When He Lingchuan released Third Master Gan, he had made it abundantly clear: dare to blab about any of this, and the Grand Tutor of the Jeweled Tree Kingdom would surely avenge his son.
Not even the entire Fu Kingdom could afford to offend the Jeweled Tree King, let alone a mere Wuze County.
After hearing this, Third Master Gan's lips trembled a few times, and he scurried off with his tail between his legs. After walking past the Gates of Hell several times, he didn't dare utter another harsh word.
After all, even the soul-snatching mirror that had once been his master was subdued by He Lingchuan. He had finally realized that flimsy twigs could never bend steel rods.
By now, dawn was breaking in the east. The farm roosters cleared their throats to announce the morning, and He Lingchuan and the other two returned to the county seat.
Early-rising residents were already bustling about for their livelihoods. In the real world, Wuze County was brimful of the bustle of daily life—how could the mirror's illusion ever compare?
The three randomly picked a roadside stall and slurped down large bowls of rice noodles, each bowl bigger than a person's face. The stall owner had stewed some unknown herbs together into a broth that tasted distinctly sharp and savory. Topped with a handful of mushrooms and a pinch of pickled sour green beans, the refreshing sour tang gave way to a rich, hearty finish. He Lingchuan ordered an extra plate of peanuts to scatter over the noodles, then took four large steamed buns to round out the meal.
The folks around them crouched by wobbly little tables as well, devouring their food like whirlwind sweeping through clouds. Though sweat beaded lightly on their foreheads, they looked thoroughly satisfied.
After the meal, Wu Jinsong went back to pack his bags, preparing to move into Purple Bamboo Court as well.
He wanted to hurry back to Grand Tutor Sha's estate as soon as possible, but since He Lingchuan wouldn't set off with the caravan for another two or three days, the two guards had no choice but to rein in their impatience and wait.
He Lingchuan returned to Purple Bamboo Court with the soul-snatching mirror in his bosom. Most of the guests here were still asleep; passing along the porch, one could faintly hear snoring coming from within.
He returned to the bathhouse to soak and unwind, then tightly shut the doors and windows before taking out the mirror.
Though all things possessed spirit, for a man-made mirror to serendipitously gain sentience and become a monster was truly an extraordinary stroke of luck—something one could stumble upon only by sheer chance. Many divine artifacts were never graced with such fortune; having a nascent, ignorant artifact spirit was already remarkable enough.
Yet it had no legs of its own and could not run, which was why it needed a mirror slave to carry it around.
As for those evil spirits, not only were they unable to touch the mirror themselves, but even the living creatures they possessed could not touch it either, making it impossible for them to pick it up.
Now that its pact with Third Master Gan was broken and it lacked a mirror slave, it could not move on its own and had to stay obediently in He Lingchuan's hands.
Only now did He Lingchuan learn that after Sha Xinghai and Eldest Master Gan completed their trade, Eldest Master Gan had actually hoped the Spirit Medium would return the soul, resolving the matter without anyone noticing so the Gan family wouldn't bear any risk.
However, the mirror had refused.
How could it spit out food that was already in its mouth?
Now, the mirror began pleading with He Lingchuan: "Please don't hand me over! I'm willing to serve as your heart-protecting mirror."
He Lingchuan no longer feared looking into it. Waving the mirror, he said, "You're dead set on following me?"
"Yes!"
He held up the mirror, angling it left and right to inspect himself. "Bowled over by my charm?" The young fellow in the mirror was indeed quite handsome!
"...Yes, yes."
He rapped the mirror twice. *Clang, clang.* "Leniency for those who confess, or else I'll..."
Twist it into a cruller, right? The mirror spoke with yearning: "I want to feel the aura of the City of the Undead. It would benefit me greatly."
So this fellow was yearning for Panlong City? "How so?"
"As you know, I was born of resentful souls. But after devouring so many, their lifetime resentment and hatred never faded. Piled inside the mirror with nowhere to vent, it forced me to switch to other fare." The mirror had its own woes. "The City of the Undead behind you is far beyond imagination, and the power of grudge and resentment it can bear is also far beyond imagination. I want to learn from it."
"You want to copy its model?"
"You could say that."
He Lingchuan stroked his chin. "What do you need me to do?"
"Nothing. Just let me stay on your person, and I can slowly study it." The one thing the mirror did not lack was time. "I faintly sense that the City of the Undead grows exceptionally powerful at night, and its connection with you is very tight."
The fellow wasn't mistaken; he could only enter Panlong City at night.
The mirror asked curiously, "How can you bear such a terrifying City of the Undead without being affected by it?"
"What effect should there usually be?"
"Astronomical amounts of yin energy and resentment would gnaw away at your vital essence and deplete your qi and blood, leaving you mentally exhausted, physically frail, and consumed from within, until you're soon racked with illness and drop dead. With the scale of that City of the Undead, killing a living man would take at most... ten days?" The mirror asked him cautiously, "How long have you been connected to it?"
"Half a year." Oh, then there was nothing to worry about. He felt his body was in even better shape than it had been half a year ago.
"!!" Half a year, and this man was still vigorous as a dragon and fierce as a tiger? "Even if your constitution surpasses ordinary men, it should be useless—that kind of yin power could drain even an immortal dry! Not to mention a City of the Undead, even the Spirit Medium couldn't bear my attachment, which is why I had to bind them as mirror slaves. Otherwise, I'd have to switch people every few months, which is a huge hassle."
At this point, it let out a long "Oh," believing it had uncovered the truth: "Did you also become a city slave to the City of the Undead?"
"Piss off!" He Lingchuan flicked it with a finger, sending the mirror spinning several times. "You think I'm an idiot like Third Master Gan?"
Once Third Master Gan signed the pact, he had to obey orders. Yet He Lingchuan's body and will were entirely free; no one ordered him to do this or that.
Right...?
He thought about it carefully. He hadn't signed any pact either—he had merely taken a saber from the black flood dragon that Zhong Shengguang had transformed into.
At most, that was just an agreement.
Wait, that wasn't right. Hold on.
He couldn't even throw away the divine bone necklace, and the Fusheng saber stubbornly returned to him no matter what. Ah, this...
Thinking about it that way, he didn't seem quite so certain anymore.
As the mirror spun, it clicked its tongue. "Too terrifying, too fascinating! I must study it properly!"
What monster that had gained sapience didn't yearn for the Great Dao? Yet artifacts turning into monsters were far too rare. It had no ready-made path to follow and could only grope forward on its own.
Unfortunately, it had never achieved any real results.
Just when it was about to lose heart, Panlong City had appeared, illuminating the way forward!
This was its Dao, the direction of its future efforts.
He Lingchuan snatched it up and brought it close to his chest.
The mirror assumed he was testing where to position his heart-protecting mirror, unaware that he actually wanted to observe the divine bone necklace's reaction.
Earlier, when retreating from the shores of Mochou Lake, the necklace had grown hot to alert him to a treasure nearby.
Generally speaking, the divine bone was only interested in things it could eat.
This time, however, was clearly an exception. The divine bone remained quiet, without the slightest enthusiasm.
Did it look down on the heart-protecting mirror, finding it too tough to swallow?
Or had the warmth at the lake merely been a simple reminder not to let the real culprit slip away?
Though he and the Dafang Pot were not in a master-servant relationship, it truly kept a close eye on his every move.
Looking at the naive, cheerful mirror, which had no idea it had just narrowly escaped death, He Lingchuan asked, "What was really going on with the battlefield inside your mirror?"
As it turned out, although the resentful souls devoured by the mirror were gone, their hatred could not be dispelled. The soul-snatching mirror was no Pixiu; it could not endlessly consume without ever discharging. If this continued, it might even burst itself. Therefore, it had recreated the battles from General You's life, giving that resentment a target so it could slowly dissipate.
Yet this method was like unraveling silk from a cocoon—agonizingly slow. In over two thousand years of effort, it had managed to dispel very few.
Thus, the world inside the mirror had to be maintained continuously, letting them play things out on their own.
Now, however, it discovered that the City of the Undead held far more souls than it did, with resentment far deeper, yet managed to keep everything under control. It was truly a miracle.
"A miracle?" He Lingchuan instantly thought of the Three Corpse Worms.
Panlong City made clever use of the Three Corpse Worms, which was likely one of its effective methods for neutralizing the resentment of the deceased souls.
But that was an unspeakable secret.
"Can I use your mirror to capture people?"
"Not right now." The mirror sounded miserable. "Earlier, in order to stop you from escaping, I forcibly intervened and altered the rules. That world is completely thrown into chaos now, and for a long time, it won't have the spare strength to draw in living people."
"How long is a long time?" This mirror had existed for ages; its idea of "a long time" certainly differed from his.
"At least four or five... decades?"
He Lingchuan gave it a sharp knock on the head. "Four or five years, or forty or fifty years? Be clear!"
"Starting from several decades at least!" the mirror said sorrowfully. "Had I not been forced into a corner, I wouldn't have dared move you into the realm of souls."
"Isn't that just an illusory world you created? How much trouble could changing a rule really cause?" No wonder the mirror had first placed him in a replicated Wuze County rather than the battlefield.
Still, this was the second time he had heard the words "realm of souls" from the mirror.
"It doesn't work that way," the mirror explained helplessly. "All things born of heaven and earth adhere to their own principles. A realm of souls copies past history, so it must fit together seamlessly without a single flaw. Any variation introduced is a loophole added, and irregularities will only multiply until the entire realm of souls can no longer sustain itself and collapses. When that happens, I'll—I'll be in deep trouble!"
It had originally counted on the resentful spirits in the realm of souls to slay the intruders quickly, keeping the loophole small so it could find ways to patch it later. Who would have guessed...
The hongluan was charred to a crisp, struck down by lightning when the mirror itself broke the laws to intervene. Now everything was ruined—the resentful spirits inside all realized history had deviated, and an instant revolt erupted.
He Lingchuan let out a soft hiss. "The realm of souls can't be changed at all?"
"Not at all!" the mirror answered decisively. "Absolutely, positively, unequivocally not! Not by the slightest shred."
It was a bloody example of that truth. Its mirror realm had only just taken shape before being thoroughly mangled by those resentful spirits, with no telling when it could be restored.
That serious? He Lingchuan stroked his chin. Then each night when he entered Panlong City, causing discrepancies between his dreams and actual history, did none of that matter?
Before, he had been ignorant, assuming it was just fascinating; now, after hearing the soul-snatching mirror's explanation, he suddenly felt the Dafang Pot was truly incredible, capable even of warping laws.
"What does the City of the Undead look like in your eyes?"
"Well..." The mirror found it hard to describe, so it could only say, "See for yourself."
The next instant, the outline of the City of the Undead it had seen surfaced on the mirror's face—or rather, a reflection of it.
He Lingchuan let out a gasp of surprise.
Chapter 361