Chapter 1422: Illusion

A white glow filled Xiao Yan’s vision as he stood in a world of white light. There was not a single person beside him. Without knowing why, his memories vaguely became a little chaotic.

“What happened?”

Xiao Yan frowned and muttered to himself. A moment later, he suddenly lifted his head. There was a circular light ring a short distance from him. He hesitated for a moment before walking to the light ring. After which, he stepped into it.

𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

Although Xiao Yan had only taken an instant to step into the light ring, it felt as though decades had passed. While he was feeling lost, his body suddenly shook. Lush green grassy plains replaced the white world in front of his eyes.

“This is... Wasteland Ancient Region?”

Xiao Yan muttered in a lost manner as he stared at this enormous grassland. This place left him with a feeling familiarity even with his chaotic memory.

Xiao Yan’s body stood in the air. His eyes looked around him and noticed that the plain was empty. The entire area was permeated with a lonely aura. It appeared as though he was the only one who existed...

“Roar!”

However, an earth-shaking roar echoed around Xiao Yan while his eyes were roaming the land. A blood-colored beast tide galloped over the horizon like a scarlet-red line. Within a couple of blinks, it had appeared within a thousand feet of him. A stench pounced toward him.

Xiao Yan knit his brow as he glanced over these ferocious beasts coming from all directions. He lifted his hand and an indescribably frightening energy created a destructive fluctuation. Following this fluctuation, all the ferocious beasts that entered a thousand-foot-radius of the fluctuation turned into dust at this moment, regardless of how strong they were...

Xiao Yan was a little absent-minded as he watched over half the beast tide disappear. He immediately looked at his hand in surprise. Such a strength was so great that it could not be described. It was as though this world could collapse beneath his will if he so desired...

“This is... the strength of a Dou Sheng?”

Xiao Yan muttered to himself. A wild joy surged into his eyes. He had pursued such strength for many years. Was he finally in possession of it?

“Roar!”

While Xiao Yan was immersed in this strength that could destroy the world with a lift of his hand, another roar that was filled with violence rang out. Countless of ferocious beasts stared at him with wide scarlet eyes as they charged at him.

“Hee hee...”

Xiao Yan strangely laughed at the attack of the beast tide. His hand ruthlessly pressed down and a hundred-thousand-foot-long handprint immediately formed in the grassy plains. A terrifying ripple spread over the ground toward his surroundings in a circular form. Nothing in the beast tide could let out a miserable cry. The moment they touched this fluctuation, they turned into dust...

An unimaginable number of ferocious beasts on the grassy plains below were completely annihilated as the palm fell. This kind of strength... caused one to feel a fear that originated from within one’s heart.

An unusual emotion surfaced from deep within Xiao Yan’s heart as he watched the hundred-thousand-foot-long handprint appear on the ground. It caused him to involuntarily laugh at the sky. His laughter was like thunder that rumbled across the land. He had finally obtained such strength...

“Hall of Souls, Hun clan, I intend to completely destroy all of you!”

A powerful murderous desire suddenly rose within Xiao Yan’s heart as his loud laughter reverberated. The sky behind him suddenly became distorted and a group of human figures was spat out in a miserable manner.

“Hun Yu?”

Xiao Yan was slightly startled as he looked at the group that had just appeared in the sky. He spat out the name of a man in his thoughts. A red glow flashed across his eyes as his hand ruthlessly grabbed at that group.

“Quick run!”

Hun Yu’s expression changed upon seeing Xiao Yan. He hurriedly turned around and fled, but his body had just turned when he discovered that the space around them had been completely sealed. Before the Dou Qi within his body could even surge, space itself seemed to have collapsed. A “bang” sounded as the space around them turned into a black hole, forcefully grinding Hun Yu’s group into bloody flesh...

“This strength is enough for me to take revenge...”

Xiao Yan randomly tossed the bloody flesh aside. A cold smile surfaced on his face. He turned around, stepped through empty space, and hurried out of the Ancient Wasteland Region. Any ferocious beasts that appeared within ten thousand feet of him was quickly pressed into a bloody and blurry ball of flesh by the pressure that spread across the sky.

A ray of light flashed across the azure sky. Many low and deep explosions sounded wherever this light passed. Blood flowed like a river...

The speed of this ray of light was extremely fast. Within less than ten minutes, it had crossed the spacious Ancient Wasteland Region and appeared on its border. Blood flowed like a river during this journey and the blood-red color in Xiao Yan’s eyes had become denser. However, he did not appear to have sensed the change. Instead, the smile on his face became stranger...

“Swoosh!”

A ray of light flashed and appeared on a mountain at the edge of the Ancient Wasteland Region. Xiao Yan’s body appeared. At this moment, both of his eyes were a blood-red. A dense killing desire caused Xiao Yan’s expression to become a little distorted. He looked at a town in the distance. It was the Wasteland Town. An expression of loss once again appeared on his distorted face when he saw this town. He seemed to vaguely detect that something was amiss, but he could tell what was wrong because of the chaotic memories in his mind.

“Buzz!”

After being at momentary loss, Xiao Yan once again lifted his foot and attempted to fly into the distance. However, he had just lifted his foot when a slight buzzing sound was emitted from his Storage Ring and a cool air surged out of it. This air moved along Xiao Yan’s arm and entered his head.

Xiao Yan’s body violently trembled when this clear cool air entered him. The chaotic memories in his mind and some unknown extra thing immediately disappeared. The bloody redness in Xiao Yan’s eyes also began to disappear with these things...

The moment the final tendril of blood-red disappeared, Xiao Yan’s expression became gloomy. He slowly lifted his head and looked at the empty space in front of him. He said, “It is indeed worthy of being the Bodhisattva Ancient Tree since it is able to create such a real illusion. Moreover, those who are in it cannot detect it...”

“Although this strength is powerful and is something that I have sought my whole life, it is unfortunately an illusion.”

Xiao Yan gently lifted a fist and opened it apart. A jade-green bead quietly lay in his hand. It was the Bodhisattva Seed that Xiao Yan had obtained back then. If not for this seed’s aid in expelling that obscure thing in his mind, he would have continued to sink into this life-like illusion. He finally understood why those Ban Sheng puppets existed. Those people had also been immersed in an illusion created by the Bodhisattva Ancient Tree and ended up losing their souls, turning into a walking corpse...

The moment Xiao Yan revealed the Bodhisattva Seed, the entire sky began to distort. Finally, the scene emitted a ‘bang’ and burst apart like a shattered mirror.

Xiao Yan was absent-minded when this place burst apart. His eyesight blurred. By the time he recovered, he discovered that he was in a space that was filled with a jade-green color. An ancient tree over a hundred feet tall was stood as though it had existed since ancient times. This tree was an emerald-green, appearing as though it had been carved from top quality emerald. It emitted a shocking life force.

This tree was the same as that ten-thousand-foot-tall Bodhisattva Ancient Tree in the outside world, but it appeared to have shrunk a countless number of times.

Xiao Yan’s eyes were gloomy as he looked at this small Bodhisattva Ancient Tree in front of him. That illusion, which had trapped him earlier, had definitely been created by this thing!

The emerald-green Bodhisattva Ancient Tree suddenly trembled as Xiao Yan observed it. Many light clusters flew out of it and stopped in front of Xiao Yan. These light clusters changed and various scenes were emitted from them. Xiao Yan’s eyes swept over them and his expression quickly changed. The people inside were Xun Er, Hun Yu, Jiu Feng, and the others who had entered the Bodhisattva Ancient Tree with him earlier. At this moment, all of them were trapped in their own illusion.

“What exactly are you planning to do?”

Xiao Yan furiously cried out. A Heavenly Flame quickly surged out of his body. This Bodhisattva Ancient Tree was too stange. That life-like illusion could not be differentiated between real or fake. From the looks of those Ban Sheng puppets earlier, Xiao Yan’s group was clearly not the first to have suffered this fate.

The Bodhisattva Ancient Tree shook once again when it heard Xiao Yan’s furious cry. A light cluster appeared. There was a hundred-thousand-foot-tall Bodhisattva Ancient Tree within the light cluster, but Xiao Yan’s eyes did not focus on the ancient tree. Instead, they focused on the spot in front of the tree where a black-clothed human was standing in the air. An aura that seemed to reign supreme spread from the body of this person. Under this aura, even the hundred-thousand-foot-tall Bodhisattva Ancient Tree appeared quite small...

“Dou... Dou Di...”

Xiao Yan’s eyes contained a dense shock. He stared intently at the black-clothed back. Although it was only an image, its aura still caused Xiao Yan’s soul to tremble. This kind of feeling... who else could possess it other than an elite Dou Di, which merely existed in ancient legends?