Treasure Mirror

(This chapter is free)

Yu Ci looked at the incomplete talisman trace patterns on the ground, holding his breath unconsciously.

He was a connoisseur; although limited by his cultivation realm and temporarily lacking in achievements regarding the talismanic arts, after studying talisman books intensively for many years, his eye was still there. Judging from the fineness of the talisman structures seen right now, if applied within the area of ground just confirmed, what a complex, profound, and even unimaginable talisman that would be!

Within the Shangqing Juxuan Xing Shu Mi Shou Fu Jing, there were also records of some extremely cumbersome, advanced talismans that made one dizzy just looking at them, crowned with the name "immortal talismans." Compared to this piece on the ground, perhaps they were even more complex, but Yu Ci after all still had some mental preparation, directly treating those few talismans as things that only immortals in legends would use, not daring to hope for them at all. Yet this one before his eyes surely wasn't cast by an immortal, was it?

He stood at the edge of the pit, observing the surrounding ground, always feeling that something was not quite right.

Extending his line of sight from beneath his feet to the periphery, then turning back, Yu Ci thought for a moment, directly jumped down into the shallow pit, squatted down, and looked back toward the edge of the scorched earth.

The collision between fierce beasts and cultivators was so intense that, apart from the obvious trace of the depression, the ground in its vicinity was also somewhat lower than the periphery. At first, being too close to the depression made it a blind spot, and he hadn't felt it, but looking over from this angle, the sensation became much more obvious. With the depression as the center, the ground showed a gentle slope rising upward, and between the highest and lowest points, there was a difference of at least a foot. When carving talisman patterns, penetrating three inches deep he believed, but scraping the ground a foot deep and still having remnants left—what kind of technique was that?

Clearly, this talisman was not carved. Since it was not carved, then...

Yu Ci did not stand up, instead directly pressing his hand against the soil at the bottom of the pit. Several claw marks left by fierce beasts still lingered here, half a foot deep and clearly discernible. Yu Ci gently rubbed them with his fingertips, then shifted to an angle to let the midday sunlight shine straight down, while narrowing his eyes to look through from the middle of the claw marks.

Beneath the fissure, a flash of light cut through. That was a different kind of luster, vastly dissimilar to the texture of earth and stone.

Yu Ci quickly sliced open the soil layer, and what was exposed was something like a metal plate, uneven on top and looking rather distinctive.

This was the thing!

When digging the soil, he had already seen the structure of the soil layer. If his guess was not wrong, those talisman patterns passed right out through this plate, pierced through the soil layer, and left such deep traces in the mud.

He was just about to see it clearly when a gust of wind swept past, bringing a scent of living humans completely different from the jungle's smell.

At that instant, his mind was completely blank. In a split second, a spring-like lunge shot him out from the edge of the depression, and by the way, he stashed the metal plate into his storage ring. A fraction of a moment later, a rustling sound arose abruptly, pouncing onto the scorched earth and stirring up a wave of dust.

Without pausing for even a beat, he executed several flashes in succession, now left, now right, entirely without pattern, finally dazzling the eyes of the person ambushing from behind. At this point, the ambush-maker behind him finally realized that Yu Ci was not a fledgling fresh to the world, and the breath he had mustered inevitably collapsed.

Yu Ci keenly seized the opportunity, abruptly turning over to extricate himself from the passive situation, while fixing his gaze like a falcon onto the newcomer's face. Being ambushed naturally angered him, but after taking an extra look, his brows nevertheless lifted a fraction.

The newcomer possessed a lean figure, draped in a wide grey robe. With a bald head and a placid face, he looked like a monk, but a pair of yellowish pupils fixed in slender eye sockets, matched with a sharp, narrow face, made him look for all the world like a poisonous snake. Especially that previous strike—it truly resembled a poisonous snake slithering through the grass, suddenly baring its fangs and spitting venom, extremely insidious.

But appearance and words were secondary. Looking at this person, Yu Ci clearly felt a certain resonance in his heart:

This snake-like monk was likely also a spirit cultivator, was he not?

The resonance originated from the divine soul. At this distance, the opponent's aura seemed to trigger a certain stimulation within his divine soul, and the previously dormant "lamp fire" spontaneously surged to the crown of his head, casting a "beam of light" onto the monk. Concurrently, a surge of heat spread across his body, feeling similar to the moment he was locked onto by Daoist Yan's sword qi from afar.

The monk opposite let out a soft "oh" of surprise, somewhat astonished, but followed it with a cold chuckle: "Whichever kid's disciple you are, if you want to swallow the Zhaoshen Pan, you'll still have to see if this Buddha agrees or no—"

Responding to him was Yu Ci's fist, slamming straight toward his face.

The monk let out a startled cry, his feet seeming not to touch the ground as he glided backward, narrowly dodging this blow, and then cursed furiously: "Insolent junior!"

Yu Ci was also sneering. Since this monk had made the first move with an ambush, he should have the psychological preparation to be beaten back; where did he get so much nonsense!

Without delay, he strode forward fiercely and threw another direct punch.

He unleashed strikes in rapid succession, capitalizing entirely on speed without any intricate changes. That monk possessed profound cultivation, and immediately his sleeves rolled and whipped through the air, the grey cloth brushing past and actually emitting the sound of a metal blade cleaving the void, its momentum as harsh and violent as an axe chop or sword slash. Unfortunately, he missed completely.

Yu Ci's figure dropped downward, cooperating seamlessly with the monk's movement, and not merely dodging—he also flicked his hand to send out a spiritual talisman.

The spiritual talisman had just been prepared, and in the rush, it wasn't anything of formidable might either. During its flight, the faint cyan light belonging to the Zhaoshen Bronze Mirror on its periphery rapidly stripped away, revealing the true color of the spiritual talisman. Like a leaping spark, it reached the monk's eyes amidst flashes and extinctions.

The monk's reaction was not slow either. With a slight twist of his lean torso, he cleared a massive gap, letting the spark fly past.

Regrettably, he still underestimated the situation.

Among the talismans Yu Ci practiced, apart from the Palm-Thunder, Five Thunder Talisman, and other thunder-script incantations, talismans that directly displayed lethality were virtually nonexistent; most were for auxiliary use. Yet if applied with ingenuity, they could also display extraordinary effects, just like this talisman!

The spark suddenly expanded, appearing as though it would burst open with a booming sound. After all, the monk had held back some strength, dodging backward upon seeing the situation. Yet his eyes still had to keep locked on the spark in preparation for another sudden mutation. Right at this moment, the spark—which had grown to the size of a fist—stopped expanding, but instead erupted with dazzling light waves!

The "Great Sun Talisman" primarily eliminated all evil and Yin entities, resembling the rising of the sun to rouse vitality. At this moment, Yu Ci only required the intensely bright light it naturally radiated.

The monk's reaction had already been quite swift, his well-tempered physical body reacting at least five times faster than an ordinary person's. Even so, he only managed to narrow his eyes in time, still unable to block the sword-like radiance. His pupils, which were still in a dilated state, suffered the stab, and a miserable shriek followed closely.

The instant the harsh light erupted, Yu Ci had already hoisted the Nine Yang Talisman Sword and pounced forward.

"Get lost!" the monk roared loudly, regardless of where Yu Ci was, frantically dancing his sleeves about. Astral winds whistled with the sound of thunder, guarding his entire body airtight. But that appearance clearly showed he had already grown timid.

Yu Ci's footstep frequency accelerated, his breath completely masked within the howling astral wind. He brushed past the flank, borrowing the momentum of the charge to thrust forward with his sword.

The sword blade traveled through the astral wind, emitting a piercing whistle. This exposed his position and also invited the monk's grey-green claws. Yet he neither dodged nor evaded, pressing straight forward to collide with the monk's claws. With a clang of resounding vibration, it felt like metal clashing—except one side was flesh and blood, while the other was a sword blade condensed from flames.

One had to admit that the monk's cultivation was definitely above Yu Ci's. The Nine Yang Talisman Sword collided not like a human palm, but rather like a thousand-jin iron hammer, the violent shock driving straight into his chest. Yu Ci, however, let out a grunt, ignoring everything to exert force once more. Amidst the trembling of the scorching flame sword blade, he forcibly dragged it horizontally, and the monk's claws—firm as gold and stone—actually failed to lock onto it, while a sizzling sound of burning flesh and hide rang out from within.

The monk let out a howl of pain and finally could no longer endure, releasing his grip to retreat rapidly.

Yu Ci did not pursue. Launching a fierce sword attack relied entirely on a surge of sharp spirit, and meeting the monk's claw strength with a secondary burst of force consumed a vast amount of his stamina. If he pursued any further while his subsequent strength failed to keep up, the situation would instead turn unfavorable.

Secretly catching his breath, it was only then that he smiled and spoke: "By the way, what was it you were saying just now?"