"You have only one chance. You must seize it." Ji Hongdao's tone was grave.
All the students understood. An opportunity like this might come only once in a lifetime.
No matter how composed one's temperament, it was impossible not to feel some nervous anticipation.
Standing before the group, Ji Hongdao took out a spirit talisman, seemingly contacting someone.
A moment later, he nodded and ended the communication.
He retrieved a Mini Tianxuan Mirror from his storage ring and tossed it into the air, where it hung suspended above their heads. Then he produced a silver jade slip and crushed it gently.
Instantly, a chaotic stream of characters erupted from the shattered slip.
Ji Hongdao formed a hand seal, and the characters flew toward the Mini Tianxuan Mirror high above, arranging themselves in a specific sequence.
Li Fan squinted. He saw segments of text flash rapidly across the mirror's surface, one after another.
The characters kept shifting. As the mirror absorbed the text from the jade slip, the previously ordinary-looking Mini Tianxuan Mirror underwent a strange transformation.
Its outline glowed with a faint light, then began to dissolve and vanish.
Freed from its constraints, the mirror's surface rapidly expanded in all directions.
In the blink of an eye, a palm-sized mirror had transformed into a colossal gate, a hundred zhang tall and thirty zhang wide.
The vast, upright mirror surface did not reflect the surrounding scenery. Instead, streams of silvery light swirled within it.
As the group watched this astonishing transformation, Ji Hongdao flew to the front of the mirror and made another hand seal.
A beam of silver light shot from the mirror's surface, enveloping him.
A string of characters flashed across the mirror for an instant before disappearing.
Seemingly having verified Ji Hongdao's identity, the light beam dimmed. Immediately after, a patch of black appeared at the center of the mirror.
It spread in an instant, covering the entire surface.
A rectangular spatial passageway now stood before them.
So, any Tianxuan Mirror can act as a node to open the teleportation passage?
It also seems to require dual verification, both a password and identity confirmation. Li Fan privately speculated based on the previous sequence of events.
"Follow me. You must pass the Tianxuan Mirror's identity verification before you can enter the passageway." With that, Ji Hongdao flew in first.
Brimming with excitement, the trainees eagerly flew forward.
Whenever someone approached the passageway, a silver beam descended from above, locking onto them.
If no anomaly occurred and the beam vanished as suddenly as it appeared, it meant verification was successful.
This seems to share similar principles with the Tianxuan Soul-Locking Array. Li Fan thought, following the others into the spatial passage.
A wave of vertigo struck him. The sensation was eerily similar to ultra-long-distance teleportation, as if spacetime itself were being stretched and one's perceptions distorted.
The next instant, it felt like being ripped free from a membrane encasing his entire skin.
Li Fan tumbled into a bizarre space.
Here, all color was drained away. Everything he could see was in shades of gray and white.
Black lines came shrieking from a distant horizon, some skimming past their bodies, others even passing straight through them, racing toward an infinite beyond.
White lines shot forth, some from above their heads, others from the abyss beneath their feet, streaking ceaselessly in the opposite direction.
Occasionally, a black line and a white line would collide. The two colors would writhe and tangle, ultimately forming a tiny point of nothingness.
These points of nothingness lasted for varying durations. Some persisted for a moment; others remained for several breaths. But in the end, they all ultimately vanished.
Just as the group stood stunned, gazing at this surreal, fantastical scene, a wave of dizziness washed over them. Their perspective suddenly shot up to an infinite height.
They saw that within this seemingly boundless, vast world, the black and white lines moved at incredible speeds, appearing chaotic yet seemingly following some underlying rule.
They collided and merged with one another, while points of nothingness spawned and disappeared in a constant flicker of light and darkness.
Their minds lost in this magnificent spectacle, it was a long while before everyone returned to normal.
"They say all the secrets of the world are hidden within this black and white. A pity my aptitude is too dull to comprehend it," Ji Hongdao's voice sounded beside them, tinged with regret.
"Let's go. The newborn mirror surfaces are just ahead."
Ji Hongdao casually grabbed a passing black line. In an instant, his form followed the line and vanished from their sight.
Seeing this, the students imitated him, each grabbing a black line passing nearby.
As if merging with the black line, the grey world previously operating at high speed slowed to a crawl in Li Fan's eyes.
Using this method, they traveled toward their distant destination.
Whenever they encountered white lines moving above or below, the white lines would actively veer out of the way, as though possessing a will of their own.
Riding this convenient transport, Li Fan marveled at the sights along the journey.
After an unknown length of time, they arrived at the edge of this monochrome world.
The black lines faded and vanished, and the students returned to their original forms one by one.
Ahead was a shimmering, multicolored halo that stood in stark contrast to the grey world.
Perhaps because they had been in this place deprived of color for so long, when Li Fan saw that churning, twisting mass of color not far away, a strange sense of nausea and revulsion welled up within him.
The grey-white and the colors collided and rubbed against each other.
Though no sound was produced, Li Fan could feel two immense forces wrestling, causing space itself to tremble.
In the clash, portions of the colorful light seemed to be sheared off by the grey. Stripped of their original hues, they turned dull and lifeless, floating silently at the edge of the space.
A long time passed, and then a faint glimmer of light seemed to ignite simultaneously upon them.
The formerly grey-white fragments began slowly turning somewhat crystalline, somewhat translucent.
Ji Hongdao said nothing, but all the students understood. What they were witnessing was the birth process of the Tianxuan Mirror's new mirror surfaces.
They all calmed their minds and focused, attentively contemplating the sight.
Li Fan, however, was momentarily stunned. He first surveyed his surroundings, then turned his senses inward to his own body. He couldn't help but fall into deep thought.
The flow of time seemed to accelerate.
Lights flickered incessantly, and all the grey vanished.
One after another, new mirror surfaces were born.
Some remained in place after their birth. Others suddenly disappeared, their destinations unknown. But overall, the vast majority floated at the edges of the grey world.
The number of mirror surfaces grew larger and larger.
Finally, at a certain moment, endless fine threads of black and white surged from the grey world toward the newborn mirrors.
Black and white interwove, like the most exquisite loom, rapidly weaving clothing for these newborn children.
When a mirror surface was completely enveloped by the weave of black and white threads, black and white merged into one in an instant. A sphere with an impossibly smooth surface, with black and white swirling chaotically within, appeared in a flash.
"This," Ji Hongdao's voice rang out at precisely the right moment, "is a hub device of the Tianxuan Soul-Locking Array."
"Did you all get a good look?"
His voice faded away in an instant.
All the surrounding scenes froze. Then, they shattered completely.