CHAPTER 277: MIRROR RIVER

She crushed the goblet in her hand, but weirdly not a single drop of the bright red blood inside spilled out. Instead, it hung in midair, forming a small blood portal.

"Little darlings, it’s showtime."

As soon as she finished talking, red dots came pouring out of the blood portal. Looking closer, you could see these were crimson bats.

Tiny little things—probably only the size of a human pinky—with crimson eyes and razor-sharp fangs that took up half their bodies.

"Go find your beloved!"

The blood bats’ crimson pupils flared up as they made happy ultrasonic chirps. Princess Taff watched them eagerly scatter every which way, a twisted smile creeping across her face...

...

First dark mist layer, at the gates of Origin Ice Fortress,

"While I’m gone, keep building according to plan..."

Origin Ice Fortress’s construction was humming along nicely. The remaining vassals would carry out Carlos’s vision, and with four Black Knights standing guard, there wasn’t anything to sweat about.

After getting everything squared away, Carlos spurred his Phantom Dark Horse and took off at a gallop, flanked by six Black Knights. Within moments they’d vanished across the endless ice plains.

"Wonder what Young Master Carlos is up to now?"

Yolanda asked quietly. Sara shook her head—she didn’t have a clue either.

"That’s not our problem to figure out. Come on, we should keep working on those solid ice walls..."

Several days later, a massive cold river stretched out before Carlos. Looking ahead, he could barely make out the other side. The icy river surface was dead quiet without so much as a ripple, like a dark blue water mirror reflecting the howling winds above.

This was the cold river that sliced through the entire first dark mist layer, also called Mirror River—not just because of its mirror-like surface, but because it was one of the known gateways to the Mirror Dimension.

The Mirror Dimension was one strange and nasty realm. The various dangers lurking inside were every bit as bad as those in the dark mist realm, packed with all kinds of mirror monsters with freaky abilities that were a real pain in the ass.

Carlos’s eyes showed a hint of nostalgia. In his past life, the first time he’d tumbled into the Mirror Dimension, he’d run into a rare Copying Mirror Monster and nearly got replaced.

Copying Mirror Monsters could perfectly mimic intruders’ looks, stats, and skills. After killing the intruder, they’d take their place, inheriting everything about them and transforming from a mirror monster into the real deal.

"Besides going through the cold river to get into the Mirror Dimension, there’s a dead simple way to get in."

That was setting up two mirrors of equal size facing each other. The mirrors would reflect each other endlessly, creating infinite mirror surfaces—also called the Infinite Gate.

When the Infinite Gate showed up, creatures could walk right through it to reach that bizarre Mirror Dimension.

Carlos’s crimson-gold feathered serpent wings flapped gently as he flew directly above this stretch of the cold river, looking down from up high.

This section of Mirror River was narrow at the top, narrow in the middle, and narrow at the bottom, with the ice shores on both sides forming a gourd shape. Carlos nodded over and over—this was definitely the spot from his memory.

"Perfect place to build a core castle."

Carlos’s gaze wandered around. The reason he’d picked this place to build the second core castle was exactly because of this gourd-shaped Mirror River section—or more accurately called Mirror Lake.

Carlos’s end game was building a Northern Wall that could cut off the entire ice plains, so he had to think about the fact that the north-south flowing Mirror River would slice right through the Northern Wall.

So he’d chosen this gourd-shaped Mirror Lake. By guarding any one of the three natural narrow lake passages—north, middle, or south—monsters couldn’t flow downstream.

Mirror River wasn’t impossible to navigate by boat. As long as you were careful not to dunk your whole body in the mirror surface, it could be traveled like any normal river.

As for what happened if your entire body went under the mirror surface—naturally you’d drop into the weird Mirror Dimension.

"The Mirror Dimension... I could actually use this spot to set up artificial ’Infinite Gates’ to block the passage."

In Carlos’s design, Mirror Lake itself was like a natural mirror. He just needed to hang a large downward-facing mirror in midair. With two mirrors facing each other, the Infinite Gate would naturally appear.

All invading creatures would fall into that strange mirror world. Without smashing the suspended mirror, it would be impossible to get through.

Following this idea, the second core castle would be built on the east and west shores, making it a city with a lake smack dab in the center.

Carlos mulled this over, turning his gaze to the shores of Mirror Lake, where pale weird stones of all sizes were scattered around. They looked freaky, with facial features barely visible on their backs, like skulls wearing bitter grins.

"Go clear out these Bitter Stone Monsters!"

Bitter Stone Monsters were your typical monsters living on Mirror River shores. Named for looking like bitterly grinning human skulls, they lived right alongside the river. Wherever there was Mirror River, you’d find these guys lurking around. Some folks figured these monsters’ real origin was invasion from the mirror world into reality.

The Black Knights on both shores had cold soul fire burning in their eye sockets. Their Phantom Dark Horses underneath them whinnied with excitement as they appeared on the shores in the blink of an eye.

Endless death aura rolled in. The Bitter Stone Monsters got jolted awake, turning their stone bodies one by one.

When they saw towering Black Knights radiating overwhelming bloodlust swinging lances and brutally smashing their buddies to dust, the bitter-grinning faces on their backs visibly freaked out. They let out ear-piercing shrieks, and stubby legs actually sprouted from their bottoms as they scattered in every direction.

"Don’t bother chasing them down—focus on clearing house."

Carlos hoped the escaped Bitter Stone Monsters would spread the word among their kind that this area had new management, cutting down on future Bitter Stone Monster visits.

He didn’t want the shores crawling with Bitter Stone Monsters again in a few days.

Though Bitter Stone Monsters were pushovers compared to Black Knights, that didn’t mean they were weaklings. Hell no, among mid-tier monsters, they were major players.

Tough defensive stone bodies combined with faces that messed with your head made them a nightmare for regular Psionics.

Without needing to chase anything down, the Black Knights cleared house even more efficiently. Streams of murderous black light zipped along both shores. Wherever they went, Bitter Head Monsters got turned to powder. Only a tiny handful of Bitter Head Monsters managed to escape. These terror-stricken Bitter Stone Monsters would definitely never come back to this area...

While the Black Knights cleared monsters from both shores, Carlos suddenly got soul vibrations from Red Spirit.

"Red Spirit, take the new batch of Psionics to Origin Ice Fortress!"

His wings beat gently as he returned to his Phantom Dark Horse, left four Black Knights to expand the clearing operation, then headed back with two Black Knights...

...

In front of Origin Ice Fortress,

The newly arrived Psionics looked around with wide eyes at the towering ice valley, the massive ice walls stretching endlessly on both sides, and the Psionics who’d gotten there before them cracking whips to make monsters do the grunt work.

Though they’d already seen the recordings before coming, when they actually showed up on site, the shock blew away all their expectations.