After the Immortal Disappeared

Chapter 368: Chapter 367: Soul Village

When Hee Lingchuan released Third Master Gan, he made it very clear that if he dared to blab about what happened, the Grand Tutor of the Treasure Tree Kingdom would surely avenge his son.

The entire Fu Kingdom couldn’t afford to offend the King of Treasure Tree, let alone a mere Wuze County.

After hearing this, Third Master Gan’s lips trembled before he scurried away with his tail between his legs. Having danced with death at the Ghost Gate a few times, he no longer dared to make any threats.

After all, even the Soul-Catching Mirror, his former master, had been subdued by Hee Lingchuan. He finally realized he was hopelessly outmatched.

By now, the eastern sky was brightening, and the village roosters began to clear their throats and announce the time. Hee Lingchuan and the other two had also returned to the county seat.

Early risers were already bustling about their livelihoods. The real Wuze County was so full of life and vigor—how could the Illusion Realm in the mirror possibly compare?

The three found a random roadside stall and slurped down a huge bowl of rice noodles—the bowls were bigger than their faces. The stall owner used some unknown herbs to simmer the broth, creating a distinctively flavored soup base. A handful of mushrooms and a pinch of pickled long beans were added, the zesty tang followed by a rich, deep flavor. Hee Lingchuan also ordered a small dish of peanuts to sprinkle over his noodles, along with four large steamed buns to round out the meal.

The people around them were also squatting by wobbly little tables, devouring their food like a whirlwind. Their foreheads were beaded with a thin layer of sweat, but they looked utterly satisfied.

After the meal, Wu Jingsong went back to pack his belongings, also preparing to move into the Purple Bamboo Garden.

He wanted to return to Grand Tutor Sha’s Mansion as soon as possible, but Hee Lingchuan wasn’t leaving with the merchant caravan for another two or three days. The two Guards could only suppress their impatience and wait.

Hee Lingchuan returned to the Purple Bamboo Garden with the Soul-Catching Mirror tucked in his robes. Most of the guests here were not yet awake; passing by the corridors, he could faintly hear snoring from within the rooms.

He went back to the Bath Chamber to soak in a tub first, relaxing completely. Then, he shut the door and windows tight and took out the Mirror.

It is said that all things have spirits, but for a man-made mirror to coincidentally gain spirituality and become a demon was a truly rare and fortuitous event. Many divine artifacts didn’t even have this luxury; at best, having a nascent Artifact Spirit was already impressive.

But it had no legs, after all. It couldn’t run around on its own, which was why it needed a Mirror Slave to carry it everywhere.

As for those Evil Ghosts, not only could they not touch the Mirror themselves, but the living creatures they controlled couldn’t touch it either. Therefore, they were also unable to pick it up.

Now that its contract with Third Master Gan was broken and it no longer had a Mirror Slave, it couldn’t move on its own. It could only stay obediently in Hee Lingchuan’s hands.

Only then did Hee Lingchuan learn that after Sha Xinghai and Uncle Gan had made their deal, Uncle Gan had wanted the Divine Woman to return the soul. That way, it would be done without anyone knowing, and the Gan Family wouldn’t have to bear any risk.

But the Mirror had refused.

How could it spit out food that was already in its mouth?

Now, the Mirror began to plead with Hee Lingchuan, ”Please don’t hand me over. I’m willing to be your Heart-Protecting Mirror.”

Hee Lingchuan was no longer afraid to look at it directly. He shook the Mirror and said, ”So you’re dead set on following me?”

”Yes!”

He held the Mirror up, turning it this way and that. ”Are you captivated by my charm?” ’The young man in the mirror is so handsome!’

”...Yes, yes.”

He rapped on the Mirror twice. ”Confess and you’ll be treated with leniency. Otherwise, I’ll...”

’Twist me into a pretzel, right?’ The Mirror was full of yearning. ”I want to feel the aura of the City of the Dead. It would be of great benefit to me.”

’So this fellow is yearning for Panlong City?’ ”How so?”

”As you know, I was born from Resentful Souls. But I’ve devoured too many, and the resentment and hatred from their lives never dissipates. It all accumulates inside the mirror with no way to be released, forcing me to eat other things instead.” The Mirror had its own troubles. ”The City of the Dead you carry is beyond imagination, and the power of hatred and resentment it can bear is also beyond imagination. I want to learn from its example.”

”You want to copy it?”

”Something like that.”

Hee Lingchuan stroked his chin. ”What do you need me to do?”

”Nothing. Just let me stay on your person, and I can study it slowly.” Time was the one thing the Mirror didn’t lack. ”I can vaguely sense that the City of the Dead is especially powerful at night, and your connection to it is very close.”

’The thing wasn’t wrong.’ He could only enter Panlong City at night.

The Mirror asked curiously, ”How can you carry such a terrifying City of the Dead without being affected by it?”

”What are the usual effects?”

”The immense amount of yin qi and resentment would eat away at your essence, drain your qi and blood, and leave you mentally exhausted and physically weak. You’d be hollowed out from the inside, soon becoming plagued by illness before kicking the bucket. Given the scale of this Ghost City, killing a living person would take at most... ten days?” The Mirror asked cautiously, ”How long have you been in contact with it?”

”Half a year.” ’Oh, then it’s fine.’ He felt even better physically than he had half a year ago.

”!!” ’Half a year, and this man is still bursting with vigor?’ ”Even if your constitution is beyond that of a normal person, it’s useless! This kind of Yin Power can drain even an Immortal dry! Forget the Ghost City, even the Divine Woman couldn’t withstand my attachment. That’s why I had to sign them as Mirror Slaves. Otherwise, I’d have to find a new person every few months. What a hassle.”

At this point, it let out a long ”Ohhh,” thinking it had found the truth. ”Have you become a City Slave to the Ghost City?”

”Get lost!” Hee Lingchuan flicked it, sending the Mirror spinning several times. ”You think I’m an idiot like Third Master Gan?”

After Third Master Gan signed the contract, he had to obey orders. Hee Lingchuan’s body and will, however, were completely free. No one was ordering him to do this or that.

’...Right?’

He thought about it carefully. He had never signed any contract. He just took a blade from the Black Flood Dragon that Zhong Shengguang had transformed into.

’At most, it’s just an agreement.’

’Hey, no, wait a minute.’

The Divine Bone Necklace couldn’t be thrown away, and the Floating Life Blade would shamelessly return on its own. ’Ah, this...’

Thinking about it that way, he suddenly wasn’t so sure anymore.

As it spun, the Mirror clicked its tongue. ”So terrifying, yet so interesting! I must study this thoroughly!”

What demon with awakened intelligence didn’t yearn for the Great Way? But for an object to become a demon was exceedingly rare. It had no established path to follow and could only feel its way forward.

Unfortunately, it had never made much progress.

Just when it was about to lose hope, Panlong City appeared, showing it the way!

This was its path, the future direction of its efforts.

Hee Lingchuan snatched it up and brought it close to his chest.

The Mirror thought he was just testing the placement for a Heart-Protecting Mirror, unaware that he was actually trying to see the Divine Bone Necklace’s reaction.

Previously, when they were retreating from the shores of Mochou Lake, the necklace had heated up to alert him that a treasure was nearby.

Generally speaking, the Divine Bone was only interested in things it could eat.

This time, however, was clearly an exception. The Divine Bone was completely quiet, showing no enthusiasm at all.

’Does it look down on the Heart-Protecting Mirror, thinking it would be hard to swallow?’

’So, when it heated up by the lake before, was it simply reminding me not to miss the main culprit?’

Even though the Grand Square Pot and he didn’t have a master-servant relationship, it really did pay close attention to his every move.

Hee Lingchuan looked at the simple and happy Mirror, which didn’t yet know it had just escaped a calamity. ”This battlefield in your mirror, what’s the deal with it?”

It turned out that although the Resentful Souls eaten by the Mirror had disappeared, their resentment could not be dispelled. The Soul-Catching Mirror was no Pi Xiu; it didn’t have the ability to only take things in without letting anything out. If this continued, it might have been stuffed to the point of bursting. Therefore, it recreated General Youu’s past battles, giving the resentful energy a target so it could slowly dissipate.

But this method was like unraveling a cocoon thread by thread—the effect was extremely slow. It had been working at it for over two thousand years without sending many away.

So the Mirror World had to be maintained, letting them play by themselves.

But now it had discovered that the number of people in the Ghost City was far greater than in its own world, and their resentment was far deeper, yet they were kept under control perfectly. It was truly a miracle.

”A miracle?” The first thing that came to Hee Lingchuan’s mind was the Three Corpses Insect.

Panlong City made clever use of the Three Corpses Insect; this was probably one of its methods for effectively dissolving the resentment of Wandering Souls.

But this was an unspeakable secret.

”Can I use you, this mirror, to capture people?”

”Not anymore.” The Mirror sounded miserable. ”Before, in order to stop you from escaping, I forcefully intervened and changed the rules. Now that world is in chaos, and I won’t have the spare power to suck in living people for a long time.”

”How long is ’a long time’?” This Mirror was ancient; its idea of ”a long time” was definitely not the same as his.

”At least... forty or fif... ty years?”

Hee Lingchuan gave it a rap. ”Forty or fifty years, or four or five years? Speak clearly!”

”Decades, at least!” the Mirror said sadly. ”If I hadn’t been forced, I wouldn’t have dared move you into the Soul Village.”

”Isn’t it an Illusion Realm that you created? How much trouble could it be to change a rule?” ’No wonder the mirror first sent him into a replica of Wuze County instead of the battlefield.’

But this was the second time he had heard the two words ”Soul Village” from the Mirror.

”That’s not how it works,” the Mirror explained helplessly, giving him a science lesson. ”Things born of heaven and earth have their own principles. A Soul Village is a complete replica of past history, so it has to be a perfect, seamless match. Any change you add is a new loophole. More and more illogical and improper things will appear, until finally the entire Soul Village can no longer operate and just collapses. At that point, I... I’d be in deep trouble!”

It had originally hoped the Vengeful Spirits in the Soul Village would quickly kill these few intruders. The resulting loophole wouldn’t have been large, and it could have figured out a way to patch it later. Who knew...

The Red Phoenix had even been struck to a crisp—and by a lightning bolt it had summoned itself by reversing the Laws. Now look what happened. All the Vengeful Spirits inside realized history had changed and instantly rioted.

Hee Lingchuan hissed softly. ”The Soul Village can’t be changed at all?”

”It can’t!” the Mirror said adamantly. ”Absolutely, definitely, positively not! Not even a tiny bit.”

It was a bloody example itself. Its Mirror World had only just taken shape and had already been thrown into chaos by those Vengeful Spirits. Who knew when it would ever recover.

’Is it that serious?’ Hee Lingchuan stroked his chin. ’In that case, does it not matter that my nightly entry into Panlong City has caused the Dream Realm’s history to diverge from reality?’

Before, he had been ignorant and just thought it was fun. Now, after the Soul-Catching Mirror’s little lesson, he suddenly felt that the Grand Square Pot was truly badass; it seemed it could even twist the Laws.

”The City of the Dead that you see... what does it look like?”

”Well...” The Mirror found it hard to describe. ”See for yourself.”

The next second, the surface of the mirror showed the outline of the Ghost City that it could see. You could also call it a reflection.

Hee Lingchuan let out a sound of surprise.