They smelled the scent of blood early on.
Finding these corpses was nothing.
"What on earth is going on?" Another team member exclaimed with a trembling voice, "My head has been chopped off?!"
He couldn’t help but touch his neck.
Just stepping out of the "Mirror Dream", although successfully unraveling this nightmare under Zhong Yuan’s leadership, a psychological shadow still lingered; they suddenly had the illusion that they were still in the Mirror World.
Seeing these shattered corpses, it felt as if this was the real them.
"Don’t worry, you are all alive and well."
Zhong Yuan spoke quietly, "Do you still remember the things I said at the beginning?"
"The real person entered the mirror... the fake came into reality." Yuan Yuan murmured: "This is our ’duplicate’... a false version of us made by this Black Snow Mountain."
Upon saying this, everyone’s spine tingled with cold fear.
If these ’duplicates’ walked out of the Snow Mountain... what would happen?
"They were killed by Gu Shen." Zhong Yuan glanced around, "These duplicates seem not to be that strong, otherwise he wouldn’t have fought so easily."
The reason for saying this.
Is because... he also saw his own corpse.
In the snow, a blonde corpse that had been pierced through by "a thousand blades" lay face-up, exuding the scent of charred ashes from severe burning.
Zhong Yuan stared for a moment, his mind roughly simulating the scene of his own duplicate battling Gu Shen.
"My ’Phoenix Fire’ was copied, but the ability was not..."
The last version of himself must have been penetrated and ignited by Gu Shen using spiritual power to wield Iron Blade.
If Black Snow Mountain could unscrupulously duplicate the Transcendent’s powers, Gu Shen alone would be unable to cope.
However... the scale of this world is fair.
Even a divine being couldn’t create such a "bizarre place."
Yuan Yuan spoke softly, "The number matches up perfectly!"
Gu Shen... such formidable combat strength!
When inspecting the corpses, he carefully examined them; the Extraordinary Aura contained in these dead duplicates wasn’t that weak!
One against eight, and among them were duplicates of himself and the captain!
Zhong Yuan slowly moved to the corner of a shattered rock at the mountain top, different from the darkness inherent to Black Snow Mountain; this was the "gloominess" left by thorough burning.
It seemed as if intense Holy Light had scorched here.
"Is that, the aura of Light City?"
"Yes." Zhong Yuan calmly deduced, "In Gu Shen’s battle... the duplicate he faced wasn’t just us. The corpse that once existed here was the ninth duplicate, himself. Eventually, these duplicates were all slain by him. And then another battle quickly broke out; I suspect it was the team led by Zhen Yue pursuing."
In the darkness, the remains of Light City’s aura were indeed striking.
Black snowflakes were swirling down at the mountaintop; at this moment, a faint weak light beam still covered the sky, illuminating that area’s black snow brighter than elsewhere.
"These guys finally made a move."
Yuan Yuan’s most ominous thought, indeed came true.
"Gu Shen escaped." Zhong Yuan squinted his eyes and whispered, "Zhen Yue’s men went after him, while he alone stayed here... deliberately destroying Gu Shen’s corpse? Why is that?"
This destroyed corpse had been incinerated by the Divine Light of Light City.
This trace information is more important than all other places combined!
Since last contact, Zhong Yuan suspected, Duke Zhen Yue, Meng Xiao, has some strange sealing object that can peep others’ destiny... destroying Gu Shen’s corpse this time is related to that object?
More than Meng Xiao’s secret.
Actually, Zhong Yuan was more curious about Gu Shen’s secret... this young man, whose power seemed only at the seventh level, had actual combat strength far stronger than imagined; the return from the maze task was evidence enough of this.
He simply didn’t foresee, after dealing with these duplicates, Gu Shen could even escape from Meng Xiao’s hands!
However, it also made sense.
After all, he was sent personally by the Empress...
Not long ago, Zhong Yuan’s thoughts were interrupted by a voice.
"Mr. Xiao Gu is in danger..."
Yuan Yuan tensed up, grasped the battle knife at his waist, and said through clenched teeth, "Captain, if we hurry and chase, we surely can catch up."
Zhong Yuan stood at the top of the snow mountain.
He calmly looked down the mountain, surprisingly not issuing the order to descend but shook his head and said, "No chase, let’s hurry to prepare our return."
Yuan Yuan and other members: "???"
No one expected the captain to make such a choice!
"Return trip!? Are you serious about this order?!"
Yuan Yuan widened his eyes; this was his first time confronting the captain, "Are you worried, maybe, that we won’t catch up? We all have experienced Spiritual Link with Gu Shen, and can sense ’Chi Huo’s’ location within our hearts... not long ago, we were so close. Even if now pulled away again, catching up wouldn’t take long!"
The other team members, though not speaking like Yuan Yuan, also held their battle knives.
Clearly, they were prepared for combat.