The third treasure was quickly deciphered by
"The Mirror of All Beings?" Jiang Chen studied the faintly manifesting power of the mirror and the half-glimpsed characters etched around its rim.
This mirror was even more extraordinary than the Grand Glazed Light. It could illuminate all things across the myriad heavens, and could reveal every living being beneath them.
No matter what race you were—even if you were nothing more than a mote of dust—in the Mirror of All Beings, you had nowhere to hide. Everything would be laid completely bare.
Beyond this function, when its treasure-light was activated, the Mirror of All Beings could annihilate any physical defense. The destructive potential was enough to leave one utterly awestruck.
But there was still more. The Mirror of All Beings possessed an even more heaven-defying ability: it could peer into an enemy's weaknesses. A single sweep of its treasure-light across a foe, and every flaw, every gap in their defenses, would be revealed in painstaking detail.
Jiang Chen was genuinely stunned upon learning these capabilities. A treasure of such caliber was exceedingly rare even across the Grand Worlds of the Heavens.
An artifact of this magnitude could well qualify for the Cosmic Fortune Ranking.
Jiang Chen held the mirror in both hands, momentarily lost in a daze.
A sudden thought struck him—his mind felt almost insufficient to process it all. His father's vision had been truly vast. To forge a treasure ranked among the Cosmic Fortune Ranking and disguise it in such a mundane form, hiding it so deeply…
Given his father's personality, acting with such extreme caution could only mean there was a reason.
"To think Father would be this cautious—the Cosmic Calamity must have been truly terrifying. The enemies he faced must have been formidable enough to trouble even him. If that's the case, then the Calamity from my previous life was likely even more devastating than I imagined…"
Having uncovered the mysteries of these three treasures, Jiang Chen certainly felt the depth of his father's intentions. On one hand, he was exhilarated, believing he had grasped his father's true purpose. But on the other hand, his worry only deepened—worry for his father's fate.
It had not been terribly long since the Shattering of the Heavens and his subsequent reincarnation into this life.
However, the exact length of time between his entry into the cycle of reincarnation and the Shattering itself was impossible to say. A single cycle of reincarnation could span one Great Calamity, or several.
Countless thoughts drifted through Jiang Chen's sea of consciousness. Absently, he glanced at the mirror and caught sight of his own reflection. What he saw made him startle sharply.
Around his glabella, there lingered a faint, dark yin energy, and above the crown of his head, wisps of eerie crimson cloud had gathered.
This was… the Divine Tribulation Cloud.
A person shrouded in crimson tribulation clouds—that meant a Divine Tribulation was about to descend upon them.
Jiang Chen's heart rate spiked instantly. Cold sweat broke out across his back and forehead. He had always been meticulous in his cultivation along the Divine Path, deliberately avoiding haste precisely to steer clear of this very tribulation.
But no matter how he dodged, he had not escaped it after all.
Judging by the color of the clouds, they had already taken shape. It seemed he would have no choice but to face this tribulation head-on.
When a Divine Tribulation arrived, simply trying to hide from it was clearly not viable.
There was no single method for dealing with a Divine Tribulation, but the most common approach was to meet it head-on with all one's strength.
Of course, there was also a more passive solution: stumbling upon a fortunate encounter. Such an encounter would boost a cultivator's blessed fortune, and that fortune could, to a certain degree, offset the tribulation—either making it dissipate entirely or reducing its severity.
There was yet another method: merit. If a cultivator completed a great deed of karmic merit, the Divine Tribulation would sometimes vanish altogether, or at least weaken to a level that could be easily weathered.
Such was the way of the Heavenly Dao—every sip, every bite, all was ordained by heaven.