Phantom Image

At this moment, Lin Xin Tong seemed to be about to turn into a lifeless and beautiful ice sculpture. Beneath her, the lush green grass was also affected by the cold air, turning into crystal ice flowers, withering and breaking.

With her last bit of strength, she moved her numb hand with difficulty and slowness, her delicate fingertips, covered in Ice Crystal, gently picking up an ice flower.

Such an ordinary yet beautiful little flower, nameless and fragile, was also implicated by its own actions, its fragrance fading away...

A tear slid down her cheek, quickly freezing into Ice Crystal, like a round, crystal-clear teardrop falling onto the grass.

The sound faded into the distance, and the image seemed to blur.

She knew that she had finally reached the end of her life...

In her dying moments, countless images flashed through her mind, finally settling on the resolute yet slightly immature face of the young man.

Looking back on her life, five hundred years of it was spent struggling to survive, and all she gained was failure...

Perhaps, the scenes of her traveling the world hand in hand with him are the most beautiful memories of her life.

The most beautiful memories reside in dreams; perhaps that is a kind of sorrow.

But so what?

Beauty, often, doesn't require us to investigate whether it's real or illusory.

Because, if you really investigate, many things that seem wonderful will burst like bubbles.

She smiled, a smile that blossomed in the final moments of her life, a smile that may be frozen in time, forever etched in our memories...

In her hazy state, she heard some sounds. She tried to open her eyes, but everything around her was blurry. However, in the distance, under a large, green tree, there was a white figure.

Sunlight filtered through the leaves, scattering across the grass like shattered gold, casting dappled shadows...

The figure resembled a woman, strolling through the woods as if walking through the river of time. Although she appeared to be not far away, she seemed to belong to a different time and space.

She looked at her, but no matter how wide she opened her eyes, the person's face remained a blur; only her tall, graceful figure was clearly reflected in her iris.

"Who are you..."

Upon seeing this person, her heart, which had been almost frozen, began to beat again, and the blood in her body began to flow once more.

She had a feeling that she was connected to the figure in front of her by blood and energy, as if she had known her in a past life.

Could she be... Ancient Empress?

The thought flashed through Lin Xin Tong. It was a thought that appeared out of nowhere, yet for some reason she was absolutely certain of it.

At that moment, that beautiful figure slowly walked towards her, getting closer and closer until she was right in front of her...

The figure reached out her hand, and her fingertips, like a dragonfly skimming the water, gently touched her forehead.

"Obsession is the path to dreams, but it can also be the source of suffering."

"Perhaps you can carry on my will and complete the mission I failed to finish..."

A cold, clear voice echoed in Lin Xin Tong. Was this the voice transmission of the Ancient Empress?

Then, with a shattering sound, like crystal being broken, all the Ice Crystal covering Lin Xin Tong shattered, and her world of consciousness disintegrated. The forest, grassland, and ice flowers before her eyes vanished...

Lin Xin Tong felt a sudden jolt, and she woke up with a start.

The sensation of this shock was just like a common experience she had as a child. Back then, before she began practicing martial arts, she was born into the Lin family and bore the pressure of her innately severed Fatal Meridian. She never slept soundly and would often wake up suddenly with a jolt just as she was about to fall asleep.

Did I have another nightmare?

Lin Xin Tong opened her eyes, and her vision gradually cleared. The first thing she saw was the hazy sky above the Empress Secret Realm.

She reached out and touched the cold, rough black stone beneath her, which carried a faint scent of blood and felt incredibly real.

Many people gathered around, all looking at them with astonished expressions.

Lin Xin Tong recognized some of these people; she remembered them... They were all trial participants who had entered the Empress Secret Realm together.

This is the trial of the Empress Secret Realm...

Lin Xin Tong seemed to remember something else. Her gaze searched through the crowd, and finally, she spotted a Youth in Green not far away.

He had a high nose bridge, a slight upturn at the corners of his mouth, and his dark, somewhat messy hair that obscured the corners of his eyes, but couldn't hide his bright gaze.

His eyes were so clear, yet within that clarity, there seemed to be a hint of cunning.

These were eyes she knew well—eyes she knew intimately in her dreams.

He was looking at himself and smiling, a genuine joy emanating from him.

"You're finally out. Do you know how long you've been hiding here?" The boy's energetic voice rang in Lin Xin Tong's ear.

Lin Xin Tong, of course, didn't know, but she didn't shake her head. She just looked intently at the boy in front of her, completely ignoring the answer to his question.

What she cares about is whether this world is real, because every time she wakes up, the world is incredibly real, but in the end, it's all just a dream.

This time... surely it won't be a dream again?

"Two whole hours."

Yi Yun spoke up, saying that apart from Lin Xin Tong, the longest Shentu Nantian. For the next half hour, everyone was waiting for Lin Xin Tong, but she didn't come out no matter how long they waited. This is why everyone was so surprised when they saw Lin Xin Tong appear.

However, what seemed excessively long to everyone else sounded incredibly short to Lin Xin Tong.

Only two hours?

In her dream, she probably lived for more than twenty million years...

Lin Xin Tong stood up and looked back. The portal had closed, but the metal pillar covered with crystal relics was shining brightly.

At this moment, people looked at Lin Xin Tong with a strange gaze. They didn't know how many Emperor's Mark Lin Xin Tong could obtain after staying in the trial for so long.

Shouldn't we tell them their scores?

As people were thinking, suddenly the crystal pillar burst forth with a dazzling flash, and a golden light shield shot out from the crystal pillar. This light shield quickly spread out and rushed straight towards everyone.

"Boom boom boom!"

A series of loud explosions sent many trial participants flying as they were knocked away by the light barrier.

However, many trial participants did not react at all when hit by the light shield. They felt as if a strong wind blew by, and the force made them take a few steps back before the golden light shield swept past.

"What happened! It hurts!"

Of the many trial participants in Blackstone Plaza, nearly half were knocked away. They crashed to the ground, their bodies wracked with pain. The feeling of being struck by the light shield was similar to being knocked away by a wild beast.

They got up and saw that the light barrier was like a large bowl, covering many people inside, while they were kept outside the barrier.

They were all dumbfounded when they saw this.

They quickly realized that they had been eliminated...

Only those inside the light barrier passed the trial.

Looking around, most of them were among the first batch of trial participants ejected from the portal. It seemed that the longer one stayed inside the portal, the higher the chance of passing through.

But that's not absolute, because inside the light barrier, they saw a dark, thin figure. He wasn't tall, and his appearance was extremely ordinary; he looked like a mud monkey.

"It's that dark-skinned kid!"

"He passed too?"

Many people were speechless. The dark-skinned boy was clearly the second one to be ejected from the portal, so why was he able to pass through? What's the logic behind this?

Many people were unhappy, and the dark-skinned youth seemed to sense their resentment. He turned around, looked at them, and grinned foolishly.

His smile infuriated many people even more.

With his pathetic appearance, he actually passed the trial? That's outrageous!

How could a simpleton like him be stronger than me?

People found this unacceptable.

Lin Yu was among those who were eliminated.

Isolated outside the light barrier, Lin Yu was dejected. He slumped down on the Black Stone Square, staring blankly at the lucky ones inside the light barrier. His attention wasn't on the dark-skinned boy, but on another boy inside the light barrier— Yi Yun.

"He passed..."

Lin Yu was at a loss for words. Returning to his Lineage as a loser, his frustration was palpable.

...(To be continued~^~)