Chapter 445: The Origin of the Mirror Crow, Forming an Alliance

Inside the thatched cottage, it was calm and tranquil.

Regarding the fact that An Shen had suddenly popped out and was not dead, Du En was not surprised in the slightest. Looking at the other party, he spoke very calmly: "I had originally thought you would hide away; I didn't expect you to come out on your own so quickly."

"I would not do such a meaningless thing. Moreover, being frank and open has always saved a lot of unnecessary costs; this is something I would do."

An Shen answered simply, then showed a hint of admiration: "Although my sister never skimps—even when it comes to eggshells and light sources that still retain their vitality and have complete origins, she will take them out to give to others to save lives when necessary—to be honest, that you were able to fully absorb the Source of Ten Thousand Lights and turn it into your own foundation for the Immortal Dao still makes me feel very surprised."

"Is that so? Is that really what you think, An Shen?"

Du En's counter-question at this moment seemed to carry a certain scrutiny.

However, the direction of his suspicion was not actually what the other party had mentioned.

An Shen noticed it immediately. After a slight silence to organize his words, he continued: "I am no longer An Shen now. To be more precise, I am a split divine sense that remained and resided within the Mirror Sun Void Source; you could consider it a contingency plan I left for myself."

"Then, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. I shall address you as Fellow Daoist An from now on."

"That is acceptable."

"You should already be aware of the encounters and changes regarding True Monarch Bu Yi, right?"

"Indeed. Although I was previously inside that special space, by borrowing the gaps when it opened, it was enough for me to learn about the situation in the outside world. Being able to come out just now is also the result of attempts made over this past year."

In the way of space, An Shen clearly possessed extraordinary attainments.

Therefore, although the Blessed Land Kongsang Mountain appeared special, it had, after all, opened and closed under his nose several times, so he could naturally intervene and influence it.

Even if the power he had remaining now was not much.

"Because of your own unremitting efforts, you ended up creating an even stronger enemy. All in all, this is the bitter fruit of your naivety."

Du En seemed dissatisfied with the other party's self-serving actions and now made this sarcastic remark with an expressionless face.

Moreover, the word used was "naive"—a point of contention between the two gods previously—which could be said to have struck a sore spot.

To this, An Shen could not help but smile bitterly, replying: "If I must offer a defense, perhaps it was a bit of influence brought about by my predecessor. Because of this, unconsciously, I would have thoughts of being above all things in the world, capable of easily severing even the mastermind behind the scenes. However, when it comes down to it, a Mirror Crow and a Golden Crow are not the same thing, so I must admit that I was indeed somewhat arrogant and self-righteous before!"

He did not evade his own faults and also took the opportunity to clarify some circumstances.

"What exactly is the deal with the Mirror Crow?"

Du En asked just as straightforwardly.

"Light sources, star brightness, spirit flashes, and the like all point toward the Source of Ten Thousand Lights. The birth of the Three-Legged Golden Crow is like that of a True Dragon; it is born 'True' by nature, then walks forward, dissatisfied with its innate state, and ultimately creates demonic arts and demonic paths in an attempt to become an immortal through them."

An Shen seemed to have also experienced the succession of the Golden Crow Emperor. This was actually the crux of what Du En was concerned about in his sarcasm just now; after all, if that Emperor were still alive or had remnants left within An Shen, it would be a rather dire situation for him.

After all, he was currently a human-shaped little Golden Crow. If the other party were still alive, they would inevitably come to seize his body so that they could be resurrected, fight in the world again, and walk the path of immortality once more.

And since An Shen had started by lamenting this point, it was no wonder that Du En felt concerned and did not shy away from sarcasm.

"However, in the final battle where the Emperor fell, two extreme solar phases were severed from within, and thus a variable appeared. Simply put, the 'mirror surface' that was originally just a description actually carried with it a portion of the Golden Crow's principles, and only then did the 'Mirror Crow'—which is similar yet different—come to be, which is my birth."

An Shen actually understood what Du En was concerned about. He hadn't been intentionally beating around the bush; rather, he had been speaking by analogy. Now, he spoke even more frankly and simply stated his own origin.

"In other words, although I also call the Golden Crow Emperor my predecessor, if one were to look into it closely, it should actually be 'offspring.' Of course, He was a Demon Venerable, and I am a god. When it comes down to it, that alone was not enough to be born as a living being, so it took such a long time before I could be born in the guise of a god, through a stroke of luck, or rather, on the Star of Divine Conception arranged by the True Monarch."

"As for the Holy God, since she clearly resists—and may have even completely rejected the influence of the predecessor—she should also be regarded as a brand-new individual, an offspring of the Demon Venerable. Thus, recognizing her as a sister is not just because we are both gods, but because of this subtle connection."

Listening to this, Du En's gaze flickered slightly. He was lost in thought for a moment, then nodded gently.

The other party actually had reservations, but those reservations concerned the Holy God.

The two siblings were only born in the guise of gods one after another ten thousand years after the fall of the Demon Venerable. Although An Shen came later, he was clearly very clear about some things regarding the Holy God; he likely learned them while collecting intelligence on his opponents.

Being vague now was mostly out of caution.

After all, Du En had only recently teamed up with the Holy God to kill him.

If he said something wrong, it would greatly affect the current atmosphere of the conversation and be detrimental to subsequent developments.

However, in fact, during the conversation just now, Du En had already been quietly activating his physical divine abilities.

His own Undying Holy Source was capable of sensing the origin of living beings, and doing so was extremely simple. Until just now, he had not sensed any excessive resonance from the Mirror Crow, proving that it did not contain any remnants of the Golden Crow Emperor.

If it were the complete An Shen, he might have worried about making a mistake, but facing a fragment, there was no need to worry about this.

Observing An Shen's performance and rhetoric more carefully, one could further judge that he actually did not know the full story of what happened back then. It was likely that when the Mirror Crow origin was formed, it imprinted a few scenes from that time, while the general experience was deduced by himself, supplemented by some investigations.

—This is the Falling Feather Immortal Sect, where the Golden Crow Emperor was killed by the Falling Feather Supreme back then! Of course, perhaps An Shen did not know where this place was, but if he had seen the Falling Feather Heavenly Scar before, he would not have been so confident that his 'Darkness Extinguishing the Sun' could kill True Monarch Bu Yi, the mastermind behind the scenes.

Because of the information gap, the situation where the stars were under the control of Falling Feather easily led him to mistakenly believe that the mastermind was actually the Falling Feather Supreme.

All in all, An Shen should be fine.

Having confirmed this, Du En no longer maintained excessive defenses and proceeded to calmly butter him up: "To be honest, you were actually forced into a corner for many years. It was only under the accumulation of resentment that you couldn't help but commit such unwise acts."

Upon hearing this, An Shen's main body seemed to twitch slightly.

Because this return to the topic was truly abrupt, and it was certainly not a good word of comfort.

Especially for him, since he used to always criticize the Holy God for being overly emotional.

Therefore, after a moment's pause, An Shen did not linger or dwell on this topic, but after weighing his words, chose to get straight to the point: "If possible, I hope you can enlighten me on the situation here—True Monarch Bu Yi, as well as other True Monarchs, and the like."

His tone was heavy; although only a fragment remained, An Shen's will remained the same.

The symptoms had been treated; next, he would try to treat the root cause!

Having walked a small part of the way, there was still a longer and further road to travel; he did not intend to give up here. Du En felt no hostility at this moment and did not hide anything, generally telling him about the current state of the world.

"Immortal Sects vying for hegemony, all spirits perishing, the Supreme being invincible... It seems even worse than I had imagined!"

"Since that is the case, how about forming an alliance?"

Although they had just been fighting to the death, when it came down to it, they could not really be called enemies. Even if there were differences in philosophy, they could now cooperate because of a common enemy.

Therefore, Du En took the initiative to speak.

"If it is to cooperate with that Quasi-True Monarch Chang Meng, to be honest, I am somewhat hesitant."

"Oh?"

"Because he is both naive and pedantic."

An Shen, who had already seen and heard enough, spoke without any politeness, blunt and straightforward. If Meng Changqing were not busy dealing with matters right now and had not heard this, he would surely have been unable to resist jumping out to argue with him properly.

And if that were truly all there was to it, it would just confirm An Shen's assessment.

However, he then changed his tone: "However, if the partners are you two, then there is no problem at all."

Meng Changqing is currently indispensable, serving as a shield, a foothold, and a resource supply station, while Du En's temperament and actions are more to An Shen's liking, allowing him to be trusted.

The so-called cooperation, besides having aligned interests, relies crucially on whether one can trust the other party; otherwise, the cost of cooperation would skyrocket! Therefore, even under rational consideration, An Shen could attempt to seek cooperation with the likes of True Monarch Chengru, True Monarch Zhuding, or even True Monarch Huiqing, but the trust cost on their side is simply too high, and there are other uncontrollable factors.

Therefore, he believes the current one-plus-one-plus-one cooperation model is the most suitable.

Not only is the trust cost low, but they can also take what they need and complement each other! "Then, happy cooperation."

"Happy cooperation."

As they spoke, An Shen's Rhombus Mirror drifted over to Du En's side, as if replacing the Hanging Lamp of the Holy God; of course, the orientation was opposite, one on the left and one on the right.

Du En stepped toward the outside of the house and casually asked another question: "Speaking of which, within the Dark Kingdom, there should still be a spirit flower corresponding to the Flower of Time Wheel, right?"

"You mean the Long-Stay Flower? I threw it somewhere in the starry sky to serve as a decoy to attract attention, but looking at it now, it shouldn't have much use, so I can try to bring it back later to make use of the waste..."

Amidst this conversation, they walked out of the house and saw Meng Changqing, who was busy handling urgent official business.

Thus, they stopped in their tracks on the spot and continued chatting about some useless secret maneuvers, causing that certain quasi-True Monarch to roll his eyes.

At this moment, the figure of Jiang Ying also walked out from another house.

Seeing the An Shen Rhombus Mirror here, she was stunned for a moment, and then the corner of her mouth twitched.

Although, pondering Du En's past actions and performance, she felt this was a matter of course, but just a year ago they were fighting to the death, even resorting to self-destructive means like the Hate Eye Breaking Wings, yet now the atmosphere was so harmonious, which indeed made one feel it was very subtle.

However, to tell the truth, Jiang Ying did not have any excessive ill will toward An Shen.

The main reason, of course, was that she knew little before; in the Life Source Star Realm, except for Ming, who was clearly a target to be defeated from the beginning, the others were basically following the flow and following Du En, at most having a much better impression of the Holy God than of An Shen.

So, she accepted this quite readily at the moment, and after a pause, she moved closer.

"You really have become stronger!"

Approaching and looking at Du En, she sighed from the bottom of her heart, and also felt a bit of lament.

The Undying Holy Body is hard to detect because Du En uses physical divine abilities to gather the Holy Source, so even a mid-stage existence like the Supreme Body cannot detect the slightest bit relying on that extremely keen instinct, but his cultivation at the late stage of Spirit Transformation was not concealed, at most he was just restraining the situation of being on the verge of a breakthrough.

That is why Jiang Ying only sighed to a certain degree; if he had fully revealed it, she probably wouldn't have walked over, but would have turned back to continue her closed-door cultivation.

Comparing people to people only makes one angry! They were clearly of the same generation, yet the person opposite was sprinting all the way on the path of a senior, leaving her crawling like a turtle in place.

"You too, the prototype of that physical divine ability has been fixed; as long as your realm is raised, you will naturally be able to complete it."

Du En calmly evaluated her situation, then raised his eyebrows slightly, "However, it seems there are some differences from what was displayed before?"

Because he could sense the other party's life source, he noticed that very subtle difference.

"You actually managed to discover it... Forget it, it is indeed not quite the same as before; it might be because at that time, there was a bunch of guys talking to themselves helping out."

Jiang Ying responded this way; in fact, she had quite a few puzzles and doubts. Before, she couldn't find anyone to talk to, but now that the two reliable people had come out of seclusion, she could talk about this.

"Hmm? Your constitution, observing it at such close range, really has a significant difference from Ming's... So that's how it is. Hers is closer to the original version, while yours is a modified version that has been artificially altered. This is actually quite interesting. Are you trying to use this to create a higher-level constitution?"

An Shen, observing at this time, appeared somewhat interested, so he also interjected.

And in his words, the two's supreme physical bodies were actually not the original versions.

Jiang Ying's was easy to understand, as for Ming's...

"Did you help her modify it?"

Jiang Ying immediately showed wariness and caution; after all, with the tricks of True Monarch Buyi in the past, she was now resistant to such matters.

"No, to be precise, she was not you to begin with. Now it looks like she has been assimilated by you, the mother source, into the same posture, but don't be complacent because of this, because she will only deviate from you more and more in the future."

"... Is that so? Forget it. Judging by your tone, you seem to have some suggestions for me?"

"That depends on your own will, whether you choose to fix it here or continue to devour and change. Such a critical choice must be made by yourself."

"To bear the result of the choice?"

"Yes."

(End of this chapter)