saw the bronze gate in the mirror blank, I understood.” The high priest’s illusory figure turned to Li Qiye. “The true game-changer is not the one who breaks the narrative, but the one who becomes the ‘stain’ on the narrative—Li Qiye, embed the broken mirror into the jade pendant!”

Huaiqing let out a sharp whistle, and patterns that matched the cracks in the broken mirror appeared on the surface of the jade pendant.

Li Qiye gritted his teeth and pressed the broken mirror onto the surface. Suddenly, the entire imperial city trembled violently, and countless glowing pages fell from the black mist, each filled with a narrative written in the mirror.

Zhao Ling caught a falling piece of paper, his pupils shrinking sharply—it contained the ending: "Li Qiye was devoured by the Mirror Demon."

“These are backup scripts.” Zhong Yue wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. “The Mirror Demon was afraid that the main story would get out of control, so he had already hidden countless ‘reasonable endings’ on the edges of the scripts.”

Su Yueli shattered the incoming mirror script with her glass sword, and runes left by the high priest suddenly appeared on the sword: "But what we are doing now is not in any script!"

As the broken mirror and the jade pendant completely merged, a burst of intense light erupted from Huaiqing's body.

Li Qiye saw the shadow of the Mirror Demon separate from her body, transforming into countless mirror patterns that rushed towards the pages at the boundary of the narrative.

The high priest's illusory form caught up with the shadowy figure, his palm crackling with Soul-Burning Curses that transformed into chains that bound the Mirror Demon: "Go and break down that door! Remember, the being behind that door survives on the 'fear of the onlookers,' and you must let it know—"

The words abruptly stopped, and the phantom, along with the shadowy figure of the mirror demon, was sucked into the jade pendant. Huaiqing crashed heavily to the ground, the Pisces jade pendant shattering into dust, revealing the core of the Primordial Mirror hidden within.

Li Qiye picked up the core and discovered that the reflection in the mirror was not himself, but the afterimages of countless parallel worlds—in some worlds they had already failed, in some worlds the Mirror Demon was devouring the sun, and in other worlds, the bronze gate had already been opened.

“So…every moment of resistance generates a new narrative branch.” Su Yueli knelt beside Huaiqing, channeling spiritual energy into her. “But our world must become that ‘unreasonable’ exception.”

Zhong Yue suddenly pointed to the horizon, where a colossal bronze gate had risen up out of nowhere. The black mist from the cracks in the gate was transforming into tentacle-like mirror patterns, dragging the entire imperial city into darkness: "What lies behind the gate has sensed the broken narrative chain and is about to reap the ending itself!"

Li Qiye gripped the core of the Primordial Mirror tightly. The Star Ring and the core heated up simultaneously, piecing together a complete star map in his palm: "The High Priest said that viewers fear the story going out of control, so we deliberately create an ending that they can't understand."

940 He turned to his companion, a smile spreading across his blood-stained face. “Zhao Ling, do you remember the ‘Breaking Illusions Sutra’ we recited in the Demon Suppression Division dungeon? ‘All forms are illusory; if one sees all forms as non-forms, one sees the Tathagata.’”

Zhao Ling's pupils contracted sharply, and the Demon-Suppressing Blade suddenly burst forth with intense light. The Soul-Suppressing Incantation on the blade resonated with the patterns on the Star Ring: "You mean... we are the 'watchers'?"

Black mist tentacles had already wrapped around everyone's ankles. Su Yueli's glass sword was plunged into the ground, and the vines, eroded by the mirror runes, blossomed into blood-red flowers: "Whatever it is, as long as we don't believe its narrative, it cannot exist!"

Chapter 299 New Handwriting

Li Qiye pressed the core of the Primordial Mirror onto the giant gate. The moment the starry river in the mirror surged through the crack in the gate, the whole world resounded with the sound of shattering glass.

He heard Huaiqing wake up behind him, heard Zhong Yue ringing the clear sound of a copper bell, and heard the unwilling roars of his failed selves in countless parallel worlds.

As the last ray of starlight disappeared into the giant gate, the black mist suddenly receded like a tide, revealing a pure white space behind the gate that was completely empty.

"It... disappeared?" Su Yueli stared in disbelief at the dissipating black mist.

Huaiqing helped Zhao Ling to his feet. The shadow of the Mirror Demon had faded from his eyes, leaving only the dazed look of someone who had survived a disaster: "I think... I dreamt that I was traveling through countless books, each with a different ending, but the last page was always blank."

Li Qiye picked up the half-page of the mirror-text paper from the ground, and new writing gradually appeared on the blank back. He chuckled and tossed the paper into the air: "Because the ending of the story should be written by ourselves."