"And if it cannot be stopped—then what?"

Wei Suifeng shouted at Tai Yi's receding back, "Does following the map save you? I came here with you; outside the city lies the terrain map I left behind!"

Tai Yi did not turn his head. His voice came back to them: "If you cannot stop him, then you two had best pray for your own fortunes!"

Wei Suifeng and Shu Jun shivered again and again, and stood there as good as gold, waiting quietly for Tai Yi to return.

They watched Tai Yi come before the gates of the Miluo Palace. The doors creaked and grated open of their own accord; it seemed they had not been opened in so long that their hinges had gone stiff.

Within the gateway the Hongmeng surged, unfathomably deep. In the very instant the doors opened, thick primordial Hongmeng qi poured forth, and the substance of that qi gave the impression of brimming with vitality, so that the Great Dao the two had forged within their bodies thrilled with excitement and gave off pleasing dao-sounds.

Yet within that same qi there was also a heavy, sunken deathliness, a deathliness so intense that the Great Dao they had cultivated feared it beyond measure, as though a single touch would wither and blight their Dao!

The horror of that deathly qi was as if the accumulated rot and extinction-breath of sixteen universes at the hour of their ruin had come surging in. As it poured toward them, both men felt their allotted lifespans dwindling madly.

Tai Yi flicked his sleeve and scattered the Hongmeng qi that rushed at them, then strode into the Miluo Palace, his figure vanishing into the depths of the Hongmeng qi.

Wei Suifeng and Shu Jun peered into that gateway. The Hongmeng qi was exceedingly thick, and amid the dimness they seemed to glimpse a tall, towering figure within the palace, seated upon a throne, quietly awaiting Tai Yi's arrival.

They wished to look more closely, but the doors creaked and grated shut once more.

The two waited in silence. This Jade Capital City was utterly empty; even the dao-trees that could be seen everywhere along the road grew here in not a single one. The stillness was somewhat terrifying.

Shu Jun could not help looking about him. He saw that the buildings here bore wondrous brands—dao brands unlike those of the present age, exceedingly resplendent and beautiful, breathtaking to behold.

He wanted to draw closer and look, but Wei Suifeng pulled him back.

"Divine King, Tai Yi left this staff behind; he must have had a deep purpose in it. Let us not stray too far from the staff," said Wei Suifeng.

Shu Jun glanced at the staff and nodded. "As expected, the old sect master Wei has seen much and knows much," he said in praise.

The two waited a while, and Wei Suifeng too could not help studying the dao-patterns branded upon the surrounding buildings. Only upon looking did he realize that these dao-patterns contained boundless profundity.

The dao-patterns did not appear complex, yet when they fell into the eyes of each man, what each one comprehended turned out to be entirely different—a thing to make a man click his tongue in wonder.

"Shall we pull up the staff and look at them up close?" Wei Suifeng proposed.

Shu Jun nodded again and again. "A fine idea. Let us look at them up close."

Wei Suifeng pulled up the staff, and the two came to the side of the dao-patterns. Shu Jun took out a mirror and tried to capture the dao-pattern's reflection within it. This mirror was a treasure Shen Mu had invented, wrought by the arts of the Painting Sage Kui Sou. Within the mirror lay another heaven and earth; one need only point it at a thing, and a mirror image would be generated within that inner cosmos. It was exceedingly wondrous.

Shen Mu had once used this method to capture the various seals upon the Pixiang Hall, seeking a way into that hall, and had likewise used it to capture every one of the ancient gods' dao-runes in the Celestial Court's Repository Pavilion.

He had passed the method of forging these divine mirrors on to Jingping, and there the cultivators of the painting dao made their living by it, forging divine mirrors and selling them to others under the name Qiankun Mirrors—meaning that they held heaven and earth within.

Shu Jun aimed his Qiankun Mirror at the dao-patterns on the walls of the Miluo Palace. Within the mirror, the image of that dao-pattern slowly unfolded the pattern's internal details; then the details multiplied, and the speed at which the inner details emerged grew faster and faster, dazzling the eye.

Shu Jun's expression shifted slightly. In but a brief moment, the details revealed within the Qiankun Mirror had already filled the entire cosmos inside the mirror!

Suddenly, with a crack, the Qiankun Mirror split in two—burst apart by the infinite details unfolding from that dao-pattern!

Shu Jun's heart ached as though it were being carved out. This was merely one dao-pattern on the wall of the Miluo Palace, and it had already burst his Qiankun Mirror. Yet the dao-patterns here were beyond counting. Did that not mean they could only watch this endless treasure with their eyes, and gain not a single one of them?

Wei Suifeng chuckled and took out a Qiankun Mirror of his own. "How long has it been since the Divine King returned to Jingping? You have not met the Painting Sage, have you? This mirror of mine was forged for me by the Painting Sage himself," he said softly.

"Forged by the Painting Sage himself?"

Shu Jun's face showed envy. The Painting Sage of whom Wei Suifeng spoke was Kui Sou, honored as the Painting Sage, who had entered the Dao through calligraphy and painting and cultivated the Painting Dao Heavenly Palace.

"My junior brother likewise learned his painting dao from him, and mastered only three or four tenths of his skill."

Wei Suifeng aimed his Qiankun Mirror at the dao-patterns on the wall and went on, unhurried, "When I met him, he had been invited to lecture at the Wendao Academy, so I shamelessly pestered him until he forged me two Qiankun Mirrors. These Qiankun Mirrors hold heaven and earth within, with layer upon layer of his painting-dao heavens. That mirror of yours cannot compare with them."

Shu Jun leaned in to look. Within the Qiankun Mirror the Painting Sage had forged himself, the dao-pattern likewise unfolded endless details, and the details revealed by this single dao-pattern swiftly filled the cosmos inside the mirror!

"Do not go on—the mirror will burst..."

Scarcely had Shu Jun spoken when suddenly, within the cosmos of the mirror, another cosmos came into being, continuing to reflect the infinite details of that dao-pattern!

Shu Jun gaped. The second heaven within the Qiankun Mirror was swiftly filled with the details of the Miluo Palace dao-pattern, and then within the Qiankun Mirror yet another cosmos was born, continuing to reflect those details.

After a moment, this bright mirror had, astonishingly, eighteen layers of heaven and earth within it—and all eighteen layers were stuffed to the brim with the details of a single dao-pattern!

And still the details of that dao-pattern were not fully revealed!

Wei Suifeng's expression changed slightly. He hastily turned his hand and took out the other Qiankun Mirror Kui Sou had forged, aiming it at the mirror that had been filled!

The two Qiankun Mirrors reflected each other, and at once mirrors within mirrors appeared; in a twinkling, countless images of Qiankun Mirrors came into being within the two mirrors!

Strangely, each layer of the mirror images contained eighteen layers of heaven and earth within it, and no matter how many details that dao-pattern possessed, they could not fill those countless mirror images!

"The Painting Sage's skill is truly godlike!"

Shu Jun's eyes went wide. Layer upon layer of mirrors within mirrors ceaselessly copied the details of the Miluo Palace dao-pattern, revealing more and more detail, while more and more of the mirrors within mirrors were filled to the brim.