Chapter 132 Blood Characters

That sight left me utterly stunned. The walls on both sides were those of an ancient tomb, lined completely with liquid mercury, making it utterly impossible for a human body to pass through. Yet, right before my eyes, Zhao Fifteen had walked straight through the solid wall. It was simply beyond belief.

It had to be an illusion!

"Xiaodong!"

Just at that moment, I suddenly heard a voice again. It belonged to none other than Xiyue. Why would Xiyue suddenly appear here? Could it be that she had also chased after me? For the moment, that was the only way I could make sense of it, especially since my mind was already in complete chaos, devoid of any clear direction.

If Xiyue had indeed followed me out, what about Zhang Keqing's diamond corpse? Had it already escaped? Just as I was about to turn around, a figure materialized right before my eyes—it was Xiyue, dressed in white.

This...

For a moment, I struggled entirely to comprehend what was happening.

"Xiaodong, we must leave this place quickly, because we are now trapped inside a mirror. If we fail to escape within an hour, we will be trapped here forever. Countless wandering souls were once locked within this space, and these spirits can change their forms at will to mimic anyone who enters."

Hearing Xiyue's words, my expression flickered slightly. I grabbed her by the arm, a wave of deep anxiety surging within my heart, and immediately asked in a hurried voice, "Then which way should we go?"

Seeing how completely I trusted her, Xiyue broke into a smile. She pointed toward the open space before us and said, "This space is actually located inside a massive underground hall. Everything we see right now is a world reflected inside a mirror. There are far too many unknown factors in this realm. According to my memories, the destination we are heading toward can be reached by going straight ahead to an altar, so we must head in the opposite direction now."

I remained silent, simply nodding. "Let's leave at once, then!"

Xiyue nodded, grabbed my hand, and turned to run back the way we came. As we moved, every few steps I drew a spirit talisman and pressed it onto the corresponding wall as a marker. On one hand, this was to test the physical reality of these walls; on the other hand, it was a necessary safety precaution. With each talisman I cast, it served as an extension of my vision, allowing me to perceive many things that were otherwise hidden from me—things that were, in my fragmented memory, supposed to be there.

After running in the opposite direction for about twenty minutes, I clearly sensed the place where I had left my earlier marker. It seemed we were genuinely heading back, and I was confident that if we kept running this way, I would eventually find Chen Chuyi and the others.

"Xiaodong, what is wrong?"

Seeing me deep in thought, Xiyue immediately asked.

I offered a bitter smile, then spoke in a soft voice, "My memories haven't fully recovered yet, and my grasp of this entire space is completely hazy. But I do remember that our ultimate destination seems to be an altar. Only by passing through that altar can we enter the Shadowless Village!"

In truth, within this tomb, and within my own understanding, there were only four people who knew this secret:

Myself, Wan Niang, Yinyin, and the person who had fled from the Shadowless Village all those years ago.

With a flash, I kept pace with Xiyue's hurried footsteps.

My speed at this moment was incredible, so fast that I practically vanished into the depths of the space in a single blur. Immersed in the Yellow Springs water, I had undergone a complete rebirth; the physical strength coursing through my body was entirely incomparable to before. As my speed increased, the Xiyue following behind me could not help but slightly furrow her brow. By this point, however, I was already certain that the woman at my back was definitely not the Xiyue who had entered with me. In fact, from the very first glance, I knew she wasn't Xiyue. Her body lacked the ethereal essence I longed to find. While her physical appearance was a striking imitation of Xiyue, her spiritual aura fell infinitely short of the genuinely transcendent Xiyue.

"Xiaodong, stop!"

Suddenly, the voice of the false Xiyue rang out behind me. I came to a halt, turned to face her, and asked with a slight smile, "What is it?"

"I sense danger ahead!"

Xiyue furrowed her brows slightly, and from her eyes, I could clearly perceive a struggle and worry that emanated from the inner thoughts of the impostor behind me.

Feeling the internal conflict of the woman standing before me, a wave of bafflement washed over me.

Who on earth was the person standing in front of me right now?

Could she be a mere pawn sent by the mastermind behind the scenes, or did she possess some other identity?

In truth, ever since I stepped into Huamei Village, I had attempted to summon Tu and Nie Xiaoke on more than one occasion, but they remained as silent as if they never existed at all. As for the broken sword in my backpack, ever since entering the village, it had remained nothing more than an ordinary, shattered blade.

"Then how should we proceed?"

"That way!"

Following the direction pointed out by this fake Xiyue, my eyes immediately locked onto a passage not far away, one completely different from any I had encountered thus far. I distinctly remembered that no such passage had existed there moments before, let alone any other exit—it was an absolute impossibility for it to be there.

I turned around to look at the Xiyue standing before me, my eyes filled with silent inquiry. On the surface, I appeared completely natural, while deep inside my mind, I was already plotting how to instantly subdue this woman.

Piecing together everything this fake Xiyue had told me, I had already managed to deduce the general nature of the situation I was trapped in.

It inevitably reminded me of what happened back in Huamei Village, when I knew nothing and my soul wandered outside my body, hearing the innkeeper tell me that it was I who had released them from their mirror seal, established Huamei Village for them, and trapped them there for eternity.

Closing my eyes slightly, I suddenly perceived a profound void surrounding my body—there was nothing at all, and the entity standing right in front of me was nothing more than a drifting malicious spirit.

A sudden wave of cold sweat broke out across my body. Although I might still be considered a novice, I had awakened a vast amount of memories from my past life—the self I had seen earlier inside the corpse coffin was none other than my past incarnation. Furthermore, alongside the awakening of those memories, my physical body had been fundamentally strengthened, and my mastery of Daoist arts had undergone a qualitative leap.

Even if I hadn't yet had the time to fully integrate and master these abilities, under ordinary circumstances, it should have been impossible for me to be so easily manipulated by such an illusionary realm. Thus, there was only one logical explanation: everything I perceived by closing my eyes was the absolute truth.

My body trembled slightly. Combining my own memories and heightened perception, I looked toward the end of the path the false Xiyue had pointed out, only to find an ancient, human-sized bronze mirror waiting there. The entire mirror was cast in an antique bronze hue, and across its metallic surface were inscribed two blood-red characters: Yang Dong!