What if there was an entity behind this, using them to transmit false information, impersonating Ye Tiancheng and the little fox? Could they truly distinguish between the two?
It was a precarious situation.
Nie Chongyang pondered, but ultimately, he could think of no better solution.
He could only say to Liang Ping, "Then there's nothing more we can do but wait. Once we get the results from Ye Tiancheng and the others, we'll know what to do next."
"Let's see if we can get any news by tomorrow morning."
Liang Ping was also at a loss and could not offer any more constructive suggestions.
He went to the place where they had contacted Ye Tiancheng and checked. There were no issues with the traces. The note they had left that morning was gone.
If this was the correct location, it meant Ye Tiancheng and the others had taken the note on time, and the time difference between the two parties would not be significant, likely very close.
If this was the wrong place, then the absence of the note was also normal.
It all depended on whether they could receive news from Ye Tiancheng and the others tomorrow.
The two rested uneasily throughout the night, but nothing else happened. The night was relatively peaceful.
However, due to their nervous state, Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping did not sleep well. By the time morning arrived, they were already awake.
Once awake, it was difficult to fall back asleep.
Unable to rest, Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping gathered at their usual message exchange spot, anxiously waiting for news from Ye Tiancheng and the others.
However, to their surprise, as dawn was still breaking, they spotted a familiar lunchbox at the message exchange spot.
The lunchbox appeared even older than before.
Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping exchanged a glance, then immediately picked up the lunchbox and opened it. Inside, they found a note with familiar handwriting, containing the information Ye Tiancheng and the little fox had sent them.
It turned out that Ye Tiancheng and the little fox, realizing the gravity of the situation, had also been unable to rest well. The little fox, worried, had dragged Ye Tiancheng along, and together they had spent the night sorting through new clues and their deductions, writing everything down in detail.
Then, before dawn, Ye Tiancheng and the little fox, hoping that Nie Chongyang and the others would receive the news as soon as possible, quietly left their hotel and went to the burnt ruins, placing the written clues there.
To their surprise, the moment they sent the items, they vanished.
This situation only occurred because Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping were coincidentally waiting at the same spot in another timeline.
The little fox hesitated and asked Ye Tiancheng, "Brother, do you think something else might have gotten it? It's still so early, how could they be there already?"
Ye Tiancheng frowned, feeling they should observe further.
He said to the little fox, "No need to rush. Let's wait and see. If it's really them, they'll reply. It's a good thing they received the message earlier."
The little fox nodded and said, "That's true."
"I'm just afraid they won't receive the message and fall into a trap."
In the midst of this brief conversation, the little fox suddenly saw a new note appear at the message exchange spot.
It turned out that Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping, fearing Ye Tiancheng and the others might worry, and also wanting to indicate that they were there and available for contact.
As for the clues sent by Ye Tiancheng and the little fox, due to the sheer volume of writing, Nie Chongyang and the others couldn't finish reading them all at once; it would take some time to go through the contents.
Before reading the message, they needed to confirm their safety.
Seeing the content of the note, the little fox felt a little more at ease, knowing that Nie Chongyang and the others were safe.
As long as Nie Chongyang and the others had received the clues and were vigilant, they likely wouldn't encounter trouble easily.
During this time, Ye Tiancheng and the little fox would have more time to continue finding ways to help them escape their current predicament.
Most importantly, how could they satisfy the activation conditions for the Kunlun Mirror?
Both Ye Tiancheng and the little fox believed that for them to reunite, the Kunlun Mirror had to be activated.
On this point, they had virtually no doubts.
Upon receiving the clues from Ye Tiancheng, Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping realized that many new developments had occurred.
Furthermore, Ye Tiancheng and his group had come for the fragments of the Fuxi Qin. Now, there were still no clues about the whereabouts of the Fuxi Qin fragments, and they were trapped here. Yet, Ye Tiancheng had supposedly found a new divine artifact, the Kunlun Mirror?
What a strange turn of events.
Although Nie Chongyang and the others were not entirely sure of the functions of a divine artifact like the Kunlun Mirror, they suspected that their current predicament was likely related to that mirror.
Considering that the space they had visited before was called "Xiao Jing City," such an obvious connection was hard to ignore.
If they were inside the mirror, it would make sense.
Mirrors were common spatial artifacts, and if it was the divine artifact Kunlun Mirror, the probability would be even higher.
They wondered who was manipulating everything behind the scenes. Could it be the Kunlun Mirror itself causing trouble?
Had the Kunlun Mirror become sentient?
Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping were unaware that while the Kunlun Mirror might not have become sentient, it didn't mean it couldn't cause trouble on its own.
After all, Ye Tiancheng also possessed another divine artifact, the Nuwa Stone.
The Nuwa Stone had its own consciousness and thoughts, able to communicate with Ye Tiancheng, help him, and influence his decisions.
How could one say that divine artifacts were completely incapable of acting on their own?
If the Kunlun Mirror itself was causing trouble, it wasn't entirely impossible.
Unfortunately, Ye Tiancheng would not admit to possessing the Nuwa Stone, and Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping would not inquire about it. Therefore, Nie Chongyang and the others would, at least for now, remain unaware of these matters.
However, regarding Ye Tiancheng's deduction that what happened to Ding Yijie might have been a setup with a hidden manipulator behind it, Nie Chongyang and the others strongly agreed.
Because Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping themselves had already realized this.
As they investigated, they had sensed the shadow of a manipulator behind the scenes, but they were unable to track them down.
While they couldn't be entirely certain before, now that even Ye Tiancheng had reached this conclusion, Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping felt the probability was even higher.
Then, they saw that Ye Tiancheng and the little fox suggested that the commonality behind everything was Lin Yanqin. After Lin Yanqin's accident, someone who cared about her, unwilling to see her die, wished to revive her and thus borrowed the power of the Kunlun Mirror, leading to the current outcome.
If they worked backward from this, there were essentially only two possibilities.
Either the person who wanted to revive Lin Yanqin encountered constant difficulties and eventually resorted to other means, manipulating others to achieve their goal.
Or there was another reason.
Someone with a similar objective, and another person aiming to help Ding Yijie, perhaps guided by chance, learned of the Kunlun Mirror, wishing to revive Ding Yijie with it, and did something similar. The combination of these events, through entangled karma, triggered everything.
This also led to Ye Tiancheng and the little fox, as well as Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping, being sent to different timelines.
From a karmic perspective, Ye Tiancheng and his group were more deeply intertwined with Lin Yanqin. Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping, on the other hand, had a familial relationship with Ding Yijie. Moreover, at that time, Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping were not with Ye Tiancheng and the others, thus they were sent to another timeline.
Now, Ye Tiancheng, despite finding the Kunlun Mirror and obtaining it, could not activate it.
The Kunlun Mirror's prompt indicated insufficient conditions.
It seemed that Ye Tiancheng and his group had few remaining clues, so it was highly probable that this condition needed to be met by Nie Chongyang and his group.
Ye Tiancheng and the little fox also shared their thoughts.
They believed that the conditions for Nie Chongyang's group should be closely related to Ding Yijie.
Indeed, in the end, the threads of the matter had to connect to the core figures. Ye Tiancheng and the little fox carefully explained the concept of core figures to Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping.
This was to ensure they could understand.
After reading all the clues, Nie Chongyang and the others had to admit that their thinking had expanded considerably.
Looking at it this way, they had more ideas and a vague direction in mind. However, to resolve their situation, they still needed help from Ye Tiancheng and the others.
Therefore, after reading the clues, Nie Chongyang and the others took out their paper and finally roughly recounted what had happened on their end, and also expressed all their thoughts regarding the clues sent by Ye Tiancheng and the others.
Furthermore, based on their shared insights, Nie Chongyang and the others made some additions based on their own clues.
Liang Ping meticulously wrote down the more detailed situation regarding Ding Yijie, so that Ye Tiancheng and the others could know and perhaps have better ideas.
Ye Tiancheng and the little fox waited for a considerable time to receive Nie Chongyang's reply.
During this period, they did not feel too anxious.
One reason was that Nie Chongyang and the others had already confirmed their safety. Another reason was that Nie Chongyang and the others had stated that it would take time to review the clues and then reply.
Moreover, Ye Tiancheng and the little fox themselves knew how much substantial information they had sent, and it would certainly not be a matter of moments for Nie Chongyang and the others to read and understand it all.
Therefore, they waited patiently for a while. When they finally saw a reply coming back, they went to retrieve the new message.