Legend of the Embroiderer

Chapter 259: Reincarnation Game

Li Zhao looked up at the sun and moon gradually merging in the sky, and suddenly felt dizzy.

The scent of lavender dissipated from my nose, replaced by the smell of engine oil from turning metal gears.

When he opened his eyes again, he found himself standing in front of an ancient temple suspended in the clouds.

The bronze door is engraved with dense spiral runes, and each line absorbs the essence of the sun and the moon.

Su Mengyao and the spirit envoy stood on the left and right, their eyes of reincarnation glowing with mysterious halos in the sunlight.

Su Mengyao tightly grasped the ice blade that was flashing with cold light in her hand. It trembled slightly and emitted a subtle but clearly audible buzzing sound.

Countless ice spikes as small as needle tips gradually appeared on the strange half-black and half-white sword. They were densely arranged together, as if the entire sword was covered with a layer of crystal clear ice armor.

The spiritual messenger standing opposite also raised the mysterious staff in his hand.

At the top of the staff, a dazzling rainbow halo suddenly bloomed. Each color in it was like a lively elf, slowly spinning, interweaving and merging with each other, and finally forming patterns that looked like miniature eyes of reincarnation.

"Welcome to the Reincarnation Administration."

The spirit messenger's voice was still ethereal and distant, but compared to before, it seemed to have a hint of imperceptible warmth.

As soon as he finished speaking, the huge bronze door of the ancient temple behind him began to move slowly to both sides. With a dull and heavy roar, the gap in the door became larger and larger until it was completely open.

Li Zhao stared at the door with wide eyes and was immediately deeply shocked by the scene before him.

I saw countless luminous spheres floating in the space inside the door. These spheres were large or small, emitting various soft lights.

The surface of each sphere reflects a completely different world: some worlds are covered with thick ice and snow, swathed in silver, silent and cold.

Some are immersed in the raging flames of war, with smoke filling the air and the cries of battle shaking the heavens. Other civilizations are in the midst of a technological explosion, with skyscrapers rising from the ground and aircraft crisscrossing the sky...

On the huge sphere in the center, it clearly showed the 7200th reincarnation they had just experienced - they were piercing the crystal into the core of the origin of darkness.

"This is..." Su Mengyao widened her eyes, looking at the scene in front of her in disbelief. She gripped the ice blade tightly in her hand, and because she was holding it too tightly, her knuckles had turned slightly white.

The cold touch seemed to penetrate her palms and reach her heart, but the shock in her heart at this moment far outweighed this chill.

"Our world?"

She murmured to herself, her voice trembling, as if she couldn't believe what she saw.

The spirit messenger beside him slowly explained, "To be precise, this is a projection of Universe 7200. In this vast multiverse, countless similar yet distinct worlds exist. Each reincarnation executor shoulders the responsibility of protecting and changing the fate of their respective universe."

As she spoke, she gently waved the staff in her hand, and the tip of the staff lightly tapped the ground.

In an instant, the originally plain ground began to ripple like the surface of water, and a dazzlingly complex star map gradually emerged.

Just then, a slight sound of footsteps was heard.

Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and saw a tall figure in silver armor slowly walking out of a mysterious door.

His entire body was wrapped tightly in silver armor that shone with a cold light, revealing only a pair of eyes as sharp as an eagle.

On his mask, there was a spiral mark exactly the same as the one on Li Zhao's palm, emitting a strange and powerful aura.

In his right hand, he tightly grasped a giant sword made of two completely different forces, light and darkness.

The sword body flashed with alternating light and dark, as dazzling as a meteor across the night sky.

When the giant sword moved, the air wherever it passed made a crackling and tearing sound, as if even the space could be easily cut apart.

"I am the Arbiter of Reincarnation, responsible for punishing those who break the rules."

The silver-armored man's voice was low and cold, without any emotion.

As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly raised the giant sword high up, and a narrow crack appeared in his mask, revealing half of his cold and ruthless mechanical face.

The expressionless metal face looked particularly hideous and terrifying under the interweaving of light and shadow.

"What you have done has caused serious consequences—three parallel universes have completely collapsed!"

The silver-armored man's gaze was like two sharp swords piercing straight at Li Zhao and Su Mengyao, and the pressure contained in it made it almost impossible to breathe.

Faced with such a powerful enemy, Li Zhao took a step forward without hesitation and resolutely stood in front of Su Mengyao.

He glanced down at the constantly heating Balance Crystal in his arms, took a deep breath, and said, "We just want to save the world we live in! Is that even wrong?"

"Save?" The arbitrator sneered, and that cold and sarcastic laugh seemed to be able to penetrate one's soul.

Along with this sneer, a creepy sound of mechanical gears turning slowly came from under his mask, like the grinding of teeth of a demon from the depths of hell.

He raised his hand, extended a metallic finger, and pointed directly at the spheres radiating mysterious light. He spoke, "Open your eyes and take a good look at these worlds! Some have been utterly destroyed in endless war, leaving only ruins and a dead silence. Others, immersed in a false sense of peace, gradually decay and degenerate until they vanish into nothingness. No matter how glorious and brilliant they once were, no matter how diverse their paths of development, all civilizations ultimately cannot escape the fate of their end."

Su Mengyao suddenly spoke, and her ice blade began to absorb the surrounding dark elements: "But at least we fought." Countless tiny ice dragons emerged from the surface of her ice blade, "True balance is not about destroying the world, but about giving life the right to choose."

The Arbiter's mechanical arm suddenly disintegrated, revealing the pulsing energy core within: "The right to choose? This is exactly what Samsara wants to take away."

His voice suddenly became excited, "I was the guardian of Universe 456 and watched my civilization annihilated in the cycle of reincarnation."

Now, I want to end this meaningless cycle!

Li Zhao realized his chance. He quietly placed the Balance Crystal in Su Mengyao's hand, and the two of them connected their minds and launched an attack at the same time.

Su Mengyao's ice blades transformed into millions of ice dragons that pounced on the Arbitrator, while Li Zhao smashed the crystal into his energy core.

The two forces caused violent shockwaves within the Arbitrator's body, and his mechanical form began to disintegrate, revealing the decaying human form underneath.

"You think you've won?" The Arbitrator's voice rang out from the shattered armor. "The core of the Samsara Administration is on the back of the moon. Destroy it..."

Before he could finish his words, his consciousness completely dissipated and turned into countless data torrents that poured into the temple.

The spirit suddenly fell to his knees, blood oozing from his mouth and nose: "Quick! The Reincarnation Administration has activated the self-destruct sequence. We must reach the moon within thirty minutes!"

The three of them came to the back of the moon through the temple's teleportation array, and before them was a huge clock made of light and dark energy.

Gears with a diameter of over 100 kilometers are running in the void, and each gear is connected to a parallel world.

On the main gear in the center, Li Zhao saw the scene of himself stabbing into the crystal in his 7200th reincarnation.

"This is the core of reincarnation." The spirit said weakly, "We need to destroy both the light and dark gears at the same time to stop reincarnation."

Li Zhao looked at Su Mengyao. Her ice blade was absorbing the energy of the dark gear, while his crystal was resonating with the light gear.

The two men looked at each other and simultaneously thrust their weapons into the center of the gear.

In the violent explosion, Li Zhao saw countless world lines flashing before his eyes: in some, he became the Dark Lord, in some, Su Mengyao turned into the Goddess of Light, and more were fighting bloody battles on battlefields in different time and space.

When he opened his eyes again, he found himself lying on the original grassland, with lavender swaying gently in the wind.

Su Mengyao and the spirit envoy were looking at him with concern, their eyes of reincarnation had returned to normal.

"Success?" Li Zhao struggled to sit up.

Su Mengyao shook her head and pointed to the sky: "We destroyed the Samsara Administration, but the new balance has not yet been established."

The sun and moon, which had originally merged, separated again, but this time a rainbow bridge appeared between the black sun and the white moon, and countless points of light shuttled back and forth on the bridge.

The spirit messenger suddenly exclaimed: "Look! A new reincarnation executor has arrived."

Li Zhao looked in the direction of her finger and saw countless versions of himself walking towards him from the other end of the rainbow bridge.

There is a spiral mark on the palm of each Li Zhao, and behind them follow different versions of Su Mengyao and the spirit messenger: some hold flaming swords, some hold thunder staffs, and some ride mechanical dragons.

&34;This is...&34;

"All those who have successfully broken through the cycle of reincarnation." The old man's voice came from the clouds.

Li Zhao looked up and saw the old man standing on the crown of the Bodhi tree. The light of the Eye of Samsara shone on his white robe. "Now, you will form a new Samsara Council and re-enact the laws of the universe."

Li Zhao held Su Mengyao's hand tightly and looked at the sun and moon in the sky, which gradually became stable. "What is the true balance?"

"It's not about eliminating darkness, nor is it about giving priority to light." The old man's figure began to fade. "It's about allowing every civilization to grow freely in the interweaving of light and darkness."

At this moment, Li Zhao's balance crystal suddenly cracked, releasing countless light spots.

Each point of light flew to a different parallel world, where light and darkness began to coexist in new forms: some worlds gave birth to life that coexisted with light and darkness, some established a Council of Balance, and others turned the Eye of Samsara into a guardian totem.

Su Mengyao looked at her half-black, half-white ice blade and suddenly smiled: "It seems that we still have many worlds to save."

Li Zhao nodded and looked toward the Rainbow Bridge in the distance. At the end of the bridge, a familiar figure slowly approached—the mysterious old man from his 7200th reincarnation, clutching a brand-new Balance Crystal.

"The 7,201st reincarnation begins." The old man smiled and said, "This time, you must create a true balance."

Li Zhao held the crystal fragment tightly, feeling the infinite possibilities contained in it.

In his palm, a spiral mark was slowly turning, heralding the beginning of a new era of reincarnation...