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

The wind rustled the pages of paper, brushing past the newly sprouted vines amidst the ruins. In the distance, the sound of a morning bell rang out; beneath the dissipating black mist, the core of the Primordial Mirror shattered into countless points of light, sprinkling them upon everyone's shoulders.

Zhong Yue picked up the broken chain, his single eye reflecting the rising sun: "It seems the High Priest made the right bet—when the pieces begin to question the existence of the chessboard, it's time for the player to change chessboards."

Li Qiye gazed at the star ring in his hand, which was gradually becoming transparent, as the star patterns transformed into fireflies and flew towards the sky.

"Let's go." He kicked aside a piece of Mirror Demon's remains at his feet, the light of the Demon-Suppressing Blade and the Glazed Sword reflecting in his pupils. "The next story should be written by us."

Deep within the ruins, fragments of a broken mirror suddenly emitted a faint glow. Through new cracks in the mirror's surface, the outline of another door could be vaguely seen—an invitation to the next narrative. And they, forever, would be the writers who would break the deadlock.

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

Su Yueli's ears twitched suddenly as she saw golden threads seep 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.

“The Mirror Demon’s narrative chain has a gap.” Li Qiye pointed the broken mirror at the jade pendant. 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 grove casting the mirror 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 the shattered pillars, 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 he could finish speaking, a bloody path suddenly parted in the Imperial Guard formation, and a gray-clad figure walked up the steps formed by condensed mirror runes, his longbow already transformed into a twisted serpent shape, the tips of the arrows spitting out black mist.

Chapter 300 A Reasonable Ending

"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 margins of a book's 953 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 lock (ahae)!"

Li Qiye rushed towards the suspended Huaiqing, only to see that the Pisces Jade Pendant inside her translucent body 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 trapped in the cycle you have woven forever." 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 blood light.

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 one who breaks the narrative, but 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 were abruptly cut off, and the phantom image, along with the shadowy figure of the mirror demon, was sucked into the jade pendant.

Chapter 301 Invitation

Huaiqing crashed heavily to the ground, the twin-fish jade pendant shattered into dust, revealing the core of the Primordial Mirror hidden inside.

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."

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 bloomed into blood-red flowers under the erosion of the mirror runes: "No matter what it is, as long as we don't believe its narrative, it cannot exist!"

As Li Qiye pressed the core of the Primordial Mirror onto the giant gate, the moment the galaxy in the mirror surged through the crack in the gate, the entire 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 even more so, he heard the angry roars of those failed versions of himself from 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, empty of anything.

"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."

0 ······Requesting flowers 0 ····

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."

The wind swirled the pages of paper, brushing past the newly sprouted vines amidst the ruins. In the distance, the sound of a morning bell rang out, and beneath the dissipating black mist, the core of the Primordial Mirror shattered into countless points of light, sprinkling them upon everyone's shoulders.

...... ..... ...

Zhong Yue picked up the broken chain, his single eye reflecting the rising sun: "It seems the High Priest made the right bet—when the pieces begin to question the existence of the chessboard, it's time for the player to change chessboards."

Li Qiye gazed at the star ring in his hand, which was gradually becoming transparent, as the star patterns transformed into fireflies and flew towards the sky.

"Let's go." He kicked aside a piece of Mirror Demon's remains at his feet, the light of the Demon-Suppressing Blade and the Glazed Sword reflecting in his pupils. "The next story should be written by us."

Deep within the ruins, fragments of a broken mirror suddenly emitted a faint glow. Through new cracks in the mirror's surface, the outline of another door could be vaguely seen—an invitation to the next narrative. And they, forever, would be the writers who would break the deadlock.

Chapter 302 shows the light from the Primordial Mirror guiding the way.

Three months later, deep inside the dungeon of the Demon Suppression Division, Li Qiye pushed a bowl of hot porridge toward Huaiqing, who had come to visit, through the iron bars of the talisman.

The Empress removed her magnificent robes, revealing a pale complexion still etched by the Mirror Demon's influence amidst her simple clothes and dark hair, yet she exuded a greater sense of relief than before.

“Fragments of the core of the Primordial Mirror have appeared one after another in various places.” Huaiqing’s fingertips traced the soul-suppressing patterns on the iron railing. “There is a folk legend that ‘those who break the mirror can rewrite their destiny.’ Senior Zhong from the ‘953’ program said that this is a sign that the narrative chain is loosening.”

Li Qiye paused as he wiped the broken chapter blade, the blade reflecting the lingering dark circles under his eyes: "The day the Star Ring disappeared, I heard laughter behind the bronze giant gate. It wasn't destroyed, it just retreated to a higher-dimensional narrative layer."

“But we held onto the first layer of narrative.” Su Yueli walked in carrying a medicine box, with newly sprouted green ivy entwined around her glass sword scabbard. “Now even the eunuchs in the imperial kitchen are discussing stories about ‘rebelling against fate.’ Wouldn’t you call that an ‘unreasonable’ victory?”

Zhao Ling followed behind, carrying the Demon-Suppressing Blade. The newly engraved characters "Breaking Illusion" on the scabbard still gleamed with golden light. "That old bastard Zhong Yue changed the Demon-Suppressing Division into the 'Breakthrough Alliance.' Yesterday, he even asked me to teach the common people how to use Soul-Suppressing Talismans to burn the fragments of the Mirror Text."

The four looked at each other and smiled, but at that moment, the broken mirror fragment at Li Qiye's waist suddenly became hot.

He took out the fragment, and a ray of golden light seeped out from the crack in the mirror, reflecting an unfamiliar scene—a half-broken bronze pillar stood deep in the desert, and the mirror inscriptions on the pillar resonated with the fragment of the Primordial Mirror.

“Another narrative fissure has appeared.” Huaiqing’s pupils reflected golden light, his tone devoid of fear, only brimming with eager fighting spirit. “What kind of story will this ‘alien object’ be hidden in?”

Li Qiye gripped the fragment tightly. The scar left after the Star Ring disappeared itch in his palm, as if some new power was lurking.

He looked at the faint light filtering into the dungeon and heard the storytelling coming from the distant marketplace, which was about "four game-changers venturing into the mirror world".

“Perhaps…” He tucked the fragment into his sleeve, the broken blade carving new sword marks on the stone wall, “The next story should begin with ‘searching for the core of the Primordial Mirror.’ But this time, we are no longer pawns driven by the narrative.”

Su Yueli suddenly pointed out the window, where a swarm of fireflies was flitting across the eaves of the Demon Suppression Bureau. Each firefly had a thin, spiderweb-like chain of light trailing behind it, with a tiny fragment of a mirror attached to the end of the chain: "Look! It's the light from the Primordial Mirror guiding the way..."

Zhao Ling pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket; it was the half of the mirror-patterned paper that Li Qiye had thrown into the air three months ago.

New writing appeared on the back at some unknown time. This time it was not mirror script, but the two characters "Mobei" written in blood.

“The remnant soul of the High Priest is still helping us mark the loopholes in the narrative.” Huaiqing’s fingertips brushed across the pages. “He once said that every blank title page holds the potential for subversion.”

The sound of Zhong Yue's copper bell suddenly came from above. The old night watchman hung upside down from the roof beam, his one eye reflecting a cunning light: "The 0.4 fluctuation of the mirror pattern in the northwest direction has increased. I bet three jars of Daughter's Red wine that this time we can catch a prey that is more interesting than the mirror demon—for example, a wisp of aura behind the door."

Li Qiye stood up, and the Broken Chapter Blade and the Evil-Suppressing Blade clashed, producing a clear and melodious sound.

Su Yueli wrapped the green ivy around the hilt of the glass sword, and Huaiqing conjured a jade pendant made of light points at his fingertips. The four of them reflected the same rising sun in their eyes.

Chapter 303 The Way to Break the Deadlock

“Then let it see,” Li Qiye gazed towards the desert, the shards of the broken mirror burning hot in his sleeve, “when the 'Observer' picks up his pen, he can write an epic of utter irrationality.”

The wind whipped sand against the dungeon windowpanes, but it couldn't bring any light into the eyes of those who entered.

In this world fragmented by countless narrative threads, they are thieves wandering through blank pages, mischievous children daring to scribble in a masterpiece script.

And the being behind that bronze gate will eventually understand—the most terrifying game-breaker is never the one who shatters the chessboard, but the madman who learns to write poetry on the chessboard.

“Let’s go.” Huaiqing took the lead and walked into the morning light, her plain clothes fluttering in the wind. “The next narrative rift is waiting for us to fill in the craziest footnote.”

The bronze bell of the Demon Suppression Bureau rang out, startling a flock of pigeons that flew across the gray-blue sky. Li Qiye touched the scar on his chest, where the warmth of the Star Ring still seemed to linger.

"It turns out that freedom never needs anyone's permission."

The sound of camel bells shattered among the sand dunes. Li Qiye gazed at the swirling sand mist at the horizon, and suddenly felt a burning pain between his fingers from the broken mirror shards.

Three months ago, the golden light from the ruins of the imperial city guided them to the northern desert, but they lost their way after stepping into this Gobi Desert—until last night, Huaiqing suddenly saw patterns on his palm that were the same as those on the broken mirror, drawing the outline of half a bronze pillar on the sand.

“The mirror pattern fluctuations have intensified.” Su Yueli crouched down, inserting the glass sword into the scalding sand. The vine runes on the sword lit up. “There is a metallic reaction ten meters underground, forming a columnar structure.”

Zhao Ling unloaded the water bag and smashed it on the sand. The Demon-Suppressing Blade cleaved through the surface sand, revealing the fragments of the mirror inscription buried underground: "Senior Zhong, are you sure this isn't a trap set by the Mirror Demon? Last time, the mirror maze I triggered in the Imperial Mausoleum almost turned me into mincemeat."

Zhong Yue squatted on the sand dune, a blade of grass between his teeth, his one eye scanning the flock of crows circling in the sky: "A trap? There are no mirror marks in the pupils of those birds, they're the real deal."

He suddenly swung out a black iron chain, which wrapped around a sand pit that had suddenly sunk thirty paces away. "Young friends, a guest has come to ask for advice on how to break this deadlock."

The moment the chains taut, a piercing screeching sound erupted from beneath the sand.

Li Qiye swung his sword at the flying sand, only to find that what emerged from the ground was not a Mirror Demon Puppet, but a girl whose body was wrapped in bandages.

She had twelve small mirrors hanging from her waist, each with a different crying face engraved on its surface.

"The game-changer..." The girl's voice was hoarse, sand seeping through the gaps in her bandages, "Could you help me... burn this story?"

Huaiqing's pupils contracted sharply as she recognized the fragment of the double-fish jade pendant dangling from the girl's neck—its pattern perfectly matching the fragment that had shattered in her palm three months ago.

Before she could speak, the girl suddenly ripped off the bandage on her left arm, revealing a mirror-patterned chain wrapped around her entire arm, each character wriggling and growing.

“The 953 sands of the northern desert will devour the rebels.” The girl staggered and knelt down, the twelve small mirrors shattering into dust at the same time. “They say I am the ‘Bride of the Sand,’ and that I must be sacrificed before the bronze pillar, extending the narrative of the mirror demon to the Western Regions…”

Before he could finish speaking, the sand and mist in the distance suddenly condensed into the shape of a giant snake, its forked tongue flicking out patches of mirror-like patterns.

Li Qiye swung his sword to block in front of the girl. The moment the broken sword energy cleaved through the mirror text, the fragments of the broken mirror and the girl's jade pendant fragment heated up at the same time, piecing together half a star map in the void.

“She is the key.” Huaiqing conjured a shield of light at his fingertips. “The fragments of the Pisces Jade Pendant are recognizing their master, just like I did back then…”

Chapter 304 The Rebels Have Arrived

The voice was torn apart by the sandstorm. Zhong Yue suddenly threw out a copper bell. The sound of the bell shattered the head of the sand snake, but more sand and mist poured into the snake's body, causing it to swell continuously.

Zhao Ling shielded the girl within the range of the demon-suppressing blade's light. The soul-suppressing incantation engraved on the blade collided with the mirror runes, sparking blue flames.

"Li Qiye! Look at the star map!" Su Yueli's glass sword spun out of a vine cage, trapping the approaching sand serpent's tail. "The star map points to the location of the bronze pillar; the girl's blood is the key!"

The girl suddenly coughed up black sand, and a fragment of the jade pendant flew out from her neck and embedded itself in the broken mirror in Li Qiye's palm.

The moment the two forces resonated, the entire desert trembled violently, and a bronze pillar covered with mirror-like patterns burst forth from the ground. What seeped from the cracks in the pillar was not sand, but congealed blood scabs.

“This is… the casting remains of the Primordial Mirror.” Zhong Yue’s single eye gleamed with golden light. “The High Priest destroyed half of the mirror blanks back then, which were originally buried in the northern desert as demon-suppressing stakes.”

The sand and mist suddenly condensed into countless faces, each bearing the same tearful expression as the girl's mirror face: "The rebels have indeed arrived... The Mirror Demon's new script requires more sacrifices!"

The girl's bandages ripped apart, revealing skin covered in mirror runes beneath. She laughed bitterly as she charged toward the bronze pillar: "Kill me! Only by extinguishing the mirror runes with the 'bride's' blood can the narrative chain be stopped..."

Li Qiye suddenly grabbed her wrist, and the golden light bursting from the broken mirror fragments peeled away the mirror runes on her arm like a scalpel: "The High Priest said that mirror demons need 'rationality' to solidify their narratives. You are not a bride at all, but a sacrifice created by the people of the Northern Desert using mirror runes to tamper with memories!"

Huaiqing touched the girl's brow with his fingertip, and the Empress's bloodline transformed into light patterns that spread: "Look into my eyes, what's your name?"

"I...I'm called Ali." The mirror-like markings in the girl's pupils receded like the tide, and fragments of memory surged forth. "Three months ago, the caravan was attacked. When I woke up, everyone said I was the bride chosen by the Sand God..."

Zhong Yue suddenly bound the bronze pillar with chains and shouted, "My friends! While the Mirror Demon's narrative chain is loose, embed the fragments of the broken mirror into the crack at the top of the pillar! Ali's memories are 'foreign objects,' capable of causing a narrative collapse!"

The sand snakes suddenly accelerated and approached. Zhao Ling's Demon-Suppressing Blade unleashed seven sword energies, but the sand mist that had been split immediately reformed.

Su Yueli's glass sword pierced the ground, and suddenly crimson vines sprouted from the entire desert, wrapping around the sand serpent's body: "Li Qiye! Quickly!"