"Not necessarily," Jing Minghe said. "Some clues, on the surface, seem to be just to help us understand the background of the story better, but within the details of these clues, there must be something we can use."
Tong Zheng sighed softly and said, "That's true, but finding it is not easy."
Jing Minghe lowered his head in thought, and suddenly heard Chi Hao speak to him, "They are twins."
"What?" Jing Minghe turned his head to "look" at Chi Hao, and asked him in a low voice, "Ge Hao, do you have any ideas? Tell us."
Hearing what Jing Minghe said to Chi Hao, the others also cast eager and fervent gazes at Chi Hao, hoping he would reveal his thoughts.
Chi Hao ignored their gazes, lowered his eyes to look at Jing Minghe, and leaned close to his ear, saying, "Call me 'gege' again."
"?"
Although Jing Minghe couldn't see, he still showed a look of confusion. Su Dan Novel Network
"You called him many times just now."
"What?" Jing Minghe felt completely bewildered. "Many times? Who did I call many times?"
Someone finally understood why they had felt a chill before, but Jing Minghe himself had not yet understood. Perhaps his intelligence had unfortunately shielded him from a certain specific situation.
"Never mind," Chi Hao withdrew his gaze and said emotionlessly, "Those two women are twins. The madwoman said the person in the mirror is not her, and also, day and night, are the most frequently appearing words."
As soon as Chi Hao finished speaking, Jing Minghe smiled. "I understand. As expected of Ge Hao. Sister Youmi, what time is it now? How long until sunset?"
Youmi checked the time and said, "About another hour and a half."
"Alright, we'll talk about the sunset when it happens. Let's talk about the mirror first."
The others were still confused, completely unable to understand what Chi Hao's words had reminded Jing Minghe of, and why Jing Minghe suddenly seemed to have figured everything out.
Just as Jing Minghe was about to tell everyone to get to work, Chi Hao suddenly pulled him into his embrace and asked in a voice only they could hear, "Were you pretending to be stupid just now?"
Jing Minghe didn't react immediately and asked Chi Hao, "What?"
"Nothing," Chi Hao's tone was clearly tinged with displeasure.
"..." What was he angry about again? Boss Chi was truly hard to please.
Jiang Zheng, who was nearby, saw their little interaction and quietly asked Tong Zheng, "Are Jing Minghe and Chi Hao close?"
Tong Zheng smiled bitterly and shook his head. "I'm not very sure about that. You should ask Dr. Youmi. She has spent more time with them."
However, before Jiang Zheng could ask Youmi, he heard Jing Minghe say, "Assemble the mirrors, and then look at the seven seal patterns one by one into the mirror."
"This..." Ke Wuwen asked doubtfully, "Will there be any difference? The seal patterns reflected in the mirror are still seal patterns."
Tong Zheng looked at Ke Wuwen with sympathy. "Kid, with your intelligence, it's better for you to speak less and do more in the future."
Ke Wuwen glared at him, pouted, and said indignantly, "Brother Tong, don't look down on me!"
"I'm not looking down on you," Tong Zheng ruffled Ke Wuwen's hair. "I'm just giving you a suggestion. You're still very capable when it comes to work."
"..." Isn't this looking down on me? Doesn't it mean I'm strong but not smart?
"Alright," Jiang Zheng had placed the mirror Ke Wuwen had assembled earlier in the center of the table for everyone to see. "Let's get to work. We can discuss whether we look down on each other or not when we get back to rest and are alive."
Ke Wuwen squeezed his eyes at Tong Zheng and leaned over the table, staring at the mirror's surface.
Jiang Zheng picked up the cowhide paper with the seal patterns drawn on it, flipped it face down, and placed the first seal pattern neatly in front of the mirror.
As soon as the seal pattern appeared in the mirror, Ke Wuwen let out a yelp and then shouted, "Idol! It's different! It's not the same as what we saw! It's not a strange picture, it's words!"
Jing Minghe had already guessed it and only asked, "What words?"
"This..." Ke Wuwen looked again and said with an embarrassed smile, "I don't seem to recognize them."
"Let me see," Tong Zheng leaned closer and looked carefully. He said to Ke Wuwen, "It's normal for you not to recognize these words. The difficulty is too high."
Ke Wuwen snorted indignantly, "Do you recognize them?"
Tong Zheng raised his eyebrows and smiled. "Of course I do. These two words are pronounced 䖺䗤 (tiaoyong)."
"䖺䗤?" Ke Wuwen recalled the words that appeared near the forehead of the evil spirit that Jing Minghe had mentioned, and their previous analysis in the white space. He said, "Is this also one of the Eight Evil Spirits? What did Brother Chi say? Names of strange beasts from the Classic of Mountains and Seas?"
Jiang Zheng responded, "Yes, 䖺䗤 belongs to the Eastern Classic."
Ke Wuwen counted on his fingers. "The ones possessing Guan Wei and Sister Lin Ling are 鯥 and 青鸐 respectively. Brother Chi said that 鯥 belongs to the Southern Classic and 青鸐 to the Western Classic. Now we have one from the Eastern Classic. We still need the Northern Classic, but even with east, south, west, and north, that's only four."
Tong Zheng reminded Ke Wuwen, "The blood jade pestles have four in each direction: east, south, west, and north."
"Ah, yes," Ke Wuwen said blankly, "What should we do now?"
"Let's keep looking," Youmi said. "After we finish, perhaps we'll understand."
"Right," Ke Wuwen urged, "Brother Zheng, continue quickly."
Jiang Zheng said speechlessly, "But you've been talking the whole time?"
With that said, Jiang Zheng moved the second seal pattern in front of the mirror. "It's 龙蛭 (zhi), also from the Eastern Classic."
Next were 鯥 and 赤鱬 (ru), belonging to the Southern Classic; 赤鷩 (bi) and 青鸐, belonging to the Western Classic; and 诸 (zhu)怀 belonging to the Northern Classic.
Ke Wuwen sequentially noted down all the names and their origins on the seal patterns. "There are two from the east, south, and west respectively, and one is missing from the Northern Classic. This means we are missing one seal pattern?"
Jing Minghe interjected, "It should be so. Where will the last seal pattern be?"
Tong Zheng became more optimistic and said with a smile, "Now that we know the names of the seven evil spirits, we just need to find the corresponding blood jade pestles. As for the last seal pattern, we can look for it while eliminating the other seven evil spirits. This will save more time."
Jiang Zheng agreed, "Yes, the most important thing now is to find the corresponding blood jade pestles first."
"I already have an idea about that," Jing Minghe said. "Now, we just wait for the day and night to change."
Youmi checked the time and said, "There's about an hour left. Everyone has been tired for many days. I'll go to the kitchen over there and make something for everyone to eat. You guys rest for a while first."
Tong Zheng yawned. "That sounds good. Honestly, I'm almost at my limit."