Chapter 26: What the Shadows Remember
The courtyard was empty now, save for the scroll lying beneath the ruined gazebo. Wind rustled the trees gently, and the air carried a tension not even the storm could wash away.
Lin Ma's clothes clung to him, drenched. He didn't return the scroll to its resting place.
He took it with him.
Every step away from the courtyard felt heavier—as though the scroll itself was aware it had been touched after centuries of silence.
Back in his quarters, Lin Ma unrolled the parchment once more. No sooner had his fingers brushed the runes than the candles around him flickered.
Then a voice echoed inside his mind.
> "Stage One: The Mirror of Resentment."
Lin Ma's eyes widened. The scroll wasn't just a written technique.
It was alive.
Suddenly, his surroundings warped—the walls of his room dissolving into black fog. He wasn't dreaming, but he wasn't truly awake either. This space… it felt like a boundary between two worlds.
A faint figure emerged from the mist.
It was… him.
But distorted.
His face wore a crooked smile. His eyes glowed with bitterness.
"What—?"
"Poor Lin Ma," the reflection said mockingly. "Do you really think power will change anything? Do you think they'll ever stop seeing you as trash?"
Lin Ma took a step back. The air had turned cold.
"This… is the first trial?"
The reflection chuckled. "Trial? No, this is truth. You resent them—those teachers who humiliated you. The classmates who pitied you. The father who abandoned you when you were weakest."
"I don't—"
"Liar!"
The reflection dashed forward with inhuman speed. Lin Ma barely had time to duck as a blade of energy swept through the air above his head.
This version of himself wasn't just a figment. It had weight. Power. Malice.
He rolled sideways and summoned his qi. But it resisted him.
Of course.
He was facing his own suppressed rage. His energy wouldn't respond until he accepted it.
The scroll's intent was clear:
He couldn't defeat this version of himself with denial.
Only by confronting what he truly felt… could he win.
His clone stalked him.
"You hate them," the clone hissed. "You hate that your mother died protecting you. That your teachers see you as a mistake. That you're fighting for scraps while they feast on your silence."
"I don't…" Lin Ma's fists clenched. "I don't hate them…"
But a memory surfaced—one he hadn't allowed himself to relive in years.
He was ten. Crying outside a school gate. His clothes were torn, his face bruised. His father had promised to come, but never showed. The teacher walked past him, pretending not to see.
He had waited for hours.
Alone.
The clone smirked.
"There it is."
Lin Ma's shoulders trembled. Not with weakness.
But with release.
"I do hate them," he whispered. "I hate that they left me alone. I hate that I had to be strong when I just wanted someone to protect me. I hate… pretending I'm okay."
The air shifted.
Qi surged around him like a storm reborn.
The mirror-self lunged—too fast, too wild.
Lin Ma didn't dodge this time.
He met the strike head-on, fists glowing with blue light.
Their punches collided.
The clone shattered into shards of glass and vanished into the fog.
The mist cleared.
Lin Ma stood alone again, back in his room, heart pounding, chest rising and falling like waves in a storm.
The scroll lay dormant on the table.
But something had changed.
His qi felt… different. Less restrained. More fluent. As though it had acknowledged his pain and decided to follow a master who wouldn't lie to himself anymore.
Suddenly, a knock.
A coded rhythm—one he recognized.
The door creaked open to reveal Elder Liu, eyes grim.
"You activated the scroll," he said simply.
Lin Ma nodded.
"You survived the first stage?"
Another nod.
Elder Liu exhaled. "Then you're in deeper than I thought."
"What do you mean?"
"That scroll wasn't meant for mortals," Liu said quietly. "It was created by a former sect master who went mad trying to master every path of cultivation. He created a method not just to increase power—but to break limits no one dared touch. That scroll listens. It remembers."
"It… remembers?"
Elder Liu stepped inside, casting a protective ward.
"Each trial will become harder. Not just in combat, but in spirit. You'll begin to see things. Things from the past, and from the future. And if you're not careful, you may not recognize which is real anymore."
Lin Ma lowered his eyes.
"I have to try."
Liu looked at him for a long moment.
"I can't stop you. But if you continue down this path, you'll need allies. Not just power."
Lin Ma nodded, though part of him wondered…
Who could he trust anymore?
He opened his hand.
A faint sigil had formed on his palm after the trial. A mirror-like shape pulsing with light.
Stage One was complete.
Stage Two… was watching.
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End of Chapter 26