"You have done well yet again, Little Lan. Leave the rest to me." The voice rang out once again. "Tell the others to rest... after the two Grand Elders fall and a hundred of their Elders follow suit, the Tyrant Dragon Hall is bound to give in to our demands and surrender!"
The tone was kind, relaxing even, and it seemed to carry with it a gentle breeze. And yet, as soon as she heard those words, Xiao Wu was immediately scared stiff: the reason was that, after hearing it a second and then a third time... she had discovered that voice did not come from behind her, nor from some blind spot of the man's vision! No...It was a truth much scarier than that!
Xiao Wu's view suddenly switched to the sky filled with blood-red clouds, as her host had looked up.
"This long war... will finally come to an end today," exclaimed the golden-robed cultivator under the shocked gaze of Xiao Wu. "I'll be finished in a short while. I trust you will be taking care of our brothers well in the meantime, Little Lan!"
Indeed. This voice... was coming from the golden-robed man's mouth!
As the girl stared disbelievingly, the golden-robed man waved his hand and a large sword, its surface devoid of any imperfections and as smooth as a piece of refined jade, embedded itself in the ground! The handle was a pale azure color, with exquisite geometric patterns engraved into the cross-guard. As for the blade itself, it lacked any edge, and was instead extremely thin, to the point an edge wouldn't be needed to cut. At the same time however, such a thin blade was also so unbelievably durable it had yet to suffer even the slightest trace of a scratch on its smooth surface ever since the day it had been forged!
The outline of the blade was also extremely unique, as it had no tip and instead was more like a long, wide and extremely thin parallelepiped.
That sword! It can't be...
That greatsword, of course, was incredibly famous and thanks to its peculiar shape, which she had had the chance of seeing in countless history books, Xiao Wu had also recognized it on the spot!
I-it's…
Mirror!
Mirror: said to be crafted by a Primordial Beast - a being often dubbed the Sword Saint due to being the first creator of the very first Flying Sword many millions of years ago - and then used by countless sword masters from all around the Nine Heavens, Mirror was then later gifted to the Four Divine Kings of Worldslords Floating Island. The Divine Fire Queen, Ren Hong, had then ultimately passed it down to the Evil Saint.
The history of Mirror had been one of nonstop slaughter, of so many battles that it would be hard to find a race in the whole Nine Heavens that Mirror had yet to taste the blood of... and yet, with the passing of the eras, the surface had still remained untainted and as slick and polished as a mirror, to the point it would even allow one to discern one's reflection in it!
According to what the Sword Saint had affirmed when he had revealed its existence to the world, Mirror's reflection would never dim, nor would its surface ever show any imperfections! Although it was not as sharp as other of his blades, its characteristic as an indestructible weapon while still being so thin had still made the Sword Saint proudly announce it as his very best piece.
Still, just as in this case thin did not mean fragile, when speaking of Mirror thin also did not directly correlate to being light! Instead, Mirror was incredibly heavy, so heavy that even an Ageless Realm cultivator could only barely wield its might. Even amongst the countless sword saints from all Planes of Existence, with their strength varying from the weakest Mortals to powerful Immortals, nobody really ever mastered Mirror in the millions of years after its creation.
[AN: here, sword saint is intended as those who derive their cultivation from the dao/understanding of the sword and its mysteries, not the Sword Saint. The term Sword Saint (With capital S's) would be granted to the Primordial Beast that forged Mirror, as that one being had been particularly versed into the way of the sword and had paved the path for all other sword saints (lower case s) to come by creating Flying Swords.]
And yet still, even then, its durability, sharpness and weight all allowed Mirror to be a weapon without peer amongst most Flying Swords! Some even pondered whether a weapon with such conflicting attributes – namely its thinness yet outstanding durability, its gigantic size (As both the blade and the guard were very long and just as wide) and yet even more gargantuan weight – could even be mastered at all! These same people also surmised that, if a person capable of wielding mirror as he or she pleased were to ever appear, then that person would certainly be unparalleled amongst all sword-wielders!
And now, reflected in that legendary blade half-embedded into the ground, was the figure of a tall youth donning golden robes. He had sharp and peculiar, yet handsome features; his long, black hair that fell unrestrained down his back fluttered soundlessly in the wind as the pair of the most beautiful, most mesmerizing blue eyes fell on the sword's blade. The blue-eyed youth easily picked up the large sword - rumored to be even heavier than a mountain chain - which was exactly as tall as him, and stepped forward, his breathtaking blue eyes focusing on a certain point above the horizon... As for Xiao Wu, the moment her gaze had registered the youth's appearance, she had already lost her ability to think, let alone speak; that was because, she couldn't possibly any more familiar with those features that had been sculpted into so many engravings, sang of in countless poems, and depicted on top of even more canvases!
It was only after a full ten breaths, that Xiao Wu finally regained her senses and was finally able to voice out her thoughts in her head, still incapable of fully believing her eyes.
Ancestor bows to him in reverence, and even refers to him as Boss! And even if that were not enough... He holds... he holds "the" Mirror! And those blue eyes and appearance... My god! It's him! It really is him!
A thousand lightning bolts seemed to have gone off one after the other in her mind as the truth of the matter finally hit her,
What I am watching aren't just a few scenes from the past...
These are actually the memories of the Evil Saint himself!
I am witnessing first-hand THAT Xu Ling's past life!
"Wait, wait, boss! That is definitely not what this servant meant!" Xiao Lan's panicked voice reached Xiao Wu's ears from behind as the purple-haired man immediately ran to Xu Ling's side, "Having to act at the appearance of a few mere God stage and HighGod stage enemies... isn't it this servant's job to take care of such nuisances?"
'Mere'... HighGod stage?
As Xiao Wu pondered on that unscientific notion, on the blade's surface, Xu Ling's reflection was smiling bitterly. The thin lips opened as if he were about to protest and reject Xiao Lan's words, but at that exact moment, a loud whooshing sound reached their ears...
Clang!
"!!!"
Xiao Wu could only see a bright flash of white light and then hear a loud clanging sound together with the enraged roar of a terrifying beast... before everything went black. At that moment, Cheng Hao's voice once again reached her ears.
"That was in real-time. It's only to be expected you wouldn't be able to make out what happened, given your level of cultivation... I'll rewind and then slow it down in order for you to see better. Watch carefully now!"
The blackness dispersed and Xiao Wu found herself in Xu Ling's perspective once again.
"Having to act at the appearance of a few mere God stage and HighGod stage enemies... isn't it this servant's job to take care of such nuisances?" she heard Xiao Lan's questioning yet again, and saw Xu Ling smiling bitterly for a second time. As soon as he did so however, all sounds distorted, as time seemed to grow to a standstill. The fluttering of Xiao Lan's clothes had become incredibly slow, his whole figure seemed to have turned into a statue as every movement of his had been slowed down to the point they had become neigh imperceptible without an inquiring glance. It was as if everything had been stuck in amber. Even the hair fluttering in the wind was moving in slow motion.
Flutter, flutter, flutter, a black strand of hair appeared before her eyes... Temporarily blocking her and Xu Ling's view.
And as soon as that strand began to fall back down in slow motion...
"Ah!!!"
Xiao Wu cried out in alarm as the figure of two gigantic, snake-like dragons, their bodies large enough to blot out the sun, had suddenly appeared out of nowhere in the corners of her peripheral vision, just a few dozen feet away from Xu Ling! And their snarling fangs did not seem to have the kindest of intentions towards the Evil Saint!