Editor: Sahloknir
Ying Kai was right, if Gong Wei’s soul had been destroyed by No Way Out, it meant that he had completely disappeared from both heaven and earth, and it was impossible for him to return in any form sixteen years later.
The room was suffocatingly silent, even the sound of breathing had been suppressed. It was only after a long time that Gong Wei heard Xu Shuangtze’s low voice coming from the door slit towards the other end of the bamboo pole, “Anything can happen with Gong Zhiyu, and I know the man better than you do.”
After a pause he added, “Or rather, I know the non-human.”
I never thought that despite being dead for sixteen years, Big Brother is still so obstinately serious!
Gong Wei held his forehead and sighed, he heard Ying Kai sounding very helpless, “Gong Wei has had all three souls and all seven chakras intact since he was a child, and he has since passed away, how could he not be… Nevermind, we have argued over this issue many times, it is pointless to continue further.”
He continued after a long sigh, “I sometimes can’t help but recall that when Gong Wei was a child, you two were obviously on good terms, you even picked the name ‘Zhiyu’ for him. If I could have predicted this ending back then, and not allowed Gong Wei to assist you in entering the Thousand Dimension Mirror Realm to break your killing barrier, would things have turned out differently today?”
Gong Wei was stunned to suddenly hear Ying Kai mention the name Zhiyu.
And it was really Xu Shuangtze who selected it for him.
Back then, he had just been picked up by Ying Kai and brought from Cang Yang Sect to the Immortal Alliance. Gong Wei had not learned to speak much yet. One day, Lord Xu visited the Immortal Alliance on an errand and brought him a suona out of the blue. Gong Wei, upon receiving this treasured gift, blew on it for the entire day, causing much agony to the entire Dai Mountain community. The next day, Ying Kai specially sent a voice transmission talisman to Cang Yang Mountain, and reprimanded Xu Shuangtze for an hour.
Through the voice transmission talisman, Xu Shuangtze fell silent after listening to Gong Wei’s tune on the suona before saying, “When this boy is ready for a name when he comes of age, the name ‘Zhiyu’ would be most appropriate.”
Ying Kai was still fuming, “Why so?”
“He only managed to hit three out of five notes.”
Ying Kai scoffed, but after hearing this, Gong Wei treated his new name like another treasure, and immediately began to use it everywhere. With his horrifying handwriting, the words ‘written by Gong Zhiyu’ appeared like a ghost catching talisman, scribbled all over his writing paper, his exercise books, and even his zither sheet. By the time Ying Kai realised what had happened, he had already lost the opportunity to give his Shidi a proper name, and everyone in the world knew that Gong Wei was called Zhiyu.
There was a moment of silence at the other end of the bamboo pole before Xu Shuangtze said, “Heaven’s Will is as such and it will not change, there is no need to say more.”
Ying Kai said, “Despite this being so, I’ve still been haunted for so long—what happened in the Thousand Dimension Mirror Realm twenty years ago? Gong Wei told me that you were smitten with a lady created by the mirror illusion and he feared that you would develop a love barrier after overcoming your killing barrier. He had no choice but to intervene and kill the lady, but ended up being hated by you.
“Shuangtze, Gong Wei’s approach to solving problems has always been simple and straightforward, but that is his nature. Moreover, the person within the mirror realm is merely an illusion and I had advised you several times after Gong Wei’s passing, but you refused to explain it to me clearly, now that Bai Taishou has reappeared, you should at least tell me something, right?”
Lord Ying is undoubtedly a preacher, the long speech was earnest and well-meaning but Xu Shuantze responded plainly, “Isn’t it all written in Yuchi Rui’s book ‘Goodbye My Lover’?”
Ying Kai, “How do you know it’s Chang—”
The next half of the sentence almost came out, but fortunately it was swallowed back by Lord Ying who reacted incredibly fast, and said awkwardly, “So… so it was Changsheng who got someone to write it? Preposterous! I will definitely send a letter to the Golden Gate to reprimand him later! But Shuangtze, Gong Wei did not tell Changsheng much before he died, so that Goodbye My Lover is a fabrication and distortion of truth. Also, over the years I have made several orders to ban it, but it was not taken seriously…”
Xu Shantze said coldly, “Ignore it, let him distort. You can take it as the truth if you wish.”
Ying Kai suddenly fell strangely silent, and only after a long time did he cautiously say, “Erm… Shuangtze, have you read Goodbye My Lover?”
“Rb. Qts?”
Fqrajlgr, Xbcu Qfl…”?”
Xbcu Qfl mbeivc’a tfiq qgfrrlcu tlr fjg obgkjgv jujlc, jcv joafg j ibcu alwf olcjiis tfjgv Tlcu Bjl rjslcu klat wemt vloolmeias ogbw jmgbrr atf gbbw.
“P vbc’a gfjiis kjca ab yfilfnf…atja sbe kfgf bnfgktfiwfv klat uglfo joafg atf ibrr bo sbeg klof…jcv lc j ola bo gjuf sbe…mjragjafv sbegrfio.”
The air suddenly fell into dead silence.
Xu Shuangtze at the end of the bamboo pipe, “…”
Gong Wei at the other end of the bamboo pipe, “…”
Ying Kai continued awkwardly, “Are you…okay, Shuangtze? I have already hit Chang Sheng erm…why don’t you sit down and have some tea first? I’ll rush to Linjiang City to meet you?”
“I will find out what’s going on in Linjiang City.” After a long silence, Xu Shuangtze articulated each word, “Whether Bai Taishou is real or not, I will bring it with me to Dai Mountain’s Correctional Palace. You can ask Yuchi Changsheng to guard the tablet at the Golden Gate well.”
Ying Kai hastily advised, “Calm down Shuangtze, you’d better wait for me to rush over from Dai Mountain myself, I’m really afraid that you’ll once again—”
At that moment there was a sudden explosive noise coming from downstairs, and at the same time came Yuchi Xiao’s outburst, “OMG!!!”
The hundreds of mercury mirrors shattered one after another into thousands of shards. Xu Shuangtze ended the conversation with a single phrase, “We’ll talk later”, and then Ying Kai’s futile cries were heard, “Shuangtze, wait for me…”
Gong Wei’s first thought was that this ghost cultivator had really got the guts to show himself in the middle of a spell formation set up by Big Brother Xu himself, and that he even dared to make such a loud noise upon his entrance. Then, came Gong Wei’s second thought, Opportunity has come!
He kept the bamboo pole, dashed out and went straight to the second floor, barging in through the door of the room. As expected, Xu Shuangtze had left immediately when the mirror formation in the lobby had been triggered, and was not in the room at the moment.
The voice transmission spell had not yet disappeared completely, and in the middle of the formation was a man in dark blue inner gown and a white outer robe. His figure was tall and slender and it was definitely Ying Kai!
Ying Kai was just about to exit the spell formation when he was greeted by a handsome young man he didn’t know who barged into the room, and froze in confusion. Gong Wei had no time to explain, and excitedly pounced on him in an attempt to hug his leg, “Shi...”
Before finishing his word, alarm bells went off in Gong Wei’s heart and he spun around in mid-air.
A cloud of grey air was appearing and swirled in mid-air, then transformed into a hooded figure with a flickering scarlet light and the sword seemingly enveloped by a film of blood. It was the ghost cultivator!
It had come to kill Gong Wei!
Gong Wei’s surprise was followed by an instinctive suspicion, as if he sensed something was amiss, but he had no time to think about it. He rolled into a corner of the room, and the ghostly figure seemed to pause before turning into a thick grey smoke where it was, and then suddenly appeared in front of him the next moment, and in a violent piercing movement, went for Gong Wei’s right eye with its claws.
“?” Ying Kai could not see the ghost cultivator and said in confusion, “Is there something in the room?”
“Pa” a crunching sound was made as Gong Wei went straight for a slap across the face of the ghost cultivator and cried in a tearful voice, “Help! It’s me, Shi…”
The key word “xiong” didn’t come out again. Then, a strong wind came from above. It was the scabbard of No Way Out!
Gong Wei was so furious that he almost turned into a vengeful ghost on the spot, only to see that Xu Shuangtze had already arrived, appearing in mid-air. With a wave of an arm, he ended the spell formation and Ying Kai’s figure immediately scattered in all directions as a faint golden light.
At the same time, the ghostly figure was forced to let go of Gong Wei and reluctantly retreated several feet away. It paused in hesitation for a few breaths before deciding that it dared not face Xu Shuangtze head on. Half of its body then began to noiselessly fade into the void.
“It wants to escape!” Gong Wei, who was the most adaptable person, decisively changed his target for protection, “—Watch out, Master, over there!”
Yuchi Xiao, who had just rushed up, almost slipped and fell upon hearing Gong Wei. He pulled Gong Wei behind him and warned him in a low voice, “You’re going to die! How dare you call Lord Xu your master when you’re just an outer disciple?”
Gong Wei said firmly, without hesitation, “What do you know? Lord Xu is unrivalled in my heart, he may not be my master but I regard him higher than my master!”
Lord Xu swept a glance at him, the tips of his eyes covered by eyelashes did not display the slightest emotion, then he turned and conjured a spell. The hundreds of mercury mirrors beneath their feet burst at the same time, tens of thousands of fragments formed a giant dragon. With a speed of lightning, it rushed towards and wrapped around the ghostly figure which did not have time to disappear completely.
The uncountable mirror shards now formed a miniature mirror palace, covering the ghost cultivator from all sides in countless flashes of silver light. The ghost cultivator struggled violently, but it couldn’t break free and was trapped!
Every time it struggled, the mirror cage which was suspended in mid-air twisted and crashed, and countless shards crushed and rubbed together with a deafening screech.
“It won’t get away.” Xu Shuangtze’s expression remained unchanged, “The reason why mortals cannot see you is because you exist neither in the human world nor within the ghost wall, and you can only wander in the boundary between the two realms. You are neither a human nor a ghost, but something in between.”
Everyone had a look of learning something new, and Yuchi Xiao asked in astonishment, “Then-then, what is that thing?”
“Mirrors connect to yin and yang, so not only can it be used as a medium for illusions, it is also the most effective way to trap you.” Xu Shuangtze did not answer the few juniors, but fixed his gaze at the ghostly figure trapped by the mirror cage, and finally asked, “Who are you?”
“—The judges of the Ghost Wall and the Twelve Provinces told me that the soul of the Lotus Immortal Fahua had already been destroyed, and sixteen years later you’re going around killing people with Bai Taishou. So who the hell are you?”
Gong Wei was once again weary in his heart and holding his forehead. He didn’t expect that after sixteen years, the fine Lord Xu had become so paranoid. He had already decided that this ghost cultivator was the reincarnated spirit of the Lotus Immortal, and had almost pissed off good old Ying Kai for that, and now he was asking the ghost cultivator, “Who are you?”
Whoever it is, it must die. So why not just hurry and get rid of it snatch back Bai Taishou?
The ghostly figure could not answer Xu Shuangtze, the scarlet light at where its face should be was flashing chaotically. Suddenly, it turned towards Gong Wei in a movement that clearly revealed a killing intent.
Suddenly realizing that the ghost cultivator could not speak because it lacked the seven orifices, Gong Wei had a bright idea of peeking out from behind Yuchi Xiao and put his hands together around his mouth shouting, “Master! It’s not going around hurting people, it’s been looking for me all along!”
“…”
Xu Shuangtze obviously didn’t bother to take issue about being called ‘Master’, and Gong Wei didn’t care either, and roared, “Before I came to Linjiang City, it was already looking for people with a heavy yin predisposition to cast the mirror art on. When I arrived in the city that night, I was not exposed to the mirror art but it appeared immediately! And it couldn’t wait to kill me! I was lucky enough to survive but the next day, it suddenly appeared in broad daylight on the street outside the Prince’s Residence and killed people at will, no longer picking its targets at all—what does that tell you!”
“There’s no need to select anymore! It has found its true target, and it’s me, Master!”
At this point Meng Yunfei also gradually came to his senses, “Young Master Xiang indeed has a yin predisposition that is one in a million, records say such a person is suitable for… being a cultivation furnace, and also for…”
Yuchi Xiao was stunned and quickly continued, “Being a borrowed physical container for returned souls.”
Xu Shuangtze’s eyebrow lifted in a flash.
Yuchi Xiao hesitantly said, “Lord Xu, because of the matter of becoming a cultivation partner with Xiang Xiaoyuan, this junior has examined his birth characters and Four pillars of Destiny, and he happened to be born on…he was born on the same day sixteen years ago…the exact same day as when the Lotus Immortal passed away…”
One dying and the other born on the same day, with the eight birth characters and the Four Pillars of Destiny impeccably matched. Xiang Xiaoyuan was indeed the most suitable target for the ghost cultivator to borrow his body as a container for its soul!
If Xu Shuangtze had been suspicious all along, then the fragment of doubt lingering at the back of his mind as to whether this ghost cultivator was the Lotus Immortal or not should have been eradicated by now.
Gong Wei breathed a sigh of relief and shrank back behind Yuchi Xiao. He was thinking of how to manipulate Lord Xu to finish off the ghost cultivator on the spot, so that he would be completely safe with no evidence left. However, he heard Xu Shuangtze slowly utter, “Is that so?”
His tone sounded a little strange, but those unfamiliar with him would never be able to discern this.
“What is it that sustains you as you wander between the worlds of humans and ghosts, when your five senses and seven orifices are incomplete?” He turned to face the mirror cage in mid-air not far away, and instead of pulling out No Way Out, he slowly raised a hand, “Let me see it.”
The ghostly figure also seemed to realise what was going on and started struggling even more violently, but Xu Shuangtze had disappeared in place and reappeared in front of it—and in the same instant, thousands of mirror fragments exploded in unison, and the ghostly figure rushed out of the cage and headed straight towards Gong Wei!
A clear sound pierced through the clouds as Meng Yunfei strummed all five strings on his guqin, sending transparent ripples through the ghost cultivators’s body. Yuchi Xiao took the opportunity to slash across its face with his sword, forcing the ghost cultivator to turn back into smoke once more, then appearing above Gong Wei’s head in a flash. The black mist quickly condensed into sharp claws that were about to plunge straight into his skull.
There was a loud thud as Yuchi Xiao kicked Gong Wei out of the way as the claws grazed his face!
Gong Wei could have dodged it himself, but before he could even say anything, he was instantly kicked away. As he was feeling disgruntled about it, out of the corner of his eye, Gong Wei suddenly saw a blood-red sword swinging right towards his face. In the nick of time, a clang sounded! It was a clash of metal as the white and gold scabbard of No Way Out collided with the ghost cultivator’s sword and locked it in place
Xu Shuangtze stepped in front of Gong Wei, with his sword in one hand to deadlock the ghostly figure, and conjured a spell from another. The mirror cage in the distance was instantly swept closer like a torrent, with lightning speed it twisted then compacted and sturdily bound the ghostly shadow in place!
It all happened so fast and furiously that Gong Wei, who had fallen flat on his back, almost applauded and gave Xu Shuangtze a shout of approval. Before the ghostly figure, which was now bound by a chain made of the countless mirror fragments, could struggle for its life, Xu Shuangtze had already plunged his hand into the chest cavity of its formless body and grabbed its heart tightly…
The ghostly figure seemed to have been struck by an electric current, its whole body stiffened, and scarlet light which was flickering wildly under the hood was now stabilised.
“…” Xu Shuangtze narrowed his eyes slightly, “Is this it?”
Just as he was just about to remove its “heart”, the ghostly figure suddenly turned towards him, out of its formless head it let out a low voice which carried a rustling echo, as if the voice travelled here from a distant and indistinct place, “…Xu Bai.”
Xu Shuangtze’s movement came to a halt.
No one saw that Gong Wei’s expression had stiffened up, and then transformed into a hint of surprise which was impossible to conceal.
— Those two words were so familiar, clearly it was Gong Wei’s voice and accent from his previous life.
Editor: Sahloknir
Ying Kai was right, if Gong Wei’s soul had been destroyed by No Way Out, it meant that he had completely disappeared from both heaven and earth, and it was impossible for him to return in any form sixteen years later.
The room was suffocatingly silent, even the sound of breathing had been suppressed. It was only after a long time that Gong Wei heard Xu Shuangtze’s low voice coming from the door slit towards the other end of the bamboo pole, “Anything can happen with Gong Zhiyu, and I know the man better than you do.”
After a pause he added, “Or rather, I know the non-human.”
I never thought that despite being dead for sixteen years, Big Brother is still so obstinately serious!
Gong Wei held his forehead and sighed, he heard Ying Kai sounding very helpless, “Gong Wei has had all three souls and all seven chakras intact since he was a child, and he has since passed away, how could he not be… Nevermind, we have argued over this issue many times, it is pointless to continue further.”
He continued after a long sigh, “I sometimes can’t help but recall that when Gong Wei was a child, you two were obviously on good terms, you even picked the name ‘Zhiyu’ for him. If I could have predicted this ending back then, and not allowed Gong Wei to assist you in entering the Thousand Dimension Mirror Realm to break your killing barrier, would things have turned out differently today?”
Gong Wei was stunned to suddenly hear Ying Kai mention the name Zhiyu.
And it was really Xu Shuangtze who selected it for him.
Back then, he had just been picked up by Ying Kai and brought from Cang Yang Sect to the Immortal Alliance. Gong Wei had not learned to speak much yet. One day, Lord Xu visited the Immortal Alliance on an errand and brought him a suona out of the blue. Gong Wei, upon receiving this treasured gift, blew on it for the entire day, causing much agony to the entire Dai Mountain community. The next day, Ying Kai specially sent a voice transmission talisman to Cang Yang Mountain, and reprimanded Xu Shuangtze for an hour.
Through the voice transmission talisman, Xu Shuangtze fell silent after listening to Gong Wei’s tune on the suona before saying, “When this boy is ready for a name when he comes of age, the name ‘Zhiyu’ would be most appropriate.”
Ying Kai was still fuming, “Why so?”
“He only managed to hit three out of five notes.”
Ying Kai scoffed, but after hearing this, Gong Wei treated his new name like another treasure, and immediately began to use it everywhere. With his horrifying handwriting, the words ‘written by Gong Zhiyu’ appeared like a ghost catching talisman, scribbled all over his writing paper, his exercise books, and even his zither sheet. By the time Ying Kai realised what had happened, he had already lost the opportunity to give his Shidi a proper name, and everyone in the world knew that Gong Wei was called Zhiyu.
There was a moment of silence at the other end of the bamboo pole before Xu Shuangtze said, “Heaven’s Will is as such and it will not change, there is no need to say more.”
Ying Kai said, “Despite this being so, I’ve still been haunted for so long—what happened in the Thousand Dimension Mirror Realm twenty years ago? Gong Wei told me that you were smitten with a lady created by the mirror illusion and he feared that you would develop a love barrier after overcoming your killing barrier. He had no choice but to intervene and kill the lady, but ended up being hated by you.
“Shuangtze, Gong Wei’s approach to solving problems has always been simple and straightforward, but that is his nature. Moreover, the person within the mirror realm is merely an illusion and I had advised you several times after Gong Wei’s passing, but you refused to explain it to me clearly, now that Bai Taishou has reappeared, you should at least tell me something, right?”
Lord Ying is undoubtedly a preacher, the long speech was earnest and well-meaning but Xu Shuantze responded plainly, “Isn’t it all written in Yuchi Rui’s book ‘Goodbye My Lover’?”
Ying Kai, “How do you know it’s Chang—”
The next half of the sentence almost came out, but fortunately it was swallowed back by Lord Ying who reacted incredibly fast, and said awkwardly, “So… so it was Changsheng who got someone to write it? Preposterous! I will definitely send a letter to the Golden Gate to reprimand him later! But Shuangtze, Gong Wei did not tell Changsheng much before he died, so that Goodbye My Lover is a fabrication and distortion of truth. Also, over the years I have made several orders to ban it, but it was not taken seriously…”
Xu Shantze said coldly, “Ignore it, let him distort. You can take it as the truth if you wish.”
Ying Kai suddenly fell strangely silent, and only after a long time did he cautiously say, “Erm… Shuangtze, have you read Goodbye My Lover?”
“Rb. Qts?”
Fqrajlgr, Xbcu Qfl…”?”
Xbcu Qfl mbeivc’a tfiq qgfrrlcu tlr fjg obgkjgv jujlc, jcv joafg j ibcu alwf olcjiis tfjgv Tlcu Bjl rjslcu klat wemt vloolmeias ogbw jmgbrr atf gbbw.
“P vbc’a gfjiis kjca ab yfilfnf…atja sbe kfgf bnfgktfiwfv klat uglfo joafg atf ibrr bo sbeg klof…jcv lc j ola bo gjuf sbe…mjragjafv sbegrfio.”
The air suddenly fell into dead silence.
Xu Shuangtze at the end of the bamboo pipe, “…”
Gong Wei at the other end of the bamboo pipe, “…”
Ying Kai continued awkwardly, “Are you…okay, Shuangtze? I have already hit Chang Sheng erm…why don’t you sit down and have some tea first? I’ll rush to Linjiang City to meet you?”
“I will find out what’s going on in Linjiang City.” After a long silence, Xu Shuangtze articulated each word, “Whether Bai Taishou is real or not, I will bring it with me to Dai Mountain’s Correctional Palace. You can ask Yuchi Changsheng to guard the tablet at the Golden Gate well.”
Ying Kai hastily advised, “Calm down Shuangtze, you’d better wait for me to rush over from Dai Mountain myself, I’m really afraid that you’ll once again—”
At that moment there was a sudden explosive noise coming from downstairs, and at the same time came Yuchi Xiao’s outburst, “OMG!!!”
The hundreds of mercury mirrors shattered one after another into thousands of shards. Xu Shuangtze ended the conversation with a single phrase, “We’ll talk later”, and then Ying Kai’s futile cries were heard, “Shuangtze, wait for me…”
Gong Wei’s first thought was that this ghost cultivator had really got the guts to show himself in the middle of a spell formation set up by Big Brother Xu himself, and that he even dared to make such a loud noise upon his entrance. Then, came Gong Wei’s second thought, Opportunity has come!
He kept the bamboo pole, dashed out and went straight to the second floor, barging in through the door of the room. As expected, Xu Shuangtze had left immediately when the mirror formation in the lobby had been triggered, and was not in the room at the moment.
The voice transmission spell had not yet disappeared completely, and in the middle of the formation was a man in dark blue inner gown and a white outer robe. His figure was tall and slender and it was definitely Ying Kai!
Ying Kai was just about to exit the spell formation when he was greeted by a handsome young man he didn’t know who barged into the room, and froze in confusion. Gong Wei had no time to explain, and excitedly pounced on him in an attempt to hug his leg, “Shi...”
Before finishing his word, alarm bells went off in Gong Wei’s heart and he spun around in mid-air.
A cloud of grey air was appearing and swirled in mid-air, then transformed into a hooded figure with a flickering scarlet light and the sword seemingly enveloped by a film of blood. It was the ghost cultivator!
It had come to kill Gong Wei!
Gong Wei’s surprise was followed by an instinctive suspicion, as if he sensed something was amiss, but he had no time to think about it. He rolled into a corner of the room, and the ghostly figure seemed to pause before turning into a thick grey smoke where it was, and then suddenly appeared in front of him the next moment, and in a violent piercing movement, went for Gong Wei’s right eye with its claws.
“?” Ying Kai could not see the ghost cultivator and said in confusion, “Is there something in the room?”
“Pa” a crunching sound was made as Gong Wei went straight for a slap across the face of the ghost cultivator and cried in a tearful voice, “Help! It’s me, Shi…”
The key word “xiong” didn’t come out again. Then, a strong wind came from above. It was the scabbard of No Way Out!
Gong Wei was so furious that he almost turned into a vengeful ghost on the spot, only to see that Xu Shuangtze had already arrived, appearing in mid-air. With a wave of an arm, he ended the spell formation and Ying Kai’s figure immediately scattered in all directions as a faint golden light.
At the same time, the ghostly figure was forced to let go of Gong Wei and reluctantly retreated several feet away. It paused in hesitation for a few breaths before deciding that it dared not face Xu Shuangtze head on. Half of its body then began to noiselessly fade into the void.
“It wants to escape!” Gong Wei, who was the most adaptable person, decisively changed his target for protection, “—Watch out, Master, over there!”
Yuchi Xiao, who had just rushed up, almost slipped and fell upon hearing Gong Wei. He pulled Gong Wei behind him and warned him in a low voice, “You’re going to die! How dare you call Lord Xu your master when you’re just an outer disciple?”
Gong Wei said firmly, without hesitation, “What do you know? Lord Xu is unrivalled in my heart, he may not be my master but I regard him higher than my master!”
Lord Xu swept a glance at him, the tips of his eyes covered by eyelashes did not display the slightest emotion, then he turned and conjured a spell. The hundreds of mercury mirrors beneath their feet burst at the same time, tens of thousands of fragments formed a giant dragon. With a speed of lightning, it rushed towards and wrapped around the ghostly figure which did not have time to disappear completely.
The uncountable mirror shards now formed a miniature mirror palace, covering the ghost cultivator from all sides in countless flashes of silver light. The ghost cultivator struggled violently, but it couldn’t break free and was trapped!
Every time it struggled, the mirror cage which was suspended in mid-air twisted and crashed, and countless shards crushed and rubbed together with a deafening screech.
“It won’t get away.” Xu Shuangtze’s expression remained unchanged, “The reason why mortals cannot see you is because you exist neither in the human world nor within the ghost wall, and you can only wander in the boundary between the two realms. You are neither a human nor a ghost, but something in between.”
Everyone had a look of learning something new, and Yuchi Xiao asked in astonishment, “Then-then, what is that thing?”
“Mirrors connect to yin and yang, so not only can it be used as a medium for illusions, it is also the most effective way to trap you.” Xu Shuangtze did not answer the few juniors, but fixed his gaze at the ghostly figure trapped by the mirror cage, and finally asked, “Who are you?”
“—The judges of the Ghost Wall and the Twelve Provinces told me that the soul of the Lotus Immortal Fahua had already been destroyed, and sixteen years later you’re going around killing people with Bai Taishou. So who the hell are you?”
Gong Wei was once again weary in his heart and holding his forehead. He didn’t expect that after sixteen years, the fine Lord Xu had become so paranoid. He had already decided that this ghost cultivator was the reincarnated spirit of the Lotus Immortal, and had almost pissed off good old Ying Kai for that, and now he was asking the ghost cultivator, “Who are you?”
Whoever it is, it must die. So why not just hurry and get rid of it snatch back Bai Taishou?
The ghostly figure could not answer Xu Shuangtze, the scarlet light at where its face should be was flashing chaotically. Suddenly, it turned towards Gong Wei in a movement that clearly revealed a killing intent.
Suddenly realizing that the ghost cultivator could not speak because it lacked the seven orifices, Gong Wei had a bright idea of peeking out from behind Yuchi Xiao and put his hands together around his mouth shouting, “Master! It’s not going around hurting people, it’s been looking for me all along!”
“…”
Xu Shuangtze obviously didn’t bother to take issue about being called ‘Master’, and Gong Wei didn’t care either, and roared, “Before I came to Linjiang City, it was already looking for people with a heavy yin predisposition to cast the mirror art on. When I arrived in the city that night, I was not exposed to the mirror art but it appeared immediately! And it couldn’t wait to kill me! I was lucky enough to survive but the next day, it suddenly appeared in broad daylight on the street outside the Prince’s Residence and killed people at will, no longer picking its targets at all—what does that tell you!”
“There’s no need to select anymore! It has found its true target, and it’s me, Master!”
At this point Meng Yunfei also gradually came to his senses, “Young Master Xiang indeed has a yin predisposition that is one in a million, records say such a person is suitable for… being a cultivation furnace, and also for…”
Yuchi Xiao was stunned and quickly continued, “Being a borrowed physical container for returned souls.”
Xu Shuangtze’s eyebrow lifted in a flash.
Yuchi Xiao hesitantly said, “Lord Xu, because of the matter of becoming a cultivation partner with Xiang Xiaoyuan, this junior has examined his birth characters and Four pillars of Destiny, and he happened to be born on…he was born on the same day sixteen years ago…the exact same day as when the Lotus Immortal passed away…”
One dying and the other born on the same day, with the eight birth characters and the Four Pillars of Destiny impeccably matched. Xiang Xiaoyuan was indeed the most suitable target for the ghost cultivator to borrow his body as a container for its soul!
If Xu Shuangtze had been suspicious all along, then the fragment of doubt lingering at the back of his mind as to whether this ghost cultivator was the Lotus Immortal or not should have been eradicated by now.
Gong Wei breathed a sigh of relief and shrank back behind Yuchi Xiao. He was thinking of how to manipulate Lord Xu to finish off the ghost cultivator on the spot, so that he would be completely safe with no evidence left. However, he heard Xu Shuangtze slowly utter, “Is that so?”
His tone sounded a little strange, but those unfamiliar with him would never be able to discern this.
“What is it that sustains you as you wander between the worlds of humans and ghosts, when your five senses and seven orifices are incomplete?” He turned to face the mirror cage in mid-air not far away, and instead of pulling out No Way Out, he slowly raised a hand, “Let me see it.”
The ghostly figure also seemed to realise what was going on and started struggling even more violently, but Xu Shuangtze had disappeared in place and reappeared in front of it—and in the same instant, thousands of mirror fragments exploded in unison, and the ghostly figure rushed out of the cage and headed straight towards Gong Wei!
A clear sound pierced through the clouds as Meng Yunfei strummed all five strings on his guqin, sending transparent ripples through the ghost cultivators’s body. Yuchi Xiao took the opportunity to slash across its face with his sword, forcing the ghost cultivator to turn back into smoke once more, then appearing above Gong Wei’s head in a flash. The black mist quickly condensed into sharp claws that were about to plunge straight into his skull.
There was a loud thud as Yuchi Xiao kicked Gong Wei out of the way as the claws grazed his face!
Gong Wei could have dodged it himself, but before he could even say anything, he was instantly kicked away. As he was feeling disgruntled about it, out of the corner of his eye, Gong Wei suddenly saw a blood-red sword swinging right towards his face. In the nick of time, a clang sounded! It was a clash of metal as the white and gold scabbard of No Way Out collided with the ghost cultivator’s sword and locked it in place
Xu Shuangtze stepped in front of Gong Wei, with his sword in one hand to deadlock the ghostly figure, and conjured a spell from another. The mirror cage in the distance was instantly swept closer like a torrent, with lightning speed it twisted then compacted and sturdily bound the ghostly shadow in place!
It all happened so fast and furiously that Gong Wei, who had fallen flat on his back, almost applauded and gave Xu Shuangtze a shout of approval. Before the ghostly figure, which was now bound by a chain made of the countless mirror fragments, could struggle for its life, Xu Shuangtze had already plunged his hand into the chest cavity of its formless body and grabbed its heart tightly…
The ghostly figure seemed to have been struck by an electric current, its whole body stiffened, and scarlet light which was flickering wildly under the hood was now stabilised.
“…” Xu Shuangtze narrowed his eyes slightly, “Is this it?”
Just as he was just about to remove its “heart”, the ghostly figure suddenly turned towards him, out of its formless head it let out a low voice which carried a rustling echo, as if the voice travelled here from a distant and indistinct place, “…Xu Bai.”
Xu Shuangtze’s movement came to a halt.
No one saw that Gong Wei’s expression had stiffened up, and then transformed into a hint of surprise which was impossible to conceal.
— Those two words were so familiar, clearly it was Gong Wei’s voice and accent from his previous life.
