"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.
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
. As long as he maintains the villain image and follows the plot to the grand finale, he can obtain generous rewards and return to the real world. So Gu Chen'an entered the role and began to act as a scumbag villain, but who would have expected that the female leads could hear his inner thoughts. Miss Su from the Su family was shocked: "I originally thought Gu Chen'an was a scumbag, but I didn't expect he turned out to be a gentleman! What? You said I have to call off the engagement? I definitely won't, I'll piss you off!" Bai Yuan Tian was dumbfounded: "Young Master Gu is usually unreasonable and a complete brat, but he actually calls me little sweetie in his heart? What, Young Master Gu even said he likes me?" As the female leads' images collapsed more and more, the plot also collapsed with it. Gu Chen'an looked at all this chaos. "Ladies, don't aggro me, if you keep this up the male lead really will stab me, I still need to survive to the grand finale!"
lanned to earn money steadily and take life at a slower pace. But he never expected... his father's remarriage, and the stepmother bringing along a dependent, would completely disrupt his life's plans...
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
