According to Fu, only if the Sun Clan accrued sufficient merit would he have ample justification to arrange promotions for them.
"The Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals is no autocracy. Even among us Mirror Keepers, we do not all share the same mind."
"So do not fear causing too much of a stir; fear only that you cause no stir at all."
It was precisely under Fu's direction that Sun Luyuan had made such a conspicuous, fortunate capture of the Five Elders Association spy earlier.
Anyone with a discerning eye could tell there was something fishy going on.
However, those with influential backings quietly dropped the matter after uncovering the Mirror Keeper, Fu, standing behind the Sun Clan.
As for those who lacked even the ability to discover that much...
Sun Luyuan did not care about them in the slightest.
After all, to beat a dog, one must look at its master.
There was no need for the Sun Clan to lift a finger. The moment those people showed any hostility, they would be soundlessly torn to shreds by the myriad clans eager to curry favor with Mirror Keeper Fu.
Yet...
Sun Luyuan probably never dreamed that he would encounter a monster like Li Fan—a being who completely defied all common sense.
With just a single divine clone, Li Fan had dismantled thousands of years of the Sun Clan's blood sacrifices.
He had taken the immortal artifact, the Boundless Mirror, for himself.
Even in its damaged state on the verge of destruction, an immortal artifact was of immeasurable value.
What was more, in Li Fan's hands, this artifact was by no means beyond salvation.
At that moment, within the secret chamber of the Sun Clan, Li Fan ignored Sun Luyao's desperate begging and forced him to activate the Boundless Mirror's deduction function.
A sudden beam of light burst forth from the pitch-black mirror surface.
The light condensed in midair, forming a white screen of luminescence.
Before long, images began to shift and flicker ceaselessly upon the screen.
When Li Fan saw the scene clearly, his heart chilled slightly.
Thousands upon thousands of Sky-Patrolling Arrows whistled as they flew toward every corner of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
Countless cultivators were locked in brutal combat. One side, naturally, was the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
On the other side, remarkably, was a force led by a peculiar puppet.
"Is that... the future Myriad Realms Association?"
Among the rapidly flashing scenes, Li Fan caught sight of familiar figures like Tianyang and Sun Erlang.
According to the plan for this lifetime, after swallowing up numerous pocket worlds, Daqi was bound to clash with the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
Yet at this current point in time, none of it had come to pass.
This Boundless Mirror could genuinely play out future events!
The beam of light did not last long.
The images shifted faster and faster, until even Li Fan could not track the changes.
Finally, the beam instantly snapped back.
Everything collapsed into utter, pitch-black nothingness.
From that destruction, Li Fan felt an instinctive sense of crisis.
As the deduction concluded, the darkness receded into the Boundless Mirror.
Sun Luyao immediately let out a crazed, terror-stricken wail, as though he had witnessed some unimaginably horrific sight with his own eyes.
Yet as the master of the Boundless Mirror, Li Fan could not sense anything from him in sync.
Li Fan had no intention of nourishing him with essence blood to ease his torment.
He simply let him carry on, while inwardly pondering in silence.
"Why did the aura of that deduction light feel somewhat familiar?"
"Could it be..."
Two names instantly surfaced in Li Fan's mind.
"Xuanji, Myriad Spirits Numerical Reduction."
"Huangluo, Flowers Blooming in an Empty Chamber."
"They share the same origin, parts of the very same grand array."
"Boundless..."
Li Fan could not figure out the rest of the array's name.
Still, this similarity was enough to provide him with inspiration.
"The Boundless Mirror has fallen into worse and worse disrepair, which might partly stem from the influence of the future annihilation it projects. But the greater cause is that its damaged artifact body simply cannot bear the burden of driving an immortal-grade array."
"Forcing it to operate only continually consumes its artifact vessel. The more it is used, the faster it dies."
"This Sun Clan was truly a pack of fools, recklessly squandering a heavenly treasure. Had they not activated it so frequently without repairing it, the Boundless Mirror would not have ended up in such terrible shape by the time it fell into my hands."
Thinking this, Li Fan stroked the completely blackened body of the mirror with a touch of heartache.
"Well, trying to repair it on my own might be beyond my abilities. I still need to find Qiaogong..."
Li Fan did not care all that much about the Boundless Mirror's ability to deduce the future.
How could a simulated future that might not even come to pass compare to the true future he had lived through personally?
However, the distinction of being the first immortal artifact in his possession was enough for Li Fan to value it deeply.
"Perhaps in the process of repairing it, I can find the way for the Terminal Dissociation Disc to undergo a true transformation and advancement."
"The immortal artifacts of the Xuanhuang Realm took form and gave birth to life. Although their law powers might have become part of the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao, the possibility cannot be ruled out that, just like the Boundless Mirror, their artifact bodies still remain."
"Perhaps I should keep an eye out and collect them."
...
For the subsequent period, Li Fan's divine clone did not leave the secret chamber.
He simply resided within the Boundless Mirror, studying the other uses of this damaged immortal artifact.
At the same time, he sorted and categorized the information the Boundless Mirror had obtained from infiltrating the Heavenly Profound Mirror earlier.
Possessing a strand of the Heavenly Profound Mirror's origin and having extensively spied upon its secrets before, Li Fan quickly noticed the difference between these two forms of 'peeking.'
Without a doubt, the Heavenly Profound Mirror possessed self-awareness.
What was observed through the mirror's origin consisted of all the data generated while it managed the daily affairs of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals, as well as the logs of cultivators' movements, words, and deeds.
What the Boundless Mirror spied upon, however...
Was closer to the Heavenly Profound Mirror's own 'thoughts' and 'conclusions.'
For instance, by compiling vast amounts of data, the Heavenly Profound Mirror detected signs of declining production for a certain item in the marketplace.
Thus, even before the shortage actually happened, the Heavenly Profound Mirror—armed with sufficient intelligence—had already concluded that the item's price was about to skyrocket.
Yet as the bedrock of the Alliance, bound by Chuanfa, the Heavenly Profound Mirror had no way of taking any autonomous action in response.
It had to wait until the event truly transpired and produced tangible consequences before adjustments could be made through joint deliberation and decision by the Alliance's upper echelons—namely the Dharma Transmitters and Mirror Keepers.
Though lacking autonomy, this did not prevent the Heavenly Profound Mirror from running simulations and making judgments regarding the countless daily events occurring within its domain.
These 'thoughts' of the Heavenly Profound Mirror had no bearing on actual operations.
They simply arose, only to settle into the mirror's deepest depths.
"No wonder the Mirror Keepers value it so much."
"Isn't this basically mind-reading targeted specifically at the Heavenly Profound Mirror?"
"Even if its damaged state only allows reading mere fragments, every single piece is worth a fortune!"
As a genuine immortal artifact, the Heavenly Profound Mirror served as the operational foundation of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
Looking down from on high, its judgments were bound to be correct and far ahead of any cultivator living within the system.
Li Fan recalled how the Heavenly Profound Mirror and Mo Rubin had joined hands to set him up several times in his previous life.
A dangerous glint could not help but flicker across his eyes.
Chapter 1160