Chapter 72 Inheriting Her Memories

“Cang Yu, you know the Five Evils best. Think about it, who is the controller behind the Hundred-Eyed Mirror? What are its characteristics? Where does it usually appear?” During the Five Evils’ preparation meeting in Kunlun, someone suddenly asked.

Shen Cangyu was still pondering the notes they had written on the sky when he suddenly heard such a sound. He looked at the unanimous gazes around him and came back to his senses.

"A hundred-eye mirror..."

This question touched on a blind spot for Shen Cangyu. Shen Cangyu knew more about the Five Evils than the current Kunlun disciples, but not by much.

The only information she currently has is the brief introduction given in the novel's plot, and the rumors she overheard in her previous life.

After all, when she entered Kunlun in her previous life, the Five Evils had already been eliminated. People outside the mountains demonized the Five Evils, writing countless stories for storytellers to recount, embellishing the tales many times over, and only a few could truly believe them. But the people inside Kunlun erased that past, remaining silent and pretending nothing had happened.

The Kunlun people seem to be very reluctant to talk about history. Whether it's the Five Evils who infiltrated Kunlun or the Myriad Layers, they seem to regard these as stains, and as long as they are erased, they can pretend that they never happened.

This resulted in Shen Cangyu having only a limited understanding of the Five Evils, even after being reborn. The one she knew best was probably the Copper Coin Eye. After all, the person she was most familiar with in Kunlun in her previous life was Jiang Qian, who possessed the Copper Coin Eye, and in this life, she too had become the one chosen by the Copper Coin Eye.

But she couldn't possibly reveal all the information about the copper coin eye; that would be digging her own grave.

"The Hundred-Eyed Mirror represents 'doubt' among anger, ignorance, doubt, pride, and greed. It is the most cautious in its actions. It usually relies on its paper effigy to appear and accomplish many things for it, but it will not show itself in person. It is very difficult to find it."

"How difficult is that? It's just a paper figure. Just burn it to see if it's real or fake." After hearing Shen Cangyu's words, someone felt that they had found the essence of cracking the Hundred-Eye Mirror.

Shen Cangyu paused for a moment, then continued, "There is more than one follower of the Hundred Eyes Mirror, but the one we have just encountered happens to be able to use paper effigies to demonstrate his Hundred Eyes Mirror magic. Apart from that person, other followers of the Hundred Eyes Mirror also have the ability to transform, but they may not transform into paper effigies."

She remembered the storytellers saying that those hundred-eyed mirrors could transform her appearance and that of others, like a superb disguise technique, making her look and sound exactly like the person they wanted to become.

That's the most troublesome part.

Faced with the Hundred Eyes Mirror, they could no longer trust their own eyes. If appearances and voices were untrustworthy, how could they know who was who?

"This is troublesome..." The sect leader tapped the table in front of him and sighed, "It seems we can only deal with things as they come."

That was a perfect closing remark. Upon hearing it, Shen Cangyu knew that the meeting was now over.

Shen Cangyu turned her gaze and saw Pei Wenjing through the crowd. Coincidentally, he was also looking at her.

Shen Cangyu attended many preparatory meetings, mixing the information she knew about the Five Evils with the rumors she had heard, hoping to gain their favor and make them consider her one of their own. Ideally, they would grant her more access and let her go to the confinement room to take a closer look.

Several months have passed since the confinement room was reopened, and the elders, finally overwhelmed with work, began asking Kunlun disciples for help in reviewing the documents.

Initially, they approached disciples of the Hall of Good and Evil, but these disciples were filled with righteous indignation. Upon hearing that the books were heretical, they declared they would burn them to the ground. The elders were so frightened that they quickly drove them away.

In the end, they found a few of their most trusted disciples on duty at the Sutra Repository, plus Pei Wenjing, to help in the solitary confinement room.

Shen Cangyu was indignant. Pei Wenjing could go to the solitary confinement room to read books, so why couldn't she?

Shen Cangyu looked at Pei Wenjing, but Pei Wenjing immediately looked away and gazed elsewhere.

It's pointless.

Shen Cangyu thought that Pei Wenjing avoided her every day, not saying a word or showing any other reaction, like a mouse seeing a cat. Shen Cangyu knew that she was the one who told Pei Wenjing to leave first, and he did indeed do as she instructed, but for some reason, seeing him avoid her made her feel even more irritated.

Perhaps she had too many dreams, dreams of her past, dreams of her life in Dragon Ridge Mountain, and dreams of Pei Wenjing. Her memory was stuck when Pei Wenjing was still a demonic cultivator, and she was the next leader of Kunlun.

In her memory, she truly hated Pei Wenjing back then.

Influenced by her memories, her personality is no longer like it was when she was first reborn, nor like it was in her previous life. Instead, it is more like her original self, the righteous one who was personally cultivated by the elders of Kunlun and was known for her ruthlessness and decisiveness.

She witnessed firsthand the destruction of Kunlun by the Five Evils, and also the betrayal and death of her loved ones. The karmic consequences of her Seven Killings were complete, and her longsword was now aimed directly at all evil spirits. She would also eliminate Pei Wenjing, who possessed the bloodline of a demonic cultivator.

So now, whenever she sees Pei Wenjing, those past memories resurface. She's afraid that one day she might lose control and kill him, so she can only keep him away from her.

But Pei Wenjing did as she was told, and she still couldn't find peace of mind.

She didn't know if her past self had felt the same way, or if the memories of these two lifetimes had influenced her, causing her to develop different feelings for Pei Wenjing.

The crowd dispersed like a tide, and Shen Cangyu, after sitting for a while, also walked towards the door.

The chill of spring has long since dissipated, the weather has warmed up, and old trees are sprouting new buds. However, the continuous rain, like a lingering hexagram, is persistent and slow, lingering and reluctant to dissipate. Summer is also reluctant to arrive.

Looking at the misty, rain-shrouded mountains before him, Shen Cangyu opened his umbrella and walked towards Little Kunlun.

The winding mountains of Xiaokunlun extend beyond Kunlun, and the rain obscures many scenes, even merging a small pavilion nestled on the mountainside into the rain.

Shen Cangyu lifted the edge of his umbrella and saw the person standing in the pavilion.

Shen Cangyu stepped into the pavilion, and the heat carrying the aroma of tea wafted towards her. She closed her umbrella.

Jiang Qian took her umbrella with one hand and held up a wooden tray with the other, handing her a roll of dry cloth: "Your clothes are wet from the rain, wipe them off."

Shen Cangyu glanced down at his sleeves and hem, which were damp from the rain, and said indifferently, "It's nothing."

She raised her hand and flicked her finger, and a paper talisman flew out from her sleeve, burned in the air, and transformed into a golden-red candle dragon that surrounded her and dried the water off her clothes.

Shen Cangyu sat down at the table, looked at the tea that Jiang Qian had heated, and took a sip.

The hot tea slid down her esophagus and into her stomach, bringing a heavy, warm sensation.

She said, "We still haven't found a way to get into the solitary confinement cell; they're too vigilant."

Shen Cangyu and Jiang Qian collaborated. He was ordered by Wan Qianzhong to come to Kunlun and move all the books out. She also needed information; she wanted to get information about the Supreme Treasure and the Five Evils from Wan Qianzhong.

Now, she has secretly moved a lot of books out of the Kunlun Library and handed them over to Jiang Qian. The two of them work together to send the books out of Kunlun. Just like before, they are extremely coordinated when they act. Even though Jiang Qian does not have a name tag and they have no way to communicate, they can still meet at the right time to conduct book transactions.

Shen Cangyu regretted not having the chance to enter the confinement room. Wan Qianzhong had many more books stored there, which they couldn't retrieve. Besides wanting to send the books away, Shen Cangyu also wanted to see what was written in the books Wan Qianzhong had placed in the confinement room.

They said the book contained things that defied common sense, so did it contain information related to reincarnation and rebirth?

“As expected,” Jiang Qian sat down opposite Shen Cangyu. “You’ve brought out enough books from Kunlun. I’ve already hidden half of them among the goods and sent them outside the city. The other half is still hidden in Qizhenfang. Now that the spring rains are incessant, I’m afraid the books will get wet, so I’ve kept them in the warehouse and dare not take them out, for fear that the rain will smudge the words on the paper.”

"Don't you know how to use the 'Hidden Space in the Sleeve' technique?" The fine hairs on Shen Cangyu's face were steamed by the hot water, condensing into tiny water droplets. She looked up at Jiang Qian, but her words were cool: "Is it that you don't have the guts to use it, or that you haven't learned it well enough?"

“Indeed, we lack the courage.” Jiang Qian wasn’t annoyed by her words and readily admitted it. “Now that the news of the Five Evils has spread, Little Kunlun is investigating very strictly. Anyone suspected of being involved with the Five Evils will be dragged away for interrogation and torture. It’s terrifying. Now, Wenxin Diaolong has developed a new instrument. As long as they detect that someone has used Qi, mental techniques, or Taoist magic, they can sense it.”

The disciples of Little Kunlun are neither skilled in mental arts nor in Taoist magic; they are merely mortals. Therefore, using that machine for detection is the most convenient method. As long as someone uses their qi, they can detect the anomaly and identify the person. This way, they don't have to worry about the Five Evils infiltrating.

With this machine guarding him every day, Jiang Qian didn't even dare to use the simplest "Hidden Universe" technique. Even if he wanted to move thousands of secret manuals and insights out, he could only rely on the clumsy method of mixing the books with the cargo and the layers of the boxes to take them out.

Shen Cangyu simply chuckled, offering no comment on his words. Her only responsibility was to deliver the book to Jiang Qian; how he smuggled it out of Kunlun was his business, not her concern. Shen Cangyu's only task was to bring the book out and extract the information she wanted from Wan Qianzhong—that was her deal with him.

Shen Cangyu is now affected by her memories and has come to hate the Five Evils, but at the same time, she knows that she is also one of them. She cannot control her hatred for them, nor can she control her self-loathing.

Although she is one of the Five Evils, her current thought is still to slaughter all five evils in the world.

She could spare Jiang Qian and Wan Qianzhong, but she would kill all the other five evil ones.