Ten Thousand Soul Banner: Deceased, do you have any unfulfilled wishes?-Chapter 1050 - 1046: Mountain and River Mirror

Shen Siyuan took out the copper mirror he had found earlier in the Yangzhou Netherworld Ruins.

"Copper mirror?"

Wu Yugu caught a glimpse of the ancient bronze contour, and a trace of barely noticeable disappointment flashed through his eyes.

In his view, copper mirrors like these are abundant, not truly rare treasures.

From the seven-pointed star pattern mirrors of the Neolithic Era Qijia culture, to the pinnacle of Han Dynasty technological craftsmanship in translucent mirrors, and the lavishly decorated Tang Dynasty sea beast grape mirrors witnessing cultural fusion, he had seen and touched such treasures firsthand.

But these artifacts are primarily decorative, with very few inscriptions surviving, offering limited research value to someone specializing in ancient scripts like him.

Yet in the next moment, Shen Siyuan’s fingers gently turned the copper mirror over, revealing the patterns on the back.

"Hmm?"

With just a glance, Wu Yugu exclaimed in sudden surprise, his previously relaxed posture on the chair instantly tensed as he sprang to his feet, bending his aged back toward the table, his dim eyes suddenly bright with intensity, fixated on the mirror face, even his breathing instinctively lightened.

The back of this copper mirror was adorned with a complexity of designs beyond imagination.

Mountains snaked like dragons, rivers rushed like silver ribbons, the sun and moon hung vying for brilliance, stars densely embroidered like pearls, birds poised for flight, beasts lay dormant gathering strength.

These patterns were meticulously arranged from the inside out, layer upon layer, as if compressing the entirety of the world onto the small mirror surface, or like countless circular pieces precisely stacked, exuding a grandeur and mystery of ancient worlds.

But what truly stirred Wu Yugu was not the exquisite designs, but the outermost ring of ancient inscriptions.

The lines bore an ancient ruggedness, marked with traces of time, subtly hinting at a shared origin with the symbols on the earlier rubbings.

Shen Siyuan pointed to a character on the mirror surface, one resembling the symbol on the rubbings but with more intricate lines, softly asking: "Mr. Wu, is this character ’heaven’?" 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

"Yes! This is the prototype of the character ’heaven’!"

A flicker of brightness crossed Wu Yugu’s eyes as he approvingly looked at Shen Siyuan, "Xiao Shen, you have keen insight, grasping the core form with just one glance."

After speaking, he turned to the drawer, retrieved a magnifying glass, and gingerly leaned closer to the mirror’s surface, scrutinizing each stroke.

Yet the more he looked, the more deeply his brows furrowed, the space between them filling with an impenetrable weight of seriousness and puzzlement.

Shen Siyuan stood quietly beside, holding his breath, without daring to interrupt.

Only when Wu Yugu repeatedly traced the mirror’s surface, his fingers slightly trembling, and his expression grew more solemn, did he softly speak: "Mr. Wu, have you encountered any difficulties?"

"Difficult, very difficult."

Wu Yugu set down the magnifying glass, gently tapping his finger on the table, his tone carrying a measure of poignancy, "The text on this copper mirror is indeed akin to the symbols on the earlier rubbings, belonging to an ancient script system, but in comparison, the mirror’s text is far more complex and profound."

He paused, further explaining: "These ancient writings are mostly straightforward pictorial expressions, such as sun, moon, star, mountain, river, the characters closely resembling their referents, easy to identify. But the characters on this copper mirror seem to layer additional meanings upon the pictorial foundation, harboring enigmatic mysteries within the strokes, making them obscure and difficult to comprehend."

"Besides the ’heaven’ character you identified, I could barely discern six more: ’land’, ’ten thousand’, ’star’, ’constellation’, ’spirit’, ’great’.’" Wu Yugu extended his withered fingers, pointing to each character on the mirror face in uncertain tones, "But these seven characters, I can’t guarantee absolute accuracy, and as for the rest..."

He shook his head, wearily pinching the bridge of his nose, his eyes filled with helplessness, evidently the task of identifying these characters had exhausted much of his mental effort: "The mirror has sixteen characters in total, and I only recognized seven, leaving nine completely indecipherable, even attempting to infer the meaning of the remaining characters from these identified ones is akin to scaling heights."

Shen Siyuan’s expression betrayed disappointment at these words; he had hoped the trip to Xiajing would pierce through the fog and uncover clues, yet now it seemed the gains were minimal.

But at that moment, Wu Yugu suddenly spoke again, his tone filled with hesitation: "I have some vague conjectures about a few characters; you may as well listen, but they shouldn’t be taken as definitive..."

"Please go ahead, sir." Shen Siyuan’s spirit lifted, leaning in attentively.

Wu Yugu picked up the copper mirror, pointing at the partial form of one character, slowly stating: "You see this part, it’s a prototype of the ’sun’ character, so this one should relate to light, or the sun and moon, and here, the shape vaguely resembles ’elephant’, just the strokes are more intricate..."

While speaking, he retrieved pen and paper from the drawer, transcribing the sixteen characters from the mirror surface in their circular sequence onto the paper.

Starting with ’heaven’ as the initial character, the transcription resulted in a string of incomplete symbols: "Heaven XXX, land X ten thousand elephants, star X constellation X, spirit X great X."

Beside the character appearing to be ’elephant’, he marked a small question mark.

Then, pointing to the final character, his brows tightly knitted: "This character resembles ’land’, but the stroke direction seems slightly off, as if missing something..."

Before Wu Yugu’s words finished, a sudden flash of insight burst forth in Shen Siyuan’s mind.

That day when Tang Tang activated the copper mirror, a wonder of worlds overturning, star rivers surging poured into his thoughts, a moment of intuition led him to blurt out uncontrollably: "No, this isn’t land, it’s Wilderness!"

"What?" Wu Yugu paused, seemingly not hearing clearly.

Yet Shen Siyuan didn’t repeat himself, his eyes fixated firmly on the fragmented characters on the paper, his mind rapidly connecting those scattered clues.

The next moment, he drew a deep breath, steadily enunciating the sixteen characters on the mirror:

"Heaven hangs bright wheel, land bears ten thousand elephants, star shifts constellation turns, spirit swallows great wilderness!"

As his voice fell, the copper mirror suddenly emitted a clear resonant hum, a slight tremor spreading across the tabletop.

Soon after, a soft yet inexorable glow arose from the mirror’s surface, unfolding a peculiar scene in the emptiness like a projection.

The sun and moon alternate their rise and set, star rivers reverse their flow, mountain ranges undulate into the distance, rivers gently sprawl, birds spread their wings soaring into the heavens, beasts gallop and dash across the wilderness.

The vast and grand happenings of the ancient world quietly unfolded within this confined space.

"This... this..."

Wu Yugu trembled all over in shock, the magnifying glass in his hand fell onto the table with a clatter, he cared not to retrieve it, his gaunt hands trembled slightly, his muddled eyes expanding wide as he stared fixedly at the strange phenomenon in the void, rendered speechless by astonishment.