40. The Pride of Heaven (Part Twelve)

◎Mirror Trap◎

The group felt lightheaded for a moment before their feet touched solid ground.

With a muffled thud, the docile raccoon in Hua Jin's arms suddenly broke free from his grasp, leaped to the ground, its fur bristling, arched its body, and bared its teeth at the darkness before it.

The four looked at each other, then formed a circle facing four directions, tightly protecting Shui Rong'er in the center.

Hua Jin's nonchalant expression vanished, and he immediately said seriously, "Meow Meow rarely reacts like this. It seems that a spirit beast of the same rank has appeared on the other side."

Celestial-rank spirit beasts are rare to begin with, let alone those inside this cauldron.

Only Hua Jin and Ran Qinghe knew that Miao Miao was a Heavenly Rank Spirit Beast; the remaining three were completely clueless.

Mingyu asked in bewilderment, "What about spirit beasts of the same rank? You little raccoon, you look to be at most a Xuan-rank. Even a Golden Core cultivator like me can easily handle you, so what is there to fear?"

Hua Jin chuckled softly, offering no further explanation, but simply switched places with Ming Yu, saying, "In that case, why don't we leave that spirit beast to Fellow Daoist Ming to handle?"

Mingyu rubbed her hands together and readily agreed. Just now, it was Ran Qinghe and Hua Jin who did all the work in dealing with the cultivator's sneak attack. Fu Ji was not worth relying on at all, as he was only concerned with protecting Shui Rong'er as if she were his own eyeball.

Now that he's encountered a Xuan-level spirit beast, he can handle it with more than enough effort.

He drew his longsword from his waist, the sword's light reflecting a pair of amber pupils in the darkness. In the blink of an eye, as his sword was drawn, the spirit beast hidden in the shadows pounced, its strength so great that it bit the sword in Mingyu's hand, rendering it immobile.

Damn it!

Mingyu cried out. He had underestimated his opponent. Who would have thought that a mere spirit beast could subdue him? His face flushed red, as if he were somewhat ashamed. He had just boasted so much, and now he had been proven wrong.

Seeing the spirit beast rush out from the shadows, Fu Ji threw out a ring of fire talismans, illuminating the pitch-black surroundings.

The moment the light was lit, the full appearance of the spirit beast was revealed, causing everyone to gasp in shock. The spirit beast that was biting Mingyu's longsword looked so much like the snarling cat on the ground, even down to the position of the red hair on the tips of its ears.

Almost instinctively, Ran Qinghe immediately summoned her long whip, wrapped it around the neck of the spirit beast, and the spiritual energy of the whip vibrated, barely managing to knock it to the ground.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Hua Jin immediately put two fingers together in front of his chest and chanted the Beast Taming Incantation. In a short while, the meow, which was no bigger than two palms, began to expand rapidly, revealing its full form and transforming into a ferocious beast that was eight feet tall. Its soft fur also became as hard as black iron at this moment.

Mingyu then recognized it and exclaimed in surprise, "A Heavenly Rank Spirit Beast, Fei Fei?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the ferocious beast that had been swept to the ground also expanded rapidly at the same speed, and the two fins began to fight in their original forms.

Mingyu turned to Hua Jin, her eyes filled with surprise: "You are the young sect master of the Crimson Maple Sect, Nianhua Jin?"

Nianhua Jin smiled and said, "Ah, me?"

But now, at this crucial moment, there's no time to worry about such trivial matters. "Strange, how could a Heavenly Rank spirit beast appear in the ruins? And it's a Fei Fei that looks exactly like the Flower Ash Spirit Beast."

After a long silence, Fu Ji finally spoke up: "This is the Mirror Domain."

Ran Qinghe repeated: "Mirror Domain?"

Fu Ji said, "The small world inside the Void Cauldron was pieced together by our sect leader, but before it was pieced together, some of the relics inside were used for disciples' trials."

"And this Mirror Domain was once the final trial for the disciples."

Shui Rong'er pouted unhappily and said, "The last hurdle, isn't that the most difficult one? How come we had to run into it?"

Fu Ji echoed, "That's true, but the danger level of the Mirror Domain depends on the cultivation level of the disciple who enters. If it's a Foundation Establishment cultivator, at most it's a lose-lose situation. But if it's a Nascent Soul or Divine Transformation cultivator, the danger level is incomparable, because... the Mirror Domain will cover everything it contains, including cultivators and spirit beasts."

"In this Mirror Domain, cultivators can only successfully break through the domain by defeating themselves. But this is also the most difficult part."

Mingyu complained, "How could it be such a coincidence that we had to run into this Mirror Realm?"

Mingyu's words seemed to give Ran Qinghe a hint. She then remembered that they did not seem to have triggered any boundary mechanism, but were suddenly teleported here. If it was not natural, then it must have been man-made.

She gazed into the distance, feeling as if she were still in a world being watched.

How ridiculous, is even the Discipline Hall like this?

She lowered her eyes and asked again, "Do the replicas within the Mirror Domain possess independent consciousness?"

Fu Ji replied, "Probably not, but it's hard to draw a conclusion because all the reactions made by the clone are exactly the same as those of the cultivator himself."

She composed herself and quickly devised a plan: "If a lone cultivator were to enter this mirror domain, they would only be able to fight to the death against the 'self' that the mirror domain has created. But we are different now."

They don't need to abide by the so-called rules of the Mirror Realm about overcoming oneself.

As for the weakness of this spirit beast, it lies not in the beast itself, but in... the beast-taming cultivator.

She leaped into the air with incredible speed, flipping her hand and throwing three immobilization talismans into the shadows.

She never used talismans alone. The cultivator hiding in the shadows chuckled, "Just a trivial trick." His voice was exactly the same as Hua Jin's, but it was immediately followed by "his" angry voice.

"You actually used poison?"

Ran Qinghe wielded her long whip, binding the immobilized "Hua Jin" tightly, and then unleashed a burst of spiritual energy at its spiritual platform.

In an instant, "Hua Jin" and "Fei Fei's" body shattered into countless irregular pieces of glass. Ran Qinghe stepped forward and stomped on them, grinding them until the shattered pieces turned into dust, and could no longer be pieced together to form a complete body.

On the other hand, Hua Jin, having received Ran Qinghe's hint, immediately summoned Miao Miao and pounced in another direction.

Fu Ji cooperated with them, throwing out fire talismans one by one, exposing the three hidden bodies in the dark to the light.

Under the firelight, Mingyu, Shui Rong'er, and Fu Ji stood silently facing off against them.

Fu Ji spoke as fast as he could to Ran Qinghe: “If we follow your line of thinking, then Hua Jin will deal with ‘Ming Yu,’ you will deal with ‘me,’ and as for my sister, she cultivates the path of medicine, so I can handle both of us.”

Ran Qinghe frowned and said, "Don't you think we've missed someone? Where's my clone?"

Fu Ji paused for a moment before saying, "The only spiritual energy fluctuations around us are from these three clones in front of us." In other words, her clones were not around them.

But before they could think further, the three superimposed entities attacked simultaneously.

*

Ran Qinghe and Fu Ji were at the same level. Their spiritual powers clashed, and their talismans and whips fought fiercely. For a time, neither could gain the upper hand.

At the same time, Mingyu's clone attacked Huajin, but Miaomiao firmly restrained the sword. Huajin flashed behind him, but "Mingyu" quickly dodged it again.

Knowing that she was no match for Miaomiao, Mingyu did not confront it head-on, but instead dodged at lightning speed, her only purpose being to keep Huajin occupied.

Mingyu, standing to the side, was so anxious that she shouted loudly, seemingly quite surprised that the Overlay Body could restrain a Heavenly Rank Spirit Beast.

But he was very familiar with his own movement techniques. Even though "Mingyu" was extremely fast, he could quickly determine his location.

He continued calling out, “Hua Jin, to your upper right,” “Oh dear, too late,” “to your front left,” “above,”… “behind.”

Each time, Mingyu could pinpoint the hiding place of the clone. Following his instructions, Hua Jin activated the Beast Taming Technique, and Miao Miao responded to the technique, tearing off a piece of bloody flesh from "Mingyu" each time.

Mingyu's original intention was to use roundabout methods to contain him, but all his hiding methods were exposed in front of Mingyu himself.

Finally, Meow Meow seized the opportunity and bit down on the throat of the body, blood spurting out and splashing onto the spot.

Mingyu closed his eyes, unable to bear watching any longer, and even pretended to cover his own throat. He was filled with grief and indignation; wasn't this a form of killing himself?

Hua Jin had just finished dealing with one of the clones and hadn't even had a moment to catch his breath before he rode his cat to launch another sneak attack on Fu Ji's clone.

The battle between "Fu Ji" and Ran Qinghe was evenly matched and fiercely contested.

However, Hua Jin's sneak attack suddenly gave Ran Qinghe an opportunity. While Miao Miao attacked "Fu Ji" on the back of the neck, forcing "him" to split his body to deal with it, she seized the opportunity and immediately activated the hundreds of yellow talismans that had fallen from the ground where the two were fighting.

The talisman was swept up by her spiritual power, trapping "Fu Ji" in the center of the talisman like a tornado.

The talisman spun rapidly around the covering body. She struggled to close her two fingers, and the encirclement formed by the talisman gradually shrank. The covering body, which was in the very center, was also forcibly strangled by the power of several talismans and dispersed completely with the hurricane formed by the talisman.

Ran Qinghe fell to the ground, swallowed the metallic taste of blood in her throat, and propped herself up to look at Fu Ji himself.

The clone of Shui Rong'er, who should have been the easiest to deal with, was now the one who had been entangled the longest. Fu Ji stood between the two Shui Rong'ers, blocking their attacks from each other, but even when the attacks affected him, he was unwilling to fight back.

Just before an incense stick burned.

Knowing she was no match for Fu Ji, Shui Rong'er quickly came up with an idea and cried out in a wronged tone:

"Fu Ji, are you blind? The people beside you are created by the Mirror Domain, I am the real one."

Fu Ji's mind wavered for a moment, and in the blink of an eye, he used his body to grab Shui Rong'er and engage her in combat. As they fought, the two shouted at him in unison, "Fu Ji, come and help me!"

The two are exactly the same, from their appearance to their fighting styles.

To prevent Shui Rong'er from getting hurt, he had no choice but to force his way between the two and act as a human punching bag.

Ran Qinghe couldn't help but laugh at his cowardly and timid manner, as if he were afraid of hurting Shui Rong'er in the slightest.

But watching the show at this point would be of no benefit to her.

She walked to Fu Ji's side. "Don't you recognize me?"

Affected by the spiritual energy of the two, Fu Ji could only awkwardly use talismans to build a barrier to temporarily separate them.

Ran Qinghe chuckled lightly, "That's easy."

Before Fu Ji could utter the words "What are you going to do?", Ran Qinghe grabbed his throat with her hand.

Ignoring the barrier, Shui Rong'er on the right reached out to stop her, saying, "No." But Shui Rong'er on the left only slightly tightened her fist and mocked, "Why did you stop? Keep pinching."

Ran Qinghe raised her eyes and asked, "Well, have you made up your mind yet?"

Without a moment's hesitation, Fu Ji detonated the explosive talisman next to Shui Rong'er on the right. As flames shot into the sky, the protective body was reduced to ashes.

Shui Rong'er walked out of the barrier indignantly, cursing incessantly: "Did you draw the talisman and blind yourself?" "You can't even recognize me?" "With this level of skill, why are you participating in the academy selection? Go back to drawing talismans with your Buddha's Hand."

The two resumed their usual routine of Shui Rong'er unilaterally insulting Fu Ji while he remained silent.

However, the danger was not over yet. Ran Qinghe sensed the fluctuations of spiritual energy behind her. She thought that her clone had finally appeared.

Just as she was about to face the challenge head-on, a person emerged from the shadows, dressed in a platinum-gold disciple's robe, holding a snow-white longsword, with calm and unwavering amber eyes.

It is Lou Tinglan.