The starlight bridge felt like walking on cold glass. Each step cracked a little, but it held. Lin Yan kept the white-and-black mask on his face. It had no holes for eyes or mouth, yet he could see and breathe. The mask clung to him like a second skin.
Ahead, the sky turned upside-down. The ground hung above like a green ceiling. The sky lay below like a blue floor. This was the place Kai spoke of — Gravity Garden. Here, "up" and "down" were only ideas. You picked the one you liked, or the garden picked for you.
He took one more step. The bridge ended. His feet left the glass. At once the world flipped. His body spun. His stomach lurched. Now the ground was above his head and the sky under his shoes. He did not fall. He stood on blue air, solid as rock.
A soft voice spoke inside his head — the black lotus.
"Welcome to the second law. Break it, or it will break you."
He walked forward. The garden looked simple at first: rows of tall stone pillars, each as big as a house. Between them grew gravity fruits — round, silver apples that pulled or pushed you as soon as you came close. Some floated. Some sank. Some shot sideways like arrows.
A small boy stood nearby. His feet were planted on the side of a pillar, as if the pillar were the floor. He waved.
"New face? Choose your down!"
Lin Yan pointed at the pillar. "I pick that."
At once his personal gravity swung. He fell sideways, landed on the pillar's broad side. The boy grinned.
"Good choice. Stick to it. Doubt kills here."
They walked together along the pillar wall. The boy said his name was Pebble. He lived in the garden, running errands for Madam Pull, the keeper of gravity fruits.
"She hires strong legs. You strong?"
Lin Yan shrugged. "I can try."
They reached a clearing shaped like a bowl. In the centre stood a huge hour-glass as tall as a tree. Sand inside did not fall — it rose, grain by grain, from bottom to top. Around it, floating stones circled like slow birds. Each stone carried a silver apple.
Pebble pointed. "Job is easy. Pick three apples and bring them to Madam Pull. But each apple changes your personal down. You may fall up, left, or inside-out. Many break bones. Some break minds."
He grinned again, showing missing front teeth. "You still try?"
Lin Yan nodded. The lotus on his chest beat once — thump-thump — hungry for new law to break.
He stepped into the bowl. At once gravity tilted. His feet left the pillar. He drifted downward — toward the sky. The hour-glass loomed above him, sand climbing like tiny ants. He landed on the nearest floating stone. It wobbled but held.
The first silver apple hung within arm's reach. He grasped it. Cold metal skin, warm inside. The moment he plucked it, his personal down swung ninety degrees. Now "left" became "down". He fell sideways, slammed into the next stone. Pain bit his shoulder. He gritted teeth, stood.
Second apple. He leapt, caught it. Gravity flipped one-hundred-eighty. Now "up" was "down". He shot upward, crashed against the underside of a higher stone. Blood filled his mouth. He spat, kept hold of both apples.
Third apple waited below — or was it above? Directions swam. He closed eyes, trusted the lotus. It whispered: "Let go." He opened palms. Both apples floated free. His body stopped falling. For three heartbeats he hovered at the centre of the bowl, weightless, directionless.
In that stillness he felt the law — a thick rope of force binding every atom to a single idea: "There must be a down." He saw the rope, glowing silver, tied to his waist, to the hour-glass, to every stone. He drew Memory Blade, sliced the rope.
A soundless snap. The hour-glass cracked. Sand rained downward — normal downward — for the first time. Gravity fruits burst like fireworks, releasing silver mist. All around, floating stones lost their orbit and drifted gently, harmless.
He had severed the second law.
A glyph blazed on his other wrist — Second Law Severed: Gravity — black letters writhing like eels. The lotus on his chest opened three more petals, total six. A warm flood of power filled his veins.
From the mist stepped a tall woman in a dress made of chain-links. Her hair floated upward, defying even the broken law. She clapped slowly.
"Well done, boy. You broke my garden." Her voice was heavy, yet amused.
"I need the apples," Lin Yan said, holding out the three he had saved.
She took them, tossed one to Pebble, bit into another. Juice tasted of starlight.
"Payment is due. Ask."
He did not hesitate. "Tell me where Heaven's Core lies."
Madam Pull smiled, revealing teeth of polished steel.
"Up the chain-road, through the City of Chains, into the Law Engine itself. But first, gravity will try to reclaim you. Wear this."
She flicked her wrist. A tiny iron weight — no larger than a coin — floated toward him. It carried the broken law inside.
"Plant it in your heart. Let the lotus digest it. Then even Heaven's pull will fear you."
He pressed the weight to his chest. The lotus swallowed it with a satisfied thud. For a moment he felt infinitely heavy, then infinitely light, then nothing. Balance returned.
Behind the broken hour-glass, a huge chain uncoiled from the sky, each link as wide as a house. It descended slowly, forming a road of iron leading upward into violet clouds.
"The Chain-Road to the city," Madam Pull said. "Walk. Do not look down. Gravity remembers traitors."
Pebble waved. "I will stay here, fix the fruits. Maybe one day I walk up too."
Lin Yan ruffled the boy's hair. "Choose your down. Stick to it."
He stepped onto the first iron link. It clanked, shuddered, but held. Upward he walked, each step a promise to break the next law. The lotus beat steady, fed on mirrors and gravity, hungry for more.
Below, the garden re-assembled itself — new apples budding, new ropes of law knitting together — but weaker, fractured, forever marked by the boy who had fallen in every direction and walked away unbroken.
High above, the chained city gleamed like a crown of thorns. A single black lotus petal drifted along the iron road, guiding the nameless walker toward the third law — Death, who waited with open jaws and a smile like home.
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End of Chapter 5