Just as Emperal’s words echoed, the Mirror began to glow. Emperal took a step back, but it was too late.

The mirror didn’t reflect his image; instead, it began to shift and churn into a vortex.

"What the hell is going on?"

Emperal spoke, but unfortunately, he didn’t get any reply from the Infernal Dragon, or Vara. He stumbled forward, his knees smashed on the ground.

"W-What is happening to me...?"

The surroundings began to twist and steer; it was as if he had consumed a highly narcotic drug...plus a mushroom. A ’magical’ mushroom.

A drop of blood dripped down from his eyes as his chest tightened. In the next instant...

BLAAARGH!!

BLEARGH!!

He vomited, clutching his throat. Emperal vomited for several more seconds, until finally he could no longer bear it. With the last of his willpower, he steered away from his vomit and fell backwards.

But just before his head could touch the ground, a slender hand grabbed him from behind.

Vara looked at him with a complicated face.

"As I thought, you already had it inside you. To trigger the mirror, while your cultivation is the lowest of the lowest. What sort of absurd will are you carrying, Emperal?"

...

The vortex swallowed him completely, leaving his body inside the same hall.

What the vortex took was something else...something deeper. It took his consciousness.

Emperal slowly opened his eyes; it felt as if he were entirely weightless.

"Hmm? Where am I?"

He looked around confusedly; the entire space was...white. No, it wasn’t bright white, but merely the absence of any colour. There were no floors, no ceilings, nor any walls. Just endless white.

"Is this...the space inside the Consciousness Mirror?"

The gears in his head churned, bringing out his ingenuity. Within seconds, he had already deduced countless possibilities.

But the surprise had just begun. Shifting his eyes, he saw a huge, transparent frame. Unlike the mirror outside, which was just five feet in height, this was gigantic.

To be honest, with his naked eyes, he could only see a mile of the mirror’s surface. It was clear, way too clear.

"...Just what is happening here?"

Emperal let out a tired sigh. Strangely, the mirror still wasn’t reflecting him. Stepping forward, he stretched out his hand and touched the mirror’s surface.

Srrripple...

With Emperal as the center, a wave of calm ripples spread throughout the surface, surprising Emperal. He hurriedly backed away.

And what happened next was the thing that he had never imagined would happen in his entire lifetime.

The Mirror spoke.

"If everything you believed about yourself was taken away, what would remain?"

Emperal stood frozen when he heard those words, "Is this some sort of test?"

He pushed those thoughts aside; there were far more important things to focus on right now.

His back straightened, and he stood with the question.

Emperal closed his eyes and fell into deep thought. This was not your average Daoist question. It was something else...something deeper.

He stood like that for a few seconds, the seconds turned into minutes, and the minutes stretched into hours.

Finally, he raised his head and looked at the mirror. Not at the surface, but deeper.

He imagined himself losing all that he considered his, one by one.

The hands, the legs, the flesh, his cultivation, his spirit root, his heart, and brain. And, lastly, his...soul.

And the question came back to the first circle: What is left inside him now?

"Sigh, what a complex but simple question. The answer is, of course, my Consciousness!"

The moment his words echoed, the ripple that was rippling continuously on the surface halted. A massive diagonal crack formed on the mirror before the rippling resumed once again.

"It seems the Mirror was satisfied with my answer, and even if it didn’t, so what? My answer is still the right one."

Emperal muttered, looking ahead. He saw the ripple, and the second question arrived.

"What is your path?"

Once again, the same philosophical question, but Emperal knew it wasn’t as simple as it looked.

"Path? I do not have any path. Let alone a path, I don’t even know the cultivation realms properly. How dare I set my path? But...I have a goal."

A brilliant light shone in his eyes as he looked at the Mirror.

"Soul Transcendence" 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

CRACK!!

Another massive horizontal crack ripped through the surface of the mirror as Emperal floated silently.

One would have expected some sort of arrogance, or at least a sense of pride, after having their innermost answers proven true.

But Emperal’s expression? Nothingness.

These weren’t some new discoveries for him; he had known these answers deep inside him. So it wasn’t a surprise that the emotions couldn’t get a hold of him.

The ripples, which had halted, once again resumed. This time, the waves were larger and thicker. The third question was forming, and Emperal understood that this would be far more difficult to answer than the first two.

The rippling halted.

"Who are you?"

Silence.

Emperal stood in silence when he heard that question. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out.

He willed his mind to think, but no thoughts came out.

He urged his heart to beat, but there were still no answers.

"...Who am I? Am I Emperal with a trash Spirit Root, a contaminated being, border garbage? The Dragon Princesses’ humiliation pawn. Or, a genius swordsman, a gambler, cultivator, and the wielder of the Myriad Dragon Art."

One by one, he slowly stripped everything he thought made him, until nothing was left. Even the lover of the Dragon Empress, something he thought was his greatest achievement, was discarded.

At that moment, he understood one thing.

"The consciousness is not a product of the body or the cultivation or the bloodline or the Spirit Root. Those are merely tools; one’s own consciousness is the Mechanic."

He paused, his eyes slowly turned unfocused. As if something inside him was awakening.

"I am the awareness who watches, I’m the one who does the choosing and the one walking it. Every name I have been given and every name I have given myself, those are nothing but layers of my existence."

From his eyes, some eerie white substance began to slowly leak. But, Emperal was unfettered.

"I am who my will chooses to be."

CRACK!!!!

...

(A/N: This Chapter took a lot of time and a whole chunk of effort! Do support your favourite author with Gifts and Gts! Have a good day:)