Chapter 473: Life in the Mirror

Suddenly, rocks flew everywhere. Ban Gungchuo burst through the scattered rocks, soaring into the sky, feeling both ashamed and furious. He threw up a large cauldron.

The cauldron hung suspended in mid-air, its mouth facing downward. Immediately, sand and stones flew, broken pillars and crumbling walls were all sucked into the cauldron.

Inside the cauldron, it resembled a pot of boiling soup – true fire. Though the cauldron didn't appear large, the true fire within it was like a terrifying, boiling ocean. Anything that fell into it was instantly incinerated to ash, ceasing to exist. Clearly, this was not a spirit weapon that Ban Gungchuo, in his current state, could have forged!

This cauldron must have been forged by Ban Gungchuo in a previous life. It possessed immense power, a sect-protecting treasure crafted by a powerhouse near the Divine Realm. However, due to his current insufficient cultivation, he couldn't unleash its full capabilities.

Spirit weapons also vary in strength and tier. Sometimes, merely possessing a superior spirit weapon doesn't guarantee a drastic increase in power; it also depends on how much of its power one can unleash.

For instance, Qin Mu's Carefree Sword is a divine sword of incredible power. Yet, to this day, Qin Mu cannot fully activate its might, only utilizing its sharpness.

The same applied to Ban Gungchuo. His current cultivation level prevented him from maximizing the power of his previous life's spirit weapon. Even so, with his current peak Seven-Star Realm cultivation, he could unleash about ten percent of the cauldron's power.

Within the ruins, countless dust motes swirled upwards. Walls, stone pillars, and crumbling palace structures were forcibly torn apart and pulled, tumbling towards the cauldron.

The entire ruin was continuously disintegrating, bits and pieces flying into the sky.

“Qin,” Ban Gungchuo sneered, “now you know how formidable I am, don't you? Strength isn't just about cultivation!”

Ban Gungchuo flipped over and landed on the cauldron, sneering, “What if your cultivation is deeper than mine? My treasure is stronger than yours, so I'll pin you down and beat you until you die a miserable death!”

He looked down and was startled. Qin Mu stood unmoving beneath the cauldron, his body unaffected by the cauldron's powerful suction.

“How is that possible?”

Ban Gungchuo's eyes widened. He saw Qin Mu holding an orange-sized metal sphere. The sphere suddenly shifted, flowing like water or sand.

“A sword pellet!”

Ban Gungchuo immediately understood why the cauldron couldn't lift Qin Mu. The weight of that sword pellet must have been astonishing, pinning his body down. Even the cauldron, forged in his previous life, couldn't suck up something of such immense weight!

“His sword pellet is usually two feet in size, isn't it? If I can't suck you in, then I'll burn you to death!”

Ban Gungchuo suddenly leaped up, inverted, and slammed his palms onto the cauldron. With a resounding clang, a sea of fire erupted from the cauldron. Everything in its path melted; sand and stone liquefied into rolling lava. In the blink of an eye, the entire ruin transformed into a fiery sea of lava.

Qin Mu gripped the sword pellet, clenching it tightly. Countless tiny flying swords shot out from it, with the Carefree Sword as the core, joining together.

Qin Mu raised the sword with both hands and, facing the wind, cleaved the encroaching sea of fire!

Wherever the sword passed, the great fire immediately extinguished. The desert on both sides was scorched into molten slag, but only the area touched by the sword's power remained covered in red sand.

Qin Mu's eyelid twitched. This true fire was incredibly fierce and powerful; he didn't know what kind of evil flame it was.

Ban Gungchuo roared, his body undergoing a transformation. Wings sprouted from his armpits, his feet became bird talons. The cauldron hung above his head, casting a protective glow of fire around his body.

His golden wings gleamed brightly. He abruptly spread them, the feathers clashing with a metallic clang. He surged towards Qin Mu with a roar. His two massive wings vibrated, conjuring wind and lightning. His feathers were like swords, slashing and cutting, his offensive like a raging storm.

Qin Mu crossed his hands, and the Carefree Sword between them instantly split with a clang. It transformed into a river of eight thousand flying swords, swirling and surging towards Ban Gungchuo.

Ban Gungchuo's steps faltered, his wings flapping wildly. Sword-like feathers flew off, meeting the river of swords. A continuous series of sharp clangs echoed. After the impact of the sword river, Ban Gungchuo cried out in alarm. He stood there completely bald, with a scattering of shattered sword feathers at his feet.

All his feathers had been severed by Qin Mu, leaving only two bare wings that flapped twice.

The fiery glow cast by his cauldron earlier was quite extraordinary, known as the Divine Fire Barrier of Yi Yan. Its defensive power was astonishing, constantly redirecting enemy attacks into the cauldron. Moreover, the Yi Yan Divine Fire was incredibly potent, instantly incinerating ordinary spirit weapons to ash.

However, Qin Mu had directly shattered his Divine Fire Barrier of Yi Yan, severing all the feathers on his wings!

“This fellow can even break through my Yi Yan Divine Fire. He truly is a tiny bit stronger than me. I'm no match for him!”

As soon as this thought crossed Ban Gungchuo's mind, he no longer hesitated. He suddenly leaped upwards, plunging headfirst into the cauldron. The cauldron landed and began to burrow into the ground.

Before the cauldron could fully disappear into the sand, Qin Mu had already grabbed its feet. He lifted the cauldron and chuckled, “Grand Cultivator, where are you off to?”

Just then, Ban Gungchuo transformed into a streak of black light. He landed on the sand and burrowed underground as he moved.

Qin Mu dropped the cauldron, his body also swiftly turning into a shadow and moving close to the ground.

A moment later, a thousand feet away, sand and dust billowed. Both emerged from the sand. Ban Gungchuo sprinted a few steps, new feathers sprouting on his body. He flipped and leaped up, transforming into a large bird, beating its wings and soaring rapidly into the sky.

“Trying to outrun me?”

Qin Mu employed the Heaven-Stealing Divine Legs, flying through the air without using magical abilities. Man and bird chased each other in mid-air. After a moment, the large bird was battered into a featherless, plucked chicken and fell from high above.

Before Ban Gungchuo even hit the ground, he suddenly let out a resounding elephantine trumpeting. The muscles on his head and face rapidly swelled and mutated, his neck twisted with cracking sounds. He grew two more heads, transforming into a three-headed divine elephant, with elephant heads and a human body.

His physical body expanded wildly, reaching six to seven zhang in height, possessing boundless strength. He unleashed a punch at Qin Mu, who was in pursuit, while all three heads trumpeted in unison: “Qin, prepare to die!”

Boom—

Their fists collided, and the raw power of their physical abilities erupted. Whirlwinds, sharp as blades, instantly swept up countless sand and stones, swirling furiously.

The three-headed elephant-man coughed up blood, his massive body sent flying backward.

Qin Mu chased forward. Before he could catch up to Ban Gungchuo, he saw the three-headed elephant-man's body sway, then return to his true form.

Ban Gungchuo leaped and bounded through the air. Before he landed, a lotus flower appeared in the air, blooming to over ten feet in size. Ban Gungchuo jumped into the lotus, only for its petals to rapidly close, and both he and the flower vanished.

Qin Mu was surprised. “A teleportation spell? Doesn't quite look like it…”

No sooner had he thought this than, suddenly, a lotus flower emerged quietly from the desert more than ten miles away and bloomed.

Qin Mu rushed over, his vital qi exploding. He flicked his finger, and the sword pellet whistled as it flew forward.

He extended his index finger, which rapidly swirled. The sword pellet in front of him disintegrated with a series of clangs. Eight thousand flying swords transformed into a furiously spinning torrent, heading straight for the lotus ten miles away, ahead of him!

Sword Coil Form!

The sword light was incredibly fast, faster than Qin Mu's full-speed sprint. In an instant, it arrived in front of the lotus flower.

The lotus bloomed, and Ban Gungchuo leaped out of the flower. He abruptly pulled out a piece of black cloth, shook it in the wind, then jumped into the cloth.

Countless flying swords shredded the lotus into pieces, then engulfed the black cloth. The black cloth was reduced to dust, yet Ban Gungchuo had vanished once more.

Qin Mu landed with a thud and turned to survey his surroundings. Above his head, eight thousand swords were arranged in a circle, their tips pointing outward. No matter where Ban Gungchuo emerged, he would face Qin Mu's fiercest attack!

However, the surrounding desert was utterly calm. Ban Gungchuo had entered the cloth and then seemed to have vanished from the world.

In the distance, a sandstorm raged. The Sun Ship, along with countless sand dragons, was hidden within the storm. Lightning flashed and thunder roared within the sandstorm, and black suns continuously burst forth from it. Their power was earth-shattering, and the resulting tremors even reached Qin Mu, forming hurricanes that swept up red sand across the sky, making it difficult to see far.

And at the forefront of the sandstorm was the small figure of the Imperial Preceptor of Eternal Peace.

Qin Mu paid no heed to the battle in the distance. He suddenly stomped his foot heavily, causing the desert to shake. A small whirlwind, carrying sand particles, formed a sand dune “giant” only four or five feet tall.

Qin Mu had also learned the Myriad Gods Nature Technique, though not as masterfully as the disciples of the True Heaven Palace.

“Where is Ban Gungchuo hiding?” Qin Mu asked.

The small sand dune “giant” raised its hand and pointed. Qin Mu looked in the direction it indicated but saw nothing.

“Heavenly Eye of Danxiao!”

Layers of formation patterns rotated in his eyes. He looked over again and was slightly startled. He saw an almost imperceptible thin line standing vertically in the air, drifting with the wind at a slow pace.

The surrounding sand and wind were fierce, yet the thin line wasn't bent by the wind at all, which was quite strange.

Qin Mu sped up, reaching the thin line in a few leaps. He then saw that it wasn't a thin line, but a mirror so thin it was almost transparent, and taller than a person.

Ban Gungchuo, using the Demonic Shadow Illusory Demon Art from the Grand Creation Demonic Scripture, had transformed into a black shadow and entered the mirror!

Qin Mu stared in astonishment. He grabbed a flying sword and stabbed it towards the mirror, praising, “Grand Cultivator, no wonder you've survived until now.”

Ban Gungchuo's expression drastically changed upon seeing him. From inside the mirror, he threw out a rope. The rope hung straight up, and Ban Gungchuo clung to it, climbing upwards.

Qin Mu's sword pierced the mirror, shattering it into pieces. However, Ban Gungchuo had already climbed out of the mirror along the rope and vanished.

“What kind of divine ability is this?”

Qin Mu activated his Heavenly Eye of Danxiao, scanning his surroundings, but he still couldn't find any trace of Ban Gungchuo. Suddenly, an idea struck him. He picked up a piece of the broken mirror and shone it around. As the mirror moved, he finally rediscovered Ban Gungchuo's tracks.

He saw Ban Gungchuo had already climbed halfway up into the air along the rope. The end of the rope was a hook, hanging from a white cloud. It appeared Ban Gungchuo intended to climb into the cloud to hide.

Yet, strangely, both he and the rope seemed invisible. They appeared to be hidden within a marvelous space inside the mirror. This space, however, overlapped with reality, allowing his rope to latch onto objects in the real world. As a result, even the Heavenly Eye of Danxiao couldn't detect him!

“Grand Cultivator has truly perfected the art of escape,” Qin Mu exclaimed admiringly. Holding a mirror in one hand and flicking a finger with the other, the Carefree Sword whistled out. It instantly soared into the sky, severing the invisible rope beneath the white cloud!

Qin Mu picked up another mirror, flicked his wrist, and threw it. It landed exactly where Ban Gungchuo was falling. With a thud, Ban Gungchuo hit the ground, landing perfectly inside the mirror, and looked up to see Qin Mu outside the mirror.

“Grand Cultivator, perhaps we can talk now?” Qin Mu said, picking up the piece of mirror with a smile.