Within the Mirror World.
Floating clouds rose and fell, the great sun hung high in the sky, gray mists scattered, and the radiance of divine abilities appeared one after another.
When Li Ximing broke through to the Purple Mansion Realm, the talisman seeds immediately gave feedback. Spiritual dew drifted like nectar within the Mirror World, as vitality surged and the entire realm seemed to come alive, bursting with radiant colors.
Lu Jiangxian's figure emerged in the heavens. Bright, gleaming immortal halls and towers, with rippling lakes and drifting mists stretched beneath his feet . Occasionally, a few stone spirits darted through the palaces, forming a scene of celestial splendor.
"The Purple Mansion Realm has finally been achieved," muttered Lu Jiangxian.
Li Ximing's breakthrough took over ten years. The process of advancing his Immortal Foundation into the Shenyang acupoint had few obstacles, and he had passed the Ignorance stage with the aid of talisman seeds. Yet the rest was still arduous. In Lu Jiangxian's eyes, his success contained an element of luck.
Li Ximing's Dao heart was not weak. Years of cultivation and the tempering of worldly affairs had refined his temperament further. Thus, throughout the process of forging his divine ability, the greatest threat had not been endless illusions, but rather that single instant of accumulating the divine ability.
Li Ximing had studied the Radiant Essence Scripture, read the nine secret techniques, and cultivated three of them. With the blessing of the Radiant Sky Stone, his chances of forging a divine ability were only about fifty percent.
Yet Li Ximing himself felt nothing unusual in that brief instant when he had successfully forged the Heaven-Venerating Gate. In truth, it had been far more perilous than he realized.
"For Li Ximing to succeed is, in the end, a good thing... Li Zhouwei has drawn the dangerous gaze of the masses away from him..."
Li Ximing's breakthrough had also greatly nourished the Immortal Mirror itself. Although Lu Jiangxian could use the Bright Radiant Yang Imperial Union Essence to simulate various divine abilities, it could never compare with the feedback of talisman seeds. With Li Ximing's success, the entire realm was imbued with divine nourishment.
Lu Jiangxian had commanded stone spirits to build for a hundred years, and the bright white immortal palaces had long filled the original territory. Now, as the ground rumbled and distant clouds dispersed, the entire realm expanded severalfold, revealing vast new lands.
Beyond the circular cluster of immortal palaces at the center, Lu Jiangxian descended upon the newly expanded domain. Unlike before, the ground beneath his feet was smooth as a mirror, stretching out before him.
He thought for a moment, and exerted his will. White vapors like smoke and mist surged across the realm at once, swiftly covering the land until the ground was hidden completely. The entire palace complex now seemed to rest upon the clouds, shrouded in mystery.
Much better... thought Lu Jiangxian.
He reappeared in the sky, forming seals and casting spells. A heavenly gate descended from above, settling upon the distant clouds. Built of white bricks, with two corner towers bearing seventy-two gleaming ridges, carved dragons and painted phoenixes, and banners fluttering proudly, it radiated majestic grandeur.
"Bright Yang Heaven-Venerating Gate!"
He formed seals once again, and the Bright Yang that manifested from Bright Radiant Yang Imperial Union Essence in the sky blazed with dazzling brilliance. Shooting stars rained down across the heavens, drifting in all directions before transforming into legions of golden-armored celestial soldiers.
Most of these golden-armored soldiers wore smooth armor and carried ordinary spirit spears, though some wielded halberds and wore phoenix-crested helmets. There were also mighty warriors, towering in stature and clad in cloth armor, who descended into the palace, each finding their place.
"Lord Liu..."
"Oh... so it was General Lin!"
In an instant, the place bustled with life. The clashing of armor, the sounds of conversation and debate, and hearty laughter and greetings rose one after another. The immortal palaces seemed to come alive, operating smoothly and brimming with vitality.
Yet all of it was nothing more than the product of a single thought. With a light wave of his hand, every figure in the realm dissipated, leaving only the empty immortal halls. Lu Jiangxian casually chose a palace and descended there.
Setting aside the transformation within the Immortal Mirror, the Supreme Yin Profound Light has already surpassed the Purple Mansion Realm. Yet compared to the Golden Core Realm... the gap is too vast. At best, it could only injure a True Monarch. The range of my divine sense, however, has not changed much, Lu Jiangxian sat before a desk as his mind raced.
First, Yang Tianya is not dead... he even broke through to the Purple Mansion Realm ahead of time.
That was a troublesome matter. The Underworld's judiciary stood behind Yang Tianya. Moreover, Yang Tianya had personally seen Li Mutian. One gained an eidetic memory after breaking through to the Foundation Establishment Realm, let alone after the Purple Mansion Realm. He must have known that Li Mutian was nothing more than a mortal.
Yet according to the information from Li Xizhi, Yang Tianya had always referred to Li Mutian as a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator... clearly intentional. At the very least, the Underworld's judiciary harbors goodwill toward the Li Family. Whatever schemes lie beneath, they are willing to conceal the truth on the surface, thought Lu Jiangxian.
But Lu Jiangxian's greater discovery went far beyond this. The two envoys of the Underworld's judiciary, Wang Long and Zhang Gui, might have seemed normal to Li Ximing, but the truth was clear to Lu Jiangxian's divine sense, These two... they are neither cultivators nor demonic creatures. Rather, they seem like souls altered by Metallic Essence and reshaped by the hand of a high cultivator, thus becoming what they are now...
Lu Jiangxian had harbored doubts for a long time. This world was complete with matters of immortals and demons, yet curiously lacked ghosts. Despite abundant legends of specters and spirits, and despite the very existence of the Underworld's judiciary that was clearly founded to deal with such beings, not a single ghost had appeared in centuries.
Considering Dingjiao's words, this must be a problem that arose after Heaven's transformation. The changes that True Monarchs and immortals brought about had altered the very laws of the world, preventing ghosts from ever forming.
Clarity slowly dawned in Lu Jiangxian's heart, The fruition of the Underworld's judiciary must be tied to ghosts. If so... does this mean that after Heaven's transformation, the very institution that governs spirits and ghosts has been weakened to the extreme...
The only times the Li Family had ever seen ghosts were when disciples of Mount Wu summoned them with shamanic spell arts. Strictly speaking, those blue-faced, tusked things resembled puppets born of sorcery more than true ghosts.
Lu Jiangxian had studied this matter carefully. When mortals of this world died, their bodies became instantly hollow, without even the process of the soul's dispersal. Nothing was left behind, only lingering resentment qi and baleful qi, which could be harvested to refine treasures.
If one had cultivated and reached the stage of the Embryonic Breathing Realm, then the difference was subtle to others, yet in Lu Jiangxian's eyes, he could clearly see the soul separate from the body before dispersing upon sudden death.
Yet the strangeness lay here. Once cultivators of the Purple Mansion or Golden Core Daos had advanced through Qi Cultivation Realm and formed their Foundation Establishment, death brought instant annihilation, with no soul ever appearing. It was only after forging a divine ability and elevating the Shenyang acupoint into the great void could a soul truly separate from the body and endure.
In either case, it was far less stable than the envoys of the Underworld's judiciary, leaving Lu Jiangxian greatly astonished, This method borrows the influence of Metallic Essence to form a body. If I could master it, I could release beings like Dangjiang from within the Mirror!
He silently etched this into his heart and pondered, The Li family will likely need to deal with the Yang Family. I shall observe and see.