Li Nanzhu’s fingers lightly brushed away the bloodstains on the fragment of the Red Flame Copper Mirror. Suisui lay on her shoulder, its soul fire illuminating several peculiar lines on the surface.
"These markings..." She lifted the fragment to her eyes. Suddenly, the mirror surface shimmered with a faint light—
A massive burst of flame appeared within the mirror. Obscurely, a giant scaly tail swept past. The moment the copper mirror shattered in the memory, the image came to an abrupt halt.
"Is this... a recording?" Li Nanzhu frowned in confusion. She had never seen a magic tool leave behind an image before it broke, and the original story had never mentioned such a thing. On the contrary, this recording made her uncertain whether this truly belonged to her fourth senior brother.
But this was no time for contemplation. Using the light from the soul fire in Suisui’s eye sockets, Li Nanzhu fumbled through her storage bag for her communication jade slip. She had only tried it on a whim, but to her surprise, the jade slip was actually glowing with a faint green light!
The communication jade slip, which had been completely useless above the swamp, was now vibrating with spiritual energy once again.
"Look, Suisui!" she said, holding up the jade slip in pleasant surprise. "It works!"
The little skeleton’s soul fire danced excitedly twice, and its bone claws lightly tapped the surface of the jade slip.
Li Nanzhu immediately channeled her spiritual energy. "Fifth Senior Sister? Sixth Senior Brother? Can you hear me?"
After a brief silence, Feng Qingping’s intermittent response came through the jade slip: "Little... Junior Sister? I’m... fine... Weilan... no response..."
Li Nanzhu’s heart tightened. She pressed the jade slip close to her lips, but first, she informed the other of her discovery.
"Senior Sister, I found a fragment of a copper mirror that likely belongs to Fourth Senior Brother!" Li Nanzhu described the scene she had just witnessed. "There was a recording right before the mirror shattered. What’s going on?"
The communication went silent for several breaths. When Feng Qingping’s voice spoke again, it was trembling visibly. "It’s Fourth Senior Brother... only he would add a shattering shadow pattern like that when refining tools..."
"A shattering shadow pattern?"
"It was his quirk..." Feng Qingping’s voice was laced with static-like noise. "He always said... magic tools have spirits too... and they should leave one last thing before they perish..."
Before she could finish, the connection suddenly cut out. Li Nanzhu tried to contact her repeatedly, but the jade slip remained unresponsive.
Suisui jumped into her palm and pointed its bone claw toward the ground. By the dim light of the soul fire, Li Nanzhu saw more mirror fragments scattered across the damp rocks.
She collected them carefully; every piece was stained with dried blood.
When she pieced the seventh fragment onto the main piece, that brief image surfaced again—the red sleeve confirmed his identity once more!
In the original story, her fourth senior brother, Jiang Yifan, loved wearing red robes!
"Fourth Senior Brother really was here..." Li Nanzhu’s voice was tight. "And he was injured... but I don't know how Fifth Senior Sister and Sixth Senior Brother are doing..."
"Sister, can you determine your position?"
"No..." Feng Qingping’s voice was mixed with static. "The cave structure is changing... my compass needle won’t stop spinning..."
Li Nanzhu’s hand holding the mirror fragments trembled slightly. Suisui patted the back of her hand with its cold bone claws, its soul fire pulsing in the darkness like a silent comfort.
"Senior Sister... Senior Sister!" She tried the communication jade slip a few more times, but only received a fragmented message:
"Underground structure... changing... compass failed... space..."
The voice cut off. The last few words were so distorted they were barely tonal. Li Nanzhu stared at the abnormal, wave-like green light on the surface of the jade slip—this wasn't ordinary interference. It seemed as if the entire space was warping spiritual energy fluctuations.
Suisui suddenly jumped to the ground, its soul fire illuminating three steps ahead.
By the ghostly blue glow, Li Nanzhu saw that this was a naturally formed limestone cave. The stalactites hanging from the ceiling were covered in mucus, reflecting an eerie iridescent light under the soul fire.
"The only way is forward." She tucked the mirror fragments away. The entrance above was inaccessible due to the flight restriction. Even if she could climb up, that Golden Core stage octopus was waiting. Going up was just seeking death. Her only choice was to head deeper into the cave to find another exit and look for her senior brother and sister.
Li Nanzhu sighed and gripped three thunder talismans between her fingers. "Suisui, warn me immediately if there's danger."
The little skeleton’s soul fire flickered rapidly twice, their agreed signal for understanding.
The passage was damp and cold. Every step landed on slippery moss. After walking for about fifteen minutes, two nearly identical tunnels appeared before Li Nanzhu.
She hesitated for a moment before using the dagger given to her by her sixth senior brother to carve a small pentagram on the left side of the passage—the mark of the Five Elements Dao Sect.
Having done this, she led Suisui into the left path. She had no intuition and relied entirely on random choice. At times like this, Li Nanzhu envied Cang Dongqing’s heroine's halo again. If it were the heroine, she would surely choose the correct path based on gut feeling alone, rather than being like her, forced to try every path one by one.
Who told her she was just a stepping stone... no, a vicious supporting character?
The tunnel grew narrower. The stalactites hanging from the ceiling almost brushed against her hair bun. Suisui suddenly jumped off her shoulder, but the moment it hit the ground, it slipped on the mossy surface, kicking up a trail of eerie gold-red sparks.
Seeing this, Li Nanzhu immediately knelt down to check, but her entire body went cold the moment her fingertips touched the floor!
What her fingers felt wasn't the coldness of rock, but a warm, slowly writhing softness. The surface was covered in fine, scale-like patterns. She snapped her head up and realized the "rock walls" on both sides were also rising and falling very slowly.
"Clack, clack, clack!" Suisui tapped its knuckles against her ear as fast as it could—the highest level of danger signal.
Li Nanzhu’s blood froze instantly.
She finally understood why every fork in the road felt so familiar—this wasn't a limestone passage at all. It was a channel formed by a massive, coiled python intentionally unfolding its body! Those stalactites were clearly bone spurs protruding from between the python's scales!
As if realizing its "prey" was about to flee, the entire tunnel suddenly constricted violently!
Li Nanzhu threw three thunder talismans with a flick of her wrist while slapping an acceleration talisman onto her leg. The moment the thunderlight exploded, she lunged toward the fork in the road like an arrow from a bow.
Boom!
A deafening hiss erupted behind her, and foul-smelling mucus rained down like a storm. Li Nanzhu didn't dare look back, pouring her spiritual energy frantically into her legs as Suisui’s soul fire stretched into a blue streak during their desperate run.
Li Nanzhu could feel the dull thud of the air being compressed by a massive object behind her. She didn't dare turn around, channeling every drop of spiritual energy into her legs.
"Left!" She made a sharp turn into a fork. The python’s body slammed heavily against the rock wall, shaking loose countless stones.
This section of the passage was indeed much narrower. The giant python could not squeeze in completely, but Li Nanzhu could hear the ear-piercing sound of scales scraping against rock—it hadn't given up!
This tunnel wouldn't hold the giant python back for long!
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