The illusion shattered, the demon revealed itself, and the situation seemed to reverse in an instant.
Yet Cao Feiyu, standing at the heart of the storm, did not react with the relief Chen Fei had expected.
The instant the Mirror Light shone down and the illusions dispersed, Cao Feiyu's sword-swinging motion abruptly froze. She stared blankly at the empty battlefield before her. The fellow disciples who had crazily attacked her, the corpses that had died miserable deaths, even Chen Fei, whose death had torn her heart to pieces—all of them had vanished, as though they had merely been part of a nightmare.
She slowly turned her neck and looked toward the distant shadowy humanoid Vengeful Demon that had been forced into view by the Mirror Light, radiating intense malice and resentment. Those cruel, ghostly green eyes were fixed tightly upon her and Chen Fei in the distance.
Then Cao Feiyu's gaze shifted to Chen Fei, carrying a bone-deep exhaustion and bewilderment. She looked at this Chen Fei, who had spoken to warn her, used that wondrous Mirror Light to break the illusion, and was now watching her with concern.
Yet little joy appeared on Cao Feiyu's face. There was no delight at surviving a calamity, nor any towering fury toward the Vengeful Demon.
There was only an almost numb calmness, and beneath that calmness, surging doubts she could not dispel.
Having suffered repeated blows to her mind, especially after witnessing Chen Fei's horrific death with her own eyes, the old wound left by Chu Xuanyu's fall had been thoroughly ripped open. Her mind had suffered an unprecedented blow.
At this moment, she was like a bird startled by the mere twang of a bowstring, like someone who had just awoken from a nightmare yet doubted whether she had truly awakened—or