After the path was cut off

Siam's dominance left Lu Ling and her group with no room for hesitation.

So they immediately took out a map, and after some discussion, decided on Red Jelly Lake next to Cloud Hidden Lake. That place floated on the upper layer of the Rotten Water Abyss, belonged to the Heavenly Revelation Sect, and was named after a kind of red berry that grew abundantly in the lake.

This sacred land belongs to the Celestial Sect of Heavenly Revelation. On Ziwei Star, there were twelve sects whose names begin with the character "Tian" (天), but only five remain today. These sects all belong to the same lineage, hence the close relationship between the Celestial Profound Sect and the Celestial Revelation Sect.

Why would someone with such a good relationship take over this place first? Lu Ling's reasoning was quite straightforward.

Because of their deep friendship, it would be better to wait until both sides have established their sects before taking action; it would be easier to kick Tianqi Sect out of the game as soon as possible, and then the other sects would be easier to deal with.

Siam had no objection to this, and immediately took You Fang ahead of them, heading straight for Yunmeng.

Lu Ling and the other two also dispersed to reunite with their fellow disciples and reorganize the entry procedures.

Only then did Li Wangxiang finally get a moment to be alone.

He returned to the backyard of the guesthouse, rented a secluded room, set up an isolation array, and then slowly closed his eyes, immersing his mind in his sea of ​​consciousness.

After the sun-chasing shuttle entered his body, he never dared to examine the changes in his Niwan (a point on his head).

But this time, as soon as his consciousness sank in, everything went black before his eyes.

It felt like my feet suddenly gave way, and I plummeted straight down.

The next moment, he entered a dream.

This dream was completely different from the fragmented and bizarre dreams I had had in the past few days.

It's so clear.

It was so clear it didn't seem like a dream; it was more like a memory forcibly inserted into one's soul.

In the midst of a grand dream, the world is undergoing its final funeral.

A colossal tree that reaches the heavens and the earth is rapidly decaying, its branches and leaves withering away, and large patches of bark peeling off.

The sky, as if it had lost its support, began to collapse inch by inch toward the earth.

He knelt in a dilapidated trial ground.

He knew that wasn't him.

Yet the resentment, frustration, and unwillingness within that body pressed down on his chest, as if even his breath carried the hatred of others.

People were everywhere, and the shouts of rebuke came crashing down like a tsunami.

"Jin Guang! You stole the heartwood of the Jianmu tree to forge immortal artifacts, causing the heavens and earth to collapse and all living beings to suffer—do you know your crime?!"

In the dream, "he" raised his head and let out a cold laugh.

"What crime have I committed?"

"Heaven and earth will collapse sooner or later, and all living beings will eventually die, so why not grant my wish?"

After a brief silence, an even more raging roar erupted.

"Shut up! What right do you have to decide the life and death of all living beings!"

"The Jianmu tree nurtured us, and we have guarded it for generations; this is our sect's destiny! You do not know how to repay your kindness, and you disregard your responsibilities. How can you face yourselves in self-defense!"

"For your own selfish desires and fleeting thoughts, you are willing to sever the chance for humanity to once again ascend to the heavens—how cruel you are!"

"I'd rather die alongside all living beings than let someone like you live!"

"Jin Guang, your crimes are unforgivable... your crimes are unforgivable!"

Finally, a majestic voice drowned out all the noise, delivering the final judgment:

"The Jianmu tree has withered, and heaven and earth are about to collapse. Clinging to your stolen immortality, go and repent in the depths of the Ruins."

"A hundred years, a thousand years, ten thousand years, ten thousand years... Time will bear witness."

"Open your eyes wide and see clearly—is this the future you want?"

The sounds of judgment faded into the distance, and the dream began to distort and lengthen. A cold, viscous darkness surged up, engulfing his head.

An overwhelming sense of frustration had nowhere to go, and a feeling of suffocation gripped his throat.

No...no...

Li Wangxiang suddenly woke up with a start.

"I did nothing wrong—"

He froze as soon as he finished speaking.

He found himself standing in that small realm of his sea of ​​consciousness without even realizing it.

A large tree stood overhead, and a clear pond lay at my feet, its surface shrouded in a thin mist. A rustic, dark mirror hung silently above the water.

The mirror's edge is engraved with the Five Elements seal script, and below the seal script are the Heavenly Stems such as Jia, Yi, Bing, and Ding, which divide the Five Elements into Yin and Yang.

What did you dream about?

A slightly immature voice rang out from ahead.

Li Wangxiang stared at the mirror, the shock lingering in his heart.

"You...are you truly a spirit?"

The voice from the mirror immediately rang out, sounding somewhat displeased:

"If I am not divine, then who was it that warned you before?"

Li Wangxiang frowned slightly, but before he could ask any more questions, the voice added:

"Call the Mirror Master first, then reply."

Li Wangxiang wanted to question him, but the words caught in his throat as if something had gently brushed them aside.

"In response to the Mirror Master..."

Even he himself was taken aback.

The voice in the mirror seemed quite satisfied, giving a soft "hmm".

"Tell me, what did you dream about?"

Li Wangxiang, unable to control himself, recounted what he had just seen in his dream, bit by bit.

When he uttered the words "golden light," the voice in the mirror suddenly exclaimed in surprise.

"Golden light..."

"This name sounds familiar."

"The heart of the Jianmu tree... Could that be my origin?"

There was even a hint of uncertainty in his words.

Li Wangxiang stood there, his mind churning with doubts.

Since being forced to accept the treasure mirror, everything he has encountered—the complete shattering of his Dao foundation, the death calamity of Beichen, the survivors, the soul weapon, and the decree pointing to the Abyss of Corruption—seems to finally have a chance to find the answer.

But with so many questions, when it really comes to this point, I don't know which question to ask first.

The precious mirror, however, spoke first.

Don't expect me to answer all your questions at once.

"Before entering this world, my memories had already been tampered with. My origins and past events are now just fragments."

"I only remember that I had a name called [Xuan Li]."

"As for what happens after you enter this realm, I can answer your questions."

The faint light on the mirror surface shifted gently.

"Alright, go ahead and ask."

Li Wangxiang took a deep breath.

"May I ask the Mirror Master to tell me the ins and outs of the Bei Chen incident?"

The mirror turned.

"Does it matter?"

Li Wangxiang raised his eyes, his voice steady.

"Even if Xiao Xiu is going to die, he wants to die knowing why."

After a few breaths, Xuanli spoke again:

"Fine, you have the right to know."

"However, I am only speaking from what I have seen, and it may not be the true picture. You should judge for yourself."

Xuan Li's voice softened:

"To explain this, we have to start from the moment I broke through the boundary."

"When I awoke from my ignorance, I sensed a familiar aura drawing me from the Purple Star."

"That aura... it's you."

"Then, I forcibly broke through the boundary wall of Ziwei Star."

"But as soon as the crack opened, something outside the boundary started to move."

"I could only make out a giant ape, carrying a golden crow and a jade rabbit on its shoulders, which had been guarding the boundary for who knows how long."

Li Wangxiang's pupils contracted slightly.

Shouldering the sun and moon.

It suddenly matched the rumors about Beiyuan that my junior sister had mentioned.

Xuan Li, however, seemed oblivious to his odd behavior and continued:

"The golden crow made the first move."

"It wanted to use the crack I made to get in first. I was annoyed that it took up the crack I made, so I stopped it for a moment outside the boundary and collided with it."

"But at that time my strength was draining too quickly, and I couldn't hold out for long. I couldn't stop him, so I could only follow him inside."

"After entering the realm, I discovered that this world was extremely hostile to me. I couldn't even mobilize the spiritual energy, and only my divine sense could barely function."

"At the same time, I also sensed dozens of gazes, their auras lofty and distant, mostly Nascent Soul True Monarchs from Ziwei Star, chasing after me along the trajectory of my fall into this realm."

"Fortunately, the Jade Rabbit squeezed in afterward. From then on, the Golden Crow patrolled the sky, and the Jade Rabbit veiled the moon, thus sealing off the Northern Plain and separating me from those dozens of gazes. That's how I wasn't taken away before I even landed."

Xuan Li paused for a moment.

"I was even weaker when I fell to the ground, and my consciousness was being constantly pushed into the mirror. I must find you before that happens."

"So I first used my divine sense to tame a junior cultivator to run errands for me. That person was Zhao Si'er."

"But who knew you were hiding in a secret realm in seclusion."

"To lure you out, and also to conceal my true form."

"I communicated with the Netherworld with my divine sense, and in the shape of my original body, I refined thousands of fragments and scattered them into the hands of the cultivators of Beichen."

Li Wangxiang felt a slight tremor in his heart.

No wonder.

If it weren't for someone from the sect suddenly arriving and saying that a strange phenomenon of celestial rifts had appeared in the Northern Plains and that rare treasures had been scattered, he would never have left seclusion ahead of schedule.

Zhao Si'er was probably already waiting outside at that time.

Xuan Li said:

"When Zhao Si'er found you, I was almost out of consciousness. After entering your soul, I remained dormant for almost half a month before I barely woke up."

"Your foundation for cultivation was shattered, and judging from the result, it was caused by the Great Sun Fire Essence of the Golden Crow."

"The destruction of Beichen must be inextricably linked to this."

"These days, I've been trying to figure out what happened after I went silent, and I've also been wondering why it was the Golden Crow and the Jade Rabbit that entered the realm first and sealed off the entire Northern Plains."

"Looking back now, the rift I created was probably not enough to allow the giant ape's true form to enter this realm."

"That's why the Golden Crow and the Jade Rabbit went ahead to pave the way for it."

"As for whether Beichen Immortal City was destroyed by the Golden Crow's divine power or by the aftermath of the battle between the True Monarch and the three demons—I cannot say for sure at this moment."

Hearing this, Li Wangxiang finally managed to piece together a coherent narrative.

He paused for a moment, then asked another question that had been weighing on his mind.

"May I ask, Master Mirror, why did you choose me?"

Xuan Li's reply was somewhat ambiguous.

"Do I even need to say that?"

"Wasn't that dream you just had the answer?"

In an instant, a multitude of thoughts rushed to mind.

Reincarnation? Obsession? Guiding soul? Or some old cause he himself is unaware of?

His Adam's apple bobbed slightly; he found it hard to accept.

"I...I am Jin Guang?"

The mirror-like surface shimmered gently as it turned.

"not necessarily."

"But you will be connected."

"There must be countless connections between that golden light and me. Otherwise, I wouldn't have chosen you."

Li Wangxiang stood there, feeling his thoughts churning, and for a moment he couldn't even ask the next question.

He suddenly realized that his previous obedience to the title of "Mirror Master" was not entirely due to Xuan Li's suppression.

It was more like a long-standing debt that had surfaced from the depths of his soul, forcing him to bow his head.

He should have been wary of this mirror, should have doubted it, and been on guard against it. But both his almost instinctive response when he heard the words "the mirror's owner" and the inability to feel genuine suspicion when facing it now reminded him that this was probably not the first time he had encountered this thing.

If the events in the dream actually happened, then Xuanli was most likely a celestial artifact forged from the heartwood of the Jianmu tree; and that person named "Jinguang," whether or not he was his predecessor, was at least inextricably linked to him.

Looking back now, the line from my dream, "Why not grant me my wish?", wasn't really about arrogance.

Quite the opposite.

It's more like knowing you've done something wrong, but insisting on saying the harshest things first, so that others will scold you even more harshly, and your own sense of guilt will be slightly lessened.

This emotion did not belong to Li Wangxiang.

But at this moment, it was pressing down on his chest.

The past is too distant, and the truth is too heavy, so much so that those important issues have temporarily lost their weight.

And so, a sentence naturally came out:

"Master Mirror, what can I, a humble cultivator, do for you?"