The Slope

A barrage of questions hit him, nearly causing Yu Ci's already muddled mind to shut down. He had to temporarily clear his head, take several deep breaths, close his eyes, and calm his mind to restore his state.

Once his breathing evened out, he held the bronze mirror in his hand, his fingers probing into the hazy green light. The tips of his fingers traced the surface of the mirror, moving inch by inch, searching for anything unusual.

If there was anything unusual, the first thing was that the mirror's surface was so smooth it didn't seem to be polished. His sensitive fingertips brushed against it, feeling only the metallic coolness that seeped into his bones, with no trace of any texture or grain. The smoother it was, the less the changes on the mirror's surface could escape Yu Ci's perception.

The coolness was flowing!

Perhaps it was just a subtle difference in temperature, but this temperature variation was constant and had nothing to do with Yu Ci's body temperature. Instead, it was the mirror itself alternating between warmth and coolness, giving a faint sense of inhaling and exhaling like the sun rising and setting. Where there was inhalation and exhalation, there was yin and yang, and where there was yin and yang, there were changes. While the causal relationship between these three might not be so simple, Yu Ci didn't need to worry about that. Grasping the point of yin and yang change was like finding the end of a tangled thread; all that was needed afterward was care and patience.

His fingertips continued to brush across the mirror's surface, and after a moment, his hand paused. Yu Ci was certain he had grasped a familiar fragment of a talisman pattern, which was not entirely unexpected.

It was indeed the Five Directions Spirit Communication Talisman!

He touched a typical structural component within the talisman, hidden in the mirror's diffuse green light, appearing and disappearing like a dragon hidden in mist. Yu Ci then followed the thread, quickly piecing together the complete form of the Five Directions Spirit Communication Talisman.

However, he could also sense that, under these circumstances, the talisman had inevitably been influenced by the green light. With the mirror's seemingly sentient "breathing," it had undergone unknown changes. In this regard, the Five Directions Spirit Communication Talisman was certainly a thread, but the key still lay with the bronze mirror itself.

Yu Ci really wanted to continue his investigation, but this was not a place where one could easily focus. After hearing the howls of wild beasts several times, he decisively abandoned the idea of a focused experiment.

It was good to be confused for a while. He chuckled, feeling increasingly delighted, and began to ponder: "Such an incredible, miraculous ability should have a resounding name... This mirror is called the Zhaoshen Bronze Mirror, so its ability to reflect heaven and earth could be called the 'Zhaoshen Map'."

The name wasn't particularly fitting for the current situation, but it was consistent with the mirror's name. After saying it a couple of times, he found it pleasing to the ear and decided to stick with it.

Yu Ci was now quite satisfied. After briefly orienting himself, he held the bronze mirror and started walking. However, after walking for a few miles, he still felt the situation was too strange. He held the bronze mirror, and the Zhaoshen Map above it shone brightly, displaying the surrounding mountain and forest scenery in sequence. It looked like a divine object, dazzling to behold, but if it were revealed to others, it would be a foolish act.

It was better to put it away for now. Yu Ci originally intended to put the mirror into his Storage Ring, but he had only used the ring for a few days and was unsure of the nature of its storage space. Fearing it might have some effect on the bronze mirror, he simply placed it in his sleeve as he had before.

Strangely, as soon as the bronze mirror entered his sleeve, the light and images vanished completely, so swiftly and cleanly that Yu Ci was startled. Fortunately, when he thought of it again, the green mist permeated the area, and the mountains and forests within a fifty-mile radius appeared before him like an immortal mountain shrouded in clouds and mist. At this moment, the mirror itself was still in his sleeve, and this misty immortal mountain seemed to have materialized out of thin air.

Regarding this scene, he could only sigh once more:

"What a treasure!"

The Zhaoshen Bronze Mirror was indeed an extraordinary treasure. Legend had it that Great Immortal Purple Thunder had snatched it during a massive battle that engulfed over ten sects in the northern region. The name Zhaoshen Bronze Mirror originated from that event.

However, after obtaining it for many years, the Twin Immortals had only managed to discover superficial functions like "mirror light spiritual guidance" and had no other gains. From this, they concluded that the mirror was damaged during the great battle, with the missing components like the mirror knob serving as evidence. Therefore, they set it aside. Furthermore, because Purple Thunder felt the bronze mirror was exquisitely crafted, he placed it in his sleeping quarters as a decorative item.

On that day, Yu Ci, taking advantage of the Twin Immortals' fierce battle with their enemies, broke into Great Immortal Purple Thunder's burning sleeping quarters. He saw the mirror flashing with green light under the rumbling aftermath of the intense battle above, appearing quite mystical. Thinking of his need for spiritual guidance in his talisman arts cultivation, he took this item first. The facts proved that this choice was indeed the most correct one.

Everything in life was inseparable from fate. Yu Ci felt that the Zhaoshen Bronze Mirror, this old companion, was deeply connected to him by fate!

Filled with emotion, he glanced at the Zhaoshen Map again, preparing to put it away for now. But as his gaze fell upon it, he froze again.

In the short time he had walked these few miles, a white line had spread across the lower left edge of the small world, traversing the entire Zhaoshen Map. Even though it was magnified thousands of times smaller than in reality, it was still spectacular. Moreover, as the white line spread, the landscape on the left half of the Zhaoshen Map clearly had no rock layers obstructing it and was continuously extending downwards.

Observing this phenomenon occurring parallel to the ground, Yu Ci quickly understood:

Is that Sky Rift Valley?

Yu Ci had traveled hundreds of miles over the past day and a bit, which seemed like a long distance, but he had been moving along the edge of the Sky Rift Valley. As he continuously approached the cliff edge at the valley's rim, the Zhaoshen Map also kept changing.

It was known that within the Sky Rift Valley, there was boundless void, with no ground obstruction and no invisible barrier of the sky. The peculiar power of the Zhaoshen Map could be maximized here. When Yu Ci reached the cliff edge, facing the longest canyon in this realm, the front half of the Zhaoshen Map, except for the limited height of the sky, perfectly presented the curvature of the lower hemisphere.

The world of clouds and mist, fifty miles ahead and fifty miles below, was entirely within Yu Ci's grasp. Although it was misty and not very clear, it was far superior to the "penetrating vision" range of only a hundred feet below the ground.

However, what surprised Yu Ci was something else: "Fifty miles... and still no bottom?"

Yu Ci had never before understood the inner workings of the Sky Rift so deeply. But the more he understood, the more he felt that the reality before him was challenging the limits of his common sense.

Fifty miles... that was over eight thousand feet in height. In his twelve years of wandering the world, Yu Ci had seen countless towering mountains and majestic peaks, but he had never encountered such astonishing scale. Moreover, this was only the part displayed by the "Zhaoshen Map"; there was still a deeper world hidden within layers of clouds and mist.

"Could it be that this place truly leads to the Yellow Springs Ghost Realm?"