"Cyrus, I said I'd spare your life, and I won't truly strike you down."
Both Quinn Shepherds lowered their heads, looking at Cyrus Qi who was struggling to rise and fight again. They said solemnly, "The information you revealed is extremely valuable to me—worth a life."
Cyrus Qi still couldn't stand. He struggled to sit up, panting, and said, "I originally meant to use that information to shake your Dao-heart, but I didn't expect it would end up saving my own life..."
He felt a mix of laughter and helplessness, steadied himself, and continued, "After this battle, I'll return to the Heavenly Court and train hard, seeking guidance from Emperor's-Throne mentors. Quinn, don't let me surpass you."
Quinn Shepherd lifted his gaze, scanning the surroundings with suspicion, his expression odd. "Cyrus, you might not be able to leave Everpeace for a while. I might be trapped here too..."
Cyrus Qi was slightly taken aback. When the ground melted and the two of them fell underground, he had noticed the strangeness of the Godsever Mountains' underground space, but was too caught up fighting Quinn to examine it closely or split his focus.
Only now, with Quinn Shepherd promising to spare him, did Cyrus Qi relax and begin to examine his surroundings.
The temple below was actually an altar, likely built by demons. It was covered in demon ritual runes, mostly intact. There had been a blood sacrifice here, but someone had interrupted it—the altar was stained with dried blood.
At this moment, they were standing on the blade's surface. The saber seemed to have no thickness at all, its edge stretching so far that neither the hilt nor the tip could be seen.
Strangely, the Primordial Spirits of both men—and Bruno the Dragon-Qilin, who had just arrived—were now inside the seemingly thicknessless blade.
Inside the blade was a vast space—almost like another world entirely!
Cyrus Qi tried to retrieve his Primordial Spirit, but discovered it was separated from him by a whole world. He could sense it, but couldn't draw it back.
Cold sweat broke out on his forehead. His voice was hoarse: "Quinn, what's going on?"
Quinn didn't answer, his expression growing grim.
He'd already witnessed the blade's strangeness before—during the battle to block High Heaven, the Godsever Mountains were leveled, the fighting was brutal. Village Chief 'died,' the Five Immortals of the demon clan—Willow Immortal, White Immortal, Yellow Immortal—died, Old Dao Master, Old Tathagata, Daoist Lingjing, Young Patriarch, Earthwalker, Xuan Shengwu died, others were gravely wounded. Apothecary and others also 'died' on the battlefield, but Quinn managed to reclaim their souls and revive them.
In that battle, High Heaven was beaten so badly it couldn't compete with Everpeace.
Back then, Butcher and the others discovered this blade beneath the Godsever Mountains, along with the demon-god stone idol below it. That idol was a terrifying demon ancestor from a demon world; when it descended on Everpeace, it accidentally ended up under the blade and was trapped in a life-threatening situation.
The Everpeace Imperial Preceptor used the Quake Cauldron to collapse the barrier between Everpeace and another world—the world of that demon ancestor. Countless demon gods descended as stone idols on the Godsever Mountains, searching for the blade to rescue their ancestor.
In the end, Quinn interrupted the demon world's blood sacrifice with a mirror technique, causing the demon-god stone idol's revival to fail—the idols all vanished underground.
Quinn once suspected that world was Luofu Heaven, but after seeing Luofu Heaven himself, he realized he'd been wrong.
Quinn's Primordial Spirit looked out and could see his own body. To rescue his spirit, only Nether City passing through again might work.
However, although he'd visited Nether City several times, he'd only been to its first divine city. There were other divine cities he'd never seen, and King Yama had never opened those cities to outsiders.
Nether City still held many unsolved mysteries.
The key now was how they could escape the blade's inner space.
The world inside the blade was vast and empty, like two flawless white mirrors suspended in the void, sandwiching them between two thicknessless panes with no end in sight.
Their bodies and Primordial Spirits were separated by a mirror-like barrier. Though it looked as if their spirits were standing right beneath their bodies, they could never return to them.
"When will Nether City pass through here again? Crystal Blaze told me last time it was when Youdu invaded—King Yama led Nether City's gods and demons to resist, and that's how they reached the Godsever Mountains. But now King Yama probably has no idea I'm trapped here..."
Quinn frowned. With his Primordial Spirit trapped here, even his Three Spirits Unification technique couldn't work. He couldn't contact Si Yunxiang, Ling Yuxiu, or the others—they didn't know what had happened, so couldn't ask King Yama for help.
"If we die in the blade's inner space, no one will ever know..."
He steadied himself, then started walking deeper into the blade's inner space.
Cyrus Qi recovered a bit, his Primordial Spirit struggling to rise. He followed Quinn, with Bruno the Dragon-Qilin hurrying after them.
Quinn carefully examined the mirror-like surfaces above and below. He couldn't see any forging marks at all. For a master smith, it was baffling—he couldn't tell what materials or techniques had been used to craft this blade.
In the art of forging, the Mute Smith was the greatest. Quinn had apprenticed under him, and his own skills were second only to the Mute Smith's. If even Quinn couldn't discern anything, no one else could.
Cyrus Qi's eyes widened. Suddenly, nine heads sprouted as he looked around, then he breathed out phoenix fire to burn both mirrors—but neither even glowed, much less melted!
"Is this still the lower realm?"
Cyrus Qi laughed in exasperation: "Does the lower realm have anything this powerful? Are its people... its blacksmiths really this skilled?"
"You Heavenly Court snobs have no idea." Bruno the Dragon-Qilin rolled his eyes.
Cyrus Qi was furious. As a favored disciple of two Emperor's Throne masters from the Heavenly Court, he couldn't believe he'd been looked down on by this guy.
Quinn tried to melt the mirror with his Heavenly Fire divine art, but had no more luck than Cyrus Qi.
"This world must have an end, right?"
They kept moving forward, but no matter how far they walked, the two parallel mirrors stretched on endlessly.
They walked for who knows how long—until despair set in, and Bruno the Dragon-Qilin refused to move, collapsing on the ground.
Quinn grabbed his tail and dragged him onward—the mirror was slick, so it didn't take much effort.
Cyrus Qi followed behind Bruno, dazed. All he could see was Bruno's huge head and body pressed flat against the mirror, eyes dull as Quinn dragged him along.
"There's no end to this..."
Cyrus Qi gave a bitter laugh: "We've been walking for two years, haven't we? Still no end! Forget the blade's tiny space—even the Heavenly Court would have run out of room in two years!"
Quinn didn't answer, just picked a direction and kept going.
"Two years... our bodies outside must be dead by now, right?"
Cyrus Qi was on the verge of a breakdown, laughing: "By now our bodies outside the blade must have rotted—flies buzzing around, maggots eating our flesh, our corpses stinking..."
"Shut up!" Quinn snapped, face dark.
Bruno groggily opened his eyes and muttered, "Shut up, you nine-headed bird..."
Cyrus Qi was furious, sneering: "You two just bully me! Don't forget, we're all dead here—two years in this weird world, it doesn't matter if you're a Heavenly Court noble or a mortal emperor, we're all trapped until our Primordial Spirits are gone! I never should've listened to that old Black Emperor and come to Everpeace for this disaster! Shouldn't have come to this dump, shouldn't have tried to catch you, you bastard! Damn Nether City, damn Black Emperor..."
He kept cursing, completely losing his composure.
Quinn was affected by his negativity, his own composure cracking. Dark thoughts crept in: "Maybe I should just kill Cyrus Qi, end his yammering..."
Just then, the two layers of mirror suddenly ended.
Quinn froze, staring at the broken edge of the mirror. Beyond it lay a pitch-black space—no sky above, no ground below. A staircase of white jade slabs stretched into the darkness, vanishing into its depths.
"There's a path!"
Quinn burst into tears of joy, swung Bruno the Dragon-Qilin up and slammed him to the ground, then did it again and again, laughing, "Bruno, wake up! There's a road ahead!"
Bruno was so dizzy from being tossed around that he quickly cried, "I'm awake, I'm awake!"
Quinn tossed him aside, then looked at Cyrus Qi. Cyrus Qi, wary, said, "Excitement is fine, but don't even think about tossing me!"
Bruno got up, shook himself off, and looked at the road paved with white jade slabs, delighted. "Cult Master, are we finally getting out of here?"
The two men and one beast dashed forward in high spirits, leaping onto the slabs and flying toward the darkness.
Three months later, Quinn's eyes were glazed as he dragged Bruno the Dragon-Qilin, leaping weakly onto the next slab.
Cyrus Qi followed behind, then collapsed atop Bruno's head, sprawling out.
Quinn grabbed Bruno's tail and threw him forward, sending both Bruno and Cyrus Qi onto the next slab.
He jumped over, grabbed Cyrus Qi by the collar, and punched him in the face. Cyrus Qi didn't resist, letting Quinn's fist land on his handsome face, weakly saying, "Go ahead, hit me. If you kill me, so be it..."
After two punches, Quinn lost interest and tossed him aside. Cyrus Qi lay spread-eagled on the slab.
Bruno groggily sat up, then sat down right on top of Cyrus Qi. He opened his eyes, licked his lips, and said, "Redfire Spirit Pills taste the best. I dreamed the Cult Master made me tons of Redfire Spirit Pills, enough to fill a whole world. Pills everywhere... I ran and ran, but never reached the end. I rolled and played in a sea of pills, tiptoed and swam through it... Cult Master, there's a door ahead..."
Quinn looked and burst into tears of joy, laughing, "Brother Qi, there's a door—a real door!"
Cyrus Qi, half his leg sticking out from under Bruno, kicked his leg, trying to crawl free but couldn't. He muttered, "Even the Dao Sect's door is trapped in here. They can't get out either... Leave me alone..."
Quinn, overjoyed, sprinted straight toward the portal. Bruno scrambled up, crying and running after him.
Cyrus Qi sat up, his feathers all askew, weakly muttering, "Is that Dao Sect's Lin Xuan Dao Master? That little Daoist... Wait, it's a real door!"
Cyrus Qi burst into tears of joy, grinning from ear to ear, dancing and skipping toward the portal.
He'd just reached the last slab before the door, but Quinn shot through first, Bruno second—Bruno kicked the door in his panic, slamming it shut and blocking Cyrus Qi outside.
Cyrus Qi, furious, hurriedly opened the door and rushed in, only to find himself in a long corridor lined with countless doors.
Cyrus Qi collapsed, sprawled on the ground, grabbed Bruno's tail, and let Bruno drag him along. "So many doors... How long will it take to get out? By now our bodies are probably long dead anyway..."
Just then, one door creaked open and a head poked out. "Who are you? Why are you here?"
Bruno kicked his legs, sending Cyrus Qi flying into the wall, and curiously looked the newcomer up and down.
[Irrelevant author note skipped.]