# 1051
Chapter 1052: Hidden Swords
Boom—!!
A thunderous sound echoed across the Jade Pool as Loki's figure descended like a meteor, piercing through several floating mountains and crashing onto the earth below.
Loki rose from the billowing smoke, coughing violently as blood sprayed across the ground.
"Even with Jormungandr's parasitism, this mortal vessel's physical constitution is still far too weak."
Loki wiped away the blood. Sinister black light surged from within him, weaving something into existence.
Five seconds later, his body vanished from the crater, reappearing above the Jade Pool. His wounds and bloodstains were completely gone, as if he had never been injured at all.
He had woven a "trick," deceiving established fact, making the world believe that his past self had dodged the Queen Mother of the West's terrifying attack, so his current self would also be changed, free of wounds.
Loki's form appeared ghost-like beside the Queen Mother of the West. With a sway of his body, six identical Lokis emerged from within him.
These Lokis' serpent-scaled palms split open, and black trickster serpents crawled out, striking toward the Queen Mother of the West like lightning, sealing off all her escape routes.
Seeing Loki return unharmed before her, now divided into seven, the Kunlun Mirror-wielding Queen Mother of the West narrowed her eyes. The spiritual energy around her surged anew.
She raised the Kunlun Mirror in her hand, its surface sweeping across the surroundings.
Under the mirror's reflection, the area around the Queen Mother of the West was empty—none of these seven Trickster Gods was the real body.
"Insignificant tricks."
The Queen Mother of the West spoke calmly. She flipped the mirror's surface and pointed it directly at herself.
In the bronze mirror's reflection, a figure like a spitting serpent pressed tightly behind the Queen Mother of the West, a small snake already clinging to her neck, about to bite down.
Seeing his figure exposed by the Kunlun Mirror, Loki's eyes narrowed. Time power surged from the mirror's surface, a terrifying pressure席卷四面八方.
Loki's movement suddenly slowed, like a fish trapped in a sea of concrete, his form about to solidify along with the surrounding space.
The Queen Mother of the West held the Kunlun Mirror in her right hand, extending her left hand. With an expressionless face, she pressed it gently against the chest of the frozen Loki before her.
Loki's chest collapsed instantly. He was sent flying downward, crashing heavily onto the Kunlun Ruins mountains outside the Jade Pool. Along with the muffled rumbling collapse of the mountain, crisp metallic clashing sounds rang out.
Loki lay supine in the fragmented mountain's center. The time shadows around him had been shattered at one corner, several sinister sword blades pierced through the earth, transfixing him to the mountain range.
Loki vomited blood violently. He turned his stiff neck to look at the blades that had pierced his body, bewilderment crossing his eyes.
"Swords? Where did these come from on this mountain?"
He surveyed his surroundings. The time shadows of Kunlun Ruins had cracked from his battle with the Queen Mother of the West, revealing the true form beneath what was once a beautiful mountain range.
On the gray-white mountain surface, there was no trace of the lush green trees and red flowers that existed moments ago. Countless stone blocks exposed the bare earth, with ancient swords embedded in the mountainside, their cold gleam stretching endlessly across the entire peak, extending all the way toward another green mountain concealed within the time shadow.
A crane's ethereal form descended from the neighboring peak, gliding elegantly over the gray-white surface, phasing through blade after blade as though they weren't there.
The crane was illusory, but this mountain of swords... was real.
Before Loki could process this, dark light erupted around him once more, weaving another "trick" that stripped away his injuries and carried him skyward once more.
He stood beneath the blue expanse, gazing toward that sword-covered mountain. Though it appeared insignificant compared to the vast Kunlun Ruins range, an unsettling feeling took hold.
If this mountain concealed an actual sword-covered peak beneath its time shadow... what other mountain illusions concealed similar secrets?
Why had the Great Xia god hidden so many swords in Kunlun Ruins?
Loki's brow furrowed deeply as his gaze fixed on the alchemy hall in the distance, his eyes seeming to pierce through space itself toward Si Xiaonan within.
After their brief exchange, Loki recognized he could not match the Queen Mother of the West while she wielded the Kunlun Mirror. If this continued, his avatar would deplete its divine power, and she would eventually destroy it, then crush Si Xiaonan beneath her palm.
Though losing Leng Xuan and Si Xiaonan would cost him little, they represented his sole opportunity to obtain the Kunlun treasures. Without them, his path to becoming a Supreme God grew increasingly uncertain.
Si Xiaonan must secure the Kunlun treasures and escape while he kept the Queen Mother occupied.
Yet a sudden intrusion into the alchemy hall drew his attention. His pupils contracted sharply.
Memories flooded back of a boy from Cangnan City who had wielded the power of miracles and personally executed one of his avatars years ago.
"Is that him?"
Dangerous light flickered in Loki's eyes.
...
Jade Pool.
Alchemy Hall.
Lin Qiye stared in shock at the familiar yet unfamiliar face illuminated by the ghostly green flames. After a long moment, he finally spoke.
"Si Xiaonan?!"
When Si Xiaonan saw Lin Qiye at the entrance, she froze as well. She knew he was somewhere in the Kunlun Ruins, but never imagined running into him here.
"Si Xiaonan." Lin Qiye's expression grew solemn, as if something had occurred to him. "You..."
After the catastrophe of Cangnan City, Lin Qiye had lost his mind. When clarity returned, he found himself in a psychiatric ward within the Purification Chamber. He had only later learned that Si Xiaonan had served as the Trickster God's agent, betraying the Night Watch during the Cangnan disaster, and had fled Great Xia alongside Leng Xuan.
However, Wu Xiangnan had revealed something crucial during their time in the Human Enclosure: the [Shiva's Lament] she had taken was a forgery.
The surviving members of Squad 136 held firm to their belief—Si Xiaonan had not truly betrayed them. She had merely departed temporarily.
Lin Qiye shared this conviction.
But when he saw Si Xiaonan burst into the alchemy hall wielding a shattered blade, surrounded by five Jade Pool maidens lying dead in their own blood, an unsettling thought gripped him. He dismissed it immediately—the Si Xiaonan he knew would never commit such an act.
His features twisted with complex emotion as he regarded the bloodstained woman before him, taking a steadying breath before speaking again.
"Si Xiaonan... what exactly has happened here?"