Chương 8: Clear Mirror Phantom

"You look like you're about to die." Sirius, commented"Urggh… I feel like I'm gonna die. This ship is a Golden Core artifact and flying it is way worse than just keeping it still." Faust groaned.

"It could have been powered by spirit stones. What use is there complaining when you decide to pocket the mid-grade stones and power the ship yourself." Rozaline mocked,"Hey. 20 mid grade spirit stones is a bargain. Basically two hundred gold." Faust retorted.

"Oh, how the minds of the poor baffle me."

"One day. One day." Faust answered ominously.

"Don't worry. When I reach the golden core realm, I'll give you an allowance for all your help, senior brother!" Sirius chimed in.

"…" Faust's eye twitched as he gazed at the ceiling, sprawled out across the chair. After sighing helplessly, Faust spoke some more, "The ship should arrive back at the sect just before evening."

"If you don't clonk out first." Rozaline made sure to add. Faust eye twitched again.

"... If I don't clonk out first…" He repeated. It was a genuine danger as he felt the ship drawing his Spirit Qi out slightly faster than he could replenish it. No wonder Flying Ships were the mark of a Golden Core powerhouse. The ship landed at the base of the sect's mountain range. Faust directed the disembarkment of the two thousand or so people, before finally stowing the ship away and throwing two Qi Replenishment pills into his mouth.

Faust stood in front of the crowd of new disciples a few steps up from the base of the stairs leading up to the mountains.

"This is the second trial!" Faust's voice boomed.

"... Make it up these stairs." The task seemed simple. What these recruits didn't know was that the stairs sealed Qi, making it impossible for a normal Qi Refining cultivator to use it for body enhancement.

"Hehehe…" Sirius chuckled. Faust too, remembered when he had joined the sect… … 300 thousand steps— going up and down several mountains before reaching the center of the mountain range where the sect was located. The new disciples all looked at each other, then some began sprinting up the stairs. Faust and Rozaline hid their expressions well. Even the rich prodigies were not exempt from this trial and few prepared for it.

Sirius on the other hand had an evil smile on her face as the three stepped on their flying swords and rose into the air to observe the group. Forty eight hours later….

"Hwaaaa!" Sirius yawned as she woke up from a flying carpet artifact, stowing her blanket, pillow and stuffed doll away before switching back to her flying sword. If Faust wasn't a sucker for cute faces he would have forced her to use her spirit stones to power the carpet if she wanted to sleep.

"Oh? Come to join the fun?" Rozaline asked.

"Isn't it just walking?" Sirius asked, blinking out the groginess in her eyes.

"Between men, all walks become a race." Faust said, looking down at the end of the thousand mile stairs. As Faust expected, just as in his own recruitment, this batch of disciples also thought that it was a race. After several landings to perform first aid on people who had passed out from exhaustion, the first people began reaching the last step, falling to the floor with ragged breaths just before the first mountain gate of the sect.

Faust looked up, the Clear Jade bridge, which also acted as the final mountain gate, was visible in the distance, probably just sticking above the trees if they were looking from the ground. The first few to pass were commoners who had worked hard labour in addition to reaching the early Qi Refining realm. They had probably thought that since this was a test, they had to be first. Not far behind, Long Tao, Aneroze and Foria came up in a group.

Not surprising since Tao went the traditional route and reached the first realm of Body Tempering, while Foria had followed Faust's instructions and started on the path of body tempering. Faust could only guess Aneroze had also practiced some body tempering since she kept up. Around them were some other heirs from powerful families who had practiced body tempering. The third group were the majority. The ordinary commoners with similar backgrounds to Faust.

The final group, arriving almost 13 hours later, were the young masters of clans that hadn't forced them to practice body tempering. Without being able to use their qi for body reinforcement, they heaved and groaned beneath the sun. With the last stretch before them and without the qi suppression on the stairs, Faust led Rozaline and Sirius to wait at the final mountain gate, within the courtyard that stood beneath the towering arches that supported Clear Jade bridge.

Watching the sky, the three waited for all the new disciples to gather in front of them. Around the group, many other outer disciples were passing by, watching with nostalgia as they stopped to look or passed by slower than usual. Faust cleared his throat, "Welcome to the Outer Sect's main courtyard!" he welcomed.

"Behind me is Peripheral Village, where any mortal items you need can be found. To your right is the Jade Road Mountain, where all the Outer Sect Dwellings are found. To your left are the Outer Sect facilities, where we will be going for the third trial." Faust gave a brief rundown before turning to lead the way towards the Phantom Mirror. Long Tao raised his hand. Faust's eye twitched and he paused his step.

"Yes?"

"Whats that?" Long Tao pointed up. Faust followed his awed gaze along with many others to the massive pillars that suspended Clear Jade bridge hundreds of meters in the sky.

"Clear Jade bridge. It connects Jade Road Mountain and Diamond Mountain, where the sect market and administration is. There's another route to get up there that we'll take when leaving the third trial." Faust explained before continuing. Someone else raised their hand and Faust breathed in sharply before turning once more.

"Yes?" One of the dull looking commoners gestured to the whole mountains.

"I heard that sects all had floating mountains, endless waterfalls and mythical beasts in the sky?"

"Pft." Sirius snickered and Faust felt his face twitching.

"Budget cuts." Faust responded, turning to continue leading the way.

"What are… Budget cuts?" The commoner scratched his head.

"Those are mainly from stories. They're too expensive for most sects to afford or maintain." One of the more compassionate heirs from the second group leaned over and whispered. The north path from the Outer Sect's main courtyard had countless paths branching off of it to various training and spirit herb fields. There were also paths leading to spirit beast habitats and husbandries. Faust gave brief introductions to the most important paths.

He could have introduced more, but there was ample signage and looking at the gazes that constantly flickered from one thing to another, he had doubts about if the group was even listening." Screeee!" A large white crane flew overhead, casting the whole group in shadow. The new disciples all looked and pointed, chattering loudly. Faust caught sight of Core Disciple Mu Ronghua atop the white crane and raised a brow. Currently the only core disciple from the 47th generation of disciples that Faust was a part of.

A bastard child from a family even more powerful than the Roze clan who wasn't allowed to enter one of the main sects holding hegemony and got shoved into Clear Mirror sect.

"And. Here we are." Faust mumbled to himself. The group had taken a sidepath over and between countless ponds, creeks and lush forest, until they reached a 30 meter waterfall that stretched left and right as far as one could see through the forest canopy. A single rock jut out halfway down the waterfall, splitting the stream in half to create an entrance underneath.

"Clear Mirror Cavern" was inscribed across a golden plaque hanging from the rock. Faust turned to the disciples of this period.

"Welcome to the third and final trial." he said, before turning and bowing towards the entrance. Rozaline and Sirius bowed beside him.

"Inner Disciple Faust, requesting permission to bring the new disciples to the Clear Mirror Phantom." Faust asked, cupping his hands.

"..." There was silence. Some of the new disciples began shuffling their feet, but a response soon came.

"You may enter." An old, hollow and ancient voice echoed across the surroundings. Faust stood back up along with Rozaline and Sirius.

"Pay respects to the elder who guards the Clear Mirror Cavern." Faust ordered behind him."""We pay respects to the elder!""" The heirs all bowed, cupped their hands and offered their respects. Those who had listened to Faust's whole speech yesterday followed a moment later. Lastly, the slow witted simply followed the rest of the group.

"... You are the 50th generation of disciples…" The elder's voice floated across the air, reverberating through the surroundings. The group stood back up, then followed Faust under the waterfall, down a flight of wide stairs and through one of several paths that devolved from paved stone into worn rock and moss covered stone.

By the time the path opened up into a massive cavern, the disciples were almost forced to wade through the crystal clear water that ran throughout the whole cavern if not for the large protruding boulders. The clear water glowed with pale blue light, casting waving reflections across the low ceiling of the cavern. The path ended in front of a small, crystal clear lake that revealed the white sand beneath. Glowing crystals and algae spotted the cavern in blue lights.

However, the main light source of the cavern, lighting up the whole ground and the clear lake, was a massive floating mirror that hovered above the lake's centre. Faust flickered from the path of boulders to a large stone off to the side of the cavern, followed by Sirius and Rozaline.

"This is a phantom of the sect's void artifact." Faust introduced.

"Each of you will take turns walking towards it. Though this is just a phantom, a projection of a small piece of the artifacts power, it is still sufficient to test those below the Nascent Soul realm." A disciple raised their hand.

"Uh…. Do we walk through the lake?" They asked in a shaky voice.

"Not quite." Faust looked across the disciples.

"Would anyone like to volunteer to go first as a demonstration?" A moment of silence as the disciples looked between each other.

"My, it's quite simple." Aneroze suddenly spoke up from near the front of the group, she lightly jumped off the stone she stood on and onto the lake. The clear water rippled beneath her feet, but otherwise supported her weight as if it were solid ground. Another hand went up, it was Long Tao. Faust wanted to ignore him but he spoke without waiting.

"Do we need to be in the Qi Refining realm to walk on the water?" Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

"No. What you see in this cavern is a very real illusion, so real you can interact with it. The surface of the lake is more or less solid ground. You will be able to tell once you sufficiently master the Clear Mirror Pupil, which specialises in seeing through illusions specifically." Faust explained with a sigh, then turned to Aneroze.

"If you will then, miss Aneroze, attempt to touch the mirror's phantom." Aneroze smiled, then turned to the mirror floating above the lake and began walking forward. One step… Two steps… At 30 meters from the edge of the lake, Aneroze stumbled and caught herself. She took a sharp breath, then took a moment to stabilize her footing. On the 35th meter, Aneroze was sweating profusely. She took several controlled breaths, waving her fan, then looked at the mirror with grim determination, taking another step forward.

At the 38th meter, Aneroze stopped. Sweat went down her face and her hair seemed to tangle on its own, becoming disheveled.

"Don't push yourself. The illusions created by the mirror can be more real than reality." Faust spoke. Aneroze smiled bitterly, closing her eyes before turning around and walking back to the rest of the group.

"Thirty Eight meters. Better than your sister." Faust commented, returning the earlier jabs from Rozaline, who hid her reaction behind her fan.

"Next volunteer?" Faust called out. Another young heir stepped forward.

"Twenty Two steps. Better than most. Next." Faust recorded each person's results. There were several unofficial leaderboards maintained in the sect, one of which recorded how close one got to the mirror. The disciples who maintained the leaderboard paid ridiculous sums to ensure they got accurate data to make the rankings. There were even elders who had founded the leaderboards in their youth and who would "secretly" use them when looking for talents within the sect. One of the braver commoners went next.

"Twelve meters. Don't worry. Ten to Twenty is normal. The two before you were the exceptions." Faust gave some words of comfort to the young woman who looked like they were on the verge of crying for the "bad" result. After the poor result from the commoner, the next batch of people were the young heirs. The heirs who had been forced to work hard by their family all achieved 20 meters or more. However, the heirs who lazed around most of the time…

"Five meters… Seven meters… Nine meters…" Faust recorded the distances in a neutral voice. After that show, the ordinary disciples were brave enough to volunteer and…

"Seventeen meters… Eighteen meters… Twenty four meters… Fourteen meters…"

"Oh? There's a lot of impressive numbers this generation?" Rozaline commented, Sirius nodded along, watching the new disciples intently. Soon, Foria stepped up, she looked to Faust for a moment and he gave her an encouraging nod. Ten meters… Twenty meters… Faust watched as his little sister took a shaky step to the 30 meter mark, breathing heavily.

"Thirty two meters. Impressive." Faust retained his neutral tone as he spoke.

"Oh? I thought it would have been better than you?" Rozaline asked, evidently having expected Faust to have admitted she had done better.

"I wouldn't lie." Faust responded.

"Hehe…" Sirius gave a mischievous chuckle, then stood on her toes to speak into Rozaline's ear. Rozaline leaned down.

"~Forty Eight~" She whispered. Rozaline froze, her smile twitching, almost faltering.

"Pahahaha!" Sirius laughed at Rozaline's reaction, loud enough the disciples below could hear. Faust kept his eyes below, until Long Tao finally stepped on the lake. Clear Mirror Pupil. Faust used the signature technique, then looked into the mirror. The technique was made after the mirror, most probably, according to Faust's research, for the mirror as well. The lake and glowing crystals disappeared in Faust's vision, leaving a barren cavern with a semi-transparent mirror floating off the ground.

Yet through the mirror, Faust tried looking at Long Tao and the other disciples. $ &&# @#VM$ M% #@&% %#%$ %#&#ZD%##& %Y7N FGB %%&# 8H%%# &#J% #@JY T$BV# %#&KHU D#& %M8N KB $ #H# @U## &#% #@H# %#%#$ %#&&7U %U& %N EFB EF"Argh! For f—" Faust covered his eyes and looked away.

"Urgghh…." Faust sucked in a sharp breath, rubbing his eyes. Where the hell was heaven even looking from? They were underground! Hey! Earth! What were you doing! Almost all eyes were on Faust, except for Long Tao, who confidently put one foot in front of the other. Faust wiped the blood from his eyes, then gazed at the lake at Long Tao, counting the distance from the shore. Twenty, thirty, Tao reached the forty meter mark, surpassing Rozaline.

At 45 meters, only 5 more until the Mirror would be in reach, Long Tao finally slowed to a crawl, taking each step with a long grunt and beads of sweat. 46 meters. 47 meters. 48 meters. Faust felt the Qi shift as more and more elders looked on with their Divine Sense. 49 meters. 49. 5 meters. One more step. If Long Tao stretched his arm out. If he took one more step, he could touch the Phantom Mirror. Long Tao's eyes were glazed over.

He wavered on his feet, his lips looked dry and cracked and his beautiful hair seemed to be stained and frayed.

"Hoooorgh!" With a final groan, Tao slid his foot forward, falling into the Clear Mirror Phantom and passing through it as he collapsed to the ground. Faust waved his hand, lifting Long Tao and moving him back to the shore of the lake. After a few moments, the Qi settled as the various elders looked away.

"Huuu…" Faust exhaled. Heaven was watching, the elders were watching, he was watching. He wouldn't be surprised if immortals had been watching at this point.

"Oh… This will be an interesting decade won't it." Rozaline said.

"Damn right it will be." Faust agreed with an unintelligible mumble. He needed to set his sister up and then hightail it out of the sect to the Grand Archive in the imperial capital. He couldn't confirm exactly who in the group Heaven's Gaze was following, but he had several ideas. Among the next few hundred to go there was no one particularly impressive. They were all between 10 and 20 meters.

The disciples on the shore weren't too impressed by Long Tao's feat, but Faust knew just what kind of illusions the Clear Mirror Phantom would put you through in the final stretch, changing every 10 meters. From endlessly walking through a scorching desert without a drop of Qi or water to social death scenarios. Faust himself had lost his way when the illusion had changed to a battlefield between two mortal armies.

He couldn't take it anymore, the hopelessness and powerlessness of a battlefield where all were equal made him turn back at some point. Faust wondered what drove Long Tao to keep walking. At the very least, he wasn't a basic playboy. No. Tao was an advanced playboy. The kind who had genuine skill and enough admirable qualities to ensnare their unsuspecting victims. Faust made a mental note to be extra careful trying to keep them away from Foria.

Faust led the no doubt exhausted group up Diamond Mountain, introducing the various halls before leading them part the way back down to cross one of several unnamed bridges that led to Starry Mountain.

"Before you stand the sect arena." Faust introduced the massive circular building that occupied the entire flattened mountain top.

"Inside, you will meet several elders of the sect, as well as the current sect master. Once you enter, maintain a neat formation and then bow." Faust began directing the people where to stand so they could all enter as neatly as possible. Once Faust had coordinated with Sirius and Rozaline to organise the new disciples, he stood at the front and gave one more look.

"As a final note before we enter, the elders do what they want, so just do whatever they say. Don't look at me." Faust shared the advice he had gotten from others who had done the sect recruitment mission. With those final words, Faust led the group into the arena. There were no tournaments this year. As such, the arena floor was in pristine condition, covered in neat, granite slabs while a large square platform rose up in the center of the massive arena.

Several massive steps led up to the stone stage, but right now, ornate chairs had been arranged, with fewer chairs on each succeeding level of stone. At the top of the stage was a single chair flanked either side by Clear Mirror Sect flags. Meanwhile the bottom step had close to a hundred seats for deacons. Right now, all the chairs were empty. Faust bowed to the empty chairs anyways, flanked by Rozaline and Sirius. The disciples behind Faust bowed as well. A crack of thunder sounded, followed by a roar.

The wind picked up, blowing dust and sand across the bottom of the arena Divine light struck down across the chairs, turning into various figures, each seated in their respective chairs. Many on the lower levels were old men with greying hair. Meanwhile, the person in the top chair had long, jet black hair, a gentle smile on their face. Faust wanted to sigh at the display of power and authority, but resisted. The arrays and formations behind this were pretty simple.

Most of the impressive stuff was hidden behind the fancy lights. He personally would have much rather seen the movement techniques of each elder with clarity rather than the pointless light show. Still, he could feel it on his back without turning around. The new disciples had been dazzled by the show, save perhaps the heirs with sufficient knowledge. There was silence, followed by a few sounds of a gong before the black haired sect leader stood up gracefully, the wind billowing his long hair and robes slightly.

Even Faust looked up in awe at the figure. Sect Leader Wu Jie, the creator of the Dark Mirror technique. A technique that had become famous after being used to subdue a ten kilometer red scaled sea dragon in less than a day.

"We welcome all new disciples into the Clear Mirror sect." Wu Jie began.

"You are the proud fiftieth generation of sect disciples."

"The sect expects great things from you all, for the age of chaos has come. With it, comes countless opportunities. Where only a few from every generation once had the honour of becoming Inner Sect disciples, I expect to see many of this generation to appear in the Inner Sect soon." With that, the sect leader gave one last smile, looking across the large group of 2000 disciples before taking a few steps and disappearing.

"Good luck on your path." One of the supreme elders spoke, unlike the sect leader who seemed no different than a mortal, the supreme elder, at the mid stage of Essence Unity's every movement and word seemed to make the air a viscous fluid, resisting every movement and trying to trap everyone around them. That supreme elder disappeared in a brief flash of light as well.

Another supreme elder, a fierce old man with golden hair and plain red robes looked down on the crowd, he scrutinised them all, seemingly one by one. His gaze ended up on Faust, who didn't react outwardly to the gaze. Eventually, with a final look between Rozaline and Aneroze, he disappeared in a puff of golden flames. Of the 5 supreme elder seats, only three remained. Two young looking men and one older looking woman with her gray hair tied into a bun.

The old woman looked across the new disciples with a sharp gaze. Her eyes stopped on Foria, then on Aneroze, before she too, stood up and disappeared, her form seeming to blow in the breeze like a piece of cloth that twisted and turned out of sight as the wind ruffled it.

"Ron Marze." One of the two younger supreme elders spoke.

"Here!" One of the disciples behind Faust stepped forward. The young supreme elder nodded, then got up and disappeared along with the disciple in question.

"Then, I wish the youngest generation good opportunities." The final supreme elder spoke, wishing luck before fading into nothingness like he hadn't even been there. The supreme elders, all at the Essence Unity realm had all departed. On the level below them, were a long line of elders at Nascent Soul. However, unlike the supreme elders, not all were present. Only 7 of the 12 seats were filled. Unlike the supreme elders, the Nascent Soul elders were the ones who commonly accepted direct disciples.

"Hmmm. Head proctor." One of the elders, a man in thick robes, with an immaculate long white beard called out.

"Yes, elder?" Faust almost jumped, taking a sharp breath.

"I wonder if there's any talent in this generation who you would recommend to me?" Faust controlled his facial expression the best he could. This was elder Zeffron, a wildcard at all times. He was known to occasionally mingle with disciples on Diamond Mountain in disguise.

"..." Faust didn't answer immediately, settling his rapidly beating heart as he considered the question. He assumed the unspoken rules would be that he couldn't recommend anyone he had a personal connection with, nor could he recommend an obviously good candidate. Faust thought back, trying to recall if there were any disciples who stood out to him throughout the three trials. A moment of thought later, Faust called out three names and gestured to the three to come just in front of the giant stone steps.

Fortunately for him, far from a lack of standout disciples, this generation had too many peculiarities.

"Hmmm…" Zeffron looked over at the three, who couldn't hide their sudden nervousness anywhere near as well as Faust had, shuffling their feet, twiddling their fingers, clutching their robes…

"You will do fine." Zeffron nodded to himself, before turning into a blur and shooting into the air, disappearing within a breath. Yet, they hadn't disappeared fast enough before Faust faintly heard the sound of one of the three selected screaming. Looking back at the three disciples who had come closer, they had been reduced to two. Good for them. Faust thought. It was an honour to be taken as a direct disciple of an elder.

He would make sure to remember that disciples name, Roderick, he believed it was, one of the many standouts Faust had noticed in the Black Boar Forest. A person who had parried several blows from an early Meridian Opening demonic cultivator even without any body tempering, using nothing but their early Qi Refining realm cultivation and an ordinary iron sword. Faust gestured for the remaining two to go back.

Fortunately, none of the other elders asked anything of Faust, instead, they would ask one or two disciples questions directly. Of the 2000 or so disciples, 6 were chosen by the elders present to become their direct disciples, far better than Faust's generation where only a single person was taken as a disciple by an elder. There were also 40 disciples taken by the overseers and deacons who had shown up. Faust let out a breath he didn't realise he had been holding once the final Overseer left.

With only the Deacons who were also at the Open Palace realm, it was a lot easier for him to breathe. Faust looked back at the remaining disciples. Surprisingly, Long Tao hadn't been chosen. It was also surprising that many of the heirs who had family among the elders, overseers and deacons hadn't been chosen. With so many heirs of powerful clans present in one generation, Faust had thought it certain that several would be taken as direct disciples, through which they would join the Inner Sect directly.

The sun was once again approaching its zenith once the deacons all collectively left, leaving Faust, Rozaline and Sirius to make the final arrangements. Faust jumped up onto the first step that led up to the stage, turning to the disciples, from his spatial bag, he drew thousands of slips of paper and tossed them into the air, guiding them to the disciples below with Qi.

"Your sect tokens will be delivered to each of your Outer Sect residences shortly. For now, these slips of paper will serve as your identification. Each one has a house number on it. Simply follow the path back to Jade Mountain Road, or take the path over Clear Jade bridge. Follow the path until you find your house number." Faust explained simply. He had already done most of the administration work during the night while they were waiting for the disciples to pass the second trial.

He had also made sure to put Foria's residence above the path to Clear Jade bridge while Long Tao's was close to the mountain's bottom. With this, the two shouldn't have too much interaction. As the mission came to its near end, Faust dismissed all the disciples. Now, there were just a few more administrative duties for the mission to be over. Faust exhaled, watching Foria leave the massive arena along with the other disciples, side by side with Aneroze and Long Tao.

"Wow. The Sect Recruitment mission is waaay more work than I thought!" Sirius exclaimed as the arena was emptied, leaving just the 3 of them alone.

"I don't wanna hear that from someone who was asleep most of the time." Faust complained, stretching his arms. He still had some more administration work to do before handing everything into the mission hall for the reward.

"Oh, I thought it was a senior brother's job to help their juniors" Rozaline began trotting off. A hand firmly grabbed Rozaline's shoulder.

"Since you call her your junior sister, then as the senior, shouldn't you also be helping?" Faust asked.

"Oh, I'm afraid I have some tasks to see to, so I—" Faust grabbed her shoulder tighter, smiling calmly. These two had slacked off the entire time. He may as well have done the mission by himself this time.