Episode 172

“Who…who are you?”

Han Heng had lived for centuries in the Upper World. He had seen more than most, and he had at least heard of all sorts of spells and techniques. But this scene unraveling before him made him feel terribly fearful.

He was standing right in front of Gu Suihan and could see the changes happening over this short period of time very clearly. That cute and charming young lady was being changed in every way. Not only did her looks and her body shape change, but even the aura from her level of cultivation and spiritual sense had changed completely. It was as if she was a different person altogether.

Thinking about it was already terrifying enough. He was too stunned to speak.

“I am…Gu Suihan!” said Gu Suihan with a chuckle. These words only made the old man feel even more terrified.

“That’s impossible! Nobody survived the secret realm! Besides, you don’t look like that young fellow at all.” Han Heng froze for a moment as he recalled that young man whom he had a fairly deep impression of. That young man had been one with thick eyebrows, bright eyes, a chiseled jaw, and a smile that seemed barely there. He wasn’t very muscular, but he behaved very politely, acted very logically, and never crossed the line unnecessarily.

This new person before him, however, looked nothing like the Gu Suihan he knew before.

“Hmm. How about if I do this?” Gu Suihan smiled as he finished his cup of tea and rapped his slim and fair knuckles gently against the table.

A biting wind suddenly started blowing inside the room. Han Heng looked up and subconsciously met Gu Suihan’s eyes, which seemed as dark and deep as a blackhole.

One second later, he felt like the entire room had become dark. Everything he saw was dyed a bloody red, and the stench of blood filled his nostrils. Shrill cries and howls echoed continuously in his ears, threatening to break his thin and fragile eardrums.

“This…” he murmured. He couldn’t help but clench the teacup he was about to drink as he tried to keep himself calm.

“What the…” Han Heng had just placed the cup to his lips when he suddenly smelled the awful stench of rotting corpses. He looked down and realized that the cup wasn’t filled with fragrant tea at all. It was filled with bloodied pieces of flesh. Maggots crawled out of the flesh from time to time, and it gave off a pungent and unbearable smell.

He flung the cup away in horror, patted himself down frantically, and took some steps backward.

Bam! It only took him a few steps to end up hitting the wall behind him. He swallowed hard as he felt a wet and slippery feeling on his back and tried his best to remain calm. He murmured, “What I’m feeling right now isn’t real. This is just an illusion. I must remain calm. I can locate this illusion’s weakness only if I remain calm.”

He was a cultivator at Origin Core, after all. Even though he wasn’t good at fighting and didn’t have much experience doing so either, his consciousness and survival instinct was very strong.

He made a hand seal, and his eyes instantly lit up as he held a small cauldron in his hands, even as perspiration dripped down his face. Sparks flew out from the pretty purple flames inside the cauldron, and the air around it was beginning to warp. The temperature of these flames was clearly terrifyingly high.

“How dare you lay a trap for me! Once I get out of this thing, I’m going to skin you, cut off your tendons, drink your blood and refine your bones.”

Han Heng could feel the power bursting from the spiritual weapon that was bound to himself and felt a lot bolder now. His eyes were filled with anger and mixed with a tinge of fear as they scanned the room. Even as he spoke, he never gave up trying to find the weakness in the illusion he was trapped in.

“You think…this is an illusion?” Gu Suihan’s voice quietly echoed in the room. His voice seemed even more creepy and sinister in this quiet and frightening environment.

“Humph! Of course!” Han Heng became even bolder when he heard what Gu Suihan said and smirked.

“Then…do you think an illusion would be able to kill you?” Gu Suihan’s voice was accompanied by a crackling sound that suddenly filled the air around Han Heng, making it sound even more sinister.

“What…what’s that…” Han Heng clenched his teeth as he stared straight at the skeletons covered in rotting flesh and thickened blood that kept coming out from a bloodied pile of mud not too far from him.

He made a hand seal and thrust his palms out. The cauldron floating above his hands suddenly rang loudly. The purple flames inside were like a dragon as it suddenly shot out from the holes on the side. It dyed its surroundings a pretty color and seemed sentient as it followed Han Heng’s instructions to spread out and attack those skeletons.

There was a muffled sound, and those vomit-inducing skeletons instantly turned to ash. The purple flames had accomplished that without any problem at all. They had woven themselves into a huge and dense net that turned those skeletons into a burning heap of ash.

“HAHAHA! So, they only look impressive, but they’re completely useless!”

Han Heng became more confident when he saw what happened to the skeletons and let out a maniacal laugh. He drew a line in the air, turning the purple flames into an alarmingly hot rain that fell from above silently.

“What if I do this, then?” Gu Suihan’s frosty voice resounded again. He seemed to speak as softly as a mosquito’s buzzing, yet every word rang clearly in Han Heng’s ears.

Immediately after Gu Suihan said those words, more skeletons appeared. This time, they were covered in armor, carried large spears in their hands, and opened their mouths to roar silently as they charged toward Han Heng.

“Humph! So what? They’re just pieces of trash.” Han Heng summoned the purple flames and turned it into a wall of fire around him. Fiery sparks flew out like shooting stars, drawing long, burning arcs before crashing into these improved skeletons.

He was so focused on killing the skeletons that he didn’t realize there was a faint reddish glow on his face. His eyes were also turning red.

Clang! His cauldron rang loudly, snapping Han Heng out of his crazed state.

“That was…a very high-level illusion!” Han Heng’s heart was still pounding from how he had nearly fallen for the illusion. His pale face against the glow of the purple flames made him look even more sickly.

“Calm the soul! Break the illusion!” The desire to kill appeared in his mind again. It made him feel angry inside, and an aggressive expression spread across his face. He bit his tongue and sprayed some blood on the cauldron.

A glimmer appeared in his eyes, eventually turning into a beam of light that could reach the sky. Han Heng was finally able to see Gu Suihan’s indifferent face which was actually barely two meters away from himself.

“Go to hell! Burn the Heavens, Break the Spell!”

After Han Heng roared with all his might, the cauldron opened up and filled the entire place with a purple glow. The illusion was broken, as though a fog had just cleared up. The flames crackled loudly and turned into a dragon that flew toward Gu Suihan from all directions.

Gu Suihan had a look of horror on his face. He didn’t react in time and was turned into nothing in an instant.

“HA! HAHAHA!” Han Heng panted heavily and cackled with relief after he saw that Gu Suihan had been reduced to nothing.

“What…are you laughing about?” A distant murmuring suddenly resounded next to his ear.

That familiar voice and familiar tone made Han Heng freeze as though he had been struck by lightning. His neck was stiff as he forced himself to turn and look at where the voice had come from.

Gu Suihan was still seated in that chair with a cup of tea in front of him as he stared back at Han Heng silently with that indifferent look in his eyes.

That small table was still in front of Han Heng too.

“How…how is this possible?” Han Heng looked down at the table, which only looked slightly different from before. He then looked back up at Gu Suihan, and his expression turned to one of dismay.

He understood what had happened now. He finally understood it.

That had been an illusion indeed, but who said there could only be one layer of illusion at one time?

The front bit was merely to distract him for a while. Once he was more engrossed in the illusion, Gu Suihan could easily turn his body by 90 degrees, then place a table covered in formation runes in front of him.

In Han Heng’s hurry to use everything he had to get rid of the illusion, angry thoughts filled his mind, and all he could think of was how to kill Gu Suihan. He didn’t have any excess capacity to take note of these details.

And so, the formation on the desk was activated.

He had put all his energies into his attack, but it hit nothing in the end.

“What a detailed attack.” Han Heng looked defeated as he stared at Gu Suihan for a long time. He said in a bitter voice, “You were very careful, and your ploy was detailed to this extent. I lost, but I also definitely deserved to.”

Pak! A soft breaking noise was heard as Han Heng watched a ripple spread across Gu Suihan, as though he was merely water. That table in front of him also slowly disappeared.

“Indeed, it was no surprise that you lost,” a faint voice rang in Han Heng’s mind even as he stood there in a daze.

“So…there’s more!” Han Heng snapped out of his daze and laughed sadly to himself. He turned around to look at Gu Suihan, who was standing behind him with his hands folded behind his back.

“I have some questions that I hope you can answer…” said Gu Suihan quietly, ignoring Han Heng’s conflicted emotions. He proceeded to ask all sorts of questions, including questions about the secret realm that seemed to be connected to the nether world that belonged to Disciplinarian Zhang, that large cauldron with the Demonic Race’s script inscribed on it, as well as Han Heng’s journey from the Upper World to this place.

After asking all those questions, he looked at Han Heng with a relaxed expression on his face. He swirled the tea in his cup leisurely and waited for an answer from the old man.