The Forbidden Path to Immortality-Chapter 267

Seeing that things with Yin Wanderer were about to explode, she couldn’t hold back any longer. She snorted. “Perfect. I’ll make sure he gets what's coming to him.”

Of course, “he” meant Luo Moshi. Li Xun replied, “Not happening. You’re not getting that chance. They’re not going to fight.”

Li Xun already had some ideas forming, and his mood seemed to lift. He looked up at Shui Die Lan and smiled. “Luo Moshi isn’t some fool. The fact that he sensed the Light-Splitting Mirror watching means he already knows something about Mist-Hidden Pavilion. And you think he’d fight to the death with Yin Wanderer while he’s injured?”

Laughter echoed from the cliff. Luo Moshi’s thin, lanky body shot into the air, rising straight up into the clouds. In the blink of an eye, he’d soared miles above, far beyond the Light-Splitting Mirror’s range.

“As expected,” Li Xun added. “The old fox knew about the Light-Splitting Mirror, so he keeps flying high. And who’s to say he doesn’t have backup waiting above?”

Shui Die Lan was speechless.

By now the energy around the cliff had settled back to normal. Li Xun zoomed in for a closer view, only to see Yin Wanderer wearing an odd, unreadable expression. She stared in the direction Luo Moshi had gone, clearly lost in her thoughts.

Judging from the emotional feedback he sensed, she was in a rather gloomy mood. Had something just set her off? But Li Xun had clearly heard every word exchanged between her and Luo Moshi. Nothing sounded unusual at all.

He made a mental note of it, but now wasn’t the time to dissect her feelings. He sent a thought her way, initiating a quiet exchange.

Through the Light-Splitting Mirror, Yin Wanderer gave a slight nod and shot off, leaving the cliff far behind in an instant. Inside the pavilion, Li Xun quickly shifted the Mirror’s view to keep her in focus.

“What’s she going to do?”

“Find a secluded spot and set up a restriction.” Li Xun glanced at Shui Dielan, then tossed off a casual quip, “If someone here could be a little more capable... I wouldn’t have to jump through all these hoops.”

The words were barely out of his mouth before he regretted them.

Shui Die Lan arched an eyebrow. Her face looked amused, but her eyes were sharp as blades. She looked ready to snap.

Just as Li Xun was about to back off for his own safety, the demoness changed demeanor entirely, as if nothing had happened. She gave a soft snort, looked away, and focused on watching Yin Wanderer glide above the forest.

Li Xun was still puzzled.

“I’m not about to get into a spat with your servant,” she said languidly. “Hmph. I suppose she should be calling me mistress now, shouldn’t she? Anyway, what did you send her off to set up?”

Says she won’t get into a spat… Li Xun chuckled to himself at her transparent denial, but didn’t let any of that show on his face. He simply smiled and said, “Just a Water Mirror. I figured out the core issue, so I’m having her test it out.”

Shui Die Lan knew nothing about restrictions, but was still very curious. “And what exactly does that mean?”

“It’s actually pretty simple. The Light-Splitting Mirror really is an impressive artifact, but it doesn’t work the way we assumed. Rather than the Light-Splitting Mirror itself seeing across vast distances, it’s more like wherever the mirror focuses, the moisture in the air spontaneously takes on the properties of a Water Mirror. That reflection is what gets fed back to the mirror.

“In other words, the Light-Splitting Mirror is just a trigger, or you could say a template that generates a Water Mirror. What actually shows us the scenery is the floating moisture in the air.

“And that’s where the problem lies. Because this is all happening through the mirror’s template, the changes in local water vapor are subtle, but not subtle enough to fool elite experts like you. Anyone skilled enough at restrictions could examine those patterns in the flow of qi and maybe even deduce something about Mist-Hidden Pavilion... which is seriously dangerous.”

Li Xun’s explanation was clear enough. Shui Die Lan understood most of it, and she frowned. “Then that’s trouble, isn’t it? Whether it’s a trigger or a template, it’s still a fixed mechanism, right? So unless you smash the mirror and rebuild it from scratch, there’s no way to fix the issue?” 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

“Tch, and there it is... you’ve hit the critical insight.” Li Xun laughed, slapped the stone table beside him, and raised his brows. “But if the Light-Splitting Mirror were truly that inflexible, how could it be installed at the very heart of Mist-Hidden Pavilion?

“This treasure of a mirror is amazing for one main reason. Even though it’s called a ‘mirror,’ it isn’t actually made of any physical material. It’s formed from a concentrated stream of pure primordial qi controlled by the core hub of this place. The way all these qi mechanisms interact, pull, and structure themselves through the workings of that primordial qi is what gives it its remarkable abilities.

“In other words, if you understand how it’s put together, you can redesign it without ruining its intricacy, refining the original ‘template’ and stripping out the unnecessary parts.”

When it came to his own field of expertise, Li Xun couldn’t stop himself. He didn’t care how much Shui Die Lan could actually follow; he just kept talking on his own.

“I can already tell that this original ‘Water Mirror template’ is close to the methods used by the Water Mirror Sect. It shows every detail clearly, which is fine for guarding an area. But for scouting or spying, it’s too conspicuous. Now, I happen to have…”

Shui Die Lan could hear a hint of bragging in his tone, which amused her. She cut him off with a smirk. “Oh really? So even the Water Mirror Sect’s techniques aren't good enough for you. So what sect or lineage does that thing in your hand belong to, then?”

Li Xun opened his mouth to speak, but suddenly found himself at a loss for words.

Just as Shui Die lan thought she had him cornered, he shook his head and grinned. “Zhong Yin!”

The two words rumbled in his throat, then squeezed out through his gritted teeth, sounding almost like a hollow echo from an icy cavern.

The snarky retort Shui Die Lan had prepared was shoved right back down her chest by that single name, leaving her uncomfortably stifled.

Li Xun was feeling the same way. He let out a long, heavy breath, his expression settling back to normal, though with a trace of self-mockery.

“This thing was able to slip past the Demon Phoenix, Qing Luan, and even Gu Yin back then. So getting it past Luo Moshi shouldn’t be much harder.”

Shui Die Lan didn’t argue again. She just looked at him with a hard to read look on her face.

Li Xun couldn’t make sense of the emotions behind that look. All he felt was an intense, prickly irritation. And for a split second. For a split second, he even had the urge to just smack her across the face, consequences be damned.

In the end, the slap didn’t happen. And he just tightened his left hand, pressing the Jade Bixie deeper into his flesh.

With a faint sizzling sound, Li Xun shrugged. “One way or another, Zhong Yin still taught me a lot. More importantly, there’s this feeling that only these fucking tricks of his actually get shit done.”

Letting that profanity fly somehow relieved him. And he worked to steer the conversation back to the present matter.

“Because of my current cultivation, setting up this Water Mirror isn’t easy. So I sent Yin Wanderer to try it first, working from the outside inward. If it works, then I’ll adapt it to the Light-Splitting Mirror afterward.”

He tried hard to shift the topic, but unfortunately, Shui Die Lan was far more interested in Zhong Yin.

She had zero sympathy for Li Xun’s mood and ignored everything he just said. She asked straight out, “So what exactly did Zhong Yin teach you? Let me hear it. Maybe there’s a technique or two I’ll like… you’re not going to be stingy, right?”

Li Xun wanted to ignore that question entirely, but to avoid any sabotage from her during the upcoming work, he forced himself to answer patiently: “Just three things: the Shadowed Bamboo, Rising Mist sword technique, the Bone-Meridian Heartlink technique, and this Water-Mirror secret technique. If you want to learn them, I’ve got nothing to hide.”

“I know the Shadowed Bamboo thing, and I don’t need to hear about the Water Mirror. What’s that Bone-Meridian Heartlink business?”

“It’s a method for altering meridians and opening up bone channels. Basically, it lets me cultivate two sects’ secret techniques at the same time without harming myself. Other than that, it doesn’t—”

His voice suddenly cut off. Shui Die Lan, whi had been listening with interest, looked over in surprise. But Li Xun no longer cared about her reaction.

The phrase he had just casually spoken, “altering meridians and opening up bone channels” exploded in his mind like seven bolts of lightning tearing across a dark sky and illuminating his inner world.

“So that’s how it is!”

He slammed his palm onto the stone table with a loud thud. Shui Die lan glanced at him like he’d lost his mind, but at that moment, Li Xun didn’t care about anything else.

After taking a few seconds to steady himself, he drew in a deep breath. With the sound of tearing skin and muscle, he forced open his left hand, which had been clenched tight for days. The Jade Bixie in his palm finally saw daylight again.

Because he had been gripping it tightly these past few days and because it naturally repelled and purified the Blood Demon physique, the Jade Bixie had now sunk deep into his palm. Almost a half of it had practically grown into his flesh. Where it met his skin, bubbles of blood sizzled and swelled, making it almost unbearable to watch.

Even so, the jade still looked smooth and flawless, standing out starkly against the bloody, mangled mess of his palm.

Shui Die Lan scoffed, “You brought this misery on yourself.”

Li Xun just grinned at her, keeping his left hand steady. He cautiously tapped the jade Bixiu with his right index finger, and immediately a repelling force bounced his finger back. The tip of his finger looked slightly scorched.

Shui Die Lan watched coldly, ready to throw a few more sarcastic comments his way.

But Li Xun turned toward her first, a subtle expression on his face. “Have you ever been jerked around like a puppet before?”

“Huh?” Shui Die Lan paused for a moment, then quickly snorted. “Sure have. Someone might be playing forgetful, but I remember it perfectly well.”

She was referring, of course, to that incident a few months back when Li Xun tricked her. For her to “praise” him like that, he ought to feel downright honored.