Chapter 601 — A Seemingly Harmless Smile

" Vajra looked into the mirror. What it reflected was that magnificent divine city, and the Butcher, Shen Mu, Granny Zhu and the others before it were all shown in their souls. Some of their souls stood before the Southern Heavenly Gate of the Heavenly Palace; some stood upon the Divine Bridge; and one soul stood within the Life-and-Death Spirit Treasury, with dark Youdu beneath his feet.

Yet what was uncanny was this: the divine city in the mirror was only a vast abyss.

Not only did the divine city not exist—neither did the gods and demons upon it, nor the million-strong army! Still, the souls of the Butcher and the others retreating toward the divine city were revealed by the mirror; it showed each of their souls.

Vajra cast a glance at himself and saw his own true body of three heads, standing in the Hall of Demon Gods!

He was a demon god with three heads; the three faces were only an illusion—in truth he had refined the three heads into one.

Vajra looked again at Qi Jiuyi as reflected in the mirror. Qi Jiuyi's image there was a nine-headed phoenix, bathed in blazing golden light and divine fire, extraordinarily holy. And Zhe Huali in the mirror was an ordinary human youth, save that the demon blade at his back had its demon soul revealed by the mirror's light: a one-eyed demon beast wreathed in terrifying demonic aura, crouching within it—a dreadful thing!

Yet the most terrifying thing in the mirror was Shen Mu! The Shen Mu in the mirror had three eyes, tinged with blood, enormous beyond measure; the three eyes looked toward him, as though aware of his prying.

Vajra felt his soul shudder, and a dull ache began again in his chest. Lu Li hastily turned the mirror away, no longer shining it on Shen Mu and the others, and turned back: "You see it now, do you not?

" The mirror faced the direction of the demon army's camp. Several demon experts behind them looked into it, and saw the souls of the demon gods and demons in the camp.

Vajra's disciple Shu Ye was slightly startled: he saw that one demon's soul in the camp was somewhat strange. That man's soul was actually standing within the Heavenly Palace! Moreover, his soul was tattered and patched all over, as though cut and spliced together from the souls of many people!

Shu Ye was about to look more closely when Lu Li had already put the mirror away.

"Did my eyes deceive me? " Shu Ye wondered inwardly.

Vajra shuddered and said in a hoarse voice, "Those three eyes. . .

" "Were sealed by Tu Bo.

" Lu Li smiled: "You need not set your mind on him. Your aim is only Taihuangtian.

" Vajra steadied himself and said in a low voice, "I have at last seen the true face of the divine city.

Flowers born of the void, a true-seeming world remade, false passing for true, the painting as boundary, the unreal joined to the real so that none can tell true from false.

This is gods, demons, and all things created through the Dao of painting—in the arts of brush and ink, it has reached the very summit. " His voice reached the ears of the Deaf Elder, Granny Zhu and the others: "Fellow Daoists, you have been able to deceive me, to hold my demon army here for days on end, giving Taihuangtian time to breathe and prepare.

Even if you die, you may well be proud.

" Granny Zhu and the others' faces changed drastically.

They saw the space around them twist; though they kept retreating, the distance between them and Vajra was closing!

"We're done for, we're done for.

.

.

" muttered the Lame Elder, his face ashen.

The green ox beneath the Libationer of Bashan gave a furious roar and bolted at full speed toward the divine city—but the faster it ran, the farther the divine city became, and the nearer Vajra!

The green ox hastily stopped, not daring to move. Lu Li smiled: "Revered King, I want only Shen Fengqing. Hand him over to me, and I will give you a Taihuangtian! Rest assured.

Now that I have seen through the illusion, they have no further chance of escape. " Vajra stepped toward the crowd. At his first step, space violently warped, and the crowd, unable to help themselves, drew nearer to him.

The Butcher roared in fury and swung his blade at sky and earth, trying to sever the warped space, but his blade light was warped the moment it left him and vanished away. Suddenly the sky heaved violently.

Vajra halted, looked up, and his face showed astonishment.

Lu Li too hastily looked up, startled and uncertain. In the sky, beams of incomparably thick light shone down, humming, joining with the earth; then the light turned into surging blood-red radiance!

A vast, broken planet suddenly burst through space and appeared above Taihuangtian!

Then a second battered planet, and a third ruined star hard upon it.

.

.

A terrifying sight appeared in the sky: a landmass of unknowable breadth, pressing down upon the suddenly appearing stars, abruptly appeared above the vault of Taihuangtian!