Snow fell thick and fast, the cold wind cut to the bone, and heaven and earth were blanketed in endless white.
The clouds overhead were gray-white and heavy, permeated by an inexplicable oppression. Sky-Scraping Cliff towered into the clouds in the depths of the boundless snowfield, like a colossal pillar holding up heaven and earth.
High in the sky, icy clouds churned and flowed, their vast sea occupying the entire firmament.
Somewhere within that sea of clouds, a patch of mist drifted in from afar, slowly drawing near Sky-Scraping Cliff.
The mist blended into the surrounding clouds without the slightest trace of abnormality.
Enormous, ferocious demon birds occasionally swept over the cloud sea. Some nearly scattered the mist apart, yet not one noticed anything unusual about it.
What no one knew was that a cloud mirror flickered in and out of sight deep within the mist. Seemingly there and yet not there, it continuously emitted faint clouds to keep the surrounding mist from dispersing.
At this moment, within the Mirror World, Zhao Sheng sat upright atop a cloud platform, surrounded by swirling mist. Eight water mirrors floated before him, each reflecting the outside world in minute detail.
As time passed, the mist formed by the Mirage Cloud Mirror silently approached Sky-Scraping Cliff, eventually merging with the clouds beyond the cliff.
Seated high upon the cloud platform, Zhao Sheng swept his gaze across the eight water mirrors. He saw caves of every size covering Sky-Scraping Cliff, with countless demon birds flying in and out of each one, all seemingly extremely busy.
The nearer one got to the peak, the larger the caves on the outer cliff became, though their numbers grew increasingly sparse.
At the same time, the more powerful the demon bird, the larger a cave it occupied—and the closer