Unable to think of an immediate way to escape, Shi Yu lowered her eyes and stepped forward. She happened to want to know what had occurred after she fell unconscious—how the red fox had spared her, and whether any unexpected twists had happened in between. Perhaps she could catch a glimpse of it through this treasure mirror.
Standing before the treasure mirror, she let the beam of light envelop her while looking toward the mirror's surface along with everyone else.
Images began to flicker across the treasure mirror.
They saw the young woman in the mirror walk up to a sword wall, brushing her fingers across the sword marks before attempting to comprehend a sword technique from them, gesturing with her hands. However, this movement did not last long. She shook her head, turned away from the sword wall entirely, and sat cross-legged in the center of the stone room to meditate and cultivate.
After that, the image in the mirror seemed to freeze, remaining entirely still. Everyone waited for a long time, but Shi Yu never changed her posture.
Her decisive choice to give up on the trial drew scornful laughter from some and deep admiration from others.
“She gave up after trying for only half a day. Someone with so little perseverance, impetuous and impatient, will never achieve much on the path to the Dao.”
“Is that so? I think she's quite decisive. She knows when to push forward and when to let go—a mindset most ordinary people can't match.”
“With an inheritance right before her eyes, being able to recognize that it wasn't meant for her and severing that desire on the spot is truly no easy feat.”
...
Listening to the quiet murmurs around him and seeing that the mirror remained stuck on Shi Yu meditating, the thin cultivator lost his patience. He released his hand seal, allowing the light beam from the treasure mirror to slowly fade, before impatiently waving his hand at Shi Yu. “Alright, move along.”
Shi Yu nodded slightly and walked to the side, thinking to herself, What a pity.
If they had watched a bit longer, they would have reached the moment when the owner of the realm—the red fox—came to attack her.
Shi Yu subtly glanced over the rather unusual treasure mirror, thinking, I should find a way to make use of this mirror.
If she did not figure out what the red fox had done to her, a hidden danger would always hang over her, leaving her unable to rest easy.
But for now, the urgent matter was Qingzhou, who had obtained the Nine Nether Sword and received the inheritance. How were they going to bypass the covetous gazes of these people?
Inside a secret realm like this, Teleportation Talismans were restricted by the owner's lingering will and could not be used. Otherwise, things would have been simple—they could have quietly teleported out of the inner hall to put distance between themselves and the crowd before finding another way to flee.
But now...
Seeing the inner hall's entrance blocked and knowing the thin cultivator and several of his companions were mostly at the late-stage Foundation Establishment Realm, forced resistance would be difficult given the vast difference in strength.
Shi Yu's eyes flickered, and the circulation of spiritual energy within her body subtly accelerated, preparing her for battle.
She had already successfully converted the dual Yin-Yang Qi. Now, inside her dantian, the spiritual liquid formed a spirit lake shaped like a Taiji Yin-Yang fish, with spiritual energy flowing endlessly without pause. Compared to cultivators of the same realm, her endurance when casting spells was dramatically higher. Although directly confronting the thin cultivator and his group presented a grim disparity in power, if she used every technique at her disposal, there was still room for maneuver.
...
Shifting his gaze away from Shi Yu, the thin cultivator finally looked toward Qingzhou. Having found no results after so long, he had lost his patience, his expression turning gloomy and displeased as he gestured to Qingzhou. “You, come here.”
Qingzhou's pupils slitted slightly, which went unnoticed by the others. He walked before the treasure mirror and stood beneath the cascading beam of light.
Blurry images began to appear on the treasure mirror. As the thin cultivator injected spiritual energy into it, the scenes gradually became clear.
In the mirror, a slender yet sturdy youth stood three feet away from the sword wall, contemplating the countless crisscrossing sword marks, some deep and some shallow, before his eyes.
Holding two fingers together in a sword gesture, he vaguely mimicked the lines of the sword marks.
Qingzhou looked young and emanated an aura merely at the early-stage Foundation Establishment Realm. His actions were no different from what others had done upon entering the sword wall stone room. Thus, no one expected him to be the inheritor, their gazes bypassing him to repeatedly glance at the remaining few cultivators who had yet to be checked by the mirror and appeared far stronger and more experienced.
Those few cultivators, receiving looks of hostility, envy, and jealousy from the crowd, felt bitter inside. They wished they were the fortunate ones, but unfortunately...
Inside the treasure mirror, one could see an overwhelming number of sword marks on the wall. The sword intent contained within seemed endless, giving the impression that picking any few at random could combine into a sword technique. In fact, that was true; a few marks could form a single stance. A sword cultivator with exceptional comprehension could likely combine dozens or even hundreds of stances from the wall in an instant.
However, while combining individual sword stances was easy, assembling them into a cohesive set powerful enough to defeat Senior White Bones was extraordinarily difficult—it was no exaggeration to call it as hard as scaling the heavens.
Most of the time, the comprehended stances were either too weak, or, despite being strong, could not seamlessly form a complete set of sword arts...
In the mirror, Qingzhou gradually stopped gesturing, seemingly realizing that trying to combine stances like this yielded little result. As time passed and the images skipped ahead, he remained standing before the sword wall like a statue, his eyes half-closed as if half-asleep.
Seeing this, the surrounding cultivators curled their lips in disdain, assuming that like Shi Yu earlier, the youth had simply given up on the trial.
“Hurry up and move to the next one, there's nothing to see here.”
Someone chimed in impatiently, “We're all in a hurry to leave. Let's get this over with quickly so we can see if we can find other opportunities in the secret realm.”
“Exactly.”
The thin cultivator did not say a word. Instead, he narrowed his eyes and closely scrutinized Qingzhou, a hint of suspicion in his expression.
Shi Yu knew something was wrong: This cultivator possesses formidable strength; he has likely noticed something off about Qingzhou.
Her eyes met Qingzhou's in midair, and Shi Yu gave a subtle nod. She then exchanged a glance with Mo Tong and Ji Yu, slipping her hand back into her sleeve to draw out the Hidden Hatred Flute.
Right at that moment, her glabella suddenly flared scalding hot. Shi Yu felt as though something were growing from between her eyebrows. At the same time, a strange sense of control over the entire underground palace secret realm surged within her. It felt as if, in that single instant, she held a bird's-eye view of the vast secret realm in its entirety.
Before she could figure out what was happening, an epiphany struck her. Her lips parted, and she silently recited an incantation that even she herself did not understand.
As the final word of the incantation left her lips, the palace belonging to Senior White Bones began to shake and tremble violently, showering down massive showers of broken jade and roof tiles.
“What's going on?!” This sudden upheaval left everyone alarmed and uncertain.
“The palace is going to collapse!”
Watching the massive stone pillars supporting the inner hall crack into spreading fissures with brilliant light leaking from within as their outer layers sloughed off, everyone's expressions changed. Shouts to flee echoed through the air. The thin cultivator's companions also looked at one another in predicament before turning to the thin cultivator. “Big Brother! We have to go, the inner hall is about to collapse!”
Staring fixedly at the images inside the treasure mirror, the thin cultivator shouted, “Nobody leaves!”
If a palace constructed from spiritual materials and reinforced by array formations collapsed, the destruction would far exceed that of an ordinary building falling. The thin cultivator's words brought the scene to a temporary standstill.
But this stalemate did not last long. The inner hall continued to disintegrate, and a massive piece of spiritual material landed squarely on the treasure mirror, instantly halting the images within it.
The thin cultivator let out a pained cry and lunged forward in anguish over his treasure.
Seizing the opportunity, Shi Yu spoke decisively: “Go!”
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