Traveling through time and space already touched upon a grave taboo. Even True Immortals could perish in the River of Time, and even mighty Immortal Kings dared not cross time and space in person.
Wasn't the Chaos Green Lotus an Immortal King? Yet even it had only dared follow the thread of karma to strike across endless time and space. Its true body had not dared enter the River of Time.
The karmic burden of disrupting time and space was anything but small!
Luo Yan once again appreciated the true worth of the time law, as well as the origins of the Time Mirror. It was no ordinary Immortal Artifact!
Comprehending the time law was already heaven-defying, and the Time Mirror could even withstand the power of the River of Time's laws, allowing him to travel upstream through it!
"But... this era is actually so broken that there aren't even many Immortals to be seen!" The Time Mirror cast its light in all directions, extracting fragments of information from this stretch of ancient history.
"The Immortal Domain is gone!" The Time Mirror suddenly grew agitated. It could not sense the Immortal Domain's location anywhere in the world!
"How could this happen... what happened... why can't I remember anything?" It struggled painfully, unable to recall.
Luo Yan remained silent. He had only a rough idea of why the Immortal Domain had vanished. It had been shattered, and the surviving portion had sealed off the two realms to protect itself.
There was something wrong with this mirror!
Luo Yan had been on guard ever since it awakened. Now he noticed that his control over the Time Mirror seemed to have been stolen in that instant. This thing was taking back its own body!
Luo Yan reacted immediately, suppressing it in the blink of an eye.
"You want to turn on your master?" Luo Yan stared coldly at it, having noticed its covert maneuvering.
The Time Mirror stiffened, then replied cautiously but firmly, "How could I? It must be your imagination! How could I possibly want to turn on my master?"
Luo Yan refused to indulge it and brought his foot down without mercy.
The Time Mirror immediately began howling, "I'm breaking, I'm breaking! This mirror is going to shatter!"
For all its loud cries, it was actually completely unharmed. It looked battered and broken, but in reality, its body was seamlessly whole and incomparably hard.
"I wasn't trying to turn on my master!" the Time Mirror cried indignantly.
"I just wanted to test your current strength..." As it spoke, it detected another body inside this one. That was Luo Yan's true body; the outer one had already become a puppet.
"How strange! I can't see through its secrets at all! Kid, this new body of yours has extraordinary origins!" it said, utterly astonished. For the moment, it could not see through it.
Luo Yan slapped it, and the Time Mirror felt as though its body was about to shatter. It had no chance to resist! Its original body had been refined by someone else and bound to him!
"You'd better not dare!" Luo Yan said, his gaze fierce and intensely wary.
The moment this broken mirror awakened, it had begun harboring rebellious intentions. It was nowhere near as useful as when it had been asleep!
"But I'm a cautious person. You might turn on me one day. Should I destroy your consciousness now while I have the chance?" Luo Yan was not merely saying it. He was genuinely considering it, genuinely preparing to act.
The Time Mirror was horrified. "Don't! I promise I'll behave from now on! Don't erase my consciousness! Besides, once you erase my consciousness, the mirror itself will drop in grade. Only after it nurtures a new consciousness will it have any chance of rising further!"
It could sense that its master was not merely making threats. He was truly weighing the idea, considering it very seriously!
"If its grade drops, it may well lose the ability to travel through time and space!" Seemingly catching a flicker of emotion from Luo Yan, the Time Mirror hurriedly added.
Luo Yan quickly set aside his intention to act. If its grade really dropped and it lost the ability to travel through time and space, that would be like cutting off one of his own arms.
Traveling through time and space at no cost, even if it meant bearing an immense karmic burden, was simply a heaven-defying ability.
Besides, he still owed the Empress a great karmic debt. If its grade dropped because of this... the loss would be enormous! And so far, he could keep this mirror firmly under his thumb. No matter how he looked at it, he should not erase the Time Mirror's consciousness.
As though sensing Luo Yan's thoughts, the Time Mirror immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
The Time Mirror's awakening was only a minor incident, but to Luo Yan, it served as a warning. This object possessed an independent consciousness and thoughts of its own.
"Right, let me ask you something. Why can't my new body cultivate?" Luo Yan asked. This thing was ancient; it surely knew more than he did.
The Time Mirror examined the infant's body meticulously through the puppet's body. "Strange, how strange! How did you refine this body? Why can't I see through its origins?"
It was utterly astonished. It was a precious mirror that had existed since the Chaotic Ancient Era, with extraordinary origins. It had seen countless divine bodies, Sacred Bodies, and all manner of other physiques, yet this body alone left it unable to discern its foundations.
Luo Yan abruptly remarked, "Didn't you lose your memory?"
The Time Mirror jolted in alarm and replied guiltily, "When I see certain things, they naturally bring back related memories. In human terms, this is called intermittent amnesia..."
This bastard was actually trying to trick it!
Luo Yan had no desire to argue with it over this. "Answer my earlier question first. Why can't this body cultivate?"
The Time Mirror searched its memories carefully, sweeping its light over the body. After hesitating for a long time and giving the matter serious thought, it finally answered, "This body of yours... why does it feel like an immortal physique?"
"An immortal physique?" Luo Yan was especially sensitive to those words.
The more the Time Mirror looked, the more astonished it became. As though it had uncovered some incredible secret, it said in a daze, "Kid, how exactly did you make this body? There isn't even any immortal energy in this world, yet you still managed to produce an immortal physique!"
"It isn't that your body can't cultivate. The power of this world simply doesn't suit it. This body of yours has transcended mortal flesh and escaped the mundane world, becoming a genuine immortal physique! A physique like this only undergoes its transformation when passing from the mortal realm into the Immortal Domain. Yet you actually created an immortal physique in a mortal realm without even a trace of immortal energy. That's outrageous!"
The Time Mirror had mysterious origins. It was itself an Immortal Artifact that had fallen from the Immortal Domain into the universe, and it soon saw through the secret of Luo Yan's new body!
"Once a physique like this enters the Immortal Domain, it starts as a True Immortal at the very least. Its future achievements are limitless! Even in the Immortal Domain, few can form such an innate divine immortal physique. This is the legendary potential of an Immortal King!" The Time Mirror grew excited as it uncovered the secret of Luo Yan's body!
"You've said all that, but you still haven't told me why I can't cultivate!"
"It isn't that you can't cultivate. Your immortal physique can't absorb the energy of this world. Only immortal energy can replenish the depleted immortal source inside you!" The Time Mirror began to take some pleasure in his misfortune.
"You really are unlucky! If you had formed this innate divine immortal physique in the Immortal Domain, you would certainly have been nurtured as a future Immortal King. But in an era where the Immortal Domain is nowhere to be found, your innate divine immortal physique is as good as a useless physique!
"Still, it isn't entirely useless. Your physical body is very powerful, almost at the level of a True Immortal, comparable to the Ancient Great Emperors of this era! Once an Ancient Great Emperor's physical body has had its marrow cleansed by immortal energy, it becomes a True Immortal physique."
Before you continue