After hearing the name "Heaven's Collapse," "Yanqing" felt completely terrible.
Even though he was only a copy, his scalp still tingled at that moment.
As a reflection in the mirror, before coming into the real world, he had already received some terrifying memories from the holder of the mirror.
Among the Mirror Holders, there was one known as Jetok.
Not long ago, this Mirror Holder had died. The Transcendent Mirror in his possession, along with all the mirrors collected and pieced together within his mirror world, had completely disappeared.
This was obviously not good news.
Although there was more than one Mirror Holder, the people who held this title were not united.
Even though their goal was the same... collect the fragments of Pure Beauty, revive the God of Beauty Idrila, and achieve the unification of beauty...
Each person's Transcendent Mirror reflected different scenes, and each person held a different idea of beauty in their heart.
This meant that every Mirror Holder had a different pursuit when it came to this so-called "unification" of beauty.
They could not unite the way the Knights of Pure Beauty did.
Although many of those knights had now become lone wanderers, when it came to reverence and promotion of beauty, and in the trials and tempering of their character, their spiritual pursuit remained highly unified amid the chaos.
It was a connection beyond personality, beyond style, beyond action... a deep unity of spirit and soul.
Jetok was not considered weak among the Mirror Holders. Although his direct combat ability could only be considered average, he was extremely good at causing trouble.
Yet even someone like Jetok had died, turning into space debris floating in the universe. Aside from having both arms severed, his essence, energy, and spirit had all been drained away. It was truly a miserable way to die.
Actually, the death of Jetok alone wouldn't have mattered much. The key point was that all the fragments he had collected had vanished.
The Mirror Holders who rushed to the battlefield after hearing the news had no choice but to think deeply about the matter.
They arrived at the scene even earlier than the Corporation. Aside from the Lord Ravager Phantylia, they discovered no other suspicious figures.
And the Lord Ravager Phantylia did not have the fragments in her possession. They had already confirmed this beforehand.
So where had those fragments gone? Who had taken them?
Whether the person who took the fragments was someone already known in their circle, or a new unknown Mirror Holder, it was not something the current Mirror Holders wanted to see.
Although they all shared the same wish of reviving Idrila, their differences in what they considered beauty meant they were destined to clash.
Perhaps they hoped Idrila's resurrection could resolve this problem.
But if that were really the case, then before Idrila's death, why had people's understanding of beauty been so colorful and diverse?
If that understanding had not been so varied before, then how could the pursuits, beliefs, hopes, and perseverance of all living beings now be so dazzling?
These were questions the Mirror Holders had never considered.
Or perhaps they had long been blinded by their obsessive desires, leaving their once-clear minds filled only with chaos and stubbornness.
They felt only anger and wariness toward the one who had stolen the mirror.
At that moment, Phantylia seized the opportunity and proposed cooperation with the Mirror Holders.
She hoped they would assist her with her plan to destroy the Xianzhou. In return, the bargaining chip the Lord Ravager offered was the person who had taken the mirror.
Phantylia had long been unhappy with Nero.
That day, she had made up her mind to begin with the envoy of the Sky-Ferry Commission as the first step in destroying the Xianzhou. But that suddenly appearing brat had scattered her plan with a single move.
Given her strength and status, she normally would not care about such things. She certainly should not have been affected by something as trivial as a flick of a finger.
Yet that strange boy had done exactly that.
Humiliation. Utter humiliation.
When had Phantylia ever suffered such a loss?
Could she accept that grievance?
Actually, she could.
As someone with a sharp mind, Phantylia clearly knew this was not the time to show the arrogance of a Lord Ravager.
Intentional or not, since that boy could affect her and had taken away the fragments collected by the Mirror Holder, he had to be treated cautiously.
Just at that moment, the Mirror Holders came looking for her. In Phantylia's eyes, these madmen with questionable sanity could naturally become a great source of assistance as long as the right benefits were offered.
At that time, she could achieve her goal of destroying one Xianzhou ship, while the Mirror Holders would obtain what they wanted.
Although it sounded a bit strange for her, a servant of Destruction, to call the Mirror Holders a group of lunatics, that was simply the truth.
From a behavioral standpoint, both sides were equally extreme. But in terms of stubborn obsession, the madness of the Mirror Holders even surpassed Phantylia.
Phantylia naturally would not abandon such useful allies. She handed over the information she knew about Nero to the Mirror Holders.
After a brief discussion among them, Phantylia not only gained assistance but also learned something new.
That boy was also a fragment, and the Mirror Holders had been watching him for a long time.
A fragment with its own body and consciousness was quite special. Compared to Idrila's resurrection, such an existence was more like Idrila having a child.
Although they were completely different beings, since he was born from Idrila, he surely possessed some power related to Pure Beauty.
Phantylia felt a bit more relieved in her heart. No wonder he could directly affect her.
After that, before their respective plans began, the Lord Ravager's army and the Mirror Holders did two things.
The first was to use the power of the mirror to give Phantylia a body indistinguishable from Tingyun.
The second was to search the ruins of that battlefield for the reflections left behind when Jetok had "shattered." They hoped to understand Nero's methods through those reflections.
Among those broken fragments of time's reflection, they captured an extremely brief image.
With a voice that seemed to echo from the depths of the star sea saying "…Heaven's Collapse," a magnificent giant sword tore open the vault of the universe, descending from beyond the heavens.
Its momentum was overwhelming, its sharpness unmatched, as if it could split the Sea of Quanta and pierce deep into the gaps known as subspace...
That terrifying sword technique left a very deep impression on the Mirror Holders.
Perhaps because of that, this frightening memory had also been sent into the minds of the copies.
At this moment, "Yanqing" opened his mouth but could not make a sound. His throat felt dry.
He raised his head and watched the real Yanqing form a sword gesture. His breathing became heavy and rapid, as if something were pressing on his chest.
The surrounding temperature suddenly dropped, and frost formed across the ground. Even someone wearing thick cotton clothes would probably shiver from the cold here.
Yet in such an environment, sweat poured down "Yanqing's" forehead like a waterfall.
It was not from heat, but from...
Reflected in "Yanqing's" eyes was a giant pale-white ice sword.
The sword hung above his head and then crashed down.
At that moment, "Yanqing" became certain that the real one had not lied to him. He had truly used Heaven's Collapse.
However...
It was much weaker than when Nero had used it.
The ice sword descended very slowly, perhaps because it had fallen from too far away.
When first seen, the sword looked small. But after a few seconds, it became so large that it completely filled his field of vision.
As "Heaven's Collapse" drew closer and closer, "Yanqing" could not summon even the thought of escaping.
He could barely move at all.
He had already been completely locked down by this move.
A few seconds later, Heaven's Collapse finally arrived.
"Yanqing" felt like nothing more than an ant beneath that blade.
The first thing to suffer was not him, but Return Star Port.
As the giant blade, more than a hundred meters long, fell from the sky, shipping containers, the vessels used to cultivate star-skiffs, and buildings made of steel and stone were sliced apart like tofu.
Below, Huohuo... or rather Lord Tail controlling Huohuo's body... had already run far away when he saw Yanqing unleash his ultimate move.
While looking at the giant sword in the sky, he said, "Holy shit, this kid actually learned this move! Is he trying to destroy this place?"
"S-so amazing..." Huohuo said. "But it seems a lot weaker than Nero's?"
"Isn't that obvious?" Tail replied. "Back when I watched those two kids spar, it scared me to death. If Nero hadn't held back, I felt like that one strike could've split the Scalegorge Waterscape open!"
"If the Scalegorge Waterscape were split open, the Vidyadhara there would probably be furious. And the ones who haven't even emerged from rebirth yet would probably die too. Nero is a good kid. He wouldn't do something like that," Huohuo said.
The Heaven-Collapsing sword momentum finally descended with a thunderous force.
However, Yanqing only maintained the move for less than ten seconds before the magnificent giant sword shattered.
Then Yanqing himself fell to the ground with a loud clang along with the flying swords around him. He lay flat on his back in the shape of a big "X," the young genius feeling dizzy and disoriented.
"Hah..." Yanqing panted heavily a few times and said unwillingly, "Back when I first saw that move, I already felt it must be incredibly powerful... My current strength still isn't enough to fully use it..."
Even so, Yanqing was smiling.
He was happy, because he had at least managed to use the move, even though the gap was still huge.
Right now Yanqing felt extremely sleepy. The cost of Heaven's Collapse was not just physical strength, but also an enormous drain on his energy and spirit.
On the other side, after seeing the Heaven-Collapsing sword momentum disappear, Huohuo hurriedly ran over.
When passing by the corpse of "Yanqing," Tail snorted a couple of times.
"Although this kid couldn't fully complete the move, this fake still couldn't withstand it. He got crushed by the sword momentum and turned into a bloody mess.
"But I really don't recommend this kid use that move. He's too young. If he keeps draining his energy and spirit like that, I'm afraid he'll train himself to death."
After saying that, Tail smacked his lips and muttered, "Just how did that Nero kid train himself?"
"When I saw him use this move that day, it looked pretty easy... How can he completely crush people his age in every aspect?"
"If we use those electronic games you young people play as an example, that kid is basically a pure stats monster!"
While Tail kept muttering, Huohuo wore a faint bitter smile and began trying to see if she could use talismans and spells to help Yanqing recover some vitality.
No matter how you looked at it, he seemed like someone who had been suppressed by Nero for far too long. Now that he finally had a chance, he had released all the pressure at once.
At the same time, Nero, who was sitting on Black Cutter and floating along while following Ditto, suddenly raised his head.
Behind Black Cutter, the wind had condensed into two rope-like strands, tying up the "Nero" who had been slapped down and the "Qingque" who had been slapped down a bit more lightly, dragging them behind.
Because Black Cutter moved quite fast, Qingque would firmly hold onto Nero's waist while riding it.
Noticing Nero's change, Qingque raised her head and asked in confusion, "What's wrong? Did you discover something? Is this job finally about to end?!"
Nero shook his head, "No. I just suddenly felt like someone was talking about me."