"Strange, how could this be..." Qin Xi murmured to himself. The talisman he had slapped onto Xiaofeng was a Mind-Calming Talisman. In theory, for someone trapped in an illusion, bewitched by phantasms, a Mind-Calming Talisman should be effective. Yet Xiaofeng showed no reaction at all.
He shifted his gaze to Fairy Fengqing. The look of arrogant pride had returned to her face. He reached out and slapped a Mind-Calming Talisman onto Fairy Fengqing's body. The talisman lit up briefly as well, but had no effect.
"Why is this?" Mo Tiange was puzzled. The talisman lighting up meant it wasn't damaged, so why was it ineffective? Could it be... could it be that this illusion wasn't meant to disturb the mind?
Qin Xi pondered this, and suddenly thought of a possibility that sent a chill down his spine. "Could it be..."
Seeing his grim expression, Mo Tiange quickly asked, "What is it?"
Qin Xi calmed himself slightly. "The Mind-Calming Talisman has the effect of pacifying and calming the spirit, settling a disturbed mind. Right now, the talisman clearly isn't broken, yet it's not working. I can only think of one possibility." He paused, then said slowly, "Their minds are not disturbed."
Mo Tiange was stunned for a moment, then exclaimed, "How is that possible? Illusions create phantasms precisely by disturbing the mind..." Her voice trailed off abruptly.
"You've thought of it too, haven't you?" Qin Xi said. "This simply isn't an illusion!"
It took Mo Tiange a long moment to regain her composure. "If this isn't an illusion, then what is it? All the characteristics clearly match an illusion perfectly!"
"What belongs to an Immortal, how could it be an ordinary illusion?" Qin Xi's expression was grave. "If this truly were an illusion laid down by an Immortal, how could we have broken free so easily?"
"That's right..." Mo Tiange murmured. "An Immortal's illusion, we couldn't possibly break free from it so effortlessly."
"I have an idea," Qin Xi said, taking a deep breath. "Let's go check the other doors."
Mo Tiange came back to herself and looked at Xiaofeng and Fairy Fengqing. "We're just leaving them? What if Fairy Fengqing wakes up first?"
"It's fine," Qin Xi said, looking at Fairy Fengqing. He took out another talisman and slapped it onto her. Fairy Fengqing swayed slightly, then continued to wear a blissful smile. "Even if she wakes up, all the spiritual energy in her body will be bound."
Mo Tiange looked at Fairy Fengqing in surprise, then raised her head. "Your talisman skills have improved greatly! You can even manage something like this now!"
Qin Xi smiled. "That's all thanks to your Void Heaven Realm. With its vast collection of texts, I flipped through them and discovered this talisman could still be crafted."
Without further idle talk, the two tidied up, took the puppet, and returned to the main hall, entering the door opposite.
Once again, dense mist rose. This time, the two remained calm, each summoning their signature magical treasures to protect themselves.
From within the mist, faint murmuring sounds could be heard, like sobbing, like weeping, eerie and chilling to the bone.
Mo Tiange felt slightly uncomfortable and whispered, "What is this?"
Before Qin Xi could answer, a black shadow suddenly flew out of the mist, transforming into a ghostly head with blood streaming from its seven orifices, pouncing towards her.
Mo Tiange's heart leaped in fright. With a sweep of her Heaven-Earth Fan, a burst of spiritual energy scattered the ghostly head, but she instinctively grabbed Qin Xi's sleeve.
Qin Xi teased, "What, even you have moments of fear?"
The ghostly head dissipated. Mo Tiange's mind settled slightly, and feeling mocked, she let go of his sleeve with some displeasure. "It just appeared suddenly, it startled me."
Qin Xi was still smiling, but he took her hand and said softly, "You don't have to force yourself not to be afraid. I'm here."
Though it wasn't even a love confession, when Mo Tiange heard it, she felt that all the sweet words in the world were not as moving as this sentence.
Feeling happy, even the scene before her didn't seem so terrifying anymore. In truth, having cultivated to this point, she had seen many horrifying things; no amount of bloody scenes could frighten her. It was just that ghostly, monstrous things were a bit disgusting. What she had just seen was somewhat similar to their experience in the Wind Sand City within the Myriad Ghosts Devouring Souls Formation—grotesque ghosts and monsters, the epitome of repulsiveness.
No sooner had she thought this than a ghostly creature slowly emerged from the mist. It had no face of its own but was holding a bloody piece of skin that resembled a face. As it walked, it emitted sounds that were part weeping, part howling.
Mo Tiange frowned and unleashed a golden lightning bolt, completely trapping the ghostly creature. Under the golden lightning, the creature sizzled and crackled. Before long, it lost its power and turned into a wisp of smoke.
After that, ghostly creatures emerged one after another, and the two employed their respective methods.
After fighting for a while, Qin Xi suddenly said, "Have you noticed something strange?"
"Hmm?" Mo Tiange was currently directing the puppet to wield the Fusheng Sword to slay the ghostly creatures.
"These ghostly creatures are real," Qin Xi said. "Not illusions."
Mo Tiange stopped her actions and looked up at him.
Qin Xi continued, "In the ghost cultivator's Myriad Ghosts Devouring Souls Formation, the ghostly creatures we killed were all illusions, without physical form."
Mo Tiange looked at the bloody, grotesquely contorted ghostly creature before her. Rotten flesh and filthy blood could even splash onto the back of her hand. She couldn't help but shudder and let out a soft "Ah."
A sword light separated from the sword formation, swirling around the back of her hand, and the clump of rotten flesh vanished without a trace. Qin Xi said, "This also proves that this is not an illusion at all, or rather, it's not the kind of illusion we thought it was."
"Then what is it?" Mo Tiange's heart stirred. "Could it be... could this be the methods of an Immortal?"
"Exactly," Qin Xi said with a grave expression. "The methods of an Immortal—creating worlds, creating people."
Xuanyue's face was deathly pale as he stared at the scene before him.
In front of him was a group of "people." These people included both men and women. The men were tall, strong, and ugly, with arms thicker than their entire bodies and waistlines so large that even ten people joining hands couldn't encircle them. The women, however, were stunningly beautiful, more alluring than celestial maidens, with a wild beauty of their own.
"W-what are these things?"
Beside him were only Jing Tao and a Ninth-Rank Demon Cultivator. The others had already been separated.
Jing Tao's form flickered, revealing his massive true body. He shouted to the Ninth-Rank Demon Cultivator, "Protect the Great Prince!"
Compared to his true body, these strange people didn't seem so gigantic anymore. Jing Tao opened his enormous mouth and sucked in with tremendous force!
Although this suction couldn't compare to Ni Qi's Heaven-Devouring Art, it wasn't far off. They say whales swallow and silkworms nibble; this was the instinct of a whale.
Under the suction force, these strange people let out a roar that shook the heavens. All of them gathered together and threw a punch at him.
With a dull thud, a powerful blast of energy swept over, colliding with the suction force. Jing Tao felt a numbness in his mouth, and with a crack, one of his teeth fell out.
Jing Tao was greatly alarmed. His teeth were also one of his weapons. He hadn't expected to lose one right at the first encounter. Not daring to be careless, he opened his mouth and spat out countless fine threads of water, drenching these people from head to toe.
Though they were threads of water, they were no different from sharp blades. Countless water blades shot out. These people had no way to defend themselves and could only block the blades with their bodies, eventually bleeding dry and collapsing.
Xuanyue, still shaken, was about to ask where these things came from when he saw the ground in the distance tremble. More of these strange people appeared, even taller and with fiercer, more malevolent features.
Xuanyue's experience was different from all of theirs.
The mist before him vanished, revealing a series of horrifying scenes.
In one, a large cauldron bubbled with steaming heat, the charcoal fire beneath glowing red. Many people lined up to jump into the cauldron, boiling until their skin split and flesh tore, screaming incessantly. Then they climbed out, their skin and flesh slowly regenerating, only to jump back into the cauldron, repeating the cycle endlessly. In another, people were tied to bronze pillars, having every bit of flesh and bone on their bodies sliced off inch by inch, cut by cut, bleeding profusely until they became a pile of rotten meat. After enduring the utmost agony, they would reform into a person again, experiencing death by a thousand cuts. Some hacked at each other until they were a bloody mess, their features disfigured, yet they never died. Others were trapped in tall wooden barrels, pounded again and again by a giant hammer from above into a pulp, howling incessantly, yet never able to escape.
Xuanyue turned his head away, unable to bear the sight. "W-what kind of hellish place is this?"
Jing Hu and Die Yi wore heavy expressions. They couldn't answer that question either, but what they saw before them was clearly extremely dangerous.
Before they could react, minor officials dressed in black uniforms rushed over, scowling and angrily grabbing at them. These minor officials had ugly faces and seemed to possess no special abilities, yet they were incredibly strong. Demon Lord Xuanyue was just a step too slow; when they grabbed his sleeve, they tore it clean off. It must be known that the robe he wore was woven from Southern Sea treasures; even if a Nascent Soul cultivator attacked, it would remain undamaged.
"What is going on?"
Die Yi revealed her true form, scattering a cloud of yellow powder that blocked the minor officials. She said calmly, "Don't worry about that. Just kill them."
"Right," Jing Hu said. White sharp blades flew from his mouth—his life-bound treasure.
The two Tenth-Rank Great Demons went on a killing spree, annihilating everything in their path, be it human, demon, devil, or monster.
Though the minor officials possessed immense strength, how could they be a match for Tenth-Rank Demon Cultivators? Drenched by Die Yi's yellow powder and shredded by Jing Hu's tooth blades, they became a pile of meat chunks.
This stirred up a hornet's nest. Countless beings who were either being tortured or capturing others for torture all raised their heads, staring at them with eerie gazes, and began surging towards them.
Demon Lord Xuanyue no longer had time for exclamations. He opened his mouth and spat, revealing his Qilin true form.
"How can there be so many?" The endless stream of ghosts and monsters left Mo Tiange no time to worry about staying clean. Having seen so many, they didn't seem so disgusting anymore.
Qin Xi closed his eyes. The Three Yang True Fire Sword circled around him. He activated a secret art, and the Flames of the Vermilion Bird surged continuously from the Yang Spirit Pearl. A bow of ancient design, its body burning with bright flames, slowly materialized before him.
Qin Xi opened his eyes, grasped the bow, and with his other hand pulled the taut string. Bright flames carrying an aura of destruction flickered at his fingertips as he slowly drew it back.
The Bow of the Vermilion Bird. Mo Tiange gasped. "You're going to use the Bow of the Vermilion Bird?"
Qin Xi said, "Facing the methods of an Immortal, how can we hold anything back?"
With that, he drew the Bow of the Vermilion Bird into a full moon. The intent of the Vermilion Bird surged forth, transforming into the Flames of the Vermilion Bird, taking the shape of an arrow burning at his fingertips.
Focusing his spirit, he aimed the Bow of the Vermilion Bird upwards and released. The Vermilion Bird Arrow, carrying immense power and an aura of destruction, shot towards their surroundings.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!" The explosions were continuous. The surrounding restrictions were burned away by the Flames of the Vermilion Bird, and the evil ghosts were completely annihilated, revealing the original stone chamber.
This arrow had concentrated all the Vermilion Bird essence he could mobilize. Qin Xi felt dizzy and almost collapsed to the ground.
The evil ghost formation was broken, and he had temporarily lost his strength.