"Demon Eye and the others have a demigod backing them, so they wouldn't lose contact for no reason. They've probably run into danger. We must back them up as soon as possible." When Xiahou Aotian needed to be reliable, he was always reliable, immediately realizing something was amiss.
Deng Jingguo said at once, "Contact the President."
Zhang Yuanqing did not have his phone on him, so Sophia reached out to the President instead. However, the automated voice prompt replied: *The number you have dialed is out of the service area.*
Her heart sank. That meant the President was very likely embroiled in a clash between demigods.
Sophia and Deng Jingguo grew solemn, at their wits' end, only to notice Xiahou Aotian looking calmly at their guild leader, seemingly certain he had a way to handle this.
Zhang Yuanqing unhurriedly opened his inventory and took out a small lock of lustrous hair. This was Xiao Yuan's hair; a qualified Stargazer always kept contingency measures ready.
Then, he summoned two streaks of dull red light.
The red light transformed into a brand-new pair of dancing shoes, tapping gaily along the ridge of the field. After two heavy thuds, they paused noticeably, seemingly sensing that the footing was wrong.
*Thud, thud, thud.*
The Red Dancing Shoes kept stomping on the ridge. Zhang Yuanqing sensed their irritable mood—they were desperate to leave this place.
A dance without clicking tap steps had no soul.
*Don't rush, don't rush, we're leaving right away!* Zhang Yuanqing stuffed Xiao Yuan's hair into the shoes.
The Red Dancing Shoes settled down, resting on the ridge to read the information of the hair's owner. One second, two seconds, three seconds... They transformed into two dim crimson gleams and bolted across the fields like runaway wild horses.
Looking at the slightly dazed Deng Jingguo and Sophia, Zhang Yuanqing smiled and explained, "A rule-based item given out in the beginner village. It will lead us to our target."
***
"Get out of here!"
Without hesitation, the Palace Master of Halting Slaughter pulled out a parchment scroll and activated teleportation.
The parchment scroll dissolved into specks of glimmering light, enveloping the four people and the cat before fading into the void.
In the next second, Demon Eye and the others reappeared right where they had been, failing to leave the Mirror World.
The teleportation had failed.
The Fourth Protector of the Dark Night Rose giggled softly. "What you entered is no ordinary mirror space. It's the rule-based item 'Cloud Dream Divine Realm.' One can enter, but cannot exit—that is the rule."
The Cloud Dream Divine Realm was a divine artifact from ancient times. Aside from the rule of "entry only, no exit," the torrential rain within the Mirror World never ceased and provided an unending supply of spiritual power, making it a divine artifact every Rain Master dreamed of.
Of course, this was not her item, but the property of Dark Night Rose.
"A rule-based item?" Lady JoJo's slit pupils shrank to narrow seams, and her fur bristled as she exclaimed, "Have rule-based items become this common nowadays?"
In the era she lived in, Dominator-grade items were as rare as phoenix feathers, let alone rule-based items. In the sixty-odd years since her master, Lu Yueshuang, returned to the Spirit Realm, she had only ever seen one rule-based item: Pan's Labyrinth.
After returning to the country, the second rule-based item she encountered was the Zoo. She never expected that merely tagging along with Yuanshi Tianzun for a fight would lead to encountering yet another.
"During the sixty-plus years you spent in seclusion in Pan's Labyrinth, the outside world updated its version countless times," Zhang Yuanqing quipped.
"No time for quips now, let's just fight!" Demon Eye Heavenly King ripped off his sports headband. The vertical eye on his forehead rolled around with a squelch, and his entire body radiated a berserk, bloodthirsty aura, making him look like a monarch of the demon realm.
He leaned slightly forward, clenching his fists to gather power. Blood vessels spiderwebbed across his eyeballs as the flesh across his body spasmed in tremors, tearing open into pair after pair of horrifying, gold-red demonic eyes.
Countless pairs of demonic eyes lit up simultaneously, shooting out baleful gold-red rays that made him resemble a disco ball hanging in a nightclub.
"Ahhh—"
Sect Master Chunyang was the first to break down. Already mad, he had barely suppressed his insanity through sheer willpower and cultivation. Once illuminated by the Eye of Bewitchment, his latent mental instability erupted instantly.
Madness and chaos overpowered reason, turning him into a savage beast filled with the urge to destroy, unable to distinguish friend from foe.
The Southern Sect's Third Elder, Dark Night Rose's Sixth Elder, and Heavenly King Miejue all felt the spiritual power within their bodies riot out of control, desires for battle, bloodthirst, and destruction flooding their minds.
With a shift in thought, the Third Elder quelled the churning desire for destruction and began soothing his mentally destabilized teammates.
Seizing the opportunity, Demon Eye sprang from his knees like a heavy artillery shell hurtling from a barrel, slamming into Heavenly King Miejue with a savage grin.
*CLANG!*
The collision between the two Ancient Gods of War rang out like a giant bell, deafening to the ears.
Demon Eye Heavenly King straddled the emaciated woman, plowing dozens of meters across the ground and leaving a deep furrow behind them. With a shake of his arms, eight muscular, knotty limbs manifested, brandishing illusory sabers, spears, swords, and halberds that stabbed, pounded, and slashed into Heavenly King Miejue beneath him in a rapid frenzy.
Heavenly King Miejue shrieked in fury, likewise attempting to manifest her three-headed, eight-armed dharma body. However, having just been struck by the Eye of Bewitchment, her spiritual power was sluggish and obstructed; she could only force out two heads and four arms, which were torn off and hacked to pieces by Demon Eye Heavenly King in a matter of moments.
Amidst the rapid, clattering barrage that fell like a torrential downpour, Heavenly King Miejue's steel-like skin cracked, oozing golden blood, leaving indentations and blade marks all across her shoulders, face, and torso.
On the other side, the Palace Master of Halting Slaughter's red dress fluttered as dense clusters of red strings burrowed out.
Rather than attacking the enemies, these red strings shot up into the sky, squirming like tentacles in a wondrous rhythm.
The Palace Master of Halting Slaughter parted her crimson lips slightly and hummed an ethereal, melodic tune.
The eyes of the Third Elder, the Sixth Elder, and Sect Master Chunyang suddenly glazed over. Their consciousness grew drowsy, as though sinking into the warm embrace of a mother.
Hypnosis plus Lullaby!
Seeing this, Xiao Yuan's clothes tore open as she transformed into a bee woman draped in thin golden armor, while Lady JoJo turned into a giant cat a meter long, shaped more like a leopard, her body and thick, long tail covered in shaggy fur.
With tacit understanding, they flanked the enemies from left and right, moving to kill them while taking advantage of the heavy crowd control from the Palace Master of Halting Slaughter and Demon Eye.
Just then, the Third Elder was the first to break free from the hypnosis and lullaby. His gaze regained clarity. Without even looking at the fast-approaching cat and bee, he opened his inventory and hauled out a giant drum half the height of a man.
The drum had a bronze frame, its face wrapped in dark green beast hide densely covered in patterns.
The Third Elder pulled a pale leg bone from the bronze frame and struck the drum face with immense force.
*THUMP!*
A tremor echoing eight hundred li.
Sound waves swept across the entire Mirror World. The civet cat and the bee woman froze simultaneously, their pupils unfocused and their bodies spasming violently as if resonating with the sound waves.
The red strings waving like tentacles behind the Palace Master of Halting Slaughter suddenly seized up, then dropped limply to carpet the ground.
Across Demon Eye Heavenly King's body, the pupils of the pairs of demonic eyes trembled violently before snapping shut all at once.
In contrast, Sect Master Chunyang, the Sixth Protector, and Heavenly King Miejue instantly regained clarity, their negative effects vanishing in a flash; far from remaining sluggish, their spiritual power flowed even more smoothly than usual.
*What kind of item is this...?* Zhang Yuanqing felt as though his eardrums were being torn apart. The drumming evoked the fear within his heart, making him instinctively want to submit, all will to fight gone.
He fought to soothe the emotion of fear and activated Sunrise. Divine sun power surged frantically toward the crown of his head, condensing into a blazing golden sun.
The scorching sun vaporized the surrounding rain, enveloping both enemies and allies within its radiance.
The Southern Sect's Third Elder focused entirely on drumming, brandishing the eerie white bone for another heavy strike.
*THUMP!*
The golden sun atop Zhang Yuanqing's head wavered violently, then collapsed.
The Day Wanderer's most domineering skill was actually countered?
Xiao Yuan endured the fear with great effort, took out a palm-sized copper coin with a chipped corner, and flicked her wrist to fling it toward the Third Elder, toward the waist-high beast-hide drum.
This was the reward she had obtained from clearing the killing trial—the defective Luobao Gold Coin.
Throwing the coin at a targeted item could briefly contaminate it, sealing its functions.
The chipped coin spun and slammed toward the beast-hide drum, but just before touching the drum's body, a flash of light rebounded it.
This signified that the treasure-stripping had failed.
The beast-hide drum was of too high a grade.
"It's a high-quality item of the Dominator stage..." Xiao Yuan's face shifted slightly.
Heavenly King Miejue's wounds healed rapidly. Six knotty arms sprouted swiftly from beneath her ribs and shoulder blades, clamping down tightly on Demon Eye Heavenly King's eight arms. The emaciated woman's eyes burned crimson, overflowing with murderous intent.
"Traitor, without your Eye of Bewitchment, how do you expect to fight me?"
Her eight arms tore with all their might. With wet ripping sounds, Demon Eye Heavenly King's eight arms were torn off by force, scalding golden blood gushing like a fountain.
Among the Four Heavenly Kings of the Soldier Master sect, Demon Eye had the lowest level, yet because he had cultivated the Eye of Bewitchment to an exceedingly profound stage, he overpowered the other two Heavenly Kings.
However, taking such an unconventional path meant that once targeted, one's underlying weakness would easily be exposed.
Sabers, spears, swords, and halberds fell in unison, piercing through his bronze skin and iron bones—the Ancient God of War dharma body—and pinning Demon Eye to the ground.
Demon Eye spewed blood wildly from his mouth. The eye slits covering his body trembled as he strained to pry them open.
*THUMP!*
The drum sounded again, filling the entire Mirror World.
The eye slits across Demon Eye's body vanished completely.
As the drumbeat echoed, Dark Night Rose's Sixth Protector materialized slowly within the curtain of rain behind Lady JoJo. Raindrops coalesced in her hand into a longsword. Under the cover of the raining din, she thrust it toward the giant cat's heart.
Lady JoJo's feline ears twitched. Just as she was about to display the feline species' blessed reaction speed and the Wood Monster's abnormal agility, her body seized up amidst the drumming.
At the critical moment, a hardened turtle shell suddenly condensed across her back.
The rain longsword struck the turtle shell with a thunderous roar, as though ten thousand tons of water were dumping onto a single point.
The turtle shell cracked with a sharp snap.
Lady JoJo arched and bunched her body, leaping forward several meters to put distance between herself and the enemy. At the same time, her long tail lashed out, its fur shooting out like steel needles.
Under the barrage of steel needles, the Sixth Protector's body collapsed into rainwater. A second later, she materialized behind Lady JoJo once more, thrusting with the exact same sword.
*THUMP!*
The drum sounded again, deafening and shocking, filling Zhang Yuanqing and the others with gut-wrenching terror.
Lady JoJo attempted the same trick again, preparing to condense the turtle shell, when suddenly her limbs gave out. Her body turned scorching hot, her abdomen heaved violently, and her breath turned scalding.
She had fallen ill!
Pathogens had invaded her body silently. In this Mirror World where torrential rain poured wildly, pathogens were everywhere, transmitting through air and rainwater. Even a combat pet of the Wood Monster profession couldn't withstand the ceaseless onslaught of germs.
A figure stepped between her and the sword. With a sun mark glowing on his glabella, Zhang Yuanqing shattered the longsword with a punch, then traded a palm strike with the Sixth Protector.
The sky full of rain was blasted apart. The Sixth Elder's body was shattered by the palm force of the Blazing Sun God of War. She simply surged up into the sky, circling high above and dispersing her spiritual power into the rain.
In an instant, every single raindrop carried terrifying power, pelting down with a fierce clatter.
Where they slammed into the ground, deep pits appeared; where they struck buildings along the street, the structures fell to pieces.
Within the Mirror World, she had no need to conserve spiritual power, for it was inexhaustible.
Zhang Yuanqing pressed his left hand over his heart and raised his right hand, clenching it forcefully.
The rain pelted down, but the spiritual power contained within was nullified, stripped of all destructive force.
Holding a small bronze pot in her palm, the Palace Master of Halting Slaughter flew toward the grievously wounded Demon Eye Heavenly King. She tilted the spout, pouring golden primordial fluid toward Demon Eye Heavenly King in the distance to heal his wounds.
Demon Eye Heavenly King grinned. "Miejue, one-on-one, I could take ten of you."
He sent Heavenly King Miejue flying with a headbutt.
Having completed her duties as a healer, the Palace Master of Halting Slaughter was about to return to her teammates when four walls of water suddenly rose from the surrounding curtain of rain, trapping her inside.
With his left and right eyes shifting in different directions, Sect Master Chunyang slipped gloomily into the watery enclosure. Staring greedily at the bronze pot in her hand, he chuckled, "The Demon Refining Pot? The Demon Refining Pot recorded in ancient texts truly exists! It's mine!"
The Palace Master of Halting Slaughter's consciousness blurred for a moment. Immediately, she saw Sect Master Chunyang's body soar, transforming into a giant as tall as the sky, while she stood within his palm, tiny as an ant, her divine powers almost entirely lost.
Universe in the Palm!
An illusion art passed down from ancient times, said to have originated from western Buddhism. After generations of refinement by cultivators, it had become a divine technique comparable to a sect-guarding treasure.
During the persecution of Buddhism in the Northern Song dynasty, this manual had been confiscated by the imperial court and stored in the national treasury.
As the tutor to the imperial princess, he had studied this manual before. At the time, he had not yet cultivated Illusionist arts alongside his own, so he had never mastered it. Later, after descending into madness, he actually integrated and mastered this supreme art.
Holding the pot, the Palace Master of Halting Slaughter stood blankly, trapped in the illusion and unable to break free.
Sect Master Chunyang reached out greedily to snatch the bronze pot. Just as he was about to succeed, an arm suddenly lunged from behind him and grabbed his neck.
*Crack!*
Sect Master Chunyang's neck was snapped.
Even more severed arms swept in, but their target wasn't him—it was the water walls hemming in the area.
The seven severed arms wrapped in red strings tore violently through the water walls, creating an opening to the outside.
The Palace Master of Halting Slaughter's eyes flickered, regaining their light. Her body burst with a pop into myriad ribbons of silk, escaping through the passage torn open by the arms.
She had kept her wits about her; earlier, she had secretly granted life to the eight arms, resurrecting the dead limbs—this was the authority of an Arbiter of Fate.
*Thump, thump, thump...*
The drumbeats continued without pause, growing denser with each strike.
The two sides clashed in the Mirror World, and the situation of Zhang Yuanqing and his allies grew increasingly dire. While they had executed several brilliant counterattacks at the start, as the drumbeats grew denser, they were forced into passive defense, struggling to hold on.
Even an Ancient God of War, possessing the strongest fighting will, was cowed into trembling fear by the drumbeats, unable to muster the will to fight.
***
In the dead of night, in a certain county seat bordering Fu Province and Jiangnan Province.
A dim crimson gleam raced down the empty, silent street before finally stopping outside the entrance of an internet cafe.
There was clearly no restriction visible at the internet cafe's entrance, yet the Red Dancing Shoes couldn't enter no matter what. Frustrated, they kicked at the empty space with muffled thuds, sending out faint spatial ripples.
As an Artificer, Xiahou Aotian reached out, and his hand passed straight through the restriction.
He pondered for a few seconds and said in a grave tone, "Now, there's good news and bad—"
Zhang Yuanqing cut him off roughly: "Cut the crap!"
Xiahou Aotian said, "The good news is that the hair's owner isn't dead yet, and our teammates can still be saved. The bad news is that this restriction is of a very high level—even as an Artificer, I can't touch it. It's most likely an item of Level 7 or above, or a rule-based one."
Deng Jingguo furrowed his thick brows. "Meaning, we can't get in?"
Xiahou Aotian's handsome face turned very grim. He nodded. "They've been trapped inside like dogs behind closed doors."
Chapter 825