Chapter 1160: The Mind-Reading Heavenly Profound Mirror
According to Fu, the Sun family had to earn significant merit before he could justify arranging a promotion for them.
"The Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance isn't a dictatorship," Fu had explained. "Even among us Mirror Holders, we aren't all on the same side."
"That's why I'm not worried about you making a scene. I'm worried you *won't* make one."
It was precisely on Fu's cue that Sun Luyuan had orchestrated the high-profile and suspiciously fortunate capture of a spy from the Five Elders Council.
Any discerning observer could tell there was more to the story.
However, those with the connections to investigate further quickly went silent once they discovered Mirror Holder Fu backing the Sun family.
As for those who lacked the means to uncover even that much...
Sun Luyuan paid them no mind.
The Sun family didn't even need to lift a finger. The moment anyone displayed hostility, countless other families eager to curry favor with Mirror Holder Fu would join forces and silently tear them to pieces.
However...
Sun Luyuan could never have imagined that he would cross paths with a monster like Li Fan—a being who defied all common sense.
With a mere sliver of his consciousness, Li Fan had unraveled the Sun family's blood sacrifice, a ritual that had persisted for millennia.
He had claimed the immortal artifact, the Immeasurable Mirror, for himself.
Even a fractured immortal artifact on the verge of destruction was a treasure of incalculable worth.
And in Li Fan's hands, it was far from a lost cause.
Now, within the Sun family's secret chamber, Li Fan ignored Sun Luyao's desperate pleas, forcing him to activate the Immeasurable Mirror's divination ability.
A beam of light suddenly erupted from the jet-black surface of the mirror.
The beam solidified in midair, forming a screen of white light.
Soon, a series of shifting scenes began to play out across the screen.
As Li Fan made out the images, a chill ran down his spine.
Thousands of Sky Patrolling Arrows screamed through the air, streaking toward every corner of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance's territory.
Countless cultivators were locked in a brutal, bloody conflict. One side was, of course, the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance.
The other was led by a strange, formidable puppet.
"Is this... the Federation of All Worlds from the future?"
In the rapidly flashing images, Li Fan caught glimpses of familiar figures: Tianyang, Sun Erlang, and others.
According to his plan for this lifetime, the Great Qi Dynasty was bound to clash with the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance after annexing numerous smaller worlds.
But at this point in time, none of that had yet come to pass.
The Immeasurable Mirror could actually manifest visions of the future!
The beam of light didn't last long.
The images flickered faster and faster, until even Li Fan could no longer discern the details.
Finally, the beam of light retracted in an instant.
It collapsed back into absolute, pitch-black nothingness.
From that vision of annihilation, Li Fan felt a primal sense of danger.
The divination ended, and the darkness receded back into the Immeasurable Mirror.
Sun Luyao immediately erupted into terrified, maddened howls.
It was as if he had witnessed something utterly horrifying.
But even as the master of the Immeasurable Mirror, Li Fan couldn't perceive what Sun Luyao had seen.
Li Fan had no intention of using his own blood essence to soothe the spirit's suffering.
He simply let the spirit wail, his mind turning inward in contemplation.
"That divination beam... its aura felt strangely familiar."
"It's..."
Two names flashed through Li Fan's mind.
The Mysterious Jade, Myriad Spirits Return to Number Array.
The Desolate Fall, Void Room Generates Flowers Array.
"They share the same origin, both parts of the same grand array."
"Immeasurable..."
But Li Fan couldn't quite grasp the rest of the array's name.
Still, the similarity was enough to spark a realization.
"The Immeasurable Mirror is growing more dilapidated. Perhaps the vision of that desolate future had an effect, but the greater cause is that its fractured immortal body is simply not strong enough to power an immortal-grade array."
"Forcing it to operate only consumes what remains of its immortal frame. The more it's used, the faster it dies."
"The Sun family... what a bunch of fools. Such a reckless waste of a divine treasure. If they hadn't activated it so frequently without ever attempting to repair it, the Immeasurable Mirror wouldn't have been in this sorry state when it fell into my hands."
With that thought, Li Fan tenderly stroked the mirror's completely blackened frame, a pang of pity in his heart.
"Hmm, repairing this might be beyond my own abilities. I'll need to find a master artisan..."
In truth, Li Fan wasn't particularly interested in the Immeasurable Mirror's divination powers.
How could a mere projection of a possible future compare to the genuine futures he had personally lived through?
But the distinction of it being his very first immortal artifact was enough to make Li Fan value it greatly.
"Perhaps, in the process of repairing it, I can uncover the true method to transform and upgrade the Final Dissociation Disc."
"The immortal artifacts of the Xuanhuang Realm became sentient. While the power of their laws may have integrated into the Heavenly Dao of the Xuanhuang Realm, I can't rule out the possibility that their physical forms, like the Immeasurable Mirror's, still exist."
"It might be worth keeping an eye out for them."
...
For some time after, Li Fan's sliver of consciousness remained within the secret chamber.
He dwelled within the Immeasurable Mirror, studying the damaged artifact and exploring its other potential uses.
At the same time, he began to sort and categorize the information the Immeasurable Mirror had gleaned from its intrusion into the Heavenly Profound Mirror.
As someone who possessed a fragment of the Heavenly Profound Mirror's origin and had once brazenly plumbed its depths for secrets, Li Fan quickly noticed the difference between the two methods of "spying."
Undoubtedly, the Heavenly Profound Mirror possessed its own consciousness.
The view through its origin fragment revealed the raw data generated as the mirror managed the daily affairs of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance—records of transactions, cultivators' movements, and their communications.
What the Immeasurable Mirror had intercepted, however...
...was something closer to the Heavenly Profound Mirror's own "thoughts" and "conclusions."
For instance, by aggregating vast amounts of information, the Heavenly Profound Mirror might notice signs that the production of a certain item in its market was declining.
Thus, even before anything actually happened, the mirror—possessing more than enough intelligence—would have already concluded that the item's price was about to skyrocket.
But as the foundation of the Alliance, bound by the will of the Dharma Propagators, the Heavenly Profound Mirror was incapable of acting on this knowledge autonomously.
It had to wait until the situation had actually unfolded and produced tangible consequences before the Alliance's leadership—the Dharma Propagators and Mirror Holders—could convene, deliberate, and authorize any adjustments.
Though it lacked autonomy, nothing stopped the Heavenly Profound Mirror from running simulations and forming judgments about the countless events occurring within its domain each day.
These "thoughts" of the Heavenly Profound Mirror had no impact on its actual operations.
They simply emerged, then settled like sediment in the mirror's deepest recesses.
"No wonder the Mirror Holders prized this ability so highly."
"It's essentially a form of mind-reading tailored specifically for the Heavenly Profound Mirror."
"Even if its damaged state only allows it to pick up scattered fragments, every single piece of information is priceless!"
The Heavenly Profound Mirror was a genuine immortal artifact, the very cornerstone upon which the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance operated.
It possessed an unparalleled, high-level perspective.
Its judgments were unfailingly accurate, far surpassing the foresight of any cultivator caught within its system.
Li Fan recalled the previous lifetime when the Heavenly Profound Mirror had conspired with Mo Rubin to outmaneuver him on several occasions.
A dangerous glint flickered in his eyes.
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