I Have an All-Knowing Mirror

Chapter 178: Myriad Illusions and Forms

The Myriad Layers Maze community world.

Bustling with activity, numerous figures gathered in front of the towering cluster of stone steles in the center.

"The time has come. That Ming should be starting his run," someone said.

The attention of the massive crowd was squarely focused on the ninetieth stone stele, zeroing in on the tiny, almost invisible name Ming.

Over the last ten reset cycles of the Myriad Layers Maze world, Ming was undoubtedly one of the most famous challengers.

Compared to those challengers on the hundreds or thousands of layers, Ming's current layer was not considered high. In fact, it was quite low, hovering only between the tens and the hundredth layer.

However, Ming's clearing speed was simply too fast—so incredibly fast that everyone believed the only thing limiting his progress was the core mechanism of the Myriad Layers Maze itself.

That mechanism dictated a maximum of ten layers could be cleared per reset cycle.

The original intent of this rule was to protect the challengers, but in the eyes of the crowd, it was now nothing more than a shackle holding back Ming's true potential.

"From the ninety-first to the one hundredth layer... I wonder how long these ten layers can trap Ming.""The one hundredth layer of the Myriad Layers Maze is not something you can just breeze through."

"True. Compared to the previous ninety-nine layers, the one hundredth is extremely special."

The observing figures murmured among themselves. This crowd included strategists who had already passed the one hundredth layer, as well as those who had yet to reach it.

The most unique aspect of the one hundredth layer was that its trial was not random.

Whether it was the first layer, the ninety-ninth layer, or the layers numbering in the hundreds and thousands, the trials faced by the challengers were completely randomized.

In other words, even on the exact same layer, different challengers—or the same challenger attempting it at different times—would experience entirely different trials.

This design fundamentally prevented challengers from making targeted preparations beforehand.

If every trial was random, what could they possibly prepare for? Only through this method could the true caliber of a strategist's skills be measured.

The immense prestige and value of the Myriad Layers Maze stemmed precisely from this.

But the one hundredth layer? Its trial was fixed. Even challengers who had never reached it knew exactly what the hundredth trial entailed.

The ninety-first layer of the maze.

Su Yuan quickly absorbed the massive influx of information regarding this layer's trial.

After a brief moment of thought, he followed the specific steps and methods provided by the gray mirror, smoothly passing the trial in the shortest possible time.

The ninety-second layer.

The ninety-third layer.

As the layer numbers continued to climb, Su Yuan clearly sensed the difficulty of each trial increasing exponentially.

Of course, regardless of the difficulty, it was all the same to Su Yuan. It simply meant a difference in the number of steps and methods provided by the gray mirror.

The ninety-sixth layer.

The surrounding environment shifted rapidly.

Su Yuan found himself standing within a grand and majestic palace.

The palace was vast and empty, containing only Su Yuan and a blurry figure seated upon the throne.

The blurry figure sat there quietly, not emitting the slightest aura. Yet, the invisible suppression of their sheer life essence caused the surrounding space and time to faintly distort.

'Hmm?'

'My current identity is the ninth son of the Limitless Great Sage, who is hailed as having the absolute strongest defense at the Saint level in the Primordial Universal Human Empire...'

Upon receiving the background information for this layer, Su Yuan immediately grasped his current situation.

The Primordial Universal Human Empire was one of the three great high-tier universal human empires. Even on the boundless scale of the cosmos, the Primordial Universal Human Empire was a true behemoth.

Throughout the vast annals of human history, marked by countless high-intensity wars against Alien Races, numerous Saints and even Great Sages had fallen. Low-tier and Mid-tier Universal Human Empires had undergone massive reshuffles time and time again, being completely annihilated and rebuilt from the ashes.

Yet, only the three great high-tier universal human empires, despite bearing the heaviest burdens of these brutal wars, had stood tall to this day, never once facing destruction.

These three great high-tier universal human empires were the true foundation of the human race.

And the Limitless Great Sage was a Great Sage from an incredibly distant era—an era long before the Azure Surge Universal Human Empire had even been established.

'What a pity...'

Su Yuan shook his head inwardly.

The Limitless Great Sage was renowned for having the strongest defense among all the Saints of his era, so his life-saving methods were unimaginable.

However, he eventually vanished mysteriously, never to be seen again. Even the soul fire he left behind in the Primordial Universal Human Empire finally extinguished three hundred million years after his disappearance.

The extinguishing of his soul fire meant that the Limitless Great Sage had thoroughly and completely perished.

The death of the Limitless Great Sage subsequently became one of the greatest mysteries in the history of the human race.

But through the gray mirror, Su Yuan knew the truth: the Limitless Great Sage died because he ventured too deep into The Abyss.

As one of the nine most terrifying Secret Realms in the universe, The Abyss buried countless secrets. To this day, not a single powerhouse had been able to completely conquer it.

'The Abyss...'

Su Yuan did not ask the gray mirror exactly how the Limitless Great Sage died. That would involve certain forbidden information, potentially establishing a Karma connection with a terrifying entity deep within The Abyss.

'The trial of this layer is about choosing a future path as the ninth son of the Limitless Great Sage. Should I choose individual cultivation and evolution? Or should I turn to commerce to amass boundless wealth?'

Su Yuan pondered.

For an Imperial Citizen, cultivation and life evolution were not the only paths. One could choose to become a strategist, scheming across the cosmos, or dive into business to accumulate wealth, among other pursuits.

Theoretically, with enough wealth, one could even hire a Saint.

Moreover, by relying on immense wealth to purchase vast amounts of evolutionary and cultivation resources, raising one's Life Level would become an effortless task.

'And the requirement to pass this layer is that the results I achieve must satisfy the Limitless Great Sage...'

His thoughts churning, Su Yuan consulted the gray mirror deep within his sea of consciousness.

"Have you made your decision, my child?"

At that moment, the Limitless Great Sage seated upon the throne spoke slowly. His voice was gentle, yet it carried an undeniable tone of absolute authority.

"Father,"

Su Yuan bowed slightly and declared, "I want to try both."

The underlying meaning was that Su Yuan intended to pursue both cultivation for evolution and commercial enterprise for wealth.

And this was exactly one of the fastest methods to pass this layer provided by the gray mirror.

If he were to choose only one path, he would have to achieve an astonishingly high level of success in it to satisfy the Limitless Great Sage.

For instance, if he chose wealth, he would have to earn one trillion Primordial Coins.

The unit for this trillion was the Primordial Coin, the circulating currency of a high-tier universal human empire, which was worth a hundred times more than the currency popular in the Azure Surge Universal Human Empire.

Furthermore, earning money within the maze trial had to be legal and compliant. Su Yuan could not do anything too abrupt or suspicious—like suddenly hacking into a massive number of dormant accounts to siphon their astronomical funds and instantly complete the goal.

That was strictly forbidden.

"You want to try both?"

A smile surfaced on the face of the Limitless Great Sage on the throne. "As you wish."

In the time that followed, Su Yuan commenced his dual plan of cultivation and money-making.

As the plan was set into motion, Su Yuan felt only one thing.

Ease.

It was far too easy.

In terms of cultivation, with the blessing of a Great Sage's bloodline, he was born with an innate comprehension of a certain supreme ruling power. His cultivation progressed at a phenomenal pace, advancing by leaps and bounds every single day.

Why was the probability of the Royal Families of the thirty-six universal human empires birthing monstrous geniuses so absurdly high? Was it because of external resources?

External resources certainly played a part, but the more critical factor stemmed from their own Royal Family bloodlines.

For an Empire Ruler capable of founding a grand universal human empire, the aptitude and talent of their bloodline descendants would never be low.

With noble bloodlines and a massive influx of resources, the birth of monstrous geniuses was practically a guaranteed, step-by-step process.

As for making money?

Although the Limitless Great Sage had tried to erase his own influence as much as possible, having the identity of a Great Sage's descendant, coupled with the guidance of the gray mirror, made earning wealth laughably simple.

"Time acceleration," Su Yuan commanded.

He directly opted for time acceleration, which was one of the features of the Myriad Layers Maze world. He only needed to make decisions at crucial junctions and then sit back to watch the situation unfold.

After all, it could not be that a hundred years passing within the maze would mean a hundred years passing in reality, right?

"Out of my nine children, you are the most outstanding one."

In that same majestic and grand palace, the Limitless Great Sage sat on his throne, smiling faintly as he spoke. "With you all here, I can set my mind at ease and finally go take care of a few things..."

There was a sense of relief in the Limitless Great Sage's tone.

And after he finished speaking.

The surrounding scenery gradually blurred.

The scene he was experiencing had been entirely reconstructed by the Virtual Network world from recorded history.

Before the Limitless Great Sage disappeared, he had indeed mentioned going off to do a few things.

As for what those things were? No one knew, and the Limitless Great Sage had never elaborated.

Su Yuan's gaze remained calm. He knew exactly what the Limitless Great Sage had wanted to do.

He had sought to break through the absolute limits of a Cosmic Lifeform, and that very pursuit was the primary reason the Limitless Great Sage ultimately perished in The Abyss.

"Congratulations. You have passed the ninety-sixth layer of the maze..."

The notification prompt of the Myriad Layers Maze echoed out.

Immediately following it was the ninety-seventh layer.

The ninety-eighth layer.

The ninety-ninth layer.

Until finally, the one hundredth layer.

'The one hundredth layer...'

Su Yuan's consciousness descended into this particular layer of the maze.

Back in the Myriad Layers Maze community world.

As the name Ming rapidly climbed from the ninetieth stone stele to the ninety-ninth, the crowd of spectators grew increasingly larger.

"The one hundredth layer is not a trial in the conventional sense."

Within the crowd of onlookers, a man with three slowly rotating pupils in each eye gazed up at the one hundredth stone stele. "It is known as the Myriad Illusions and Forms Endgame. It requires the challenger to play out a match, placing pieces on a board to ultimately break the endgame setup."

It sounded simple enough.

But executing it was phenomenally difficult.

First of all, the Myriad Illusions and Forms Endgame was not a chessboard in the traditional sense. It was not a flat plane, but rather a multi-dimensional, spatial construct.

Every single move made would spawn billions upon trillions of possibilities. There were over ten million pieces on the entire board, and the placement of every single piece triggered astronomical variables and unforeseen variations. All these compounding factors merged together to form the Myriad Illusions and Forms Endgame.

This was exactly why the trial of the one hundredth layer was not randomized.

Even if one knew in advance that this layer's trial was the Myriad Illusions and Forms Endgame, what could they do? This endgame possessed a nearly infinite variety of styles. Every time someone entered, the endgame they faced was entirely unique. In the entire history of the Myriad Layers Maze, not a single Imperial Citizen who reached the hundredth layer had ever encountered the exact same starting position.

'Normally speaking, only strategists whose Dimension of Wisdom has reached the Stellar Life Form level stand a chance of passing the Myriad Illusions and Forms Endgame. Only the intellect of a Stellar Life Form can effortlessly deduce billions of possibilities, allowing them to clear this layer within a single reset cycle.'

The three-pupiled man thought to himself.

As for a Starry Sky Lifeform? It was not about looking down on strategists at this tier; rather, the Dimension of Wisdom outright determined a strategist's upper limit. Without sufficiently profound intellect to command the entire board and the foresight to look ten thousand steps ahead for every single move made, what right did they have to break the Myriad Illusions and Forms Endgame?

Of course, in the history of the thirty-six universal human empires, there was not a complete absence of Starry Sky Lifeforms clearing the one hundredth layer, but those were extreme anomalies, almost impossible to replicate.

"It's the one hundredth layer."

"Ming has reached the one hundredth layer!"

The spirits of the numerous watching figures immediately soared with excitement.

The one hundredth layer of the Myriad Layers Maze was an absolute threshold, a definitive qualitative leap.

"I know a few strategists who have passed the one hundredth layer of the Myriad Layers Maze. They are all Stellar Life Forms, and it took them nearly an entire reset cycle to clear it..."

"The Myriad Illusions and Forms Endgame is just too difficult. Even with the Dimension of Wisdom of a Stellar Life Form, deciphering it is an agonizing task. Over the past ten million years, the fastest record for clearing the one hundredth layer was still close to a third of a reset cycle..."

The onlookers engaged in rapid, heated discussions.

Compared to the trials of the other layers, the one hundredth trial had another distinct characteristic: its time was perfectly synchronized with the outside world.

In the other layers, one could use the time acceleration function to quickly skip past the tedious waiting periods, but the Myriad Illusions and Forms Endgame afforded no such luxury.

Therefore, to pass this layer, not only did one need to solve the endgame, but they also had to compress the time spent solving it within a single reset cycle of the Myriad Layers Maze.

Which was exactly two months in Bluestar time.

Once the reset cycle was exceeded, the challenger would be forcibly kicked out of the one hundredth layer.

When that happened, re-entering the layer meant starting over entirely from scratch.

This was considered one of the default Unspoken Rules of the one hundredth layer.

"How long do you guys think Ming will stay on the one hundredth layer?"

"Judging by his speed in the earlier layers, his Dimension of Wisdom has likely crossed into the Stellar Life Form tier. Clearing the hundredth layer should probably take him more than half a reset cycle."

"More than half? You're underestimating Mr. Ming too much. I bet half a reset cycle."

"The fastest record over the last ten million years is a third of a reset cycle. I think with Ming's capabilities, he actually has a shot at challenging that record."

The many spectators conversed with one another. Most of them were strategists themselves, hoping to gauge Su Yuan's approximate strength tier based on the time it took him to clear the hundredth layer.

For the other layers, time acceleration was permitted inside, so they could only make a rough guess at his true clearing time.

Only on the one hundredth layer was the time strictly synchronized with the outside world. There would be no ambiguity whatsoever about exactly when Ming cleared this particular layer.