Chapter 477 — The Evil Thing

Ban Gongcuo stood at the center of the mirror and looked all around him. He saw fracture after fracture, and the fragments of the other mirrors lay about him like transparent continents shattered to pieces, separated from one another by distances no one could cross. This mirror was a strange treasure, a prized object he had taken from the ruins.

The world within it could be laid over the real world without anyone ever being the wiser; its only flaw was that within it one could not wield divine abilities or Daoist arts. In the past Ban Gongcuo had kept this strange treasure as a means of fleeing for his life, never imagining that a day would come when he himself would be trapped inside the mirror. Now escape was no longer possible.

Shen Mu had cut the cord, and the only road left to him was to leap out of the mirror—yet the moment he leapt out, Shen Mu would run him through with a single stroke, cold steel clean through the heart. "Does Sect Master Shen mean not to kill me, but to capture me and have a talk?

" Ban Gongcuo gave up his plan to flee and made a trial of it: "Why didn't you say so sooner? " Shen Mu looked at the Ban Gongcuo in the mirror, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "When would I have had the chance?

The moment we met you had to put on a show of strength, and you meant to beat me to death—I had no choice but to strike back.

In fact, when we first met just now, didn't I say, 'How delightful, to have a friend come from afar'?

From that alone you might have known I had come to reminisce with an old acquaintance, not to take a life. So why put yourself through all this? " Ban Gongcuo nearly coughed up blood. This fellow had plainly said, "A friend comes from afar—so why don't you roll out here and die? " When had he ever said "how delightful"? Still, this was no time to wrangle over the point.

His life now lay in the hands of this brat, and he had best humor him as much as he could. "Sect Master Shen's character is as clear as wind and moon after rain, his heart broad and open—I have always admired you.

This little brother was only jesting with you, wishing to glimpse the Sect Master's mighty bearing. And now I have seen it at last; truly, it is no small thing.

I am convinced, in heart and in mouth alike. " The Ban Gongcuo in the mirror wiped the blood from the corner of his lips and sat down on the ground, smiling. "The Sect Master has come a long way. What is it you wish to discuss?

" "About the god-devil behind you. " Shen Mu raised the mirror, his face wreathed in smiles.

"Imperial Preceptor Jingping and I would very much like to meet him, to pay our respects to this holy sage of old.

Might the Great Venerable grant us the opportunity? " Ban Gongcuo's expression changed at once. The god-devil behind him—the very one that appeared upon the altar behind him whenever he performed the soul-worship sorcery!

That Shen Mu should ask after its whereabouts plainly meant he had no intention of paying respects to a holy sage; he was gathering his strength to destroy it!

"Sect Master Shen, Human Emperor Shen, how could I possibly know such a being? " Ban Gongcuo laughed in alarm.

"You know my abilities. A lowly, contemptible creature like me—the Sect Master could beat two of me with one hand.

How could I know a god-devil?

As for its whereabouts, that is even further beyond the knowledge of a weak thing of my level! The Sect Master sees clearly! " Shen Mu held the mirror shard in one hand, and with the other he poked his sword this way and that through the sand, utterly unhurried. "The Great Venerable says he does not know a god-devil, so of course he is lying.

If you did not know a god-devil, how could you summon a man of Heaven Above to deal with me? How could you draw out Xusheng Hua? If you did not know a god-devil, how could you recognize the Old Mother of True Heaven? Great Venerable, neither of us is a child of three. An honest man does not speak in riddles. You truly are not qualified to know a god-devil—but the one behind you is, and he must be very close to you. When you perform your soul-worship sorcery, the phantom of a god-devil rises behind you. That god-devil must be your master, or your grandmaster. Am I right? " Ban Gongcuo watched the sword that kept poking at the sand, his face shifting between light and shadow.

Suddenly he rose to his feet and paced back and forth within the mirror, unable to decide. The world all said that he was the founder of the Golden Palace of Loulan, never knowing that another had founded it.

That god-devil was indeed deeply bound to him; in those years it had founded the Golden Palace of Loulan, but by a twist of fate the Golden Palace had fallen into his hands.

There were many shameful deeds buried in all of that. "He is my honored master.

" Ban Gongcuo stopped and looked up at Shen Mu outside the mirror.

"You guessed right.

My ability to communicate with Heaven Above, my ability to recognize the Old Mother of True Heaven—it all has to do with him. But I advise you not to provoke him. He is too evil! " The corners of his eyes twitched violently.

He lowered his voice. "Sect Master Shen should know that I am evil enough—but beside him I am a small witch meeting a great one. I am his disciple, yet every time I stir the soul-worship sorcery I must borrow his power. Do you understand? Every time I use that sorcery, I burn away no small measure of my lifespan! Heh heh—he treats his own disciple so, and others even worse. That is why I am so unwilling to use this sorcery.

" Shen Mu could not help but be moved. That Ban Gongcuo should call another person evil!

It was a tale of the Arabian Nights, past all belief. In all the world, when it came to evil, who could surpass Ban Gongcuo, who had spread poison across an entire grassland and killed countless herdsmen of the steppe?

"I do not know his true name either.

I know only his title. " Ban Gongcuo said, "Others call him the Shaman God Kui. I believe he must be surnamed Kui—but those of our lineage rarely reveal their true names, and even his surname may not be real.

" "The Shaman God Kui?

" Shen Mu was taken aback. Kui was indeed a surname—but perhaps the Kui of "the Shaman God Kui" was not a surname at all. Break the character apart and it came to ear and ghost.

Could it be that Kui was not a surname but a race?

If that were so, then the Shaman God Kui's race must be the Ghost race.

"But as for the Sect Master finding him—I fear that is all but impossible. " Ban Gongcuo said, "He came from another world, and as early as my first life he had already left this one.

" Shen Mu studied Ban Gongcuo's face in the mirror carefully. Ban Gongcuo looked calm, without a trace of falsehood. "There is no need for doubt, Sect Master Shen. I have no reason to hide anything from you.

I have fallen into your hands; my life and death are in your grasp.

Even if I lied to you, I would gain nothing.

" Shen Mu pondered a moment, then smiled. "Great Venerable, you are lying to me again.

" Ban Gongcuo said helplessly, "How am I lying to you? " "If he truly left, then why can you still perform the soul-worship sorcery? That phantom behind you—is it not the projection of his primordial spirit? " Shen Mu smiled. "Do you think he has the strength to project his primordial spirit here from another world?

If he had that ability, the gods of the upper realm would not have gone to such trouble—petrifying their own bodies to transmit them here, then commanding the gods of Heaven Above to activate the world-destroying artifact.