Mirror Mirror on the Wall (2)

Li Fei'er followed Shen Minyao's eyes and sensed great negative energy coming from the mirror itself. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. Were they dealing with some kind of demon, or was it a curse? 

There were many legends and superstitions surrounding mirrors. Mirrors were said to be a reflection of the soul. They were traditionally perceived as gateways to the spirits or a threshold between the spirit and the mortal realm. They also served as boundaries and as portals of communication for some people. Some could use mirrors to connect to the spirit realm as desired. 

Furthermore, mirrors were also considered tools to trap or banish spirits. That was why some human customs covered the mirrors within the house of departed ones, to avoid having their spirits trapped inside the mirrors. 

It was also said that mirrors could not lie. They could show only the truth, so it was a bad omen to see something in a mirror, which should not be there. Also, there was a legend that a newborn child should not see a mirror until its first birthday as its soul is still developing. If the child saw their reflection, it was said that it would die.

Since there were so many superstitions involving mirrors, Li Fei'er had no idea what kind of entity she and Shen Minyao were dealing with right now. 

It wasn't the first time she had encountered a haunted mirror. During her apprenticeship with her master, they received a case of a girl who loved collecting mirrors. At a yard sale, she bought one that could cover space from the floor to the ceiling. 

Unfortunately, the mirror started to cause bad luck for her and her family. The entity inside the mirror was making everyone around it sick, including their pets. So she hired Li Fei'er's master to find out what was wrong with her house, only to realize that it was caused by the gigantic mirror she bought at a yard sale. 

"What do we do now? Do you know what it is?" She asked Shen Minyao. If they didn't know what kind of entity they were dealing with, they wouldn't know how to deal with the problem. 

"No," the fox woman admitted. Whenever she thought about mystical or cursed mirrors, she couldn't help but remember the magical mirror that her husband, the emperor, used to reveal her true identity as a nine-tailed fox demon in the past. 

Her face stiffened at that thought. Why was she even thinking about that useless and selfish man? 

"I could only tell that it is a kind of demon that is trapped inside the mirror," she informed Li Fei'er. If they could defeat this demon, perhaps she would be able to feed on its demon core and recover her strength. 

Since retrieving her fox core from Zhao Yichen could kill him, perhaps she needed to consider making another fox orb and cultivate her own energy. But first, she needed to defeat this demon while keeping its demon core away from Li Fei'er. 

"A demon, huh?" Li Fei'er focused her senses towards the mirror, but she couldn't identify what it truly was. 

How could Shen Minyao tell that it was a demon, while she couldn't? Were Shen Minyao's spiritual powers that strong to be able to distinguish the difference between demons and ghosts? 

"So this is where they go, huh." A familiar voice reached Shen Minyao, and she couldn't stop herself from groaning. She turned around and saw the same arrogant grim reaper in his usual black robes, leaning against the wall next to the open window of the hallway. 

"And here I thought I won't be seeing you ever again." She rolled her eyes at the grim reaper. What was he doing here anyway? 

"Well, it's not like I want to see you, too," the grim reaper replied and then glanced at Li Fei'er. He then spoke politely towards her, "It's good to know that you recover well." 

Shen Minyao rolled her eyes again. So he could be polite and friendly towards Li Fei'er, but not her? Was it because she was a demon? 

"So what brings you here, Lord Hell? Do you know what kind of demon we're dealing with?" She asked him. Since her energy was depleting too fast, it would be better if she could consume this demon to stabilize her body's host. 

It was only then the grim reaper noticed Xiao Bai's absence. This was the third time he and this demoness met, but how come every time they saw each other, she was weaker than their previous encounter? 

"Your fatty cat isn't with you?" He asked in return. 

That fatty white cat was strong enough to protect her from otherworldly creatures that could harm her, so why was she on her own with this young shaman of all people? Wasn't she afraid of being exorcised by this shaman?

"What fatty cat?" Li Fei'er turned her head to face Shen Minyao in confusion. What were these two were talking about? 

"No, he isn't with me. I wouldn't bother to ask you what kind of demon it is if he is here with me," Shen Minyao ignored Li Fei'er's question and answered the grim reaper's question. 

"Sorry. I don't know what kind of demon it is, either. I thought you would know better." He shot her a knowing look, keeping her secret from Li Fei'er. 

Shen Minyao scoffed and looked away. With Li Fei'er's current ability, she was still too weak to sense the slight demonic aura coming from Shen Minyao's body. If she found out that the woman standing next to her was a demon, the fox woman wondered what Little Jiu's incarnation would think of her. 

Would the girl try to kill her or exorcise her spirit from her host's body? The fox woman wondered. 

No. She shook her head. Even Li Yun had struggled to separate her spirit from Su Daji's body in the past, and he was the strongest shaman during that era.