A Pawn's Passage

The immortal sword, Skycaller, should have been a straight, unbroken line, but within the warped space, it appeared displaced, like light refracted upon water.

The Imperial Preceptor exploited this distortion, replicating countless indistinguishable copies of the Skycaller. Even a master swordsman at the Pseudo-Immortal level would gasp in awe that the Taiyi Shadow Splitting Technique could be applied this way, brought to its ultimate peak. There was even a trace of the legendary Heavenly Blade within it.

In an instant, over a dozen Skycallers manifested, striking from every direction toward Himiko-no-Mikoto.

By now, Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto and Susanoo-no-Mikoto had become little more than Himiko’s vassals, irrelevant in the greater clash.

The might of this strike far surpassed Sage Qingwei. Even setting aside the difference between immortal and semi-immortal objects, the Imperial Preceptor’s comprehension of space and swordsmanship was far beyond the reach of the young Sage Qingwei even though the latter could wield the strength of an Immortal.

This was the kind of experience and foundation that Qi Xuansu yearned for.

A soon-to-be First-Tribulation Immortal’s mastery of his own strength had reached its very pinnacle.

Even Himiko, who had combined the incarnations of the Three Noble Children into Immortal-level strength, dared not meet this strike head-on with her golden body. She could only alter the rules of her divine domain.

Up became down, left became right, front turned to back, and yin swapped with yang.

She was the sovereign of this domain, so there was nothing she could not change.

Thus, the many Skycallers struck only empty space, splitting the seas, severing the skies, piercing through mirages, and rending this world into shattered fragments. At times, fleeting glimpses of the true world beyond the divine kingdom could be seen.

As long as Himiko, who was the core of this divine kingdom, remained unharmed, these fractures healed in an instant.

But then, there was one sword unaffected by any shifting rules, aiming right at Himiko.

It was Skycaller.

As a genuine immortal object and wielded by the Imperial Preceptor, the Skycaller had every right to disregard the restrictions of this divine kingdom. It cut through the chaos like a blade through tangled silk, unstoppable and direct.

Himiko-no-Mikoto swept her sleeve, conjuring a space of fire between herself and the Imperial Preceptor, hoping to slow the sword’s advance.

However, this strike exceeded even her expectations. The sea of flames was split cleanly in two in an instant, offering no resistance whatsoever.

At once, a sword mark appeared across Himiko-no-Mikoto’s body, running from shoulder to rib like a deep ravine. Divine power spilled out like a golden rain of dust.

However, the wound healed faster than ever. This was the mystery of the divine golden body.

At this moment, the Three Noble Children resembled a Spiritual Statue created from condensed divine power, with form but no substance. Thus, there were no vital points to strike and could not be destroyed by one blow.

Still, this strike consumed Himiko’s divine power greatly. Once her power was depleted beyond a threshold, this domain could no longer hold, and she would be forced to return to her Takamagahara Divine Kingdom.

The Imperial Preceptor was relentless, slashing again. The Skycaller’s sword light extended for more than 5 kilometers. Its brilliance shone like the sun and moon combined.

Where the sword light passed, the skies of this divine kingdom split apart, like papered walls torn open to reveal the outside world, leaving rifts that would not heal for a long time.

Had this been in the real world, who could fathom its power? Surely, it could cleave mountains and split seas with ease.

When the sword was drawn, clouds scattered from the skies. If a flood dragon barred its way, this strike could even sever its head.

Himiko-no-Mikoto dared not face the sword head on. Instead, she conjured a mirror that radiated with dazzling brilliance.

It was none other than the foremost of the Three Divine Artifacts of Fenglin, the Yata Mirror.

In the earliest days, mirrors in Fenglin were regarded as protective charms, often worn upon the chest.

As the foremost among mirrors, the Yata Mirror naturally possessed extraordinary powers of protection.

The Yata Mirror rapidly enlarged until it rivaled even the 5-kilometer beam of sword light. When the sword struck its surface, the sound was like metal striking stone.

After blocking the strike with the Yata Mirror, the blazing sun behind Himiko faded, its flames unraveling into yet another mirror. Wherever its light shone, the divine domain transformed into a world of mirrors, as though countless panes had been joined together. The rifts torn open were filled and repaired.

This was the Yata Mirror’s second divine function, called the Mirror Realm. It could draw people or souls into a mirrored world. However, the Imperial Preceptor’s cultivation was far too high to be affected, so Himiko adapted and turned the Mirror Realm outward, using it to patch and stabilize the shattered domain instead.

Himiko raised the Yata Mirror high, drawing in the billions of reflections from the surrounding Mirror Realm. All the refracted light converged onto the Yata Mirror in her hands. She did not yet release it and only continued to endlessly gather its power.

In the past, the Great Yokai Tamamo-no-Mae was gravely wounded by the Yata Mirror. Her cultivation was crippled, forcing her to flee Heian Capital. Then, she was eventually surrounded and slain. Thus, the Yata Mirror’s might should not be underestimated.

For an ordinary Heavenly Being, a single reflection from the Yata Mirror would instantly reduce them to ashes, with no chance of survival. Even the Imperial Preceptor could not claim he would emerge completely unscathed.

However, the Imperial Preceptor showed no panic. Though the Yata Mirror was one of Fenglin’s greatest divine artifacts, the sword in his hand was no ordinary weapon either.

Compared with the equally famous Mortal Vitality, which carried its own sword qi within and required no extra infusion from its wielder, the Skycaller was attuned to the wielder’s spirit, body, and cultivation. A wielder with a high cultivation would increase the sword’s power to resonate with heaven and earth to another level.

If the wielder was a Xiantian Being, the Skycaller was weaker than many top-tier treasures. Wielded by a Xiaoyao-stage Heavenly Being, Skycaller would still be weaker than Mortal Vitality. Only at the Wuliang stage would Skycaller’s power be roughly equal to Mortal Vitality. Beyond that, at the hands of a Zaohua-stage Heavenly Being, the Skycaller surpassed Mortal Vitality. If wielded by a Longevity-stage Immortal, the gap between the two swords became even more pronounced.

In other words, the higher the wielder’s cultivation, the greater the Skycaller’s power. As a quasi-First-Tribulation Immortal standing at the very pinnacle of the mortal world, the Imperial Preceptor could unleash Skycaller’s might to an unimaginable degree.

Compared with other immortal objects, Skycaller’s function seemed limited, but the sheer force it could exude was virtually limitless.

The Imperial Preceptor pointed the sword to the heavens.

A sword beam tore through Zhang Qihan and Himiya Akiko’s battlefield, cut across Mount Omikami, pierced the divine domain and the Mirror Realm, and descended upon this place with an almost unreasonable force.

It was like someone inside a pitch-black chamber pushing open a crack in the door.

The intense sword light lingered, shining like a shaft of sunlight streaming through the crack into the pitch-black room.

The sword light shattered the balance. The millions of mirrors in the Mirror Realm could no longer reflect the light, deemed useless. Even the surface of the Yata Mirror rippled with wave after wave of distortion.

This sword light was from the Skycaller resonating with heaven.

If Himiko’s true body had descended, she could have resisted this sword light. But at this moment, she was merely taking a shortcut, much like Sage Qingwei using the Qinghuo Pearl to temporarily gain an Immortal’s strength. Thus, she was still lacking compared to the Imperial Preceptor. That was why her Mirror Realm and this divine domain were pierced through.

Helpless, Himiko was forced to raise the Yata Mirror prematurely and shine it upon the Imperial Preceptor before it could gather more light.

This light carried unparalleled divine power, transforming entirely into blazing solar flames, intent on burning the Imperial Preceptor to ashes.

Yet even if Himiko had fully charged her strike, it was uncertain whether she could kill him. Now, interrupted halfway, her chances were even slimmer.

The beam of light fell upon the Imperial Preceptor, who responded by invoking the Taiping Qingling Sutra and imitating the Earthly Preceptor’s Xiaoyao Six Void Tribulations.

At its peak, this method could be used as both offense and defense, reputedly able to transform anything.

The Xiaoyao Six Void Tribulations had three progressive stages. Zhang Yuelu, with her lower cultivation, had only practiced the beginner’s simplified version of the Six Void Tribulations. The Earthly Preceptor had reached the third stage. Since the Imperial Preceptor was merely imitating the technique, he was at the second stage.

The flames conjured by Himiko’s Yata Mirror were indeed strong, but it was still considered one of the six qi: yin, yang, wind, rain, darkness, and light. Her solar flames corresponded to yang and light among the six qi.

The Imperial Preceptor circulated the Xiaoyao Six Void Tribulations, turning yang into yin and light into darkness. Heaven’s way was to reduce the excess and supplement the deficient, weakening the strong and strengthening the weak to maintain balance. Thus, a significant chunk of flames was instantly dissolved.

Dark clouds and mist rose around the Imperial Preceptor. Some of the solar flames were even inverted into pitch-black yin fire by his technique.

He then wielded the yin fire to strike at the solar flames that had yet to be transformed.

Yin fire was the ultimate move of the Taiyin 13 Swords, embodying the power of the moon, so it was utterly incompatible with the solar flames. When the two clashed, explosions erupted, annihilating each other and sending massive ripples surging in all directions.

The countless mirrors in the Mirror Realm shattered one after another, and even the Yata Mirror itself was affected.

On the mirror’s surface, light and shadow warped chaotically. Ripples spread disorderly, and a crack appeared. Though it quickly repaired itself, in that brief instant, a fox-shaped phantom slipped out from the fissure and vanished in a flash.

This scene did not escape the Imperial Preceptor’s eyes. He smiled faintly and said, “Himiko, your cause is lost.”