"What's wrong?" Su Yuqing waved a hand in front of his eyes. Mu Feng blinked hard, and the illusion vanished. "Nothing, Mystic Pupil is acting up again." He touched the Celestial Master Seal and the Taixu Mirror fragment in his pocket; today, both items felt unusually warm. "Where is Old Zhou?"
"He went to get the invitations." Su Yuqing lowered her voice. "I heard this exhibition of 'Wuhua Tianbao' is featuring three unprecedented national treasures, and it's even alarmed the Palace Museum experts."
Just as she spoke, Old Zhou lifted the curtain and walked in, holding a hot-stamped black card. "Got it, but there's only one." He looked at Mu Feng meaningfully. "Master Chen Si specifically asked to meet 'the young man who saw through Jubao Pavilion's tricks'."
As Mu Feng reached for the card, his Mystic Pupil suddenly stung. A naked-eye-invisible rune on the edge of the card was flashing red.
Instinctively, he drew back his hand. "This invitation is cursed!" Old Zhou's expression shifted. He threw the card onto the table, pulled a small porcelain flask from his tunic, and splashed a few drops of transparent liquid onto the card. The moment the liquid touched the paper, a bloody spider pattern materialized.
"Shiyi Pavilion's tracking curse." Old Zhou drew a sharp breath. "They've really infiltrated Master Chen Si's circle."
Su Yuqing suddenly pulled a jade pendant from the pouch at her waist. "Use this! The concealment spell left by my aunt can temporarily block the tracking." She pressed the jade pendant against the invitation, and the spider pattern instantly distorted and dissipated.
With astonishment, Mu Feng realized that in his Mystic Pupil's vision, this jade pendant emitted energy fluctuations similar to the Taixu Mirror. "This is... a replica of a Taixu Mirror fragment left by my aunt." Su Yuqing quickly stuffed the jade pendant back into her pouch. "It will only hold for three hours, so you must leave the appraisal meeting before then."
Old Zhou retrieved a wooden box from beneath the counter. "Take this. Master Chen Si loves testing people; he will definitely ask you to appraise treasures." Mu Feng opened the box to reveal a pair of seemingly ordinary white gloves, but his Mystic Pupil revealed that golden threads were woven into the glove fibers, forming complex spell patterns.
"Gold-Touch Gloves?" Su Yuqing exclaimed. "Old Zhou, you're even willing to part with these?"
"I can't use them anyway." Old Zhou gave a wry smile. "Only a successor of the Mystic Pupil can activate their true function."
As soon as Mu Feng put on the gloves, a wave of dizziness hit him. The Mystic Pupil automatically scanned the entire room, and all the cultural relics began to "speak." The pair of enameled vases in the cabinet wept over their experience of being separated, and the landscape painting hanging on the wall whispered the location of a buried treasure... The sheer volume of information almost caused Mu Feng to drop to his knees.
"Focus!" Old Zhou caught him by the arm. "The Mystic Pupil isn't meant for looking; it's meant for listening. Imagine you're in a noisy tavern and trying to hear only one person's voice." Mu Feng took a deep breath and tried to focus on the gloves. Sure enough, the other sounds gradually faded, and the gloves transmitted a clear vibration: capable of penetrating seals below the seventh layer, immune to most curses, and lasting for... two incense sticks' time?
"I should get going." Mu Feng glanced at his pocket watch; only half an hour remained before the appraisal meeting started. Su Yuqing suddenly stuffed something into his pocket. "Take this for self-defense." Mu Feng felt around and pulled it out: an exquisite brass key that glowed with a greenish light in his eyes. "What is this?" "The key to Bogu Pavilion's basement." Su Yuqing's gaze flickered. "If... if you can't come back, at least go see what your mother left behind."
Master Chen Si's mansion was tucked deep inside the quietest section of Wutong Lane in Jinling. The moment Mu Feng stepped off the rickshaw, his Mystic Pupil caught an abnormal energy field hovering above the courtyard—not a protective spell, but a kind of screening mechanism where only those carrying specific energy markers could pass. Sure enough, as he approached the gate, two guards in black fitted martial attire blocked his way. One of them held a jade bi and motioned for Mu Feng to place his hand upon it.
"New rules," the guard said coldly. Mu Feng hesitated for a moment, then pressed his right hand, encased in the Gold-Touch Glove, against the jade bi. The jade bi instantly flared with golden light, projecting a blurred character: "Mystic". The guards' expressions changed drastically as they immediately bowed and stepped aside. "Honored guest of the Mystic Gate, please enter."
Passing through three courtyards, Mu Feng was led into a brightly lit grand hall. Inside, more than twenty huanghuali-wood circle chairs were arranged, already occupied by a dozen men and women in varied attire. Mu Feng's Mystic Pupil automatically scanned the room: at least five people carried the black Qi of Shiyi Pavilion, and a young woman in a Western dress had an energy signature of the same origin as the Taixu Mirror wound around her wrist.
"Mr. Lin!" Master Chen Si rose from the main seat to welcome him, having changed into a crisp business suit today. In his hands, he still turned that pair of glowing antique walnuts. "This old man has been waiting a long time."
Mu Feng was about to offer a bow when he suddenly noticed that Master Chen Si's tie clip was a miniature luopan, its needle pointing straight at the Taixu Mirror fragment in his pocket.
"Elder Chen flatters me." Mu Feng maintained his composure as he pressed a hand against his pocket. "This junior simply had some good luck." Master Chen Si laughed heartily and led him to a seat in the front row. "Today's first treasure calls precisely for a talented young scholar like Mr. Lin to lend his eyes."
All eyes in the hall converged upon him at once. Only then did Mu Feng realize his seat was in the very front, right next to the Western-dressed young woman wearing cat's-eye earrings. The young woman blinked at him and whispered in a voice only he could hear, "Don't worry, the fragment in your pocket is quite safe."
Mu Feng stiffened. How did she know about the Taixu Mirror? Before he could react, the lights in the hall suddenly dimmed as four strong men carried a square table draped in red silk onto the central raised platform.
Master Chen Si personally lifted the red silk, revealing a gold-plated Buddhist pagoda. "This is a sarira pagoda brought back from the Western Regions by Master Xuanzang during the Zhenguan era of the Tang dynasty, containing a piece of Buddha bone within." Master Chen Si's voice rang clear. "Use your eyes!" A commotion rippled through the hall.
Mu Feng's Mystic Pupil instantly pierced the outer layer of the pagoda. Beneath the gold-plating lay a fine bronze core, and the craftsmanship was indeed exquisite, but there were no sarira relics inside at all. Instead, it concealed a strange metal mechanism. Even more bizarrely, the base of the pagoda was engraved with the exact same runes as Shiyi Pavilion's black mist.
"Please, Mr. Lin, appraise it first." Master Chen Si called out his name.
Mu Feng put on the Gold-Touch Glove and stepped forward. The moment his fingers brushed the body of the pagoda, a flash of imagery crossed his mind: this pagoda being assembled in a dark workshop, a woman in gold-rimmed glasses stuffing something into the base... The vision snapped shut.
"A fine pagoda." Mu Feng deliberately drew out his tone. "Too bad it's a fake made by 'Gold-Hand Li' in Shanghai in the twenty-sixth year of the Republic." The hall erupted in uproar. A round-framed spectacled elder slammed the table and sprang to his feet. "Impudent brat! This pagoda clearly bears the secret mark of the Tang dynasty imperial palace workshops!" Mu Feng remained unhurried, gently pressing his gloved finger against a spot on the pagoda's body. With a "click," the lotus petals at the top of the pagoda sprang open, revealing the small characters "Li's Antiquities" engraved inside.
"A genuine Tang dynasty gold pagoda has nine tiers of lotus petals; this one only has eight," Mu Feng continued, his Mystic Pupil allowing him to see through every detail. "Moreover, the base of a genuine pagoda should have the Sanskrit character 'Om' personally engraved by Xuanzang, but this one was carved into the character 'Ma'."