Chapter 8: Snow Mirror Emperor

After a moment.

In the abyss pit, a rock giant was gripping the cracks in the abyss wall—it was the rock golem that had been swept into the abyss pit by the gale.

"Master, the wind is much weaker here," the rock giant transmitted.

"Mm," Ji Ning breathed a sigh of relief.

It had been too dangerous.

Fortunately, he had taken this rock golem as a servant; otherwise, that last shockwave might have cost him his life!

"I wonder how Big Brother is doing now," Ji Ning thought to himself. "That power was too strong. Even with the rock golem protecting me, after it weakened over ninety percent of the impact, I was still shaken until I coughed blood and my divine power was greatly depleted. Without the rock golem, I would certainly have died."

That restriction was set by Windchase Dao Lord to kill Dao Lords of the same level—its power was naturally absurdly strong!

Even though it was only the dispersed power, a less experienced Eternal Dao Lord could be directly killed!

Ji Ning had been lucky!

Because the defenses of those twelve islands themselves were extremely strong, after tearing through the defenses of that small island and then striking the rock golem, which was protecting Ji Ning, Ji Ning had barely escaped with his life.

"Master, what do we do now?" the rock golem transmitted.

"Wait."

Ji Ning transmitted, "We'll wait here slowly for my Big Brother to come."

"This should be the Windchase Hundred Stream Formation," the rock golem transmitted. "I've heard that in the Windchase Hundred Stream Formation, there are many wind beasts, each with the power of a World level. If there are too many, we'll be in danger."

"I know," Ji Ning nodded. He had fought wind beasts before.

"Don't worry... if we just stay quietly here, it will be hard for the wind beasts to find us," Ji Ning transmitted.

"Mm," the rock golem replied.

...

Time passed minute by minute.

Ji Ning waited in the abyss cave: "I have the guiding token on me; Big Brother can fully sense my position. But why hasn't he come yet?"

"Could it be that Big Brother...?"

A thought arose in Ji Ning's mind—Heavenly Dao Lord, dead?

Ji Ning didn't want to believe it. Heavenly Dao Lord was so powerful!

But rationally thinking, the power that had erupted at the end was too strong. Even the aftershocks were that fierce; the power within the core island must have been unimaginable! It was quite possible that Heavenly Dao Lord had died under such power.

"Impossible."

"He wouldn't die so easily." Ji Ning refused to believe it. He waited silently.

One hour.

Two hours.

Ji Ning grew more and more anxious, but he still waited there in silence.

"Big Brother..."

Ji Ning didn't want to believe it.

"Boom~~~"

Suddenly, faint fluctuations came from deep below the abyss cave.

"Stone, be careful," Ji Ning looked down. "It might be wind beasts."

"Wind beasts?" The rock giant was startled.

Ji Ning also found it troublesome. He wasn't afraid of a single wind beast, but he feared being surrounded by a group.

"It's wind beasts!" Ji Ning shouted lowly. At the bottom of the abyss, three blue-white figures of wind beasts faintly appeared, making Ji Ning instantly alert. But then he was puzzled, because these three wind beasts were tumbling forward.

"Tumbling?" Ji Ning was stunned.

"Whoosh."

A familiar figure rushed out from the bottom of the abyss, accompanied by two other tumbling wind beasts, all of which showed terrified expressions.

"Haha, Brother Ji Ning, I finally found you. You've made this old man work hard," the figure blurred and then became clear, arriving before Ji Ning. It was Heavenly Dao Lord, dressed in tatters and barefoot.

"Big Brother," Ji Ning exclaimed joyfully.

"Good that you're safe," Heavenly Dao Lord sighed in relief. "This Windchase Hundred Stream Formation is so winding and twisting, it's really troublesome. I clearly sensed you weren't too far from me, but traveling through those Windchase Hundred Stream channels, twisting and turning... I actually got farther from you. I had to spend some effort to comprehend it a bit before finding the right channel."

"All this winding really made me furious. I really wanted to just destroy the Windchase Hundred Stream Formation, but after thinking it over, I held back," Heavenly Dao Lord said, his face somewhat pale. He waved his hand toward the rock wall beside him.

Swish.

A large hand phantom grabbed directly onto the rock wall, carving out a cave.

"I'm a bit injured. Let's rest first before leaving," Heavenly Dao Lord said.

"Alright, no rush," Ji Ning quickly said. He understood that Heavenly Dao Lord had probably come to find him without resting after being injured.

"That Windchase Dao Lord was such a fool... he wanted to drag others down with him even in death," Heavenly Dao Lord said, sitting down with some chagrin after entering the cave. "Fortunately, this old man is strong enough; otherwise, I might have lost my life there."

"Big Brother, you should recover first," Ji Ning urged.

"Mm."

Heavenly Dao Lord nodded, then closed his eyes.

Hum hum hum~~~ Circles of phantom images began to appear around Heavenly Dao Lord, and time and space started to distort. The flow of time inside the cave rapidly accelerated, likely a hundred times faster than outside. At the same time, a dense, almost tangible chaotic force surrounded Heavenly Dao Lord, and he seemed like a black hole, devouring all chaotic force.

"The speed at which he absorbs chaotic force is even faster than when I use chaos crystals," Ji Ning marveled inwardly.

After nearly a year, everything ceased.

The chaotic force dissipated, time and space in the cave returned to normal, and Heavenly Dao Lord opened his eyes. Nearly a year had passed inside the cave, but only three days had passed outside.

"All good now," Heavenly Dao Lord stood up, looking pleased. "That fool Windchase must have spent a lot of effort setting up that dirty trick, but unfortunately, this old man recovered completely in three days."

"Congratulations, Big Brother," Ji Ning said.

"Haha, it is worth celebrating. This trip to the Windchase Ruins has been successful," Heavenly Dao Lord looked at Ji Ning. "What about you? Did you get the painting scroll?"

"Yes, I got the sword-qi painting scroll," Ji Ning nodded. "But I can't see any mystery in it at all."

"Haha, you wouldn't understand. Give it to me, and I'll take a look for you," Heavenly Dao Lord said.

Ji Ning flipped his hand, and the painting scroll appeared.

Heavenly Dao Lord took it, opened it, and glanced at it. He nodded slightly, pointing at the landscape painting: "This landscape is really crude. That Snow Mirror Emperor clearly isn't good at painting, yet he loves to paint. If he had spent a little effort comprehending the way of calligraphy and painting, he could have reached a very high level instantly. But he just doesn't comprehend it, yet he insists on painting."

Ji Ning said, "That's just a hobby. If he treated it as cultivation, it might lose its interest."

"Mm," Heavenly Dao Lord nodded. "You're right. No matter how crude the painting, the scroll itself is no less precious than an Eternal Divine Weapon, after all, Snow Mirror Emperor is an ancient existence who succeeded in Dao Integration and attained eternity."

"Succeeded in Dao Integration, attained eternity?" Ji Ning was startled.

"Yes, eternity."

Heavenly Dao Lord murmured softly, his gaze distant, "True eternity, absolute eternity across all dimensions of time and space. No matter how long, they are eternal and indestructible. This old man is just one step away, the hardest step."

"Enough of that." Heavenly Dao Lord looked at Ji Ning. "Anyway, this old man once had the chance to meet Snow Mirror Emperor, but he left over a thousand chaos cycles ago to continue his travels. After all, the endless chaos is too vast... As an eternal existence, Snow Mirror Emperor naturally wanders and drifts."

"His temperament is erratic, so he had no patience to teach disciples. When he left, he refined forty sword-qi painting scrolls," Heavenly Dao Lord said.

"Forty?" Ji Ning was surprised. That many?

"Mm," Heavenly Dao Lord nodded. "Every four scrolls form a set, ten sets in total."

"If one collects a full set of scrolls and passes the trials set by Snow Mirror Emperor within them, they can receive his inheritance and become his personal disciple," Heavenly Dao Lord said. "Each set of scrolls can only produce one personal disciple, so theoretically, there can be at most ten personal disciples."

"Of course, these forty scrolls were scattered by Snow Mirror Emperor across many territories," Heavenly Dao Lord laughed. "Collecting a full set is still very difficult. This scroll of yours is the third scroll of a set."

Ji Ning quickly asked, "I didn't notice any trial?"

"Haha, every Snow Mirror scroll is actually a cave heaven space," Heavenly Dao Lord said. "Enter it, pass the trial, comprehend the sword technique, and you succeed."