Awakening

Reality, the Transmission Hall, mid-air.

A woman dressed in black, with an aloof and stunning beauty, sat quietly cross-legged on the Ice Cloud Steps, her gaze fixed intently on the scene below.

A sea of illusory cherry blossoms swayed up and down, no smaller than the red-clad woman's previous dojo, covering the entire Transmission Hall and blocking all outside exploration.

After staring at it for a while, Ran Qingmo slowly withdrew her gaze.

Having severed the main body of the Charm God Cherry Tree, he intended to rush here to support Xu Yuan, but as soon as he activated the teleportation array, he discovered that the Transmission Hall was already enveloped by this sea of flowers.

Without risking using the teleportation array, they used the Ice Cloud Steps to reach this place in half an hour, only to find that the sea of flowers below was filled with the scent of the Charm God Cherry Tree.

The alluring aura emanating from below prevented her from making any rash moves. She sat quietly in the sky, cultivating and waiting.

But this wait lasted for two weeks.

However, the cherry blossom sea below has changed somewhat today.

Ran Qingmo's dark eyes flickered; she sensed that the aura of this sea of flowers seemed to be fading.

After a slight hesitation, Ran Qingmo took out his Black Sword from his Sumeru Ring, and specks of blue light gradually appeared on the surface of the Black Sword.

Time passed second by second, and Ran Qingmo's senses were correct.

In a short while,

The vibrant cherry blossoms gradually began to fade.

In the Transmission Hall,

Upon waking, Xu Yuan was greeted by a magnificent sea of cherry blossoms.

Staring blankly at the fading cherry blossoms, Xu Yuan was lost in thought, his dark pupils unable to focus.

It was as if he had a dream, a very, very long dream.

It's not a month, nor a year, maybe ten years, or maybe even longer; in short, this dream is really long.

He could no longer clearly recall some of the fragmented details of his dream, but he still remembered that he had become a disciple named Jing He in the Qionghua Sect ten thousand years ago.

Jing He, the name of Yuchu Jing He, is what everyone in the Qionghua Sect calls him.

For some reason, he ran away from the Qionghua Sect and escaped with Tianyan, that washboard-faced saintess.

Beyond the Qionghua Realm lies not nothingness, but a prosperous and thriving world.

Life on the run is not easy; one is often living hand to mouth.

Xu Yuan suggested that they go to live in seclusion in the deep mountains and forests. The two found a mountain valley with a stream and lived there for a month before Tianyan told them that they had to leave.

The Heavenly Oversight Pavilion can deduce the location of the two people.

And as it turned out, Tianyan was right.

Because of the Charm God Cherry Tree, the three forces of Heavenly Oversight Tower, Qionghua, and Dao Palace have never stopped pursuing them, especially Heavenly Oversight Pavilion's annoying deductive abilities.

Fortunately, Tianyan, an "insider" in the Heavenly Oversight Pavilion, was able to deal with it.

Tianyan's familiarity with the Yantian Art enabled the two to escape perilous situations time and time again during their pursuit.

Snow-capped mountains, grasslands, deserts, secluded valleys, and islands.

The days of being hunted seemed endless.

Along the way, they met many people and witnessed many things, learning how prosperous the sects were when the Source Qi surged.

However, an illusion is still an illusion. Some places are as prosperous as reality, but some places are blank and impassable.

It's like,

The invisible wall I encountered in a game in my past life.

Like waking from a deep dream with a muddled mind, Xu Yuan stared at the blue sky through the large hole in the palace dome, his thoughts somewhat sluggish.

It felt like a moment, yet also like eternity.

Xu Yuan gradually realized something.

He seemed to have emerged from the illusion.

Thinking of this, Xu Yuan looked around.

"."

Upon seeing this familiar yet unfamiliar Hall of Skill Transmission, Xu Yuan couldn't help but raise his hand to cover his face and chuckle softly.

He finally emerged from that damned illusion.

As the cherry blossoms surrounding him completely faded, his gaze, peeking through his fingers, was drawn to a graceful figure descending from the large hole in the dome.

In the dappled sunlight, she descended with her sword in hand, like a celestial being descending to earth, her sleeves fluttering, and stopped beside him.

It's Ran Qingmo.

Upon seeing this familiar yet unfamiliar Big Ice Block, Xu Yuan was completely certain that he had truly emerged.

After all, there was no such person as the "Big Ice Block" ten thousand years ago.

Composing himself, Xu Yuan looked up at Ran Qingmo.

But he found that she wasn't looking at him; instead, she was staring intently at the front hall of the Transmission Hall.

I followed her gaze.

Xu Yuan saw a beautiful young girl in palace attire with her eyes closed, her bare feet enveloped in layers of golden light.

Compared to the "shield" mantra in the illusion, the golden patterns flowing across the surface of the light membrane before us are clearly incomparable.

Upon seeing this, Xu Yuan instinctively wanted to laugh.

But his smile froze the next moment; he realized he had to run.

This is no longer an illusion.

"Ran Qingmo, how much time has passed in the outside world?"

"."

Ran Qingmo gave a soft, hesitant sound, her eyes still warily fixed on the palace-dressed girl with her eyes closed, and replied softly:

"About two weeks."

"Only two weeks?"

Upon hearing this news, Xu Yuan frowned.

The air was silent for a moment.

In this quiet moment, the teleportation array beneath him and Ran Qingmo suddenly began to recharge "automatically".

It is the Saint's Remnant Soul.

While consciously controlling the teleportation array, the Saint's Remnant Soul floated out from the Soul Ring:

"Many illusions are like Yellow Millet Dream, a dream that can last for a hundred years, which is quite normal."

"."

Xu Yuan remained noncommittal; he had already anticipated this.

Xu Yuan glanced at the Black Sword gleaming coldly in Ran Qingmo's hand and suddenly spoke up:

"Ran Qingmo, dispel the sword technique."

"."

Ran Qingmo glanced at him sideways, her eyes filled with confusion. "... Why?"

Xu Yuan shook his head, his answer was simple:

"It's no use, we can only run."

Having spent so many years together in the illusion, he knows everything about Tianyan, this washboard saintess, Tianyan Qingqing cards.

Ran Qingmo's attempt to kill Tianyan, a being of a higher level, is roughly equivalent to killing Xu Changge being of a higher level.

Upon hearing this, the Saint's Remnant Soul beside him suddenly chuckled:

"Young Master Xu, why hasn't Tianyan woken up yet?"

Xu Yuan subconsciously recalled the final moments of the illusion, shook his head, and whispered:

"A gift Yuchu gave me."

"A gift?" The Saint's Remnant Soul raised an eyebrow.

Xu Yuan pondered for a moment, then summarized simply:

"To fulfill her long-cherished wish, at the end of the illusion, she reenacted the destruction of the Qionghua Sect for me and Tianyan. At my request, she also promised to let me wake up first and give me a chance to escape."

The Saint's Remnant Soul's eyes flickered for a moment:

"It seems you gained quite a bit in the illusion."

"I suppose so," Xu Yuan smiled slightly.

After a pause, the Saint's Remnant Soul asked again:

"So, you do have memories of the illusion?"

Xu Yuan nodded:

"Yes, but it's very vague, like a dream. Is that strange?"

The Saint's Remnant Soul remained silent for a moment upon hearing this, then spoke in a low, eerie tone:

"Strange, yet not strange."

"However, it seems the spirit of that Charm God Cherry Tree wants to grant you a fortuitous fortuitous opportunity."

Xu Yuan's words carried a hint of helplessness:

"It was indeed fortuitous opportunity, but also a life-or-death ordeal. Yuchu pulled Tianyan and me in there with the intention of killing us."

"She's going to kill you?!"

"Soul Fusion." Xu Yuan uttered a word that carried a shadowy connotation, referring to the Saint's Remnant Soul.

The Saint's Remnant Soul twitched at the corner of its eye:

"Soul Fusion?"

Xu Yuan explained:

"Just as you said, the Qionghua Sect was indeed destroyed by the Charm God Cherry Tree."

"However, before those saints of the Qionghua Sect died, they merged their Soul Fusion with Yuchu, planting in her the obsession to protect Qionghua Sect. So when she pulled Tianyan and me into the illusion, she did want to kill us, but another, deeper obsession of hers saved us."

"A deeper obsession?"

"To live on with Jing He, Tianyan and I became Jing He and her, and we lived until after she and Jing He were sacrificed."

Is that so?

The Saint's Remnant Soul sighed, then asked in a low voice, "But why wasn't I pulled in?"

"Because she was too weak, even if she self-destructed, she could only pull two people into that illusion."

"."

The Saint's Remnant Soul remained silent for a moment, then asked with a smile:

"You must have seen quite a few useful things in that illusion, right?"

The fragmented memories of illusions in his mind were still blurry. Xu Yuan didn't say much, but urged:

"It's hard to explain in a moment, and I don't remember much of it. Let's go first, or we might not be able to leave once Tianyan wakes up."

The Saint's Remnant Soul raised an eyebrow:

"The Heavenly Oversight Pavilion Holy Maiden will not take action to kill anyone until she has established an anchor point on someone of unpredictable nature."

"I know."

Xu Yuan interrupted the Saint's Remnant Soul, his expression somewhat strange. "Not killing doesn't mean we can't act, and..."

As he spoke,

Xu Yuan glanced at the beautiful girl with her eyes closed over there:

"In the illusion, I bullied her a bit too much."

"You think you can be a match for Tianyan?"

"The kind of bullying that doesn't require cultivation."

"."

The Saint's Remnant Soul paused for a moment, then a playful smile appeared on his lips as he glanced sideways at Ran Qingmo.

Ran Qingmo blinked and tilted her head. "What's wrong?"

"Heh, it's nothing," the Saint's Remnant Soul chuckled.

In a short while,

The teleportation array activated, and the three figures vanished.

"."

After the Transmission Hall returned to tranquility, time seemed to lose its measure within this timeless palace.

I don't know how much time passed,

The girl in the pale red palace dress slowly opened her eyes.

As the complex memories from the illusion flooded her mind, her golden pupils appeared somewhat blurred.

Unlike Xu Yuan, Yantian Divine Soul allows her to remember most of the things in the illusion.

In a daze,

Scenes from the escape kept flashing through my mind.

After a few breaths of silence,

"Buzz--"

A gust of wind swept away from the girl.

Standing a foot above the ground, her pale red palace dress fluttered in the wind, and the girl's pure and beautiful face was flushed with an unusual blush, while her eyes gleamed with a cold light as she looked around.

She's looking for someone.

Upon discovering that the hall was empty, the girl angrily and shamefully flung her sleeve:

"Son of a bitch!!!"

"Boom!!"

She immediately blasted a large hole in the jade brick wall of the main hall as if venting her anger.

After panting heavily for a long time, Tianyan slowly landed on the ground, her small fists clenched tightly.

"Bastard! Don't... don't let me catch you!"

After saying that,

Tianyan then sat cross-legged on the ground and began to close his eyes and regulate his breathing.

The effects of the Charm God Flower Poison and the Heavenly Desire Lust Poison in her body were still present.

There will be another chapter later.