The Self in the Mirror

Though the Qin Army was caught between a rock and a hard place, its soldiers knew they absolutely could not cross General Bai Qi. They could only steel themselves and advance. This man's "immortal arts" might be formidable, but they would not kill all of them in an instant.

One soldier finally approached Du Yu with a spear and thrust at him while he was distracted.

Just then, Zhongli Chun suddenly woke, snatched the spear away, and drove it back through the soldier, killing him.

"Little Zhongli..."

"Mm..." Zhongli Chun slowly pushed Du Yu away and said, "Looks like I can't sleep yet. At least not until I've gotten you out of here."

Seeing the two prepare to fight, the Qin Army threw all its strength into the assault. Strength erupted from somewhere within Zhongli Chun, and she thrust her spear at the enemy with lightning speed, piercing seven or eight throats in the blink of an eye.

Du Yu gritted his teeth, picked up another spear from the ground, and guarded Zhongli Chun's back.

As an ordinary mortal, Du Yu had to focus every ounce of his attention on everyone's movements just to avoid being stabbed. But there were simply too many enemies...

"Aargh!"

One moment of carelessness, and a spear pierced Du Yu's shoulder, knocking his weapon from his hand.

"Damn!" Zhongli Chun glanced back, her face paling in alarm. She immediately killed the enemy soldier in front of Du Yu, but the enemies behind her seized the opening and slashed her back.

"Little Zhongli! Watch out!" Du Yu roared, leaping up to grapple with the enemy behind Zhongli Chun. Amid the chaos, he felt several more spears stab him. Now his entire body hurt, and he could no longer tell where he had been wounded.

The encirclement gradually tightened, and the breath of death crept closer.

Zhongli Chun hurriedly pulled Du Yu up from the ground. Once again, they stood back to back, watching the enemies around them.

"Du Yu...!" Watching the two on the monitor, Dong Qianqiu was about to say something when she suddenly shouted, "Who's there?!"

"Huh?" Du Yu could tell something was wrong with Dong Qianqiu's voice, but he could barely keep himself alive. "Sister Qianqiu... what's happening over there?"

Dong Qianqiu did not answer again. Du Yu had lost contact with her.

Inside the Legend Management Bureau.

Zhongli Chun was forcing her way into the hall. Several employees stepped forward to stop her, only to be sent flying.

"Zhongli Chun!" Dong Qianqiu shouted angrily. "What are you doing?! You can't come in right now!"

With a conflicted look in her eyes, Zhongli Chun said to Dong Qianqiu, "My heart suddenly started hurting terribly. Has something happened to him?"

"Whether something has happened to him or not, this is the Legend Management Bureau's job. We'll handle it ourselves!"

"Let me in."

"No!" Dong Qianqiu roared. "You must never meet yourself within a legend. That's a rule of the Legend Management Bureau!"

"What legend?! Don't you have the ability to send people somewhere else? Send me to his side right now. I'll help him," Zhongli Chun said.

"Don't be foolish!" Dong Qianqiu snapped. "If we could send people to his side whenever we wanted, we'd have sent someone to save him already!"

"Then you shouldn't have put him in danger!"

As the two stood locked in confrontation, He Suoyi slowly walked over.

"Zhongli Chun." He Suoyi smiled faintly. "Do you know? You're not the only person in this world who cares about Du Yu. Perhaps the person in this room who wants to save him most is Dong Qianqiu, standing right in front of you."

"Her?" Zhongli Chun looked coldly at Dong Qianqiu.

"Yes. By arguing with her here, you may very well be throwing Du Yu's life away yourself."

"I..." Zhongli Chun was frantic, but she did not know what to do.

"The only thing you can do is return to the room and wait quietly."

Conflicting emotions crossed Zhongli Chun's face, and she slowly took a step back.

Dong Qianqiu stopped worrying about anything else and shouted, "Soul-Summoning Team, prepare to summon his soul immediately! Use the wide-area Rapid Soul-Absorption Method!"

"Sister Qianqiu, preparations for the Rapid Soul-Absorption Method are underway. Estimated completion time is five minutes. Under the influence of the powerful yin energy, the souls of every living person within a hundred-meter radius, except the Operator, will be affected and scattered into oblivion," a staff member warned.

"We can't worry about that now...!"

Zhongli Chun walked back, one step at a time. She had clearly heard Du Yu screaming outside that room just now, so why would they not let her in?

For the first time, her heart was in such turmoil. She felt as though something very important was slowly slipping away from her. She had felt this before, but this time it was especially vivid.

"Du Yu..." Zhongli Chun murmured his name. She had only just learned it. Would she never have another chance to say it aloud?

"You said that once this was over, you'd go anywhere with me, do anything I wanted, and always stay by my side..." Zhongli Chun's face was clouded with sorrow, her heart aching beyond endurance.

She felt the two thousand years she had spent waiting turning to nothing, those dim years slowly dissolving.

By the time she came back to her senses, Zhongli Chun had returned to Dong Qianqiu's office. She sat down dejectedly and hugged the jacket Du Yu had given her earlier, feeling utterly bereft.

If she could, she would rather trade her own life for Du Yu's. But what could she possibly do...?

"Huh... what's this...?"

Something black in Du Yu's pocket caught her attention.

"Du Yu!" Dong Qianqiu shouted. "Do everything you can to stay alive, even if you have to use Zhongli Chun as a human shield. We're preparing an emergency recall for you. We should be able to cast it in five minutes!"

"Sister Qianqiu... what the hell are you saying...?" Du Yu said weakly. "Little Zhongli is already covered in wounds from protecting me, and you still want me to use her as a human shield?"

"Once the rapid soul summoning begins, everyone near you will die, so it won't matter," Dong Qianqiu said.

"Everyone will die?!" Du Yu's eyes widened. "No! Little Zhongli can't die!"

"Du Yu, the decision has already been made." Dong Qianqiu bit her lip. Over these past few days, she had witnessed firsthand how deeply Zhongli Chun loved Du Yu. If it were possible, she truly wanted to save Zhongli Chun.

But that was no longer possible.

Even if everyone nearby had to die here, they had to preserve the Operator's life!

For the sake of all the legends yet to come, they could only let Zhongli Chun's soul scatter into oblivion here, even though that meant the Zhongli Chun in the real world would disappear as well.

Du Yu looked back at Zhongli Chun. She was utterly exhausted. Three full days and nights of fighting without sleep or rest had left her eyes looking especially weary.

"Little Zhongli... can you still hold on?"

"I won't fall before you leave this place alive."

"No. We're both leaving alive."

Though Du Yu said that, he had no idea what to do.

Seeing the enemy soldiers closing in, Du Yu could only throw another grenade. But the soldiers seemed to have seen through this trick. They immediately lifted nearby corpses to shield themselves. Though the corpses were blasted into mangled flesh, far fewer soldiers were injured.

Du Yu gripped the last grenade in his bag and gave a bitter smile.

Could there be a way? Use this one grenade to blow up the enemy commander, then the thousands of men nearby, then the tens of thousands of enemy soldiers remaining on the battlefield, and finally escape unscathed with Zhongli Chun.

Though Du Yu considered himself reasonably quick-witted, he could not think of any way to do that.

On this battlefield shrouded in yellow sand, Du Yu saw the face of his own death.

Bai Qi looked at the two of them, knew their cause was lost, and slowly approached.

"I must say, having comrades like you would be a truly delightful thing," Bai Qi said coldly. "Unfortunately, we're on opposing sides. Today, I can only send you on your way."

"Bai Qi!" Du Yu shouted. "Can we talk?"

"Talk?" Bai Qi paused briefly. "Interesting. Are you begging for mercy?"

"Yes. I want you to let Zhongli Chun and me go. In exchange, I'll tell you what your future holds."

"Oh?" Bai Qi raised his eyebrows at that. "My future?"

"Yes. Don't forget, we're both disciples of the Master of Ghost Valley. And I... I'm the one most skilled in physiognomy. I can divine your future. I can even tell you when you'll bury four hundred thousand Zhao Army soldiers alive, and when you'll die..."

"I'll bury four hundred thousand Zhao Army soldiers alive?" Bai Qi's expression visibly changed.

"Well? Do we have a deal?"

"A... deal? Hahahaha!"

To Du Yu's bewilderment, Bai Qi laughed louder and louder, completely ignoring him.

"You really are amusing. You actually think I'll let you go if you tell me my future in advance?" Bai Qi looked at Du Yu with a cold smile. "The moment you said I'd bury four hundred thousand Zhao Army soldiers alive, I was utterly disappointed. Knowing in advance would strip war of all its pleasure."

Du Yu froze. What was wrong with this man?

"Do you know where the pleasure of the battlefield comes from?"

"The pleasure... of the battlefield?"

"For someone like me, the battlefield offers only two pleasures. The first is the anticipation of not knowing whom I'll kill today. The second is the tension of not knowing when I'll die in battle. Only while living in that state of mind can the battlefield's allure captivate me so completely."

"You..." Du Yu felt that the man before him was a lunatic, charging across the battlefield with a gambler's mindset.

No, perhaps only someone like this could become a renowned general.

"Since you know my future, I have even less reason to let you go."

The moment Bai Qi finished speaking, he suddenly felt a sinister chill sweep through the air. Even the sky dimmed a little.

"Is the weather changing?" Many soldiers looked up at the sky, inexplicably feeling a chill down their backs.

"What's going on?" Dong Qianqiu paused in surprise at the sight. "A sinister wind has suddenly risen inside the legend. Is it the Soul-Absorption Device?"

"No, Assistant Dong! The Soul-Absorption Device still needs two minutes before it's ready!" a staff member replied. "The source of this sinister wind is currently unknown."

"Du Yu! There's something very strange about that wind. Try to hide behind someone until we find out what's causing it!"

"Du Yu?"

"Can you hear me?"

What bewildered and terrified Dong Qianqiu was that, no matter how she called to him, Du Yu stood there without responding.

"What happened?"

On the battlefield, Bai Qi swept his hand out and said, "The weather is about to turn. Cut off Zhongli Chun's head at once."

Having received their orders, the soldiers picked up their weapons and advanced.

But just then, something eerie happened.

Zhongli Chun and Du Yu turned around at the same time, staring at Bai Qi with identical movements. Then they both extended a hand and asked in perfect unison, "Cut off my head? You?"