The towers twisted, figures dissolved, the mountain gate collapsed, and the sea of clouds shattered!
The first layer of the heart-demon illusion shattered with a single thought!
The mist-shrouded realm changed violently again!
This time, the surroundings became a blood-soaked battlefield stretching to the horizon.
Mountains of corpses rose above a surging sea of blood. Ruins littered the towns and villages of every prefecture in the Southern Region. Countless mortals and cultivators lay dead amid guttering flames and wailing winds.
Shrill cries, venomous curses, and the lamentations of the living echoed through heaven and earth.
A cold, sinister demonic thought pierced the illusion and lunged straight for Cheng Heng's sea of consciousness:
"If you press on, you will be defeated and die."
"With no one to suppress the demon, the Demon Embryo will take shape. A thousand miles of the Southern Region will be destroyed, and a million lives will become bones withered by karma."
"All this slaughter, this sea of blood, these lost souls—they will exist because you charged ahead, arrogant and eager for battle!"
"You killed them all. You brought down the Southern Region!"
The second layer of the illusion—the Karmic Heart-Punishing Realm!
The Heart-Illusion Grand Formation struck directly at the deepest shackles on a cultivator's Dao heart, using the evil consequences of a possible future and endless karma to crush his resolve.
It sought to burden Cheng Heng with monstrous guilt, breed regret, shake his Dao heart, and make him fear the outcome.
If his mind faltered and even the slightest urge to retreat or trace of guilt arose, cracks would spread through his Dao heart. A heart demon would take root, impossible to remove for all eternity.
But Cheng Heng's soul was far too powerful and steady.
The karmic torment and false accusations that ordinary cultivators