After Tianming left, calm returned to Wei Manor once more.
The Mu Manor lay close to the Wei Manor. In the evening, when Wei Jing dropped by, Mu Wan was just heading out.
"Mu Wan, has your brother's Ink Qilin evolved?" asked Wei Jing.
"I’m not sure, why don’t you take a look yourself? I’m heading out now and I won’t be back tonight to bother you!" She winked.
"Little girl!" Wei Jing entered the Mu Manor and headed straight for Mu Yang's cultivation room. Past the garden was a quiet hall where Mu Yang and his Ink Qilin usually cultivated.
"Big Brother Yang?" she called out, but received no response. As soon as she knocked on the door, she felt a familiar, yet mysterious aura in the hall.
"Don't come in!" Mu Yang shouted. Was he getting dressed or was there someone else in there? Perhaps a woman?
However, Wei Jing could hear hoarseness and discomfort in his voice.
"What’s wrong?"
Overcome with worry, Wei Jing opened the door, only to be faced with a most shocking scene. A pale Mu Yang was curled up on the ground clutching his left arm.
"Big Brother Yang!"
Mu Yang didn’t appear to be injured, yet he was sweating profusely.
"What's the matter?" asked Wei Jing.
"I don't know. After my qilin evolved into a saint beast, my body seems to have undergone some changes!"
There was a tremor in his voice. Not only was Mu Yang covered in sweat, his teeth were shaking.
"Big Brother Yang, you’re frightening me...." At this point, Wei Jing realized Mu Yang was hiding his left arm.
"Is this where it hurts?"
"Yes!"
"Let me see!"
When she tore his sleeve, she saw something even more frightening—fine scales had appeared on his arm, almost exactly the same as those on Tianming's arm, and perhaps Li Muyang from the Easton Domain! However, she was certain Li Muyang looked completely different from this man, although their temperaments were similar.
Mu Yang's left arm completely transformed into Tianming’s dark arm right before her eyes. The only difference was the absence of an eye in the palm. But his claws and black scales were exactly the same!
"How did this happen?" Wei Jing gawked at him, as if struck by lightning.
The Mu siblings were adopted by Wei Tiancang when they were young, and grew up with her in Ignispolis. She considered them relatives. Coincidentally, Mu Yang and Li Muyang’s name were the same. How could they have the same left arm?
As soon as his left arm was fully transformed, Mu Yang breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed the process was more painful than what Tianming had gone through.
However, he soon screamed from a head-splitting agony.
"Jing’er! Jing’er!" With one hand, he held Wei Jing's hand while he wrapped the other hand around his forehead, cold sweat oozing from his pores.
"What's wrong?"
This was the first time Wei Jing had seen him in such pain, hence the panic she felt. She held his hand tightly with both of hers.
"My head hurts!" growled Mu Yang. He grabbed his head in both hands and rolled on the ground.
"Big Brother Yang!"
Perplexed by the situation, Wei Jing simply held his head, hoping to ease the pain. But at that moment, a strange light burst from his forehead.
Then a crack appeared, as if his head had been split down the middle. However, there was not a drop of blood. What was even more frightening was the palm-sized copper mirror that squeezed out of the crack.
Faced with that horrifying scene, Wei Jing was completely dumbfounded. Who would believe that a person's head would suddenly crack open and reveal a copper mirror?
This was a double-sided mirror that could reflect images on the front and back. It was simple and old, as if made during ancient times. A profound aura emerged, escaping into the boundless world.
"What’s that?"
"The Cyclic Mirror!" Mu Yang gritted his teeth.
As soon as the Cyclic Mirror popped out, the crack in his head quickly healed. Everything that had just transpired seemed like an illusion, but the Cyclic Mirror was still before them.
Words had appeared on both sides of the mirror. The front read ‘Cyclic Will’. What was that exactly? A type of heavenly will?
Mu Yang was currently cultivating the Ridgeocean Will, the power of the water and earth under the vast skies.
The four words on the other side of the mirror were even more incomprehensible. They read ‘lovers of ten lifetimes’.
Wei Jing held Mu Yang in complete confusion.
"What does it mean?"
As she stared blankly at the mirror, another change occurred.
The front and back of the mirror split in two and melted into Mu Yang's eyes. In that instant, his eyes became two mirrors, both of them sides of the cyclic mirror.
The vacancy in his eyes frightened Wei Jing into tears. With mirrors for his eyes, she could even apply makeup and dress herself!
"Big Brother Yang, do you know what’s going on? How do you feel?" asked Wei Jing.
Perhaps the change in his eyes had caused a great difference in temperament. Mu Yang seemed frightening, almost detached, as if she was facing a god.
"Jing’er." He excitedly held Wei Jing in his arms, initiating intimate contact.
"Big Brother Yang, don't do this..." said Wei Jing.
"Don't push me away, Jing’er. In my mind, there’s a memory of a previous life!" Right now, Mu Yang refused to let her go in a show of dominance.
"What do you mean...?"
"In my last life, my name was Li Muyang!"
What a bolt from the blue.
Wei Jing stared blankly at him. In an instant, Li Muyang from Easton Mountain and the man before her merged. He was Li Muyang? But that didn’t make sense!
Mu Yang was over forty years old, so Li Muyang would have been dead for at least forty years. How could he have appeared twenty years ago?
"Jing’er, you were a Theocracy princess in your previous life."
"What?" Wei Jing was very confused.
……
"Report!"
In a gloomy hall were three old men dressed in black. Though vastly different in physique and temperament, they sat in the center with eyes like ink. A figure burst into the hall.
"What is it?"
"There’s movement in the Cyclic Barrier!"
"What!"
The three men rose to their feet.
"After more than forty years, the Cyclic Mirror has finally appeared!"
"Li Muyang, you’ve hidden yourself well. For more than forty years, we’ve been looking for you!"
"Where does the Cyclic Barrier point to?"
The bearer kneeled and said, "From the points marked on the map based on the Cyclic Barrier, the exact location is the Grand-Orient Realm, Vermilion Bird, Ignispolis!”
"It’s hidden so far away!"
"We’ll personally take back the Cyclic Mirror!"
"Li Muyang, it’s been more than forty years. It’s time to come home. The Ancient Qilin Clan has been waiting for you for so long!”
……
The Grand-Orient Sect.
By the time Tianming returned, it was already evening. As they approached the sect, they caught sight of a seventy thousand-strong army in the south, advancing mightily with their lifebound beasts. They were dressed in platinum armor. Even at dusk, they dazzled, a stark contrast against the black and gold armor of the Grand-Orient guardians.
From a distance, Tianming noticed Jun Dongyao’s Golden Dragon. Headed by that lifebound beast, the great army of Heaven’s Elysium aggressively advanced, unwilling to give up until they swallowed the Grand-Orient Sect.
"There are seventy thousand Elysian purifiers, and nearly a hundred and fifty thousand Cloudmist keepers and Onyx legionnaires combined, a total of more than two hundred thousand. It seems Heaven’s Elysium thinks highly of the Grand-Orient Sect." Ye Shaoqing narrowed his eyes.
"If it weren't for the Onyx Sect, we’d be finished." Tianming's eyes were filled with killing intent.
“Yes, they have so many powerhouses at the Heavenly Will and Saint stage. There’s no way your father can stop them on his own," said Ye Shaoqing.
"What should we do then?"
Heaven’s Elysium reinforcements were truly ferocious. The Grand-Orient Sect was still in a precarious state.
"Don’t worry. Your father knows what to do. He says he’ll kill them all!"
"Is that so? We’ll have to wait and see," Tianming replied.
"You should return to the Li Mausoleum and cultivate. Youths under the age of twenty can't participate in the Sect War."
"No." Staring at the arrogant, self-righteous Heaven’s Elysium army, Tianming declared, "I want to kill the enemy!"
"Suit yourself."
When they returned, the Grand-Orient Barrier was activated. The barrier spirits entered the battlefield.
Heaven’s Elysium and the Cloudmist Sword School’s army gathered outside the Grand-Orient Sect. The Grand-Orient Sect had fewer than fifty thousand Grand-Orient guardians, who were divided into two battlefields.
Any discerning person could see that this would be a massacre. Known for his impatience and arrogance, Jun Dongyao would soon begin his attack.
On the Sacred Mountain, the Grand-Orient Sect’s powerhouses were ready for battle. Clad in white, the red-haired Li Wudi stood on the highest peak. The barrier nucleus was under the control of the sect elders and various powerhouses. As the sect’s linchpin, Li Wudi’s greatest value lay in slaughtering the enemy!