Cheers rang out through the city and tower as people watched the images on the Moon-Reflecting Mirror, but the Jade Yao Terrace grew unusually quiet. In particular, the people beside Cheng Xinzhan stared straight ahead, as though determined to stare flowers into that cloud of fragments.
Huanzhu Louzhu closed his hand toward the cloud ridge from afar. As though caught in a giant hand, the shattered ridge rapidly compressed and shrank into a surging ball of light half the size of a fist.
"The Dharma Sword round will be decided through arena matches. Seven hundred and fifty-seven of you remain. This tower has prepared thirty-six arenas modeled after the Thirty-Six Minor Grotto-Heavens. The thirty-six who performed best in cleaving the clouds will be the first arena holders and may choose their own arenas. Everyone entering an arena will have their magical cultivation suppressed to the first realm."
As Huanzhu Louzhu finished speaking, something wondrous happened:
Under the moonlight, the enormous Moon-Reflecting Mirror split into two, then four, becoming thirty-six mirrors in an instant and encircling Peacock City and Pearl-Retaining Tower!
The giant mirrors reflected the city and tower, their reflections illuminating and reflecting one another, until the people in the city and
tower could no longer tell whether they were inside the city and tower or inside the mirrors.
Qian Boya's pupils contracted, and he exclaimed,
"Brother Shanshou! I never knew your Moon-Reflecting Mirror possessed such power!"
Huanzhu Louzhu smiled and said only, "The real show is still to come."
With a thought, he twisted and transformed the moonlight reflected on the mirrors. Their scenes changed again, showing neither the Jade Yao Terrace nor the city and tower, but different worlds!
Some mirrors held vast wetlands dotted with a thousand islands; others, a sunset over a desert; still others, boundless