"How come he managed to defeat a Nascent Soul cultivator of the sixth realm with one blow?" a disciple sitting in front of the Mirror World where Shen Bao was asked.
This was a question that many disciples had been asking, but no one knew the answer.
"It must be a treasure," the elder who sent Shen Bao inside said with an ugly expression on his face, though he wanted to have Shen Bao Killed for harming an Inner Disciple, it seems that if Shen Bao continued like this he will be able to become an Inner Sect Disciple, not to mention he had a treasure that could instantly kill a Nascent Soul cultivator the same rank as the elder.
The elder feared if Shen Bao wanted to retaliate and discover that he was actually being sent to a slaughterhouse then he'll come out and use the treasure on the elder, but at the same time, greed clouded his eyes, if the elder had the treasure Shen Bao had, he will be able to overcome many difficulties and raise his standing in the sect.
"Pay up!" a disciple said to another.
"No! he cheated, he used a treasure and not his own strength!"
"I don't care, I already took your bet on the chance of Meng Xiao losing, and he was facing a Nascent Soul cultivator, I don't care if he cheated or not, he won, so pay up!" the kid said and the other one reluctantly handed him a couple of High-Grade Spirit Stones.
"Damn Meng Xiao! You caused me a heavy loss! Once you get out I'll make sure that you'll pay back in full!" the loser of the bet said. His anger was unfairly placed on Shen Bao, and that was only because he couldn't afford to fight the disciple with the same level as him, as for Shen Bao, he was but a mere Core Cultivator, only valued for the entertainment he provides.
Within the Mirror World, Shen Bao found himself in front of yet another testing area. In front of him were nine pillars that were pretty similar to the pillar inside the Laughing Slaughterer's pagoda.
These were Law Pillars, where one can sit in front of them and understand Law. And the test was clear to Shen Bao since this was designed for Nascent Soul Cultivators, and Nascent Soul cultivators need to understand Law to begin their journey to create their domain.
Every Pillar had a different symbol, as for the first that was in front of him had the symbol of a phoenix, and emitted an incinerating heat.
Shen Bao approached it and sat down in front of the pillar to meditate. To understand the law, he needed to be one with the flames of this pillar, though he didn't know the first thing about phoenixes, he already had a Heart Flame, and this will help him greatly in understanding fire law.
The moment Shen Bao closed his eyes in front of the pillar, a picture of a phoenix raged within his mind, the phoenix swam in a celestial basin of flames, diving within it and jumping up as it twirled and spread its wings, showring the world with endless flames.
As the Pheonix spread its wings, Shen Bao saw space itself morphing in agony against the incinerating heat of the phoenix, and within these distortions, there were lines, red lines that appeared for a fraction of a second the disappeared.
Shen Bao was immediately forced out of his meditative state. And when he closed his eyes to try and enter again he was denied entry.
Looking at the stone, and thinking that he failed, Shen Bao was about to give up. But at that moment, and from the heat coming from the stone, Shen Bao saw once again the red lines, as if mesmerized by the red lines, She Bao extended his hand and touched one of the lines that spread all over the pillar.
He then pulled on one of the lines which caused the rest of them to follow suit, and as the lines followed so did a flame burst from within the pillar and followed Shen Bao's hand as if it was a well-trained serpent of flame.
"Huh? What's going on?" Shen Bao asked no one in particular, but still tried more, slowly playing around with the lines until he finally understood what they meant.
"Each line is a law of flame, touching, disrupting, reinforcing, or even cutting can have a different result. So this is law? These lines represent the laws of fire, and any modification on these lines will cause a massive change in the overall quality of the flame. But the number of these lines is in the millions, so many of them will have no effect on the flame, and unless I fully understand what they do, each and every one of them, and every combination will result in a different thing. So this is a rudimentary understanding of law."
Shen Bao nodded as he looked at the pillar. While outside the mirror world many were in utter shock of what had just happened, it wasn't that difficult for a person to understand law after they become a Nascent Soul cultivator, but for those to understand it at Core Cultivation, while their mental capabilities haven't been fully unlocked by birthing their Nascent Soul, this was impossible, and this painted every self-called genius here as an utter mockery of the world of cultivation.
This only served to fuel the rage against Shen Bao, for no one wants to see himself bested especially by someone they think below them.
Shen Bao on the other hand sighed, he knew that he couldn't understand more of this even if he stayed longer because the Law Stone closed itself on him, he'll only waste time. He looked around and found another stone, this one had the symbol of a white tiger.
As he got closer to it, the stone became cooler and grew freezing cold.
Shen Bao shuddered at the piercing cold and still sat in front of the stone, entring a different scenery where he found himself in a world of white ice were on the top of the highest mountain stood a tiger that looked down on all life.
This was The Byako, with its sky blue eyes and white fur that was adorned with pitch-black strips, and had two tails that swung with ease behind it, causing gales with every swing.
The Byako roared and with its roar, hail fell from the skies and the world turned blurry and white.
And from within the whiteness of the world, bright lines grew.
Once again Shen Bao was woken from his meditation and was able to see the white line.
He began by moving them around and created stalactites of ice, amazed by his own understanding of Law. He smiled as he had a new idea.
Shen Bao went between the two pillars and with one hand pulled on the fire law lines, and his other hand, on the ice law lines. He then forcefully merged them both, causing ice and fire to merge.
"MASTER NO!" came the sound of Y, yet before even Y could act, the two lines collided and blew up in Shen Bao's face throwing him like a ragdoll a dozen meters away from the pillars to a tumbling carcass like state.
Groggily, Shen Bao sat back up, thanks to his enhanced robes he didn't immediately die, but his face was bloodied, his chest ribs felt like they were broken and he couldn't feel his hands.
Yet, there was a wide smile on Shen Bao's face as he pulled a few poison pills and ate them.
Shen Bao laughed as his pain was clearly not enough to even sway the gears in his mind from working. "This is some seriously explosive stuff…I can't wait to put Laws in a canister and see how explosive they'll be."
