Chapter 21: The Inverse Heaven Treasure Mirror

  Li Muran carefully lifted the copper mirror with both hands, his eyes narrowed slightly as he concentrated on the reflection in the mirror.

  The mirror light has bright and dark, and is constantly undergoing subtle changes, as if it contains infinite mystery. However, he looked at it for a long time and still couldn't see what was special about it.

  To recreate the scene of making talismans on that night, one should find a piece of paper with mirror-like reflections.

  Li Muran said, and then shone the mirror light onto the two-stage talisman paper on the stone table.

  The mirror light illuminates the talisman, presenting a complex texture of alternating light and dark, like an intricate pattern composed of countless mysterious symbols combined together, and this pattern is also changing.

  "At first I made a talisman, it seems like this pattern!" Li Muran hastily picked up the symbol pen, wanting to record the pattern.

  However, just as he was about to take a closer look, the pattern gradually disappeared. The copper mirror reflected on the talisman paper was a layer of bright light, and there were no patterns or texts at all.

  "What's going on?"

  Li Muran took a few more glances, but it was all the same. The copper mirror only emitted a layer of light, and there was nothing unusual about it at all.

  "Is there something wrong with the talisman?"

  Li Muran took out another talisman paper and shone it with a copper mirror. At first, the surface of the paper appeared to have some complex patterns of light and dark, but in the blink of an eye, it became bright and there was no talisman script at all.

  Li Muran took out the third talisman and shone it with the copper mirror, still to no avail. The light emitted by the copper mirror was also gradually weakening and disappearing.

  The copper mirror's luster disappeared, and Li Muran wasn't worried at all. If his conjecture was correct, as long as the copper mirror basked in the moonlight for a while longer, it would soon radiate its brilliance again. However, how could he record the intricate patterns within the copper mirror that changed in an instant?

  This copper mirror that came with him into this world is so unusual, what role does it have?

  He made a talisman with copper mirror characters and opened up the ancestral aperture divine light, which was so mysterious and strange. What's going on?

  Li Muran's heart was filled with confusion, but he didn't know where to find the answers.

  "Never mind, it'll take a long time for the bronze mirror to absorb moonlight and shine again. I might as well keep trying to make the Flame Explosion Symbol while waiting."

  Li Muran let out a soft sigh and temporarily put aside his distracting thoughts before starting to cast the spell and create the talisman.

  He accumulated the magical power of Flame Explosion in his arms and then began to draw a symbol.

  "The" character, the fierce fire incantation, were all as smooth as before, and he drew out the first stroke of the Douwen with great force while stabilizing the Yuanqi in his arm.

  "Huh!" Li Muran's heart was slightly surprised, the mana in his arm flowed smoothly and steadily into the brush and paper, completely without the strange phenomenon of suddenly losing control and pouring out that he had experienced before.

  He drew a few more strokes, and Li Muran's heart grew increasingly astonished. These strokes were also extremely smooth, and the phenomenon of the brush suddenly becoming scorching hot did not occur either.

  The intense physical shock, the invisible powerful attack, and the violent surge of vital energy that was too late to seal off, all these difficulties encountered when drawing the Doujin text before, surprisingly did not appear this time!

  Until he finished the last stroke of the seal and declared it complete, there were no inexplicable obstacles.

  "Did I really successfully create the Flame Burst Symbol?" Li Muran couldn't believe it, this time the symbol creation was almost too smooth, he didn't feel any of the difficulties he usually felt when drawing the talismans.

  Li Muran carefully looked at the talisman in his hand, one word, one curse, one seal, and one fight, all intact, exactly the same as the recorded Flame Explosion Talisman in the classics.

  "Could it be that the previous failures have caused my cultivation level to skyrocket?" Li Muran was excited about this, but more of it was doubt.

  "Draw another one!" Li Muran carefully put away the first Flame Burst Symbol and continued drawing.

  This time, it's still a smooth sail, and I easily got an explosive symbol.

  "Come again!" Li Muran said happily.

  It was almost midnight, and he should have gone to rest at this time, but after continuously producing two explosive talismans, the excited him had no sleepiness.

  The third Blazing Emblem, also went smoothly, done in one breath!

  Li Muran became even more excited and took out a few more second-order talismans from his storage bag to continue making talismans.

  However, this time, he encountered those invisible difficulties again. Li Muran had just started drawing the Douwen when he failed.

  "What's going on?" Li Muran furrowed his brow, this time the process of making the talisman was exactly the same as the previous three consecutive successes, why would he encounter those difficulties again this time?

  Upon careful consideration of the details, Li Muran suddenly realized:

  "Alright! The three talismans that successfully created the Flame Explosion Symbol have all been illuminated by the light of the copper mirror!"

  "Can the bronze mirror's reflection eliminate all sorts of invisible obstacles when writing a heroic poem?"

  This bold idea made Li Muran's heart beat wildly. If he wasn't mistaken, it meant something that was almost unimaginable!

  To verify his idea, Li Muran patiently waited for two hours, and the surface of the copper mirror once again showed a faint layer of silver light.

  Li Muran held up a bronze mirror against a talisman paper for a while, and then used this talisman paper to make another talisman.

  Sure! Here is the translation:

  As expected, it was done in one breath, without encountering any difficulties!

  "It's really true!" Li Muran muttered to himself as he held the copper mirror: "This is simply a heavenly treasure mirror!"

  It is said that the most difficult part of making talismans, which are repeatedly mentioned in ancient books, lies in the drawing of various magical characters! Because this process will be subject to all kinds of invisible forces of rejection, and it's extremely difficult. If the bronze mirror can solve this problem, then the difficulty of making talismans will be greatly reduced!

  "With this bronze mirror, I can become the best talisman apprentice in our sect - no, a talisman master!" Li Muran thought excitedly and joyfully.

  Wild joy excited Li Muran for a while, but reason gradually calmed him down.

  "A commoner is innocent, but if he holds a jade tablet, he will be guilty!"

  "If the others in the sect were to find out that I possess this heavenly treasure mirror, they would definitely try every means possible to snatch it away and claim it for themselves, and at that time, I will surely die without a place to be buried."

  "This matter must not be known by anyone, and no flaws can be revealed!"

  Li Muran thought of this and immediately put away the copper mirror.

  "There are also these talismans, my skill in making talismans can't be exposed either, to avoid raising suspicion. These Flame Explosion Techniques can't be taken out for sale, if you need spirit stones, it's better to just sell some one-star Yuan Qi Talismans."

  After discovering the counter-heavenly effect of the copper mirror, Li Muran had to make a new plan for his cultivation path. The immortal world was originally full of intrigue and hidden dangers, and now that he possessed an extraordinary treasure, he had to be even more cautious and vigilant, never letting his guard down for a moment.

  In the following days, Li Muran would refine a Yuanyuan Dan every morning, then go to the Cangshu Pavilion to read books; at night, he would practice the Night Concealment Technique. If the weather was good and there were no people around, he would secretly take out the copper mirror to bask in the moonlight, and make one or two Flame Explosion Talismans and a Stellar Yuanqi Talisman. At midnight, he would go to rest, so as not to be too tired.

  With this heaven-defying copper mirror in hand, Li Muran's symbol-making was naturally very smooth. A one-star yuanqi symbol didn't require drawing a Douwen, and the mirror light also couldn't play any role, but Li Muran could rely on his own ability to make a one-star yuanqi symbol with nine out of ten successes; as for the Yanbao symbol, with the copper mirror's help, in ten attempts at most only once or twice would he fail.

  The amazing efficiency of the talismans allowed Li Muran's storage bag to gradually increase in number; not only that, his cultivation also relied on the yuanqi provided by the Gathering Yuan Dan to steadily improve.

  A fulfilling life makes time pass especially quickly. Li Muran quietly waited for Xiao Shusen's return, but as the days went by one after another, Xiao Shusen still didn't return to the Book Vault.

  "What's going on? Xiao Shixiong said he would be back in half a month at the latest, or a month at most. Now it's already been a month and a half, how come there's still no news?" Li Muran was puzzled, so he asked Mu Li to investigate this matter.

  That evening, Li Muran was about to close the book pavilion when he suddenly saw Mu Li rushing towards him in a hurry.

  Mu Li saw Li Muran and shouted loudly from a distance: "Brother Zhao, something has happened to Xiao Shusheng, the manager of Cangshuge!"

  "What's wrong?" Li Muran felt a chill in his heart.

  Mu Li took a deep breath and calmed down slightly before saying, "I went to the Red Mist Temple to gather information. It turns out that Xiao Shu-sheng left with an elder brother named Mo, but last night, Elder Brother Mo returned with serious injuries, while Xiao Shu-sheng didn't come back, probably because he encountered some unexpected event."

  "So it was!" Li Muran's heart sank, and a hint of sadness arose.

  "Have you seen Mo Shixiong? He personally confirmed that Xiao Shusheng has met with misfortune?" Li Muran asked.

  Mu Li shook his head: "That's not it, I heard from the senior brother of Chi Xiao Guan that Mo Shixiong was seriously injured and is currently recovering, so it's inconvenient to meet."

  "I understand!" Li Muran nodded: "Tomorrow I will go to the Zhi Shi Fang's manager, Brother Shifu, to see how to hand over the affairs of the Cangshu Pavilion."

  "I'll go first." Mu Li bid farewell, seeing Li Muran's gloomy expression, he comforted him a few more sentences before leaving the library.

  Li Muran saw Mu Li off and turned back to close the door of the hidden book pavilion, unable to help but let out a long sigh.

  "Brother Xiao, who would have thought that after parting ways that day, we'd be separated by life and death!"

  Thinking of this, Li Muran couldn't help but feel a wave of sadness wash over him, and his mood also became rather depressed.

  He and Xiao Shusheng had known each other for a short time, but they were very compatible; perhaps it was because both of them were "senior bookworms" with similar interests, and they secretly regarded each other as kindred spirits. Therefore, before leaving, Xiao Shusheng would entrust Li Muran, whom he had only known for a few months, to take care of the Cangshu Pavilion instead of asking his fellow disciples.

  It was precisely because of this that when Li Mu Ran learned the news of Xiao Shu Sheng's misfortune, he would be so grief-stricken, as if he had lost an old friend with whom he had been acquainted for many years.

  Unconsciously, Li Muran walked to a bookshelf in a corner of the first floor of the Cangshu Pavilion.

  "Brother Xiao left the library a few days ago and must have been reading books here."