[Feel-Good Read] + [Harem] + [Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio] + [Slay the Gods]
On the coast of Great Yan, maritime merchant Chen Yan had a dream. In it, he stood on a street lined with towering buildings, clutching a glowing slab in his hand. When he woke, five black lines had appeared in his palm, and they would not fade.
He came upon a ghost ship and salvaged a bronze compass. It reacted to only one kind of person: those burdened by sin and obsession.
In the human world, they were beautiful women, vivid and alluring. In the Mirror of Sin, they were twisted, hideous monsters. Meanwhile, the purple monsters that hunted humans in the real world wore white robes and armor in the Mirror of Sin, carrying out their so-called “justice” with expressionless faces.
He became the only living person able to enter the Mirror of Sin. He bore their sins for them. Su Yan turned into a medicine cauldron, with the potion still bubbling. The sword hilt was warm, like holding a soft hand.
On the other side of the Mirror of Sin lurked a malice without reason. It cared nothing for good or evil, right or wrong. It merely touched the deepest obsession in your heart and watched as you were consumed by your own greed, anger, delusion, resentment, and fear. It hunted you not because you deserved to die, but simply because it was there.
Chen Yan knelt on the tidal flats. The ruins around his neck felt as if something were pushing out from within his bones. He still didn’t know what it was.
But he began bearing their sins, one by one.
Perhaps the answer would come when he had borne them all.
