Duanmu Yu's heart turned to ice. She had thought the same: what must follow was Wei Zhao showing himself, and then the two of them joining forces for one desperate last stand. As for whether they could grasp that one last thread of hope, so faint and slim—that would be up to heaven alone.

Yet the silence around them held, dead and absolute. Wei Zhao still did not appear.

"To slip into my grand tent before the eyes of so many spirit beasts, without a sound and without their notice, and to hide right under everyone's nose—such skill is no mean feat. I had assumed that anyone capable of this must be somebody of consequence. I never expected such a lack of breeding. It seems I did overestimate you, sir." The handsome man was still smiling coldly, showing not the slightest sign of irritation or urgency. Rather, he was leisurely and assured, giving the impression that everything lay within his grasp.

But no matter how he baited him, Wei Zhao simply would not show himself, dead or alive. To reveal himself was to be either killed or wounded—this Wei Zhao knew well. Keeping motionless in his primal spirit state as he was now, the other party could not find him for the moment, could not gauge his depths; this was in fact the safer course.

Of course, the safest course of all would be to find a way out of this mirror world. Once out, the fish could leap in the sea and the bird soar in the sky; no matter how strong the handsome man was, he could not give chase. But then Duanmu Yu would truly be left calling to heaven and finding no answer. Such a shameless act as abandoning a comrade—that Wei Zhao could not bring himself to do.

So Wei Zhao decided to hold his position and answer all change with no change at all.

"Idiot." A mocking arc bent the corner of the handsome man's mouth, and the entire mirror world suddenly flipped over without the slightest warning, turning upside down in an instant—then just as instantly returning to what it had been.

Such a violent upheaval would startle even a composure as steady as Duanmu Yu's. From where she stood, she had felt only a slight sway, with no real harm done; but the shift of her center of gravity in that instant had been utterly real. No reaction could have been quick enough to adjust to it. So long as one was inside this mirror world, one was bound to betray some flaw.

This was the trick by which the handsome man meant to force Wei Zhao out. To his great disappointment, the other party had not revealed the slightest flaw in the face of such sudden upheaval. It was downright uncanny.

What he did not know was that Wei Zhao was nothing but a wisp of primal spirit drifting in the air, with no center of gravity to shift at all. However catching the maneuver was, the man was simply immune to that sort of thing by nature. What could he do about it?

"Nothing? Could he have escaped?" The handsome man was taken aback instead. He had not truly locked onto Wei Zhao's position; he had only sensed through faint traces that an intruder was present. He had not expected the man to flee so swiftly.

Still he did not give up. He at once sent out his divine sense to probe everything around him with the utmost care. This was the mirror world he himself had shaped; every inch of earth, every blade of grass, every tree was under his control. In the past there had been no need to use his divine sense at all—but this time he would not believe it. He did not believe anyone could escape from the mirror world before his very eyes.

Wei Zhao immediately sensed a tremor of divine sense, exceedingly subtle. He was hidden in a corner of the grand tent at that moment, not far from the other man; one careless slip and he would betray himself.

Had it been an ordinary Golden Core spirit beast, Wei Zhao would not have worried. Over the past year he had gained nothing in other respects, but in the matter of the primal spirit he had been utterly transformed. Especially after his strength in primal spirit form had stalled, he had poured more and more effort into studying the techniques of divine sense, and his ability in that regard had advanced by leaps and bounds.

Not only could he shift freely among primal spirit form, half-primal spirit form, and primal spirit state; he had also gained no small mastery of various small techniques. These techniques seemed simple and basic, yet were in truth extremely useful—concealment of the primal spirit, for instance.

The so-called concealment of the primal spirit did not mean truly dispersing the primal spirit into nothingness, but rather reducing its sense of presence as much as possible. To most people, primal spirit form was already hard to detect; once that sense of presence was reduced to its utmost, one could achieve a concealment close to total dispersal into nothingness.

Wei Zhao's divine sense, in particular, was of a quality far above the other man's; even the other's divine sense probing could be fooled. His concealment was thus all the more seamless. Had it not been so, he would long since have been discovered while mingling among so many spirit beasts.

But now he faced the handsome man, far beyond those spirit beasts of before. Wei Zhao dared not be careless. He reduced the sense of presence of his primal spirit to the utmost, trying every means to blend into the surrounding environment.

Sure enough, when the handsome man's divine sense first swept over him, it failed to discover Wei Zhao on the spot; and after a careful sweep of the surroundings, it still came up with nothing.

But before Wei Zhao could breathe easy, the handsome man seemed suddenly to notice something. His divine sense swept over again, and its focus was precisely the area where Wei Zhao was hidden.

"Damn!" Sensing that divine sense lingering and refusing to leave, Wei Zhao's heart went cold. He knew the other had found something wrong, and at this rate it was only a matter of time before he was dragged out.

In truth, the flaw was not in Wei Zhao himself. His concealment of the primal spirit had by now reached considerable proficiency, and even the handsome man could not easily detect it. The real flaw lay in this mirror world. The key to concealing the primal spirit was to blend into the surrounding environment—but everything here was the handiwork of the handsome man himself. To blend into it and fool him—how could that be easy?

"Found you!" The handsome man gave a sudden cold snort and struck out with his palm at empty air toward the place where Wei Zhao's primal spirit was hidden. At first glance it carried no terrifying power, yet the space he had locked onto shattered with a bang. No matter how strong an existence was, once caught in its reach, death was certain.

Duanmu Yu's heart pounded with fright at the sight, and her heart sank further into her boots. The handsome man was the creator of this mirror world; he was its sovereign. How could they possibly fight him?

"Could Wei Zhao be dead?" A surge of panic rose in Duanmu Yu's heart. With her abilities she could not detect Wei Zhao. At first she too had thought he must have seen the danger and fled; but the handsome man would never strike without cause. Wei Zhao must have been detected!

Unexpectedly, at that very moment, Wei Zhao's voice suddenly sounded in her mind: "Don't worry. I'm fated to live long—I won't die so easily."