Jiang Chen soon familiarized himself with the third item. He observed the traces of power radiating from the mirror. A few faint characters adorned the frame.

“The Scrutiny of Existence?”

The mirror was more heaven-defying than even the Great Veluriyam Torch. Its radiance could illuminate any existence in the planes. No matter what race the target belonged to, even the slightest trace left would expose them for what they were.

In addition, the light emitting from the mirror could destroy any physical defense. Such destructive power was awe-inspiring, to say the least.

Moreover, one thing that stood out about the mirror was its ability to expose an enemy’s weaknesses. Catching the enemy’s reflection in the mirror would reveal the flaws in their defense to the wielder.

Jiang Chen was stunned by what the mirror was capable of. Such tremendous treasures were rare even in the heavenly planes. It was absolutely worthy of being listed in the heavenly rankings!

He stared dumbly at the mirror.

He didn’t know what to think. His father had gone above and beyond in refining items of the heavenly rankings into mundane-looking objects, concealing their true nature very deeply.

There must have been a reason for someone like his father to be so cautious.

“Surely the cataclysm had been extremely serious and his enemies formidable to warrant such caution. The catastrophe from my past life must be grimmer than I imagined.”

Discovering the uses of the three items gave him a better understanding of the effort his father had gone to in preparing him for this life. One one hand, he was excited to discern his father’s intentions. On the other hand, he worried about the situation his father was in.

It hadn’t been long since he reincarnated after the shattering of the heavenly plane. However, there was no telling how long it’d been since the plane’s destruction and his reincarnation.

Reincarnation could take an aeon, or several aeons.

Countless thoughts circulated in Jiang Chen’s consciousness. He glanced at the mirror and started at the sight. There was some faint yin energy around the center of his forehead, and atop his head was a strange red mist.

This… was the divine tribulation cloud!

This meant he would encounter a heavenly tribulation!

Jiang Chen’s heart raced, and his back and forehead broke out into a cold sweat. He’d been cautiously pacing himself as he progressed through the divine realm in order to avoid a tribulation, yet his efforts had been in vain.

The color of the cloud indicated that the tribulation was a done deal. He had to face it head-on.

Avoiding the problem wasn’t an option.

There was more than one way to deal with a divine tribulation. The most common one was to fight to survive it.

Of course, it was also possible to resolve the tribulation passively with an opportune encounter. Such an occurrence strengthened a cultivator’s fortunes, which would offset the coming divine tribulation, cancelling it entirely or decreasing its intensity.

Yet another solution was to accumulate good karma.

After accomplishing something that granted enough good karma, a cultivator’s divine tribulation would often disappear, or at least weaken enough for them to easily survive.

There was a logic to the way the heavenly law operated.

Jiang Chen believed he’d accumulated a good amount of good karma with what he’d done for the Divine Abyss Continent, but that wasn’t going to offset the coming tribulation.

Only karma accumulated after one sensed the tribulation could do that.

Demons encountered demonic tribulations as well. Their way of dealing with a tribulation was the opposite of that of a human cultivator. They didn’t accumulate good karma. In fact, they continued to commit atrocities to increase the weight of their sins.

Demons became great evils, while cultivators pursuing the righteous dao became saints.

Their pursuits differed, but their paths converged in the end. When reaching the greatest heights, both humans and demons attained great perfection and become sovereigns of a world.

After a brief moment of surprise, Jiang Chen slowly calmed down. He’d thought about the possibility of a divine tribulation many times, so he wasn’t all that panicked.

He would face every challenge proactively, no matter what it was.

Every divine cultivator might encounter a tribulation, but it wasn’t an insurmountable obstacle.

The tribulation cloud was of a strange color, which told him the tribulation was likely to be a difficult one. However, Jiang Chen had confidence in his integrity and wealth of knowledge.

He stopped himself from thinking too much.

Putting away the three treasures, he decided to end closed door cultivation.

It’d been ten full years. He had a feeling that the human domain had undergone shocking changes.

Reality proved him right.

The order in the Upper Eight Regions had been almost toppled, and the mid and lower regions completely transformed as well. Major factions had divided and occupied parts of the human domain.

The Veluriyam Palace, on the other hand, remained the same. Its cultivators didn’t stoop so low as to join the territorial war.

They stayed out of the battle no matter how fiercely the outside world fought. Their aloof reaction seemed to embolden the other factions, who fought more and more fiercely with no regard for consequences.

In total, there were only sixteen factions left in the human domain, which made it evident how intense the territorial war had been.

Jiang Chen listened to his people’s briefings. He wasn’t at all surprised by what had happened.

It was human nature to fight for lands and resources. In many instances, what they took wasn’t actually useful to them, but that wasn’t going to stop them.

They simply didn’t want others to have it, whatever it was.

Mo Wushuang sighed. “Young lord, some factions have pulled quite a few dirty tricks to expand their territory over the past decade.”

Jiang Chen chuckled. “Of course. Such is the nature of expansion.”

“That’s not necessarily true,” Mo Wushuang said seriously. “Some factions have stayed within the lines of propriety. Although their territories continued to expand, most of the time the expansion was a result of small factions volunteering to join them. There’s a difference there.”

“Oh? Do tell.” That piqued Jiang Chen’s interest.

He wasn’t surprised that factions would be engaged in a territorial war, but it made him curious that there were factions who fought fairly.

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