Ask the Mirror

Chapter 180: An Exchange

“It’s a misunderstanding…”

Yu Ci narrowed his eyes. He had no choice—the tip of a short sword was pressed directly against the center of his brow, its dazzling gleam blinding, its cold aura piercing straight through to his skull.

He wanted to dodge the blade, but lacked sufficient confidence. Yet in the next moment, the short sword was withdrawn.

“Forgive me.”

A soft, gentle voice lingered in his ears. The female cultivator bowed her head slightly, offering an apology: “A Bright Virtue Ruler is set up around the perimeter. If your heart held ill intent, Fellow Daoist, you could not have entered. I was simply too tense…”

The female cultivator explained in a quiet voice, still keeping her head lowered, seemingly remorseful for her earlier actions. Yu Ci hadn’t expected this outcome. Encountering someone who yielded precedence at the first sign of conflict struck him as rather absurd. Still, clearing up the misunderstanding was for the best. He let out a long breath, and only now did his gaze finally pierce through the curtain of her hair to see her features.

“It’s you?”

Hearing his exclamation, the female cultivator looked up in surprise, allowing Yu Ci to truly see her face for the first time.

At that moment, it seemed as if a layer of ethereal grace radiated outward, centered on those clear, wonderful eyes.

The female cultivator’s delicate features seemed made for this very grace. Her slender, curved brows appeared veiled in a light mist, gathering spiritual energy that then flowed down the soft contours of her face, permeating skin like porcelain, like jade, touching her lips with fresh luster. And because she was so extraordinarily graceful, one felt that her exquisite beauty was like the most delicate and ornate porcelain—beautiful to the extreme, yet fragile to the extreme as well.

In truth, this was the first time Yu Ci had seen the female cultivator’s features so clearly, yet the feeling was unmistakable. He recognized her instantly—she was the slender, delicate female cultivator who had emerged from the Mountain-Moving Cloud Boat at the dock. He had even exchanged a word with her.

And that night, he had also seen her injured. Later, she had vanished without a trace; he never knew how she had ended up here.

Only now did the female cultivator carefully examine him. Truth be told, Yu Ci’s current appearance would give even an acquaintance pause before recognition. His clothes had been destroyed in that rift space, leaving him now covered only in animal hide, barefoot and bare-armed, unwashed for days, a layer of iron-gray stubble on his chin, his hair casually tied back—he looked like a wild man. No wonder the female cultivator, opening her eyes to see him, had instinctively drawn her blade.

The female cultivator was first puzzled, then suddenly understood: “You were at the dock…”

Yu Ci smiled, about to formally greet her, when the distant shrieks of demons echoed faintly, rapidly approaching.

The female cultivator’s delicate brows furrowed slightly. Though she didn’t speak, her expression conveyed something like “here they come again.” At this moment, the exhaustion between her brows was impossible to conceal.

Yu Ci’s mind stirred. Through the large bird in the sky, he took in the surrounding situation:

His and the female cultivator’s position was roughly a thousand chi below the mountain’s highest peak. A ridge extended outward, pressed against the cliff face, expanding into a space about a li in radius. The trees were sparse, the terrain flat; beyond, the topography grew considerably more complex.

At the edge of this relatively flat area, demonic figures flickered into view. But they didn’t approach; instead, they took up positions atop trees, along cliffs—any high ground. In the clouds and mist, light began to gather.

Yu Ci saw clearly: that gleaming light was the radiance of talismans!

With several soft hisses, the poisonous green smoke-arrows he had encountered earlier shot through the air, crossing nearly two li to land above their heads.

Even launched from such heights, after traversing two li, the green smoke-arrows had exhausted their momentum. The talisman structures began dangerously unstable transformations, finally bursting apart mid-air, sending dense phosphor fire raining down like a storm.

Yu Ci had witnessed the power of such phosphor fire. His body tensed, ready to move, when a clear chime sounded in his ears. A layer of baleful celestial qi spread outward—limited in scope, yet majestically imposing. The very air around them seemed to solidify.

Where this baleful qi reached, the limitless phosphor fire was instantly extinguished without trace.

And not just this volley. Any talismans following the smoke-arrows and phosphor fire that touched even the edge of this baleful qi layer dissipated entirely. Those that didn’t could only crash uselessly into the periphery, posing no threat.

Yu Ci turned back in surprise. The delicate female cultivator’s mist-like brows remained lightly furrowed, bearing that same weary, fragile air—yet this display was truly exquisite!

Any cultivator who could reach this godforsaken place was, by any logic, no simple character. But reason was one thing, perception another. The image of the female cultivator’s frail, delicate form was etched too deeply in Yu Ci’s mind; seeing her skill and power now, he felt a certain dissonance.

Along with that came some subtler thoughts.

And so, Yu Ci began to draw talismans. In this situation, the most formidable technique he knew was still the Five Thunder Talisman.

His understanding of the Five Thunder Talisman now was incomparable to before. As a series of thunder patterns linked and interlocked, the killing aura of heaven and earth flowed through the deep clouds. Yu Ci merely grasped the pivotal mechanism. When the time was ripe, the large bird’s sharp eyes in the sky had already锁定 the target for him. With a slight shift in perspective, purple lightning and thunderfire rent the mist asunder and crashed down from above.

A thunderous boom resounded—but only after the demon had been split open.

The demon pierced by the lightning was charred black all over, its very organs roasted. Its death cry was drowned by the thunderclap that followed. Clean and quick.

Before the other demons could react, lightning once again pierced the sky through the clouds and mist. This time, it struck a completely different location, a full four li from the previous target. With another boom, the demon struck by lightning bounced several chi into the air before crashing heavily down, clearly dead.

The Five Thunder Talisman’s activation principle was “what is seen is what is struck”; its attack range was inherently vast. With the large bird in the sky aiding in positioning, no matter how cleverly the demons concealed themselves, they couldn’t escape a single lightning strike.

Having scored successive kills, Yu Chi chuckled and prepared to activate again. But soon, his mind stirred, and he halted the thought.

From the large bird’s perspective, he saw that the demons seemed taken aback by his long-range talisman attacks. Their reactions were somewhat chaotic, at least different from before. The current situation was strange. Without a clear understanding, disrupting it rashly might not be wise.

So he drew another Five Thunder Talisman, reinforcing it nine times with the Qi Convergence Technique, but did not activate it—simply storing it within the green light of the Divine Illumination Bronze Mirror. All of this was now familiar and easy, consuming little time.

Only then did he turn to the female cultivator. She, too, was appraising him, a hint of curiosity on her elegant, graceful features. Their eyes met, and she lowered her gaze. Yu Ci smiled at her, pointing toward where the demons’ corpses lay in the distance, and asked:

“What’s all this about?”

“They’ve trapped me here.”

The female cultivator replied softly: “I fought a battle with them here, killed one demon leader. In the days since, they’ve stopped attacking directly, only harassing…”

Yu Ci interrupted: “Ah, wait a moment—could you start from the beginning? After you left the dock, how did you end up here… if you don’t mind?”

The female cultivator’s cultivation was clearly superior to his, yet perhaps due to her exceedingly delicate bearing, Yu Ci found it difficult to muster feelings of awe or reverence. She, for her part, didn’t seem to mind. From their first meeting until now, he had never seen her display any anger.

“Soon after leaving the dock, I encountered the Ghostly Beast, the abandoned pet of the Rakshasa Ghostly Monarch. It seemed extremely agitated, releasing illusory force without restraint, causing chaos. I tried to stop it, but failed—yet in doing so, I discovered a group of demons pursuing the beast…”

The female cultivator’s account was very concise, at least omitting the details of her injury that Yu Ci knew about. Still, he could follow.

Unable to stop the Ghostly Beast, she had settled for the next best thing and tried to eliminate the demons pursuing it. But she hadn’t anticipated chasing them all the way here, only to find over a hundred demons gathered. She was instantly surrounded. Several attempts to break out had ended in failure.

Yet though she couldn’t escape, after losing one reasonably powerful leader, the demons were unwilling to mount another direct assault. Instead, they set up formations around the perimeter, restricting her range of movement, using attrition tactics to drain her energy. This had continued for over ten days now.

“Here, the demons have set up a ‘Verdant Spirit Silk Net,’ woven from ‘Black Verdant Silk’ even finer than spider’s thread, distributed both above and below. The net itself possesses no power, but it’s extremely sensitive and excellent at conducting and amplifying force. Once touched, the controllers can react instantly, intercepting across distances through the silk net. I’ve tried several times, but haven’t been able to break through.”

The female cultivator gently shook her head. Though exhaustion lay heavy between her brows, aside from that, she was remarkably calm and composed.

Seeing this, Yu Ci finally confirmed that this female cultivator was by no means the frail, delicate thing she appeared on the surface. Pursuing demons alone, enduring a siege by over a hundred for ten days—leaving aside cultivation, the sheer courage and tenacity she displayed would put many bearded men to shame.

Yu Ci reflected that the reason she seemed so delicate was entirely due to her bearing and grace. But upon closer observation, he sensed that beneath the delicacy lay tranquility, reserve, and peacefulness—like a young lady from a distinguished family. Hence her delicacy conveyed no timidity; every gesture was perfectly appropriate. Her origins, he surmised, were quite high level.

Only now did Yu Ci remember he hadn’t yet asked her sect background. He smiled and said, “I am Yu Ci, an outer disciple of the Transcendence Sect, cultivating at the Tranquil Heart Temple…”

“Transcendence Sect, Tranquil Heart Temple?”

The female cultivator’s clear, wonderful eyes widened slightly: “How do you address Yu Zhou, Brother Yu?”

“Ah?”

Yu Ci inwardly groaned, but could only brace himself and answer: “Temple Master Yu is my elder. May I ask your name, Fellow Daoist?”

A faint smile bloomed at the corners of the female cultivator’s lips. She seemed immensely pleased, but in an instant noticed her lapse in composure and lowered her head slightly, saying softly:

“Four Clarities Sect, Gan Shizhen.”

Yu Ci naturally knew of the Four Clarities Sect. It was one of the few major sects under the Jade Cleansing Alliance in the northern lands of the cultivation world, and had always maintained good relations with the Transcendence Sect. The friendship between cultivators of the two sects ran deep. Encountering a fellow Daoist here was certainly fortunate—but Yu Ci now had to confront one question:

“May I ask, ah, what is your relationship with Temple Master Yu…?”

“When I first began cultivating, Brother Yu helped me greatly. We are both mentor and friend, and address each other as elder brother and younger sister.”

Gan Shizhen was also remarkably perceptive. Seeing Yu Ci’s expression, she understood his thoughts perfectly. But at this moment, a playful spirit stirred within her, and she deliberately emphasized this point.

Yu Ci sighed inwardly. Yet since things had come to this, there was no help for it. He could only rise and formally greet her anew: “So it’s Martial Aunt Gan… Ahem, Martial Aunt Gan. Disciple Yu Ci pays his respects.”