Sloping Ground

A series of questions battered him all at once, making Yu Ci's already muddled mind grind almost to a halt. He had to temporarily empty his head, take a few deep breaths, and then close his eyes to calm his spirit, letting his state of mind return to normal.

When his breathing leveled out, he held the bronze mirror in his hand, his fingers probing into the hazy cyan light mist with the pads of his fingers pressing against the mirror surface, moving inch by inch to search for anomalies.

If there were an anomaly, this first one was probably that the mirror surface was so smooth it didn't seem forged. His sensitive finger pads rubbed across it, feeling only an icy metal chill that seeped into skin and bone, completely devoid of burrs or textures. The more it was like this, the less the changes on the mirror surface could escape Yu Ci's perception.

The chill was flowing!

Perhaps it was merely a subtle difference in temperature, but this temperature difference shifted constantly and had nothing to do with Yu Ci's own body temperature. Instead, it was the alternating warmth and coolness of the bronze mirror itself, faintly carrying the rhythmic breathing resonance of entering the sun and emerging from the moon. Where there was rhythmic breathing there was yin and yang, and where there was yin and yang there were changes. Perhaps the causality among these three wasn't so simple, but Yu Ci didn't need to worry about all that; grasping this point of yin and yang transformation was equivalent to grabbing the leading thread of a tangled ball of yarn, and what was needed afterward was simply care and patience.

The pads of his fingers continued to rub across the mirror surface, and after a moment, his hand paused. Yu Ci dared to affirm that he had caught a certain familiar talismanic script segment, and this did not exceed his expectations.

It truly was the Five Directions Spirit Communication Talisman!

He had touched the most typical textural compositional part within the talisman. It was hidden within the hazy cyan light emitted by the bronze mirror, like a mist-hidden Yun Long, appearing and disappearing. Following the vine to get to the melon, Yu Ci quickly sorted out the full picture of the Five Directions Spirit Communication Talisman.

Yet he could also sense that under such circumstances, the talisman inevitably suffered the immersion of the cyan light, undergoing unknown changes along with the spirit-like "rhythmic breathing" of the bronze mirror. Viewed thus, the Five Directions Spirit Communication Talisman was certainly a starting thread, but the crucial point still lay in the bronze mirror itself.

Yu Ci very much wanted to continue investigating, but this was not a place where one could settle one's mind. After hearing beast howls a few times in succession, he decisively abandoned the notion of calm experimentation.

Being temporarily muddled was quite good as well. He gave a hearty laugh, feeling even more carefree in his heart, and instead pondered, "Such an extraordinary and marvelous divine skill should have a resounding name... Since this mirror is called the Zhaoshen Bronze Mirror, then this ability of the mirror to reflect heaven and earth can simply be called the 'Zhaoshen Map'."

This name wasn't quite fitting for the occasion, but it shared the same lineage as the mirror's name. Muttering it twice, he found it pleasing to the ear and thus settled on it.

By this point Yu Ci was well satisfied. Briefly discerning his direction, he cradled the bronze mirror and took a step forward. Yet after walking a few miles, he still felt this situation was somewhat too bizarre. He held that bronze mirror in his hands, and the Zhaoshen Map above the bronze mirror shot forth brilliant light in all directions, successively displaying the surrounding mountain and forest scenery. Viewed from afar it resembled a divine object and was dazzlingly flamboyant, but if he were to let it manifest before people, it would be doing a thoroughly foolish deed.

It was better to pack it away temporarily. Yu Ci originally intended to store the mirror inside his Storage Ring, but he had only been using the ring for a few days and was ignorant of the nature of storage spaces, dreading that it might have some effect on the bronze mirror at the present time. Therefore, he simply placed the mirror inside his sleeve just like before.

Strange to say, the moment the bronze mirror entered his sleeve, the light and imagery vanished all at once. The neat and clean fashion of it actually gave Yu Ci a start. Fortunately, when he moved his thoughts again, the cyan light mist diffused, and the mountain and forest heaven and earth within a radius of fifty miles were presented before his eyes like fairy mountains amidst clouds and mist. At this moment, the main body of the bronze mirror was still within his sleeve, and this cyan misty fairy mountain seemed to spring forth out of thin air.

Facing this scene, he could only sigh once more:

"What a fine treasure!"

Speaking of this treasure, the Zhaoshen Bronze Mirror, its origins were quite extraordinary. It was rumored that back then, Great Immortal Purple Thunder had snatched it amidst the chaos from a massive melee that embroiled more than a dozen sects in the northern lands, and the name of the Zhaoshen Bronze Mirror was derived from there.

Only, having possessed it for many years, the twin immortals had discovered nothing beyond the surface fur of things like mirror light spiritual guides, and thus came to the conclusion that this mirror had already been damaged during the great battle, with the missing mirror knob and other structures further down serving as the evidence. Therefore, they had cast this item aside. Moreover, because Purple Thunder felt the bronze mirror's workmanship was superior, he placed it within his bedchamber to serve as a mere decoration.

On that day, while the twin immortals were locked in fierce battle with enemies, Yu Ci had broken into the burning bedchamber of Great Immortal Purple Thunder and saw this mirror flashing wildly with cyan light amidst the rumbling aftermath of the fierce battle above, looking quite miraculous. Moreover, thinking that talismanic cultivation required a spiritual guide, he took this item as his very first choice. Facts proved that this choice was truly the most correct one possible.

All matters cannot escape the word "fate", and Yu Ci felt that this old companion of his, the Zhaoshen Bronze Mirror, had an immense affinity with him!

Filled with emotion, he glanced once more at the Zhaoshen Map, preparing to put it away temporarily, but where his gaze reached, he froze once again.

In the time it took to walk these few miles, a white line had spread out along the lower-left edge of the miniature world, running vertically through the entire Zhaoshen Map. Even though it was scaled down a thousand or ten thousand times compared to reality, it was still extremely magnificent. Furthermore, as the white line spread, the scenery on the left half of the Zhaoshen Map was clearly devoid of the obstruction of rock layers and continuously extended downward.

Upon encountering this situation parallel to the ground position, Yu Ci quickly understood:

"Could that be the Sky Rifts?"

Having hurried for several hundred miles over the past day or so, Yu Ci—though it seemed a long distance—had still been operating along the edge of the Sky Rifts. As he continuously approached the edge of the valley summit precipice, the Zhaoshen Map was likewise constantly changing.

One must know that within the Sky Rifts was a boundless void, devoid of the obstruction of the ground and devoid of the formless barrier of the sky, allowing the miraculous power of the Zhaoshen Map to be exerted to the greatest degree. When Yu Ci arrived at the cliff edge and faced the longest canyon in this realm head-on, the front half of the Zhaoshen Map—aside from the height of the sky still being restricted—had the arc of the lower hemisphere perfectly presented.

The world of clouds and mist fifty miles ahead and fifty miles below was completely within Yu Ci's grasp. Although the whitish blur made things not entirely distinct, it was still vastly superior to the "perspective" range of merely a hundred feet beneath the ground.

However, what astonished Yu Ci was another matter: "Fifty miles... and still no bottom?"

Yu Ci had never before deeply understood the internal conditions of the Sky Rifts like he did now. Yet the more he understood, the more he felt that the reality before his eyes was challenging the limits of his common sense.

Fifty miles... which meant a height exceeding eight thousand zhang. In his twelve years of wandering the world and seeing countless majestic mountains and precipitous ridges, Yu Ci had never witnessed such an astonishing scale. Moreover, this was merely the portion displayed by the "Zhaoshen Map", and there were even deeper worlds hidden amidst the layers of clouds and mist.

"Could this place truly lead to the netherworld ghost domain?"