172 - A Mirror of Oneself

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“You’ve been waiting for me?” Qin Yun said, unconvinced.

Qin Yun's eyes narrowed as he tried to peer through the old man's ethereal figure, but he couldn't glean anything from it. It was almost as if he was faced with a ghost, but he knew this was but a hologram projected by the spherical black orb hovering over them both.

“I have,” the old man replied in an even tone. “I’ve been waiting a long time—too long even.”

“Are you sure you have the right person? I’m sure I would have remembered if we met before.”

“There is no doubt in my mind you are the one, but if you are still unconvinced, there is one way to make sure—“

The old man let the words hang in the air, looking towards Qin Yun with a slight smile, almost sneering. Somehow, Qin Yun felt the old man was looking his way as if looking at a misbehaving child.

Truthfully, being looked at this way was hardly a first for him. Most of the time, Qin Yun shrugged it off, for there was no way for them to understand how old he was. But this time, Qin Yun couldn’t do so. He felt a strange urge to reject what the old man had to say.

The very act of having the old man's image reflected in his eyes almost made Qin Yun retch. Something visceral told him to turn away and run. It wasn't fear or even disgust, just a creeping premonition that he shouldn't interact with the man at all.

Such a feeling was a first. It wasn't instinctual; his mind was trying to speak to him, but something deeper, more profound. His soul—maybe. Qin Yun wasn't sure, but he was now interested in finding the reason for all this. Why would his entire being go so far as to reject that old man's existence?

“Tell me,” Qin Yun replied, pushing aside the feeling, yet it remained at the forefront of his mind. “How do we prove it?”

“It's already been proven," the man shrugged. "The mere fact you could even reach this far is proof enough, but if you want something more, you just have to look back there and see."

The old man turned to face the pedestal where the black box was imprisoned before glancing back and observing Qin Yun's reaction. Of course, Qin Yun showed none of it on his face, no reaction, nor even acknowledgement that he could see the object, yet the man's meaning was clear: only those connected to it could even recognize its existence.

So, he’s aware of it. That makes things simple.

"What are you?" Qin Yun asked dryly.

“What an odd choice of words,” the man mused. “‘What’ and not ‘who’. Very apt, indeed.”

“Why not just answer the question?”

“Why the vigilance? Do you believe I mean you harm? I am but a humble recording. The vestiges of a great man. An echo. What could I possibly do to you—you, who have managed to reach here?”

The old man seemed to look past him, yet Qin Yun didn’t even have to turn around to know what he was looking at. Behind him, in a straight line past his right shoulder, was the lifeless husk of the Alteran Hound, nestled peacefully in a corner.

“A recording,” Qin Yun muttered before adding out loud, “So... It’s not a transmission, yet you can respond naturally to my inquiries. Are you an AI—an Artificial Intelligence?”

“What I am doesn’t really matter, does it? What matters is that I know who you are—‘what’ you are. I also know what led you here. I know what you seek!”

"That's news to me since even I don't know what I'm supposed to be seeking. Care to elaborate?"

However, Qin Yun couldn't help but feel a chill down his back. The more the old man spoke with his hoarse and grating voice, the more Qin Yun felt like walking away. But he had no choice but to stay, for the way leading out remained blocked by a thin force field—similar to the one jailing the black box.

Speaking of it, Qin Yun could swear the old man's apparition was now looking at his own black box. There was now no doubt in his mind that the man could see the usually invisible box. There could only be a single reason for this.

“You seek a way to leave this dead world, do you not?" The man said while smiling slightly. "I watched your arrival, a fall from the stars, straight onto the roof of this manor. Did you never find it odd that you even survived?"

“The thought crossed my mind, yes...”

“It was I! I was the one to save you from your untimely demise. Without me, you would be nothing more than a splatter of blood and gore amidst my collection of manuscripts. I believe some gratitude should be in order.”

“Thanks—I guess,” Qin Yun replied, his gaze never leaving the apparition. “Now, why don’t you tell me what you want from me?”

“What I want?" the old man replied, looking rather shocked, yet Qin Yun knew this was fake.

Everything about this old man screamed deception, but Qin Yun could only humour him at the moment. At least until he found a way to leave this place, preferably with some answers.

“What I want doesn't really matter," the old man added, looking rather solemn this time. "Mortal wants are irrelevant when pitted against her will.”

“So you admit to being mortal,” Qin Yun replied, finally beginning to piece together what this strange being was. “And what do you mean by ‘her’?”

“You've met her several times, haven't you?" the old man sneered. "She guided you all this way, ensured you would reach your destination. Everything you are—what we both are—has always been in the palm of her hand."

Nalia? No—she may be precognisant, but even she couldn't orchestrate this. Her powers shouldn't be able to reach that far out from the world. No. He could only be referring to one being alone...

“Who are you to claim to know her design? What are you to her?”

“Why spell it out when you already know the answer?” the man shrugged. “We aren’t so different—you and I. We both were merely pawns in her game. Every being within this world is just a piece for her to move as she pleases. As long as one remains bound to this world, this reality remains—”

“—but you’ve escaped, haven’t you?” Qin Yun said, cutting him off.

The man paused. He looked at Qin Yun with a blank stare, showing no emotions, almost like a machine, as if every expression he had shown previously had been but an elaborated ruse to make him seem more human—or maybe, this was the ruse. Either way, Qin Yun had a rough idea of what he was dealing with.

“What makes you think so?" the man finally added, looking somewhat interested in Qin Yun's reasoning.

“You said it yourself. You said, 'were pawns' in the past tense. You can't be referring to me, so it must be about you."

“This world is already outside the bounds she can interfere with. Isn't it reasonable to believe you have escaped its influence?”

“A nice dream, sure, but it's nothing more than delusions. This plane may have become corrupted, but it would be foolish to believe her influence had waned enough to hide us from her sight. She's still here, guiding me to her preferred ending. Wasn't that why this thing appeared?"

Qin Yun pointed upwards to the floating sphere. The man didn't bother to follow his finger, for Qin Yun's meaning was too clear.

When this thing appeared, Qin Yun's lotus went on a rampage. Not all within his spiritual root, mind you, only the half granted to him by the Heavenly Dao. That power poured out of him, but to what end? What could it possibly have tried to achieve regardless of his will?

The answer was all too simple. To silence it before it could say something it shouldn't. However, just as the tribulation qi nestled within Qin Yun's lotus was about to strike, the spherical device created a barrier around his core, jailing the energy within and cutting off all contacts away from his internal world.

He had never heard of a barrier able to do such a thing, just as he had never heard of a barrier capable of keeping out the corruption. This was a marvel of a formation, a mix of technology and Dao, something forbidden by the world itself, yet here it was, in all its glory.

Qin Yun suspected the image of an old man before him to be its creator—but also so much more.

“Why the facade?” Qin Yun asked. “You’ve already put three layers of protection—not counting all the ones I can’t see. Are you truly so afraid of her?”

Of those three layers, one was the barrier now around his core, preventing whatever interference from the qi she had granted Qin Yun. The other was the secondary barrier engulfing the small stone chamber. It kept him within, acting as a jail but also a barricade stopping whatever probing she might carry out.

The last was the projection before him. It wasn't a mere transmission from a distant place, as whatever means the man used to transmit his thoughts—whether through primitive waves or even quantum entanglement—would affect this world, allowing her to trace them back to him.

The man was cautious—too much so. For someone able to create a barrier able to stop her interference but also keep the black box trapped, he wouldn't be foolish enough to make such an amateurish mistake. Qin Yun even doubted this was the man's actual appearance.

“Who wouldn’t be?” the man shrugged. “She has every reason to want me dead.”

“Is that why you left a backup here?” Qin Yun asked, and when he did, he clearly saw the old man’s expression darken substantially. It wasn’t as much as murderous intent, but Qin Yun clearly felt the man’s hostility. It seemed that uncovering this had struck a cord—a cord the old man didn’t want found.

“How did you know?” he asked, but Qin Yun merely shrugged.

"It's what I would have done if I wanted to leave a message for those who came after me. Judging by your interactivity, this isn't a recording. We can rule out a transmission, for that would be asking to be discovered. At first, I thought it was a well-designed AI, but it doesn’t seem likely.”

“Why so? Any well-programmed AI can easily replicate mankind down to the most minute detail. When you think about it, the brain is just an electrical and chemical engine. Mapping it doesn't even require ten percent of its computational power. By then, mimicking human beings becomes easy. You should know this."

"I do." Qin Yun replied confidently. "You made it abundantly clear already. With your technology, making this hologram indistinguishable from the real thing would have been easy. Instead, you make it semi-transparent. It screamed fake, almost like you wanted me to believe you were a well-crafted AI."

“Then why didn’t you?”

"Instincts," Qin Yun shrugged, taking the projection of an old man aback, but then Qin Yun seemed to reconsider. "Actually, that's not true. A picture is worth a thousand words—or so they say. This chamber made your identity so obvious it's sickening. I just put myself in your place, and the answer became obvious. I would have done the same. Besides, you hardly tried to hide it. 'Echo'... 'Vestige', really? You must think me a fool.”

Finally, the old man smiled as he looked at Qin Yun. Qin Yun reciprocated the gesture. Somehow, despite the stark difference in age between the two, they looked strangely alike. Their bone structure was remarkably similar, enough to think they might be related. Even their minute mannerism were almost identical. Qin Yun remembered stroking his beard in the same way—when he had one.

Only after a moment of contemplation did Qin Yun finally break the silence, asking the question that had always been on his mind. This time, he didn't speak in a roundabout way and struck straight to the heart of the matter.

“Tell me,” he said. “Why did we leave a copy of ourselves in this place, waiting for me?"

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