26 MIRROR (1/2)

”You have done well yet again, Little Lan. Leave the rest to me.” The voice rang out once again. ”Tell the others to rest... after the two Grand Elders fall and a hundred of their Elders follow suit, the Tyrant Dragon Hall is bound to give in to our demands and surrender!”

The tone was kind, relaxing even, and it seemed to carry with it a gentle breeze. And yet, as soon as she heard those words, Xiao Wu was immediately scared stiff: the reason was that, after hearing it a second and then a third time... she had discovered that voice did not come from behind her, nor from some blind spot of the man's vision! No...It was a truth much scarier than that!

Xiao Wu's view suddenly switched to the sky filled with blood-red clouds, as her host had looked up.

”This long war... will finally come to an end today,” exclaimed the golden-robed cultivator under the shocked gaze of Xiao Wu. ”I'll be finished in a short while. I trust you will be taking care of our brothers well in the meantime, Little Lan!”

Indeed. This voice... was coming from the golden-robed man's mouth!

As the girl stared disbelievingly, the golden-robed man waved his hand and a large sword, its surface devoid of any imperfections and as smooth as a piece of refined jade, embedded itself in the ground! The handle was a pale azure color, with exquisite geometric patterns engraved into the cross-guard. As for the blade itself, it lacked any edge, and was instead extremely thin, to the point an edge wouldn't be needed to cut. At the same time however, such a thin blade was also so unbelievably durable it had yet to suffer even the slightest trace of a scratch on its smooth surface ever since the day it had been forged!

The outline of the blade was also extremely unique, as it had no tip and instead was more like a long, wide and extremely thin parallelepiped.

That sword! It can't be...

That greatsword, of course, was incredibly famous and thanks to its peculiar shape, which she had had the chance of seeing in countless history books, Xiao Wu had also recognized it on the spot!

I-it's…

Mirror!

Mirror: said to be crafted by a Primordial Beast - a being often dubbed the Sword Saint due to being the first creator of the very first Flying Sword many millions of years ago - and then used by countless sword masters from all around the Nine Heavens, Mirror was then later gifted to the Four Divine Kings of Worldslords Floating Island. The Divine Fire Queen, Ren Hong, had then ultimately passed it down to the Evil Saint.

The history of Mirror had been one of nonstop slaughter, of so many battles that it would be hard to find a race in the whole Nine Heavens that Mirror had yet to taste the blood of... and yet, with the passing of the eras, the surface had still remained untainted and as slick and polished as a mirror, to the point it would even allow one to discern one's reflection in it!

According to what the Sword Saint had affirmed when he had revealed its existence to the world, Mirror's reflection would never dim, nor would its surface ever show any imperfections! Although it was not as sharp as other of his blades, its characteristic as an indestructible weapon while still being so thin had still made the Sword Saint proudly announce it as his very best piece.

Still, just as in this case thin did not mean fragile, when speaking of Mirror thin also did not directly correlate to being light! Instead, Mirror was incredibly heavy, so heavy that even an Ageless Realm cultivator could only barely wield its might. Even amongst the countless sword saints from all Planes of Existence, with their strength varying from the weakest Mortals to powerful Immortals, nobody really ever mastered Mirror in the millions of years after its creation.

[AN: here, sword saint is intended as those who derive their cultivation from the dao/understanding of the sword and its mysteries, not the Sword Saint. The term Sword Saint (With capital S's) would be granted to the Primordial Beast that forged Mirror, as that one being had been particularly versed into the way of the sword and had paved the path for all other sword saints (lower case s) to come by creating Flying Swords.]

And yet still, even then, its durability, sharpness and weight all allowed Mirror to be a weapon without peer amongst most Flying Swords! Some even pondered whether a weapon with such conflicting attributes – namely its thinness yet outstanding durability, its gigantic size (As both the blade and the guard were very long and just as wide) and yet even more gargantuan weight – could even be mastered at all! These same people also surmised that, if a person capable of wielding mirror as he or she pleased were to ever appear, then that person would certainly be unparalleled amongst all sword-wielders!

And now, reflected in that legendary blade half-embedded into the ground, was the figure of a tall youth donning golden robes. He had sharp and peculiar, yet handsome features; his long, black hair that fell unrestrained down his back fluttered soundlessly in the wind as the pair of the most beautiful, most mesmerizing blue eyes fell on the sword's blade. The blue-eyed youth easily picked up the large sword - rumored to be even heavier than a mountain chain - which was exactly as tall as him, and stepped forward, his breathtaking blue eyes focusing on a certain point above the horizon... As for Xiao Wu, the moment her gaze had registered the youth's appearance, she had already lost her ability to think, let alone speak; that was because, she couldn't possibly any more familiar with those features that had been sculpted into so many engravings, sang of in countless poems, and depicted on top of even more canvases!

It was only after a full ten breaths, that Xiao Wu finally regained her senses and was finally able to voice out her thoughts in her head, still incapable of fully believing her eyes.