At the center of the Hundred Tribulations Heart-Questioning Formation.
As the grand formation operated, its power enveloped Gu Chenfeng.
Gu Chenfeng felt his consciousness gradually being drawn along by the formation, his thoughts rising and sinking, drifting toward chaos.
Until he entered a state of lucid emptiness in which both self and world were forgotten.
It was as though everything had begun anew, with all the people he had encountered appearing around him in different spaces and settings.
Everything seemed to happen in reality, yet was filled with absurdity and danger.
For instance, Gu Chenfeng's first illusion took him back to the Great Li Dynasty.
He was still that "dissolute young master" who ate his fill and waited to die, without the Phantom Martial Divine Ruins, and without having met Demon Venerable Leng Xingye.
Princess Yaoyin, who loathed him utterly, had married him by imperial mandate.
She had tasted the pleasures of a beauty and was thoroughly satisfied, unaware that this was a trap set by Emperor Xuan.
Emperor Xuan used this to gain control over Gu Chenfeng, threatening his future and his life.
He forced his grandfather Gu Beiwu and his father Gu Lingxiao to relinquish their military authority, cripple their own cultivation, and submit to confinement in the Imperial Capital.
Within this heart tribulation, Gu Chenfeng no longer possessed formidable power.
Faced with a choice between life and death, he ultimately chose to leave a final letter and slit his own throat.
He had his deceased wife, Princess Yaoyin, secretly pass word of his death to his family.
Upon learning of their grandson's and son's tragic death, Gu Beiwu and Gu Lingxiao raised an army in rebellion and stormed the Imperial City to avenge Gu Chenfeng, and he finally passed the heart tribulation.
Afterward, all manner of illusions