Chapter 581

Chapter 581: Framing the Blame

“Don’t panic; there’s more fun coming,” Xu Fan said with a smirk.

The dark cloud opened its mouth and bit into the spirit of the Thousand Mirror Celestial Palace, tearing off a large chunk of its essence and chewing it with relish.

The entire Thousand Mirror Celestial Palace shuddered violently, as if a piece of its flesh had been ripped away.

“Oh, I forgot to introduce you. This is the spirit of my life-bound Daoist artifact. Besides pleasing me, its favorite pastime is devouring anything with spirit energy,” Xu Fan explained casually.

“Human cultivator, aren’t you afraid my master will come for you?” the spirit of the Thousand Mirror Celestial Palace roared.

“If your master were going to show up, they’d have done it by now. Why wait?” Xu Fan replied coolly.

The spirit, now missing a chunk of its essence, tried to retreat into its core space but found itself immobilized under Grape’s control.

“You think you can control the Thousand Mirror Celestial Palace just by having your spirit eat me?” the spirit shouted defiantly.

“Not at all. My spirit devouring you is just to grow stronger. I’m not particularly interested in your true form,” Xu Fan said nonchalantly.

By now, time in the mirror small world where Xu Fan stood had accelerated by over a thousand years.

“My master is a Golden Immortal great being from the Thousand Worlds. If your spirit consumes me, my master will sense it. Aren’t you afraid of the deep karma you’ll incur?” the spirit threatened.

“Of course, I’m afraid of deep karma. That’s why, after Grape swallows you, your master will think a beast race spiritual cultivator did it.”

“What does that have to do with me, a human?”

As soon as Xu Fan finished speaking, Grape tore off another chunk of the spirit’s essence.

The spirit howled in agony, and the Thousand Mirror Celestial Palace shook as if struck by a massive earthquake.

Xu Fan wasn’t idle either. With a wave of his hand, he summoned a massive formation.

Streams of scriptures swirled around him.

“Grape, stop eating for a moment. Bring the spirit over here. Before you finish it, I need to carve something into its essence,” Xu Fan instructed.

“Understood, master.”

The dark cloud dragged the spirit of the Thousand Mirror Celestial Palace toward Xu Fan, like a tiger hauling its prey, biting down as it moved.

As Xu Fan formed seals, the massive formation shrank until it was no larger than a glass ball.

“Who would’ve thought my first task as an artifact great master would be tricking a spirit,” Xu Fan said with a chuckle.

By now, time in the mirror small world had accelerated to 1,400 years.

“Human cultivator, spare me, and we can forget this ever happened,” the spirit pleaded, feeling like a slab of meat on a chopping block.

Xu Fan held the condensed glass ball, examining the spirit that now resembled a mirror stone.

“If Grape swallows you, your true body in the Thousand Worlds won’t know a thing. It’ll just think a beast race spiritual cultivator devoured your projection.”

“Impossible! My master is a Golden Immortal great being, master of space and time. He’ll trace back through time to investigate. When he does, you’ll be doomed!” the spirit said frantically, its consciousness fading.

“I’ll take that risk. I bet your Golden Immortal master won’t bother tracing back through time,” Xu Fan said, signaling Grape to tear off another chunk of the spirit’s essence and gulp it down.

The spirit of the Thousand Mirror Celestial Palace began to awaken, leaving only a small fragment of its original form to barely keep the palace functioning.

“Grape, you’re pushing it with your appetite. If you eat any more, we’ll all get kicked out of the Thousand Mirror Celestial Palace,” Xu Fan said with a frown.

“Master, once we return and my true body absorbs more spirit ore, I can directly upgrade to a celestial tool,” Grape quickly explained.

“Is that so? Can’t you just eat a little less?”

“Not at all,” Grape replied earnestly.

“Fine, I forgive you.”

As Xu Fan spoke, he placed the condensed glass ball of formation onto the spirit of the Thousand Mirror Celestial Palace.

The moment the glass ball touched the spirit, it merged into its body.

“Grape, do you think this modification to the spirit’s data will work?” Xu Fan asked playfully, a technique he had mastered after becoming an artifact great master.

“Absolutely, master. Your method is flawless, no matter which celestial tool spirit you use it on,” Grape assured him.

“I like hearing that,” Xu Fan said with a smile.

“Alright, the next steps are up to you,” Xu Fan said.

“Understood, master. I’ll make sure everything is handled perfectly,” Grape said confidently.

With that, Grape picked up the spirit of the Thousand Mirror Celestial Palace and disappeared from the mirror small world.

By now, the time acceleration had reached 1,900 years before suddenly stopping.

“This feels amazing! I’ll take 100 years to stabilize my cultivation, then casually reach the peak of the Void Refinement stage. After that, I’ll be a Core Formation stage expert,” Xu Fan said, clearly pleased.

“Once I reach the Core Formation stage, I’ll officially be a true artifact great master. If I craft a few celestial tools, I’ll be unbeatable in this realm. No one will dare disturb my peaceful life,” Xu Fan mused.

Meanwhile, in another part of the Thousand Mirror Celestial Palace, a beast king had just entered the next mirror small world, momentarily blinded by the radiant spirit light emanating from it.

A mirror-like object appeared on a platform.

Seeing the mirror stone, the beast king’s breathing grew tense.

“Is this the core essence of the Thousand Mirror Celestial Palace?!” the beast king exclaimed, visibly excited.

The beast king picked up the crystal stone, and its consciousness began to delve inside.

As the beast king’s expression grew darker, it eventually stored the mirror stone away and began to curse loudly, “After all this effort, the true body of the Thousand Mirror Celestial Palace is beyond the two realms!”

“To escape, I’ll need the Four Phase Giant City!”

“Have I wasted over 2,000 years of my life just to get a single coordinate?” the beast king muttered, clearly frustrated.

At that moment, the Thousand Mirror Celestial Palace began to tremble, then shattered like broken glass, crumbling from the outside in.

Xu Fan had already prepared the spiritual boat and activated its invisibility mode.

Above the Four Phase Giant City, Master Qianling and two members of the Elder Council suddenly appeared.

They were immediately surrounded by five beast race elders.

“Hurry, get on board! We don’t have much time!” Xu Fan skillfully maneuvered the spiritual boat to their location.

“Human race elder, you’ve got some nerve to challenge us in our Four Phase Giant City!”

The beast race elders around Master Qianling erupted in anger and launched an attack on the three of them.

Master Qianling and the Elder Council members quickly boarded Xu Fan’s spiritual boat.

“Let’s go!” Xu Fan commanded, initiating a triple teleport without worrying about the cost in spirit stones.

After three teleports, Xu Fan arrived at the original location of the Dragon Immortal Palace.

“The Thousand Mirror Celestial Palace has been taken by the beast race,” one of the Elder Council members said, his voice filled with disappointment.