Chapter 034: Who Is Lying?

The smile on Su Cheng’s face reflected in the bronze mirror grew increasingly twisted, revealing a chilling, uncanny expression. It was as if the hidden darkness of human nature was laid bare before his eyes, sending shivers down his spine.

This bronze mirror was certainly strange.

“What are you?” he asked, his gaze suddenly sharp as he stared at his own reflection, wondering whether this mirror could truly reveal the shadowy depths of one’s soul.

“What are you?” The voice echoed from within the mirror, the reflection of “Su Cheng” curling his lips into a mocking smile, as if ridiculing him.

“A mere parroted shadow, nothing but a boring specter.” Su Cheng seemed to have grasped the thought patterns of the figure in the mirror and deliberately provoked it with words.

Sure enough, his reflection in the bronze mirror grew more horrifying, and in a bewitching tone said, “I am your demon shadow. To deny me is to deny your own heart.”

Su Cheng pondered for a moment, then raised his head and asked, “Do you have any way to prove it?”

The demon shadow seemed delighted, and a sinister laugh echoed from the mirror. “Heh heh, I am the darkness within you. Naturally, I know all your true thoughts.”

“That priestess who follows you—you’ve long desired her, haven’t you? And that woman called Night Goddess, always so aloof, never giving you the time of day—you wish to crush her beneath your feet, to torment her, don’t you?”

The demon shadow boasted confidently, as if he had seen through Su Cheng’s heart.

But halfway through his words, Su Cheng interrupted.

“Sorry, actually I’m gay.”

The demon shadow: “…”

The air suddenly fell silent.

“This isn’t how it’s supposed to go!” The demon shadow wished he could smash the mirror and strangle Su Cheng.

“Heh, you can’t even tell truth from lies, yet you claim to know everything?” Su Cheng sneered. The intelligence of this demon shadow seemed rather unimpressive, easily exposed by Su Cheng.

It appeared the mirror only harbored an immature ghost, adept at shifting into human form to beguile, but lacking in spiritual power. Had it been stronger, it would have already broken free to kill.

“You actually saw through me, damn you.”

In fact, the demon shadow had seduced many before, well-versed in the darkness of human nature, usually guessing with uncanny accuracy. But unfortunately, he had met Su Cheng—a master of subterfuge.

“So what if you’ve discovered my trick? This room has no exit. You, like me, will be trapped in this five-tiered pagoda forever.” The demon shadow laughed hideously, his mouth splitting open with a long tongue, his appearance monstrous.

“If I could enter, then surely there is an exit.”

The demon shadow was most skilled at sowing confusion; not even his punctuation could be trusted. Su Cheng ignored him and meticulously searched every corner of the second floor.

“I told you, this floor is completely sealed—there is no exit. Give up.” The demon shadow continued to chatter, but Su Cheng seemed to discover something, a spark of insight flashing in his eyes.

He walked over to the bronze mirror, standing before it deep in thought.

“Have you given up? There’s no way out…”

Su Cheng disregarded the demon shadow, murmuring to himself, “I’ve searched everywhere; there really is no hidden door or exit. That leaves only one possibility—the exit is right in front of me.”

“What do you mean?” The demon shadow in the mirror suddenly felt an ominous premonition.

Su Cheng sneered, abruptly drew his blade, and plunged it into the body of the demon shadow in the mirror.

The smooth surface shattered into a dozen pieces.

Terrifyingly, thick blood seeped from the broken mirror, staining the floor crimson.

“You will pay for this,” the demon shadow in the mirror stared wide-eyed in disbelief, but his curse had no effect. Su Cheng withdrew his blade and violently kicked the mirror to pieces.

With the destruction of the eerie bronze mirror, a pitch-black passage appeared.

“As expected, the exit was hidden behind the mirror.” The demon shadow’s incessant chatter had been meant to distract Su Cheng and conceal the real escape.

The moment he stepped through the bronze mirror, the scene before him changed, and when he came to, he had arrived at the third level of the Five-Tiered Pagoda.

“The third tier, the Hall of Spirit Tablets?”

Su Cheng surveyed the surroundings with caution, but found nothing particularly strange.

The Hall of Spirit Tablets seemed to have been neglected for ages; dust coated the tablets, and the offerings had rotted away.

Su Cheng quickly found the stairs leading up to the fourth tier, but did not ascend immediately. His intuition told him there might be clues here.

“Come to think of it, the quest for this dungeon isn’t to help Lady Chiyo regain her power and defeat the Ghost King, but to investigate the truth behind the Five-Tiered Pagoda. What secrets lie within?”

Despite reaching this stage of the dungeon, the main storyline remained vague. It appeared the game intended players to uncover the truth themselves.

At that moment, Su Cheng noticed the central spirit tablet inscribed with ancient characters—“Spirit Tablet of General Nianxiu.”

“Nianxiu? That name seems familiar.” Su Cheng searched his memory and realized the Ghost King had once been General Nianxiu.

It was said the general was executed for having an affair with the princess, his heart and liver ripped out posthumously—a tragic fate. No wonder the Ghost King harbored such deep resentment.

Beneath the tablet, Su Cheng found a locked wooden box. He pried it open and retrieved a yellowed scroll of history.

Unrolling it, he read the life and deeds of General Nianxiu.

What struck Su Cheng as odd was that, according to the record, the general was a loyal and brave man, greatly loved by the people and held in high esteem. Stranger still, he was not a womanizer and had only met the princess a few times.

“This scroll details the general’s daily life and character, and doesn’t seem intentionally embellished or falsified. So the question is, who is lying?”

Was it possible the feudal lord, fearing the general’s rising power, fabricated a reason to have him executed?

Various thoughts and speculations swirled through Su Cheng’s mind. He read further and discovered something peculiar: after the general’s death, his heart and liver, which had been removed, vanished soon afterwards. Who would steal a dead man’s organs?

“The princess lost favor soon after the general’s death and died of illness within half a year?”

According to the scroll, the lord regretted killing Nianxiu, and deliberately neglected the princess, leading to her demise.

But the odd thing was, three years after the general’s death, a furious retainer had the princess’s tomb exhumed—only to find it empty.

Could the princess have survived?

Su Cheng sensed layers of intrigue; the truth was far more complex than it appeared.

“No, I must have missed something.”

A flash of insight struck him, and he reread the scroll carefully.

“Hmm, the general suffered a grievous wound in battle, which damaged his vital organs. Though he had a wife, she was unable to bear children.”

What puzzled Su Cheng was that, given the general’s rank and the customs of the time, he could have taken concubines to produce heirs. Yet, in the prime of his life, he died childless.

This meant the general himself was likely infertile, not his wife.

Because he’d been wounded in that war.

Suddenly, everything clicked for Su Cheng—the princess, reincarnated as Lady Chiyo, had lied.

But why had she deliberately harmed the general?

Although he had found some clues, Su Cheng still had many unanswered questions.

The princess’s true identity, the vanished remains, the general’s heart and liver…

“Cheng, did you find something?”

At that moment, a gentle voice drifted from behind him, like a whisper from the underworld.

He turned to find Lady Chiyo standing behind him, smiling softly.