Ji Shanqing was not showing a false bravado when he said those words.
"Your wings!" Mrs. Manas shrieked. Lin Sanjiu didn't even have the time to turn her head. She contracted her back muscles and quickly retracted her two large wings. The sharp tips of her wings scraped the surface of a mirror with a screech but thankfully the mirror did not break. Lin Sanjiu had barely caught her breath, her heart was still pounding when a beam of light shot out once again from the mirror above her. She let out a low anxious grunt before she leaped away from her original spot. However, when she turned around and lifted one of her arms, which now seemed to her like several tons, the light had already hit the mirror on the floor. The beam was reflected. It split into various directions and vanished into the surroundings.
Lin Sanjiu could hear her own labored panting. She tried to close her eyes tightly before opening them again, but her vision was still very blurry.
"Look, this was unnecessary." Multiple deformed reflections of Ji Shanqing stood within the twenty-one mirrors in the chamber. With a passive expression, every single pair of eyes were fixated on Lin Sanjiu. Their mouths moved at the same time as he spoke, "Now, you are going to die just when you see a glimmer of hope, isn't that worse?"
Lin Sanjiu did not utter a word. Her eyes darted around the mirror chamber. It took a significant effort for her to even move her eyes. She would turn to look behind her every now and then, which made her look a little like a neurotic wreak.
They had only been fighting for about two to three minutes but Lin Sanjiu was already tired from evading. She had not anticipated that Ji Shanqing would suddenly reach out to touch a mirror. After that, he turned into a beam of light and entered the mirror. An exact reflection of him appeared in the mirror just a second later.
Lin Sanjiu was fighting against multiple reflections, with no actual body, all by herself.
No, in fact, there wasn't any difference between the reflections and Ji Shanqing's "real body". Every single Ji Shanqing in the twenty-one mirrors could "shoot" out from the mirror like a beam of light. They moved so fast that Lin Sanjiu couldn't even see what they were, she could only catch a streak of color as they moved. However, the moment they came close, they would immediately become a special penetrating attack. Nevertheless, this was not the most troubling part of his attacks.
The beam of light from the ceiling mirror diffused into multiple beams as if they followed the laws of reflection of light. These diffused beams filled the chamber. Some of them were reflected and some would even disappear naturally. But most of these beams pierced through Lin Sanjiu's armorless body.
Her hypersensory sense was rendered useless early during the fight. Firstly, the beams of light did not cause the air molecules in the chamber to move. Next, Lin Sanjiu had been attacked so many times that she couldn't feel her skin or her muscles. She was merely using her higher consciousness to control her limbs while she used whatever remaining senses she had to judge where she would land. Her limbs felt as if they had been pumped with so many liters of anesthetic that she didn't even know where they were if she did not look down at them. In fact, it was a surprise to her that she managed to avoid breaking any mirrors and dying on the spot up till this point.
The beams of light within the enclosed mirror chamber were reflected non-stop. If a person couldn't dodge light, they naturally wouldn't be able to dodge Ji Shanqing's light attacks.
"He can attack me continuously until I die, but—" Before Lin Sanjiu could complete her thought, she felt a familiar attack behind her. Another light beam had hit her. At that moment, it was as if she could feel her individual pores exploding. The impact seemed to have affected her blood flow and her blood rushed backward toward her heart. Her vision went black and she fell uncontrollably to the floor. With that, that beam of light shot past her head and slipped into the opposite mirror, changing back into a reflection of Ji Shanqing, observing her with his head tilted.
If it was possible, Lin Sanjiu wished she could just lie down and not get up from the mirror she was on. However, she already spotted Ji Shanqing's reflection from the bottom corner of her eyes. He was approaching her from the mirror she was lying on.
All the hair on her body stood on end as she struggled to climb up with her dangling limbs. She had lost almost all the sensation from her limbs and almost all control. She didn't even know how she managed to stand up on her feet. Yet, the moment she stood up, a beam of light hit her abdomen solidly.
"No! You will die if this continues!" Seeing Lin Sanjiu struggling to survive even after doing her utmost to fight, there was fear in Mrs. Manas' voice for the first time. "You should just escape! You can slowly think of a better way to deal with him after you escape!"
Lin Sanjiu only realized that her forehead was bleeding when something seeped into her eyes. She lowered her head and rubbed her eyes. "There is no way out," she replied in her mind as she shook her head weakly.
Mrs. Manas was immediately speechless. She was an "agent" created by Lin Sanjiu's subconsciousness to better facilitate the control of the latter's higher consciousness. She was the one who had been desperately controlling Lin Sanjiu's wings with her higher consciousness to force them under control. Unfortunately, this was also the reason why she wasn't so aware of what was happening in Lin Sanjiu immediate consciousness.
"When I was dodging those light attacks, I have touched the mirrors multiple times." For some reason, Lin Sanjiu said that words out loud instead of communicating to Mrs. Manas with her mind. As her tongue was also numb, her words were unclear. "But, they 'repelled' me back."
The "path" through the mirrors had not been sealed. Lin Sanjiu was sure of that so she didn't dare to break any of them. However, perhaps because she had found the grand prize, or perhaps by Ji Shanqing's doing, she was thrown back into the same room even after atomization.
"Even though I know you're the grand prize, what the hell are you?!" Lin Sanjiu grumbled as she looked at the countless Ji Shanqing's faces around her with her somewhat unfocused gaze. Her comment caused all of them to crook their heads and look at her for a moment. They crossed their arms of various sizes at the same time and replied her simultaneously with a gentle voice, "Do you want to know? I am the grand prize, but I am not just an item.
"Ever since I gained self-awareness, you are not the first person to suspect my identity. However, I continue to exist here, traveling through the mirror chambers. The people who had identified me had all died. Once they died, they became part of me—that is part of the present at the final pitstop.
"Some people say that the grand prize is a formidable ability; some say that it is a normal world where no one has to continue through the fate of changing worlds; some say that it is a wish… No one in the world knows what I can do, yet they all want to hunt me down greedily. Thanks to all you dead people, every time I gain a 'new addition', I'm able to do more. If I try my best not to be unwrapped, I will definitely leave this unfathomable place and become someone that none of you can even imagine." When Lin Sanjiu saw Ji Shanqing's expression, he seemed as serene as before but his eyes, the numerous eyes around her, were burning with insane zeal. "Come, it is now the time for you to make your contribution."
"Oh, really?" Lin Sanjiu peered down at Ji Shanqing's reflection on the floor and she flashed a weak smile, "Well, there is one thing you need to remember, no good end will come to people who say too much bullshit."
"What else can you do—" Before Ji Shanqing could finish his sentence, he saw something in Lin Sanjiu's hand. Next, she whipped that thing violently to one side. That item whipped up a strong tornado which immediately headed toward the left mirror like a caged beast. It hit the mirror walls and they immediately heard the sound of the mirror shattering. A few mirrors were quickly smashed into a few large broken mirror pieces. As expected, Lin Sanjiu's [Tornado Whip] had allowed her to smash the mirror without being atomized.
Despite that, the multiple reflections of Ji Shanqing, above, below and around her, started to look as if they were holding back their laughter, "Did you think you could escape like this? You're too naive!"
Lin Sanjiu had already noticed the problem. The moment the mirror pieces started to slide down a little from the four or five mirrors, they would return to their right positions in quick succession. In a blink of an eye, the mirrors became good as new and Ji Shanqing's reflection appeared once more on their surfaces. There was a look of mockery on Ji Shanqing unworldly, good-looking face. His red lips parted almost as if he wanted to say something but before he could make a sound, Lin Sanjiu swung her [Tornado Whip] crazily around her as if she had lost all her rationality. If her precious action was only a test, this time Lin Sanjiu went all out without holding back. A tornado, several times stronger than the previous, swept through the mirror chamber swallowing up half the mirrors. Her action was a perfect comeback to Ji Shanqing's "Are you mad, you bitch?"
When the tornado hit the mirrors, cracks tore through the surfaces. Before they could re-assemble themselves, they were hit by another tornado. After Ji Shanqing watched as Lin Sanjiu wasted her effort destroying the mirrors several times, he finally realized what was amiss.
Somehow, the mirror chamber was only half as bright as before. There was no longer light filtering through half of all the slit between the mirrors. The chamber became so dim that the reflections in the mirror were muddied and blurred. Ji Shanqing immediately stepped closer to the surface of the mirror. Twenty-one blurred faces suddenly grew larger in the mirror as he stepped closer, "You... So, this was your plan!"
Lin Sanjiu laughed lightly as she wiped the side of her mouth, still feeling a little terrified at what could have happened. Ji Shanqing had really pushed her to the brink of death. No matter how skillful she was, there was no way she could move faster than light. The only difference between Ji Shanqing's reflections and a normal ray of light was that he was more vicious and unpredictable.
However, Lin Sanjiu wasn't one to give up when even a tiny glimmer of hope still existed. There was always a way out in any world, let alone a pocket dimension. She knew that there was definitely a solution to her situation in this mirror chamber.
"What is the solution?"
That moment she fell on the floor, she suddenly had an idea. If there isn't any light, naturally, there wouldn't be any of Ji Shanqing's reflection. To take it further, even if Ji Shanqing came out from the mirror, she wouldn't be bombarded by so many unavoidable attacks.
"But, how can I block the light filtering in?"
Lin Sanjiu narrowed her eyes and looked at one of the mirrors. This time, she was neither looking at herself nor Ji Shanqing, she was actually scrutinizing the slit between two mirrors.
"Why would light filter through these slits? If there is light, was there some sort of light source?"
However, since the mirrors already had so many hidden functions, she reckoned that the lights wouldn't be normal either. Yet, after receiving so many attacks from Ji Shanqing, Lin Sanjiu couldn't think of anything better. Desperate, she decided to try anything she could. Hoping for the best, she activated her [No coincidence. No story] to try anything she could to raise her probability of success. Next, Lin Sanjiu took out her [Tornado Whip] and made a quiet decision.
Subsequently, her plan was way more successful than what she expected.
She whipped out tornados one after another. Firstly, she wanted to distract Ji Shanqing. Secondly, she wanted to make sure that she could totally destroy the light source behind those mirrors. Just as she expected, the mirrors returned to their original form but the light sources behind the mirrors were completed destroyed by the tornadoes and could no longer work. Finally, the mirror chamber was completely dark.
Lin Sanjiu stood quietly in the dark mirror chamber without moving for ten seconds. During this time, she was not attacked by any of Ji Shanqing's beams. Her skin started to recover.
In the darkness, a smile slowly crept up her face.
"There is a time limit to your attacks, right? Now without any light, you can't even activate your ability. Come out. It is time to have a proper fight with me."
"Pfft."
It took quite some time before Ji Shanqing's voice sounded in the chamber.
"Do you think I can remain unwrapped if that was the only strategy I had?" Ji Shanqing laughed acidly, "If you chose to be in darkness, you are choosing death. Let me ask you a question. Do you think these distorting mirrors are just for fun?"
Lin Sanjiu froze.
"All your biological data is recorded whenever you walk through a mirror. Every single set of biological data can be assembled together to create another you just by my will… Since you were once them, regardless of appearances, they have the same internal constitution…"
Although Lin Sanjiu couldn't see clearly, she could clearly sense figures walking out from the mirror in the darkness one after another. They moved so noiselessly that they did not even cause any vibration in the surrounding air molecules. In just a split second, these "beings" had already filled the space around her.
Lin Sanjiu did not even know how many times she had gone through the mirrors. If every "Lin Sanjiu" created by the mirrors was there...
"Don't waste your time. They don't even have to attack you." After Ji Shanqing said that, Lin Sanjiu stopped moving her hand which was holding her [Tornado Whip]. He continued with a chuckle, "They only need to touch you once to completely replace the person that they were created from."
Before Lin Sanjiu could fully comprehend what he meant, she felt a few icy cold fingers on her shoulders.
"Lin San." Lin Sanjiu recognized her own voice when one of the "beings" whispered in her ear. Lin Sanjiu was mind-blown. For a moment, she didn't know how to react.
"Huh, Lin San?"
Another hairy hand reached for her, "Lin San? Lin San?"
There was complete silence in the dark chamber for a few seconds.
After some time of silence, the chamber was suddenly filled with Lin Sanjiu's explosive laughter. She couldn't control herself as she instinctively got back her [Ability Polishing Agent] via her Scrooge McDuck Power. Silver light flooded the room instantaneously. They fell on Ji Shanqing's stunned face.
"Ha ha ha! I needed to see your expression," Lin Sanjiu rocked back and fro as she laughed. She didn't even glance once at the hundred over "Lin Sanjiu" in the chamber. "I think there is another prerequisite for you to activate this 'replacement' ability of yours, no? Do you have to call my name? If you want to replace the original person, wouldn't it be ridiculous if you didn't even know their name?"
Ji Shanqing stared at her, flabbergasted. He simply couldn't react to the situation. He could only watch as the woman continued laughing and explaining, "But my goddamn name isn't Lin San."