# 1034
Chapter 1035: Kunlun Mirror
"A Jin？！!"
Lin Qiye stared blankly at that familiar yet unfamiliar face, his entire body frozen in place like a statue.
Too similar. Far too similar... No, this wasn't merely a resemblance—this was simply A Jin grown up!
At this moment, Lin Qiye's thoughts seemed to drift back to Cangnan, to that cramped little room that had accompanied him for over a decade.
The morning sunlight洒落地板, and in the fragrant smell of home-cooked meals, he would push open the door and see his aunt standing at the kitchen doorway holding steaming dishes, with A Jin sitting beside the dining table, bending down to pet the lazy, yawning Little Black...
A Jin's face, and the silver-robed man's face before him, slowly merged in Lin Qiye's vision.
The only difference was that this silver-robed man possessed a more profound temperament, and his eyes were sharper than A Jin's—as if he were a battle-hardened general, whose casual glance alone could bring immense pressure.
"A Jin?" The silver-robed man heard these two words and furrowed his brow slightly.
"You've mistaken me for someone else... I am the True Lord of Clear Source and Wonderful Doctrine, Yang Jian."
Yang Jian?
Yang Jin?
Lin Qiye was slightly stunned. The next moment, as if realizing something, his pupils constricted sharply.
The silver-robed figure who had stepped across the sky from the mortal realm above Cangnan all those years ago; the hound resembling Little Black that had slaughtered the Norse beast Kraken; the disciple that Jade Ding Zhenren mentioned, the one he had trouble caring for...
He should have realized it sooner! Yang Jian and Sky-Earth Hound, A Jin and Little Black.
The character "戬" means to stop conflict, while "晋" means to advance.
All along, his cousin A Jin who had accompanied him for over a decade, and the black mangy dog he had picked up from the roadside, were the Great Xia's Erlang Shen and Sky-Earth Hound, gradually awakening from reincarnation.
In truth, had Lin Qiye calmed down and carefully considered the details, he might have guessed this truth... But he simply hadn't thought about it in this direction. After all, who could have imagined that the legendary Erlang True Lord Yang Jian would have been reincarnated as his own cousin?
Lin Qiye gazed at Yang Jian before him, an uncontrollable longing reflected in his eyes.
He opened his mouth as if to say something, but nothing came out. He simply shook his head and苦涩地 said:
"...Sorry, I mistook you for someone else."
Yang Jian stared at Lin Qiye's faintly glistening eyes, his sword-like brows furrowing deeper.
Lin Qiye sat down in the seat beside Yang Jian and fell into silence.
In the lively, bustling banquet hall, the two of them sat together in silence, not speaking a single word, utterly out of place with their surroundings.
Unknowing how long passed before Yang Jian broke the silence first.
"You're that monkey's disciple?"
"No."
Lin Qiye answered without hesitation, speaking calmly.
Upon hearing these two words, the hand Yang Jian had been extending toward his cup suddenly paused in mid-air.
"But your master said you were."
"I lied to him."
"Then why don't you lie to me now?"
"I think there's no need for me to lie to you." Lin Qiye stared at the table before him, extending a finger to tentatively touch the cup placed in front of him. His fingertip passed through it as if touching nothing but emptiness.
He paused, then said calmly: "If I can't even trust my own brother, then there's nothing in this world worth trusting."
Yang Jian's brow furrowed even tighter. "I'm not your brother. I don't even know you."
"...You will be in the future."
Scenes of nostalgia flashed through Lin Qiye's mind one after another, and a gentle smile appeared on his lips.
"...Nonsensical." Yang Jian stared at Lin Qiye for a long moment before averting his gaze.
For some reason, looking into Lin Qiye's eyes, his calm, water-like state of mind had rippled with a thread of disturbance.
Strange... He clearly didn't know this person.
Yang Jian fell silent for a moment, then continued: "Since you're not that monkey's disciple, why did you impersonate this identity and sneak into the Peach Banquet? Why are you here?"
"Why I'm here, I don't know either." Lin Qiye paused, glancing at his own hands, his expression complicated: "I'm clearly here, yet not here... I'm like a bystander who stumbled into this place by accident. I can't change anything. Perhaps the sole meaning of my existence is to witness this这段曾经存在过的历史 that once existed."
After hearing these words, Yang Jian's eyes narrowed slightly. Just as he was about to speak, he suddenly froze in place.
"Witness..." he murmured to himself.
As if thinking of something, he suddenly raised his right hand and reached toward Lin Qiye beside him.
His fingertips passed through Lin Qiye's body as if they were intangible. Wisps of light shattered at the boundary between them, like touching a forbidden phantom, vanishing without a trace.
Yang Jian's pupils contracted slightly.
"Kunlun Mirror?" He spoke in surprise, quickly turning his head. Those eyes fixed tightly on the center of the Jade Pool, on the bronze ancient mirror suspended above the Queen Mother of the West's head.
"So that's how it is..."
"What's wrong?"
Yang Jian turned his head and gave Lin Qiye a complicated look. "It seems you indeed don't belong to this time..."
When Lin Qiye heard these words, his heart skipped a beat. "You figured it out?"
"Though I'm sitting beside you, I cannot touch you. This proves we aren't truly face to face." Yang Jian extended his hand, pointing between Lin Qiye and himself. "Between us lies endless years and time."
Seeing that Yang Jian had seen through the truth so readily, Lin Qiye grew even more curious.
"But how is any of this possible?"
"It's the Kunlun Mirror." Yang Jian pointed to the bronze ancient mirror hanging in the distance. "The Kunlun Mirror itself is a treasure possessing the power of time. It has replicated our appearances, magical power, and even our ways of thinking. It proactively intercepted this historical silhouette, passing through endless time, and presented it before your eyes..."
"Kunlun Mirror?" Lin Qiye raised his head, gazing at the Kunlun Mirror, shock appearing in his eyes.
So all of this temporal silhouette came from that divine artifact?
But why?
Why would it specifically record this period of time and recreate it at Kunlun Ruins?
"It can even record your thought processes?" Lin Qiye looked around. "No wonder you all, though mere silhouettes, can respond differently to my appearance..."
"That is the Kunlun Mirror's power." Yang Jian spoke slowly. "Under its illumination, nothing in the world can hide. No matter how secretly one conceals one's inner thoughts, they will be perceived by it. Through gradual deduction and simulation, the vast majority of existences can be completely replicated...
Of course, there are exceptions."
Yang Jian raised his head, glancing at the three towering vacant seats above the Queen Mother of the West's seat, at the apex of the Jade Pool.
"There are some supreme existences that even the Kunlun Mirror cannot record..."