The Mirror of Startling Beauty: Her courtiers are everywhere

In the corner, an old shoemaker tore the cloth he had saved into strips.

Wrapped around wooden sticks, dipped in lamp oil, and lit one by one.

The firelight was dim, so dim that it couldn't even illuminate three feet in front of him.

But he stood trembling at the alley entrance, holding that wooden stick, like a silent lighthouse.

"Uncle, what's wrong with you...?" A young man wanted to step forward to help.

The old shoemaker pushed his hand away.

His voice was hoarse and stubborn.

"The old man's legs aren't good, he can't run anymore. You young people go inside and protect the people inside. Leave the outside to the old man."

The young man opened his mouth, but ultimately said nothing.

With red eyes, she turned and ran into a deeper alley.

Someone huddled in a corner, holding their child tightly in their arms.

She pressed her lips to the child's forehead and said over and over again, "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid."

But her voice was trembling, and the child in her arms was trembling too.

"Mother, I'm scared."

The child cried softly, his little hands clutching her clothes tightly.

"Don't be afraid, don't be afraid... The Flowing Cloud Medicine God will protect us."

As she spoke, tears welled up in her eyes first.

Someone was kneeling in the courtyard, kowtowing towards the Three Lives Tree.

His forehead hit the cold bluestone slab, breaking the skin and causing blood to seep out.

He didn't know who to pray to.

The spiritual essence has been severed, and the Three Lives Tree has been burned.

He was just grasping at the last straw in desperation.

"Please...please...gods and Buddhas, show your power..."

In the house behind him, an old woman sat on the doorstep.

He was holding a little girl in his arms.

The little girl was still holding the dried-out bamboo tube in her hands.

The bamboo tube was empty; not a single drop of spiritual essence remained.

She put the bamboo tube to her ear and shook it vigorously.

There was no sound at all.

She pouted, wanting to cry but not daring to.

Tears welled up in my eyes, but I managed to hold them back.

"Grandma, that older boy said we have to soak the stopper before inserting it... Does that mean if the stopper is wet, the spiritual essence won't leak out?"

The old woman hugged her tightly and rested her withered chin on her head.

The sound was as soft as a wisp of wind that might dissipate at any moment.

"Okay. Fufu will listen to her big brother and won't miss it next time."

But will there be a next time?

Nobody knows.

Some people moved all the lights they could turn on in their homes to the front door.

The lamps were lined up one after another, stretching from the threshold all the way to the alley entrance.

That faint light looked like a thin silver thread in the darkness.

The wind blows it out, and he just lights it again.

After the lamp oil was used up, candles were lit, and after the candles were lit, clothes were burned.

"Father, what should we do now that all the clothes have burned?"

The child huddled behind the door, only his dark eyes showing.

The man paused for a moment.

Then he took off his outer robe, wrapped it around a wooden stick, and set it on fire.

The flames suddenly shot up, brighter than a candle.

"After it's all burned, there's still Father."

He smiled at the child.

The firelight reflected on his face, making his tired eyes shine brightly.

No one is crying.

It's not that I don't want to cry, it's that I'm afraid to.

They were afraid that their crying would attract those things, and that the darkness would follow the sound to their hiding place.

But in the deepest corner of the long street, a young mother finally couldn't hold back.

She covered her mouth, tears silently welling up between her fingers.

The baby in her arms had cried herself to sleep and was fast asleep, tears still clinging to her little face.

She dared not utter a sound, but trembled all over.

It trembled like the last leaf in the autumn wind.

The old Taoist priest's talisman array had long since crumbled.

It turned into golden dust, swept away by the night wind, leaving not a trace.

He slumped against the cold stone wall.

His cloudy eyes gazed at the overwhelming black fog on the horizon.

"It's too late... They're here, it's getting dark..."

Jiu Fangzhi stood beside him, his black robes as cold and aloof as the night.

Two of his mechanisms were broken, the fragments scattered at his feet, gleaming with a cold metallic luster under the dim blue light.

The remaining few also developed cracks, which extended from the edges all the way to the core.

Like spider webs on the verge of collapsing.

But he was still standing.

"young people."

The old Taoist priest's voice was hoarse, like sandpaper scraping against a stone surface.

"Can your wife succeed? If... the legacy of the Medicine God can be taken out... we will die without regrets."

Jiu Fangzhi did not answer.

He simply murmured to himself, "Junior Sister, I'm just glad you're safe."

He never showed the slightest weakness in front of anyone.

At this moment, he still hasn't.

He simply spun the broken cube in his palm again, expanding the shield by half an inch.

The black mist had already surged in.

The soft rustling sound grew denser and denser, like millions of insects gnawing at a person's bones.

In the city, the last lamp swayed in the wind.

It did not perish.

It lit up again.

It wasn't the light of spiritual essence; someone had cupped the flame with their hand, protecting that last, faint spark of fire.

"Mother, the lamp..."

"Shh. It's there. It's still here."

At the end of the long street, a little girl stood on tiptoe and held the unlit glass lamp in her hand high into the air.

The lamp body is transparent, and there is nothing inside.

But she held it high, as if waiting for someone to light it for her.

"I will hold the lamp for everyone."

Her voice was soft and carried away by the wind.

But those dark eyes shone brighter than any lamp.

In the Crystal Palace, Tang Xixue finished reading the last word on the scroll.

The writing vanished before her eyes, turning into a wisp of silver-blue smoke.

It slowly rose and merged into the dome of the celestial palace.

All I could see was that my palms were covered in sweat, and the stray hairs on my forehead were soaked with sweat.

She didn't have time to wipe it.

"It's getting dark; we must activate the grand formation immediately."

She raised her hands, her ten fingers flying like butterflies, and began to form the first array incantation.

A silvery-blue light shone from her fingertips, like a spark ignited in the darkness.

The grand formation of the celestial palace slowly awoke under the guidance of her fingertips.

One after another, the spiritual patterns that had been dormant for thousands of years lit up, spreading from the feet to the dome, and from the dome to every inch of the walls of the entire celestial palace.

The spirit runes lit up much faster than she had expected.

At the slightest touch, spiritual light surged forth from the array's core like a tidal wave, instantly filling the entire hall.

Tang Xixue's hand paused slightly.

too fast.

It went so smoothly it seemed unreal.

She glanced down at her fingertips, then looked up at the in motion spiritual runes on the dome.

His brow furrowed slightly.

"strangeness……"

She murmured softly.

"The method to activate this grand formation is not difficult... it seems that it is not necessary to comprehend the scroll."

She was puzzled.

The text on the scroll was so obscure that even she had to repeatedly ponder it to understand it.

The medical principles she thought were the core of the great formation had almost nothing to do with the steps to activate it.

The steps to actually activate the grand formation were surprisingly simple.

Anyone who has ever read a scroll can do this, without even needing to understand the most profound parts.

Why did the Flowing Cloud Medicine God want her to comprehend the entire scroll?

The answer came in the next instant when he stood in front of her.

The moment the great formation activated, a light different from the spiritual patterns suddenly shone within the celestial palace.

Tang Xixue was stunned.

Because she saw the source of that light.

It was a woman in blue, floating in the formation.

Her body was translucent, like a thin layer of moonlight solidified into a human shape.

She held a ball of silver-blue flame in her hands, which was burning and gradually shrinking.

She slowly channeled the flame in her hand into the spiritual patterns of the great formation.

With each flicker of flame that left her hand, her body became a little more transparent.

Starting from the fingertips, it's like ice melting into water.

It dissipated inch by inch.

Her face remained gentle, and her lips still held a smile.

It was as if it wasn't her soul that was burning.

"Grandmaster..."

Tang Xixue's voice choked in her throat, trembling violently.