What Illusion Technique?

After warning Li Chu, Li Xinyi began arranging talismans around the courtyard.

The distant sky was darkening; it was the very moment the last ray of sunset fell.

She took a Yellow Talisman written in cinnabar from her waist pouch, pinched it between two fingers, and flicked it forward. The talisman flew away with a flutter, as though it possessed a spirit of its own, and plastered itself firmly onto a wall.

But she was not finished. She took out a tiny Jade Sword, carved from emerald jade and no longer than a finger. It was exquisitely crafted and crystal-clear; even sold as jewelry, it would have been worth a fortune.

Yet Li Xinyi showed no distress at all. With a flick of her finger, a streak of green light flashed past, and the little sword nailed itself onto the Yellow Talisman.

Then she drew out another Yellow Talisman and repeated the process.

Li Chu watched from the side. Though he did not understand what she was doing, it looked very impressive.

This was also something he greatly envied.

The world of orthodox Cultivators was filled with talismans, Magic Treasures, pills, divine abilities... all manner of mysteries so dazzling they left one's eyes in a whirl.

Yet he had never come into contact with any of them.

After all, monsters he killed did not drop equipment, and his master... had never cared about such side branches of the Great Dao!

Li Xinyi slowly circled the courtyard. Every three steps, she cast out a talisman and nailed it in place with a Jade Sword. After doing so eighteen times, she finally completed a circuit around the little courtyard.

Letting out a long breath, she found fine beads of sweat already forming on her forehead.

Before Li Chu could ask, she walked over and said, "Do you know what I've set up?"

"It's a Sword Activation Talisman Array!" Before Li Chu could answer, she supplied the answer herself.

Li Chu smiled. He understood now: he did not need to say anything. Miss Li would explain everything he was curious about herself.

Sure enough, Li Xinyi continued on her own. "These spirit talismans were taken from Facing Heaven Pavilion's storehouse specifically to deal with ghosts. Then I pin them down with the Azure Talisman Sword, a Magic Treasure made by Dan Ding Pavilion. When the time comes, every talisman I launch will carry a strand of my sword qi. This talisman technique is called the Sword Activation Talisman."

"And when eighteen Sword Activation Talismans are arranged according to the forward and reverse Nine Palaces, they form a relatively basic Sword Activation Talisman Array. Hehe, dealing with one tiny Vengeful Spirit will be as easy as turning over my hand."

Li Xinyi wore a smile that said, "I'm done showing off, hurry up and praise me."

Li Chu nodded at her, sighing inwardly. This was what professionalism looked like.

Compared with that, his own methods of exorcising evil were rather dull.

As Li Xinyi finished setting up the spirit array, the sun also completed the final stretch of its journey. Clearly, her timing had been exceedingly precise.

A pale white Crescent Moon emerged. In truth, it had hung in midair for quite some time already, but its color was too faint to notice.

The two lit lamps and waited quietly.

Li Xinyi suddenly asked again, "Young Daoist, are you afraid?"

Li Chu gently shook his head.

"Why? This is a Vengeful Spirit," Li Xinyi pressed.

"Exactly. Isn't it a Vengeful Spirit?" Li Chu asked in return.

The two seemed to have said nearly the same thing, yet their meanings were worlds apart.

A flicker of barely perceptible confusion crossed Li Xinyi's face.

Li Chu always looked so serious that she could never quite tell whether he was pretending or being genuine.

But if someone asked whether you were afraid, that usually meant she was already afraid herself.

Li Xinyi knew her own affairs best.

This was actually her first time exorcising evil alone.

She had always followed behind her elders, but her cultivation had recently broken through. So she had tugged at her master's sleeve and begged for this opportunity to stand on her own.

As for why she had been so eager to exorcise evil by herself?

Because a certain Sage Lu had once said that fame must be seized early!

When following behind one's elders, no matter how powerful an Evil Spirit they eliminated, the credit and reputation belonged to the leader.

Only by standing on one's own could all the achievements be credited to oneself.

She was not even twenty this year. If she became famous now, the martial world would call her a heroine, an immortal maiden. With her charm, she could attract countless Supporters wherever she went.

If she did not become famous until she was forty or fifty, like her master, what would people call her then? A senior nun!

Li Xinyi hurriedly shook her head, throwing off that terrifying fantasy.

Suddenly, Li Chu's gaze sharpened as he looked toward a pitch-black unknown place Outside the Gate.

Li Xinyi had just opened her mouth to ask when she too sensed that something was wrong.

There was Yin Qi in the wind!

The thing they had been waiting for had arrived.

Childish sounds suddenly drifted through the surroundings, as though a child were laughing. Like Silver Bells, they came from everywhere—clear and ethereal, yet carrying a touch of eerie strangeness.

"Careful."

Li Xinyi said only that much when the sound shifted, suddenly beginning to sing a nursery rhyme.

"Brother killed me."

"Mother killed him."

"Father killed Mother."

"I killed Father."

The nursery rhyme drifted faintly in the wind, yet it was incomparably clear, as though it came with its own echo, sounding again and again.

"Brother killed me."

"Mother killed him."

"Father killed Mother."

"I killed Father."

As the nursery rhyme entered her ears, the light and shadows before Li Xinyi suddenly changed drastically. Her body abruptly shrank, becoming that of a little girl of three or four.

She was still in this room, but the scene around her transformed, instantly becoming vivid and alive.

She saw her Mother—a woman still young, yet already bent at the waist.

Mother was pressing down on her head, making her call someone Father.

But she remembered having a Father.

Only, Father had been put into a black box and buried in the earth.

Mother could not survive while raising her alone, so she had found her a new father.

New father had also brought along a brother, whose face always wore a wicked smile.

She had thought new father would be like her old father.

Protecting her, protecting Mother.

But reality frightened her.

Whenever he got drunk, he would beat Mother, beating her hard.

Brother would imitate him too.

Just as he beat Mother, he would beat her hard.

Mother taught her to endure, so she obediently endured.

This went on for a long time, and their bodies were always covered in injuries.

Until one day, Brother suddenly stopped beating her.

He wanted to take off her clothes.

Mother finally stopped enduring and lunged at Brother, beating him.

Of course, when Father returned that night, he beat Mother viciously too.

Then one day, Brother apologized to her.

He even took her to the market and bought a length of red silk.

All the other little girls had red ribbons for their hair. She had always envied them.

Now she had one too, and she was very happy.

She decided to forgive Brother.

Brother took her to a hillside and tied up her hair for her.

So she obediently sat down on the hillside.

Then Brother gave her a shove and pushed her down.

She rolled down the slope. It hurt terribly.

Then everything before her went black.

For some reason, she suddenly became this insubstantial existence.

She saw Mother searching through the entire village for her, like a madwoman.

She heard Mother calling her name.

She answered, but Mother could not hear her.

Mother finally learned the truth.

She had gone out with Brother and never returned.

Mother said nothing.

She silently poured a packet of rat poison into the soup.

Brother was poisoned to death.

Father was furious; that had been his biological son.

So he beat Mother hard.

Mother was beaten to death by him.

She was furious.

She was still very young. She did not understand.

Why was this world like this?

She had always been obedient. Why had someone pushed her down the mountain?

Why had such a good Mother been beaten to death alive?

So she appeared and easily killed Father.

Only then did she discover that she was very powerful now.

It turned out she did not have to endure anymore.

"Ah!"

Li Xinyi abruptly awoke from the illusion, only to discover that Li Chu had pushed her shoulder.

Li Chu said, "Sorry. You seemed a little off, so I gave you a push."

"It's nothing." Li Xinyi shook her head. Like someone waking from a great dream, she was still panting violently as she muttered, "I... just now..."

Li Chu said, "Just now, your eyes were squeezed shut, your face was flushed, your whole body was trembling, and you kept calling me Father."

"..." Li Xinyi's face instantly turned three shades redder.

But she quickly raised her head and stared straight at Li Chu. "Why weren't you caught in her Illusion Technique?"

Vengeful Spirits were naturally capable of using Resentful Qi to affect people and make them hallucinate. Li Xinyi knew this and had been on guard.

She just had not expected this Vengeful Spirit, though newly dead, to possess considerable cultivation. It had hidden its Illusion Technique within the nursery rhyme, making it impossible to guard against.

But... why had she fallen for it while Li Chu seemed completely unaffected?

He had even calmly woken her up.

What made him so special?

Li Xinyi's eyes were full of confusion.

Under her gaze, Li Chu paused for a moment, then slowly asked, "Illusion Technique... what Illusion Technique?"

Only after saying that did he begin to grow alert, raising his eyes and turning his head as he cautiously observed his surroundings.

Very steady.

Watching his belated reaction, black question marks began popping up above Li Xinyi's head.

One, two, three, four...

Actually, based on what she knew about Illusion Techniques, she could think of two possibilities.

The first possibility...

An Illusion Technique attack was like floodwaters drowning Golden Mountain.

The Spiritual Sense of both sides: one was water, the other a mountain.

If your floodwaters were enough to submerge my mountaintop, then naturally I would sink into them and let you manipulate me as you pleased.

Sometimes, even if your waters were not enough, they might still cover the mountainside. Then it would depend on whether I exposed any weakness.

Perhaps through one moment of carelessness, I would be struck atop the mountain by the great waves you stirred up, and I would fall for it all the same.

But...

If your splashes were simply too small to matter to me, like a child taking a piss at the foot of a mountain.

Then it was perfectly normal for me not to notice.

But could Li Chu be that mountain?

After thinking it over, Li Xinyi still felt the second possibility was more plausible.

That was... Li Chu was deaf.