Qinghe felt the current situation was very strange.

He seemed stuck at the barrier, clearly with nothing around him, yet it felt like ocean waves were washing over him one after another.

Light and shadow rose and fell, flickering on his body as if time had stopped and congealed. He was floating up and down in the torrent of time, unable to control himself.

His mind went blank for an instant, as if his primordial spirit had separated from his body and was about to drift toward heaven and earth, ready to ride the wind away. But then it sank back into his body with the next wave, as if falling into a quagmire. This pulling and tugging left him somewhat bewildered and at a loss.

His master’s shadow appeared before his eyes, but so faint it was like a reflection in water – a gentle breeze could scatter and crush it. Qinghe reached out to grab it, but caught nothing. That empty feeling was like having a piece of flesh brutally carved from his body.

There was always this illusion that he had once lost his master.

Just thinking about loss made his whole body ice-cold, frozen from head to toe. That cold seeped into his very marrow, and in that instant, Qinghe felt as if he had already died.

“Qinghe?” Sect Master Duan Linshu reached out and pulled Qinghe. In his eyes, Qinghe had suddenly stood motionless, his aura seeming to disappear entirely, which he found strange, so he reached out to pull him.

Qinghe trembled slightly. Coming back to his senses, he slowly stepped back, then looked toward Dan Ruyun beside him. “There’s a barrier here that prevents you from entering?”

The cold that had just seeped into his marrow came through his gaze, making Dan Ruyun’s scalp tingle and her teeth chatter, grinding together with clicking sounds.

Dan Ruyun’s legs went weak under his gaze. She didn’t dare speak, couldn’t even open her mouth – her upper and lower lips seemed frozen by ice. She could only lower her head and shrink there, trembling as she nodded.

Qinghe said nothing. He stepped back two paces and sat down cross-legged, planning to wait for someone to come out. This place, even the Longquan Evil Sword, couldn’t break through – it was as if this place didn’t exist in heaven and earth at all. He couldn’t enter, so he could only wait for her to come out.

Why could she enter?

Why could he enter?

Thinking of those secrets on Su Zhuyi’s body, Qinghe felt she might not be as simple as a demonic cultivator possessing someone’s body. Back then, the heavenly lightning had missed its target time and again – he had found that strange. Thinking about it now, could it be that she existed outside the Heavenly Dao, so the Heavenly Dao couldn’t tolerate her, which was why the lightning kept striking at her? And precisely because of this, she could now enter this barrier? What about Qin Chuan? Qinghe thought of that stone tablet on Luoxue Peak, carved with the three characters “Qin Jianglan.” Su Zhuyi said Qin Jianglan was like her reborn parents – what connection was there in all this?

He had never inquired about these things before. No matter what secrets she hid, whether righteous or evil, good or bad, as long as she listened to their master, Qinghe wouldn’t make things difficult for her. As long as she remained his junior sister, he would always protect her – this would never change.

Now, he would still protect her. However, he also wanted to know what exactly she was hiding. These things could only be known after she came out.

…

Inside the barrier, Su Zhuyi opened her eyes in confusion to a chaotic scene.

A childish voice said, “You, why are you crying?”

Su Zhuyi heard that voice asking. She looked up but found no one, no aura – the voice appeared out of nowhere, as if coming from her heart, blinking and disappearing without a trace.

Su Zhuyi’s face was covered in tears. She felt very sad but didn’t know where the sadness came from.

Why am I crying?

It was as if all the water in her body had turned to tears – her blood, her spiritual energy, all had become tears flowing out unstoppably, as if draining all the life force from her body. Her spiritual energy was being lost, her body growing weaker and weaker. She felt cold all over, surrounded by chaos with no exit to be found.

Sadness, grief, sorrow, despair?

Because of these, she cried?

The inexplicable sadness left Su Zhuyi somewhat lost and helpless. However, the longer those tears flowed, the colder her heart became. If crying could be useful when encountering difficulties and desperate situations, if crying could solve problems? Sadness couldn’t be controlled, but anger could follow.

Su Zhuyi rarely cried – more accurately, she rarely cried sincerely. For her, tears were often just a means to confuse others, a weapon.

In her previous life, when her mother had just died, Su Zhuyi cried every day until her eyes went blind, but it was completely useless. Tears wouldn’t give her any help and would only bring more disgust and trouble.

Fortunately, she awakened early, otherwise, she would have starved to death long ago. Now she didn’t know why she felt so sad, but she understood that her emotions must be influenced by some ghostly thing. This was the sorrow from that parasol tree, transmitted to her like an illusion, wanting her to empathize? Because of sadness leading to despair, and because of despair, losing vitality…

She couldn’t keep crying like this!

She had to break through this confusion! Su Zhuyi closed her eyes. Those tears still flowed endlessly. A fire seemed to ignite in her heart, the flames burning brighter and brighter. For a moment, anger overwhelmed sadness. She pulled herself together and struck out with her sword, shouting: “Who the hell is playing ghost there? Crying – what use is crying?”

Since the tears couldn’t be stopped and her life force kept flowing out with the tears, seeing herself growing weaker and weaker, Su Zhuyi steeled her heart and directly drew the Broken Sword across her eyes. Since spiritual energy was being lost through tears flowing out and she couldn’t control the tears, if she blinded her eyes, that should work, right?

This was an illusion anyway. Even if it wasn’t an illusion, injured eyes could be healed with a spiritual energy pill.

Su Zhuyi was ruthless, whether to others or herself. She directly drew her sword across her eyes, then discovered that the surrounding mist gradually dispersed. The chaos cleared, and that inexplicable, sorrowful emotion also disappeared. She raised her hand to wipe her eyes and found they weren’t injured, and no more tears were flowing out.

Before her eyes was that tree, and under the tree was a little girl crouched there. She hugged her knees, crying breathlessly. That sorrowful emotion was being transmitted from her.

Su Zhuyi frowned slightly. That little girl wasn’t a living thing – she should be a remnant soul. But calling her a complete remnant soul also wasn’t right. There seemed to be real breath within her, giving a strange feeling, somewhat similar to Little Skull. For a moment, Su Zhuyi couldn’t clearly say what exactly she was.

Perhaps sensing Su Zhuyi’s examining gaze, the little girl suddenly looked up. She was very cute, with red eyes, but no black pupils – like two red gems embedded there. Clearly, she shouldn’t be a human cultivator. Was she a demon cultivator who had cultivated a human form? Then her strength must be very powerful.

The little girl’s big eyes held tears as she stared blankly at Su Zhuyi.

Su Zhuyi noticed the tears pooled in her eyes and suddenly felt her heart skip a beat, her gaze flickering.

Those tears gave her a very familiar aura.

Just like that special spiritual energy in the hot spring pool that could nourish the primordial spirit.

Could it be that special spiritual energy was actually this little girl’s tears, and it only appeared once every thousand years because her tears took a thousand years to truly fall drop by drop?

Su Zhuyi suppressed the excitement in her heart and smiled sweetly, making her voice sound gentle and kind. She asked softly, “Little girl, who are you? Why are you crying?” Having nothing small on her body, Su Zhuyi took out a Straw Man substitute and handed it over, saying: “I’ll give you a little doll. Don’t cry anymore. Tell big sister what’s wrong.”

Her Straw Man substitutes were well-made.

Even Little Skull played with them as dolls and created new patterns based on the straw figures she made. Too bad she didn’t have any of Little Skull’s little trinkets on her, or she could have taken them out to coax the remnant soul. Since it looked like a child, it should be easier to deceive, right?

The little girl was stunned for a moment, then took the Straw Man substitute with red eyes, saying: “I, I climbed up the Jianmu tree to play. When I went back, there was no home anymore.”

Seeing that, though she looked like a remnant soul, she could easily hold the Straw Man substitute, either her primordial spirit was incredibly powerful, or she had a physical form to rely on, Su Zhuyi thought to herself as she watched the little girl take the straw figure in her hands.

At this point, the little girl started wailing and crying again. Though she cried very sadly with tears filling her eye sockets, the tears still didn’t flow out. She said, “I can’t find my home.”

Jianmu? Could it be the legendary Jianmu Tree? Growing in the center of heaven and earth, a hundred ren tall, with all the gods climbing it to ascend to heaven. In other words, the Jianmu Tree was located at the center of heaven and earth, serving as a bridge connecting heaven, earth, humans, and gods. If cultivators ascended to become immortals, they could follow the Jianmu to enter the immortal realm.

It’s just that she had never heard of anyone ascending. In her previous life, the one most likely to ascend was Qin Jianglan, who also lived on the so-called Wangtian Tree, seemingly dwelling in heavenly palaces and cloud seas, but in the end, he still didn’t ascend to become an immortal.

Hearing the word “Jianmu” from the little girl’s mouth, Su Zhuyi felt like she was glimpsing another world. But the tree behind her was a parasol tree, not the Jianmu Tree.

“Where is your home? Who else is in your family?” Steadying herself, Su Zhuyi’s mind turned as she asked again.

The little girl continued sobbing: “The True Spirit Realm. At home, there’s my companion parasol tree, no one else.”

Hearing this answer, Su Zhuyi was immediately stunned.

Didn’t Qin Jianglan say before that the place he was in was called the True Spirit Realm? But that realm was inside the Liuguang Mirror?

Right, because the True Spirit Realm was directly swallowed by the Liuguang Mirror, so she couldn’t find her home. Thinking about it this way, it made sense.

“Can you tell me about the True Spirit Realm in detail?”

From the little girl’s intermittent description, Su Zhuyi also gained some understanding of the True Spirit Realm.

The True Spirit Realm was the realm cultivators entered after ascending, the legendary immortal realm. But it wasn’t somewhere you could go by achieving enlightenment and ascending. As long as your strength reached a certain level and you successfully tribulated, you could enter the True Spirit Realm to continue cultivation, contending with heaven for fate, seeking the great dao of longevity, ultimately breaking free from the dao and transcending the Heavenly Dao, no longer subject to birth, aging, sickness, and death, no longer bound by rules.

Those who broke free from the dao became gods. After becoming gods, they could open heaven and split the earth, recreate all things in the world, and establish rules and laws.

But since Pangu opened heaven and split the earth, there had been no more legends of gods in heaven and on earth.

The Jianmu Tree was the bridge connecting the cultivation world and the True Spirit Realm. After ascending, cultivators would go to the True Spirit Realm, but for True Spirit Realm cultivators to return to the cultivation world was very difficult and would be restricted by the Heavenly Dao. The little girl was a young phoenix who had never seen her parents since childhood – essentially an orphan – living alone on a parasol tree.

That parasol tree was very close to the Jianmu Tree. She often climbed up and down the Jianmu Tree, playing and frolicking. However, one day after she went out, she discovered the True Spirit Realm had vanished out of thin air. She couldn’t return and could only go downward, eventually reaching the bottom of the Jianmu Tree and appearing in the cultivation world.

Upper realm beings coming to the lower realm would naturally bear great pressure. Tired and frightened, she curled up at the bottom of the Jianmu Tree, crying, ultimately perishing here and becoming something like an earth-bound spirit…

She just wanted to go home, back to that parasol tree that sheltered her from wind and rain.

“Where is the Jianmu Tree?” Behind her was a parasol tree – Su Zhuyi wouldn’t mistake even a parasol tree.

“This is it.” The little girl stood up. As she finished speaking, the tree behind her changed appearance. Su Zhuyi immediately understood that this illusion was related to this little girl. Because the little girl was sad and upset, she had started crying uncontrollably upon entering. The little girl might not mean to harm people, but she had already died and become something like an earth-bound spirit. Since she was a ghost spirit, she would unconsciously control others’ minds. If Su Zhuyi had remained immersed in the illusion’s sorrow, unable to extricate herself, she would eventually become nourishment for this little girl’s remnant soul.

Because the little girl missed home, this tree had taken on the appearance of a parasol tree. Though the little girl seemed like a remnant soul, her primordial spirit power was much stronger than Su Zhuyi’s. Therefore, under her influence, the tree Su Zhuyi saw had also become a parasol tree.

But in reality, this tree wasn’t a parasol tree – it was the Jianmu. After the little girl revealed the truth, what Su Zhuyi saw was the Jianmu Tree’s original appearance.

This was the legendary Jianmu Tree.

The Jianmu had blue leaves, purple stems, black flowers, and yellow fruit. Beneath it, there was no echo to sounds and no shadows from standing. Recalling what was recorded in books, seeing it now confirmed everything one by one.

Su Zhuyi’s initial thought upon entering was to scoop up some spiritual spring water that could enhance divine sense. Who would have thought that after entering, she would discover the Jianmu Tree was hidden inside? This was truly shocking, leaving her somewhat unable to recover. Wasn’t it said that only cultivators capable of ascending could see the Jianmu Tree? Then why could she see it now? Because she had the Liuguang Mirror on her? Or because she wasn’t within the Heavenly Dao?

Shocked in her heart, she reached out to touch the trunk of the Jianmu Tree, but discovered the trunk was an illusion that couldn’t be touched. Moreover, the moment she made contact with the Jianmu Tree, the entire space seemed to distort. Her hand became twisted and crooked, as if this section of space had been compressed.

“Will you take me to find my home?” the little girl asked again.

Su Zhuyi came back to her senses, suddenly feeling something was wrong.

If she had been influenced by the little girl’s emotions, she would have died directly there, consumed by the little girl’s death spirit. But she hadn’t – she had seen through that confusion. In the little girl’s eyes, she was a very capable person who felt crying was useless and needed to think of other ways to solve problems. So the little girl made a second request, asking her to help find the way home. But the problem was that the True Spirit Realm was inside the Liuguang Mirror – where could she find it for her?

Who had such great ability to sacrifice an entire True Spirit Realm for a mirror? No wonder the Liuguang Mirror was called a dao artifact. Not an immortal artifact, not a divine artifact, but a dao artifact. But thinking this way didn’t seem right either. If the True Spirit Realm had been sacrificed during the forging, just like when the Longquan Sword’s smith had his entire clan throw themselves into the furnace to forge the sword, then the Liuguang Mirror’s resentment should be heavier than the Longquan Sword’s. Unless those people didn’t know they had died at all…

And hadn’t suffered any pain or torment. So the Liuguang Mirror contained a real, existing True Spirit Realm?

This was a dao artifact – the person who forged the Liuguang Mirror could manipulate an entire immortal realm in the palm of his hand. What level of cultivation would he have? Su Zhuyi felt it was beyond imagination. She had always thought that once her cultivation recovered to the Nascent Soul stage and her primordial spirit sensed the Liuguang Mirror’s existence, she could find a way to release Qin Jianglan. Now she felt her thinking had been too simple – her ideas were too naive.

It’s just that Qin Jianglan could realize he was trapped in a mirror, yet the people of the True Spirit Realm back then apparently had no awareness at all, no resentment whatsoever? Where was the difference?

The difference between active sacrifice and passive sacrifice? The difference between someone remembering and no one remembering?

She fell into deep thought, momentarily forgetting her surroundings.

“Can’t you do it?” the little girl asked again. Flames seemed to burn on her body, and that firelight made Su Zhuyi react – she felt like she was about to be roasted. Oh no, this little girl was already a vengeful spirit who would attack and kill at the slightest disagreement.

“He couldn’t either, you can’t either. You clearly said you would help me find my home, so why did you just abandon me here and ignore me?” The little girl suddenly transformed into a burning phoenix, glaring furiously at Su Zhuyi. “You liars! This time I won’t let you leave. Either take me home or die!”

With the little girl’s scream, scattered images appeared in Su Zhuyi’s mind again, making her head split with pain.

“I can’t find my home.” The little girl still sat at the bottom of the tree, crying pitifully.

“Where is your home?” a man who had mistakenly entered this place asked.

“At the top of the Jianmu Tree, in the True Spirit Realm,” she answered.

That man climbed the Jianmu Tree. After a long while, he returned to the bottom and said, “There’s nothing above.” Then he sat down and began chanting spells, trying to help the earth-bound spirit pass on. But he was no match for the little girl. In the end, he could only say he would go out to search for her, but after leaving, he had people seal off this entire area. The phoenix’s remnant soul was too strong – no one in the world today could eliminate or help this earth-bound spirit pass on, so they could only seal her and do everything possible to prevent people from approaching. If such an earth-bound spirit absorbed enough resentment and harmed more people, she would become a vicious ghost, and then it would be difficult to control.

They sealed the little phoenix’s remnant soul within the barrier. Once her tears completely dried up and her primordial spirit was completely exhausted, after the remnant soul’s power was completely weakened, this earth-bound spirit would naturally dissipate between heaven and earth.

This approach should have been fine. The little phoenix’s primordial spirit was indeed gradually weakening, but they hadn’t expected this unlucky person would crash directly in. Could it be that the Heavenly Dao deliberately threw her in here to die? Why could that man climb the Jianmu Tree while she couldn’t even touch it?

No time to think about these things. Seeing her life in danger, Su Zhuyi shrieked: “I know where the True Spirit Realm is! But my divine sense isn’t enough right now. You have to help me – I need your tears!”

Phoenix was also called the immortal bird.

This little girl had run to play on the Jianmu, coincidentally escaping the Liuguang Mirror’s devouring. She was lucky, yet also unlucky.

She couldn’t find her home. Because she was too young and had no parental guidance, in her panic and anxiety, she shed tears. Legend said that the phoenix clan couldn’t shed tears, because phoenixes who cried would lose their chance for nirvana and rebirth. No one told her this, so in her panic and anxiety she cried, which was why she couldn’t undergo nirvana and rebirth, becoming an earth-bound spirit instead.

The tears flowing from her eyes were the spiritual energy in the hot spring pool that nourished the divine sense. Back then, one of the four great sects had also encountered this phoenix. At that time, she had already become an earth-bound spirit, but her resentment wasn’t as heavy as now. He couldn’t find the True Spirit Realm, so he lied to her about going out to help her search, then left and sealed this place, using her tears and red leaves to benefit future generations.

Based on those scattered images just now, Su Zhuyi had gained a general understanding of what had happened here. The little girl had been deceived once, so she couldn’t use the same method to escape now.

“Don’t lie to me,” the little phoenix looked at Su Zhuyi and howled mournfully.

“If I lie to you, it won’t be too late for you to kill me then,” Su Zhuyi said with a straight face, righteously declaring: “I won’t be like that person. If I can’t help you find your home, I won’t leave this place.”

“Really?”

The little phoenix continued crying, but her tears would only truly fall once every thousand years. Anxious and angry, she learned from Su Zhuyi’s earlier example and gouged out one of her own eyes, handing the bloody eyeball to Su Zhuyi. With her remaining eye, she stared at Su Zhuyi: “No more tears – here’s my eyeball.”

When phoenixes shed blood tears, they could no longer undergo nirvana and rebirth. Their primordial spirit power gathered in their eyes, transforming into tears that flowed out and dissipated, ultimately leading to complete annihilation.

That eyeball was equivalent to a red spirit stone. No wonder this little girl looked like a remnant soul, yet wasn’t quite like one, because she still had a pair of eyes that existed. After her death, her body turned to ash, but her pair of eyes remained. And these eyes were great tonics that could nourish the primordial spirit.

Su Zhuyi held that eye, feeling it was particularly hot to handle. Under the one-eyed phoenix’s gaze, she slowly sent her divine sense into that ruby. She had intended to absorb it gradually, but who knew she couldn’t control it at all!

Su Zhuyi felt massive spiritual energy suddenly surge into her dantian and sea of consciousness, breaking through the seal on her primordial spirit. At the same time, enormous tearing force impacted her body, making her flesh suffer unbearably.

If the primordial spirit became too much stronger than the physical body, the body would be unable to bear the primordial spirit’s power! This was why her primordial spirit had been sealed after rebirth. Since the Liuguang Mirror had brought her back a thousand years, it naturally wouldn’t let her directly burst her physical body and die, so it sealed her primordial spirit – this was an incidental effect of maintaining her rebirth. Now, the primordial spirit power surging into her body directly broke through her seal, making her feel like her body was about to burst.

“Wa…” Su Zhuyi spat out a mouthful of fresh blood, her entire person immediately becoming weak and falling to the ground. She endured the pain, constantly using spiritual energy to repair her body, continuously stuffing pills into her mouth. At the same time, she locked her divine sense onto the Liuguang Mirror hidden in her body. In that instant, she even clearly saw the city in the chaos within the Liuguang Mirror, as silent as a tomb.

She also saw Qin Jianglan and Little Skull. Qin Jianglan sat cross-legged while Little Skull crouched on the ground, seemingly using a wooden stick to stir the flame in a soul-nurturing lamp. In front of them was a soul-gathering formation.

Su Zhuyi’s eyes heated up. She said: “The True Spirit Realm is right there…”

She didn’t know if the little phoenix could see it, but she had no other choice now.

The little phoenix was slightly stunned, then excitedly chirped. She saw it – she saw the parasol tree, saw home! The little phoenix called out excitedly, then crashed headfirst into the Liuguang Mirror, truly disappearing.

Su Zhuyi was amazed. The little phoenix could see it? She could see the world inside the Liuguang Mirror?

With her crash into it, Su Zhuyi’s body could no longer hold up, and she collapsed sideways. But she didn’t fall to the ground – a blue leaf fell from the Jianmu Tree behind her. That leaf was like a small boat, carrying her along the river of time to an unknown distance.

She saw chaos throughout heaven and earth.

The air was vast and misty, with sprouting beginnings, then separating heaven and earth, establishing the cosmos, activating yin and sensing yang, distributing primordial energy, thus conceiving harmony to become humanity. First was born Pangu, who at death transformed his body – his breath became wind and clouds, his voice became thunder, his left eye became the sun, his right eye became the moon, his limbs and body became the four poles and five mountains, his blood became rivers, his tendons and veins became earth’s patterns, his flesh became fertile soil, his hair became stars, his skin and body hair became grass and trees, his teeth and bones became metals and stones, his essence became pearls and jade, his sweat became rain and moisture, and the various insects on his body, stirred by wind, transformed into the common people.

The four seasons moved, all things lived, following natural law.

She also saw a tree located at the center of heaven and earth, and the gently flowing river beneath the tree.

Were those the Jianmu Tree and Quicksand River?

After countless years, Quicksand River became a mountain and a river spirit. Her silver hair was bright, and she stood barefoot under the Jianmu Tree, asking: “Why can I have spiritual intelligence and transform into human form, while you are still just a tree?”

“Is it because the Heavenly Dao made you stand here as a bridge connecting heaven and earth, so you can only stand here, unable to move at all?”

“If I can see through the Heavenly Dao and establish laws, I’ll let you leave this place and come with me to open new heavens and earth. How about that?”

…

The woman stood barefoot on the branches of the Jianmu Tree. She thought for a long time and finally conceived a method to break free from the dao.

Life between heaven and earth was like a white colt passing through a gap, suddenly and quickly. Time could not be reversed, and to break free from the dao, she could start from this point.

“If I bring those who want to return to the past to change fate against heaven back to former times, and if they can change their destiny and affect heaven and earth, wouldn’t I be able to break free from the dao?” She thought for a long time, sitting on the Jianmu’s branches and asking: “Do you think this would work?”

She transformed into the Liuguang Mirror, seeking the fated ones. The fated ones had to be people who left their mark in history, people of great importance in the river of time. At first, the Liuguang Mirror didn’t need sacrificial offerings. She used her power to reverse the cosmos and make time flow backward. But the Heavenly Dao would correct the chaos – countless coincidences overlapped, and the reborn people didn’t help her break free from the dao.

Each time she used this power, her strength would be weakened. In the end, she no longer had the might to reverse the cosmos.

Once that mirror was bright with a surface like jewels, that was when her spiritual energy was abundant. But later, the jewels lost their luster, and the mirror surface showed spots of rust. The mountain and river spirits’ spiritual energy was nearly exhausted. She slept for a thousand years and fell into the hands of a great power in the True Spirit Realm who was nearly at the transformation stage.

“No spiritual energy for rebirth?”

“It doesn’t matter – I’ll give you sacrificial offerings.”

But he hadn’t expected that once sacrificial offerings were devoured, they would no longer exist in heaven and earth, and the Liuguang Mirror would transform from the original mountain and river spirit into an evil object that heaven and earth could not tolerate. After that, great power was reborn, because there was no more True Spirit Realm. In the spiritually barren cultivation world, he simply couldn’t cultivate to his original level. Most importantly, having been born in the True Spirit Realm, he would still be suppressed by the Heavenly Dao in the cultivation world. Thus, he didn’t live very long at all. Among all those who opposed the Heavenly Dao, he was the most ridiculous one.

The Liuguang Mirror hid between heaven and earth. The great power wanted to find it and become the Liuguang Mirror’s master. If one rebirth didn’t work, he could slaughter living beings as sacrificial offerings for another rebirth. He could roam freely in the river of time and ultimately achieve his wishes. However, he never found the Liuguang Mirror. So before dying, he spread news of the Liuguang Mirror throughout the cultivation world, and finally refined himself into a soul weapon.

His idea was that once the Liuguang Mirror appeared in the world, he would awaken from the soul weapon and control the Liuguang Mirror again. But unexpectedly, he waited until the end of time and his primordial spirit completely dissipated.

In her previous life, no one discovered that soul weapon, and the remnant soul within finally completely dispersed. In the end, he never encountered the Liuguang Mirror again.

“Su Zhuyi.” A voice suddenly rang out in her mind, but that voice was very gentle, somewhat like the sound of rustling leaves.

“She is not an evil object.”

“She cannot fall into becoming a demonic artifact.”

“The devouring of living beings in the Liuguang Mirror was not her intention. Except for Qin Jianglan, who sacrificed himself voluntarily, all other living beings were not what she wanted.”

“The living beings of the True Spirit Realm don’t know they are already dead, so they have no spiritual energy, but one is different. Before this, this little phoenix had always been thinking of a parasol tree inside.”

“We trees develop spiritual intelligence very late, and that parasol tree was just an ordinary parasol tree. However, because of the little phoenix’s long tears of blood and longing, the one in the Liuguang Mirror didn’t completely perish but instead developed faint resentment. I guided you to this place and sent the phoenix back to the True Spirit Realm in the Liuguang Mirror to resolve the parasol tree’s resentment.”

“And you must also try everything possible not to let Qin Jianglan develop resentment.”

“Once he generates resentment and affects the dead spirits in the Liuguang Mirror, then the entire mirror will be filled with resentment. At that time, the Liuguang Mirror will completely fall into becoming a demonic artifact.”

“Who are you?” Her mind was dizzy and confused, and Su Zhuyi only felt her head was spinning.

No voice answered her anymore, only the rustling sound of swaying leaves. She suddenly opened her eyes and saw a blue leaf falling. At the same time, with a tremendous crash, dark clouds gathered in the sky with lightning and thunder. Golden lightning like a sharp sword descended from heaven…

In that instant, Su Zhuyi felt there was no escape. But just then, a voice shouted: “Watch out!”

Qin Chuan flew over, embracing Su Zhuyi and rolling to one side.

With a tremendous crash, that lightning struck the Jianmu Tree. The giant tree standing between heaven and earth burst into flames, with raging fire burning like a fire dragon, turning even the sky crimson.

The Jianmu Tree could only be seen by ascending cultivators. This was a law established by the Heavenly Dao.

But it had also violated the rules.

Was it struck dead by lightning?

Su Zhuyi felt her chest burning, as if that mirror was gently swaying. Her divine sense could no longer hold up, and she directly fainted. And just then, someone entered the barrier from outside.

“Su Zhuyi, Qin Chuan…”

“How are you?”

…

And the moment the little phoenix crashed into the Liuguang Mirror, inside the Liuguang Mirror, Qin Jianglan and Wu’er both looked up at the sky.

“Eh, a bird flew in,” Little Skull exclaimed in surprise.

“What did Su Zhuyi bring in again?” Qin Jianglan was slightly stunned. Then he saw that a bird like a ball of flame flew overhead. Wherever it passed, the air seemed much hotter. His gaze focused as he followed the fire phoenix, seeing it crash into a parasol tree. That originally lifeless parasol tree seemed to gain vitality in that instant, its leaves swaying and making rustling sounds.

That phoenix bird was also a remnant soul. Where had Su Zhuyi caught another remnant soul to sacrifice to the mirror?

“Su Zhuyi?” He called twice, but the other party didn’t answer, making his heart grow uneasy and his expression more grave.

Little Skull nervously grabbed Qin Jianglan’s sleeve. “Little Uncle, should we, should we help that bird?”

That little phoenix seemed very happy, flying and circling the parasol tree. Even though such actions made the remnant soul weaker and weaker, she was completely fearless.

After waiting so long, she had finally come home. She was too happy. Even Little Skull could feel her joy – that kind of joy that seemed like it shouldn’t be disturbed. So, though he noticed the little phoenix’s primordial spirit growing weaker and weaker, he didn’t know whether he should go help.

But he only hesitated for an instant before the phoenix completely dissipated, as if transforming into a gentle breeze and disappearing. Little Skull stared blankly, then broke into a grin. He was a mountain and river spirit – he knew that just then, that bird had been very happy. She had originally carried much resentment, but it had also disappeared while she flew around the parasol tree. So he should be happy for her.

The parasol tree returned to quiet, but somehow, Qin Jianglan felt that the parasol tree was different now.

This was just a feeling – Qin Jianglan couldn’t say why. Once, there had been a little phoenix who always remembered a parasol tree in the True Spirit Realm.

Just like how Su Zhuyi remembered Qin Jianglan. The living beings in the Liuguang Mirror weren’t completely ignorant of their situation – there was one other being who knew, but it was just a tree.

He and Little Skull returned to the soul-gathering formation. On the way, Little Skull suddenly gripped his little uncle’s hand tightly, lowering his voice: “Little Uncle, I, I just picked up something.”

He lowered his head and spread a red gem in his palm. “I feel like this might be good for gathering primordial spirit. It fell from that bird earlier…”

He was a bit nervous, afraid his little uncle would scold him. His little uncle and little sister were both very worried about that person’s primordial spirit dispersing. He was worried too, so when he sensed this stone could strengthen primordial spirit, he had picked it up and held it in his hand.

This was that red bird’s thing.

Would his little uncle blame him for randomly picking up other people’s things?

Little Skull was so nervous his bones seemed to be heating up.

Qin Jianglan saw that red gem and was overjoyed. He patted Wu’er’s head. “This stone is very useful. Thank you.”

Qin Jianglan brought Little Skull quickly back to the soul-gathering formation. He directly placed that gem into the soul-gathering array. This was phoenix blood essence, with miraculous effects for nourishing the spirit. All the spirit-nourishing and soul-gathering items he had recently found couldn’t compare to this small gem.

Qin Jianglan stared somewhat nervously at the soul-gathering formation, watching the human figure within the array gradually gather and solidify, gradually showing a physical outline.

This was a middle-aged man. His gaze gradually cleared, as if returning to normal. Standing in the formation, he suddenly looked up at the sky for a while, then stared fixedly at Qin Jianglan, examining him carefully for a long time before suddenly bursting into laughter.

“You voluntarily sacrificed yourself to the Liuguang Mirror?”

“But not for yourself-for someone else to return to a thousand years ago?”

“That person discovered you were missing from the world a thousand years ago, went to pay respects to you, and you coincidentally summoned a dead thing and established contact with that person?”

He asked three questions in succession. With each sentence, his voice grew stronger. By the end, he was almost hoarsely roaring and laughing maniacally. “Heaven’s will, ah, heaven’s will…”

He laughed madly, finally saying: “I won’t hide it from you – this mirror that makes time flow backward was forged by me.”

“At that time, my cultivation had reached the pinnacle of the world, with a limitless lifespan, nearly achieving spirit transformation. But standing at such heights, I felt utterly lonely, my heart like dead ash.”

“At that time, I missed immensely those things I had ruthlessly discarded in pursuit of the so-called great dao of longevity.”

Speaking to this point, his expression returned somewhat to normal, with some tenderness in his eyes. “In the depths of midnight dreams, I would ask myself – do I regret it? If given another chance, how would I choose?”

“I asked myself over and over, day after day, year after year. My originally firm heart began to waver.”

“So I wanted to return to the past, to make up for regrets. Thus, I thought of every possible way and forged the Liuguang Mirror that could make time flow backward.”

“But it later broke free from my control. It directly devoured the entire True Spirit Realm, and it wanted to devour me too.” He made a shushing gesture with his finger. “It developed its consciousness – it wanted to become a dao artifact.”

“I wanted to return to the past to make up for regrets, but it devoured the entire True Spirit Realm. With no more True Spirit Realm in heaven and earth, how could I make up for regrets?”

“I woke up and time had indeed flowed backward. I had returned to ten thousand years ago, but not to the True Spirit Realm of ten thousand years ago.”

“I had returned to the cultivation world at the bottom of the Jianmu.”

“I climbed up the Jianmu with great difficulty, but I could no longer see the True Spirit Realm.”

“Hahahaha, that mirror was truly remarkable – it devoured the entire True Spirit Realm. The True Spirit Realm became a sacrifice. With no more True Spirit Realm, what meaning was there in returning to the past?”

He couldn’t make up for anything. Those people and things he had once loved, hated, and hurt had all disappeared together, as if they had never existed.

“So I wanted it to spit everything out – to make it spit out the True Spirit Realm!” He roared hoarsely, his expression almost mad again, frightening Little Skull into gripping his little uncle’s hand tightly.

“It devoured the True Spirit Realm but still didn’t become a dao artifact. Do you know why?”

He laughed madly. Though just a remnant soul, blood tears flowed from his eyes. “Because it was still within the Heavenly Dao. Even returning to the past, the entire trajectory of the Heavenly Dao hadn’t changed.”

“I returned to the past. The True Spirit Realm was gone, so I did nothing.” Just like the Jianmu Tree, the cultivation world was the foundation of the Jianmu Tree. Though the True Spirit Realm disappeared, as long as the foundation remained and the cultivators below continued cultivating, they could eventually leave the cultivation world again and re-establish the True Spirit Realm. So the course of history hadn’t been altered. It was just missing one realm, and the people of the cultivation world originally didn’t know about the True Spirit Realm anyway.

“For that mirror to become a dao artifact, someone must be able to truly reverse fate. So it must appear in the world again, must entice others to recognize it as master and use this time-reversing rebirth method.” He chuckled twice. “I always wanted to destroy it.”

“Later, others obtained the Liuguang Mirror, killing countless living beings to sacrifice to the mirror and return to the past, determined to change fate. But the Heavenly Dao invisibly corrected the chaos – they still couldn’t change anything.”

“Each time the Liuguang Mirror appeared in the world, it would be weakened by the Heavenly Dao. Now it doesn’t have much ability left.”

“Most importantly, once resentment breeds here and expands beyond control, then it won’t become a dao artifact but will completely fall into becoming a demonic artifact.”

“How could a demonic artifact circumvent Heavenly Dao rules and transcend the Heavenly Dao?”

He looked at Qin Jianglan with a smile. “Except for the True Spirit Realm devoured during forging, only you voluntarily sacrificed yourself. Others who hunted living beings for sacrifice naturally wouldn’t remember those beings they killed after rebirth. Even if they remembered, they wouldn’t constantly think about them or pay respects.”

Because Su Zhuyi always thought of him and wouldn’t let others replace him, she made some interventions, so Qin Jianglan’s life wasn’t devoured by the Liuguang Mirror as quickly. Similarly, Qin Jianglan himself realized something was wrong. He even discovered the secret here. He didn’t die in confusion and even developed an unwillingness to forget, breeding resentment.

For the Liuguang Mirror to become a dao artifact, it couldn’t let resentment breed, or it might become a demonic artifact.

And for it to become a dao artifact, it would establish its own Heavenly Dao rules. The entire mirror world would be within its Heavenly Dao laws, and it would have to follow its dao. So even if it found Qin Jianglan disagreeable, it couldn’t directly eliminate him. Just like how the Heavenly Dao very much wanted to destroy Su Zhuyi, that reborn anomaly, but didn’t directly strike her dead with heavenly lightning.

There were laws to follow – it wasn’t completely hopeless.

For the Liuguang Mirror to become a dao artifact that could contend with the Heavenly Dao and form its heaven and earth, it had to follow its own rules. If it wanted to eliminate Qin Jianglan, it could only borrow other forces.

He looked at Qin Jianglan and asked: “Do you want to leave this place?”

The middle-aged man quietly looked at Qin Jianglan, smiling as he asked: “Do you want to leave this place, return to the original heaven and earth, and be with the woman you love?”

He said word by word: “I can help you.”