In that instant, Long Chen felt his body restrained. The shattered Sky-Blocking Mirror appeared before his eyes again, and his heart skipped a beat.
However, Long Chen soon noticed that when the Sky-Covering Mirror was operating, a small mirror had condensed beneath it.
As the Sky-Covering Mirror rotated, the small mirror kept changing, and crystal after crystal appeared on its back.
Long Chen suddenly understood—this was the process of the mirror's creation. It was actually the evolution of the Sky-Covering Mirror, which eventually became a physical object.
The Sky-Blocking Mirror has no physical form; it is like a portal where one can see the past and future, reflecting the myriad paths of heaven and earth.
No one knows the origin of the Sky-Covering Mirror, nor whether it was formed by itself or artificially made. Everything about it is so mysterious.
Just like the ghost ship, no one knew how it came to be. Neither Emperor Yunshang nor that long-haired senior brother had ever explained the ghost ship. Maybe they didn't know, maybe they knew, but they couldn't say it.
The scene before his eyes vanished, the sense of restraint on Long Chen vanished, and everything returned to its original state. Long Chen reached down from the high platform and took out the mirror.
Looking into the mirror, he couldn't see his own figure, only a vast, boundless void, with stars twinkling and endless mystery.
"Whoosh...
Long Chen grabbed the mirror and waved it twice in the void, noticing nothing unusual about it.
"Buzz!"
Long Chen channeled his soul power into it, and suddenly the mirror radiated divine light. Startled, Long Chen quickly shifted it to the side.
"Sss!"
A beam of light shot out from the mirror, piercing into the void. The light was extremely strange; wherever it shone, all the star fragments instantly turned to nothingness.
"Whoosh."
Long Chen hurriedly withdrew his soul power, and the mirror returned to its original form. Long Chen was drenched in sweat, shaken by lingering fear.
"I almost killed myself."
Just now, Long Chen was facing the mirror and never expected that infusing soul power into it would trigger such a terrifying attack, nearly piercing his own head.
Long Chen turned the mirror around and saw several strange natural symbols on the back, though he had no idea what they were used for.
"It seems this is a divine artifact that uses soul supremacy. Unfortunately, my soul power isn't refined enough and can't be fully controlled. With a casual strike, most of my soul power is drained, wasting ninety percent of my soul power. It seems this treasure should be studied by Mengqi; perhaps she can figure out the true way to use it." Long Chen thought to himself.
Long Chen's soul power was no weaker than anyone else's, but he was not a soul cultivator. In fact, he had once thought about training soul techniques with Meng Qi to truly unleash his soul power.
Right now, Long Chen is like a beggar, possessing only a mountain of gold but not knowing how to use it.
But after learning from Mengqi for a while, Long Chen gave up, because the first step to mastering it is to quiet the soul, which Long Chen simply couldn't do.
Other people's soul power is like a lake—wind rises and waves swell, and calm is still to achieve soul tranquility.
But Long Chen couldn't. His soul power was like a never-flowing river, never stopping. If his soul power wasn't calm, it would be out of control.
And none of the cultivation methods on the Tianwu Continent target this kind of soul power, so they can only give up cultivating soul arts and treat them as auxiliary power.
Even the long-haired senior brother said this mirror was a valuable item, showing how much he valued it. Long Chen couldn't study it and could only pin his hopes on Mengqi.
"The void is boundless, scattered like stars. I'll call you the Void Mirror." Long Chen examined the mirror repeatedly, gave it a name, and put it away.
He put away the Void Mirror, and suddenly the void ahead trembled, forming a vortex. The shattered Sky-Covering Mirror actually reappeared.
However, the Heaven-Covering Mirror had just formed and no longer showed the terrifying phenomena it had before.
Long Chen suddenly understood. The Sky-Covering Mirror was like a tree, and the Void Mirror was its fruit. After the fruit was picked, it underwent a new life, and who knew how many years later, it would condense a new Void Mirror.
"Buzz"—
the space around him trembled, the surrounding phenomena vanished, and a staircase appeared before Long Chen's eyes. He actually retreated back to the eighth floor of the pagoda.
"Looks like the treasure was obtained, so you let me go."
Long Chen nodded and walked in the direction he had come from. Sure enough, the steps leading down the stairs appeared.
Long Chen descended the stairs and reached the seventh floor. Countless vengeful spirits immediately surged toward him. Long Chen hurriedly struck with his blade, slaughtering wildly all the way. The lower the floor, the weaker the attack power of those vengeful spirits.
"Whew"
When Long Chen left the pagoda, the surrounding vengeful spirits had become semi-transparent. These vengeful spirits attacked each other but couldn't harm him.
Long Chen gazed up at the pagoda and couldn't help but sigh deeply. An emperor of his generation, no matter how much he was lost, would eventually perish.
The Nine-Star successor, also activating the Five-Star Battle Body, yet his combat power was countless times greater. Yet he died on the battlefield, his soul drifting, nowhere to settle, unable even to die.
Even if they stand tall and strong, they will ultimately die. Whether it is Emperor Yun Shang or that long-haired senior brother, neither knows how much stronger they are than Long Chen, yet in the end, they cannot escape destruction.
"Is there really no one in this world who can achieve immortality?" Do immortals really exist in this world? Long Chen looked at the pagoda, his heart heavy with emotion.
Emperor Yun Shang and that long-haired senior brother said nothing, and Long Chen could only draw a hint of inspiration from the fragments of his words.
But with just this faint revelation, it was impossible to solve the heaven-shrouding mystery before him. Long Chen felt as if he were caught in an enormous chessboard, and he was at a loss.
Suddenly, Long Chen laughed loudly toward the sky: "Whether gods or immortals, that's not what I want. What I pursue is not immortality, but my beloved brothers roam the world, free and unrestrained."
If we can live one more day, we are happy and joyful for a day; if we can live for a year, we live carefree for a year. Even if tomorrow is the end of life, we can still smile proudly in the world. All
the troubles Long Chen had caused by Emperor Yunshang and that long-haired senior brother vanished with that smile.
The future is too far away; it's better to enjoy the present. Even if it means struggling to cross amid endless currents, at least for now, Long Chen still has everything he wants.
Long Chen glanced in the direction and headed straight for the stern of the ship. At this moment, he didn't know how Yuntian was doing; he had to hurry to the stern to join the group.
There were still many buildings nearby, but Long Chen didn't enter them because Yun Tian said there might not be enough time.
Long Chen had no idea how much time he had wasted inside the pagoda. He had to get off the ghost ship before it broke out of the Star Domain Divine Realm, or else he'd be transported into an unknown space-time and be forever separated from everyone—that would be truly terrifying.
"Whoosh"
With every step
Long Chen took, different scenes appeared—some peaceful, some bloody, some joyful singing and dancing, others fierce slaughter.
The same large ship seems to be constantly traveling through time and space, witnessing scenes of people from different eras living on board.
Children are running and playing, their laughter so pleasant it seems to take people back to childhood.
At times, countless people could be seen offering sacrifices to the void, praying devoutly in languages Long Chen could not understand.
In one corner, Long Chen even discovered a man and a woman creating humans under the starry sky, leaving Long Chen stunned.
But Long Chen walked too fast, and the scene flashed by, leaving him unable to see the details clearly.
Long Chen stopped and looked around, but there was no one else on the screen.
"No one will see it anyway." Long Chen secretly took another step back.
Unfortunately, even though he took a step back and the distance was exactly the same, the scene he wanted to see again never returned; instead, it was replaced by another scene of fierce battle.
"Pah, not even giving me a chance to study."
Long Chen cursed inwardly, blaming himself for leaving too quickly. Once missed, he could never find it again.
Long Chen sped up, speeding toward the stern of the ship, because he realized the danger here was much lower. The strong fighters fighting here weren't that strong and didn't fear being attacked.
Long Chen sped to the stern of the ship, and the scene before him changed again. Countless powerful figures clad in black armor were seen charging at Long Chen with weapons in hand.
"Long Chen, get off the ship."
Long Chen hadn't yet understood what was happening when suddenly, in the distant void, someone let out an anxious roar—it was Mo Nian.
Only then did Long Chen realize that he was already in the outside world. The ghost ship was hovered above the void, surrounded by an endless army of black armor.
"Roar!"
Long Chen hadn't fully understood what was happening before the black-armored army was already charging at him.
"Devouring Heaven Black Armor Army."
Long Chen's heart tightened. These black-armored warriors were completely clad in black armor, yet they exuded a strong aura of death. They showed no signs of life, and Long Chen suddenly thought of a bad possibility.
"The Devouring Heaven Black Armor Army has been resurrected. It must have been Ye Ming's doing. He must have fully mastered the dark power of the Devouring Heaven Evil Lord." Dragon Bone Xie Yue said in a deep voice, his voice carrying a hint of gravity.
"Whoosh"
Long Chen jumped off the ghost ship, wielding the Dragonbone Evil Moon, and charged toward the endless Devouring Heaven Black Armored Army.
"Puff puff puff puff... The
Dragonbone Evil Moon slashed fiercely, slaughtering the Devouring Heaven Black Armor soldiers one after another, turning into a vast black mist.
"Rumble rumble rumble...
As heaven and earth trembled, Long Chen saw a massive chain dragging a colossal creature. That colossal creature was none other than a massive Ten Thousand Dragon Nest.
At this point, the Ten Thousand Dragon Nest was riddled with holes, reduced to a wreckage that scraped against the ghost ship's anchor.
The remains of the Ten Thousand Dragon Nest were stuck atop two boundless mountains, trembling continuously, cracks already covering both peaks.
Those two peaks were pitch black, as if forged from steel, unmatched in strength. But these towering peaks were already covered in cracks and seemed unable to hold up.
"Boom!"
Sure enough, there was a loud explosion. The mountain shattered, and the ghost ship, carrying the remains of the Ten Thousand Dragon Nest, sped away, disappearing into the endless dark torrent.