The Mirror is Mine

The old tortoise was powerless and could only rage, sitting on the ground with its teeth itching in anger as it cursed incessantly.

"You Li family brat, I'll remember this. Sooner or later, I'll mess you up. I'll dig up your ancestral graves and scatter the ashes of every single one of your ancestors."

Xu Xian saw that the tortoise only had one eyebrow left and felt that it looked quite off. Acting as a good person, he reached out and plucked the other one off as well.

The old tortoise screamed in pain, nearly fainting from sheer fury.

"What do you even want?"

Xu Xian said with a smile, "Nothing much. I just simply want to mess you up."

The old tortoise laughed in anger. Mess me up? It stretched its neck out provocatively and challenged, "Come on, do it right here. If I even flinch, I'm not a good tortoise."

Xu Xian didn't bother to argue with it anymore. Now that he had vented his anger, he felt much better.

He stood up and paced about, taking a drink of wine while alternating his gaze between the black stone stele and the dark suspension mirror.

The mottled stone stele emitted an ancient aura, and upon it was a restriction formation used to suppress the old tortoise.

Dense, spider-silk-like chains covered the stele, piercing through the old tortoise's body, acupoints, qi manor, and dantian to completely suppress it.

He grabbed one of the fine iron chains and gave it a gentle tug. Despite being only as thick as a strand of hair, its hardness was not at all inferior to the cold chains on the Divine Sword Pool.

In fact, when he held it in his hand, he could feel the same energy fluctuations present on the chain.

Xu Xian speculated that these chains were originally quite large. They had only thinned down along with the old tortoise's body size because they were connected to it.

As for this stone stele, it was an object from the heavens and was likely extraordinary.

Unfortunately, the little book spirit was asleep and the Pupil of Insight could not be used, so he couldn't see through the grade of this thing.

However, from the ancient aura it emitted, it wasn't hard to see that this object was definitely a treasure.

If he used it to hit people, it would probably hurt quite a bit.

To be honest.

Xu Xian wanted it. Of course, the prerequisite was that he could finish off this old tortoise.

Clearly, that would be difficult. The old tortoise was sealed and its cultivation was shackled, but it had once been an Immortal King level powerhouse. As a tortoise, its physical defense was undoubtedly top-notch.

Otherwise, it wouldn't have dared to be so arrogant and fearless after seeing the little book spirit's sword strike.

Xu Xian finished looking at the chains and the stone stele, then turned his attention to the suspension mirror.

He stood in front of the mirror and reached out to touch it, while the old tortoise beside him continued its yapping.

"Take your filthy hands off my mirror. That's not something for someone like you to touch."

The more it told him not to touch it, the more Xu Xian wanted to. And it was a good thing he did, for the moment he touched it, he uncovered the secret of how the old tortoise had projected itself into this small world.

It turned out it wasn't some power of delusion, a reflection of the heavens, or a Heavenly Manifestation. It was purely the work of this mirror.

Xu Xian impatiently gave it a try. When he stood before it and connected his intent to it, a giant was similarly reflected in the ten-colored sky outside.

A white-haired demon.

It was terrifyingly realistic.

It was impossible to tell truth from falsehood.

"Hiss... this thing is way too intimidating."

Xu Xian's interest was piqued. He made the giant appear and disappear repeatedly, having a grand time. The old tortoise looked on with utter disdain, watching Xu Xian as if he were a bumpkin from a mountain village who had never seen the world.

So this...

Was a descendant of the Li family?

The Li family truly had no one left. It seemed its guess was right; the Li family might have really declined.

"What a hick!"

Xu Xian glanced at it out of the corner of his eye and said lazily, "This mirror is mine now."

With that, he actually stored the mirror into the storage space of the Divine Sword Pool.

This mirror was not simple and surely had other uses. He would take it for now and ask the little book spirit about it once it woke up.

The old tortoise was stunned. He just took it? What kind of behavior was this? That was its own property!

"You brat, give it back! That's mine! You're stealing!"

Xu Xian sharply corrected it, "No, this isn't stealing. This is robbing. Please choose your words carefully, or I'll sue you for defamation."

"Is there a difference?"

Xu Xian said nonchalantly, "Of course there's a difference. Stealing is the act of a petty man. Robbing is the method of the strong."

The old tortoise was speechless. It seemed there really was nothing wrong with that logic.

But...

The old tortoise roared and charged at Xu Xian, "I'll kill you!"

This time, Xu Xian didn't retreat or dodge. Instead, he raised his leg and gave the old tortoise a kick.

He sent it flying once again, repeating the feat of slamming it against the stone stele.

It lay beneath the stone stele, facing the sky with a look of tragic indifference.

What was wrong with this world?

A dignified Immortal King and a former giant of the Cangming Realm was being repeatedly humiliated by a junior who was a mere mortal being of the lower realm.

Was it a loss of morality or a distortion of humanity...

How stifling!

It really wanted to die!

Let it be...

Xu Xian sat cross-legged on the marsh, drinking wine while looking over from a distance. "Are you done throwing your tantrum?" he asked.

Listen to that.

What kind of talk was that?

The old tortoise laughed. What did he mean by 'done throwing a tantrum'?

It climbed to its feet and lay back down beneath the stone stele in silence, not even bothering to respond.

"Shall we talk business?" Xu Xian said.

The old tortoise closed its eyes and said crossly, "If you have something to say, just say it. I can hear you."

Xu Xian raised an eyebrow. I already plucked your eyebrows, and you're still this arrogant?

He said patiently, "Even though you are very impolite and disrespectful to me, I can overlook it considering your age. I can still rescue you from here."

The old tortoise felt a spark of interest. "Oh?"

Xu Xian emphasized, "However, I can't rescue you for nothing."

The old tortoise was amused and asked casually, "What do you want? Just say it."

Xu Xian didn't hide his intentions and went straight to the point. "I don't want much. Just those Shadow Soul Stones that fall from the sky. I want a million tons. Well... if you don't have that much, eight hundred thousand tons will do. In any case, it can't be any less than that."

The old tortoise narrowed its eyes. "And?"

"I heard you have a divine ability called [Delusion]. I want that too."

"Is that all?"

Xu Xian thought for a moment and said seriously, "Well, if you have any other treasures, you can give them all to me. I'm not picky. As long as it's good stuff, I'll take it."

In its extremely long life, the tortoise had seen many shameless people, but it had never seen anyone quite as shameless as this.

He wanted this and that...

It didn't respond, keeping its mouth shut.

Xu Xian tested the waters, "So, how about it? I'm being very reasonable, right? This shouldn't count as taking advantage of your precarious situation, should it?"

The old tortoise let out a short laugh.

"Heh!"

Xu Xian's brow furrowed. "What are you laughing at?"

The old tortoise exposed him, "Do you even believe the words coming out of your own mouth?"

"Hmm?"

The old tortoise said with disdain, "I can tell that you're the same kind of person as me."

Xu Xian subconsciously asked, "What kind of person?"

The old tortoise squinted at him. "What kind? Heh, what other kind could it be? A person whose mouth is full of lies and never speaks a word of truth."

Xu Xian's heart skipped a beat. He had to admit, the old guy's eyes were sharp!

He asked knowingly, "You don't trust me?"

The old tortoise said lazily, "Stop wasting your breath. If you have the ability, just rob me. If not, go back to wherever you came from."

"You're refusing my kindness, aren't you?"

"How much is a face even worth?"

Xu Xian took a large gulp of wine, slammed the jar onto the water's surface, and stood up abruptly.

"Then I'll just rob you!"