Chapter 301: Initial Encounter with the Heavenly Profound Mirror

“You only get one chance, so you must seize it.”

Ji Hongdao’s tone was very serious.

All the students understood that such an opportunity might only come once in a lifetime. No matter how calm they usually were, they couldn't help but feel both anxious and expectant.

In front of everyone, Ji Hongdao took out a communication talisman, seemingly contacting someone. A moment later, he nodded and ended the communication. He retrieved a small Heavenly Profound Mirror from his storage ring. He tossed it up, and it hung high above everyone’s heads. Then he took out a silver jade slip and gently crushed it.

Instantly, countless jumbled characters emerged from the jade slip. Ji Hongdao formed a hand seal, and the characters flew towards the Heavenly Profound Mirror in the sky, following a specific order. Li Fan squinted his eyes. He saw segments of text flash rapidly and sequentially across the surface of the Heavenly Profound Mirror. The characters continuously changed, and after absorbing the text from the jade slip, the previously ordinary Heavenly Profound Mirror underwent a strange transformation.

The mirror's outline emitted a faint glow, then began to dissolve and disappear. Unconstrained, the mirror's surface rapidly expanded outwards. In the blink of an eye, the palm-sized mirror transformed into a colossal gateway, a hundred *zhang* high and thirty *zhang* wide. The vast, towering mirror surface did not reflect the surrounding scenery; instead, only streams of silver light flowed across it.

As everyone marveled at the unfolding transformation, Ji Hongdao flew to the mirror's surface and unleashed a magical seal. A silver beam of light shot out from the mirror, enveloping Ji Hongdao. A string of characters instantly appeared and vanished on the mirror's surface. As if confirming Ji Hongdao's identity, the light beam faded, and then a streak of black appeared from the center of the mirror. It swiftly expanded to cover the entire mirror surface.

A rectangular spatial portal appeared before everyone.

“This is…”

“So, any mirrored creation from a Heavenly Profound Mirror can serve as a node to open spatial teleportation?”

“It also seems to require dual confirmation: a password and personnel verification,” Li Fan mused, based on the previous phenomena.

“Follow me. You may enter the channel only after passing the Heavenly Profound Mirror’s identity verification.” With that, Ji Hongdao was the first to fly inside.

Filled with excitement, the students eagerly flew closer. Whenever someone approached the channel, a silver beam of light descended from above, locking onto them. No anomalies appeared; the light beam simply vanished instantly, indicating successful verification.

“This seems to bear a striking resemblance to the Heavenly Profound Spirit Lock Formation,” Li Fan thought to himself as he, too, followed the others into the spatial portal.

A sudden wave of dizziness swept over them. It felt incredibly similar to long-distance teleportation, as if space-time itself was stretched and perception distorted. The next instant, it was like being ripped from a thin membrane that enveloped their entire bodies.

Li Fan tumbled into a peculiar space. All colors instantly faded, and as far as the eye could see, everything was shades of gray and white. Black lines whistled in from a distant place, brushing past their bodies, some even passing right through them, rushing towards the infinite distance. And white lines shot out, either from overhead or from the abyss below their feet, moving continuously in the opposite direction.

Occasionally, black and white lines collided, their two colors constantly intertwining, eventually forming a tiny, void point. The void points varied in their duration. Some lasted for a moment, while others persisted for several breaths. But eventually, all of them would completely vanish.

Just as everyone stared in a daze at the somewhat surreal, fantastical scene before them, their heads spun, and their perspectives suddenly elevated infinitely. They saw that in this vast, almost boundless world, the black and white lines moved at high speed, seemingly without pattern, yet also seemingly following some kind of rule. They collided and intertwined. Tiny void points continuously flickered into existence and then vanished.

Their minds were lost in this magnificent spectacle, and it was a long while before everyone returned to normal.

“They say all the world’s secrets are hidden within this black and white,” Ji Hongdao’s regretful voice echoed in their ears. “It’s a pity my aptitude is dull; I cannot comprehend it.”

“Let’s go. The nascent mirror surfaces are just ahead.”

Ji Hongdao casually grabbed a passing black line, and in an instant, his figure followed the line, disappearing from everyone’s sight. Seeing this, the students also imitated him, grabbing onto black lines passing by them. As if merged with the black lines, the previously fast-moving gray world seemed to slow down immensely in Li Fan’s eyes.

They continued moving towards their distant destination, and whenever they encountered white lines traveling upwards or downwards, these white lines seemed to possess self-awareness, actively moving to avoid them. Li Fan, enjoying the smooth ride, marveled at the sights along the way.

After an unknown period, they arrived at the edge of this gray and white world. The black lines faded and disappeared, and everyone, one by one, returned to their original forms. Ahead, there was a multi-colored halo, strikingly out of place in the gray and white world. Perhaps because he had been in this place for a long time without seeing any color, when Li Fan saw the churning, distorted mass of colors nearby, a strange sensation of nausea and revulsion inexplicably arose within him.

Gray-white and colorful elements collided and rubbed against each other. Though no sound was produced, Li Fan could feel two powerful forces contending with each other, causing the space to tremble. During the clash, it seemed a portion of the colorful light cluster was sliced off by the gray. It lost its original color, becoming dull and lifeless, quietly floating at the edge of the space. After a long while, a faint glimmer seemed to simultaneously light up on them. Previously gray and white, they slowly began to become somewhat crystalline and translucent.

Ji Hongdao said nothing, but all the students already understood that what they were witnessing was the birth process of nascent mirror surfaces for the Heavenly Profound Mirror. They all quieted their minds, focused their attention, and carefully absorbed the experience.

Li Fan, however, was slightly stunned. He first looked around, then sensed his own body. He couldn't help but fall into deep thought. Time seemed to accelerate. Bright flashes continuously appeared, and all the gray vanished. One nascent mirror surface after another was born. Some remained in place after birth, while others suddenly disappeared, their destination unknown. But overall, the vast majority floated at the edge of the gray world. The number of mirror surfaces accumulated more and more.

Finally, at a certain moment, endless fine black and white lines surged from the gray world towards the nascent mirror surfaces. Black and white intertwined, like the most exquisite weaving machine, rapidly weaving garments for these newborns. When the mirror surfaces were completely enveloped by the black and white weave, black and white instantly merged into one. A perfectly smooth sphere, with black and white colors flowing in chaotic swirls, instantly appeared.

“This,” Ji Hongdao’s voice rang out at just the right moment, “is the core of the Heavenly Profound Spirit Lock Formation.”

“Did you all see clearly?”

The voice instantly faded away. All surrounding sights came to a standstill, and then shattered.