For it was a complete fusion at the Primordial Spirit level. Though the Sea of Consciousness expanded by only thirty percent on the altar that day during the Heavenly Sacrifice, the essence of Soul Power had nearly doubled, truly putting him on par with the Soul Return Realm.

The benefits didn't stop there. Now, when Zong Shou concentrated on cultivation and expanding his Sea of Consciousness, the speed of his progress was easily more than double what it had been before.

The Soul Power that used to take three days to accumulate could now be gained in a single day.

This secretly pleased Zong Shou, and he began to seriously consider the second dying wish of the original 'Zong Shou'—the person currently hiding in the 'Sunken Cloud Sea,' Zong Weiran.

Zong Shou’s feelings toward this future Mad Blood Demon Saint, the Nine-Tailed Fox King, were intensely complicated. He felt a mixture of admiration, yet also apprehension and repulsion. Subconsciously, he didn't want to meet this person too soon. After all, he had possessed the body of this man's only beloved son.

It was easy to imagine what kind of attitude Zong Weiran held toward him.

Yet, the dying wish of the original 'Zong Shou' was precisely to rescue Zong Weiran from the Sunken Cloud Sea as soon as possible.

"What a nuisance! Forget it, I won't bother with this matter. Perhaps Zong Weiran is cultivating diligently below in the Sunken Cloud Sea, living a leisurely life. I have completely merged with this body now. If I cross the bridge and tear it down, what can this brat who has already kicked the bucket possibly do to me?"

Then, his eyebrows shot up, and a cold stillness filled Zong Shou's mind: "Before he left, what did he mean by saying 'you are me, and I am you'?"

He felt increasingly that this matter was of paramount importance. It related to all the mysteries of the Cosmic Destiny Book, the Heaven-Devouring Primordial Transformation Scripture, and even why he had traveled from ten thousand years in the future to this era. Zong Shou took a sharp breath and forcibly suppressed these thoughts.

He began to condense True Talisman Spiritual Restrictions one by one. Relying on the potential unleashed in the previous two days, the condensation process for almost all Restrictions related to the 'Devour' character rune was extremely smooth.

Only the 'Purity' character rune made slow progress. Zong Shou sat rigidly in the training ground for a full two hours. By the time his potential was exhausted, he had only managed to form six 'Devour' character True Talisman Spiritual Restrictions, and not a single one for the 'Purity' character.

Finally giving up, Zong Shou opened his eyes. He stroked the tiny golden entity, now reduced to a film, and fell into deep thought.

To comprehend the profound mysteries of this True Rune, this little fellow was his only hope for rapid advancement. However, his divine abilities were not manifesting at the moment, and he couldn't glean much insight from it.

Therefore, the only solution was to upgrade its rank. Only upon breaking through to the Fifth Tier realm might he be able to glimpse the full spectrum of this divine ability.

Although he was currently financially powerful and controlled Qian Tian Mountain City, possessing immense resources—he could easily acquire eight or ten pills like the Earthly Extreme Elixir—he was unwilling to ruin this little fellow’s future for that sake.

Looking at it this way, the only option left was self-illumination.

With a casual release of his hand, Zong Shou smiled faintly and took out a bronze mirror—the Illusionary Heart Mirror. A faint excitement stirred within his chest.

Spiritual Artifacts required no refinement for use.

The Illusionary Heart Mirror, however, was slightly more special; it required the bloodline of the Celestial Fox.

Zong Shou knew of this item because the Illusionary Heart Mirror had a fearsome reputation in the early days of the Divine Emperor Game.

Especially on the Eastern Lin Cloud Continent, someone had obtained this treasure early on and proceeded to slaughter people everywhere they went. If someone displeased them, they would be slain with a single mirror strike. By the time Zong Shou acquired the Cosmic Destiny Book, that person had still not fallen and remained just as arrogant, their spiritual techniques unparalleled, second only to the Seven Sovereigns and a few peak Spirit Masters.

In his early years, Zong Shou had exchanged martial insights with a friend of this individual, thereby becoming acquainted with him. Because of this, he knew the reason why this person, despite having only mediocre talent, achieved such astonishing success early in the path of spiritual arts.

The key was his application of the spiritual mirror, which was completely different from the methods used by the Seven-Tailed Snow Clan that forged it.

The mirror’s surface was smooth, almost comparable to the Bright Light Mirror, perhaps even surpassing it slightly. Zong Shou remotely activated it, and in moments, it floated out of the window.

It was the dead of night, exactly when the moon was highest. A nearly complete full moon shone down, illuminating the Illusionary Heart Mirror within the spacious room.

When Zong Shou’s Primordial Spirit emerged from the aperture between his eyebrows, exposed to the moonlight, countless wisps of light smoke rose instantly. They were being scorched by the True Solar Fire projected by the Illusionary Heart Mirror, burning his soul.

Zong Shou didn't feel much strain. His Soul Power now was ten times greater and nearly ten times purer than when he first entered the Night Roaming Realm. Even the light of the complete moon caused him negligible harm; he paid it no mind.

The truly difficult part to manage were the dense illusions triggered by the light shining from the Illusionary Heart Mirror. The stronger the moonlight, the heavier the illusions became. These were all the vulnerabilities left behind within his own mind—sorrow, joy, anger, and sadness all surfaced from his thoughts.

Just as the night began to recede and the first ray of dawn shot down from the horizon, reflecting off the bronze circular mirror and shining into Zong Shou's soul within the training room, the illusion in Zong Shou's mind immediately shifted. A figure appeared, a man around thirty, exquisitely handsome and tall, yet possessing an aura like a celestial pillar capable of supporting heaven and earth.

A pair of phoenix eyes stared coldly down: "Who are you? How dare you! Why have you occupied my son's body? Where is my son now?"

Zong Shou felt a dull ache in his chest, a mixture of shame and terror.

Seeing the opponent's gaze sharpen, the Indeterminate Spirit Sovereign Fist struck toward him from afar. Zong Shou immediately snapped his eyes open and met it with a punch of his own. His conscience was clear; possession was not his choice, and he held no guilt! Why should he fear Zong Weiran?

Boom!

With a loud explosion, all illusions within Zong Shou's consciousness vanished. He felt that his Primordial Spirit was filled with roaring flames, a searing, excruciating pain.

The early morning sunlight grew stronger and stronger. Even after being reflected once by the Illusionary Heart Mirror, it was more than ten times stronger than the night moon! Under the sunlight alone, Zong Shou could only endure for less than a quarter of an hour before his entire Primordial Spirit felt as if it were about to ignite.

Yet, he remained perfectly calm. With a mere thought, a layer of purple lightning enveloped his entire body, completely blocking the scorching heat of the sunlight. Immediately afterward, the Illusionary Heart Mirror also shifted aside, spun rapidly, and flew back through the window into the room, returning to his side.

When Zong Shou opened his eyes, he felt an agonizing pain deep within his skull.

This was the price for his Yin Soul forcibly enduring the burning of the True Solar Fire. The Soul Power and Spiritual Energy within the vortex of his Sea of Consciousness had diminished by a full five percent.

However, overall, Zong Shou's strength had not weakened; on the contrary, in that brief moment, it had increased substantially.

"Is this the Soul Power of the Soul Return Realm?"

During the preceding meditation, he felt that his Primordial Spirit Sea was no longer just cold and dark, but now contained more vitality, a warm, pleasant sensation he had never experienced before.

Normally, for a Spirit Master to reach this stage, they needed to accumulate Soul Power to its absolute extreme, where Yin reached its peak, giving rise to Yang. To break through this boundary, even the most prodigious genius often required years of constant accumulation, purification, and refinement.

Today, with the help of the Illusionary Heart Mirror, he had effortlessly leaped over this hurdle.

Although the total volume of his Soul Power had decreased, using this method for future cultivation would allow his Divine Soul to transform directly toward Yang energy. New Soul Power generated would inherently carry Yang energy, eliminating the need for laborious conversion, saving an immeasurable amount of effort. Furthermore, he could feel distinctly that his Primordial Spirit's control over the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy had increased significantly. He no longer feared sunlight as much as before, and the conflict between it and the True Qi within his Dantian wheel-meridians had also greatly diminished.

Zong Shou examined his Sea of Consciousness and couldn't help but chuckle darkly. This was the secret of that powerful Spirit Master from his previous life; it was precisely by using this item to temper his state of mind while simultaneously transforming his Primordial Spirit from Yin to Yang.

But that was merely within the game. Although it claimed to simulate reality with 99.9% accuracy, it could never fully manifest the true capabilities of a Spiritual Artifact, nor could it have any effect in reality. The so-called improvement in mental state was just an accumulation of data. The transformation of the Primordial Spirit was the same—it offered no benefit to the Spirit Master's cultivation in the real world.

In his past life, Zong Shou never imagined he would obtain this item ten thousand years in the past, nor that he possessed the Celestial Fox bloodline. What was even more surprising was that the concept he had imagined in the game actually worked in reality.

Thinking back to the image of Zong Weiran just now, Zong Shou frowned.

"Fortunately! It turns out I unknowingly left such a massive vulnerability in my mind. Indeed, to perfect one's state of mind, one must understand oneself—"

The ache in his skull was still intense. Zong Shou immediately raised the Illusionary Heart Mirror again. Since the Celestial Fox Snow Clan forged this artifact in the Cloud Realm, they had only regarded it as a tool for killing. But in the eyes of the Spirit Master from later generations, it was far from just that. The many uses he developed were enough to make the Snow Clan clutch their chests in regret.

With a flash of mirror light, the illusion appeared again in Zong Shou's consciousness: a green meadow, filled with birdsong and the fragrance of flowers. Zong Shou's expression gradually harmonized with the scene. Every beautiful aspect of the mortal world unfolded before his eyes.

This was 'Nourishing the Soul'—using soothing and beautiful illusions that refreshed the heart and mind to make the person forget the pain, allowing the Primordial Spirit to gradually heal.

A widely circulated concept among Spirit Masters in the future stated that for a Spirit Master, the value of a Spiritual Artifact or Magic Treasure was not judged by its rank or material, but by whether it was suitable and whether its full potential could be unleashed. Even the lowest-grade Spiritual Artifact, if used well and its capabilities thoroughly explored, could provide considerable aid.

In Zong Shou's view, the function of the Illusionary Heart Mirror was comparable to that of a high-grade Magic Treasure. He had heard that this item was modeled after a supreme treasure passed down within the Celestial Fox Snow Clan. He wondered what the effects of the 'original' version might be.

As his thoughts drifted, the pain in Zong Shou's Primordial Spirit gradually subsided. The injury that should have taken at least half a month to mend showed signs of recovery in just one hour. Just as Zong Shou was about to press on, the door to the training room was gently knocked. Chu Xue’s voice came from outside: "Young Master, are you free? Someone has arrived from Jing Yun Ya Pavilion. Miss Yun Lan claims to be a successor of the Light Sound Sect and insists on seeing the Young Master—" (To be continued)