Chapter 141: A Mirror
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Achoo— Zhou Shu sneezed and rubbed his sore nose.
He looked at the empty official road in front of him, a bit confused.
With his walking speed, he should have been able to see You Prefecture long ago.
!!
But now, within his field of vision, he couldn’t see any cities at all. Not to mention cities, he couldn’t even see a single person.
There is indeed a problem.
Zhou Shu stopped in his tracks. He placed the Great Destroyer Sword in front of him, placed his hands on the hilt, and closed his eyes.
Within his consciousness, five towering mountains rose from the ground. One was slightly solid, while the other four were illusory.
His sea of consciousness was completely still, and his divine sense was like water. It completely enveloped Zhou Shu’s entire body, and it did its best to spread outward.
Divine sense was an ability Zhou Shu had obtained after cultivating the Visualization of the Five Mountains’ True Form.
This kind of ability derived from the condensation of spiritual strength to a certain extent allowed him to know everything around him like the back of his hand.
Under the envelopment of his divine sense, nothing could escape him!
A three-dimensional image appeared in Zhou Shu’s mind. Everything around him seemed to be clearly reflected by the radar.
Suddenly, Zhou Shu ‘saw’ a black fog surrounding his body.
An incomparably cold feeling entered Zhou Shu’s divine sense.
He quivered and suddenly opened his eyes.
In front of him was the empty official road. There was no one here, nor was there any black fog.
Zhou Shu raised his head and glanced at the sky. The sun hung high in the sky, its warm rays shining on his body.
But the cold feeling that he had just felt was like a nail attached to his bones, and it continued to wrap around his consciousness.
Zhou Shu knew that this wasn’t an illusion.
This You Prefecture was truly strange!
Everyone’s disappearance might be related to this black fog.
What is this black fog? Why can I see it only with my divine sense and not with the naked eye?
Zhou Shu activated the Golden Bell Shield Technique as his body emitted a weak golden light.
The cold feeling in his consciousness lessened slightly, but it still existed.
Even the Golden Bell Shield, known to be the best defense in the world, couldn’t withstand the invasion of the black fog.
First, it was because Zhou Shu’s Golden Bell Shield Technique had yet to reach perfection, where it was impervious to water, fire, and poison. Second, it was because this black fog was indeed very strange!
The chill in his consciousness continued to intensify. Even with the Golden Bell Shield, if this continued, Zhou Shu felt that his consciousness would be frozen by this cold sensation sooner or later.
Consciousness was not a physical ent.i.ty. Zhou Shu didn’t know what would happen after it was frozen, but it was definitely not something good.
He had to find Yin Wuyou and Sun Gongping as soon as possible!
Zhou Shu didn’t waste any more time. With a stomp of his foot, a tremendous force erupted, and he charged forward.
Rumble!
A thunderous sound reverberated through the air. Zhou Shu held his heavy sword in his hand as he strode down the main road.
With every step he took, a cloud of dust would rise from the ground, leaving clear footprints on the hard ground.
Zhou Shu crossed several meters with every step he took. He walked as if he was flying.
He had already walked like this for two hours. With his speed, he had traveled more than a hundred miles in two hours.
But the scene in front of him didn’t change much.
The straight road seemed endless.
On both sides of the road were continuous mountain ranges, lush and green.
You Prefecture was surrounded by mountains on all sides. It was almost like he was in a valley, but it was impossible not to see You Prefecture even after walking for more than a hundred miles.
Walking in circles?
Zhou Shu finally stopped. Although he had the Dragon Elephant Prajna Technique and Golden Bell Shield Technique, and even if he ran for another day, he wouldn’t get tired, from the looks of it, he wouldn’t be able to escape even if he ran like this.
He felt that he was walking in circles. He thought that he had walked for a long distance, but in reality, he hadn’t moved at all.
This way, even if he ran until he died of exhaustion, he might not be able to escape.
Did Yin Wuyou and the You and Bing prefecture armies disappear like this?
Zhou Shu frowned. He tried the sound transmission stone that Yang Hong had left for him, but it had indeed lost its effect.
Is this man-made, or is there another reason? If it’s man-made, then who did it? Great Wei?
Zhou Shu shook his head and denied himself. If Great Wei had such methods, they wouldn’t have needed to play such tricks. They could have just attacked Great Xia.
If even a grandmaster like Yin Wuyou could be trapped, Great Wei would be able to wipe out Great Xia if they mastered this technique!
Was there a need to deliberately lose the You and Bing prefectures to the Great Xia?
Perhaps I should think of it this way. Something happened in the You and Bing prefectures, causing this place to become like this. Great Wei must have discovered something, so they want to throw the problem to Great Xia.
If they directly returned the You and Bing prefectures to Great Xia, even a fool would know that there is a problem. Thus, they deliberately proposed a bet with the prefectures as the wager.
In order to lose more naturally, they even really developed an extremely powerful standard weapon. In order to ensure that they wouldn’t win, they even sent Shen Yue to the Forging Division to scout for information. The challenge might have been to figure out the standard weapons in Great Xia. It wasn’t to win but to make it appear that they didn’t lose deliberately…
If that’s the case, Great Wei must not have been able to solve the problem with the You and Bing prefectures!
Zhou Shu came to a conclusion.
If it could be resolved, Great Wei wouldn’t give up on the two prefectures so easily.
The current situation could only mean that Great Wei hadn’t been able to resolve the problem. Furthermore, they were worried that the situation in the You and Bing prefectures would spread. Thus, they would rather cut off their flesh than keep them in their hands.
How can Great Wei be sure that if they hand over the two prefectures to Great Xia, the changes here won’t affect them?
This was something that Zhou Shu couldn’t understand.
Since he couldn’t figure it out, he decided not to think too much about it. Right now, the most important thing for him was to think of a way to resolve the predicament.
“Astounding Heavenly Eighteen Swords!”
The Great Destroyer Sword in Zhou Shu’s hand soared into the sky. A violent sword qi wreaked havoc, and rumbling sounds resounded.
A moment later, everything around Zhou Shu was pulverized.
Zhou Shu carried the Great Destroyer Sword on his back and frowned.
He had unleashed his most powerful attack just now, but it was useless!
The cold feeling in his consciousness was still there!
The Great Destroyer Sword’s attack was completely ineffective.
Zhou Shu frowned. I can’t see it with the naked eye, but I can see it with my divine sense. Can my divine sense attack it?
When he thought of this, Zhou Shu sat down cross-legged without hesitation.
He calmed his mind and focused, visualizing the Five Mountains’ True Form in his consciousness.
Five towering mountains crashed into his consciousness.
Central Mount Song, Eastern Mount Tai, Western Mount Hua, Southern Mount Heng, and Northern Mount Heng!
The five mountains were all illusory and unreal. Only a part of Mount Song seemed to be slightly solid.
When Zhou Shu reached perfection in the Visualization of the Five Mountains’ True Form, the five mountains in his sea of consciousness would completely solidify.
At that time, his spirit would become one and possess inconceivable power.
But now, he was still far from achieving perfection.
Even so, after visualizing the five peaks, Zhou Shu’s aura changed.
His entire body carried a mountainous and imposing aura. His divine sense transformed into five peaks and attacked the black fog that had appeared in his consciousness.
Boom!
A soundless shockwave surged through Zhou Shu’s sea of consciousness.
The black fog that could only be seen with divine sense didn’t dissipate after being trashed by the Five Mountains’ True Form. Instead, it condensed.
The black fog condensed into a pair of eyes that floated in midair, staring at Zhou Shu.
Rousing G.o.ds and devils!
Seeing that his divine sense attack was effective, Zhou Shu relaxed a little. He was afraid that he wouldn’t be able to do anything to the black fog. Since he could attack it, it meant that it wasn’t impossible to deal with.
Five Mountains’ True Form, smash!
Zhou Shu shouted in his heart. His spiritual sense condensed into the Five Mountains’ True Form and smashed toward the black eye in the sky.
Boom!
The mountain peaks were incomparably majestic. In comparison, the pair of eyes was extremely tiny.
The two collided in a very uncoordinated manner, creating a storm in Zhou Shu’s consciousness.
“Hmph!” Zhou Shu let out a m.u.f.fled groan as blood seeped out of his seven orifices.
Within his divine sense, the black pair of eyes had already shattered, turning into black fog and disappearing.
Zhou Shu had been using his divine sense to keep an eye on the black fog the entire time. He keenly discovered that as most of the black fog disappeared, a sliver of it flew in a certain direction.
Trying to escape?
Zhou Shu let out a low growl. He ignored the feeling of dizziness as he leaped into the air and chased after the wisp of black fog.
Along the way, Zhou Shu’s divine sense discovered that there was black fog everywhere. He could only use his divine sense to transform into the Five Mountains’ True Form and charge his way through, creating a path.
At this moment, he didn’t even bother to look at the road. He only stared fixedly at the direction in which the black fog had dissipated. He opened up a path in the mountains and built a bridge when he encountered water.
The farther he walked, the thicker the black fog became. Zhou Shu felt that it was becoming more and more difficult. He had already used up most of his divine sense.
The attack of the Five Mountains’ True Form consumed a lot of energy.
However, he couldn’t stop. Once he stopped attacking, the black fog would frantically invade his consciousness, causing his thoughts to freeze until he completely lost consciousness.
Zhou Shu gritted his teeth and continued to charge forward.
Finally, he felt his vision lighten. It was as if he had broken through a barrier. In his consciousness, the black fog completely disappeared.
In its place was a feeling of light.
Zhou Shu subconsciously opened his eyes.
The surroundings were full of white mist. Nothing could be seen a few steps ahead.
Not far away from him was a mirror!
The mirror had a radius of one foot and a simple and unadorned design. Black fog continuously enshrouded the surface of the mirror and flowed into the air while baring its fangs and brandishing its claws.
Zhou Shu frowned. The black fog came from this mirror?
Where is this place?
Zhou Shu tightened his grip on the Great Destroyer Sword and instantly raised his guard. The Golden Bell Shield Technique activated automatically, and his body emitted a faint golden light that illuminated his surroundings.
Zhou Shu took one step at a time as he cautiously approached the mirror.
He was prepared. If anything happened, he would immediately act.
The Great Destroyer Sword and the Astounding Heavenly Eighteen Swords Technique were not to be trifled with!
He approached the mirror step by step. Nothing unexpected happened.
The black fog from the mirror didn’t attack him either. Instead, it dissipated into the air.
When he got closer, Zhou Shu saw that he could actually see what was inside the mirror!
What he saw was not his own shadow, but a city!
That’s right. A city!
The city was full of people!
The people were like walking corpses, walking stiffly on the streets.
This is… You Prefecture City?
Zhou Shu was shocked. This mirror has taken You Prefecture City?
What the h.e.l.l is this?
Even a heaven-grade weapon doesn’t have this ability.
No, maybe it wasn’t You Prefecture City that was taken in, but that it had taken control of the people in You Prefecture City!
Zhou Shu didn’t know if it was because of the mirror, but he could see the people in the mirror with his naked eyes. Each one of them was wrapped in thick black fog.
Those who enter You Prefecture City have their consciousness invaded by the black fog and become mindless puppets?
Zhou Shu’s entire body went cold. If he hadn’t cultivated the Visualization of the Five Mountains’ True Form, then it was very likely that he would have become a walking corpse in this mirror.
Zhou Shu raised the Great Destroyer Sword horizontally, and sword light flashed everywhere. He shouted loudly, “Who’s here? Show yourself!”
The surroundings were deathly silent. There was no reaction from the mirror either.
Zhou Shu frowned. He waited for a long time, but there was still no response.
“There’s no one here?” Zhou Shu frowned. “Then, I’ll break this mirror and see what else you can do!”
With a shout, the Great Destroyer Sword transformed into a beam of light and struck the mirror heavily.
Buzz—
Zhou Shu only felt a strong force, and his arms went numb. The Great Destroyer Sword flew out of his hands, and his entire body was forced back by the force.
Zhou Shu took a few steps back before stabilizing himself. He stared at the mirror in shock.
His sword could even sever the arm of a first-rank Martial Dao expert!
But now, the sword was knocked out of his hands by a mirror?
Where did this d.a.m.n mirror come from?!
The mirror didn’t move at all. It continued to float in the air, as if Zhou Shu hadn’t attacked it.
Zhou Shu’s heart stirred when he saw that the mirror continued to produce black fog.
The black fog could only be attacked by divine sense. Is this mirror the same?
Zhou Shu took a deep breath and picked up the Great Destroyer Sword.
Although his sword technique was ineffective, he felt more at ease holding the sword.
Returning to the mirror, Zhou Shu closed his eyes and began to visualize the Five Mountains’ True Form.
After an unknown period of time, Zhou Shu suddenly opened his eyes. The five mountains seemed to fly out from his pupils. The five mountains towered into the clouds majestically and smashed heavily into the mirror with a bang.
Boom!
Zhou Shu felt the ground shake violently, as if there was a huge earthquake.. For a moment, the earth and the mountains shook.