Chapter 28: Divine Mirror Without Stand
Xia Feng kicked Mu Qingtong’s head away.
“What are you doing?”
The bedroom scene shattered like broken glass, numerous water mirrors surrounding him again, the people in the mirrors showing the same puzzled expressions.
“Isn’t this what you wanted?”
“No need to work hard to become stronger, no need to struggle to survive. Beauties, money, mental entertainment, you don’t need to do anything, they will appear for you automatically, and all you need to do is lie down.”
“Look, what a happy, lazy life~”
“Don’t you like it?”
“Don’t you really like it?”
They bickered, one after another. Xia Feng rolled his eyes and raised his index finger: “First, this Mu Qingtong is too fake, there’s no sense of immersion at all.”
“Ah? Is it her personality that’s wrong?” The person in the mirror pondered, “This can be modified, guaranteeing 99% similarity and making the plot reasonable!”
Xia Feng raised his middle finger again: “Second, as long as there are game rules, there are no unsolvable mysteries. The explosion in the TV series was eventually solved under the rules. This damn Spirit Artifact Space naturally has its solution rules. These rules might be related to the artifact’s abilities, I just haven’t discovered them yet.”
“What are you talking about? We don’t understand?”
“Yeah, we don’t understand.”
“Don’t understand.”
“It’s over, our main body has gone mad, talking nonsense~”
“Talking nonsense~”
“Nonsense, nonsense, nonsense.”
Xia Feng ignored them and raised his third finger: “Third, although I am a vulgar person, if you ask me whether I want to live in ‘illusory happiness’ or ‘real misfortune’, frankly speaking, I would choose illusory happiness.
Xia Feng smiled, “But unfortunately, there are still people I care about in reality. Although I don’t have family or romantic feelings for her, I can’t just abandon her to be alone.”
Upon hearing this, the bickering in the mirrors immediately stopped. After a moment of silence, they lowered their heads and murmured in unison, “That’s right, the mushroom can’t be without me.”
“The mushroom can’t be without me.”
“Can’t be without me.”
They started repeating again. Xia Feng blinked, “Yes, the mushroom can’t be without us! So, why don’t you tell me the solution and let me out?”
“Yes, tell him the solution!”
“Yes, let him out!”
“That’s right, we must let him out, otherwise the mushroom will be lonely again.”
They stood in the mirrors, looking around, discussing animatedly, and soon reached a consensus. They looked at Xia Feng and said in unison, “Okay, we’ll tell you the method of breaking through.”
“?!” Xia Feng was slightly stunned. Are you really going to tell me?
“So…” Xia Feng’s gaze held a hint of anticipation.
“The method of breaking through is—” they said in unison, with unprecedented seriousness, “Defeat your Spirit Artifact Incarnation!”
“Okay, and then?”
“Then? There’s no ‘then’. This is the method!”
Xia Feng: o_o
Fine, you’re just messing with me, right?! As expected of me, I’m really such a scumbag! Xia Feng even cursed himself when he was angry.
“Very well, since that’s the case!”
Xia Feng waved his saber, angered, and raised his chin, formally declaring war, “See if I don’t beat you until you shit yourselves!!”
“Did you hear that? The main body is going to beat himself until he shits himself~”
“Heard it, heard it. As expected of our main body, he’s so bold!”
“Then it’s settled. We’ll fulfill his wish.”
“Fulfill his wish, fulfill his wish, fulfill his wish.” As the sounds of solemn murmurs echoed through the heavens and earth, Xia Fengs one after another stepped out of the water mirrors—ten, a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand, a hundred thousand people!
They densely formed a hollow circular array on the endless water surface. Their black eyes stared seriously at Xia Feng in the center, raising their sabers high and shouting in unison, shaking the heavens and earth: “Fulfill his wish!! Kill!!!”
Xia Feng: ⊙▂⊙
“Hey brothers, I was just kidding—”
*Slash—* *Slash—* *Slash—* *Slash—* Slash after slash, Xia Feng was pierced through his body by more than a dozen swords. He tilted his head up at the sky in confusion, and before he could even feel the pain, his vision went dark and then bright.
He was reborn in the center of another group of people.
“Are you guys poisoned!” Xia Feng cursed, how is he supposed to play this? He can’t win at all!
The people in the mirrors turned their heads in unison, their gazes dim: “Kill!!!”
“Damn it!” Xia Feng immediately entered stealth mode, but the people in the mirrors ignored him and directly unleashed Three Overlapping Waves towards the center.
One hundred Xia Fengs, in perfect unison, unleashed three hundred blood waves, RUMBLE!!!
A giant blood-red mushroom cloud rose, and the space trembled.
As the blood-red rain fell, the many Xia Fengs looked around in confusion, searching for the main body’s trace.
“Where is he?”
“Yeah, where is he?”
“As expected of me, to think of this method.”
Xia Feng, standing in the crowd, nodded and repeated, “As expected of me, to think of this method.”
“Where is he? Where is he? Where is he…”
While repeating, he moved with the crowd, secretly pondering countermeasures.
From a few attempts, he roughly understood that this outrageous Spirit Artifact trial couldn’t be solved by brute force.
After all, he couldn’t even defeat one avatar, let alone countless avatars.
He was being completely hammered.
So… what should he do?
According to Ms. Black Crow, defeating the Spirit Artifact Incarnation meant passing the trial, but he didn’t even know where the Spirit Artifact Incarnation was.
It couldn’t possibly be these countless mirror people, right?
If these mirror people were the Spirit Artifact Incarnation, it would be unsolvable, and he would never pass.
“As long as it’s a trial, no matter how difficult, there will always be a sliver of hope,” Xia Feng pondered, secretly observing his surroundings. “Could it be that the Spirit Artifact Incarnation is hidden among these avatars?”
As he was thinking, his eyes suddenly widened. The profile of an avatar to his front left caught his eye. It was a face… without features!
“What the hell? A faceless person?”
Could this be the Spirit Artifact Incarnation? Xia Feng hesitated in his heart. He felt something was not right. He had just thought that the Spirit Artifact Incarnation was hidden among the avatars, and it appeared so quickly?
“Where is he? Where is he? Where is he? Where is he…”
The crowd jostled, and the Xia Fengs aimlessly looked around for anomalies, but they seemed to completely ignore the faceless person not far away.
The faceless person acted as if nothing was wrong, and from somewhere, a voice repeated the search for Xia Feng.
Xia Feng thought for a moment. Although this person looked suspicious in every way, it wouldn’t hurt to try. He couldn’t die anyway.
While thinking, he followed the crowd, casually squeezed to the front.
“Where is he?”
“Main body, where are you?”
Xia Feng murmured to himself as he came up behind the faceless person. He didn’t hesitate, nor did he say any unnecessary words. He directly stabbed his saber into the faceless person’s back, piercing the heart!
*Swish—* The crowd suddenly stopped moving and turned their heads in unison, their gazes dim: “Found you!”
A trap… Xia Feng frowned. The faceless person in front of him revealed a face identical to his, and then *pop*—his body disintegrated into water, returning to the surface.
Xia Feng looked up in confusion, only to see another faceless person standing behind the crowd, staring at him expressionlessly.
Yes, truly expressionless.
“Catch him. Don’t kill him this time,” the faceless person said.
A large group of people swarmed over and grabbed his limbs. Xia Feng did not resist, but surrendered directly.
“Are you the Spirit Artifact Incarnation? Are you controlling these avatars?” Xia Feng asked in confusion.
“We told you, we are you, and you are us,” a voice came from the distance, its tone sincere.
At the same time, the avatar holding Xia Feng’s arm on the right slowly had its face disappear. He looked down at Xia Feng, “So, you can’t possibly defeat us. Give up.”
The avatar on the left also turned into a faceless person, its tone slightly excited, “We can create for you, and for ourselves, a perfect, happy, strife-free paradise!”
!
“Isn’t this good?” a distant faceless person asked earnestly.
Xia Feng’s gaze swept over them, looking at these eerie individuals with seriousness.
After a moment of silent contemplation, his confused gaze gradually cleared, a light shining in his eyes, “I think… I understand.”
“Understand? Do you mean you agree with our view and will stay here?”
“No, no, no.” Xia Feng shook his head, murmuring thoughtfully, “If the trial is related to the Spirit Artifact’s abilities, then you are the manifestation of the Spirit Artifact’s abilities, or rather, the so-called Spirit Artifact Incarnation. Other Spirit Artifacts might require directly defeating the Spirit Artifact Incarnation to pass, but… my situation is definitely impossible. Therefore, the key to breaking through is neither brute force, nor skill, nor rhetoric, but only one thing: thought!
As long as I accept, or realize a certain thought, I can awaken the Spirit Artifact!”
The more he thought, the brighter Xia Feng’s eyes became, “So, your purpose for appearing is very simple. It’s not to create an insurmountable situation for me, but to help me understand a certain thought!
So… yes! That’s why you’ve been emphasizing that you are me, and I am you—this isn’t to toy with me, but to tell me explicitly.
Xia Feng paused and looked up, his eyes narrowing slightly, “This is the key to breaking the impasse!”
The many Xia Fengs blinked, showing no surprise. Instead, they nodded seriously, “Yes, yes. So, does that mean you agree with the idea that ‘we are you, and you are us’? That’s great, let’s merge!”
They opened their arms in unison, their gazes dim, surging towards Xia Feng.
Looking at the oppressive, dark mass of people, Xia Feng’s gaze was calm, and he made no movement. A thought flashed in his mind—stop.
The world fell silent.
The hundred thousand Xia Fengs all stopped in their tracks.
“Kill yourselves.”
With Xia Feng’s faint command, they all raised their sabers and slashed their throats—their movements were perfectly synchronized!
*Whoosh—* In an instant, the dense hundred thousand Xia Fengs disintegrated into water and fell into the water. The world was left with only two figures—Xia Feng and a faceless person.
The faceless person wore the same white martial arts robe and stood motionlessly ten meters away.
Xia Feng walked closer, his saber raised, “It seems you are the Spirit Artifact Incarnation that copied countless me. So, is my Spirit Energy related to copying?”
Xia Feng placed his saber on the faceless person’s neck and slashed. The faceless person also turned into flowing water and fell, offering no resistance.
It seemed his Spirit Artifact trial was quite simple. No, it was incredibly simple. As long as he accepted that these idiotic avatars were himself, and firmly believed that he could control them, then… he could actually control them! Uh, Xia Feng felt something was not right. Such a simple trial, wouldn’t the Spirit Artifact Level be very low?
“Oh no…”
As the faceless person turned into water, the seemingly endless water surface began to churn. Centered on Xia Feng, it rapidly contracted and converged. Xia Feng looked down in confusion, his breathing quickening.
He could sense it, the Spirit Artifact was about to appear!
“C-Class! C-Class!” Xia Feng clasped his hands together, earnestly praying, “Mu Shen, bless me! Give me a C, no, a B-Class! I’m not being greedy for an A, just a B-Class—”
“B-Class…” Xia Feng muttered, opening one eye. *Ding~* The water coalesced into an oval bronze ancient mirror, floating heavily before him.
At the same time, information flooded into his mind.
[Spirit Energy Unsealing Successful—]
[Spirit Artifact: Divine Mirror Without Stand]
[Using bronze as a mirror, one can rectify one’s appearance; using people as a mirror, one can perceive gains and losses; using the past as a mirror, one can learn about progress and decline.]
[Level: Alpha (?)]
[Spirit Unsealing · Using Bronze as a Mirror: Copy | Optimize | Remove the False and Preserve the True]
[Using Bronze as a Mirror – Copy: Perfectly replicates the target’s clothing, hair, accessories, makeup, appearance, voice, and Spirit Artifact. No time limit.
Trigger for Copying: Touching the target’s Spirit Artifact, being attacked by the target’s Spirit Artifact.
Current Copy Slots: 1 (When exceeding the number of copy slots, the new target overwrites the old target).
Current Restriction: Ineffective against targets of the same level (Alpha).]
[Using Bronze as a Mirror – Optimize (Pending Awakening)]
[Using Bronze as a Mirror – Remove the False and Preserve the True (Pending Awakening)]
“Hiss—”
Looking at the information about the Spirit Artifact’s abilities, Xia Feng’s heart nearly leaped out of his chest. He gasped, “Holy crap! What the hell is this?!”
Copying other people’s Spirit Artifacts? This thing looks pretty fierce!
And the copy slots seem to be expandable?! He didn’t know what the limit was.
But, no matter what!
This Spirit Artifact is definitely a bug-level existence, right?!
“Hmm, but there’s a very serious problem,” Xia Feng was somewhat confused. What the hell is Alpha Level?
Neither the textbooks nor Black Crow mentioned that there was an Alpha Level among Spirit Artifact levels!
“Words starting with ‘A’…” Xia Feng pondered, “Could it mean A-Class?”
“Forget it, I’ll worry about it later. I’ll go out and ask that old auntie!”
* * *
After sending Xia Feng into the Spirit Artifact Space, Black Crow closed her eyes again and slowly fell into slumber.
Generally speaking, the longer the time it takes to pass the trial, the higher the Spirit Artifact Level.
The average passing time for humans was six months, so according to her estimation, Xia Feng wouldn’t be out for a while.
“Buzz—”
Suddenly opening her eyes, her vertical pupils, as deep as stars, stared down at the tree. She saw the black-haired man’s vacant black eyes gradually become agile. He blinked a few times and looked up with a grin, “Ha~ Smelly crow, is that all? I thought it would be harder~”
“…”
Black Crow was silent for a moment, then couldn’t help but let out a teasing chuckle, “Brat, what are you so happy about? The shorter the time to pass, the lower your level. Less than three minutes, meaning you were only in there for half an hour before passing?”
“Such a short time, tsk tsk, it can only be an N-level Spirit Artifact.”
“N-level Spirit Artifact?” Xia Feng was stunned. So Alpha meant N-level Spirit Artifact?
N-level is already this strong? Xia Feng felt the terrifying nature of this world. It seemed that Spirit Artifacts were far more important to Spirit Masters than he had imagined!
“How is it? Brat? I guessed right, didn’t I?”
Hearing the old aunt’s mocking tone, Xia Feng nodded, but then felt something was not quite right. He asked in confusion, “Then why isn’t the N-level Spirit Artifact directly called ‘Alpha’ or something similar? Why change the name to N-level?”
Seeing Xia Feng nod, Black Crow was about to continue mocking him, but Xia Feng’s question made her pause.
“What do you mean?” A sudden premonition struck her.
