"Living corpses are the lowest-levelled ones," Chen Xing was still trying his best to answer Xiang Shu questions while being carried as they were fleeing, "Shadow warriors may have powered up after cultivating, so they aren"t as afraid of the light. The knight is their boss, and it has demonic powers too. If silence hadn"t fallen on all magic in the world, the Heart Lamp would definitely be able to deal with them, but I have no way of doing so right now……refinement! I get it! Why the living corpses are being reared in the mirror"s Chang"an City! The enemies are thinking of a way to refine them!"

Ordinary living corpses with the weakest combat strength made up the bulk of the enemies here. Looking at the situation, there should be at least hundreds of thousands of them; next in rank would be the shadow warriors, and if that was right, the plentiful, dense resentment within the mirror should be used to nourish these living corpses and increasingly strengthen them.

If they hadn"t discovered the secret behind the mirror world, then in time to come, this place would have a shadow army with hundreds of thousands of soldiers who don"t fear death, don"t fear pain, and only know how to slaughter!

With a "buzz", Chen Xing felt like he had once again pa.s.sed through an invisible wall. The three of them jumped down from Weiyang Palace"s outer wall and landed in the imperial garden.

"Got it, find the mirror." Xiang Shu commanded, "Feng Qianjun, split up to search for it."

"Wait wait wait!" Feng Qianjun said, "Give me some time, let me finish reading this bamboo slip."

Xiang Shu, "Can"t you talk about it when we get back?"

Feng Qianjun said, "It might help!"

Chen Xing motioned to Xiang Shu to let Feng Qianjun give it a try, so Xiang Shu had to drop it. He gestured for Chen Xing to follow Feng Qianjun, while he went to search for the physical body of the Yin Yang Mirror in the mirror world.

Feng Qianjun entered a hall, unfurled the bamboo slip, and sat down in front of a bronze mirror to study it carefully.

Chen Xing knew that the cultivation method of the magic weapon was written on it; Sen Luo Wan Xiang was the Feng family"s heirloom, so it originally had a resonance with those from Feng Qianjun"s family. All that was recorded on this bamboo slip were secret arts used to guide one"s inner force throughout the entire body"s meridians to then absorb the spiritual Qi of heaven and earth before injecting it into the sacred weapon. Feng Qianjun had been practicing martial arts since he was young, so naturally, he would be so familiar with this to the point that he couldn"t be any more familiar with it, but……

Chen Xing cautioned, "Right now, the most important component — the spiritual Qi of heaven and earth — is missing, so even if you do learn how to wield the Sen Luo knife, you wouldn"t be able to awaken its power."

"But it won"t hurt to give it a try," Feng Qianjun stated, "What if it works?"

Chen Xing couldn"t bear to deal him a blow. Feng Qianjun pressed the meridians on his arm with his left hand in turn, "Could you use the Heart Lamp"s power to help me like how you a.s.sisted the Great Chanyu?"

Chen Xing, "I think it"s a bit of a mystery."

Feng Qianjun, "Where does the mystery lay?"

Chen Xing, "The mystery lies in the fact that the Heart Lamp doesn"t seem to want to pay attention to you, so I can"t do anything about it either."

At that moment, Chen Xing heard the sound of hooves striking the ground outside the palace — the dense ma.s.s of living corpse army had already surrounded the whole palace. Xiang Shu hadn"t found the Yin Yang Mirror yet, but the Defense Walls were still active, so the enemies should not be able to rush in for now. What he was afraid of was that they would repeat their previous tactic and release tens of thousands of arrows at them again.

But the bricks and tiles of the palace were st.u.r.dier than those of  the Exorcism Department"s after all; he just didn"t know how long they would last.

"Sen Luo Wan Xiang, there were two at first," Feng Qianjun said solemnly, "One was called Sen Luo, while the other was called Wan Xiang, and they were only cast into one later on. My ancestors chose to build Xifeng Bank on Mt. Song because they wanted to guard the Exorcism Department that once existed there."

Chen Xing knew that Feng Qianjun had his own resolution and would unlikely give up under his persuasion, so he could only ask, "Did your older brother know that the Yin Yang Mirror was placed in the warehouse?"

Feng Qianjun finished reading the bamboo slip and put it aside. He answered, "He knew everything. The one who activated the Yin Yang Mirror and threw us into the mirror world was him."

Chen Xing, “……”

Feng Qianjun sighed, and Chen Xing comforted him, "Fu Jian already knows, he just doesn"t want to lay a finger on you guys before obtaining enough evidence. Go back and persuade him ba. I have to retrieve the Yin Yang Mirror, then slowly think of a way later to eliminate the resentment in it."

Feng Qianjun left five fingers pressed down on the meridians of his right arm in turn, then pressed on a spot in front of his shoulder, chest, then lower abdomen. He got up, drew the Sen Luo knife, and tried brandishing it horizontally.

"Let me try." Feng Qianjun said.

Chen Xing didn"t believe that Feng Qianjun could awaken Sen Luo Wan Xiang under such circ.u.mstances at first, but Feng Qianjun stood with his knife horizontally across in front of him. He wielded the knife with his right hand, while stroking it slowly across with his left. Within an instant, an imperceptible flow in the Yin wind in the air seemed to stir.

"This……wait!" Chen Xing shouted immediately, "Stop! Brother Feng!"

Chen Xing"s soul scattered from fright, but he had figured out the key; the Sen Luo knife could be awakened, but the problem was that when Feng Qianjun utilises his arts, it would have no way of luring the spiritual Qi of heaven and earth over. Instead, what would take its place would be the abundant resentment in the mirror world!

Once resentment was introduced into the Sen Luo knife, what may happen next would simply be unthinkable!

Chen Xing wanted to seize the Sen Luo knife, but Feng Qianjun turned a deaf ear to him; the black flames that surrounded his body suddenly soared into the air, spun around rapidly, and wound around his body, blocking Chen Xing from getting close. Within a split second, Feng Qianjun cried out in pain while his eyes turned bloodshot! The Yin wind engulfed him, producing howls of anguish beside him!

"This is resentment!" Chen Xing shouted, "You"ll suffer a backlash!"

While he was being overwhelmed by everything that was happening around him, Chen Xing recalled that one of the usage of the Heart Lamp was to "expel demons". Right when he was lighting up his Heart Lamp, Xiang Shu had already rushed to the fore of the hall. Chen Xing said, "Stop him! Protector! No, no, don"t use your sword! You"ll kill him!"

So Xiang Shu had to change his weapon. He lifted up a table with one hand and slammed it harshly onto Feng Qianjun"s back. Feng Qianjun returned the hit with his knife; Xiang Shu"s heavy iron sword was unsheathed and met the Sen Luo knife head-on. Feng Qianjun dropped his long knife at once, and it fell to the ground with a "clang".

Then Chen Xing immediately shouted, "Expel!" And emitted a scorching light with one hand before pressing it against Feng Qianjun"s forehead.

A white light burst out with a blast. Feng Qianjun fell to his knees, and his gaze steadied, a bewildered expression appearing on his face.

Chen Xing got such a huge fright that he choked; for a very brief moment, he thought that Feng Qianjun was going to lose control.

"You almost got possessed!" Chen Xing said.

Xiang Shu said in disbelief, "What happened this time?"

"I don"t know……okay I do know," Chen Xing explained, "I"ll talk about it later, have you found it?"

Xiang Shu turned around. Chen Xing quickly picked up the Sen Luo knife and pulled Feng Qianjun up, then chased after Xiang Shu. They crossed through a long corridor before arriving in the main hall and only saw a wooden frame placed in front of the Emperor"s throne. A simple mirror was placed on it — it was the Yin Yang Mirror!

Chen Xing rushed forward to check, but Xiang Shu was full of doubts as he studied Feng Qianjun. Feng Qianjun waved his hand to signal that he was fine. He extended a hand, so Xiang Shu took the Sen Luo knife and handed it to him.

Feng Qianjun, "For a moment just now, it was as if there a voice ringing out next to my ear that kept saying "kill, kill"……"

Xiang Shu frowned and watched Feng Qianjun.

Feng Qianjun nodded, then slowly said, "……I just wanted to find something to kill with and have a good time. Is that what getting possessed is like?"

"You have obsessions in your heart," Chen Xing inspected the Yin Yang Mirror and explained to Feng Qianjun, "So it would be taken advantage of by resentment. Resentment in the world is flourishing, so it would gradually breed "demons". Demons can control people"s hearts and continuously magnify the obsession in your heart. At the very end, you would fall into a never-ending cycle of slaughter, never to break free for all of eternity. That"s "getting possessed"."

Feng Qianjun covered his forehead with an outstretched hand, his thumb and middle finger pressing against his temples on both sides.

"Fortunately, your Heart Lamp woke me up like a streak of lightning."

Chen Xing said, "It had occurred so suddenly. I"ve only read about it in a book that the Heart Lamp can temporarily expel resentment. Anyway, you……"

Xiang Shu roughly understood what had happened. Suddenly, they heard a boom, and the entire hall began to shake. It was the sound of arrows landing on the tiles above.

"Can we get out of here?" Xiang Shu, "We"re running out of time!"

"I"ll try," Chen Xing rolled his sleeves up and said, "I can"t guarantee that it"ll succeed. The Yin Yang Mirror is also a magic weapon driven by resentment. In order to activate it, I must accept the resentment. When I pick it up to use it later, the Defense Walls outside will disappear, and the two of you must protect me then."

Xiang Shu, "Can"t you just leave it where it is when you use it? Must you pick it up?"

Chen Xing, "I can"t! Are you sure you want to listen to my explanation right now?"

Feng Qianjun, "Hurry! Stop fighting! The top of the hall is about to collapse!"

Xiang Shu said impatiently, "Do it, do it!"

The tiles above the main hall of Weiyang Palace began falling apart layer by layer. Chen Xing took a deep breath; this was his first time using magic after leaving the mountain……no, it was his first time using magic in his whole life……emitting light doesn"t count. He often read in ancient texts about how exorcists would rely on magic weapons to move about freely in both the sky and the earth. Now that it was his turn, he felt extremely nervous.

In an instant, white light lit up from both of Chen Xing"s palms. His left palm turned over as the Yang side, while his right hand clenched to form the Yin side; they revolved around the Yin Yang Mirror while he silently recited incantations in his mind and told himself that he must succeed!

The Yin Yang Mirror reacted instantly; a winding black vapour burst forth from it at once and slowly rose from his palms!

It works! Chen Xing thought. However, the Heart Lamp"s magic was extremely clear, while the resentment in the Yin Yang Mirror was extremely muddy; the two were mutually exclusive and started resisting each other. The black vapour from the Yin Yang Mirror began spreading all over Chen Xing"s body and ruthlessly engulfed him within a black flame.

Feng Qianjun and Xiang Shu watched Chen Xing and saw that his eyes turned slightly blood red. Feng Qianjun muttered, "Are you okay?! Tianchi!"

Countless noises rang out next to Chen Xing"s ears, the clearest of which was his own voice.

"Why……why……must I only have four years left to live……why me……"

"Chen Xing!" Xiang Shu could tell that the situation didn"t seem right and suddenly shouted.

Chen Xing immediately received a shock and gathered the Heart Lamp"s light, using it to guard his heart by forming a warm, bright light around it.

"Go!" Chen Xing shouted and withdrew both hands. He grasped the knack of using resentment to control the magic weapon and began manipulating it. The Yin Yang Mirror rose into the air and spewed out black flames, then began revolving high up in the hall. Strange runes appeared all around it.

The sound of Weiyang Palace"s main entrance collapsing travelled over from the outside.

"How long more?!" Feng Qianjun shouted.

"I, DON"T, KNOW!" Chen Xing roared angrily, "I don"t want to answer any questions from either of you anymore!!!"

Zryuu: Subbed Dinghai song can be found here

Translated by me and subbed by El~