"This... it's dead again?" Staring at the scene before her, which struck her as oddly familiar, Duanmu Yu could not help but gape. To be knocked flat by Wei Zhao with a single move twice in a row—wasn't this Water Lily Guardian a bit too pathetic?

"It's not that easy. This is probably just one of its little toys. The thing is deliberately playing hide-and-seek with us," Wei Zhao said with a faint shake of his head.

"So what now?" Duanmu Yu asked. Their situation was clear enough now, but how to get out remained as murky as ever. For the moment she could not think of a single plan, which only made her feel more despondent and powerless.

"If we want to break through these two mirrors, searching one by one will never lead us to the real world. That will only sink us deeper and deeper," Wei Zhao said, pinching his chin thoughtfully.

"But we can't just sit here waiting for the end, can we?" Duanmu Yu said with a frown.

"There's only one way. If we simply smash both mirrors by brute force, these mirror worlds will collapse on their own," Wei Zhao said, his eyes lighting up. It was the crudest, simplest approach—once the mirrors shattered, there would naturally be no such thing as a mirror world.

"Brute force? Is that even possible?" Duanmu Yu was full of doubt. To shatter the Flowers in the Mirror, Moon in the Water by brute strength, even a fool could tell the power required would have to far surpass the Water Lily Guardian's. Yet the other party was at least an existence at the pinnacle of the Golden Core stage. To pull that off, Wei Zhao would have to be a Nascent Soul old monster!

Unfortunately, Wei Zhao was not only no Nascent Soul old monster—he was not even a proper Golden Core expert. He was merely at the great perfection of Foundation Establishment.

"Impossible," Wei Zhao's answer was thoroughly disheartening.

"Then aren't we completely out of options?" Duanmu Yu looked at him.

"Not necessarily." Wei Zhao pondered for a moment, then said slowly: "The principle behind its Flowers in the Mirror, Moon in the Water is indeed, as I said just now, two mirrors reflecting each other—but after all, they aren't real mirrors."

"What do you mean?" Duanmu Yu was utterly baffled.

"Trace it to the root, and these mirror worlds were created by its power. I dare assert that its true body must be hidden somewhere within these mirror worlds," Wei Zhao conjectured.

"You want to find its true body?" Duanmu Yu said, the realization dawning on her.

"That's probably the only way out before us. Wanting to return to the real world just like that isn't realistic. We have to go find its true body," Wei Zhao decided.

"But... how do we find it?" Duanmu Yu asked. She too knew that only by finding the Water Lily Guardian's true body was there any chance at all, but with so many mirror worlds, how were they supposed to search?

"We take our chances," Wei Zhao said with a meaningful smile.

"Huh? Take our chances?" Duanmu Yu stared at him, utterly bewildered. If finding the Water Lily Guardian's true body could be done purely by luck, they might as well try their luck at getting out directly. Was that even possible?

"Stay close to me." Wei Zhao offered no further explanation and took the lead through the curtain. Duanmu Yu did not understand, but she knew he must have his reasons, so she followed close behind.

But this time, before she had fully passed through the curtain, Wei Zhao suddenly pulled his foot back—and yanked her back along with him.

"What are you doing?" Duanmu Yu was badly startled, thinking the Water Lily Guardian had seized the chance to strike at her. Only when she realized it was Wei Zhao did she relax, asking in astonishment: "What is this about?"

"See for yourself." Wei Zhao pointed behind them.

Duanmu Yu looked, and could not help exclaiming in surprise: "Where did the corpse go?"

This was not like before. Previously the two of them had crossed entirely into another mirror world and then crossed back, seeing a brand-new mirror world. But this one clearly still bore the wreckage left by Wei Zhao's true-qi elixir-fire bombs. And the two of them had not fully left just now, which was proof enough that this mirror world was the original one.

But the mirror world was still the same mirror world—yet the Water Lily Guardian's mangled corpse had vanished without a trace.

"Looks like our luck isn't bad," Wei Zhao said with a nod.

"How is our luck not bad? What on earth is going on with that corpse?" Duanmu Yu asked with a frown. She considered her intellect decent, but faced with their present predicament she truly could not keep pace, and was left baffled time and again.

"If I'm not mistaken, that corpse must have been reclaimed by its true body. Otherwise, leaving it lying there would surely count as an unforgivable waste of energy to it," Wei Zhao said, the corners of his mouth curving upward.

"Reclaimed by its true body?" Duanmu Yu thought it over, and could not help but agree deeply: "That's right. Apart from the two of us, the only one here is the Water Lily Guardian. The only one who could tamper with that corpse is itself."

"If it hadn't given me the hint itself, I wouldn't have realized it—the lotus root breaks, but its fibers still connect," Wei Zhao said with a smile. This time the thing had truly lifted a stone only to drop it on its own foot. Had it not shown them the ability of the severed lotus root still joined by its fibers face to face at the start, he would never have thought along these lines.

"But even so, that probably doesn't help us in any substantive way, does it? Why do you say our luck isn't bad?" Duanmu Yu was still somewhat puzzled.

"Oh, because I just did a little something to its corpse. If it hadn't reclaimed the body, my little trick would have been wasted, and finding its true body would truly have been a thousand times harder. As for now..." Wei Zhao did not continue, merely giving a profound chuckle.

Duanmu Yu was delighted at this, and tactfully did not press him on what the trick was. It was not that she did not want to know, but that if Wei Zhao did not say, there must be a reason. What if, once spoken, the Water Lily Guardian heard it?

Although the clone in this mirror world had already been dealt with, who knew whether it had other means of surveillance? After all, these mirror worlds were all the other party's territory, and every move, every word, was best treated with caution.

"From here on, stay close behind me. No matter how I move, you must not hesitate in the slightest, or we'll be separated into two different mirror worlds before we know it, and then we'll be in real trouble," Wei Zhao said gravely. Once the two of them were parted here, finding each other again would be even harder than finding the lotus's true body—even harder than finding the real world. The chance of reuniting here was almost zero.

"I understand." Duanmu Yu nodded firmly.

"Good. Then I'll begin." With that, Wei Zhao passed through the curtain, Duanmu Yu close on his heels. But the instant her trailing foot left the mirror world, she saw Wei Zhao up ahead retreating, and she hastily backed away into the mirror world behind her.

This time it was plainly no longer the same mirror world. The wreckage from the true-qi elixir-fire bombs was nowhere to be seen; instead it was clean and spotless—a brand-new mirror world. (To be continued.)