Free Web NovelChapter 306: Chapter 265: Nurturing Resentment
Yang Xiao became increasingly uneasy; while he had Zhuge Zhijie continue to send urgent communications, pressing the support team to hasten their pace, he used his recollection to sketch on paper the dragon serpent totem that had come up repeatedly during the mission, ready to have Zhuge Zhijie scan and send it back to the bureau.
"How do you know this totem?" Xi Menxiu, who was watching, asked in surprise.
"You recognize it?" Yang Xiao asked, rather surprised.
"This belongs to a cult, known as Yu Yuan Sect. Their methods were so vile that neither the forces of good nor evil could tolerate them; they haven’t appeared for many years," Xi Menxiu explained.
"Yu Yuan Sect?" Yang Xiao had thought it would be called something like Spirit Snake Gang or Dragon Serpent Society.
Xi Menxiu seemed to recall something, his expression tensing, "These people are really sinister. Ordinary Angel Envoys, after acquiring a Resentful Eye, either keep it for themselves or trade it, but these people are different. They select individuals who are compatible to act as vessels, cultivating the Resentful Eye with living bodies and lives. When the power of the Resentful Eye is fully stimulated, or reaches a level that satisfies them, they then kill the vessel and take back the Resentful Eye."
"These guys have no bottom line when choosing vessels: old people, women, children... as long as the conditions fit, they all become their prey. They gradually approach these people, gain the trust of them and those around them, eventually turning them willingly into flesh and blood vessels."
"In this process, countless people died because they could not withstand the power of the Resentful Eye, and they were just another Resentful Eye reclaimed, as the cult continued searching for the next suitable vessel."
When speaking of these matters, Xi Menxiu was still visibly shaken, "In those days, once targeted by them, it was hard to escape. These guys are lunatics; they even dared to strike at members of the Patrol Defense Bureau, and other cults that practice the dark arts couldn’t escape either."
"However, it was precisely because their methods were so brutal and they acted recklessly that it led to frenzied retaliation from all sides. In an operation led by the Apostles Union, these people suffered heavy casualties, and eventually, they nearly vanished from the world," Xi Menxiu reminisced.
Yang Xiao associated this to the dead little boy and the old man with the hunting rifle in the apartment. The storyline in his mind became more complete. According to his analysis, the old man and his deceased wife were members of the Yu Yuan Sect; their goal in getting close to Zuo Qiu Shude’s family was the little boy.
The boy possessed a precognitive talent unreachable by ordinary people. They intended to use his body as a vessel to cultivate the Resentful Eye. Unfortunately, the boy couldn’t withstand the power of the Resentful Eye and lost control, sparking the supernatural event, and the elderly couple and others died in this paranormal event.
Yang Xiao briefly shared with them what had happened during the mission. Xi Menxiu’s mind worked quickly; he immediately deduced that the middle-aged man who was eliminated first was a fake Evil Cultivator—a smokescreen—while the real Heretic Cultivator was hidden among the survivors.
"Phew—" Xi Menxiu let out a relieved sigh, smiling at Yang Xiao. "Captain, you can consider yourself lucky. If you really get your hands on a Resentful Eye that the Yu Yuan Sect painstakingly cultivated, with the way these maniacs operate, they will surely be relentlessly after you."
Yang Xiao had an unspeakable bitterness in his heart, but he still had to maintain a smile, "Xi Menxiu, what did you mean by compatibility with the Resentful Eye?"
"That’s complicated to explain. We call it ’harmony’. The Yu Yuan Sect people also call it ’Spirit Root’, but basically, it means different people have different levels of compatibility with different Resentful Eyes, with a bit of inherent selection at play. For example, a person with a righteous heart would have a gentler and more peaceful Resentful Eye, while the Resentful Eyes on Evil Cultivators are often filled with sinister energy. Moreover, some Heretic Cultivators have more than one Resentful Eye. To my knowledge, a Great Heretic Cultivator has as many as three," Xi Menxiu took a deep breath, feeling quite moved. "Captain, don’t you think these Heretic Cultivators must be eradicated?"
Nether Garment, Drama Robe, the Green Lantern, the Great Dust Whisk of the Little Holy Spirit White-Robed Mother, and now adding the newly acquired copper mirror, carefully cultivated with the manpower and resources of the Yu Yuan Sect people—Yang Xiao counted, he had four Resentful Eyes on his person, one more than what Xi Menxiu mentioned about the Great Heretic Cultivator.
"Heretic Cultivators must be eradicated!" Yang Xiao slammed his hand on the table and rose, pointing to the sky with a righteous attitude, "I, Yang Xiao, will never share the sky with Heretic Cultivators!"
Zhuge Zhijie, who had been worshiping Yang Xiao like a rushing river since the last incident, immediately echoed in agreement, "Captain, that’s solid! You have the bearing of a Deputy Bureau Chief!"
"You all wait here for the news, don’t wander around; I’m going back to catch up on some sleep," Yang Xiao said, yawning as he returned to his room.
Pulling the curtains shut and making sure the door was locked, Yang Xiao hesitated momentarily but still put on the Drama Robe. With a thought, he reached into the air above the robe, and a small copper-cased mirror materialized in his hand—it was the same Resentful Eye that had hung on the neck of the deceased boy.
The Yu Yuan Sect people had invested a lot in this Resentful Eye, even at the cost of several lives, and yet in the end, Yang Xiao reaped the benefits. He was curious about the abilities of this Resentful Eye.
Staring at the blurry mirror surface, as if shrouded in a lingering fog, suddenly, Yang Xiao’s mind hazed over, and the next second, he actually saw a gray figure in the mirror. By the time he regained his senses, everything had disappeared again.
Yang Xiao held the mirror, his face a picture of confusion, but as he lifted his head, he discovered that the environment around him had changed. The arrangement and objects in the room remained the same, yet the colors had become duller, as if covered with a layer of ancient gray filter.
As if thinking of something, Yang Xiao pulled open the bathroom door. Through the mirror on the wall, he could not see his own reflection, but instead, he saw another bathroom vibrant with color—a stark contrast that appeared to belong to two different worlds.
Yang Xiao understood, he had traveled—to the Mirror World, and the outside was his actual reality.
To confirm his suspicions, he opened the door. The corridor was eerily silent, permeated with a scent of decay and antiquity. He knocked forcefully on Xi Menxiu’s room door, but there was no response from inside.
Closing his eyes, a series of disconnected images flashed through Yang Xiao’s mind, all against the backdrop of a void. Within this void were dozens, maybe hundreds of mirrors of varying sizes, shapes, even different orientations and placements. Yang Xiao focused on a large square mirror about a dozen meters away. With a thought, his body instantly appeared in a strange room, right in front of that large, freestanding square mirror.
After a brief hesitation, Yang Xiao pinpointed his location and made another attempt. This time, he appeared directly in a bathroom. It was also shrouded with a gray filter, as if it had been sealed for centuries, yet the presence of a toothbrush on the sink confirmed someone was living there.
The rooms Yang Xiao chose were Xi Menxiu’s and Zhuge Zhijie’s, but he was in the corresponding Mirror World. Peering through the mirror toward the bathroom door left ajar, he could even see the back of Zhuge Zhijie sitting at a table.
Now, all he needed was to step lightly, traverse through the mirror’s surface, and he could directly appear in the bathroom of Zhuge Zhijie’s room.
Such an ability would be perfect for a surprise attack. Yang Xiao could already imagine himself, armed with a pair of guns, lying in wait inside the mirror of an enemy’s bathroom. When his foe bent down to wash up, a barrage of gunfire through the mirror would follow—hahaha, who could withstand that?
But soon, Yang Xiao was disappointed. He tore off a button from his shirt and threw it at the mirror, only for it to bounce right back.
Worried about drawing Zhuge Zhijie and Xi Menxiu’s attention, Yang Xiao willed himself back to his room in the Mirror World. freēwebnovel.com
After numerous trials, Yang Xiao roughly understood the capability of the copper mirror. He could shuttle back and forth within a radius of dozens of meters, provided there were mirrors or similar reflective surfaces, like a calm water surface or a large piece of glass.
However, these reflective surfaces couldn’t be too small—they had to be larger than his head at least. The Mirror World and the outside real world were completely different; damaging objects in the Mirror World did not affect the real world.
Yang Xiao also noticed that frequent travel through the Mirror World consumed his energy and as his energy declined, so did his travel distance, frequency, and number of times he could traverse. The conditions allowed for crossing became increasingly strict. In his last few attempts, he could only pass through clean mirror surfaces that were half his body size; water and glass were no longer viable options.
Moreover, he couldn’t rest in the Mirror World. As soon as he closed his eyes, he saw many mirrors amidst the void, all draining his mental strength.
What concerned Yang Xiao the most was the possibility that once his mental energy was exhausted, he might be trapped forever in the Mirror World, with no chance of rescue.
This thing was a double-edged sword. Regardless, Yang Xiao now had his own domain. In the future, even if he faced an enemy he couldn’t defeat, he should still be able to escape.
There was also something that Yang Xiao currently needed most—an absolutely safe place to conduct some experiments that were... ahem, confidential.
He contacted Wu, the duty guard in the security room downstairs, asking him to help deliver two live fish and two pigeons.
Wu was a man of few words and didn’t ask what they were for. Soon, he arranged for someone to bring these items, personally delivering them to Yang Xiao’s floor.
After thanking Wu, Yang Xiao waited another ten minutes to make sure he had left, then took out the copper mirror and crossed over once more. This time, he brought the live fish and the two pigeons into the Mirror World.
Following brief observation, apart from some panic, the fish and pigeons showed no significant abnormalities. Muttering an apology, Yang Xiao reached into his Drama Robe and grabbed a handful of silver horsetail whisk, flinging it towards the fish in the corner. In an instant, the several-pound fish came apart in an incomprehensible manner, disassembled midair and splattering against the wall like a basin of blood.
Fish flesh, bones, scales, along with the green innards and blood vessels, merged together, covering 2 to 3 square meters of the wall. After dissolving, only half a fish head remained embedded in the blurry flesh, still struggling to breathe through its gills.
