The Grand Elder whipped his head around in horror.
He saw a round moon hanging high, bamboo tips drooping low, and a tall, straight figure standing atop them, holding a long flute. The face caught in the moonlight was a sheet of shadowy darkness.
"So it really was you!"
The next moment.
Three crimson fireballs, dragging long, narrow tails of flame, spun as they shot toward him. The moon on the horizon grew even larger, and the sound of gurgling water rose all around.
A smile played at the corner of Wang Yu's mouth. On his backlit face, only his eyes glowed with a faint, eerie light, revealing the bright, unmistakable pattern of a waning moon.
"Looks like you still aren't convinced. Then experience it again—the pain of a spike through the heart."
In the blink of an eye, the spell pierced through Wang Yu's figure and vanished without a trace.
The Bai Family Grand Elder jolted awake in shock. At some unknown moment, the scene around him had changed.
He was standing on a stretch of silent water so vast he could not see its edge, with the moon behind him seeming close enough to touch.
Panic-stricken, he murmured.
"Illusion...? When?"
By instinct, he looked toward his reflection on the water, but what lay within was not himself. It was scene after scene of countless Bai Family Members dying miserably.
He saw the Second Elder and Third Elder open the treasury and slaughter each other.
He saw two of the middle generation activate a formation and kill the controlled clansmen.
He saw himself—his gaze scarlet, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. Behind that demonic man were countless skeletons gnawed clean. This was the future he feared most in his heart.
"No!"
"That's impossible! These are all false