20: Chapter 20 A Moth May Extinguish a Flame

Crossing through the mirror they came through, Wen Yushu did not return to the bottom of the mine pit.

A chill slid across his skin, the white light dissipated, and beneath his feet was still a mirror surface.

The few of them were still in the corridor.

"This anomaly actually crawled out from inside the mirror?"

Wen Yushu frowned tightly, looking around his surroundings.

This corridor was wider than the previous one, and the distance between the mirrors on both sides was about five paces.

The silver-white patterns on the mirror surface were denser, and the vein-like patterns on it pulsated slowly and continuously.

Wen Yushu scanned his surroundings, pulling his right hand out from his sleeve, and a pale cyan Spiritual Qi extended from his fingertips, condensing into a translucent long sword.

The sword body was thin and narrow, with a faint cold gleam flashing along its edge.

With Wen Yushu's Eight Meridians foundation right there, three months had passed, and Xie Feng had yet to make progress, let alone him, the number one Prodigy?

Advancing straight from the Third Layer of the Second Realm to the Sixth Layer of the Second Realm, the amount of his Spiritual Qi was even more than twice that of Disciples in the same Realm. Transforming Spiritual Qi into a sword had already been proficient for him during his initiation assessment, and this Cultivation Technique was passed down by his family, now long since deeply ingrained in his heart.

When Gu Jian was the last one to step out from the mirror surface, the moment his right foot touched the ground, the mirror surface behind him returned to calm.

"The exit is not right," Gu Jian said.

His right hand had already grasped the hilt of the sword, and the iron sword with a blackened body made not a shred of sound when it was unsheathed.

"Isn't this stating the obvious?"

Xie Feng mobilized the Spiritual Qi within his body to infuse into his eyes, operating six Meridians simultaneously, and spiritual light lit up from the depths of his pupils, looking toward the end of the corridor.

Deep within the mirror surface, at the source of the silver-white patterns, something seemed to be moving.

Like a hand, and yet like a face, pressing against the other side of the mirror surface, peering at them right through the silver-white veins.

"It doesn't want us to go out and report the news," Xie Feng withdrew his gaze.

"That's not up to it." Wen Yushu felt out the protective bronze badge issued by the Sect from his sleeve and crushed it.

Only to see pale cyan spiritual light surge out from the cracks, unfolding in the air into a small circular array pattern.

The array pattern flickered twice and went out.

Fragments rustled down from between his fingers, falling onto the mirror surface and making an extremely faint sound.

Xie Feng and Gu Jian were the same; two streams of spiritual light in their hands unfolded in the air, and two circular array patterns flickered and extinguished at the same time.

"The teleportation has been locked," Gu Jian said.

Wen Yushu lowered his head to look at the fragments on the ground, speaking after a moment.

"It's fine, take these." Wen Yushu quickly pulled out two spiritual talismans and distributed them to the two of them.

This was a backup measure left by Wen Heng in case his own junior generation got into trouble. Originally he only gave one, but he couldn't stand Wen Yushu pestering him, so he gave two more.

It was just a pity that it was still useless.

"Even the spiritual talismans personally bestowed by my esteemed ancestor can be locked down?!"

This time it truly gave Wen Yushu a bit of a shock; the event was gradually getting somewhat out of his control.

"It's not the rule of the mirror. The mirror space itself does not lock teleportation. The first batch of Disciples did not bring Magic Treasures bestowed by the Sect, while the second batch brought them. If the teleportation had been invalid from the beginning, the second batch would not have been completely wiped out. The failure of the Magic Treasures happened later."

Gu Jian said coldly. This was his longest stretch of words since coming in.

"According to what the Disciples' suicide notes said, either the anomaly hid the rules, or else..."

Wen Yushu suddenly stopped talking.

Someone temporarily added a layer? A grey-robed figure flashed through Xie Feng's mind.

Wen Yushu switched the Spiritual Qi long sword to his left hand, and his right hand felt out three copper coins from his sleeve.

The three copper coins were flicked into the air one by one, suspended at three different heights above his head, and began to rotate slowly.

The square holes at the edges of the copper coins emitted an extremely faint humming sound during rotation, with varying pitches.

Wen Yushu closed his eyes and listened for a moment.

"The largest mirror at the end of the corridor! The source of the patterns is inside, and that mirror is its physical shell."

Gu Jian's wrist holding the sword slightly adjusted its angle.

"How do we fight?"

"It can't be shattered."

Wen Yushu opened his eyes.

"My Spiritual Qi of the Sixth Layer of the Second Realm hits the mirror surface without moving a single bit. With our Realm, we cannot break its rules."

"Then make it come out itself."

Gu Jian walked toward the nearest mirror.

Inside the mirror, a Gu Jian with a blackened sword body walked toward him simultaneously.

The Gu Jian in the mirror struck first. The moment the tip of the sword pierced out of the mirror surface, it turned into a hand, its five silver-white translucent fingers spread open, grabbing toward Gu Jian's face.

Gu Jian's sword stabbed out at the same time, the black sword body colliding with that silver-white hand at the mirror surface.

The hand shattered, transforming into grayish-white fragments that rolled back into the depths of the mirror surface.

Simultaneously, a second hand, a third hand, a fourth hand stretched out from behind the mirror surface... Countless silver-white hands surged out from the very same mirror, attempting to grab Gu Jian's sword body, wrist, and arm.

Gu Jian did not retreat.

The sword light wove a black net in front of him, shredding all the surging silver-white palms to pieces.

The fragments splashed everywhere, landing on the mirror surface and melting into a wax-like liquid flowing downwards.

But for every one he shredded, two surged out from the mirror; for every two he shredded, four surged out.

"Calm down! Brother Gu!"

Moving along with his words, Wen Yushu's Spiritual Qi long sword flew out of his left hand, not stabbing at those hands, but instead piercing toward the mirror on the other side of the corridor.

The moment the sword tip nailed into the mirror surface, the mirror convulsed violently like scorched skin, and the silver-white patterns exploded outward in all directions from the nailed position.

Those hands surging from the mirror surface toward Gu Jian twitched simultaneously, slowing down by a fraction.

"As expected, after you saw our Realm clearly, you couldn't help but crawl out from that mirror shanty, right? This place is your body, and the entire environment is a physical shell constructed by you, isn't it?"

His peach blossom eyes lifted, his gaze shooting out like sharp rays.

"Anomalies deceive humans, so humans can naturally also deceive anomalies. I said you were in the mirror at the end, and I said I couldn't hurt you—did you actually believe it? You emotionless beast!"

Those below the Fourth Realm could not directly resist anomalies, but the Spiritual Qi inside Wen Yushu's spirit sword was not his own.

Are you kidding, do anomalies understand what a noble family is?

Inside that spirit sword was what Wen Yushu's father, a great Cultivator of the Fifth Realm Fifth Layer, had personally infused.

"Remember, in this world, Cultivation is everything!" Wen Yushu shouted loudly, the sharp gleam in his hand reappearing!

This was Wen Yushu, a true noble family Young Master, outstanding yet crafty, tyrannical yet gentle.

Gu Jian took advantage of this brief instant to draw his sword and retreat. The sleeve of his right arm was torn, and at the edges of the five scratch marks on his arm, silver-white fine lines oozed out, slowly spreading deeper into the skin.

"I told you! Be careful not to touch its mirror surface!"

"I didn't, damn it, do the hands it stretched out itself count as mirrors?!"

Wen Yushu's right hand moved.

The Spiritual Qi long sword nailed to the mirror surface dissipated into points of light, re-condensing in his palm, while among the three suspended copper coins, the lowest one emitted an extremely faint trembling sound.

"We've bluffed it," Wen Yushu said in a low voice, "The Spiritual Qi given by my father that I can mobilize isn't all that much; we must stall as much as possible."

Xie Feng looked at those silver-white palms surging out from the mirror surface. His strength was too weak, and he didn't have any offensive Cultivation Technique; right now he could only be like ants on a hot pan, worrying anxiously for nothing.

Xie Feng had never felt so powerless. Unlike the last time he went on a mission, this time it was a real anomaly, unloved by his grandma and unwanted by his uncle, and he had no means.

His Realm could not even influence the anomaly's actions by the slightest bit.

He understood why Wen Yushu had brought him along—it was to use him as a backup measure to slay the anomaly.

But this made Xie Feng's heart burn with anxiety like fire.

Because Wen Yushu had not personally gone to Kumu Village!

He had checked the mission file records and also believed that this mission had little danger.

But humans could not imagine things beyond their cognition.

That trace of grey figure—even if Wen Yushu was a heaven-defying Prodigy, he could not have guessed it!

All the methods being done right now were nothing more than delaying death.

The anomaly shrank back behind the mirror surface, like seawater rolling with foam retreating back into the crevices of the reef when the tide ebbed.

The corridor returned to silence. Countless reflections inside the mirrors on both sides peered at them simultaneously.

It was waiting.

Waiting for their Spiritual Qi to be exhausted.

"It's not looking at me," Xie Feng said powerlessly.

The Spiritual Qi long sword in Wen Yushu's hand slightly adjusted its angle.

"Because it knows what will happen if you look at it."

The thing inside the Mirror Tomb was much stronger than the one in Kumu Village, but ever since Xie Feng entered the mirror space until now, it had never directly looked him in the face.

It was afraid.

"These damn things can actually share intelligence with each other, this has never happened before!" Gu Jian held his sword to protect Xie Feng.

"Don't panic, wait for the right moment to act. Trying to kill the three of us with such a great fanfare has definitely caused quite a commotion outside."

Wen Yushu calmed down, his hand reaching toward his sleeve.

"Stall. With my identity, after a certain amount of time, someone from within the Sect will definitely come."

Yet Xie Feng felt a chill all over his body.

Pu Huai, or rather Nyarlathotep, would never give him this kind of opportunity.

Xie Feng mobilized the Spiritual Qi within his body, operating six Meridians simultaneously, infusing Spiritual Qi throughout his entire body.

Yingui Art.

When he redeemed this Cultivation Technique, it was clearly written on the title page: attracting the attention of anomalies is using oneself as bait to lure the enemy and buying time for teammates to others. To him, his eyes concealed The Guide.

The principle of the Yingui Art was very simple: anomalies relied on perceiving Spiritual Qi fluctuations to locate their prey, and this Cultivation Technique could amplify the Cultivator's Spiritual Qi fluctuations by several fold, making them conspicuous and impossible to ignore.

Lighting a lamp in the darkness, moths would throw themselves over.

Xie Feng stood in place, the spiritual light all over his body growing brighter and brighter.

"That's not right! Xie Feng, you are acting too hastily!"

Wen Yushu shouted loudly.

Xie Feng possessed a cognition surpassing Wen Yushu, while Wen Yushu understood anomalies in great detail.

Xie Feng cared too much about Nyarlathotep and instead neglected the danger of the anomaly.

After all, the time he had come to this world was not enough, and the anomalies he faced previously were all killed with a single strike.

Facing this kind of true, complete anomaly, Xie Feng had too little experience and insufficient lessons; launching the Cultivation Technique too early instead caused him to lose the timing for a winning strike.

Although Wen Yushu was vigilant against anomalies, he did not understand Nyarlathotep!

The cognitive gap between the two of them caused ill consequences.

Moreover, amidst the high tension of facing the anomaly, he also neglected to remind Xie Feng.

Xie Feng was unwilling to tell others about that terrifying myth, afraid that others would be dragged into it.

Meanwhile, Wen Yushu and Gu Jian had youthful Heart-Natures.

This caused them not to mutually understand each other's Cultivation Techniques, Spiritual Qi, Realms, and means.

And in this world, whether Prodigies or outsiders, anomalies would not become easier to deal with because of your identity.

They would pay the price for this negligence.