Gloomy emotions hung over Han Shuichang's heart like dark clouds. He looked around and found that nearly every face he could see wore the same ashen hue. Even Wang Zihuai had a grave expression, with none of his usual carefree bearing.
He knew this situation was profoundly wrong, and so he fully understood Duanyang True Man's warning before he fell unconscious:
Guard your true heart!
They were indeed words of gold and jade. Shaoyang Sword Cave had 1,421 cultivation caves, with more than two-thirds occupied year-round—nearly a thousand people. Add the guards, and there were always over two thousand. Now that the projection of the demonic kingdom hung in the sky, if their minds lost their guard and Wu Yuanchen exploited the opening, then regardless of who won above, the turbulent emotions of a thousand people and their contamination by demonic influence would become an enormous disaster.
Han Shuichang had already realized that even if Shaoyang Sword Cave survived today by sheer luck, it would be crippled to the bone. Damage to its spirit veins would be secondary; most terrifying would be the ruin of its reputation, something that could not be salvaged in ten or twenty years.
At that thought, even his own emotions began to waver.
At the same time, the distance between the three forces standing in the sky—the grotto-heaven, the demonic kingdom, and the dragon-riding Heavenly Man manifestation—was widening. The light and shadow that intervened between illusion and reality spread continuously, and the void affected by their mutual influence expanded as well. Looking up, the heavenly domain was divided into three. In terms of sheer area, the grotto-heaven and the demonic kingdom were larger, yet the dragon-riding Heavenly Man still roamed freely. Even when it occasionally entered their domains, neither side could do anything to it.