"Hmph, in my opinion, this could very well be a conspiracy between the Mirror Demon and Gu Qingfeng, plotting against our Demon Suppression Bureau! I suggest we first examine Gu Qingfeng's body to see if he's a cultist from the Blood Demon Cult."
"Indeed, I second that."
The atmosphere in the great hall suddenly became tense.
Gu Qingfeng saw that these officials didn't trust him, and they wanted to examine his body?
With the numerous secrets he carried, how could he possibly allow them to examine him?
Ah.
Gu Qingfeng sighed inwardly, realizing he couldn't stay at the Demon Suppression Bureau any longer. What a pity that his little corpse demon would be left alone.
He was already preparing to make his move.
At this moment, Li Qianren, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke.
"What Gu Qingfeng says should be true."
Gu Qingfeng was momentarily stunned upon hearing these words. Li Qianren was speaking up for him? Why would he help someone with no connection to him?
"Lord Li, in such an obvious matter, how could what he says possibly be true?" a Ground-rank demon hunter urgently asked.
"My judgment is never wrong," Li Qianren said coldly.
"But... but how do you explain that masters who practice external martial arts couldn't kill the Mirror Demon, yet he could?"
"It's simple," Li Qianren stated confidently. "First, the Mirror Demon's inability to copy external martial arts must be true. The physical body belongs to Yang, while the soul belongs to Yin. External martial arts that specifically train the physical body are methods of pure Yang and ultimate firmness, forging the body to be fierce and solid, full of Yang energy.
As for the demons' Yin domain, as everyone knows, it's of Yin attribute. Yin and Yang oppose each other, so the Mirror Demon cannot fully copy Gu Qingfeng's external martial arts cultivation, which is why he could defeat the copy and the Mirror Demon using external martial arts."
Gu Qingfeng was stunned listening to this. If he hadn't experienced it himself, he would have believed Li Qianren's explanation was the truth.
"But that's not right, Lord Li. According to your explanation, masters who practice external martial arts shouldn't be fully copied by the Mirror Demon either, so why couldn't they defeat it with their external martial arts?" a Ground-rank demon hunter questioned.
Yes! Why couldn't they? Gu Qingfeng also became curious and wanted to hear Li Qianren's explanation.
Li Qianren snorted coldly: "Foolish. You're already at half-step master level, how can you not see something so simple?"
That person didn't dare to speak up.
Li Qianren continued: "Let me ask you, if you were to master the Golden Bell Shield and Iron Cloth Shirt now, would it improve your combat ability?"
The person hesitated before answering: "At my half-step master level, even if I mastered the Golden Bell Shield and Iron Cloth Shirt, it wouldn't improve my strength. The defense these two external arts provide is inferior to my Hardened Qi Realm protection."
"So now you understand?" Li Qianren looked at him coldly: "If this is true for you, it's even more so for those at the Innate realm who have become masters. Those masters who practice external martial arts only trained them in their youth. No one has ever reached master level through external martial arts alone, so the boost from external arts is negligible. Against a copy, such a tiny advantage is practically meaningless."
At this point, the Ground-rank demon hunter finally understood.
Gu Qingfeng understood too, and was completely dumbfounded. Li Qianren was truly a genius of logic - how could he explain it away so perfectly?
In modern terms, Li Qianren's explanation was like two people fighting with guns - one wearing a T-shirt, the other wearing a down jacket.
The people with guns represent masters, the one in the T-shirt is the copy, and the one in the down jacket represents the original body with external martial arts training. So, does wearing a down jacket provide any advantage?
The answer is obvious.
However, this situation is very different for lower-level martial artists like Gu Qingfeng. It's like two people fighting bare-handed - one naked, the other wearing full protective gear. The advantage is clear.
Gu Qingfeng never expected that just when he was planning to desert the Demon Suppression Bureau, he would be saved by Li Qianren's clever mind.
Was Li Qianren stupid? No, he was very intelligent. But the most common mistake smart people make is being too clever for their own good.
This was actually a case of knowledge obstruction - trying to understand unknown things with known knowledge often leads to misconceptions, like being unable to see the forest for the trees.
Li Qianren knew too much, and with the information about the Mirror Demon being two hundred years old with many gaps, he could only fill in the blanks with speculation, forcing logical consistency to make his explanation work.
"So does this mean the Mirror Demon was really killed by Gu Qingfeng?"
Li Qianren shook his head: "What I mean is that while Gu Qingfeng could defeat his own copy, it doesn't necessarily mean he killed the Mirror Demon."
Gu Qingfeng was completely stunned. Brother, what are you imagining now?
"As far as I know, besides copying abilities, the Mirror Demon also had a technique called Mirror Invasion, similar to possession, which could turn people into mirror slaves. Only masters or those who have touched the master realm consciousness can resist Mirror Invasion, because comprehending the master realm consciousness makes one's soul highly condensed and powerful. This is why the Demon Suppression Bureau sent ten genius martial artists at the half-step master level to deal with the Mirror Demon back then."
"Are you saying Gu Qingfeng might have already become a mirror slave?" a Ground-rank demon hunter suddenly asked with a grave expression.
Upon hearing this, everyone tensely stared at Gu Qingfeng, with some even placing their hands on their weapons.
A person's reputation, like a tree's shadow, carries weight. The Mirror Demon's name had resounded throughout the world two hundred years ago. If Gu Qingfeng had really become a mirror slave, it was no wonder they were so alarmed.
Seeing everyone's hostility, Gu Qingfeng's emotions were like a roller coaster. Just a moment ago, he thought everything was fine and was mentally thanking Li Qianren, but now, he just wanted to curse.
with countless casualties. As a top-tier gamer, Liu Xuan volunteered to join the fight, intending to dominate with his skills, but instead he obtained the hidden class: [Pacifist]. Unable to attack. Unable to use active skills. Fortunately, with each level gained, he acquired a new passive skill. And so, armed with a body full of passives, Liu Xuan slaughtered his way through the battlefield of ten thousand races! [You attacked Liu Xuan] [You gained the debuffs: 'Poison', 'Fear', 'Burning', 'Bleeding', 'Freeze', 'Silence', etc.] [Your attack speed has been reduced by 99%] [Your armor and magic resistance have been reduced by 99%] Warriors of the Ten Thousand Races: How the hell am I supposed to fight this?!
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
lan, the Luo family, tracked him down - along with the babies in their arms. Mo Xuan stared pensively at the paternity test results from over a dozen top institutions, both domestic and international, showing a 99.99% match between himself and the two baby girls. At 23, Mo Xuan, a doctoral student, had become the father of two three-year-old children. The kicker? The mothers weren't even the same person! He gradually realized he was being lured step by step into an elaborate trap designed by these two yandere sisters. "Be good, little Xuan. Sister's life belongs to you entirely." "Brother, if you try to run away, I'll have no choice but to tie you up." Mo Xuan: "Do whatever you want, ladies. I give up."
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
