The Person in the Mirror

"Ah—!!!!"

A shrill scream tore through the silence of the Princess Mansion.

Li Li instinctively raised a hand to touch her face, but her fingertips met not soft, warm skin, but something sticky, icy cold, and slick with the fishy stench of decay.

She lowered her head to look at her hand and saw that her fingertips were covered in black sludge that reeked horribly, mixed with rotting grass roots and writhing little worms!

"Ah!! What is this?!"

Li Li's scream turned into a desperate howl. She staggered back and knocked over the chair behind her.

At the instant she stepped back, a horrifying scene unfolded!

The mud on her already twisted face began falling away madly. The skin on her neck peeled and collapsed in great sheets, like wallpaper rotted through after being soaked in water!

The structure beneath her skin was exposed—not flesh and blood, but black rotten mud churning with countless slender earthworms and white maggots tangled together! As though alive, the sludge writhed and flowed violently with the tremors of her body.

"Pfft... pfft..."

One nauseating sound after another rang out.

Her neck, shoulders, arms, body...

Like a clay doll that had been punctured, her splendid palace robes were swiftly soaked through and corroded. Great chunks of "skin and flesh," mixed with sludge, maggots, and broken earthworms, slid onto the floor. Her body was "melting" at a terrifying speed!

"Save... save me... Chudong, Gu Mo..."

Li Li's voice became muddled, accompanied by the gurgling of churning mud, filled with boundless terror and pleading.

Her eyes were the last human feature to disappear. They brimmed with incredulous despair as they stared fixedly at Gu Chundong, before being completely swallowed by the surging black mud as well.

Within only a few breaths, the vivid and enchanting Princess Chengyang vanished.

All that remained was a pool of constantly writhing black rotten mud that gave off a stench soaring to the heavens, along with an exceptionally glaring, unusually slender white finger bone lying alone amid the filth.

The reception hall was deathly still. Only the faint sounds of maggots squirming and sludge bubbling within the rotten mud remained, along with Gu Chundong covering her mouth, her face pale from extreme fright and nausea.

The air was saturated with the suffocating reek of a rotten sewer.

"Brother, what's going on?" Gu Chundong was terrified out of her wits.

Gu Mo's expression remained calm as he said, "This is the case we came to investigate. Clay figurines are replacing real people. This Li Li was fake!"

At that moment, Ye Chen's face was white as paper, and his stomach churned like an overturned sea. The impact of the sight reminded him of that extremely unpleasant experience at the brothel. He clenched his teeth hard to keep from vomiting on the spot, then pointed at the pool of mud, his voice trembling. "Big Brother... it's... it's exactly the same as the one at the brothel! The same thing happened!"

Gu Mo's gaze turned cold to the extreme, and biting cold energy radiated from his entire body.

He bent down and carefully enveloped the slender finger bone in an invisible current of true qi, drawing it out from the sludge. The bone was icy cold in his hand, and a faint yet exceedingly bizarre trace of "vitality" lingered upon it.

This "vitality" was the same as the "vitality" on Yu Niangzi's skeleton.

"As expected, they're constantly evolving and growing, slowly changing from clay figurines into real people. It seems this Li Li was only replaced recently, which is why she had grown only one human bone!" Gu Mo said gravely.

"Brother," Gu Chundong hurriedly asked, "then... then Chengyang... is she still alive?"

Gu Mo said in a deep voice, "We can only do our utmost and leave the rest to Heaven's will!"

At this moment,

The guards of the Princess Mansion arrived, all wearing bewildered expressions at the sight before them.

Gu Mo had no interest in explaining much. He merely said, "Princess Chengyang has encountered danger."

Everyone in the Princess Mansion knew Gu Mo's identity. No one dared question him, nor did anyone suspect that Gu Mo and the others had killed Princess Chengyang.

Afterward, Gu Mo found a guard who knew the Clay Figurine Shop and had him lead the way.

Then, carrying that guard with him, he transformed into an afterimage and shot out the door.

Suppressing his nausea and weak legs, Ye Chen looked at the pool of rotten mud that was still faintly writhing, shuddered violently, and shouted, "Wait for me, Big Brother!" He hurriedly activated his movement technique and chased after him.

Gu Chundong and Red Clothes did not get involved and remained at the Princess Mansion.

Chang'an City had no curfew, but at such a deep hour of the night, there were very few people around.

Gu Mo carried the guard as though he were a gust of wind. Still, he was considerate of Ye Chen and slowed down as much as possible so Ye Chen could keep up.

Before long, they had crossed half of Chang'an City and reached Tingyu Town.

The night was black as ink, and Tingyu Town slept in silence. The town was not large, and Niwa Alley was especially remote and narrow. Gu Mo and Ye Chen landed soundlessly at the mouth of the alley like two ghosts.

The fourth house had no sign at its entrance, only two tightly shut old wooden doors with mottled, peeling paint. Not a trace of lamplight shone through the crack in the doors—only a stretch of deathly still darkness.

Gu Mo set the guard who had led the way down and let him leave on his own. Then he walked to the door without the slightest hesitation, pressed his palm against the door panels, and released a thread of internal force. With a soft crack, the latch broke, and the wooden doors slid inward soundlessly.

The courtyard was small. Under the cold, ghastly white moonlight, the sight that entered their eyes made even Gu Mo, who had weathered countless storms, shrink his pupils slightly. Ye Chen sucked in a breath of cold air, and every hair on his body stood on end!

In the middle of the courtyard, beneath the walls, in the shadows under the eaves... "people" were piled everywhere in dense masses!

They were all clay figurines.

They stood, sat, leaned, or lay in all sorts of poses. There were farmers in plain clothes, women with their hair in buns, playing children, old men with crutches, and even wealthy merchants dressed in silk and satin... Every single one was sculpted in minute detail, lifelike to the extreme. Their facial expressions were even more richly varied, enough to cause palpitations—smiles, sorrow, surprise, contemplation, kindness... Under the bleak moonlight, these frozen expressions possessed no trace of life. Instead, they exuded an indescribable evilness and deathly stillness.

Most of their eyes were empty, but some had polished obsidian or glass beads embedded as eyeballs. These "eyes" reflected a cold, shadowy gleam beneath the moonlight, as if silently watching the uninvited guests. Their gazes seemed to turn slightly with Gu Mo and Ye Chen's movements.

The entire courtyard resembled a bizarre marketplace frozen by someone pressing pause, and also an enormous, silent army of clay figurines. The night wind swept by, stirring dust and an unidentifiable smell, and seemed to make the clay faces twist and change faintly amid the light and shadow.

Gu Mo's gaze was as sharp as an eagle's as it swept over the scalp-numbing ranks of clay figurines, finally settling on a workshop at the deepest part of the courtyard, its door half open.

There was no light in the workshop, but by the moonlight, they could see what seemed to be the outlines of even more clay figurines within, as well as someone... busy at a "workbench."

"Gulp..." Ye Chen swallowed with difficulty. His voice was dry and filled with uncontrollable fear. "B-Big Brother... what the hell... is this bastard trying to turn all of Chang'an City into clay figurines?"

He instinctively gripped the hilt of the sword at his waist, his knuckles squeezed white. This deathly silent courtyard and these lifelike clay figurines made his blood run colder than facing an army of thousands.

Gu Mo did not answer. All his focus was locked onto the entrance of that shadowy workshop and the person inside meticulously kneading a lump of clay.

He slowly raised a foot and stepped soundlessly into this bizarre, terrifying land of silence made of earth.

The moonlight stretched his shadow long, casting it across the empty eye sockets and frozen smiles of the clay figurines, adding several more shades of gloom.

"Customer... it's late at night. This little shop has already closed. If you have any requests, please return after dawn?" The person kneading the clay spoke without raising his head, his voice exceptionally dull and hoarse.

Ye Chen took out a fire striker, stepped forward, and lit the oil lamp in the room. He barked, "Shopkeeper Song, right? Stop playing god and ghost here. Your crimes have been exposed!"

The man slowly raised his head. Beneath his loose hair was a pale face, its wrinkles especially pronounced, with dark circles around his eyes. He clearly had not rested enough. He slowly washed his hands, cupped them toward Gu Mo and Ye Chen, and asked, "Which yamen are you two honored gentlemen from?"

Gu Mo examined "Shopkeeper Song." The man was hunched, dressed simply, and smeared with much black sludge. A heavy fishy smell clung to him; he clearly dealt with sludge for long periods. Bent at the waist and hunchbacked, he looked entirely like a commoner scraping out a living.

"We dare not accept the title of honored gentlemen." Gu Mo cupped his hands. "However, I do indeed possess court authorization to investigate cases. My name is Gu Mo. I wonder, should I address you as Shopkeeper Song, or Dharma Master Dabie?"

"Shopkeeper Song" raised his head, surprise flashing through his eyes. Then he smiled faintly and said, "I knew that you two had come because you had certainly uncovered the matter of the clay figurines. But I never expected Great Hero Gu to recognize even my identity. Still, I have some doubts. Dabie only emerged from Star Plucking Tower a few days ago and is currently at Honglu Temple. No one has ever suspected his identity for twenty years. How did Great Hero Gu recognize him?"

Ye Chen looked utterly confused. "No way, you're the Great Compassion Divine Monk? Weren't you imprisoned for twenty years?"

"Shopkeeper Song" looked at Ye Chen in confusion. "And you are?"

Ye Chen immediately introduced himself. "This junior is Ye Chen, a man of the Chu Kingdom. Though unworthy, I am the Chosen One ranked third on the current martial world rankings of the Chu Kingdom!"

"Shopkeeper Song" examined Ye Chen approvingly and said, "Not bad, not bad. To have achieved so much at such a young age!"

"Nothing special, nothing special. Just third." Ye Chen looked immensely proud.

Gu Mo chuckled softly and said to Shopkeeper Song, "Since Dharma Master has heard of me, you should know that I have solved numerous bizarre and strange cases in the martial world. It should not be strange that I could recognize that Dabie as a fake, should it?"

"Shopkeeper Song" shook his head. "I believe that you investigated clues elsewhere and added your own deductions to see through that Dabie as a fake. But if you say you saw it directly, then I do not believe it. No one in this world could tell that he was fake, because he was not fake. He was the real Dabie!"

Gu Mo asked, "What do you mean?"

"Shopkeeper Song" slowly walked to the doorway, sat on the stone steps, and asked, "Great Hero Gu, do you believe that beyond the world we see before our eyes, there may be another world—perhaps even countless worlds—and every one of them has versions of us?"

Gu Mo nodded faintly. This was the Parallel World theory that even children in his previous life's world knew.

"Shopkeeper Song" was somewhat surprised. "Great Hero Gu truly believes it?"

"I do."

"Then that is wonderful," "Shopkeeper Song" continued. "I believe it too. But where do these worlds come from? I pondered that for many years, and in the end, I felt that they came from people, from every person.

"Whether common folk or high-ranking nobles, they all share something: they possess consciousness, and they constantly produce thoughts. At the instant a different thought arises, a new world is born."

"Shopkeeper Song" tilted his head toward Gu Mo and said, "For example, right now, I have produced a thought: to kill you, Great Hero Gu. Though I have not made a move, at the instant that thought arose in my consciousness, a world was born. In that world, I attacked you!"

"Isn't that just nonsense?" Ye Chen curled his lip. "If what you say is true, how many worlds would there be? A person produces countless thoughts in a lifetime, then countless worlds are born. And the people in those countless worlds also produce countless thoughts in their lives, spawning countless more worlds... cycling endlessly like that, wouldn't it be infinite?"

"Shopkeeper Song" said with a soft laugh, "It was infinite to begin with. Perhaps the world we are in now was also born from a single thought that someone from another world had at a certain moment."

Ye Chen curled his lip. "Enough. We don't have time to listen to your nonsense. You have two things to do now. First, hand over Princess Chengyang Li Li. Second, honestly confess just how many clay figurines you have sent out. We can still grant you a quick death. Otherwise, we'll give you all one hundred and eighty tortures of the Six Doors first!"

"Shopkeeper Song" paid no attention to Ye Chen's threat. Instead, he looked toward Gu Mo and asked, "Great Hero Gu, do you agree with what I said?"

Gu Mo smiled faintly. "I agree. But if you are looking for a fellow traveler whose thoughts resonate with yours, then you have found the wrong person. I am rather practical. I have no interest in pondering broad, empty, and unverifiable philosophies. What I care about now is where Princess Chengyang is, and how many clay figurines you have released."

"Shopkeeper Song" said, "She is in the room. But is it important? She is merely a Princess Chengyang from one of the infinite worlds. The one currently in the Princess Mansion is also Princess Chengyang, summoned by me from another world.

"And it does not matter how many clay figurines are now in Chang'an City. They are themselves. Given enough time, they will become the real person they are meant to be. They were originally born from that person's thought. They are that person; there is no difference. Why must you insist on which version is the real one?"

Ye Chen sneered. "You make it sound easy. By that logic, you could summon another you from another world too. So go die right now. After all, there's another you, so whether you live or not doesn't matter. Then you—"

His words came to an abrupt halt, as though an invisible hand had clutched his throat. Every expression on his face froze in an instant, leaving only utter shock and unimaginable terror!

The "Shopkeeper Song" seated on the stone steps suddenly wore an indescribable smile and answered, "I can."

The instant his words fell, "Shopkeeper Song" abruptly raised both hands, his ten fingers hooked like claws, and viciously dug them into the skin and flesh on both sides of his neck!

The movement was swift as lightning, yet carried a decisive calm so terrifying it made the scalp explode.

"Pfft—crack!"

A teeth-aching sound of skin and flesh tearing rang out alongside the crisp snap of a neck bone breaking!

Blood did not spray. It gushed wildly from the massive wound he had torn open with his own hands like a flood bursting through a broken dam!

The force was so great that his head instantly separated from his neck!

That aged head, bearing its frozen bizarre smile, was held forward in both hands and offered to Ye Chen. Its hollow gaze faced Ye Chen's horrified, panic-stricken face directly.

The headless body remained seated, blood spurting like a fountain from its severed neck, splashing onto the mottled stone steps and the clay figurines on either side, staining them in patches of glaring crimson.

The thick bloody smell instantly overwhelmed the fishy smell of earth and spread through the deathly silent courtyard.

Gu Mo's pupils shrank sharply. Even with his composure, he was stunned by this sudden, utterly inconceivable method of self-destruction!

He had completely failed to anticipate this turn of events.

Ye Chen was even more thoroughly dumbfounded. He lowered his head and stared at the head being offered to him by the headless corpse, his mind instantly going blank.

"B-Big Brother... he... he..."

Ye Chen pointed at the corpse, not knowing what words could express the turmoil in his heart at that moment.

Gu Mo's face was so dark it seemed water could drip from it. He quickly stepped forward, placed his fingers against the headless corpse's carotid artery and chest, then examined the head that had rolled away. Cold, stiff, vitality extinguished.

"He's dead," Gu Mo said coldly. "But he wasn't Dabie either."

Not only had the system given no prompt, but faint traces of sludge could still be seen in the corpse. This was also a clay figurine, merely one that had nearly completely transformed into a human.

"Find Chengyang first!"

Gu Mo made an immediate decision. No longer paying attention to the corpse and head on the ground, he cast a sharp gaze toward the half-open workshop door.

From the moment he had arrived, he had already deployed his domain to lock on to this courtyard. He was not worried about the other party escaping. Of course, if the other party could break his domain, then that would be escaping by ability, and he would have nothing to say.

Ye Chen quickly recovered himself and followed Gu Mo as they rushed into the workshop.

The workshop was darker and messier than outside. Various clay materials, tools, and wooden racks were scattered about. More lifelike unfinished clay figurines of all shapes stood on the wooden racks against the walls. Beneath the flickering oil lamp, their silent silhouettes resembled lurking ghosts.

There were also countless Glass Mirrors inside, varying in size and hanging everywhere—on the rafters, in the corners, atop platforms. There were at least fifty or sixty mirrors.

The two split up and searched quickly.

"Princess Chengyang?"

"Li Li? Are you here?"

Ye Chen called softly as he searched through things.

However, aside from the sounds of them moving objects and their heavy breathing, there was no response inside the workshop.

Ye Chen straightened up somewhat dejectedly, his gaze inadvertently sweeping across the wall.

A bronze mirror half the height of a man hung there. Its mirror surface had been polished exceptionally smooth and bright, clearly reflecting his figure beneath the dim oil lamp.

When he saw his handsome, extraordinary face in the mirror, Ye Chen's small measure of dejection was instantly replaced by narcissism.

He instinctively leaned closer to the mirror and habitually adjusted the nonexistent stray hairs over his forehead. Looking left and right, he could not help curling his lips into a proud arc.

"Tsk." He raised an eyebrow at his reflection and sincerely praised, "Ye Chen, oh Ye Chen, this face of yours, this bearing, this Chosen One's elegance... tsk tsk, it's simply too perfect! Even without that invincible luck, those women would still throw themselves at you..."

Muttering to himself, Ye Chen admired his "peerless looks." The curve of his lips suddenly deepened, revealing an exceptionally brilliant smile that also seemed filled with mockery!

"Perfect!"

Ye Chen praised himself once more, turned around, and continued searching for Chengyang.

But at the instant he turned, Ye Chen suddenly froze. A surge of cold energy shot straight from the soles of his feet to the crown of the head!

"I didn't fucking smile!"

He... he had not smiled just now!

He had merely been admiring himself!

An indescribable, immense terror instantly seized him! He abruptly turned, wanting to get away from this bizarre mirror, and opened his mouth to call Gu Mo. "B—"

Before the word "Brother" could leave his mouth, the corner of his eye caught the mirror!

At the instant he turned, the brilliant smile on the face of that "Ye Chen" in the mirror had not yet fully faded. Its teeth were still bared in a dazzling grin, its eyes filled with malice that had not yet shifted away, as well as a trace of... astonishment?

As though it had not expected Ye Chen to suddenly turn and discover it!

That was not him! Absolutely not!

"Big Brother!!!"

Ye Chen's soul nearly fled his body as he screamed with all his strength!

At the same instant his shout rang out, the mirror surface rippled violently like water!

A hand suddenly reached out from the mirror!

That hand was as swift as a ghost. It grabbed the clothes on Ye Chen's back, which had just turned toward the mirror!

An unstoppable, cold and sticky immense force came through it!

"Pfft!"

Ye Chen felt as though a giant invisible octopus tentacle had wrapped around him. His entire body was violently dragged away by that force, utterly beyond his control!

He flailed his arms in terror, trying to grab the wooden rack beside him, but his fingertips only managed to scrape across the rough wood.

To his horror, his true qi could not be used at all at this moment. He had barely any strength left, suppressed by some unique force.

Like a body sinking into quicksand, he was instantly dragged into the rippling mirror surface, which resembled a black swamp! Only half of a cut-off cry echoed through the workshop.

The mirror surface rippled violently once, then swiftly returned to calm, becoming bright enough to reflect a person once more, clearly showing the dim scene within the workshop.

There was no one in the mirror.

Gu Mo, who was searching another room, heard Ye Chen's voice and immediately teleported over. He saw Ye Chen crouching in a corner, holding a small hammer and lightly tapping a clay figurine.

When Ye Chen saw Gu Mo enter, he hurriedly pointed at the clay figurine and said, "Big Brother, I think this is Princess Chengyang!"

Gu Mo went over to take a look. Sure enough, a woman was sealed inside a clay figurine. Though her face was covered in mud, Gu Mo could still barely make her out. It was Li Li.

At once,

Gu Mo crouched down to examine her. He found that she still showed signs of life, but there was a troublesome issue: the muddy shell had actually fused with Li Li's skin, and a stream of Deathly Aura from within the mud was constantly seeping into her body.

Gu Mo immediately began to circulate energy to disperse the Deathly Aura. Just as he focused completely, using pure inner force to drive out the chilling Deathly Aura within Li Li and peel away the bizarre mud shell stuck to her skin, the Bronze Mirror hanging on the wall behind him silently rippled almost imperceptibly.

Within the depths of the mirror surface, the workshop was still reflected as before. Suddenly, a terrified face slammed against the inner side of the "mirror surface"!

It was Ye Chen!

He was trapped within the workshop inside the mirror, like a drowning man, his face filled with utter terror and desperation.

When he saw Gu Mo's back outside, it was as though he had seized his final lifeline. He frantically slapped the invisible "mirror wall," his mouth stretched wide in soundless howls, his arms waving in an attempt to catch Gu Mo's attention.

He pointed at Gu Mo, then at the "Ye Chen" outside the mirror who was "helping," then desperately pointed at himself. His movements were so violent that they nearly tore his body apart, yet he could not make a sound.

Just then,

Gu Mo suddenly sensed a faint feeling of being watched, instantly piercing his concentration.

"Hmm?"

He abruptly turned around, his eagle-sharp gaze shooting straight at the Bronze Mirror!

At the very instant his gaze touched the mirror surface—

From the darkness deep within the mirror, an invisible, irresistible force suddenly erupted, like the giant mouth of an abyss snapping shut!

Ye Chen's desperate, futile struggle froze in an instant. The terror had not yet faded from his face when his entire body seemed to be gripped tightly by an invisible hand and violently dragged backward, vanishing into the thick darkness without leaving even a ripple.

The mirror surface rippled violently, like water struck by a stone, but it vanished in a flash and returned to its smooth, gleaming facade.

The scene reflected in the mirror was precisely the workshop as it stood now. Nothing appeared amiss.

The "Ye Chen" beside him asked doubtfully, "Big Brother, what's wrong?"

Gu Mo gave a slight shake of his head, slowly rose to his feet, and walked toward the Bronze Mirror.

"Big Brother, what's wrong?"

There was a hint of tension and confusion in "Ye Chen's" voice. He followed closely at Gu Mo's side and asked, "Big Brother, is there something wrong with this mirror?"

Gu Mo did not answer. He merely stood before the mirror, his eyes blazing as he swept over its surface inch by inch.

The "Gu Mo" in the mirror likewise turned in the same posture, with the same gaze, "examining" him outside it.

The mirror surface was abnormally smooth, cold enough to chill the hand, as though it separated another dimension. He circulated his power to investigate it, but the surface was like a stubborn stone, completely blocking his senses and returning only cold feedback.

"Nothing."

Gu Mo's voice was calm and unruffled. He withdrew his scrutinizing gaze, seeming to give up his investigation, then slowly turned around and prepared to return to Li Li's side. "Maybe it was an illusion."

The "Gu Mo" in the mirror turned around in sync.

"Ye Chen" also let out a breath of relief. "Big Brother, don't scare me like that. What happened tonight has been too bizarre. I'm already like a bird startled by the mere twang of a bowstring!"

As he spoke, "Ye Chen" turned around as well.

At the instant the two had their backs to the mirror,

A cold, viscous, irresistible suction force suddenly erupted from the mirror surface!

Its target was Gu Mo's back.

A pale palm with distinct knuckles suddenly reached out from the wildly rippling, waterlike mirror surface. It was soundless, yet faster than lightning, and landed precisely upon Gu Mo's left shoulder!

The moment that hand touched him, bizarre frigid energy, like countless icy venomous snakes, frantically burrowed into Gu Mo's body through the point of contact!

That force contained powerful domain power, instantly imprisoning the entire workshop.

The immense force dragged Gu Mo backward.

"Ye Chen" was aghast. He grabbed Gu Mo's hand and cried in terror, "Big Brother!"

Yet a smile appeared on Gu Mo's face.

"Got you!"

In that instant, Gu Mo shattered the imprisoning domain. His left hand flashed like lightning as he seized the wrist of the hand extending from the mirror and clamped down on it like iron pliers!

The touch was cold and stiff, unlike that of a living person, yet it contained tremendous strength.

"Get out!"

Gu Mo gave a low shout and pulled hard.

Boom—crash!

The mirror surface rippled like lake water.

A figure was forcibly yanked out of the mirror by Gu Mo's pull!

Like a torn sack flung aside, it crashed heavily onto the workshop's cold, hard floor!

Dust rose everywhere!

Gu Mo and "Ye Chen" lowered their heads to look at the same time.

That person's build, clothing, even that face... were shockingly identical to Gu Mo's!

"Ye Chen's" face was full of horror. He instinctively took a step back, pointed at the "Gu Mo" on the ground, then looked at Gu Mo and cried in fear, "Two Big Brothers?"

However,

In the next moment, "Gu Mo" turned into the appearance of Shopkeeper Song from before.

Shopkeeper Song asked in confusion, "How did you notice that something was wrong?"

Gu Mo pointed at "Ye Chen" and said, "His situation is very special. Even if you used a real Cycle of Reincarnation Mirror, I doubt you could replicate him. So from the moment I entered, I already knew the real Ye Chen had disappeared."

Upon hearing that, "Ye Chen" looked utterly baffled. "Big Brother... no, are you saying... I'm fake? I'm that disgusting clay figurine?"

Gu Mo nodded slightly.

"How is that possible?" "Ye Chen" said. "Big Brother, I am me..."

Gu Mo pointed at the Bronze Mirror behind them. "According to Dharma Master Dabie, you are not fake, but you are not Ye Chen from my world. He is!"

"Ye Chen" turned to look toward the Bronze Mirror and saw a Ye Chen inside it giving him the middle finger!

Ye Chen: "..."

"I'm fake..."

"Ye Chen" staggered back twice. His body instantly began shedding its skin, exposing the black sludge inside. Forcing himself to hold on, he asked his final question: "Dabie, you dead bald donkey, couldn't you use some clean mud? Are you a sick pervert? You had to use sludge from a stinking ditch..."

Before he could finish, "Ye Chen's" body collapsed into a puddle of black muck.

Shopkeeper Song, pinned beneath Gu Mo's foot, gave a helpless smile. "Why would I not wish to use ordinary soil? But all things generate and restrain one another. The sludge in a stinking ditch contains every sort of rot and filth in this world... it carries the strongest Deathly Aura, yet is Born to Die. Only this mud can give birth to life force!"

Gu Mo said, "But it really is a bit disgusting!"

Shopkeeper Song said helplessly, "It could not be helped."

Gu Mo said, "I roughly understand now. The clay figurines you create cannot know that they are fake. Once they realize it, they perish."

Shopkeeper Song said, "That is because barriers exist between worlds. They have not fully entered this world. Once they discover that they do not belong to this world, they will return to their original world."

Then he asked Gu Mo, "Could Great Hero Gu perhaps enlighten me? What is so special about that Ye Chen that you believe no identical existence could be found among countless worlds?"

"What meaning is there in asking that?" Gu Mo said. "Do you think you still have a chance to start over?"

Naturally, Gu Mo had no interest in telling Shopkeeper Song that Ye Chen possessed two special kinds of qi, which combined into a fate that was both unlucky and fortunate.

"Why not?" Shopkeeper Song pointed toward the Glass Mirrors in every corner of the workshop, on the ceiling, and along the walls. "Great Hero Gu, which one do you think is me?"

At this moment,

Under the glow of the workshop's lights, Shopkeeper Song's figure appeared in all those dozens of mirrors. Moreover, there were still figures of Shopkeeper Song in the mirrors reflected within the mirror surfaces cast by those mirrors.

Shopkeeper Song chuckled. "Great Hero Gu, in terms of martial arts skills, I am no match for you. But in terms of realm and methods, you are not my opponent. Besides, no one here can kill me..."

As Shopkeeper Song spoke, those mirrors shattered one after another, splitting into even more mirrors. From dozens, they became hundreds, and they showed every sign of continuing to break apart, spawning mirrors without end.

Shopkeeper Song smiled faintly. "One mirror is one world. Every world has a me, and every world also has a you. Now, one of those yous will replace the you of this world.

Great Hero Gu, among these worlds, there will always be one suited to you. This is the forbidden power of the Cycle of Reincarnation Mirror, and it is also my realm Above Human Realm. Perhaps one day, when you comprehend the power Above Human Realm, we will truly meet!"

Having said that, Shopkeeper Song instantly severed his own meridians and died.

But in the very next instant,

Gu Mo lightly reached forward and grabbed. A Shopkeeper Song whose Nascent Soul had left his body was caught in Gu Mo's grasp, his face full of shock.

Gu Mo said softly, "The Above Human Realm you spoke of—is it merely your paltry Half-step Ascension Realm, or the power of your incomplete Cycle of Reincarnation Mirror?"

Shopkeeper Song asked in panic, "Who exactly are you?"