Supreme Golden Palace

Chapter 220 Suwen (Part 1)

Yin hour,

The sound of the watchman's drum pierced through the night fog, five gongs sounding slowly and deeply into the main hall of the government office.

"According to the heart,"

Hearing the watchman's drumbeats from the fortress, Lü Shang felt a stirring in his heart. A faint light flickered in his eyes, and a hazy, clear light appeared from his chest, transforming into a bronze mirror that stood steadily before him.

This bronze mirror is nine inches in diameter. The handle is carved with a crouching Qilin. The four corners of the mirror body are decorated with the four symbols of tortoise, dragon, phoenix, and tiger. Beyond the four symbols are the Eight Trigrams, and beyond the Eight Trigrams are the twelve zodiac animal patterns.

This is the divine object of Xuanyuan, the treasure left by the Yellow Emperor, the Mirror of the Heart!
Under the mirror of the mind, Lu Shang's body was covered with specks of light, revealing 1,296 acupoints and 3,000 perfect divine bodies.

Lü Shang's achievements today, attaining the status of a martial arts immortal before the age of twenty, are largely due to the assistance of the Mirror of the Heart. Without the divine mirror, even with Gonggong's bloodline and the immortal's teachings, Lü Shang would have had to wait many more years.

Thinking this, he lightly brushed his fingers along the edge of the mirror, and the four symbols of tortoise, dragon, phoenix and tiger on the mirror suddenly lit up with a blue light. The Bagua diagram slowly rotated, and at the same time, the twelve zodiac animal patterns also showed fine golden light.

"Qingli,"

Lu Shang stared at the unicorn pattern on the mirror handle, softly calling out, when suddenly, a wave of dizziness washed over him. Then, darkness fell, the world shifted, and he felt as if he were falling.

However, perhaps because Lü Shang had already attained immortality and was no longer a mortal with flesh and blood, although his thoughts were captured by the Mirror of the Mind, he still retained a degree of clarity in his mind.

"Little God Qingli, I meet the Mirror Master,"

Finally, when Lü Shang opened his eyes again, he saw waves rising from the sea of ​​clouds, purple smoke billowing, and a divine being with a dragon's head and a snake's body, wearing a crimson crown and purple robes, standing above the clouds, bowing to him.

Upon seeing the deity reflected in the mirror, Lü Shang immediately returned the greeting, saying, "Lü Shang greets the venerable deity."

This was Lü Shang's second time entering the Mirror Realm. After Lü Shang returned from the banquet at the Dragon Palace, the Mirror of Reflection began to produce strange phenomena, eventually stirring Lü Shang's mind and causing him to seek communion with it. Knowing the profound mysteries of the Mirror of Reflection, Lü Shang naturally did not resist, which led to the scene just now.

After Qingli stood up, the crimson crown on her dragon head reflected the faint purple light. After looking Lü Shang up and down for a moment, she exclaimed, "Master Mirror, you are truly a genius that appears only once in a thousand years!"

"At such a young age, to have knocked on the door to becoming a human immortal and cultivated an immortal bone and Dao embryo is remarkable, truly remarkable."

"In my humble opinion, the Mirror Master's innate talent and fortune far surpass those of ordinary immortals. If the Mirror Master can concentrate on seeking immortality, he will surely ascend to heaven in broad daylight and join the ranks of immortals."

Qingli's words were based on fact. Within the vast universe, all those who become immortals are people with great fortune. There are five types of immortals in the universe: Heaven, God, Earth, Human, and Ghost. Even the lowest-ranking Ghost Immortal is not something that ordinary cultivators can achieve.

Although the Ghost Immortal is of low rank, he is still one of the Five Immortals, and is different from mortals.

Lü Shang stood with his hands at his sides and said, "Your Excellency flatters me. I am truly unworthy of such praise. My achievements today are half due to divine favor and half due to good fortune. I dare not claim credit for what I have gained."

Upon hearing this, Qingli nodded slightly and praised, "Being neither arrogant nor impatient is truly rare. The Mirror Master is able to discern the root cause; this very quality is even more precious than immortal bones and Dao embryos."

As they spoke, Qingli lowered her head and thought for a moment, then said, "This humble deity has something to say, but I don't know if I should."

Lü Shang said solemnly, "Your Excellency, please speak freely. I am all ears."

Qingli pondered for a moment and said, "Since the Mirror Master understands that opportunities are bestowed by Heaven, he should know the principle that cultivation is like climbing a mountain."

"While your achievement of becoming a Martial Immortal is a rare accomplishment, reaching the pinnacle of martial arts may preserve your physical body, but Immortals do not live forever. After the Mirror Master passes away, your vital energy will gradually decline and your spiritual essence will be depleted. What will happen then?"

Qingli cared a lot about Lü Shang, the master of the mirror. As a creation of the human ancestor Xuanyuan, Qingli instinctively favored 'humans', and she would treat certain 'people' with special favor.

The reason Qingli took the initiative to tug at Lü Shang's mind and draw him into the Mirror Realm to communicate with him was because she cherished Lü Shang's talent and wanted to persuade him to abandon martial arts and cultivate Taoism to follow the righteous path of immortality.

After all, Lü Shang already possessed the bones and physique of an immortal, and if he were to cultivate the Tao, he might very well attain the fruits of immortality.

In Qingli's opinion, it would be a waste of Lü Shang's immortal talent to let him continue to wallow in the bitterness of the mortal world.

Meeting Qingli's gaze, Lü Shang said softly, "The Venerable God says that immortals cannot live forever, but I do not believe so."

"Within the Three Realms, there are five types of immortals: Heavenly Immortals, Gods, Earthly Immortals, Humans, and Ghosts. Among them, the Heavenly Immortals, Gods, Earthly Immortals, and Ghosts can all live long and prolong their lives. I do not believe that only the Human Immortals cannot transcend life and death."

"If even ghost immortals can live forever, why can't human immortals?"

The so-called Ghost Immortals are those who do not comprehend the Great Dao but desire to achieve it quickly, cultivating their form to be like withered wood and their heart to be like purple ashes, making it difficult for them to enter the cycle of birth and death. Although their physical form is flawed, they understand the Dharma nature and have a lifespan of three hundred years.

After cultivating to become a Ghost Immortal, further advancement leads to the Dao Fruit of Immortal. The Netherworld often says, "It is difficult for a Yin Spirit to enter sainthood after countless eons," which refers to Ghost Immortals. Ghost Immortals must undergo countless eons to achieve Yin purity and Yang purity, and cultivate to become immortals.

"Immortal immortality?"

Qingli's expression darkened, and after a long while, she sighed softly, "The Mirror Master truly has lofty ambitions, actually wanting to transcend the cycle of life and death with the martial arts of the Human Immortals."

"If you succeed, there will likely be one more Supreme Saint in the Three Realms,"

The title "Supreme Saint and High Immortal" is a Taoist term, and in Buddhism it is also called "Bodhisattva of Wonderful Enlightenment." Their supernatural powers and magical abilities far surpass those of the Supreme Immortal of the Primordial Chaos, but are slightly inferior to those of the Great Luo Immortal of the Primordial Chaos.

The most renowned of them all is Zhen Yuanzi, the ancestor of the Earthly Immortals. He is a friend of the Three Pure Ones, an old friend of the Four Emperors, a junior of the Nine Luminaries, and a guest of the Yuan Chen. He holds a very high position.

"Enough, enough. Since you have such lofty ambitions, I will no longer try to persuade you."

The Azure Dragon shook its head slightly and said, "However, your path is unprecedented. To attain enlightenment is difficult, difficult, difficult!"

Lü Shang said leisurely, "What the Venerable God says is something I am well aware of, but I believe that this is the path most suitable for me."

Martial arts were indeed the most suitable path for Lü Shang. Lü Shang would never forget that after he received the "Golden Flower Secret of the Ancestor of Fuli" from the reclusive immortal of Zhongnan Mountain, no matter how hard he pondered, he could not comprehend the immortal's methods.

It was his boldness to practice this Primordial Secret Teaching as a martial art that allowed him to figure out some of the tricks and achieve his current level of cultivation.

This shows that Lü Shang had poor talent in Taoist cultivation but high talent in martial arts.

"Since you have made up your mind and chosen this solitary path, then I, the humble god, will bestow upon you another opportunity,"

Seeing that Lü Shang had made up his mind, Qing Li's voice deepened, and the faint light on her crimson crown swayed, causing ripples to spread across the sea of ​​clouds.

The next moment, He raised his hand and waved it lightly, and the sea of ​​clouds and purple smoke churned and, after a while, slowly condensed into a scroll of pages with a bronze luster.

The tattered pages are engraved with twisted ancient seal script, resembling the meridians of the human body or the arrangement of stars.

"Suwen!"

(End of this chapter)