The Treasure Mirror

The Treasure Mirror is a long urban novel by Qidian Chinese Network platinum author Dayan, following Golden Eyes and The Genius Physiognomist. It was serialized on Qidian starting in June 2013 and completed in August 2015, totaling over four million characters; the print edition was published in volumes by Wenxin Publishing House. The title comes from the inherited technique the protagonist obtains, the "Treasure Mirror": teenage Qin Feng, after a sudden change in family fortunes, drifts to a foreign place with his younger sister Qin Jia, and after killing a human trafficker in anger is imprisoned, where he meets the former leader of the Outer Eight Gates, Zai Shi (Aisin Gioro Zai Shi), learns the various skills of the Outer Eight Gates, and inherits the leadership. Thereafter he obtains the complete inheritance from an ancient jade and gradually grows into an internal-school transforming-energy master. The first half of the novel is set in the city, unfolding around the appraisal and misappraisal of antiques, jade, calligraphy and paintings, and bronzes, as well as the "Outer Eight Gates" traditions of the Thousand Gate's setups, the Thief Gate's thefts, the Gu Gate's secret arts, and more (Thousand Gate, Thief Gate, Life-Seizing Gate, Orchid Gate, Spirit-Tuning Gate, Gu Gate, Red Kerchief, Mechanism Gate), writing the survival rules and human warmth and coldness of all walks of life; the second half shifts into secret-realm dungeons and martial cultivation, with the scope ever expanding. The book is on one hand intellectual struggle and breaking setups in the manner of an antique-world intrigue, and on the other the grudges and inheritance of jianghu schools; it is regarded as one of the representative works of the "treasure-appraisal" school of web fiction.