Chapter 49

Xie Chang'an had spent a moment pondering earlier and had already formed a vague guess about their current situation, but it was inconvenient to speak out in front of everyone. Instead, she sent a voice transmission solely to Zhu Huan, explaining what she needed his help with.

Others could only see the two standing very close to each other, Xie Chang'an's lips moving slightly without making a sound, while Zhu Huan appeared to listen intently, nodding slightly from time to time.

When had the fox ever seen the fake monk display such an expression? Jealousy bubbled up within her, and she thought to herself that she was clearly the one who had met Xie Chang'an first—why should she be shut out from hearing secrets now?

Their communication ended quickly. A moment later, Xie Chang'an took out the Sealing Decree Pen.

"We are going to set up a formation, which may well be the key to breaking free from the Four-Response Bells. If we happen to get separated because of this later, none of you need to panic. As long as one person finds a way out, everyone will be able to leave."

With that, she prepared to take action.

"Wait!"

The voice naturally belonged to Wu Ming.

His gaze flicked back and forth between Xie Chang'an and Zhu Huan, his expression displeasure-laden.

"You are being vague and ambiguous. How do you expect me to trust you?"

"If I were to explain too clearly, the person who used the Four-Response Bells to trap us would find out as well," Xie Chang'an replied.

"What do you mean?" Wu Ming asked suspiciously. "Are you saying that person is among us?"

Xie Chang'an: "We are currently inside the Four-Response Bells, and the Four-Response Bells are inside the Bone-Reflecting Mirror. You all agree on this point, don't you?"

No one spoke.

Xie Chang'an: "Then what if another Bone-Reflecting Mirror were to appear inside the Four-Response Bells?"

Wu Ming frowned: "You want to use a formation to create a Bone-Reflecting Mirror here?"

Xie Chang'an: "Not the present Bone-Reflecting Mirror. My spiritual power is not enough to support the creation of a complete Bone-Reflecting Mirror."

Without further explanation, she concentrated and began waving her brush to set up the formation.

Though Wu Ming had no idea what she was thinking and his brows furrowed even deeper, he did not stop her again.

They watched as Xie Chang'an slowly walked around the perimeter of the group, lowering her head to point and draw with her brush as if recording coordinates and outlining contours.

Zhu Huan followed her every step of the way. Xie Chang'an placed her index and middle fingers against his wrist, making it look as though she were taking his pulse, but in reality, their spiritual senses were connected at that moment.

They were communicating in a way imperceptible to outsiders.

The fox roughly guessed what they were up to. Since she truly could not help with this matter, she let out a slight huff, suppressing the urge to go over and bite Zhu Huan, and instead turned to bite Zhe Er's sleeve, grinding her teeth.

Zhe Er did not seem to trust Zhu Huan either. He maintained his guard against everyone here except Xie Chang'an, his eyes occasionally falling on Zhu Huan as if watching out for him to suddenly turn hostile.

Setting up a formation of this scale allowed for not the slightest distraction.

Xie Chang'an was single-minded, putting into practice almost every bottom-of-the-trunk technique she had learned on Mount Chishuang. After walking a full circle, she was drenched in cold sweat, and her already pale complexion became even more ghastly. By the end, Zhu Huan was supporting half of her weight.

Zhe Er wanted to go over and support her, but she waved her hand to stop him.

"It's just about done."

Xie Chang'an said, then flicked her wrist, causing the Sealing Decree Pen to trace an arc through the void.

The fox noticed that the fox-hair tip of the pen had turned white and withered, having presumably exhausted every last drop of demonic energy. She was just about to make a few sarcastic remarks, intending to dangle Xie Chang'an's hopes while pretending to be reluctant to pluck out some of her new fox hair in exchange for new conditions.

Before her thoughts could be put into action, however, darkness descended before her eyes, instantly replaced by blooming points of light.

This was a small town, bustling and prosperous, filled with the endless cries of peddlers and merchants.

A vast expanse of the sky was claimed by the evening glow, casting a warm, dusky orange light over the passing pedestrians, lending a comforting hue that made their complexions look somewhat less deathly pale.

Where is this...

The fox gasped in shock at Xie Chang'an's extravagant feat.

She bolted forward abruptly, only to quickly discover that this small town nestled at the foot of a mountain featured uneven terrain. At most, she could reach the end of the street before being unable to take another step forward.

"Where is this place?"

The fox turned her head and spotted Zhe Er standing by a wall.

He was still probing their surroundings.

The fox said, "No need to look. This is the City of Reiteration, the most prosperous place in the Bone-Reflecting Mirror back in the day!"

Zhe Er looked somewhat astonished: "The Bone-Reflecting Mirror has a place like this?"

The fox rolled her eyes: "Of course. Did you think the Bone-Reflecting Mirror was born a dead wasteland? Back then, this was also a gathering place for all living things. Many demons and ghosts who found no refuge in the mortal world would temporarily reside here. Those who neither wished to reincarnate after death nor linger in the mortal realm would also come here. This City of Reiteration was a bustling haven before the Bone-Reflecting Mirror turned into ruins."

Zhe Er frowned: "But this is an illusion created by Xie Chang'an, right? What is she trying to do?"

The fox's eyes rolled around a few times: "I can tell you, but you have to answer a few questions for me as well."

Zhe Er: "Never mind then."

The fox: ……

She grew angry out of embarrassment: "I only want to ask you a few questions, I'm not taking your life!"

Zhe Er replied leisurely: "Who knows what schemes you're plotting? I don't have that much curiosity. Anyway, Xie Chang'an won't harm me; at worst, I'll just circle around here a few more times."

Just as the fox was about to flare up, as if remembering something, she suddenly changed her tone.

"I haven't congratulated you yet! You killed the great demon Weiku and consumed his demonic core—your cultivation has improved quite a bit!"

Zhe Er was startled.

The fox immediately said, "I guessed right! You really were the one who killed Weiku! When did you make your move? Why didn't we hear any commotion earlier? Could it be, just as Xie Chang'an said, that it wasn't you and Weiku who went missing, but rather the rest of us who disappeared and suddenly skipped three days?"

Zhe Er frowned: "I was looking for you all the whole time back then. What did you see?"

The fox: "We went out to look for you, but couldn't find you. We only saw Weiku's corpse hanging upside down from a tree."

Zhe Er mused: "No wonder..."

That explained it.

He had fought a bitter battle with Weiku back then, barely escaping with his life. After finally absorbing the demonic core, he had nearly suffered a deviation in his vital energy. Once he recovered and failed to find Xie Chang'an anywhere, he eventually heard that a Buddhist practitioner was holding a birthday banquet and that all living beings in the Bone-Reflecting Mirror would attend. Clinging to a sliver of hope, he found a way to sneak in and finally reunited with Xie Chang'an.

Taken on its own, his experience was full of twists, turns, and hardships. However, ever since the battle at Mount Fuguang, Zhe Er had learned to rein in his emotions, not easily revealing his true joys and anger to outsiders.

No matter how painful the experience in the Bone-Reflecting Mirror had been, he at least had Xie Chang'an as a companion, which couldn't compare to the soul-wrenching agony of Mount Fuguang. Therefore, when he saw Xie Chang'an earlier, no matter how stirred his heart was, he would not easily show it in front of outsiders—let alone this fox before him.

The fox remarked, "A demonic core isn't so easy to absorb, you know. Weiku ate countless people in his lifetime, and the lingering resentment from those he consumed remains within the demonic core, becoming a hidden danger for you. You only look fine now, but that hidden danger will erupt sooner or later."

Zhe Er: "It's fine. I'll kill you first when that happens."

The fox's fur stood on end: "Why are you so impervious to reason!"

Zhe Er remained unmoved: "Tell me what's going on here first."

Wishing she could bite his head right off, the fox held back, decided not to keep him in suspense, and sent him a voice transmission:

"Someone who can trap us with the Four-Response Bells must understand this magical treasure even better than we do. Coupled with the legend that the Four-Response Bells can shake souls and strike terror, I suspect that some ancient monster is trapped inside the bells, though he himself is likely unable to leave due to certain restrictions."

"Xie Chang'an and the others must have thought of this. Since the opponent used the Four-Response Bells to trap us without showing himself for so long, and hasn't harmed us yet, he must also be trapped here himself. Or rather, he is symbiotic with the Four-Response Bells. If we want to break the deadlock, we have to lure him out first."

Zhe Er understood.

"He can trap us, so we can trap him in return."

As expected of a method Xie Chang'an would devise; she always loved taking risks, turning the passive into the active.

The fox nodded and continued via voice transmission: "That ancient monster has been locked inside the Four-Response Bells for countless years and must yearn for the outside world immensely. The existence of this City of Reiteration once witnessed the prosperity of the Bone-Reflecting Mirror. Even if the old monster knows it's a trap, he won't be able to resist showing himself."

As long as they found the old monster and killed him, they might just break the deadlock and escape.

Xie Chang'an had never been to the Bone-Reflecting Mirror before and knew nothing about the City of Reiteration, which was why she needed Zhu Huan's help. As the surviving demonic cultivator with the longest history in the Bone-Reflecting Mirror, he certainly knew it and could help Xie Chang'an recreate a lifelike illusion formation.

Mentioning this, however, filled the fox with immense grievance and annoyance.

"I also know what the City of Reiteration looks like! Why didn't she ask me!"

She shrieked aloud, nearly blowing out Zhe Er's eardrums.

Was this fox seriously out of her mind?

"Setting up such a massive formation requires a vast amount of spiritual power. Do you have that much spiritual power to lend to Xie Chang'an?"

Both she and the fox were injured. At the time, only Zhu Huan and Wu Ming possessed that capability, and since Wu Ming had previously challenged and fought Xie Chang'an, she certainly wouldn't have chosen him.

The only candidate for cooperation was beyond doubt.

From the looks of it now, Zhu Huan was indeed more reliable than Wu Ming.

"I don't care! Xie Chang'an is someone I claimed first; he definitely wants to steal people from me!"

The fox panted with anger, her tail beating rhythmically against the ground, fully displaying her inner agitation.

Zhe Er asked suspiciously, "What nonsense are you babbling about?"

No matter what expression the fox made, she always looked up to no good.

The fox sneered and changed the subject.

"I've already told you what you wanted to know, so now it's your turn to answer my question. Tell me, did Xie Chang'an really fall out with her master and even kill her sect's grandmaster?"

Zhe Er countered: "Why are you so interested in her affairs?"

The fox put on an aloof expression of "if you don't tell me, I won't answer another half word."

Thinking that this question posed no harm to Xie Chang'an, he said, "Actually, I'm not too sure either. My sect ran into trouble at the time, and by the time I escaped, that was already the rumor outside."

The fox: "Well, in any case, she can never go back now, right?"

Zhe Er: "Are you excited that she can't go back?"

The fox tried her best to pin down her shaking tail and said, "How could I be?"

Zhe Er: ……

The fox lifted her chin proudly: "The Bone-Reflecting Mirror has lacked a unified leader for far too long. Now that Weiku is dead and chaos has struck, all the powerful ones died at the birthday banquet. This is simply a great opportunity! This deity has drifted alone for half a lifetime without encountering an enlightened master. If Xie Chang'an is willing, I can support her in ascending to a high position to rule over the Bone-Reflecting Mirror!"

By the end of her speech, she could no longer suppress her excitement, her mouth splitting into a grin as she truly believed this idea was an unprecedentedly brilliant stroke of genius.

With Xie Chang'an staying in the Bone-Reflecting Mirror as queen, she would gain Xie Chang'an's protection. If that detestable Wu Ming dared to object, she would simply have him killed; as for Zhu Huan, it would be best to find a chance to get rid of him as well so he wouldn't compete with her for favor. It was practically four gains at once.

The fox gazed at Zhe Er with glittering eyes.

"What do you think?"

Zhe Er thought the fox was mostly out of her mind.

Were all demonic cultivators this insane and erratic?

That Weiku was like that, and now this fox was too.

Right, that Zhu Huan didn't look entirely normal either.