Chapter 222: The Mirror of Heaven and Man

"Have you all heard of the Stone Tablet inside the Square Body?"

Chen Shu looked at the few people in front of him in turn; they were, respectively, the most highly regarded disciple of this generation from the Daoist sect, and the second closed-door disciple accepted by the Sword Master in violation of his vow. As for the last one, although he did not seem to have such a dazzling identity, given his talent, his relationship with the military must certainly be extraordinary.

Moreover, Zhong Miao Zhimen and Zhang Suannai had both joined the Daoist sect and the Sword Sect since they were young, which was completely different from him joining the Spirit Sect later on; perhaps they might have some slight understanding of the Stone Tablet inside the Square Body.

"Heard of it."

"I know it, why?"

"What about Brother Wuming?"

"I... haven't heard of it." The unnamed person seemed a bit uneasy.

"I hadn't heard of it before either." Chen Shu grinned, telling him that this was nothing, "I only knew about it after entering the Square Body."

"What do you want to say?" Zhong Miao Zhimen asked.

"Does that even need asking? He definitely wants to ask why the names of ancient gods are written on that Stone Tablet; he thinks the Square Body is the tomb of these gods." Zhang Suannai spoke with the tone of someone who had long since seen through this idiot, then leaned forward to peek at his hand, "What are you drinking? Give me some too."

"There isn't an extra cup."

"I brought one."

Zhang Suannai took a thermos cup out of her Storage Artifact.

Chen Shu then poured her a cup of water, took a concentrated juice tablet for her and put it in, then asked the other two: "Do you want any? It's for replenishing vitamins."

"No, thank you."

"I don't need any either."

"Alright."

Chen Shu sat back down, picked up his water cup, and only then asked: "So why would the names of ancient gods be written on the Stone Tablet inside?"

"I don't know either."

"How would we know?" Zhang Suannai held her thermos cup high, leaning in close to stare at the bubbling compressed tablet inside, "I guess, I'm just guessing here, maybe these Square Bodies really are tombs built for those gods, who knows."

"Then how did you know about the Stone Tablet?" Chen Shu asked.

"There is a Stone Tablet at our Yuan'an Temple, the one with the name of the first-generation Heavenly Venerable written on it," said Zhong Miao Zhimen.

"I heard it as gossip," Zhang Suannai said, catching sight of the compressed tablet getting smaller and smaller, while the water in the cup had already turned murky; she stretched her neck to peek at Chen Shu's cup again, "Why is ours different?"

"Mine is grape juice, yours is lemon juice."

"Oh, oh..."

Zhang Suannai lowered her head and took a sip, smacking her lips: "It's actually quite tasty, just a bit sour. Where did you buy it?"

"Qingqing prepared it for me."

"..."

"What's wrong?"

"Sour, it's sour."

"She just loves drinking sour things."

"So sour... next time I'll drink the grape one."

"The grape one is also sour."

"What other flavors are there?"

"Orange juice, blueberry, also sour."

"..."

Zhang Suannai's features scrunched up, her expression pained.

"So why would a Stone Tablet with a Heavenly Venerable's name be given to your Yuan'an Temple? It's like returning an object to its original owner," Chen Shu continued to ask, "And why isn't a single Stone Tablet on display in a museum? Not even everyone knows of its existence? What is the official side avoiding?"

"I'm not clear on that."

"I already told you, the Square Body might just be the tomb of ancient gods, and the Stone Tablet is just a tombstone..." Zhang Suannai said while drinking water, "You just refuse to believe it."

"Evidence?"

"None."

"The deduction process?"

"Also none."

"Are you relying entirely on guessing?"

"It's Spiritual Sense!"

"But the times on the Stone Tablets are all about the same. If they are tombs, what could make them all die in such a short period?"

"How would I know? Go ask them yourself!"

"Emmm..."

Chen Shu also felt that such a discussion had little meaning, so he simply fell silent.

At this moment, the unnamed person beside them finally spoke a sentence:

"Can gods also die?"

"They can, I suppose," Zhong Miao Zhimen replied, feeling quite sentimental, "What in this world is eternal, after all?"

"Anyway, my Sword Sect's Sword God has already been replaced several times," said Zhang Suannai.

"How long can a god live?" the unnamed person asked again.

"Don't know, eh," said Zhang Suannai.

"That depends on which god you are talking about," said Zhong Miao Zhimen. "If it is just a god worshipped by people, among the purely fictional deities worshipped by people in various countries around the world today, many were only born a few hundred years ago. The lifespan of ordinary people in ancient times was too short; a few hundred years ago was already a very, very long time ago to them. Someone who lived for several hundred years without dying was already a divine immortal to them. As for those 'gods' in the sense of cultivation that truly exist, namely those above the Ninth Stage, such as the Daoist Heavenly Venerable or the Sword Sect's Sword God, they are replaced about every thousand years, but perhaps people still worship them after a thousand years. I don't know if they count as still being alive for a god in the sense of belief."

"Only a thousand years..."

"I saw it several times in books from the Shengzu era, saying that gods can live for ten thousand years," Chen Shu interjected, "but what he said is indeed correct; most gods are replaced every generation after a thousand years, among which the Buddha is the shortest, averaging only eight hundred years."

"Why?"

"I don't know."

"Since gods can also die, are they afraid of death too?"

"Who knows," Chen Shu said, "but in this world, there are always things more important than life and more terrifying than death."

"Qingcai is right; once dead, there is nothing left. Perhaps they are afraid too," Zhong Miao Zhimen finished, then added, "but they are gods."

"Please speak!"

"Gods in the sense of cultivation are also gods. Haven't you noticed? Aside from deities in the sense of cultivation, most of those gods in the sense of faith are respected and worshipped by later generations precisely because they found things more important than life and more terrifying than death. Therefore, they sacrificed their lives and were willing to die, and later generations honored them as gods."

Zhong Miao Zhimen paused:

"I have heard that to become a god, one must first be at the Ninth Stage, an extremely powerful Ninth Stage, and then happen to encounter the opening of a Forbidden Land. When you defeat all other Ninth Stage cultivators of the same era and successfully fuse the origin within the Forbidden Land, you can become a new god. And I have also discovered one point: almost all gods were people of good character before becoming gods. If one has malicious intentions, they will never succeed. Just like that predecessor from the Ming Sect before."

"More important than life, more terrifying than death..." the Nameless Person muttered to himself.

"It's late, I need to cultivate, and I have to enter the Square Body tomorrow morning," Chen Shu said to the three of them, "let's head back."

"Then, see you tomorrow."

"Then give me some more of your juice slices."

"Goodbye..."

The three of them left the tent, and outside, the moon was almost full again.

Zhong Miao Zhimen breathed in the cold air and looked at the moon. When he lowered his head to look at the mine where the Square Body was located, he felt a faint sense of unease in his heart, but he did not know where this unease came from. Frowning, he had no choice but to take out his thumb ring again and put it on his thumb.

The sense of unease instantly became clearer and heavier.

This proved it was not an illusion.

This proved it was indeed a perception from the Secret Sect System.

Zhong Miao Zhimen's brow furrowed tighter and tighter, but no matter how hard he tried, he still could not see the source of the unease.

Just as he intended to put away the thumb ring and subtly remind Officer Song tomorrow, an inadvertent glance caught sight of Zhang Suannai and the Nameless Person beside him.

The "light" on the two of them was still dazzling.

The light on the Nameless Person was much brighter than that on Zhang Suannai, and even brighter than on Qingcai, but compared to last time, the flickering frequency of his light seemed to have increased a little bit.

The periods of dimness had become longer.

"What is going on here?"

Zhong Miao Zhimen could not help but be completely bewildered.

However, he could not find anyone to consult. The one who led him onto the path of the Secret Sect was that Secret Sect Practitioner currently cooperating with the Yiguo Imperial Family and the Government, but now that he was here, there was not only no signal at all, but even if there were a signal, it would be useless. That big shot lived in seclusion, and even the Government and the Imperial Family often could not find him.

"Look, a bicycle from five thousand years ago, purely handmade. If this thing gets out, I'm afraid a whole bunch of people will say Shengzu was a time traveler again."

"What? Damn..."

"Don't be surprised, there's even a handmade baby carriage over there. It's push-style and even has a sunshade; it's almost identical to the ones we have now."

"That's a bit exaggerated!"

"These two items are indeed a bit exaggerated; none of the artifacts unearthed before had such exaggerated things," a refined scholar said, "I now feel that Shengzu was either a time traveler or caught a glimpse of scenes from thousands of years later."

"Stop chatting, look at this."

"What is it?"

"What could be more interesting than a five-thousand-year-old bicycle and baby carriage?"

The two scholars leaned over and saw another scholar wearing gloves, carefully taking a mirror out of a very small box.

This mirror was exquisitely crafted and antique, with countless mysterious patterns engraved on the back. The front, however, was not smooth and could not reflect human figures; the faint light emitted by the face mask only spread into a delicate and uniform halo when it hit the mirror surface.

For some reason, as soon as they saw it, they perceived its extraordinary nature, and even a faint, indescribable sense of dread rose in their hearts. This mysterious feeling was almost telling them that this thing was remarkable.

The few of them instantly thought of one thing—

Heavenly Human Mirror.

A mirror legendarily crafted by Shengzu himself using a Ninth Stage Heavenly Human as the core raw material, capable of knowing the past and future.

If it were true, this thing would likely be the most precious treasure in the entire Square Body. Whether starting from cultural value or practical value, it exceeded everything unearthed in the Square Body, and was even on par with a Mijing.

The few of them exchanged glances, communicating information, and then the person holding the mirror calmly put it back and covered the wooden box with the lid. The others pretended to look around at the other people nearby casually, but discovered that at least several pairs of eyes were staring in their direction.

"This mirror is also quite exquisite."

"Exquisite is exquisite, it's quite strange."

"It's alright, but the bicycle is still more valuable."

"Haha..."

They all pretended that nothing was the matter.

Not long after, one of them said, "I'm going out to use the restroom," and got up to walk toward the lift. But when he stepped onto the lift and looked back, he saw that a young scholar from Lanya, two scholars from the Duqin Government, and one person from the Watcher had already walked toward that small wooden box.