Stone-Skinned Soul-Peering Demon

Clerk Chen's words echoed once more in Lu Chen's mind.

"If what you see in the mirror is yourself, then you die..."

Because that meant you had already been completely replaced!

"Don't panic!" Lu Chen's voice, like a stabilizing pillar, once again steadied the crumbling resolve of the group. "Flip the mirrors over! Use the back!"

The others snapped out of their daze and fumbled to turn the bronze mirrors on their chests and backs around, exposing the rough, non-reflective bronze backs outward.

In an instant, the chilling sensation of being watched by countless malevolent eyes vanished!

It was as if they had suddenly become invisible in this eerie world.

"What... what's going on?" Zhao Da Niu asked, still shaken.

"These things have no physical form; they can only exist by clinging to reflections," Lu Chen explained, scanning their surroundings warily. "The front of the mirror gives them a perfect place to dwell. But the back has no reflection, so they have nowhere to latch onto."

Only then did the others understand, and the looks they gave Lu Chen were as if they were gazing upon a deity.

Yet Lu Chen's heart remained tense.

He knew this was only temporary.

They couldn't hold the mirrors up forever.

And Ghost Face Slope had no shortage of things that could produce reflections.

For instance... puddles.

Or... smooth rock faces.

And then...

Lu Chen's gaze suddenly froze, locking onto a pair of hollow, pitch-black...

Eyeballs!

Those eyeballs were embedded in a massive rock face not far ahead, shaped like a weeping, grimacing ghost.

They had no whites, no pupils—just two bottomless, pure black voids, as if they could suck in a person's soul.

They didn't move, yet they seemed to be watching everything.

A chill more primal, more frigid, more venomous than the Shadow Ghost's gaze surged like an invisible tide, instantly drowning the entire group!

"What... what is that..." Zhao Da Niu's voice trembled with tears. He felt as if an ice pick were churning through his brain, spinning the world around him until he could barely stand.

The other Warriors were in even worse shape. Some clutched their heads, groaning senselessly; others stared blankly, spinning in place as if utterly lost.

"Uuu..."

A faint murmur, as if from the depths of hell, rang directly in everyone's minds.

It wasn't a sound—it was pure spiritual contamination!

It tempted, twisted, and amplified the deepest fears in each person's heart.

Before Zhao Da Niu's eyes appeared the horrifying scene of Willow Creek Town, a mountain of corpses and a sea of fire.

Sun Monkey saw his torn-apart comrades from Black Wind Gully.

And the three newcomers were utterly overwhelmed by bloody, terrifying illusions, their minds teetering on the edge of collapse.

Yet this spiritual assault, enough to drive an ordinary martial artist instantly mad, struck Lu Chen's mind like mud sinking into the sea.

His perfected Ten Thousand Year Black Tortoise Art had tempered his spirit into a millennium-old cold pool—still, unruffled, deep as an abyss.

The moment that spiritual pollution touched his consciousness, it was wrapped in his thick, Profound Black Internal Energy, crushed, and assimilated, without stirring even a ripple.

Lu Chen's face remained calm, but his eyes were graver than ever.

He finally understood.

The Shadow Ghosts were merely parasites of this valley.

The real ghost was this rock face!

Or rather, the eerie eyes on that rock face!

It was the core of this soul-confounding death trap!

"Banner Captain... I... I can't go on... so sleepy..." Sun Monkey muttered, his gaze hazy, as he slowly walked toward a ghost-faced rock covered in blade-sharp stones, as if it were a warm bed.

"Wake up!"

Lu Chen's voice exploded like a thunderclap, laced with the heavy internal energy of the Ten Thousand Year Black Tortoise Art, slamming like a hammer into the minds of the five!

They all jolted, the confusion and illusions in their eyes receding by a third, but the relentless murmurs immediately dragged them back.

"Bite your tongue! Guard your spirit platform! Follow my voice, and don't miss a single step!"

Lu Chen's voice was cold and emotionless. He ignored the eerie eyes and instead led the group, retreating toward an unremarkable stone wall to the side and rear.

His pace was slow, but each step landed on an incredibly subtle position, as if following some hidden pattern.

The black eyeballs embedded in the rock seemed to feel "puzzled" by his immunity. They slowly rotated.

Just that one movement!

"Boom!"

The entire valley's scenery underwent a cataclysmic transformation before everyone's eyes!

The path beneath their feet vanished, replaced by a bottomless chasm.

The surrounding rock faces morphed into clawed, fanged demon gods, reaching out with razor-sharp talons.

The sky turned into a scarlet sea of blood, as if it might crash down at any moment!

"Ah--!"

The three newcomers could no longer bear it. They completely broke down, clutching their heads and screaming madly at the edge of the "cliff."

Even Zhao Da Niu and Sun Monkey, the most iron-willed among them, had faces ashen with despair, their eyes drained of all hope.

An illusion array! It's an illusion array! Lu Chen's mind was razor-sharp.

This Ghost Face Slope was itself a natural illusion array, dominated by that pair of eerie eyes!

The Shadow Ghost earlier had only been an appetizer. This was the real killing move!

Seeing his team on the verge of collapse, Lu Chen knew he couldn't wait any longer.

He stopped retreating. Instead, he spun around sharply to face those uncanny eyes, his own equally deep pupils blazing with murderous intent!

"You two, protect the other three. Retreat behind that blue stone. No matter what happens, don't come out!"

Lu Chen gave his final order to Zhao Da Niu and Sun Monkey, who still had a shred of clarity left. Without waiting for their reply, he moved!

Shadow Demon Trace Steps!

His figure blurred in an instant, flickering like a wisp of smoke caught between light and shadow.

He didn't run in a straight line. Instead, he followed the massive shadows cast by the rock demon gods within the illusion array, darting forward in sharp, impossible zigzags at high speed!

"Roar!"

The pair of black eyes seemed utterly enraged by Lu Chen's provocation.

The ghost-faced rock face they inhabited let out a deep, muffled roar. The entire surface of the stone peeled away like cracked, sunbaked earth!

A humanoid monster, built entirely of gray-black rock, over three meters tall, with dozens of black eyes of varying sizes embedded across its body, stepped forth from the stone!

Stone-Skinned Soul-Peering Demon!

The true form of this Ranked Demon had finally revealed itself!

It had no mouth, yet that roar seemed to erupt from every single eye on its body at once, shaking the entire valley with a deafening rumble.

It took a heavy step forward. The movement seemed slow, but each stride covered several meters as it charged straight at Lu Chen!

All dozens of its eyes swiveled at once, locking onto Lu Chen's figure. A terrifying mental assault, like a solid battering ram, slammed into his mind wave after wave!

But Lu Chen's mind had long been forged into ten-thousand-year-old ice. No matter the wind or waves, he stood unshaken.

His only goal was to get closer!