After he finished settling the family business, Pef stepped away once more, this time returning to the entrance of the Mirror Realm.

Although the universe that housed the Mirror Chair was still as barren as ever, Pef could faintly distinguish the outlines of a gigantic formation array now, perhaps a sign that his perception powers had increased once more.

'She is here. 50 meters behind you.' the glove warned him, and updated his inner map with a mirror symbol.

It was quite convenient as well, to be fair. Who wouldn't like to have a radar screen in the corner of their eye, as well as mental interface to warn him of potential dangers?

"You see me as I see you, Mirror Goddess." Pef quipped with an ironic tone.

"Perhaps you're only guessing once again." Gena Feng answered as she revealed herself by shedding her mirror cloak.

Pef turned and raised an eyebrow as he examined the Goddess. She was now wearing a long deep-red dress, with a Godbeast red feather fixed to a metal armbrace.

He had to admit she looked quite great, which was probably her purpose too. Dressed for effect, a memory sparked in his soul.

"Very pretty." he spoke in a serious voice.

"You know, if I went looking for a husband, I could pick anyone in this multiverse. Any many other places as well. The Mirror has a great reach..." the woman pointed out with a faint smile.

Pef glanced up as the skies above became reflective at once, probably signaling the Mirror of Samsara taking an interest in this scene.

"Soon, I will enter the Mausoleum to fight the Taotie. I will need your help." he explained in a level voice, directing his intent towards the Mirror itself.

A gentle breeze ruffled his blonde hair, just as the Mirror Goddess tilted her head, probably listening to an unheard message.

"You will die. Even with our help, you will still die, Legion Soldier. At best, we can only delay the monster for a few days." Gena Feng said as her face paled a little.

Pef nodded as well. "Lady Feng, I was talking with the Mirror." he admonished her gently, then closed his eyes. His wasn't going to fight the badger fairly after all. That was a recipe for disaster anyway. Even if he could best the Taotie, which he couldn't, that result wouldn't benefit anyone.

Inside his soul, a green bamboo leaf unfolded from its seed, as the World Tree continued the negotiations in his stead.

Pef didn't waste this life after all, instead he meditated profoundly both on the Monarch Realm transformation, and more importantly on the Tier 7 Ascension, until he figured out how to create a full cultivation method leading to true immortality.

However, for the next Tiers, he only had some vague and uncertain theories, and no way to test them scientifically. What he needed was a vast laboratory with a million testing chambers to try each variable and their consequences. Which was exactly what the Mirror Realm could do.

Listening to a silent urging from the Mirror, Gena Feng came closer until Pef could touch her forehead and impart his method directly.

"Oh! This..." she managed to say before she sat and began to meditate, while her other selves sprang out and spread into a million different universes.

'And now we wait.' Pef concluded as he also sat in mid-air. He had about 2 years left until the big fight, and not much to do but wait for the Mirror to find something that could help.

'There is less than 1 in a billion chance to find something this fast' the glove warned him after calculating the odds on his Oracle circuits.

'Anyways, I can work on dividing myself as much as possible until then. I am quite certain that is the best path. Spilt up into more selves, and then unite them later into a more powerful entity. Just like the Heart of the Sword does, with my Dao Heart.' Pef mused inward as another self was being born virtually into his dantian.

Much of the cultivation at this Tier took place inside the virtual, the inner soul of the cultivator.

Perhaps a better analogy would be drilling for natural gas deep underground, only to extract that gas and make balloon shapes in your own image.

Pef chuckled amused at the improper analogy derived from his first life's memories.

No. Maybe mining for bitcoins would work better. It was all virtual after all, plus the more you extracted, the harder it got.

Creating the initial selves was rather easy, but reach into thousands of selves, and then millions...

No wonder there were less than a dozen Tier 8 entities in the whole multiverse. It was hard.

Luckily for Pef, he was not alone in this endeavor, not only his glove and the Icefire to help, but also the World Tree via its shattered Avatar and now the Mirror of Samsara, searching through possible futures and actual multiversal alternates.

Every minute or so, another self was located and redirected towards Pef inner world, adding to a greater and greater gestalt, much more similar to a peer-to-peer network than a collection of cells working for the same purpose like an organ.

Immediately, those new selves were put to work once more, both mining for extra selves or considering and meditating on various Dao insights, or even working on practical applications like Alchemy Pills, better Godwine and refining artifacts.

After one year passed in the virtual realm, Pef took stock of the changes, finding another few percents added to his cultivation progress, and running out of materials for Saint Realm pills. However, the was not because he failed too much, but because his success ratio had increased massively and his selves could reliably refine Ascension pills, below the Divine levels.

Almost half a billion such pills in fact, which would help him expand the ranks of the Veritas Legion quite extensively, and make use of the weaker cultivators he imported from the Fay Realms.

Even so, he held five Saint Ascension pills in his hand, the only ones that achieved a pill-cloud until now. At a hundred million to one, it was proof the cloud pills weren't that easy to obtain.

'Be so kind and deliver these to my disciples in the Icefire Sect.' Pef asked in a polite thought towards the mirror sky.

Even before his thought finished, the pills vanished.

---------

Back inside the Mirror Realm, the Icefire Sect Founder was standing in council with that Saints in his Sect, now rather more in number, as it included the Great Elders and Pef's stronger disciples.

On the small table in front of him, five blue-cloud pills appeared out of nowhere.

The man blinked once, then turned his hand as the Icefire sprite in his dantian wanted to jump out. 'Our Holy Son made these pills, and Big Icefire was the flame that refined them.'

He turned towards a certain Saint. "Little Moon, your Master made these. I think you can figure out who they are meant for."

The former Fragrance House cultivator picked one of the pills delicately. "These can raise someone in Realm...instantly. The Holy Son would certainly want two for his family, and the rest for his disciples."

Suddenly, the air wavered around and another goddess appeared in the Elder Hall, her eyes glowing with purple fire.

"Lady Zara!" everyone exclaimed in half-panic.

Ever since she took in the Netherworld Lotus, Zara had not only Ascended to a realm far beyond anyone in this galaxy, but she had also become distant and strange, making people fear for her well-being or sanity, or their own safety.

But the Galaxy Goddess simply took one of the pills and stared at it for a long minute, then vanished as if she was never here.

"Instant Saint realm, in a pill." the Fox Saint and Pef's disciple announced after a qi message from Lady Zara informed her of the real powers of the blue pills.

From here, it wasn't much to debate. Everyone in the room was already a Saint, and they wouldn't want to upset Pef, who was higher in realm than they were above simple mortals.

Elder Gonxian and the Holy Mother were invited politely to the Elder Hall to ingest the miracle pills, and they instantly Ascended into Saint Realm, and Ninth Star of it as well.

The only conundrum was, who else was to take the last three pills.