Chapter 156 The One That Got Away

Snow swirled both up and down the mountain.

As he saw the "himself" within Zhong Yuan's team, a sense of disorientation and familiarity flooded his mind!

If his mental strength hadn't been powerful enough, Gu Shen might have suspected for a moment that *he* was the so-called "fake."

Mirror Dream… so this was Mirror Dream?

That the Gu Shen on the other side was fake wasn't really the important thing. What mattered was… how had he been replaced by the "mirror world"?

What exactly had happened when the campfire was burning?

Gu Shen's thoughts were pulled back by the sound of gunfire.

"Bang!"

A red-silver bullet grazed the snow, hurtling toward Gu Shen's forehead.

This shot was aimed straight for the vital point! It was meant to kill!

Gu Shen remained expressionless. With a thought, the Iron Throne roared out, the nameless iron armor howling through the black snow, solidifying into a dark-black shield!

Sparks flew everywhere!

The bullet's fire burst against the iron shield. At the same time, Gu Shen tossed out the lantern he had been holding. The faint flame within the lantern core exploded in mid-air—

Turning night into day!

"Bang, bang, bang!"

A dense barrage of gunfire erupted at that moment. Gu Shen's figure, flying backward on the mountaintop, flickered and weaved through the fiery net woven by the gunfire. The scene was somewhat reminiscent of a Source Armor duel…

Thinking of this, Gu Shen's heart trembled slightly. A certain idea in his mind seemed to be confirmed by another three points.

From the moment the first shot was fired.

He had suspected that this entire climbing team was an illusion of the "mirror world." It was just that the sensation was too real. The Chi Fire restrained by the Fighting Victory Golden Hoop couldn't fully break the dream, so he could only "entangle" with the other side in this dream.

On the black snow-covered summit, light fragments scattered in all directions.

The Iron Throne could control all low-level "iron elements," unconstrained by physical forms. The nameless iron shield suddenly scattered in the gunfire, transforming into dozens of balls of iron light, rotating rapidly around Gu Shen like flying birds, precisely capturing the trajectory of the bullets in the air. In a matter of seconds, the sounds of explosions rose and fell, creating a spectacular scene.

Gu Shen's last wisp of Chi Fire could still achieve the Iron Throne's "multi-tasking" in this scenario.

Gu Shen held his breath.

He extended two fingers, clamping onto a bullet that was aimed at his brow.

"Chi!"

This bullet was different. It broke through the mental defense of the iron shield, carrying extremely dangerous high-temperature heat.

Phoenix Fire!?

Gu Shen's expression became hesitant. Using mental strength to control the Iron Throne to intercept this shot had consumed a significant portion of his mental strength… This was a bullet fired by "Zhong Yuan," and the blazing fire entwined on the shell seemed capable of burning everything in the world!

Could this Mirror Dream even replicate the sealed item powers of the climbers?

It was this shot that convinced Gu Shen…

The climbing team before him were all replicas!

With Zhong Yuan's eleventh-level peak strength, if he really intended to kill with a fatal shot, his "Iron Shield" would never have been able to withstand it to this extent—

At that time, he would probably need to summon the Ruler of Truth to barely save his life.

"Since you are so vicious…"

"Don't blame me for being ruthless!"

Gu Shen instantly lowered his body, stepping on the thin iron shield that had been pieced together in an instant, and slid down from the high summit, crashing heavily into the team near the top of the mountain like a rocket.

He had already figured out the general characteristics of Mirror Dream.

The bad news was that this Mirror Dream was different from the nightmares he had encountered in the past. It wasn't just "scary." It could even retain the abilities of Zhong Yuan's Phoenix Ring. This meant that if the dreamer failed in battle, they were very likely to be killed!

But the good news was that this strange black mountain only seemed to replicate part of the transcendent's attributes, and wasn't complete.

This also meant that these people weren't insurmountable.

With a "boom!"

A huge crater was smashed out on the summit!

Gu Shen directly launched a close-quarters battle. He knew very well that in the face of a combined siege, he needed to tear open an opening from the inside. If he distanced himself, he would only be constantly consumed, eventually unable to find an opportunity to counterattack.

Black night fire fell on the snow-covered mountain peak.

The combat intelligence of these "Mirror Dream Replicas" was quite high, far exceeding that of the simulation AI in the combat pod… The moment Gu Shen crashed down, the entire team scattered.

They could guess what Gu Shen wanted to do!

No… to be precise, it was the "himself" in the team. The center of the entire team's dispersal was the replica of himself.

Gu Shen saw this, and his eyes suddenly turned gloomy.

The moment he crashed down, he pounced toward himself!

Kill the counterfeit first!

The distance of several dozen meters was closed in an instant. A certain member of the team was extremely close to the counterfeit "himself." At this moment, he actually stepped forward decisively. Gu Shen slapped him away expressionlessly, sending the team member flying.

The next moment!

The two Gu Shens collided face to face.

The self in the Mirror Dream revealed a faint smile.

Gu Shen's pupils constricted slightly.

At this moment… he remembered the scene when he raised the handful of black water at the campfire. His reflection in the water seemed to have revealed such a strange smile.

"Boom—"

Gu Shen slammed a fist heavily onto the face of the counterfeit Gu Shen. Snow exploded and scattered, and the slender figure in the Mirror Dream was knocked backward, crashing into a stone wall not far away.

However… snow and ice swirled.

The counterfeit Gu Shen didn't seem to be in much pain. He slowly supported himself on both sides from the crater in the stone wall, stood up, shook off the black snow and gravel, and stared at himself calmly and coldly, with a hint of mockery.

Then.

A wisp of fire ignited on the counterfeit's forehead.

Gu Shen's heart sank in disbelief.

"Chi Fire… can also be replicated?"

This scene had exceeded the scope of his understanding… On the surface, the ability of Chi Fire was S-grade, but Gu Shen knew that the reason why this ability was rated S-grade was because the federal government's upper limit evaluation of extraordinary abilities was only S-grade at most.

"No…"

"The 'Chi Fire' it replicated is far inferior to mine…"

After being shocked for a second, Gu Shen quickly regained his composure. Similar things had happened before. Xu Yan had also tried to steal the power of Chi Fire with the Fire Thief, but he had failed, even with the help of the Dionysus Seat!

"High temperature, possessing mental fluctuations, able to link, command…"

Gu Shen stared at the counterfeit's eyes. The flame on the other's forehead had replicated quite a few characteristics of "Chi Fire," but the most important one had not yet been revealed.

Was it because he hadn't shown it yet?

Gu Shen narrowed his eyes.

A bold idea emerged in his mind.

The next moment—

"Drink!"

With a violent shout, the iron armor covering Gu Shen instantly spread out!

The Iron Throne was a top-level ability with extremely strong defensive capabilities, but that didn't mean… the Iron Throne could only be used for defense.

It was because Gu Shen didn't have as high an ability proficiency as Tie Wu.

He specialized in Chi Fire and didn't have more energy to study the Iron Throne, so he had always only used it to control the iron shield, cooperating with mental strength to achieve instant reorganization, to prevent unexpected attacks.

But this ability, in the hands of the Apostle Tie Wu, was a terrifying group attack technique that could slaughter an entire Lion Lane.

The iron shield was controlled by Gu Shen with mental strength and scattered, sweeping toward all directions.

At this moment, the "counterfeit" in charge of commanding from afar sneered, without the slightest panic. He also raised his palm, summoning a similar "iron shield," manipulating his own iron pieces with mental strength to intercept Gu Shen's offensive.

Gu Shen's expression remained unchanged.

Since this Mirror Dream could replicate Zhong Yuan's Phoenix Ring, then replicating his own iron pieces wasn't anything…

He just needed to verify to what extent this Mirror Dream's replication ability had reached.

Could the Mirror Dream also replicate the unique "special material" of the nameless iron armor, which was excavated from the ancient tombs of the tundra, which was not a sealed item?

Soon.

Gu Shen's idea was verified!

"Clang!"

With a crisp sound, the two waves of iron tides collided. This was almost a one-sided crush. The "iron shield" of Gu Shen's counterfeit was scattered and shattered in a destructive manner!

At this moment, the counterfeit's face changed drastically.

He looked at Gu Shen in shock and surprise… as if he had encountered something he couldn't understand.

"Heh…"

Gu Shen no longer hesitated and moved again to kill him!

Sure enough!

The Mirror Dream's replication ability was limited. Things like the nameless iron armor, which were extremely strange and whose origins even Elder Gu couldn't discern, couldn't be sealed at all!

Because the iron armor wasn't a sealed item!

It only had one characteristic: "indestructible"!

In addition, Gu Shen guessed that the Mirror Dream's replication ability was very likely related to his own "cognition." He had only seen Zhong Yuan use the Phoenix Ring to create fire and hadn't seen the real Phoenix Ring in battle, so the blazing Phoenix Fire entwined on the bullet wasn't much different from the intensity he had felt before!

Moreover, this counterfeit's posture when driving the "iron armor" looked decent, almost the same as himself.

But in reality, it was far too different!

He used the Iron Throne to generate a response with the nameless iron shield, and it was launched instantly. There was nothing faster in this world than a connection of minds!

And the counterfeit used mental strength to drive these iron pieces…

This was a clumsy imitation. The reason why it was like this was very likely because this Mirror Dream was observing itself. It had its own unique logic, but it didn't touch the fundamental magical abilities of things!

The biggest ironclad proof was this intense battle that had been going on for several minutes, but was very dry.

After stepping onto the snow mountain, the members of the team hadn't used their abilities at all… so all this Mirror Dream could replicate was their equipment and his own "Chi Fire"!

Gu Shen flipped his wrist.

The iron pieces cut through the air, bringing out splashes of blood… He was merciless and directly ended the lives of the six team members. The sound of gunfire instantly withered, and there was still a reverberation in the long sky.

The iron pieces scattered everywhere on the top of the snow mountain, those stained with blood, instantly swept back toward Gu Shen's direction!

He didn't even raise his head and knew that the replica Yuan Yuan had killed him. The moment the sound entered his ears, Gu Shen stopped instantly, suddenly turned around, and slashed back, and thousands of iron pieces instantly condensed into a knife!

"Buzz—"

In the black snow, there were thousands of iron threads gathered by sword blades, and a scarlet blood mist that was brought about by the excessive speed of movement.

The two battle knives collided, and Gu Shen was clearly better!

Gu Shen's eyes reflected that familiar face.

However, at this moment, Yuan Yuan's face was pale, and it looked even more desolate against the backdrop of the black snow.

There was a line of blood on his throat.

Gu Shen put away his knife and stood up.

He slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air and looked at the mountain wall in the distance.

There were two people left.

The blond man stood in front of "himself"... The black snow was as dense as a tide, and he was almost submerged. From beginning to end, he didn't seem to care about his "teammates," but just looked at everything coldly and calmly.

It could be seen that he, like the counterfeit self, was a "high-level existence" in this Mirror Dream.

"I'm really… a little curious."

The black snow was flying, and this dead and dark ominous thing fell all over the world.

The few corpses lying on the mountain path, covered with black snow, seemed even more森然.

But Gu Shen didn't feel depressed.

He rested the knife on both hands and didn't intend to do it immediately, but just looked at the two "living people" in front of him and sighed seriously: "Since this is a broken chain area and a disaster dream, what I'm saying now shouldn't be heard by outsiders, right… If you two can talk, why don't you chat with me before you die? I want to know where this black mountain came from. Could it also be something that some unscrupulous guy planted twenty years ago?"

Unscrupulous guy.

It naturally refers to Hades.

Planting such a mountain on the Black River is quite like the meaning of "This mountain was opened by me, this road was planted by me, if you pass by here, leave money to buy life"... This is really like Hades' way of doing things.

What made Gu Shen most suspicious was the black snow that fell on his body and made him feel happy.

The more tired other people were, the more tired they became.

And he was the opposite.

This black mountain was in harmony with his eight characters, and the more he fought, the more energetic he became.

"..."

Waiting quietly for ten seconds, Gu Shen unexpectedly waited for the silence of these two people.

"Okay, I didn't expect you to be able to answer questions."

Gu Shen smiled and looked at Zhong Yuan, "Then, before you leave, what last words do you have?"

The blond man raised his palm and clenched his fist.

A shallow phoenix cry激荡in the black snow. At his ring, a faint fire ignited, vaguely condensing into a phoenix…

Gu Shen narrowed his eyes.

This was a scene he had never seen before…

According to his previous speculation, the Mirror Dream on this black mountain was imitated according to the scene observed by "it".

All the battle scenes were traceable.

So, the Phoenix Ring's fire凝形was obviously a scene that happened on the other side…

Zhong Yuan had also entered the Mirror Dream.

"Although there are no last words, thank you for the information you gave me."

Gu Shen said softly.

He raised the iron knife.

The Phoenix Fire rushed towards him—

The light and flame covered the sky and the earth, which was extremely grand. The black snow on the black mountain vibrated with a roar. At this moment, the snow tide was broken, and the fire phoenix dozens of feet tall was凌霄, burning these black snow with its majestic body… Gu Shen's figure was submerged in the fire tide, and he didn't retreat at all. At this last moment, he put on the ghost mask,挤出a little bit of "Chi Fire."

This was a "war without soldiers."

From beginning to end, the Chi Fire he used to attack was only a small strand.

Even now, it was no exception.

Using the wisp of Chi Fire挤出来by the ghost mask, Gu Shen just used it to prop up a spotless barrier in front of him. As "flames", the "incomplete Phoenix Fire" copied by the Mirror Dream couldn't对抗with the "Chi Fire" in Gu Shen's eyebrows, so this seemingly grand attack only needed a wisp of Chi Fire to resolve… The confrontation between extraordinary people, if there was a qualitative difference, could not be弥补by quantity.

"Boom!"

The fire tide was rolling.

Gu Shen's iron knife in his palm flew out against the tide, splitting into two, and two into four, instantly turning into a slender blade淬着Chi Flame, penetrating the blond man—

A few seconds later.

He raised his palm again, and countless玄铁collision sounds stacked together sounded under his palm. The split iron peak regrouped into a long knife,杵in the snow, and the熊熊burning "Phoenix Fire" quickly extinguished.

Half of the night sky was burned red, and large团of fire clouds were burning in the dark sky, like open red eyes, which looked very邪异…

Gu Shen slowly came to the counterfeit in front of him.

"Intention link, mental induction, tactical command…"

He said slowly: "Let me think about it, what else can you do now?"

Behind him.

It was already a piece of silence, and this snow mountain ushered in real silence.

The "copy" in the Mirror Dream had been completely killed by Gu Shen, and in the end, only one "self" was left.

Gu Shen was wearing a ghost mask, step by step, compressing the space of the counterfeit Gu Shen. Finally, the two came to a dead corner at the stone wall, and he looked coldly at the "self" with a pale expression.

The two looked at each other.

The counterfeit had no way to retreat, so he simply closed his eyes, making a look of letting himself dispose of it at will… Gu Shen knew that this guy could take out a mask that was also "green-faced and fang-toothed" from his arms and put it on his face at any time, but it was a pity that the ability of this ghost mask, like the previous iron piece, was an object that the "Mirror Dream" could not penetrate from the surface.

His mental strength and the Fighting Victory Golden Hoop formed a subtle balance.

Perhaps it was Bai Shu's means prepared in advance in Nagano, or perhaps this balance just needed a little external force to break… Once he wore this mask, there would be a strand of "Chi Fire" that would be squeezed out.

What the Mirror Dream saw was that after he put on the ghost mask, his mental strength would become stronger.

That's all.

"Why don't you… try this?"

Gu Shen slowly stretched out two fingers, and a faint fire ignited at his fingertips.

"Chi Fire" was burning the black snow, and also burning the "transcendental source quality"遊離between heaven and earth.

He showed this ability to the counterfeit.

And a few seconds later.

The counterfeit's complexion changed drastically, and the "Chi Fire" burning in his eyebrows was no longer stable, and trembled violently… The extraordinary source quality surrounding him also began to tremble violently.

Gu Shen looked at this scene calmly.

It seemed that the "copy" of the Mirror Dream was uncontrollable.

What he showed, the Mirror Dream had to copy… The power of Chi Fire burning "source quality", which was contrary to the iron law, the Mirror Dream would also honestly copy it down.

But, was this a power that could be replicated?

If you wanted to violate the iron law, you would inevitably suffer backlash!

"Uh ah…"

Not long after, the counterfeit Gu Shen's eyebrow Chi Fire completely collapsed. Due to the forced copy rules triggered by the Mirror Dream, this Chi Fire madly attracted the surrounding source quality, so at the time of the collapse, it caused the black snow within a radius of hundreds of meters to roll back, and finally an explosion blossomed轰轰烈烈at the mountain wall, and the counterfeit could not bear the powerful force replicated by the Mirror Dream, and exploded under the contradiction of the iron law and the rules!

A moment later.

The slightly烫 "replica Chi Fire" scattered and landed, disappearing with the Phoenix Fire.

The smoke was rolling.

Gu Shen, who had suffered all the explosion impact at a very close range, was unharmed. He waved his sleeves and retracted the "iron shield" blocking him. His expression was complicated, looking at the bleeding and corpses all over the place.

The battle… was finally over.

This Mirror Dream was indeed strange.

It stands to reason that he had encountered danger and successfully lifted it, and he should be relieved, but why was his mood still not at peace until now?

Gu Shen was a little worried… about the situation on the other side of the snow mountain.

Judging from the final performance of the Phoenix Fire, Zhong Yuan's team should have also entered the dream.

He hadn't figured out the so-called Mirror Dream rules. If this snow mountain would break out "battle," then why did Zhong Yuan go down the mountain directly last time?

And the question he couldn't figure out the most.

When exactly was he dragged into the dream?

If he couldn't know the cause of "entering the dream," he wouldn't be able to解除"dream." Could it be that he had to keep walking along the mountain road?

Gu Shen rubbed his eyebrows, feeling a little headache.

He looked ahead and looked back.

At this time, he really hoped to meet someone.

It seemed that the goddess of fate heard the voice in Gu Shen's heart.

"Da."

"Da da."

Down the snow mountain, in the direction he came from, there seemed to be footsteps coming.

This time.

The cross pendant sent out a fierce danger alarm!

Gu Shen's expression froze, and he clenched the [Protection of the Goddess of Fate], thinking that there wouldn't be such a coincidence… And when his eyes touched the group of figures after the wind and snow, the doubt that had been lingering in his mind was instantly clear.

All along, the cross pendant had been giving him danger warnings.

But when encountering the Mirror Dream copy… The warning from the cross pendant didn't even convey much. It wasn't because this object wasn't sensitive enough. On the contrary, this artifact that通晓fate had already given Gu Shen the correct guidance in the dark!

On this snow mountain, the biggest "disaster" wasn't the Mirror Dream, it wasn't the black snow.

But…

"Meng Xiao."

The black snow was rolling. Gu Shen stood on the top of the mountain, squinting at the eight-person team行进in the heavy snow. The black snow was rolling, not getting close to the leader's body, because between his robes,片又一片divine纹was constantly溢散. That was the supreme blessing of the Divine Seat, directly打得many disasters and ominous things far away!

This was not a power that the Mirror Dream could copy.

This was the true self.

And near the top of the mountain, this team also stopped.

Meng Xiao raised his head and looked at the young figure包wrapped in the endless black snow at the top of the mountain.

His eyes were full of璀璨辉光, with no distinction between pupils.

So the smile that this face showed at this moment seemed a little渗人.

Meng Xiao's husky voice echoed on the snow mountain.

"I finally found you… Gu Shen."