Ling Xiao, Dijun, and Taiyi carved their way into the battlefield like three Great Suns, their presence acting as a deterrent to all directions and instantly vaporizing the surrounding crowd. Ordinary mighty experts, sensing the searing pressure, dared not even approach their orbit.
The Three Crows moved as a single, unified front, pushing their way relentlessly through the fray toward the divine object suspended in the endless deep space atop the immortal island.
The scene had devolved into a massive, desperate free-for-all; any being that managed to close the distance to the divine object was immediately met with a localized storm of violent attacks, besieged by the collective envy of all the mighty experts.
With the Hongmeng Cauldron anchored firmly atop his head, Ling Xiao repelled wave after wave of desperate attackers with every casual movement. He appeared remarkably relaxed, his posture composed even as the world screamed in violence around him.
Contrasting his steady advance were the Three Pure Ones, who moved through the battlefield with a crushing authority. They found no worthy opponents, as everything in their path—be it magic treasures or living flesh—was systematically ground to dust.
"The supreme treasure has finally revealed itself! Is it... a mirror?"
Suddenly, a mighty expert let out a guttural roar. The floating shroud of Chaos spiritual light atop the immortal island began to dissipate and shatter like frosted glass, revealing a mirror entwined with thick ribbons of Chaos Qi.
This simple, ancient Chaos mirror began to spin incessantly. Its surface projected brilliant, crystalline rays of light that scattered in every direction like a fragmented star. Every mighty expert struck by this radiance froze mid-motion, their expressions turning blank and hollow as if their Divine Souls had been instantly siphoned away.
"I... I saw it. I saw scenes of my past life, this current life, the past, the present, and the future all reflected in that mirror!" one expert exclaimed, his voice trembling as he fell into a deep, hallucinatory stupor.
"My past life... was I actually a Chaos Demon God?"
"Was I truly slapped to death by the Great God Pangu?"
The expert looked utterly shell-shocked, his eyes flickering with a mixture of grief and madness, caught between an urge to weep and a hysterical need to laugh.
One by one, the mighty experts fell into a profound state of confusion, standing like statues as they stared blankly at the mirror suspended in the high sky.
Ling Xiao was also watching. Blurry scenes and shifting images flowed across the mirror's surface—vivid, private things that only he was permitted to see.
After a long moment, Ling Xiao's expression shifted into one of genuine surprise, his eyes reflecting a rare flicker of disbelief at what the mirror whispered to his soul.
Finally, the chaotic images looped back to their starting point and washed out into a pure, blinding white; the visions vanished as quickly as they had come.
In that same instant, the fundamental information regarding the artifact flooded into his mind.
"The Grand Void Mirror!"
"An Innate Supreme Treasure!"
It possessed the terrifying power to reverse the flow of time and space, allowing a master to observe the ancient past and the distant future. Its potential applications were infinite.
It was a supreme treasure of the auxiliary type; while it did not excel in raw offensive power or absolute defense, its mysterious properties were beyond compare.
"Why did I suddenly receive the core information of this treasure? Could it have already acknowledged me as its master?"
The thought crossed Ling Xiao's mind, but it was quickly replaced by a strange realization as he looked at the fanatical expressions on the faces of the others.
He had overthought the matter.
It seemed he was far from the only one who had been granted this knowledge.
The mirror was a fickle entity; it had chosen to broadcast its origins and its wondrous uses to every soul present.
It was no wonder the gathered experts looked so fanatical and covetous. An Innate Supreme Treasure was a transcendent prize; even a Saint would likely find it difficult to maintain their composure in its presence.
Only the few Ancestral Witches present looked at one another with expressions of dull confusion. They felt nothing and saw nothing in the light, appearing completely out of place amidst the surrounding spiritual delirium.
"Did you see anything at all? Why have they all suddenly turned into lunatics?" Ju Mang asked, his tone laced with a bewildered uncertainty.
"Nothing. I thought I saw my own reflection in the mirror, and I looked rather handsome, didn't I?" Qiang Liang said, touching his own coarse, ugly cheek. He wondered to himself: Surely these fellows aren't losing their minds over a reflection? Is it truly worth it?
"We are Innate-ly incomplete in soul, so it is only natural that there are things we cannot perceive. It is possible they have glimpsed the ultimate secrets of the mirror, which is driving them to madness," Hou Tu said seriously, her eyes reflecting a touch of envy.
Such an extraordinary treasure was before them, yet they lacked the spiritual foundation to use it. Even if they snatched it away, it would do nothing but sit idle in their halls.
The only possible benefit would be the slight tether of Luck it might provide to the Witch Race.
At that moment, the blinding light of the Grand Void Mirror began to recede. The beings who had been illuminated by its glow gradually regained their senses, and the silence was instantly replaced by a violent commotion.
"Ah! This treasure shares a predestined fate with me! None of you shall dare to fight me for it!" a mighty expert roared, his mind clearly still delirious from the vision. He charged toward the Grand Void Mirror, disregarding all caution and safety.
"Bastard! I am the one with the predestined fate!"
In an instant, the great battle resumed with a renewed, desperate intensity. Men fought with their very lives on the line. The Void Realm surrounding the Three Immortals Island was pummeled so severely it was almost beaten back to its primordial origin, the aura of total destruction saturating the air.
The Quasi-Saint level experts no longer held back their strength. The Three Pure Ones, the Yao Race, the male and female immortals, the Western Duo, and the Ancestral Witches all struck out with world-shaking force.
Experts as numerous as the stars in the firmament were knocked out of the sky and into the East Sea one after another, their falling bodies kicking up waves tens of thousands of feet high.
As more competitors were purged from the air, the number of contenders dwindled to a handful of titans.
Ling Xiao continued to move, repelling the blind fools who dared to cross his path.
Around his form, the power of the Law surged in visible tides, making his silhouette glow with a divine radiance. Between his gestures, there was an immeasurable Divine Power—a force capable of severing the connections of three thousand worlds.
Soon, he found his path blocked by the East King Duke and the Queen Mother of the West. The heads of the male and female immortals had joined forces, acting as a unified front to sweep through the competition.
"Golden Crow, was it you who delivered that beating to Empty Abyss that day?"
The East King Duke gripped his dragon-head crutch tightly. From the descriptions provided by Empty Abyss, he had correctly determined that the one responsible for the humiliation was Ling Xiao.
The one known as Zi Wei was merely the boy standing at Ling Xiao's side.
"So what if it was?" Ling Xiao said casually, his gaze already drifting elsewhere. He saw Dijun and Taiyi engaged in a fierce standoff against the Two Sages of the West; they were fighting with such intensity that the sky had turned dark and the celestial bodies seemed to lose their luster.
Fortunately, his brothers held the clear upper hand; the Western Duo was proving to be no match for the suns' brilliance.
"Ling Xiao! You actually dare to ignore me in my presence?" The East King Duke's face twisted into a mask of grim fury.
"Do you still harbor even a shred of respect for the appointed heads of the male and female immortals?"
"Fellow Daoist Queen Mother of the West, let us strike as one. If we are to obtain the Grand Void Mirror, we must first clear all obstacles in our path."
The East King Duke spoke with a tone of righteous indignation, attempting to use the Queen Mother's strength to bolster his own against Ling Xiao.
It was not necessarily that he believed he couldn't win, but he knew that having an extra helper would ensure a more leisurely, certain victory.
After all, there were two more Golden Crows to deal with later. By pulling the Queen Mother onto his front and eventually adding Ming He to the mix, would the battle not be as good as won?
In his mind, every calculation was perfect.
The Queen Mother of the West hesitated; her intuition screamed that this was a catastrophic choice.
But Ling Xiao had already made the decision for her. To him, fighting one opponent or two made no difference at all.
Whether the Queen Mother was truly in league with the East King Duke was a detail that mattered not.
With a cold shout, Ling Xiao's eyes erupted. The beams of light shooting from his pupils were ten thousand miles long. His thick, black hair whipped toward the sky, and within his irises, the trajectories of the sun and moon rotated in a celestial dance, accompanied by the flickering of dying stars—the very traces of the Dao.
Behind him, a golden Dharma Idol manifested, its sheer scale blotting out the sun. A giant hand evolved from the Law itself slapped down from the heavens.
"I..." The Queen Mother of the West was struck dumb. She had not even finished preparing her own technique before Ling Xiao moved. Did he simply disregard her existence, or did he fundamentally misunderstand her presence as a threat?
There was no more time for thought; Ling Xiao's attack had already arrived with the weight of a collapsing world.
The two heads manifested their Magic Treasures and struck out with every ounce of their strength.
Vast tides of Dharmic power collided. A brilliant, blinding divine glow erupted at the point of impact, followed immediately by a terrifying, withered silence—like the sound of an entire Star Domain disintegrating into the void.
That sudden, brilliant light forced every being on the island to shield their eyes. The subsequent, terrifying darkness was so absolute it nearly caused the Divine Souls of weaker cultivators to sink into eternal oblivion.
The observers barely had time to process the sight; they had not expected Ling Xiao to instantly engage both the East King Duke and the Queen Mother of the West, fighting two of the world's highest authorities at once.
"Pfft!"
Soon, emerging from the heart of the destruction, two figures were hurled backward. The East King Duke and the Queen Mother of the West were deathly pale, blood staining the corners of their mouths, their eyes wide with a newfound horror.
Ling Xiao stood tall amidst the roiling Chaos, looking like a primordial Chaos Demon God, the beams of light radiating from his eyes terrifyingly fierce and unyielding.