Meng Qi was acutely aware of the gap between himself and the False Nirvana beings like the Black Heavenly Emperor. Whether in terms of realm, divine abilities, or reaction speed, he was far from their level. Thus, he dared not delay. The moment he left the Origin of Life and Death, he immediately activated the illusory Haotian Mirror without hesitation.
The ancient, dark, and lightless mirror, capable of reflecting all heavens and worlds, suddenly emitted eerie glows, rippling outward from its core as if piercing through the barriers of time and space, the shackles of heaven and earth, illuminating every layer of existence. The area beyond the Crimson Mountains became hazy, both illusory and real.
Holding the Haotian Mirror, Meng Qi’s mind was filled with scenes utterly different from his daily perceptions—more profound and astonishing than the myriad heavens and worlds.
At the lowest level was a point. Countless points connected to form a line, countless lines converged into a plane, and countless planes stacked into the familiar void. The River of Time flowed through the void, influencing each other, giving birth to heaven and earth and the myriad worlds.
The folding and overlapping of the void created the so-called infinite heights, rendering the distance between two points in the void meaningless, allowing omnipresence and resonance with the Celestial Realm and the Nine Nether.
In this state, time curled upon itself. Past, present, and future figures converged from points into countless lines, forming the terrifying and bizarre “Chaos Serpent,” reaching beyond the River of Time to higher realms, stacking into the myriad heavens and worlds as seen by those at the Nirvana level.
All other curled aspects and the Great Dao converged here, merging with the higher realms beyond the River of Time into a point both real and illusory—encompassing all possibilities, past, present, and future, the beginning and the end, every facet of the Great Dao.
In other words, this was the Dao, the Dao Fruit.
The lowest level was a point, and at the highest level, it returned to a point. Such was the profound mystery of the Dao.
This was the profound mystery contained within the Haotian Mirror’s path of the void, continuously evolving and ascending. For a moment, Meng Qi felt intoxicated, wishing to scrutinize every detail and absorb it all. Unfortunately, upon reaching the higher realms beyond the River of Time, the convergence of the Dao’s aspects and the other curled phenomena became blurred, only faintly glimpsed. From this, he inferred that the Haotian God-Emperor must have just attained the embryonic form of the Dao Fruit, limited by the shattered Haotian Mirror and insights borrowed from the Green Emperor, thus only manifesting to this extent.
Holding the illusory Haotian Mirror, Meng Qi now felt brimming with power, as if he could look down upon his enemies from a lofty height. It seemed that merely reflecting an old foe’s image would freeze them in place, then cast them down to the lowest structure of the void, reducing them to a flat image, devoid of any divinity, vulnerable to being torn apart by mortal hands!
If the power involved could affect time, even the enemy’s past and future experiences would degenerate into images, converging into a picture book depicting their entire life. As for the countless future possibilities, only a few would remain, most leading to death and the dissipation of their Dao.
If pushed further down, even images would fail to hold, reverting to words, forming a book, and at the extreme, to black and white points—a “codebook” describing someone’s entire life.
Such was the terrifying might of the Haotian Mirror, an ancient treasure whose prestige endured even after the destruction and rebirth of epochs.
The earlier epiphany, though described at length, occurred in but a fleeting moment. Meng Qi had no time to indulge, for the Black Heavenly Emperor and the Nine Chaos Heavenly Venerable had already sensed his return from the Origin of Life and Death.
“Beg for mercy and die!” The Nine Chaos Heavenly Venerable unleashed his madness and chaos. The Nine Nether around Meng Qi collapsed, waves of destruction surging everywhere, even affecting the past within the River of Time. Countless illusory Daos began to curl.
The Black Heavenly Emperor, without hesitation, reached back a moment earlier, targeting Meng Qi before he activated the illusory Haotian Mirror. Time rippled like water as his gem-like hand pierced through, spreading waves toward the present—altering history to influence the now. Though the figure was somewhat blurred by the near-Dao power of the Origin of Life and Death, Meng Qi’s heavy presence here still made him reachable.
The Nine Nether Blood Demon, bearing old grudges against Meng Qi, intended to strike first but was preempted by the Nine Chaos Heavenly Venerable’s indiscriminate assault. Unable to intervene, he mimicked the Black Heavenly Emperor, boiling bloodlight into a crimson stream tainting the River of Time, flowing upstream to dissolve and assimilate Meng Qi before he could use the Haotian Mirror.
A pale, bloodless hand descended abruptly from the infinite heights, its icy chill permeating the destruction wrought by the Nine Chaos Heavenly Venerable, freezing all things and halting the spread, heralding another apocalypse. Simultaneously, its fingers flicked out eerie, illusory sword beams, slicing the void around Meng Qi and targeting the past moment to obstruct the Black Heavenly Emperor and the Nine Nether Blood Demon.
The Profound Nether Ghost Emperor, seeking the secret of entering and exiting the Origin of Life and Death, braved the Nine Chaos Heavenly Venerable’s assault to capture Meng Qi alive!
Under the fierce clash of the four False Nirvana beings, the slightly weaker Demon Lord and Seven Kill Taoist wisely kept their distance to avoid contamination. In their view, the mere aftershocks would doom Meng Qi to eternal damnation!
At this critical juncture, Meng Qi did not direct the illusory Haotian Mirror at any of the Nine Nether False Nirvana beings to create an opening for escape. Instead, he turned it upon himself!
The Haotian Mirror’s eerie glow surged, its dark surface suddenly clearing, fully reflecting Meng Qi’s image.
Crack!
The illusory Haotian Mirror shattered, each fragment transforming into black light, swirling around Meng Qi and piercing into his acupoints, elevating his perception of existence.
If the Haotian Mirror could degrade others’ void structures, casting them down to lower levels, it could undoubtedly temporarily elevate the one it reflected, raising them toward higher realms!
Through this, Meng Qi not only gained the power to escape but also experienced the False Nirvana realm, accumulating insights others could never attain.
—The Haotian Mirror, with only five or six-tenths of its peak power, borrowed from the Green Emperor, could not elevate Meng Qi to the true Nirvana realm.
Whoosh!
Meng Qi felt the void and the River of Time manifest around him, space-time curling. The Cause of All Effects naturally activated, linking his past selves to his present node, forming a continuous line. Though the myriad possibilities of the next ten breaths were limited by his False Nirvana state, he could still glimpse them. Even so, Meng Qi felt as if all changes were within his grasp, all heavenly secrets under his control.
This was the perspective of a False Nirvana being!
If even this was so profound and mighty, how much more so the true Nirvana?
Countless thoughts arose and settled. Suddenly, a blade appeared in Meng Qi’s hand—the Purple Lightning Absolute Blade, supremely righteous and blazing with yang energy.
Without a shout or glare, purple light flashed. A blade ray appeared and vanished, as if merging into the River of Time’s upstream.
Just as the Black Heavenly Emperor and the Nine Nether Blood Demon were about to reach the pre-Haotian Mirror Meng Qi, his figure surged, his aura skyrocketing. From the manifested illusory River of Time, he seized the purple blade ray and slashed at his enemies—and himself—with a terror matching theirs.
Clang!
The Black Heavenly Emperor’s finger bent slightly, deflecting the blade ray. The crimson bloodlight stream passed through Meng Qi’s figure without touching him.
The past was gone like smoke!
Though temporarily elevated in existence, Meng Qi’s mastery of power paled compared to the old monsters like the Black Heavenly Emperor. Thus, he feigned attacking them while truly targeting himself, erasing his past existence!
For ordinary beings, the absence of a past moment meant present annihilation. But Meng Qi, with the Infinite Seal and the Cause of All Effects, revived his past shadow through their connection.
Simultaneously, he infused the celestial structure glimpsed through the Haotian Mirror into his Sky-Opening Seal, growing new heads and arms to wield the Absolute Blade, slashing at the Nine Chaos Heavenly Venerable.
This was a strike nearing the true meaning of “Sky-Opening and Earth-Sundering”!
The blade light cleaved from beyond the River of Time, splitting the frozen apocalypse of destruction. Curled time and illusory Daos stretched, and heaven and earth were reborn anew.
Seizing the moment, Meng Qi’s left arm lowered slightly, golden light flashing as he withstood a palm strike from the Profound Nether Ghost Emperor. Death energy surged, half his body turning dark and frozen.
But the Yin-Yang Seal activated—life became death, death became life—and all vanished, transformed into borrowed power, propelling him through the four False Nirvana beings’ encirclement, soaring high and escaping the Nine Nether!
The world suddenly cleared, cloudless for miles, the oppressive weight of the Nine Nether gone from Meng Qi’s sight.
The injuries from his resistance surged, his aura waning as the black light in his acupoints faded, his False Nirvana state dissipating.
Taking a deep breath, he teleported directly back to the Jade Void Palace.
“Congratulations, Junior Brother Sect Master, on your triumphant return,” Guangchengzi said with a smile.
Meng Qi glanced around, smiling as he pressed his hands down, returning to his seat at the head of the hall. He closed his eyes, silent, savoring the earlier experience.
The connections of the past, the fate of the future, the karma of the present—all tangled like a mess of threads. The structures of heaven and earth, the lowest and highest levels, flashed incessantly…
Guangchengzi and Manjushri Heavenly Venerable exchanged glances before they could speak. Behind Meng Qi, darkness surged, turning into chaos, yet his eyes remained shut.
“Creation…” “Bitter Sea…” Soft murmurs filled the Jade Void Palace as all eyes fixed on Meng Qi’s face.
Was he breaking through just like that?
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