I'm bound to the World-Destroying Witch

Chapter 28. The Divine Mirror Without a Platform
Xia Feng kicked Mu Qingtong's head away.

"What are you doing?"

The scene in the bedroom shattered at that moment, like glass breaking. Countless water mirrors surrounded him again, and the people in the mirrors showed the same puzzled expression.

"Isn't this exactly what you wanted?"

"You don't need to strive to become stronger, you don't need to struggle to survive. You don't need to lift a finger for beauty, money, or spiritual entertainment; they will automatically present themselves to you. All you need to do is lie down."

"Look, what a blissful, laid-back life!"

"Don't you like it?"

"You really don't like it?"

They chattered away, and Xia Feng rolled his eyes and raised his index finger: "First of all, this Mu Qingtong is so fake, there's no sense of immersion at all."

"Huh? Is it a personality issue?" The person in the mirror seemed thoughtful. "This can be modified to ensure 99% similarity, while also making the plot more believable!"

Xia Feng raised his middle finger again: "Second, as long as there are rules for the game, there is no mystery that cannot be solved. The explosion in the TV series was eventually solved under the rules. This damn spirit artifact space naturally also has its own rules for solving it. These rules may be related to the abilities of the spirit artifact itself, but I just haven't discovered them yet."

"What are you saying? We don't understand."

"Yes, I don't understand."

"Can't understand."

"It's over, our original form has gone mad and is talking nonsense!"

"That's nonsense!"

"Nonsense, nonsense, nonsense"

Xia Feng ignored them and raised his third finger: "Third, although I am an ordinary person, if you ask me whether I want to live in 'illusory happiness' or 'real unhappiness,' to be honest, I would choose illusory happiness."

Xia Feng smiled and said, "But unfortunately, there are still people I care about in reality. Although we have no family ties or romantic love, I can't just abandon her all alone."

Upon hearing this, the noise from the people in the mirror immediately ceased. After a moment of silence, they lowered their heads and whispered in unison, "That's right, the mushroom can't live without me."

"The mushroom can't live without me."

"They can't live without me."

They started repeating the same words again. Xia Feng blinked and said, "Yes, Mushrooms can't live without us! So, why don't you tell me how to break this and let me out?"

"Yes, I'll tell you how to solve it!"

"Yes, I'll let you out!"

"Yes, we have to let you out, otherwise Mushroom will be lonely again."

They stood in the mirror, looking around and discussing amongst themselves. They quickly reached a consensus and looked at Xia Feng, saying in unison, "Alright, we'll tell you how to break this."

"?!?" Xia Feng was slightly taken aback. You guys are really going to tell me this?
"So..." Xia Feng's eyes held a hint of anticipation.

"The solution is—" they said in unison, their tone more serious than ever before, "to defeat your spirit weapon avatar!"

"Well, then what?"

"And then? That's it, that's the solution!"

Xia Feng:o_O
"Fine, fine, you're just kidding me, aren't you?! As expected of me, you're such a jerk!" Xia Feng cursed himself in anger.

"Very well, if that's the case!"

Xia Feng brandished his broadsword, his chin raised in rage, and declared war, "I'll beat the crap out of you!!"

"Did you hear that? The real body is going to beat the shit out of itself!"

"I heard that, I heard that! As expected of our true form, you have guts!"

"Alright then, let's grant his wish."

"Fulfill his wish, fulfill his wish, fulfill his wish!" As solemn whispers echoed throughout the heavens and earth, one after another, Xia Feng figures emerged from the water mirrors—ten, a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand, a hundred thousand.
Forming a dense, hollow circular array on the endless water, their dark eyes fixed intently on Xia Feng at the center, they raised their broadswords high and roared in unison, their voices shaking the heavens and earth: "Give him his wish!! Kill!!!"

Xia Feng: ⊙▂⊙
"No, guys, I was just kidding!"

Snap—Snap—Snap—Snap, one cut after another, Xia Feng was pierced through the body by more than a dozen knives. Confused, he looked up at the sky. Before he could even feel the pain, everything went black and then bright.

He was reborn in the center of the crowd on the other side.

"Are you guys crazy?!" Xia Feng cursed. How was he supposed to compete? He couldn't win at all!

The people in the mirror all turned around, their gazes chilling: "Kill!!!"

"Damn it!" Xia Feng immediately entered a state of concealment, but the people in the mirror didn't care at all and directly released three waves towards the center.

One hundred Xia Fengs, perfectly synchronized, unleashed three hundred waves of blood, boom!!!

A massive, blood-red mushroom cloud rose, causing the space to tremble.

As the blood-red rain fell, the Xia Fengs looked around in confusion, searching for the true form.

"What about people?"

"Yes, where are they?"

"As expected of me, I actually came up with this idea."

Standing in the crowd, Xia Feng nodded in agreement, repeating, "As expected of me, I actually came up with this idea."

Where are they? Where are they? Where are they?

He repeated his lessons while moving with the crowd, secretly pondering a solution.

After several attempts, he roughly understood that his absurd spiritual artifact test could not be solved by brute force.

After all, he couldn't defeat one clone, let alone countless clones.

They completely dominated him and beat him to a pulp.

So, what should we do?

According to Ms. Black Crow, defeating the Spirit Artifact Avatar would be considered clearing the game, but he doesn't even know where the Spirit Artifact Avatar is.

It couldn't possibly be all these countless people reflected in the mirror, could it?
If these people in the mirror are the incarnations of the magical artifacts, then there's no way to solve this; he simply cannot pass the level.

"No matter how difficult the test, there's always a glimmer of hope." Xia Feng pondered, secretly observing his surroundings. "Could it be that the spirit artifact avatar is hidden among these clones?"

As he was pondering, his eyes suddenly widened in surprise. A clone's profile came into view from the side, a face without any features!

"What the hell? A faceless man?"

Could this be the avatar of a spirit weapon? Xia Feng hesitated, feeling something was amiss. He had just realized the avatar of a spirit weapon was hidden within his clone when the other party appeared?
Where are they? Where are they? Where are they?

The crowd surged, and Xia Feng and his companions looked around aimlessly, searching for the unusual person, but they seemed to completely ignore the faceless man not far away.

The faceless man acted as if nothing had happened, and from somewhere he made a sound repeating itself, searching for Xia Feng.

Xia Feng thought about it. Although this person seemed strange no matter how he looked at it, it wouldn't hurt to give it a try, since he wouldn't die anyway.

While he was thinking, he casually squeezed his way to the front of the crowd.

"What about people?"

"Where is the original person?"

As Xia Feng murmured to himself, he approached the faceless man from behind. Without hesitation or a word, he plunged his blade into the faceless man's back, piercing through his heart!

Suddenly, the crowd stopped moving, turned their heads in unison, and stared intently: "Found you!"

A trap, huh? As Xia Feng frowned, the faceless figure in front of him revealed a face identical to his own, then—splat—its body disintegrated into streams of water, returning to the surface.

Xia Feng looked up in confusion, only to see another faceless figure standing at the back of the crowd, staring at him expressionlessly.

Yes, a truly expressionless face.

"Grab him, but don't kill him this time," the faceless man said.

A large group of people rushed up and grabbed his limbs. Xia Feng did not resist and surrendered without resistance.

"You are the incarnation of the spirit artifact? You control these clones?" Xia Feng asked in confusion.

"We've said it before, we are you, and you are us," the faceless man's voice came from afar, his tone sincere.

At the same time, the clone's face that was grabbing Xia Feng's arm on the right slowly disappeared. He looked down at Xia Feng and said, "So, you can't beat us at all. Give up."

The clone on the left also transformed into a faceless figure, its tone slightly impassioned: "We can give you, and create for ourselves, a perfect, happy, and strife-free paradise!"

"Isn't this better?" the faceless man in the distance asked earnestly.

Xia Feng scanned the group, staring intently at the strange creatures.

After a moment of silent contemplation, his puzzled gaze gradually cleared and brightened. "I think I understand."

"Got it? You mean you agree with our point of view and agree to stay here?"

"No, no, no." Xia Feng shook his head, muttering thoughtfully, "If the test is related to the abilities of spirit artifacts, then you are the manifestation of those abilities, or rather, the so-called avatars of spirit artifacts. Other spirit artifacts might need to defeat the avatars head-on to pass the test, but..."
But I definitely can't do that in my situation, so the key to breaking the deadlock is neither brute force, nor skill, nor rhetoric, so there's only one thing left: mindset!

"As long as I accept or become aware of a certain idea, I can awaken a spirit weapon!"

The more Xia Feng thought about it, the brighter his eyes became. "Then, the purpose of your appearance is very simple. It's not to create an insurmountable obstacle for me, but to help me understand a certain idea!"

So, yes! So you've been emphasizing that you are me, and I am you—this isn't playing games with me, it's blatantly telling me.

Xia Feng paused, then looked up, his eyes narrowing slightly. "This is the key to breaking the deadlock!"

Xia Feng blinked, showing no surprise, but nodded seriously: "Yes, so that means you agree with the idea that 'we are you, and you are us'? That's great, let's merge!"

They all opened their arms wide, their gazes lingering on Xia Feng.

Looking at the oppressive sea of ​​people, Xia Feng remained calm and made no move, only a thought flashed through his mind—stop.

The world fell silent.

Ten thousand Xia Fengs stopped in their tracks.

"Kill yourself."

With Xia Feng's calm command, they all simultaneously brandished their knives and slit their throats—their movements were perfectly synchronized!

With a whoosh, the densely packed 100,000 Xia Feng figures disintegrated into water and fell into the water, leaving only two figures in the world—Xia Feng and a faceless man.

The faceless man, dressed in the same white martial arts robe, stood motionless ten meters away.

Xia Feng slowly approached, sword in hand: "It seems you are the spirit weapon avatar that has copied countless versions of me. So, is my spiritual power related to copying?"

Xia Feng held the knife to the faceless man's neck and slashed it. The faceless man also turned into water and fell to the ground without any resistance.

It seems his test of spiritual artifacts is quite simple, no, it should be extremely simple. All he needs to do is accept that these silly clones are himself and firmly believe he can control them, then...
So we can really control them! Uh, Xia Feng felt something was off. Could such a simple test mean the spirit artifact's level was really low?

Finished
As the faceless man transformed into water, the seemingly endless surface of the water began to surge, contracting and converging at the speed of light around Xia Feng. Xia Feng looked down in confusion, his breathing slightly rapid.

He could sense that a magical artifact was about to appear!
"C-rank! C-rank!" Xia Feng clasped his hands together and prayed earnestly, "God bless me! Give me a C, or at least a B-rank! I didn't even want an A, so just a B-rank—"

“Grade B.” Xia Feng murmured, squinting one eye. Ding~~ The water flowed and formed an oval-shaped bronze mirror, floating in front of him.

At the same time, information flooded my mind.

[Psionic powers successfully unsealed—]

[Spiritual Artifact: Divine Mirror Without a Stand]

Using a bronze mirror, one can straighten one's clothes; using people as a mirror, one can understand one's gains and losses; using history as a mirror, one can understand the rise and fall of dynasties.

[Level: Alpha (?)]

[Spiritual Interpretation: Using Copper as a Mirror: Copying | Optimizing | Removing Falsehoods and Retaining Truth]

【Use Copper as a Mirror - Copy: Perfectly copy the target's clothing, hair, accessories, makeup, appearance, voice, and magical artifacts. No time limit.】

Copying opportunity: Touching the target artifact, being attacked by the target artifact.

Current copy bit: 1 (When the copy bit is exceeded, the new target will overwrite the old target)
Current limitation: Invalid for the same level (alpha)

【Using Copper as a Mirror - Optimization (Awakening Required)】

Using bronze as a mirror - discerning truth from falsehood (awaiting awakening)

"Hiss—"

Looking at the information about the magical artifact's effects, Xia Feng's heart nearly jumped out of his chest, and he gasped, "Holy crap! What the hell is this?!"

Copying someone else's magical artifact? That thing looks pretty powerful!

And it seems the number of copy bits can be increased?! I don't know the maximum number.

But, in any case!

This magical artifact is practically a bug-level existence, isn't it?!

"Well, there's a very serious problem." Xia Feng was a little confused. What the hell is Alpha level?

Neither textbooks nor Black Crow mentions the existence of an alpha level in the spiritual weapon ranking system.

"Words that start with A," Xia Feng pondered, "could it mean Grade A?"

"Never mind that for now. Let's go out and ask that old lady!"

*
After sending Xia Feng into the spirit artifact space, Black Crow closed its eyes again and slowly fell into a deep sleep.

Generally speaking, the longer it takes to clear a level, the higher the level of the spirit weapon.

The average time for humans to complete the game is six months, so according to her estimate, Xia Feng won't be able to get out anytime soon.

"Om-"

She opened her eyes abruptly, her deep, star-like vertical pupils staring in astonishment as she looked down at the tree. She saw the black-haired man's empty black eyes gradually come to life, blinking and then he looked up and grinned: "Ha~ you stinky crow, is that all? I thought it would be much harder~"

"."

Black Crow remained silent for a moment, but finally couldn't help but chuckle mockingly, "Little brat, what are you so happy about? The shorter the time it takes to clear the level, the lower your level. Less than three minutes, which means you only stayed in there for thirty minutes before clearing it?"

"In such a short time, tsk tsk, it can only be an N-level spiritual artifact."

"N-level spiritual artifact?" Xia Feng was stunned. So alpha meant N-level spiritual artifact?
Is N-level really that strong? Xia Feng suddenly realized how terrifying this world was. It seems that the importance of spirit artifacts to spirit masters is much greater than he had imagined!
"Well? Little brat, I guessed right, didn't I?"

Hearing the old lady's mocking tone, Xia Feng nodded, but then felt something was off and asked in confusion, "Then why don't N-level spiritual artifacts just be called something like 'aal'? Why do they have to change their names to 'N-level'?"

Seeing Xia Feng nod, Black Crow was about to continue his mockery, but he was taken aback by Xia Feng's question.

"What do you mean?" Her heart skipped a beat.

(End of this chapter)