Fortunately, Duanmu Yu did not seem inclined to keep blaming him. After climbing off Wei Zhao, she said nothing, only walked over to pick up the clothes she had taken off. But when she retrieved them and looked, she froze on the spot.

Caught in the blast of the true-qi pill-flame bomb, her garments were riddled with holes, torn to rags. How was she supposed to wear these?

The real problem was that aside from the set she had stripped off, she had brought no spare clothes at all. What was she to do now? She could hardly go out and run the trial in nothing but her underclothes. No matter how free and unconstrained Duanmu Yu might be, she was still a woman. Being seen like this by Wei Zhao out of sheer necessity was one thing, but if anyone else laid eyes on her too, how could she go on living?

"Can't wear them anymore? No matter—I have some." Seeing this, Wei Zhao hurriedly passed her a set of clothes. These were the very garments he kept in the jade-pendant space for other girls. Last time Huo Yudie had worn a set; this time they happened to come in handy again with Duanmu Yu.

"Are these clothes from the mortal world?" Duanmu Yu took them, gave them one glance, and without another word pulled them on. And truth to tell, once dressed she carried a distinct air of the urban career woman.

Wei Zhao was still staring thoughtfully at the mangled corpse on the ground when Duanmu Yu suddenly remarked, "You've got quite a few beauties, haven't you?"

"Huh?" Wei Zhao looked at her. Where had that come from, all of a sudden?

"Apart from the ones who came into the trial with you, unless I'm mistaken, you've got women elsewhere too, haven't you?" Duanmu Yu said offhandedly.

"How did you figure that out?" Wei Zhao was instantly astonished.

"Because the size of these clothes is wrong. None of the ones who came with you match it," Duanmu Yu said with certainty.

"Er…" Wei Zhao could not help but break into a sweat. Just what kind of eye did this woman have, to spot even that? It hardly fit her usual mannish air.

"You're a fickle man," Duanmu Yu concluded, then asked another question: "Since you're a primal spirit, where did these clothes come from?"

"Let's just say I conjured them," Wei Zhao said, keeping her guessing.

Duanmu Yu nodded and asked no more. She was a sensible woman who knew what ought to be asked and what ought not.

"All right, let's get out of here first and talk later," Wei Zhao said. He was vaguely puzzled now. Since the Water-Lily Guardian had already been blown to death by his bomb, why had this world in the mirror not collapsed on the spot? Could it be that this space was not sustained by his power at all, but had already become a fixed, solidified space?

The two of them immediately passed through the curtain and emerged. Fortunately, the situation Wei Zhao dreaded most had not come to pass. This sole exit to the real world had not been sealed off—otherwise they would have been well and truly trapped.

Yet Wei Zhao and Duanmu Yu did not rejoice for long. Only after they passed through did they realize something was off. The stairway to heaven ahead had no exit at all; it was merely an empty shell. Wei Zhao's heart suddenly lurched. "Another world in the mirror?"

"Surely not?" Duanmu Yu still refused to believe it. As she saw it, the Water-Lily Guardian was clearly dead already. That the previous world in the mirror could linger on was understandable enough—but how could another one have appeared?

Besides, even a world in the mirror could not simply spring up out of nowhere. It had to be connected to the real world in order to be reflected. Surely it could not be that the place back there was a world in the mirror and this place was one too, without even the most basic real original to mirror?

Refusing to take it lying down, Duanmu Yu climbed the stairway to heaven herself. At first there was nothing unusual, but after she had climbed some hundred zhang, no matter how she tried, she could not advance another step. Ahead all was a blur, and some invisible boundary barred her way. Not only could she not make out the scene ahead at all—even her divine sense was utterly useless, as though she had truly reached the end of the world.

"It's no use. This is the world in the mirror that thing conjured. Limited by its power, this world in the mirror can only reflect an area this large. If it truly could expand without limit, even mirroring the entire world into itself, then it would not be the Water-Lily Guardian—it would be the legendary Creator God," Wei Zhao said, shaking his head.

"Then what do we do?" Duanmu Yu was utterly thrown by this turn of events. Both were worlds in the mirror—how were they to get out?

"Don't panic. Since his world in the mirror was made by mirroring, there must be one place where it connects to the real world. So long as we're careful, we'll find the exit sooner or later," Wei Zhao reassured her.

Duanmu Yu nodded. She was no ordinary woman to begin with; in many ways she was more free-spirited and magnanimous than most men. It was only natural to be stunned by such an absurd situation, but it was not enough to make her lose her composure.

The two of them immediately began to feel their way along the edge of this world in the mirror. Fortunately, it was only about ten li across, so it would not take long to circle it once. Otherwise, if this world in the mirror had truly been boundless, the two of them would have been genuinely helpless—though of course, if that had been the case, whether they could have spotted the trick so quickly was still an open question. They might well have taken it for the real world.

In the end, the two of them made their way back around to that curtain, exchanged a glance, and stopped in their tracks.

"There's nothing out of the ordinary anywhere else. This is the only place left," Duanmu Yu said gravely.

"Mm, it looks like this curtain is the sole entrance and exit of this world in the mirror," Wei Zhao agreed with a nod. With his divine sense, in theory he would not miss the slightest flaw—after all, his true body was on a level far beyond that of this so-called Water-Lily Guardian. Even if his strength was limited now on account of his primal-spirit body, that was at most a matter of quantity; the difference in quality between one primal spirit and another could not be altered.

"In other words, the entrance to the real world should be in that world in the mirror on the other side?" Without a moment's hesitation, Duanmu Yu stepped straight through the curtain.

"This woman is decisive enough, all right." Wei Zhao could not help but laugh at the sight. Faced with such a predicament, any other woman—even if she did not panic and lose her head—would most likely hide behind him, and would never be as bold and brisk as Duanmu Yu.

Following close behind Duanmu Yu, Wei Zhao passed through the curtain as well. And in the very instant he passed through, a faint sense of something strange suddenly came over him.

"What is it?" Duanmu Yu turned back to ask.

"Didn't it feel a little odd to you when we passed through?" Wei Zhao asked, frowning.

"Odd how?" Duanmu Yu was utterly baffled. She thought it over carefully, then said, "I didn't notice anything different. It was the same as when we passed through just now." (To be continued.)