Chapter 737 – Sitting Beyond the Heavens, Watching Life and Death Play Out Below - Part 3

“After I absorbed the Four Symbols, I forged this mirror. I call it the Mirror of Rebirth. It can reveal the future,” she explained.

Li Yuan raised an eyebrow. “How does it work?”

“You imagine a possibility, and it shows you a future where that possibility becomes reality,” she replied.

“That powerful?” Li Yuan asked, astonished.

“It consumes a great deal of energy,” she admitted. “But since you want to meddle in the mortal world’s web of cause and effect, I thought you should at least see the consequences first. Maybe it’ll change your mind.”

She stepped forward, her posture straight, her face composed, aloof, touched with a faint chill.

“Heaven and Earth are merciless, treating all things as straw dogs. But perhaps that is the greatest mercy of all.”

Li Yuan studied the Mirror of Rebirth. After a moment, he said, “Forget it. If it costs that much, we should save it for something more important.”

Yan Yu shook her head. “The Crown Prince doesn’t carry heavy karma. This small cost, the Underworld can handle. Go ahead, look.”

Li Yuan hesitated. “Yan Yu, are you're sure it’s okay?”

She smiled and nodded.

So Li Yuan stepped forward. Following Yan Yu’s quiet instructions, he activated the Mirror of Rebirth.

Scenes began to unfold before his eyes.

He saw a Weaver enter the Crown Prince’s dream and draw his soul into the Jade Pool.

He saw the Crown Prince’s soul healed, fully restored within the shimmering waters.

He saw the Crown Prince return to the mortal world, quiet, humble, and reserved.

Then he saw the Crown Prince rise to the throne.

And then, he saw the Crown Prince launch a coup.

The Crown Prince, asserting his lineage as a descendant of the Lord of Light, tried to take control of the Church of Light.

Religion and politics clashed.

The conflict exploded into war, and blood filled the streets.

And the Crown Prince died in the chaos he unleashed.

The Church of Light propped up another supposed heir to the Church of Light.

But the death of the former prince had left a thorn buried deep in the hearts of all who shared his blood.

The mortal world descended into disorder.

Li Yuan opened his eyes. He’d seen enough. Was that a good ending? No, not at all.

He turned to look at Yan Yu.

“Now look again and see what happens if you don’t save him,” she said quietly.

Li Yuan nodded and activated the Mirror of Rebirth once more.

This time, he saw the Crown Prince demoted to the title of King of Swallowcloud for his transgressions.

He saw the Second Prince sneer at the Crown Prince as he left the Cloud Capital.

He saw the Crown Prince return to the ancestral lands of the Li Clan, where he lived for decades more, quietly...until, at last, he died of old age.

Clearly, the Mirror of Rebirth didn’t show fine details, only the grand trajectory and the broad strokes of fate.

And now, it had revealed two paths.

“Which one’s better?” Yan Yu asked.

Li Yuan answered softly, “I was wrong.”

“You weren’t wrong,” she said. “You just...feel too much. You still carry human emotions. But you’re no longer standing in a mortal’s place.”

Li Yuan was silent for a moment, then asked, “Then where do you think I stand now?”

Yan Yu looked at him and said, “Outside the Heavens.”

“Outside the Heavens...” he murmured, tasting the words.

She continued, “Today, it’s just one crown prince in trouble, and already you want to save him. But what about tomorrow? When all living beings begin rising again, when more and more people reach second rank, triggering a new era of bloodshed and conflict, will you try to save them too?

“The Qi of the Mountains and Rivers is finite. But the number of second rank cultivators will grow. Sooner or later, they’ll have no choice but to fight for what little remains. Struggle will be inevitable...and so will the killing.”

Li Yuan slowly shook his head. “Not necessarily.”

“Oh?” she asked. “And why not?”

“There will always be a peaceful way. As long as I’m here, I can block out the sky with one hand and shape order with the other. I can support the mortal world,” he said.

“...” Yan Yu fell silent.

Just as Li Yuan was about to go on, her eyes turned cold, her brows rising sharply.

She snapped, “Heaven and Earth are indifferent, treating all beings as straw dogs. In such a world, all people are dragons, and killing is inevitable. The true nature of mass slaughter...is simply offering lives to patch the Heavens.”

She drew a deep breath and challenged him, voice hard and sharp, “If the Heavens collapse, if all beings are extinguished and the galaxies turn into graveyards with not a single spark of life left, why wouldn’t you try to prevent that? Do you

want

this world to perish sooner?”

“...” Li Yuan said nothing.

Yan Yu pressed on, “Stay in your place outside the Heavens. Just watch the mortal world. Don’t interfere. Let the people believe that good is rewarded and evil is punished, that’s enough.

“The moment you try to help

one

person, you become unfair to all the rest. And the more you try to change, the faster this world will spiral into ruin. What the mortal realm needs is law and justice. A moral framework.

Not

the mercy of a so-called sage.”

Li Yuan stood before the Mirror of Rebirth for a long, long time.

It was true. He had the power to step beyond this universe. But what about the others? Could anyone else walk the path he’d taken? If they couldn’t, then they couldn’t escape.

And even if someone did manage to escape, if their ascension required draining the world’s energy, and that act doomed everyone else...then why allow them to ascend at all?

If no one could escape, then slaughter was almost a certainty.

First, to struggle for resources. Second, to sacrifice themselves, feeding the world with blood to spark new life.

“So that’s what the cycle really is,” he murmured.

And then, unexpectedly, he let out a long, weary sigh.

Somehow, his mind drifted back to stories he’d read in his past life on Earth, tales that always said death and slaughter was inevitable.

Back then, he couldn’t understand. How could it possibly be

inevitable

? Wasn’t it something about King Zhou offending a sage by writing a poem? Or Heaven recruiting officials like it was hiring civil servants?

Back then, it all sounded so absurd. But now, he understood. Now he knew why sages chose to remain outside the Heavens.

Of course, stories were just stories. If those ancient tales had truly happened, could the storytellers have possibly captured the reality of those times?

“Yan Yu,” he called softly.

“You’re wondering if I’m still the Yan Yu you once knew?” she asked.

Before Li Yuan could reply, Yan Yu shook her head with a gentle look.

“People change. How could we not? What changes isn’t the heart, it’s our understanding of the world, and...our understanding of responsibility.”

There was a silence, a long, thoughtful silence.

Then Yan Yu said, “Spirits from the mortal world are starting to arrive. The first batch is nearly at the Mirror of Karma. I need to be there to watch over the judgments, to make sure there are no mistakes.”

With a sweep of her azure, ghost-lined sleeves, she turned and stepped onto a flying palanquin that had appeared without warning. The boar and serpent pulled it forward as a procession of ghosts followed.

By the time Li Yuan reached the Karma Hall, a long procession of spirits was crossing the bridge from the other shore.

And there she was.

The woman in the azure dress, standing at the side of the mirror, eyes fixed on its surface with unwavering focus, watching every spirit's past unfold, every act of kindness or cruelty, so that no verdict would be unjust.

Whenever a spirit triggered the killing instinct of a ghost, she’d swiftly suppress them. Then she’d sort the innocent, the ignorant, and the wicked into their respective destinations.

True, reincarnation wasn’t yet possible. But good spirits and evil ones each had their own place.

Li Yuan watched and watched for who knew how long.

And Yan Yu never tired, her vigilance as relentless as ever.

In that moment, the image of her today, working without pause beneath the Mirror of Karma, blurred into the memory of the same woman years ago, handing out porridge by the roadside.

The more she did, the more idle he felt.

𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

So he dragged over a slab of underworld stone and sat down beside the mirror, watching her

at work

.

Then a thought hit him.

Back when the Underworld was severed, many spirits must’ve still slipped through. In that case...what about Ji Hu, the Human Emperor who once severed the Underworld itself?

Could

he

have ended up here, too?

He decided to ask, but Yan Yu was far too absorbed in her task.

He waited a long time until he finally managed to catch her just as she was leaving.

He practically had to drag her away from her post.

“Yan Yu, you can’t keep this up,” Li Yuan said.

Yan Yu answered, “If we rely only on the ghosts for judgment, too many mistakes will be made. I can’t let good spirits be wrongly punished.”

“Then get a few proper judges,” Li Yuan suggested.

She raised an eyebrow. “And where do I find them?”

“I know a person,” Li Yuan said. “His character is solid. I have a feeling he’s in your Underworld somewhere, and I think he’s up to the task.”