Magic Conch

Yue Shi stood where he was, staring at the being opposite him who was identical in every detail.

What had just happened?

He only remembered walking toward that void "Mirror," attempting to make contact.

Then, there seemed to be a brief glare, and his sense of space shifted subtly.

When he came to, he was standing where the Mirror had been floating, and another version of himself stood across from him.

This uncontrolled swapping of positions and the appearance of a duplicate out of thin air made him feel inexplicably annoyed.

His gaze turned cold. Without a word, he lunged forward, his right hand transforming into pitch-black talons aimed directly at the other Yue Shi's neck.

He was incredibly fast and his angle was cunning; he clearly intended to kill with a single strike.

But the moment his talons touched the other's skin...

His power vanished.

The arm he had swung became weak and listless, the talons reverted into ordinary fingers, and his hand came to rest limply on the other's shoulder.

Yue Shi's heart jolted.

He pulled his hand back and tried to activate his other abilities.

The good news was that they could be used.

The bad news was that they had no actual effect. Like light and shadow that could not interfere with reality, they dealt zero damage.

"What did you do to me?" he asked, staring at the other version of himself, his voice filled with shock and anger.

The other Yue Shi looked at him quietly before slowly speaking. "Have you not recognized reality yet? You are the duplicate, possessing form but no substance."

What?!

Yue Shi's pupils shrank.

He was the duplicate?

Was this some kind of joke?!

Were his memories, his emotions, all his experiences, and his sense of control over his power all fake?

But before he could think further, the other version of himself moved.

The real Yue Shi reached out and grabbed the suspicious and uncertain duplicate.

The duplicate's body froze, the expression on his face shattered, leaving only terror.

He tried to struggle, but all resistance was futile.

"Truly hideous."

"So even I show such an unsightly state when I lose my power and face the threat of death."

Yue Shi gave a sharp critique; when he got biting, he didn't even spare himself.

At the same time, his resolve hardened. He would never allow himself to fall into a predicament where he lost his power.

The duplicate's form began to turn transparent and blurred, rapidly dissolving from the edges.

Countless cold flashes of mirror-light were extracted from the disintegrating duplicate, surging toward the real Yue Shi.

He refined them instantly.

Yue Shi closed his eyes, feeling the Authority of "Mirror" merge into him.

A new ability sequence gradually became clear in his consciousness.

【Mirror Clone】, 【Channeling】, 【Reciprocal Sanction】, 【Virtual-Real Reflection】, 【Universal Copy】, 【Reflection World】, 【Mirror Flower, Water Moon】...

The fusion was complete.

Yue Shi opened his eyes again. For a fleeting moment, countless mirror reflections flashed in the depths of his eyes before fading away.

He had finally seized the Authority of Mirror.

Wait, that wasn't right. This was his to begin with; it had simply been temporarily kept by someone else.

He now had fundamental mastery over the Authority of "Mirror," and he understood why that duplicate had appeared.

It was the authority's instinctive reflection and simulation of a nearby existence while it was in a masterless state.

Having dealt with the Mirror authority, Yue Shi did not stop.

With a wave of his hand, he pulled the fujoshi imprisoned in another extra-dimensional space and tossed her into the Decomposition and Synthesis Machine.

The humming sound rang out again, this time with a hint of distorted static.

A small amount of ash was expelled from the exit, along with a thread that seemed woven from solidified peach-pink light.

This red thread was soft, yet it gave off a feeling of extreme toughness, as if it could never be pulled apart. Its two ends were illusory, seemingly able to extend infinitely.

In his Insight vision, the red thread displayed only two words: 【Sinful Connection】.

Excellent. He could impersonate an improper Matchmaker in the future.

Yue Shi refined this red thread instantly and without expression.

Next was a thin man with a frantic gaze, 【The Ripper】, who possessed the ability to continuously split and multiply.

Yue Shi took him out of a specialized extra-dimensional space.

He tossed him into the Decomposition and Synthesis Machine.

The humming sound was somewhat viscous. After a short while, residue fell from the exit along with a constantly wriggling, dark red tumor.

【A Piece of Highly Active Flesh】: Originating from an unspeakable existence, it possesses the property of infinite splitting and multiplication.

Yue Shi had thought he could get some authority or ability crystal from The Ripper, so he could impersonate Tomie in the future.

He hadn't expected to get something like this.

What could it be used for?

Let it multiply infinitely and destroy the world?

Wait, perhaps it could be used to solve a famine.

Though, he wondered if tumors would grow inside someone's stomach after eating it.

Yue Shi placed the piece of meat into an airtight container and threw it into a separate extra-dimensional space.

Next, Yue Shi took out the Bone-Drunk Vase containing 【The Resonant Daoist】 and the 【Midnight Radio】.

Putting these two things together produced some strange reactions, but in reality, they had never provided Yue Shi with any useful information.

Yue Shi treated them as trash and tossed them into the Decomposition and Synthesis Machine.

This time, the machine's humming became extremely bizarre, sounding like countless book pages flipping, mixed with frequency-distorted electronic static.

No residue came out of the exit.

There was only a conch the size of an adult's palm.

The shell was a translucent milky-white, with a faint flow of stardust-like light.

【Magic Conch of Nonsense Answers】: The user can ask the conch a question—any form of question will do. The conch does not guarantee an answer to the specific question, but it will randomly grab and broadcast a piece of mysterious knowledge from an unknown source.

Yue Shi paused for a moment, then reached out to pick up the conch.

Something with random attributes seemed quite interesting.

"Is sweet tofu brain better, or is salty tofu brain better?"

The conch gurgled inside, and then a voice that was neither male nor female echoed:

"Spider spirits feel shame during their molting period because their new shells appear in an unseemly pink color before hardening. Please do not look directly at them during this time; it is basic courtesy."

Yue Shi's brow furrowed. After a few seconds of silence, he changed the question: "In what situation does 1+1 not equal 2?"

The conch replied: "In a certain fantasy world, acid is a tactile concept rather than a taste. The residents there convey their condolences by hugging lemons tightly. The tighter the hug, the heavier the grief."

The corner of Yue Shi's mouth twitched slightly. He took a deep breath and asked the final question: "What are you?"

The conch broadcasted in a serious tone: "Alice wanders the Land of Illusion, and Kikujiro's soul returns to the Heaven of Parting Sorrow. Under the intervention of a certain hidden existence, all of this has truly happened."

Yue Shi slowly pulled the conch away from his ear and stared at it as if it were trash.

This thing wasn't a Book of Answers. It might tell you how to tickle a black hole with a feather, but it would never give you a straight answer.

Even among supernatural objects, the art of nonsense was prevalent and irresponsible.

He tossed the conch into his extra-dimensional space and continued processing his junk.

This Decomposition and Synthesis Machine was very useful, but there were things even it couldn't handle.

The plain-looking 【Five-Metal Mooncake】.

The mooncake was tossed into the entrance.

The synthesis machine went silent for a full three seconds.

Then it began to vibrate, the humming becoming ear-piercing. Patterns emerged on the machine's surface, flickering in and out.

The vibration lasted for about half a minute before stopping abruptly.

The entrance made a retching motion, like a giant beast with indigestion.

The Five-Metal Mooncake was spat out completely intact, hitting the ground with a thud.

Yue Shi looked at the unharmed Five-Metal Mooncake and fell silent for a moment.

Even the Digestive Cavity of the God of Food could do nothing to it?