The starlit staircase disintegrated into tiny points of light as it reached the top floor of the archives. Xia Zichen's pocket watch suddenly grew hot, and the dark patterns on its cover projected a beam of light, accurately striking the bronze door marked "Seven" at the end of the corridor. Ah Fu struck the knocker with the hilt of his sword, the echo mingling with the cryptic whisper of turning gears. Countless miniature star maps floated in the light seeping through the cracks in the door, each one marked with a different time scale.
"These are the anchor fragments of a parallel universe." Xia Zichen pressed his pocket watch against the door. The spot of light from July 23, 1999, suddenly intensified, and the bronze door swung open. The space within the doorway was far greater than what was visible from the outside. Tens of thousands of bookshelves stretched to the horizon, each spine inlaid with a gemstone of a different color—red like blood, blue like deep space, and the deepest shelves glowed with an eerie black and white shimmer.
Lin Yue's shadow suddenly gathered in front of the bookshelf, her fingertips tracing a black-covered volume. "Here are sealed all the 'possibilities' that have been erased, and the balance the black-robed man mentioned..." Before she finished her words, the entire archive room shook violently, and the books on the black and white shelves fell, revealing a massive star map hidden behind them. A broken sword was embedded in the center of the sand table, its hilt engraved with the same star symbols as Xia Zichen's.
Just as Ah Fu was about to touch the broken sword, Xia Zichen was suddenly dragged into a vortex of memories: the night of the 1999 fire, when the young Lin Yue found a crying baby in the blaze, but was struck by a collapsing beam as he rushed out of the flames. In the nick of time, the broken sword suddenly broke free from the rubble, its starlight emanating from it supporting the beam as the chain on its blade slowly wrapped around Lin Yue's wrist...
"This is the Star-patterned Sword of the first guardian." Lin Yue's voice came from the depths of her memory, and the shadow overlapped with her in reality. "The man in black robe is my 'shadow side', and this sword... is the origin connecting all time and space." Xia Zichen was shocked to find that the burn scar on her wrist was exactly the same as the crack on the broken sword. At this moment, the broken sword chain was emitting a faint light, pointing to the blank star area marked with "0" on the sand table.
The candlestick in the corner of the archives room suddenly ignited automatically, and the twelve flames reflected scenes from different time and space: in one time and space, Ah Fu's sword was completely corroded by the ink, transformed into the weapon of the black-robed man; in another time and space, Xia Zichen's star pattern merged with the ink, becoming the new "memory tamperer"... Lin Yue pressed the back of Xia Zichen's hand: "These are possible futures, and the mission of the Seventh Archives Room is to witness the outcome of all choices."
"But what we need is the 'single solution.'" Ah Fu gripped the hilt of his sword, the oracle-inscribed blade resonating with the broken sword. The black and white light on the sand table began to converge towards the blank star region. Xia Zichen suddenly remembered Old Zhang's last words and placed Fragment 404 in the center of the sand table. The yellowed paper instantly absorbed all the light, revealing words never before recorded: "When the Guardian accepts the shadow, the double helix of history will restart."
The black-robed figure's ink suddenly seeped from the ground, condensing into a translucent figure in the air. "Do you think destroying the prayer wheel will stop the cycle? Every time time and space are corrected, a new 'anomaly' is created." She raised her hand, and the broken sword chain shattered. Countless ink marks transformed into crows and swooped down towards the star map sand table. "And I am the 'anomaly' that you will never be able to escape."
Xia Zichen suddenly shielded Lin Yue behind him. The star pattern on his palm resonated with the fragments of the broken sword, forming a star-patterned shield across his chest. Ah Fu seized the opportunity to plunge his sword into the cracks in the sand table. The oracle bone script moved like a living being, trapping the ink crow in the turbulent flow of time and space. Lin Yue suddenly reached out and grasped the black-robed figure's wrist. Star patterns and ink appeared beneath their skin, blending like yin and yang. "Perhaps there is no 'correct history', only the present we are willing to protect."
As these words fell, the blank star area in the center of the sand table suddenly burst into a strong light, and the broken sword fragments automatically reassembled. The hilt was engraved with star patterns and ink marks at the same time.
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