Pan Long sprinted on, quietly making his preparations.
Just as he reckoned he was about to pass that blurry patch again, he stopped short.
In another step or two, he entered the blurred area.
Everything around him turned hazy. The mountains were no longer mountains, the water no longer water. The road vanished beneath his feet, and the cloud-choked sky vanished overhead.
Everything dissolved into chaos. Amid it all, only Pan Long remained real and certain, unchanged in every way.
The Wolflike Demon's eyes widened in shock.
It knew, of course, that its method had a flaw. The Illusion Realm and Real Realm together stretched thirty-three li, enough to trap any enemy. But that world could not be conjured from nothing; its scenery had to be drawn from the mountains and rivers of the real world.
Thirty-three li of real mountains and rivers had edges. Whenever someone reached an edge, the Wolflike Demon had to turn the world on its head, shifting scenery from the other side over to join the road here.
The treasure was not lacking in power. The Wolflike Demon simply lacked the skill to devise a Formation that could create an Illusion Realm from nothing without letting an enemy see through it.
It could invent an Illusion Realm itself, but the more realistic the realm, the less power it consumed. By borrowing scenery that truly existed, it could sustain a world of illusion and reality spanning thirty-three li. If it invented the scenery, it might not manage even three.
The flaw lay neither in the treasure nor in the Formation, but in the Wolflike Demon itself.
Worse, it dared not consult the Demon Gods with their vast powers, fearing they would kill it and seize its treasure.
So it could only puzzle over the problem alone,