[1. The t.i.tle of this chapter is based on a Chinese saying about “an iron chicken from whom no feathers can be plucked,” referring to a stingy person]

Almost in the same moment that the world projection vanished, the three women decided that war should begin. Thus, they caused their own world to approach from its distant location, something that would take time.

In another location in the Heavens was another world, the world with the nine suns and the enormous statue. It was not real, but rather, a projection, in much the same way that the world the three women were in was a projection.

The true worlds were actually in a location far, far away....

In that projected world of nine suns, a decisive, sinister voice was also speaking, the voice of a woman.

“It will take hundreds of years for the other side to arrive. It's the same for us.... This time, spare no cost! We must succeed!”

The woman’s voice was venomous, and seemed to be filled with a coldness and disregard for all living beings other than those that currently surrounded her. As it echoed out, the world of nine suns gradually began to distort, and then vanish.

Meanwhile, back in the Mountain and Sea Realm, in the Ninth Mountain and Sea, Meng Hao was completely oblivious to all of these things. He was currently frowning at the parrot. Finally, he gave a cold harrumph. Although he had felt a bit guilty before about what happened, seeing the parrot now caused him to glare angrily.

Before he could say anything, however, the parrot blinked, cleared its throat, and then flapped its wings as it flew up into the air. The copper mirror seemed to have lost any ability to float or fly, and clanked to the ground.

The parrot flew out of the residence, seemingly without a care in the world. However, deep in its heart was a ma.s.s of anxiety.

“Calamity... is coming. Ai, I screwed up. I never would have thought the other two powers would be so persistent!

“Screw it, I don’t care anymore. In any case, Meng Hao is the master of the mirror this time, so it has nothing to do with Lord Fifth. Worst case scenario, I’ll flee and sleep for a while again.” Finally the parrot cleared its thoughts, pus.h.i.+ng away all these vexatious worries. Its eyes then began to s.h.i.+ne brightly as it looked at the Demonic cultivators in the pool of water. Once again it began to envision swapping them for numerous furry concubines, and the blissful days that would ensue.

“Hahaha! Lord Fifth is back! Now, all of you listen up and behave! Lord Fifth is going to teach you a song!” The parrot whistled through the air toward the group of Demonic cultivators.

“Come, come, let’s sing together. The name of this little tune is ‘I'm a good little seafood dis.h.!.+’ If you sing well, Lord Fifth has a reward waiting for you!”

Back in the residence, Meng Hao was frowning. Although the parrot had made light of what had happened, Meng Hao had practiced cultivation for many years, and was adept at a.n.a.lyzing matters. Everything he had seen regarding the copper mirror, plus the parrot’s expression, filled him with a sense of foreboding.

“I’m afraid... something really bad is going to happen,” he murmured. He looked at the copper mirror and thought back to the three images he had seen. Finally, he took a deep breath. More than ever, he felt that the origin of the copper mirror was shrouded in some incredibly profound mystery.

“Just where did it come from?

“Other that duplicating things, it’s definitely has other magical divine abilities that I don’t know of!

“It seems everyone wants it, even the most powerful experts. They’ll do anything to win it....

“Well, then... what exactly is it?!?! Perhaps ‘Mountain and Sea Mirror’ isn't its real name!

“If the copper mirror is so mysterious and so powerful, then why did it end up broken?

“Also... who broke it!? And why?!” One question after another popped up in Meng Hao’s mind, seemingly without any train of logic connecting them. After a long moment of thought, his eyes flickered with bright light.

“Regardless of what mysteries lie within the copper mirror, or where it came from, I have it now. Therefore, I will inevitably be involved in whatever quarrels erupt over it.

“Based on my current cultivation base, if something like that happens, I’ll most likely be killed. I wouldn’t be able to lift a hand against the people who want it. Therefore... the most important thing for me now ... is still cultivation!

“Only by becoming stronger and more powerful can I have a chance of surviving through whatever struggles are coming in the future! That’s the only way that I can ensure that my own Dao will continue on!” He closed his eyes and calmed his mind and heart. When he opened them again, he made a grasping motion, causing the copper mirror to fly into his hand. He looked at it for a moment, then, without any further hesitation, pulled out some spirit stones and Immortal jade and began to feed them into the mirror.

He did not give up on his original idea, which was... to duplicate the Paragon's blood!!

“With enough Paragon's blood, I can get a full, complete drop. Something like that is incredibly rare, and will help me... to successfully absorb that first Nirvana Fruit!”

He took a deep breath, and his eyes gleamed with pa.s.sion. The path to the Ancient Realm lay before him, and the only way to be qualified to open the door to that path, was to absorb and fuse all four of the Nirvana Fruits he possessed. Then he could strike the Ancient bell and light his Soul Lamps. He would use the flame of his life force like the wind of the world, to extinguish each of his Soul Lamps in turn!

Thus he would achieve a Realm in which the lamps were snuffed out, yet he still lived!

One spirit stone after another sank into the copper mirror. It was like a black hole that could gobble up spirit stones indefinitely. However, flickering light could be seen with each spirit stone it ate up.

As the rate of flickering increased, Meng Hao appeared calm on the outside, but his heart was twisted in knots. Although he was used to how the copper mirror devoured spirit stones, and also used to how he would often acquire a huge sum of spirit stones only to obediently feed them into the copper mirror...

Even so... he was still torn. His heart hurt, and gradually, he simply couldn't remain calm any more. All of the spirit stones he had acquired from the Three Great Daoist Societies’ trial by fire disappeared into the copper mirror, leaving his face completely ashen.

His eyes were bright red, and yet, like a gambling addict, he continued to throw in spirit stones. The copper mirror glowed with increasingly intense light until finally... a second identical vial of Paragon's blood’s appeared!

He let out a long breath. He was shaken, but shook off the urge to mourn his spirit stones and looked the two vials over closely, then began to laugh uproariously.

If Granny Nine and the others could see these two vials, they would be shocked beyond belief. In fact, they might even go mad and unleash an unprecedented catastrophe.

They were identical. Both the vial itself and the blood inside were completely identical!

This was almost like creating something from nothing, a mystical scene of something appearing from thin air that filled Meng Hao’s heart with incredible excitement. Also, he was now able to tell for certain that after acquiring that fragment of the mirror's face from the Ancient Demon Immortal Sect, the duplicating powers of the mirror had actually become stronger.

Things that previously could not be duplicated, were now possible to duplicate!

Meng Hao could even sense that one day, if the all the fragments of the mirror were brought together and the mirror was whole, then he could even duplicate the Heavens, or an entire world Realm! He could duplicate anything.

His heart pounded rapidly, and a brilliant gleam appeared in his eyes. However, at the same time, his heart remained vigilant. He knew that if anyone found out that he had this mirror, it would mean a huge catastrophe for him!

Actually, that was something he had long since been very well aware of. From the moment he had acquired the copper mirror and discovered its function, when he had first started down the path of cultivation, he had always borne that in mind.

After packing away the duplicate vial of Paragon's blood, he used the original to continue duplicating. Time pa.s.sed by slowly. During the three days that pa.s.sed, Meng Hao acted as if he were bedeviled, constantly feeding spirit stones and Immortal jade into the copper mirror.

Outside of the residence, the sound of singing echoed up into the air. The voices sounded disgruntled, and not very willing to sing, but Meng Hao didn’t even notice it. He was completely focused on the copper mirror and the Paragon's blood.

When he ran out of spirit stones completely, he used Immortal jade. Eventually, he ended up duplicating seven portions of Paragon's blood. Finally, he ran out of Immortal jade. By that point, his eyes were crimson. He waved his hand, sending his ident.i.ty command medallion flying out into the hands of the puppet boy, who by now had gone outside to wait for further orders. In compliance Meng Hao’s divine will, he immediately flew away as if he were sentient. He pa.s.sed through the s.h.i.+eld and the pool it had formed to act as Meng Hao’s representative in procuring cultivation resources from the Nine Seas G.o.d World.

The three old timers had promised Meng Hao that all of the resources in the Nine Seas G.o.d World were open to him. Although they hadn't agreed to literally give him anything he wanted, it was still an unprecedented guarantee when it came to cultivation.

Not too much time pa.s.sed before the puppet boy returned with a bag of holding. Immediately, Meng Hao resumed duplicating the Paragon's blood. He would do anything in his power to fulfill his desire of fully absorbing the Nirvana Fruits.

One day. Two days. Three days.

Time pa.s.sed, and Meng Hao barely ever set foot outside. All he did was work on duplicating the Paragon's blood. Soon, he didn't have seven portions, but rather, fifty. That much Paragon's blood was something that even the Nine Seas G.o.d World would have a hard time coming up with.

Furthermore, Meng Hao had laid his hands on a virtual sea of spirit stones and Immortal jade. He didn't even calculate how much it was in total. Mostly because he didn't dare to. If he did, the pain in his heart would surely cause him to cough up a mouthful of blood.

“Still not enough!” he thought, his eyes completely bloodshot. He waved his hand, sending the puppet boy out once again to get some cultivation resources. This time, the puppet boy didn't come back as quickly as he had before. Meng Hao waited for a while, and when he still didn’t return, had no choice but to rise to his feet. Just when he was about to walk out of the residence, his face flickered as he looked toward the leftmost stone chamber of secluded meditation.

Almost in the moment that he looked over, rumbling sounds echoed out from within the stone chamber. Next, the stone door shook, and a huge crack appeared in its surface, as if some incredibly powerful force were smas.h.i.+ng against it from inside.

Meng Hao's eyes glittered as he used the power of the Life Death Hex to peer into the stone chamber. What he saw was that, where before there had been ten Ghost Eye Beetles, now there were none!

Shockingly, an enormous eye had appeared inside the chamber in their stead!!

The eye was surrounded by ten tentacles, which whipped around rapidly. There was also a black glow that radiated out from it, which repeatedly slammed into the stone door.

Upon closer examination, it was possible to see that inside of the Ghost Eye was a tiny pitch-black imp, sitting there cross-legged. The imp had no eyes, a huge mouth, and strangest of all, it had a black carapace on its back! [1. In Chinese, a beetle is literally an “armored/carapaced/sh.e.l.led insect”]

Apparently, the bizarre Ghost Eye was actually created by the black-sh.e.l.led imp.

Meng Hao’s eye widened as he also realized that, all of a sudden, his Life Death Hex was losing its grip!

Almost in the same moment that the Life Death Hex was weakening, a huge boom could be heard as the stone door collapsed. The Ghost Eye burst out, emitting a piercing, deafening shriek that echoed out in all directions. The Ghost Eye then proceeded to charge directly toward Meng Hao, as if to consume him!