Chapter 142: The Illusory Realm

The surrounding temperature was extremely low, even colder than the snowfields of the Northern Realm, accompanied by an aura of stern slaughter in the biting wind.

Shen Yu opened his eyes to absolute darkness, unable to see a thing.

The sound of a horn echoed from the edge of the sky.

A sliver of radiance emanated from the void before him, like mist blown away by a strong gale, revealing a single corner.

As the fog receded, everything thoroughly materialized before Shen Yu's eyes.

Ancient city walls mottled with blood, countless corpses strewn everywhere, and faint, lingering roars.

Beacons of war burned against the sky, and corpses littered the fields.

This scene felt somewhat familiar. Shen Yu pondered for a moment; it was the exact same sight within the immortal burial mound of Fairy Linghua.

Shen Yu raised his head to look at the sky.

A crimson crescent moon still hung directly overhead; the only difference was that its brilliance was restrained, resembling a half-opened eye when viewed from afar.

"A phantom realm of the Nightmarish Mind Demon?"

Shen Yu thought to himself, a glint of amusement surfacing in his eyes.

The Mind Demon Illusion Realm was equivalent to an enhanced method of the Mind's Eye divine ability. Wielded by a Nightmarish beast, it could drag people into an even deeper illusion.

Under such circumstances, any dangerous action could lead to self-destruction, and the degree of danger was more than a dozen times higher than the Mind's Eye ability of a Nether Ghost.

Three thousand years ago, the Nightmarish Mind Demon Illusion Realm had troubled countless powerful cultivators. Shen Yu had heard of it, but had never experienced it firsthand, which suddenly aroused a bit of curiosity in him this time.

What on earth would appear within this place?

The sound of the horn ceased, replaced by the roars of countless monsters.

Shen Yu walked slowly to a vantage point on the wall and looked up. Far in the distance, a boundless, pitch-black tide was converging within the mist, accompanied by a sound resembling the grinding of animal fangs that chilled one to the bone.

A wind blew past, causing the city wall to tremble. Layers of dust cascaded from the heights down to the ground, like a sudden desert storm.

Feeling the movement beneath his feet, Shen Yu knew that the will of this world was urging him to move forward, which only intensified the amused look in his eyes.

A divine ability like the Mind Demon Illusion Realm was hardly inferior to Buddhism's Palm-held Buddha Kingdom or Taoism's Universe in the Sleeve.

Given Shen Yu's current realm, the Nightmarish entity actually had numerous ways to kill him, yet it deliberately chose such a roundabout method, which must stem from some hidden ulterior motive.

The tremor beneath his feet grew increasingly violent, as if the city wall were about to collapse at any moment.

"As you wish."

Shen Yu glanced up at the red moon, then drifted lightly off the city wall and began to walk forward.

...

Shen Yu walked upon the mist-shrouded ground. As far as the naked eye could see, he could barely discern things within a radius of twenty zhang. The further he went, the more chaotic and shrill the monsters' noises became.

Shen Yu suddenly stopped in his tracks, his figure shifting slightly.

Next moment.

A sharp, cruel claw brushed directly past his cheek.

Without halting, Shen Yu shifted and pivoted, the afterimages he left behind being pierced by countless claws, which then heavily crashed into one another with a piercing screech.

Gazing ahead, Shen Yu walked lightly, advancing with an extremely dashing and free-hand posture.

A heavy whistling sound rushed through the air. Judging from the sound, this was a creature far more formidable than the other claws...

A claw...

Because of its massive size, Shen Yu finally managed to catch a glimpse of the true appearance of these monsters.

Vicious eyes, two thick and powerful lower limbs, a pair of sharp, giant talons, and a body as dark as ink.

Shen Yu recognized what they were.

Wind-born Beasts.

The weakest yet most tenacious lifeform in the immortal cultivation world... creatures.

The reason they weren't called demonic beasts was precisely because they were far too insignificant, despised by countless cultivators and even the demon race, and often served as the primary choice for many young cultivators to temper their Dao techniques and sword moves.

The characteristics of Wind-born Beasts were also distinct: there were many of them, they gathered in swarms, and their skin... was very thick.

Perhaps this last characteristic was the reason why they didn't mix with other demonic beasts.

Wind-born Beasts were weak, but looking at the boundless, overwhelming sea of them, Shen Yu's expression was not as relaxed as one might imagine.

The next moment, a gentle breeze swept past.

Shen Yu evaded the onslaught of that giant talon, stepped onto the heavy back of the beast, bent his body, leaped high into the air, and soared once more toward the distant beast tide.

Upon landing, the ground shook violently. Shen Yu did not pause for even a second, springing up and leaping again, instantly vanishing into the horizon.

In some desolate wasteland.

Four cultivators had gathered together to jointly resist the tide-like onslaught of the Wind-born Beasts.

Three men and one woman with varying expressions. Judging from their auras, they were all practitioners of the Dao, each emitting a faint aura of blood, evidently having experienced numerous life-and-death battles.

Another collective surprise attack came crashing down, and the group struggled bitterly to fend it off.

At this stalemate, a Wind-born Beast, significantly larger than the others, leaped high from behind the group and lunged toward the only woman in the squad.

A faint black liquid oozed from its giant talons, immediately corroding a large pit upon touching the ground.

Exclamations broke out among the crowd as various colored lights illuminated the panicked and stunning face of the young woman.

The next moment.

Boom...

A black shadow smashed down headfirst from the sky, landing squarely upon the head of that Wind-born Beast.

With a muffled crunch, the Wind-born Beast crashed heavily to the ground, its brains splattering everywhere.

Several pairs of eyes turned toward the figure above, all frozen in utter astonishment.

...

"This place is the illusion realm of the Nightmarish Mind Demon. We must survive if we are to have any chance of being rescued from the outside world."

"The Mind Demon Illusion Realm is essentially equivalent to a series of trial tests. As long as we remain constantly vigilant and evade these fiends, our lives will not be in danger."

By the side of a secluded mountain stream, the group sat cross-legged.

Perhaps because the leader of the Wind-born Beast pack had died too abruptly, it caused the behavior of the entire horde to stall momentarily, thus granting them a sliver of an opportunity to escape.

Weariness was etched in everyone's eyes as they silently sat cross-legged to regulate the spiritual energy within their bodies.

Based on their brief casual chat earlier, they were also young disciples who had come to the Jade Pool to attend the grand assembly, only to be dragged into the illusion realm by the Nightmarish entity's divine ability.

The only woman in the group was continuously chattering away at Shen Yu.

The woman was named Xiang Caiyun, a disciple of the Tanyin Sect in the East Ancestor Prefecture. Disciples of this sect favored musical rhythms, and the magical treasures they wielded were mostly instruments of sound.

For instance, she wore a tiny bell-shaped magical treasure hanging from her waist.

"If the Nightmarish entity wanted to kill us, why would it bother using such a method?"

A middle-aged man with a square face among the five asked with a puzzled expression.

His name was Pang Zhengyuan, carrying a great sword on his back, a rogue cultivator by origin with no sect or affiliation.

"Perhaps because it has just been reborn not long ago, and in its eyes, we are merely ants, so it is just letting us fend for ourselves and perish naturally?"

This time, the speaker was a youth with dark skin yet extremely piercing, cold eyes—a martial artist.

Silence hung heavy in the air; no one knew why.

Shen Yu finally withdrew his gaze from the sky and asked, "How do you know the Nightmarish entity has revived? And how do you know its name?"

Shen Yu was genuinely curious about this question.

The event had just occurred not long ago, yet the people here seemed already well aware of what was happening.

"Because I happened to know a few things, that's all."

A man dressed in purple robes on the far left of the group replied.

His tone was somewhat cold, even laced with hostility.

Shen Yu glanced at him and asked, "People from Liubo Mountain?"