Chapter 1774: Reality or Illusion
Nether Qi and Nether Yu also flickered to the side in an instant.
When their Divine Sense cleared the scene ahead, they were once again shocked by the eerie sight.
Where did this thing come from? How had it gotten so close? The three of them hadn’t sensed a thing.
If it hadn’t spoken, they would still be completely oblivious.
When their Divine Sense swept over the scarecrow, they found nothing at all.
‘No life force, no magical power fluctuations, and absolutely no aura!’
Li Yan thought he felt his perception must be wrong.
“A puppet?”
The Nether sisters looked at Li Yan, their eyes filled with equal confusion. This told Li Yan he hadn’t sensed incorrectly.
If this scarecrow was anything, it was most likely a puppet.
But any puppet should have some spiritual energy or formation fluctuations as long as the internal array was running, especially given how close they were.
As the three watched, unsure of what was happening, their pupils suddenly contracted to the size of pinpricks.
Behind the scarecrow, the air blurred. Through the gaps of its outstretched arms, they could still see the scenery behind it.
At that moment, the sky darkened as if a blackish-yellow cloud were pressing down. Behind the first scarecrow, more scarecrows suddenly appeared.
In the blink of an eye, these scarecrows used their single legs to stand atop the courtyard wall.
In a flash, the wall was lined with scarecrows, as if it were a fence of straw.
One blocked the moon gate below, while twenty others stood above.
An intense palpitation instantly flooded Li Yan’s body—a sense of mortal crisis that made his skin crawl swept over him.
“Retreat, now!”
Li Yan reacted much faster than the Nether sisters. As the words left his mouth, he was already hurtling backward away from the gate.
Whish! Whish! Whish!
The moment he retreated, a barrage of straw stalks shot forth. The density of the straw made the three of them feel their scalps go numb even through their Divine Sense.
What terrified them more was that they could sense the force behind every single stalk—it was the power of a Void Refining Realm attack.
While most were at the Initial-stage Void Refining Realm, the sheer volume of such a dense attack meant that Li Yan’s defenses would be shredded in an instant.
All three would surely die. They flickered around the front of the rooms.
The space was somewhat large, but for an attack of this scale, it was far too cramped, preventing them from maneuvering freely.
In their haste, they could only try to get as far from the center of the attack as possible.
“I might not be able to protect you!”
Li Yan shouted urgently as he retreated. He wasn’t even sure if he could survive this himself.
“Survive the first wave first!”
Nether Qi and Nether Yu’s faces were pale, but Nether Qi forced herself to steady her mind.
The sisters were suddenly enveloped in a blinding yellow light.
They didn’t dare hold back a single shred of their Earth-attribute defensive treasures, their magical power surging like a tide.
Even as they spoke, their hands didn’t stop moving, flickering up and down as they slapped talisman after talisman onto themselves.
A black shield appeared before Li Yan, spinning rapidly to form a ring of light around him.
Though all three possessed powerful physical bodies, they didn’t care about anything else.
They piled on talismans and activated every defensive treasure they had.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Almost the instant the three retreated, violent explosions resounded through the heavens and earth…
Only now did Li Yan think about whether to hide inside the Earth Mottle.
The ferocity of the attack had deprived him of his usual calm, causing a lapse in his judgment.
In truth, less than a breath had passed. The courtyard was only so large; their retreat from the back was almost instantaneous.
As the three frantically circulated their magical power, they soon noticed something strange.
Although the rooms in front of them were shaking violently as if the earth were quaking—looking as if they might collapse into ruins or be ground to dust at any moment—the expected total annihilation never came.
By the time the three realized something was amiss, the terrifying explosions from the back had vanished without a trace.
Everything had come and gone in a flash. The space that had been shaking violently a moment ago suddenly returned to normal.
“This is…”
Li Yan sent his Divine Sense to the rear courtyard, only to see a startling sight. All the attacks had vanished!
Stranger still, everything in the rear courtyard remained unchanged.
Not a single mark was left on the ground. The ponds and the stone path were perfectly intact.
Yet, the terrifying attack just now had clearly felt like twenty Void Refining cultivators opening fire.
That should have been enough to turn this place into a bottomless abyss.
“Is this an illusion array?”
After ten breaths of deathly silence, Nether Qi’s murmur broke the quiet.
The illusion here was too realistic; they had truly felt the approach of death.
She and her sister were still dripping with cold sweat, the lingering fear haunting their hearts.
They truly believed they were about to die. Combined, the two could face an Initial-stage Void Refining cultivator, but only if they fought for their lives.
Against twenty such scarecrows, what could they do? All their defenses had been mere instinct.
In the end, the situation had changed so abruptly it was almost laughable. It turned out to be an illusion.
“I… let’s go look.”
Nether Yu said. Her voice still held a trace of terror.
That feeling of powerlessness had almost made her heart burst. Anyone less stout-hearted would have died of fright or fainted.
Li Yan didn’t speak. He was also covered in cold sweat. He simply nodded and led the way, carefully flying toward the rear again.
The sisters followed immediately. However, not a single one of them retracted their various layers of defense.
Their magical power continued to circulate at full tilt. This made the three of them look colorful from the outside, very strange and unique.
But none of them found the others’ appearance funny; if anything, they wished they had even more layers of protection.
Soon, they bypassed the rooms and arrived at the rear courtyard.
Li Yan had already observed the area thoroughly with his Divine Sense. He landed on the ground without hesitation.
Then, he used his foot to stomp the ground. Real and solid, showing no signs of having been attacked.
Nether Yu landed and even crouched down to carefully touch the ground.
Then, she suddenly threw a punch at the earth.
BOOM!
The entire earth shook violently once more, but another startling scene occurred.
After her punch hit the ground, the earth merely rippled with a burst of earthy-yellow light before returning to normal.
Nether Yu looked puzzled. She pressed her jade palm against the ground, and a sound like crashing waves echoed from within her.
A rumbling sound extended deep into the earth from beneath her palm…
After seven or eight breaths, she retracted her palm and stopped her magical power.
“This is not a grand array, nor is it a layer of technique restrictions. We seem to have entered a magical treasure. This place is sealed!”
Nether Yu said. As she spoke, she looked up at the sky.
Thump!
Even as she looked up, Nether Qi—who shared a mental connection with her—suddenly exerted force with her legs and shot into the air, vanishing.
Li Yan stood where he was, also looking up at the sky. Nether Yu also stood up and looked up at the sky.
While she spoke, the other two had been sensing her investigation and had essentially accepted her deduction.
Since Nether Yu went to investigate, they only needed to wait here.
After forty or fifty seconds, a loud bang echoed from the sky.
In the wake of the bang, a small black dot rapidly appeared above.
Soon, Nether Qi’s figure descended. In their vision, she grew larger.
Whish!
With a piercing whistle of air, Nether Qi’s slender body dropped like a meteorite.
CRASH!
As she hit the ground, another burst of yellow light shot up from beneath her feet.
As the yellow light dissipated, Nether Qi’s figure solidified. She nodded to the other two.
“This is indeed a magical treasure, not an array. There is a powerful force pressing down about a hundred li up.
My attempts to break it with arrays and restriction-breaking techniques were ineffective.
I estimate that any cultivator below the Body Integration Realm will be unable to break out forcibly without a specific method!
While there is a sky above, the area we can move in is only as large as this courtyard.
I tried to cross the boundary of the walls, but I was blocked there as well!”
Nether Qi spoke quickly, offering only her judgment.
They were certain the entire courtyard was a magical treasure. She could only judge that Void Refining cultivators couldn’t break out; as for Body Integration powerhouses, that was beyond her ability to determine.
Li Yan listened quietly. Though the others had already searched, he still wanted to see for himself.
This wasn’t because he didn’t trust them, but because he wanted to know if he could break it.
Nether Qi and Nether Yu’s Divine Sense immediately followed him up, but as they neared Li Yan, they were repelled by a force.
“He doesn’t want us to sense his methods,” Nether Qi immediately sent a voice transmission.
Nether Yu also retracted her Divine Sense, her expression unchanged.
The grey-robed elder was mysterious; they could never grasp his thoughts, and their strength was inferior to his.
Overall, their cooperation with the elder only ensured he wouldn’t discard them after use.
The power dynamics between them were controlled by him; they were merely cooperating to reach their goal.
Li Yan reached the hundred-li mark in an instant. Though blue sky and white clouds remained above, a formless pressure continuously pushed down as he rose.
This brought Li Yan’s ascent to a halt. Even with his cultivation, he couldn’t fly any higher.
Li Yan hovered in the air. He quietly sensed the surroundings for a moment, then suddenly threw a punch upward.
The strike wasn’t fast; one could see an inky beam of light shoot from his fist, but it seemed to be pushing against a heavy mountain as it moved slowly.
The strike hit the barrier silently, as if the black light had simply melted into the sky.
He sensed it for a few breaths, then retracted his magical power.
Then, he struck again in another direction—toward the area outside the rear courtyard. The same scene occurred.
A few breaths later, Li Yan dispersed his magical power, and the beam of light crumbled.
He released his Divine Sense again, ensuring the Nether sisters’ sense wasn’t nearby.
He quietly took out the Heaven-Stealing Kerchief and, hidden by his sleeve, pressed it against the formless barrier…
Half an hour later, in the courtyard, Nether Yu couldn’t help but look up again.
The elder hadn’t come down for a long time. But they could sense he hadn’t left; he was still at the hundred-li mark.
“It seems he has quite a few tricks, and he hasn’t caused any commotion. Is he trying to keep us from recognizing his arts?”
Nether Qi didn’t reply to Nether Yu’s transmission. She was busy thinking about other things.
The elder was far too cautious. He didn’t even want them to see him use techniques, likely for fear they would identify his origin…
Just then, a gust of wind blew from the sky as a figure rapidly descended.
“This is indeed a magical treasure. Let’s head back to the hall first!”
Li Yan’s face was grim as he landed.
He spoke and immediately flew toward the front rooms without waiting for a reply.
The sisters immediately understood. Before entering, they had surely thought about how to return.
But since they were adventuring, they had to explore first before worrying about the exit!
They had assumed that if they could get in, they could get out. Now, the situation was different. They seemed to have walked into a trap.