As a powerful Heavenly Tribulation shattered the quiet of the Mirror Realm, its guardian was forced to open her eyes, a bit confused.

'What is going on?' Gena Feng asked inward, as the blonde man in front of her suddenly gained another Star, merely a single day after he sat down to meditate.

Seeming amused, the Mirror of Samsara reflected an image into her mind, showing what Pef was actually doing inside his inner world.

His selves were all crafting or refining things, or making food and wine, or just writing things rapidly by typing on a qi-array screen. Beside the Self writing, two beings stood at his side, one a strange bipedal blue flame and another a floating bamboo leaf that changed colors every few seconds.

To her frustration, Gena could only glimpse the Eight Element Trigram on the screen before the Mirror ended its spying.

'Fine! He is learning how to use his other selves.' she grumbled as she closed her eyes to meditate on the new cultivation method. It was quite complex, especially the new interactions between the elements.

She also had to grumblingly admit that unlike his former incarnation, who was rather rash and inconsiderate, not to mention a retard, this new blonde Pef was shaping quite nicely.

And his cultivation speed was also amazing. Gena had first thought it was merely the memories seeping through from the former life that created this miracle, but the weirdo had kept Ascending at least once a year even after leaving the Mirror Realm.

Soon enough, Gena set aside her thoughts about the visitor and focused on her actual job, which was to supervise the million realms of the Mirror for other unlikely accidents or incursions, and the occasional strange cultivation miracle found by the Mirror and collected in the Paths of Reincarnation or some distant multiverse.

Also true, nobody was really controlling the powerful Artifact, as it operated on long-forgotten instructions or its own whims, sometimes combining different races or souls to see what would happen, sometimes creating impossible quests that only a single destined one could solve.

Which is how the insidious Orange Glove had come to be, or Pef himself for that matter, or his wife Xie and her devil companion.

And if things could not be easily moved from their initial multiverse, such as the White Tiger, than a user could be sent on a quest to retrieve them. And lately, these users were all getting into Pef's camp, be they wives or disciples or various other things.

'You are collecting a lot of allies for Pef, dear Mirror. Surely, he cannot keep Ascending at this rate...' Gena mused softly as she checked on the progress of the Netherworld Lotus,

a new import from a lower dimension that the Mirror had arranged to bond with a human user recently.

The girl had potential, and was close to Ascending into Universe Realm on her own, so it wouldn't be long until the Mirror would test Lady Zara for release, or a re-run.

Another Tribulation Lightning interrupted her reverie, as the blonde Soldier gained another Star, merely five days after.

"Really?" Gena exploded in outrage, since gaining a Star in the Dian Realm was the work of several lifetimes, and even her august father had barely reached his third Star this very Chaos Cycle. A few days?

It made no sense at all. At this rate...

A soft wind emerged from the Mirror of Samsara, and calmed her down. 'Yes, I know I have all eternity ahead now, but still...I feel being left behind.' Gena murmured as she trailed a finger along the Godbeast feather on her arm.

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The Divine Artifact poked her forehead gently, and the image of the Eight Element Trigram appeared once more, but this time with a long text as explanation for every interaction.

It was a quite detailed and well-reasoned treaty and it took Gena a few weeks to fully read and comprehend everything, until another Tribulation forced her wide awake again.

But this time, she didn't mind Pef achieving his fourth Star so soon, as she was also feeling her own second Star descend.

'Thank you, dear Mirror. Now I understand, you did all this for me!' Gena Feng confessed in a grateful tone. Even with the Mirror's help, this Star was her own. The Dao insights were hard-worked and rewarded, not simply gifted in a Dian Pill.

Even better, with such a complete cultivation method at her disposal Gena was quite certain she would achieve the next Realm in this lifetime, and probably sooner.

No as fast as the blonde maniac, but certain all the same. Soon enough, she won't be a mere gatekeeper to be pushed around by the powerhouses in the multiverse, but her own master.

And so, two entire years passed in the Mirror Realm, and ignoring the several Tribulations that fell on the Legion Soldier with every new Star, Gena Feng also gained her third Star and matched her august father, many lifetimes too soon. For once, she was feeling fulfilled and not so tired and bored at overseeing the Mirror Realm and all its experiments.

She had even begun creating various scenarios for the Mirror, selecting curious cases like willful orphans or crippled war victims and placing them in complex trials, or rewarding various feats with artifacts and forgotten cultivation methods. It was actually fun, and Gena began to understand the fascination her Mirror had with creating Destinies.

Even when the heroes failed, she could simply ask the Mirror to rewind that universe and start once more, and only change a single thing to see what would happen.

"It is time for me to go, Lady Feng." she heard a voice, and felt a warm hand patting her head.

Gena opened her eyes a bit embarrassed to be surprised like this. Not that she would be in danger in this place, under the protection of the Mirror itself.

Anyways, she sprang to her feet and examined the Legion Soldier with new eyes. He was no longer a teenager now, his body grown and even wearing an adamantium breastplate with the V of the Veritas Legion inscribed on it. His hair had been cut short, giving Pef a military look.

"You look like a proper soldier now, Lord Pef." she said in a admiring voice, despite trying to hide it.

"I sure hope so. Wish me luck, Mirror Goddess." The blonde man answered with a faint smile, then just glanced up, towards the mirror sky.

Without even asking for her input, the Mirror of Samsara acted instantly, and bounced Pef directly into the Mausoleum Station.

'Hey! You could at least pretend to ask me for approval!' Gena complained in fake outrage, then she sat comfortably in her Mirror Chair to watch the fight.

There weren't many entities below the Heavens who could observe inside the Mausoleum after all, which was quite a privilege.

Even so, her hands clenched on the armrests as Pef stepped into the Violet Realm of the Mausoleum.

There had been other people that have entered that death realm, but they all soon regretted that. She hoped Pef would not share their fate.