Ji Yu's hands were incredibly nimble. He didn't seem to rummage much, merely tapping the corpses a few times, yet he extracted all useful items. Seeing that Shi Yu wanted to use the treasure mirror, he had no sooner fished it out of the gaunt cultivator's sleeve than he eagerly presented it. “Sister, here.”
Shi Yu took the treasure mirror, and Ji Yu returned to continue his unfinished task.
Her gaze fell upon the treasure mirror, where her own reflection appeared. She noticed that the flower mark on her brow had vanished at some unknown point.
The treasure mirror still bore the gaunt cultivator's divine sense imprint, rendering it unusable for now. Although she could rely on artifact refining methods to remove the imprint left by a late-stage Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator, it would still take considerable effort to erase it completely. Moreover, Qingzhou and Mo Tong had both sustained serious injuries and urgently needed to recover. So, she tossed out array flags and an array plate to set up an illusion array, ensuring the area wouldn't be discovered for the time being.
“Qingzhou, Mo Tong, you two should first meditate and heal within the array. We'll talk once your injuries have recovered.”
Currently, because she had put away the Nine Underworlds Diagram, the secret realm's landscape had drastically changed. The cultivators were scrambling to find a way out, so they wouldn't pay much attention to any anomalies here. It was unlikely they would discover the illusion array.
Qingzhou and Mo Tong acknowledged, then consumed their pills and sat cross-legged to dissolve the medicinal effects and heal their injuries.
Seeing Ji Yu still busy, Shi Yu sat to the side, closed her eyes, held her breath, and enveloped the treasure mirror with her divine sense. Aiding it with spiritual fire, she slowly began to wear away the divine sense imprint on it.
Meanwhile, within her body, the Taiji Yin-Yang diagram in her spirit lake slowly rotated, automatically dissolving the medicinal effects of the pills. The depleted spiritual energy in her spiritual meridians gradually refilled.
Three hours passed in a flash. When the last trace of the remaining imprint was finally erased, a colorful light flashed across the treasure mirror's surface, shimmering for a while before settling into silence.
Shi Yu unceremoniously branded it with her own imprint. The method to activate the treasure mirror naturally flowed into her sea of consciousness along with the imprint.
Ji Yu had already finished his task and was now idly sitting nearby, sifting through the various items he had taken from the two gaunt cultivators. Seeing Shi Yu open her eyes, he immediately squeezed closer. “Sister, is it done?”
“Mm.” Shi Yu nodded, then tapped the mirror's surface with a finger. The surface rippled like water, and circles of waves spread out. As spiritual power flowed into it, an orange-yellow beam of light shot forth from the mirror, enveloping her.
Ji Yu curiously leaned in, looking at Shi Yu, then at the treasure mirror.
Shi Yu lowered her gaze to the mirror's surface, where hazy, indistinct images gradually began to appear. She couldn't make them out clearly.
She formed hand seals, activating a brilliant light. After a few breaths, the images gradually became clearer. After watching for a moment, she aimed the mirror at Ji Yu, Qingzhou, and the others, testing it on each of them. She found that the amount of time that could be traced back and the clarity of the images differed depending on the person.
When aimed at Ji Yu, the mirror easily displayed scenes from four or five days prior, and they were remarkably clear, making Ji Yu click his tongue in wonder and wish he could grab it to play with. However, when aimed at Qingzhou, it could only trace back a maximum of three days, and the further back in time it went, the more the images resembled scenes veiled by several layers of gauze, utterly unclear. Only scenes from one or two days prior were somewhat better.
This was normal, as the higher one's cultivation, the harder it was to pry into their secrets.
After several repeated tests, Shi Yu generally understood the function of this treasure mirror. “With my current cultivation, I can trace back a maximum of five days. The further back in time, the blurrier the image, and the higher the cultivation of the person being viewed, the more indistinct the information obtained... I wonder if there are different restrictions when used on people versus objects. In any case, I'll slowly explore it later.”
This was a rather practical and rare treasure, with extremely broad uses. It was perfect for gathering information and intelligence. The gaunt cultivator must have had some fortuitous encounter to obtain such an item.
After roughly understanding the treasure mirror's purpose and usage, Shi Yu formed hand seals and activated a spell, aiming the mirror at herself to retrace the events of the past few days.
Familiar scenes emerged from the mirror, precisely those from her earlier time in the stone chamber with the sword wall. With a shift of her thoughts, the images fast-forwarded to the last day, just before she encountered the red fox.
She saw herself cultivating peacefully in a cross-legged position when suddenly, a woman's charming laughter drifted over.
The image, following Shi Yu's gaze, focused on the woman, who was utterly captivating and radiant. Ji Yu, squeezed in beside her, stared blankly, his face flushed, and couldn't help but say, “Such a beautiful sister...”
Foxes were known for their beauty; if they could take human form, their appearance would usually be stunning. This red fox, having cultivated to nine tails, possessed a pure bloodline and a top-tier visage.
However...
In the treasure mirror, the red fox stepped forward, its ferocity revealed, intending to seize Shi Yu's body directly. Yet, just as it was about to succeed, it suddenly shrieked and recoiled several steps.
Shi Yu knew in her heart that the red fox had touched upon her bloodline origin, intimidated by the oppressive aura of the Ancient Phoenix, and dared not make another move.
The two confronted each other in silence. The red fox still refused to give up. Failing to seize her body, it simply resorted to skinning her face. Its long, lacquered nails dug into Shi Yu's flesh, directly slicing open a cut. As it pulled, the cut widened, instantly becoming a bloody mess.
“Hiss...” Ji Yu watched the bloody scene, unable to bear it, and looked away. He then muttered, puzzled, “Why would that sister want to skin you, of all people? Sister, no matter how you look at it—cough, cough!”
He chuckled ingratiatingly halfway through his sentence.
Although he viewed Shi Yu through a certain filter, believing his own sister to be the most beautiful, any discerning person could see how breathtakingly gorgeous the red fox was, and why it was so insistent on taking Shi Yu's face. It was truly perplexing.
Shi Yu ignored Ji Yu's muttered complaints and continued to gaze intently.
As the red fox skinned her face, it hummed an enchanting tune. In the midst of this overly beautiful song, Shi Yu couldn't help but fall into a deep sleep.
“The red fox was about to succeed, so what happened that left me unharmed—here it comes.” Shi Yu's heart stirred as she watched the four sword walls of the stone chamber in the mirror suddenly split apart, revealing the figure of Senior White Bones.
Senior White Bones called the red fox “A'Yan,” while the red fox, with a grim expression, called him “Qingyun Daojun.” The two were clearly old acquaintances.
After listening to their conversation, Shi Yu gradually formed a guess: “This... Qingyun Daojun once said that in this life, he only failed his master and his Dao Companion. Could it be that this Dao Companion is the red fox...”
But one was a pure sword cultivator, transformed from white bones into jade, while the other was a red fox spirit beast shrouded in demonic Qi, clearly having fallen to the Demonic Dao in life. Moreover, the red fox seemed to harbor deep resentment toward him. What kind of past could there possibly be between them?
As soon as Qingyun Daojun appeared, the red fox panicked. In its desperation, it twisted and reverted to its true form.
“Hypocrite! I've waited tens of thousands of years, only hoping to one day break free from your shackles.”
“In this life, I only failed you and Master. Now, with the Nine Nether Sword choosing a new master and the sect's legacy preserved, I can finally account for myself to Master.”
“However, I still owe you an explanation. I originally thought that by trapping you here for tens of thousands of years, your demonic Qi would eventually dissipate, allowing you to re-enter reincarnation. But your resentment towards me has grown so deep...”
“Your obsession traps you, and it traps me too. I destroyed your physical body and confined your soul. What I owe you, today... I return.”
“With a newly molded body, free from demonic Qi's entanglement, you can start anew. A'Yan, I... have wronged you.”
...
After watching, Shi Yu was silent for a few breaths, then murmured, “So that's how it is.”
Qingyun Daojun's Dao Companion was indeed the red fox who had fallen to the Demonic Dao.
She wondered what kind of past that must have been.
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