Gear Prison: The Darkened Mirror Image of the Three Soul Guardians
Steam-powered gears sliced through the dark clouds. With each revolution of the Concept Mouse Research Institute's giant gears, a mechanical mouse thrust fragments of starlight into the furnace. Xiaodou's gear tail resonated with the institute's core. He saw the chains of the Food Cliff from the Demon Realm arc floating in the furnace. Attached to these chains were the remains of countless guardians, each one bearing the Heavenly Dao rune of "Three Souls Eternal Life" engraved on its chest.
“Those are…” Lin Shen’s personality’s steam goggles cracked with fine lines, “puppets made from the fragments of Bai Yan’s three souls.”
Ling Yuan's personality suddenly raised his candy revolver and aimed at the mechanical rats in the distance: "They are refining Xiaodou's tears. Each drop of starlight can be exchanged for ten guardian souls."
Xiaodou chewed through the plush on his sleeve, revealing the interstellar chocolate coin hidden within. The gear tail spun rapidly, grinding the coin into powder and sending it flying into the air, turning it into a marshmallow trap that caught the gears. The mechanical mice's claws got stuck, and they issued a panicked "beep beep" alarm.
"Well done!" Bai Yan's personality's osmanthus cake cart spurted out foxfire, and the roasted marshmallows formed a sweet barrier. "Now it's time to deal with that impostor."
The figure on the throne of the research institute stood up. He wore the same color-blocked gown as Bai Shenyuan, but with a mechanical mask. His eyes were scarlet gear patterns. "Welcome to the future, my three-soul isomorph."
The masked man took off his mechanical face, revealing a face identical to Bai Shenyuan's, except that the teardrop mole at the corner of his left eye had become a gear shape. "I am Bai Shenyuan from 2149, and the only guardian who has successfully merged the three souls - through the sacrifice of the Concept Rat."
Xiaodou felt a sharp pain in the gear tail and saw the recording video of the future laboratory: "Experiment 137: After fusing the blood of the Concept Rat, the lifespan of the three souls is extended to eternity, but the guardian will lose his emotions."
"You killed Xiaodou?!" The muzzle of Ling Yuan's personality's gun was trembling.
"No, I imprisoned him with the sweet shackles of the throne." Future White Abyss chuckled, "Look, he is right there, producing starlight for me endlessly."
In a glass jar deep in the research institute, an adult Xiaodou was curled up, with tubes inserted into his body, his gear tail turning mechanically, and frozen star-like tears hanging from the corners of his eyes.
Lin Shen's personality suddenly grabbed Future Bai Shenyuan's wrist, his steam goggles blazing with anger. "Your mechanical heart is emitting energy fluctuations from the Creation Core, which means you failed to successfully sacrifice Xiaodou."
"Because the Creation Core requires the voluntary sacrifice of the Concept Rat." Bai Yan's personality held up the osmanthus cake condensed from fox fire. "Just like I didn't force Xiaodou to chew up the marriage certificate three hundred years ago, you can't do it either."
The teardrop mole on Future White Abyss's gear suddenly shattered, revealing an unhealed scar beneath—the scar left when Xiaodou blocked an attack for him in Storybrooke. Foxfire erupted from his mechanical heart, resonating with White Abyss's three soul patterns.
Xiaodou took the opportunity to wrap the gear tail around the keyhole of the glass jar, but at the moment of contact, he heard the voice of Bai Yan's father from the Demon Realm chapter ringing in his mind:
"The Genesis Core isn't a weapon; it's a nursery for the Concept Rat Tribe. The 'throne' in the scene from three thousand years ago is actually where you were born."
The glass jar shattered with a bang, and the adult Xiaodou transformed into starlight as he fell, merging into Xiaodou's gear mouse form. He felt countless memories flooding in—he was not the reincarnation of the Concept Rat King, but a rat embryo sealed within the core of creation. The fragments of the three souls of the White Abyss were the key to activating the embryo.
"It turns out that our meeting was destined from the beginning..." Xiaodou looked up and saw Future White Abyss transforming into a point of light. His last words were:
"Go to the Food Cliff and use your tears to awaken the true Concept Rat King—that is the existence that Heaven fears the most."
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