Chapter 276 – Ghost Shadow: Am I Really Fighting Mu Lin?

As Ji Xing soared rapidly towards the sky, attempting to escape Ping’an Ancient Town, a resonant hum echoed through the air. With a single thought from Mu Lin, the illusionary power of the Other Shore Flower Sea converged into one, surging like a tidal wave towards Ji Xing’s Divine Soul.

“Boom!”

Once gathered, the power of the Other Shore Flower Sea surged forth like a mighty river, relentless and overwhelming. Under this torrent of illusionary force, even though Ji Xing had elevated his Divine Soul to a higher level, he could not avoid being affected.

“Thud!”

“Hiss!”

A massive concentration of Divine Soul illusionary power first struck like a heavy hammer, forcibly shattering his soul’s defenses and invading his mind. The impact sent a sharp pain through his head, leaving his Divine Soul momentarily dazed.

When he regained clarity from the dizziness, he found himself standing within Ping’an Ancient City. Before him, Mu Lin stood deep in thought, pondering something.

“What is this… Ah, right. I came here to kill Lin Qiu. He deserves to die, but not at the hands of Ghost Shadow, lest it strengthen him…”

With this thought, Ji Xing prepared to strike. However, just before he could act, the star that had risen from his Divine Soul trembled violently. This tremor alerted him to something amiss.

“Wait, I’ve already been here once. I spoke with Lin Qiu, and it ended in conflict. Now, we are in the midst of battle… Yes, the battle. I was trying to leave this place, and Lin Qiu was using illusionary arts to stop me… This is an illusion!”

Realizing the anomaly, a sense of dread surged within Ji Xing, and without hesitation, he ignited his Divine Soul.

“Boom!”

The explosive flare of his soul briefly freed him from Mu Lin’s control, pulling him out of the illusion. Then, he discovered he was suspended in darkness, his body plummeting freely toward the earth.

“I can’t go down. I must leave this place…”

Having pieced everything together, Ji Xing immediately resumed his ascent, desperate to escape. As he flew, hatred for Mu Lin and Jiang Yingying burned within him.

“Lin Qiu, you trapped me in such a snare. You deserve to die.”

“And Jiang Yingying, you wretched woman, daring to deceive me. You will die too…”

Filled with loathing, he flew at full speed. One minute passed, then two, then three… After three full minutes of flight, he remained shrouded in dark mist. At this point, boundless terror gripped his heart.

“This isn’t right. I’m flying upward. At my speed, I should have reached beyond ten thousand meters long ago. How can I still be in the mist… I’m under the influence of an illusion.”

“Perhaps I’m not flying upward but circling in the darkness…”

Recognizing the anomaly, Ji Xing immediately changed direction, flying toward other paths. Unsurprisingly, he still could not escape and became utterly lost in the darkness.

“Bastard! Lin Qiu, show yourself! If you have any courage, face me in a real fight. What kind of hero attacks from the shadows?”

Unable to escape and consumed by fear, Ji Xing tried to provoke Mu Lin into revealing himself. Unfortunately, it was all in vain.

In the darkness, not only had Ping’an Ancient County vanished without a trace, but Mu Lin also left no sign of his presence. Now, it seemed as if Ji Xing was the only person left in the entire world.

This silence and oppression drove Ji Xing nearly to madness.

What terrified him even more was that as time passed, something seemed to be faintly watching him from within the pitch-black darkness.

This malicious gaze sent shivers down Ji Xing’s spine, but whenever he chased after it, he found nothing.

“Bastard!”

“Come out and fight me head-on!”

“Meteorfall Descent!”

With no other choice and unwilling to sit idle, Ji Xing unleashed his most powerful large-scale destructive Spell.

He hoped to force Mu Lin to reveal himself through this method.

“Boom!”

The meteor’s impact caused a violent explosion, destroying half of Ping’an Ancient County, yet Mu Lin still did not appear.

This situation made Ji Xing utterly frantic.

“Heavenly Fire!”

“Starfall!”

Unwilling to surrender, Ji Xing frantically cast Spells, churning the surrounding earth over and over again.

Soon, the entire Ping’an Ancient County was completely destroyed.

Then, Ji Xing suddenly snapped back to reality: “No, Ping’an Ancient County still has remnants of Yin Eight Gates Cultivators. If I acted so recklessly, they would never stand by and do nothing… I’m still trapped in an Illusion Realm!”

“When did this happen!”

Realizing this, Ji Xing was horrified and couldn’t understand when he had fallen under the illusion. However, the next moment, his eyes glazed over. When he regained consciousness, his memory had reverted to several minutes earlier.

“That’s right, I should escape from this place…”

…

Ji Xing had clearly fallen into a cycle of Illusion Realms, his memory affected and largely fragmented—and this Illusion Realm had been set up by Mu Lin from the very beginning.

  With the initial strike, after knocking Ji Xing unconscious, Mu Lin had layered three Illusion Realms on him. Now, Ji Xing had only broken through the first layer and was still trapped in the second. He hadn’t even realized the existence of the third Illusion Realm.

Thus, he was unaware that although his Mana had gathered several times and was seemingly “released,” his Spells had never actually been activated. The so-called release and the emptiness after Mana consumption were all illusions—it was the Manjusaka absorbing his Mana!

…

To be honest, even Mu Lin was surprised that the Other Shore Flower Sea could unleash such formidable power.

But soon, he felt this was only natural.

Mu Lin’s Other Shore Flower was no longer its original form.

Through his cultivation, after absorbing Mu Lin’s experiences, insights, and the slight memories he actively bestowed (copied memories), the Other Shore Flower in Mu Lin’s possession had gradually approached the Manjusaka of the Underworld Hell from his previous life, rather than remaining an Earth Grade Supreme spiritual flower of this world.

Of course, under normal circumstances, Mu Lin’s Other Shore Flower was only approaching this state. To truly transform, it would still require a long time—at least until Mu Lin’s City God Domain advanced to the Prefecture City God or even Province City God level, when he would have sufficient knowledge and foundation to allow the accompanying Other Shore Flower to fully transform.

However, the world is always full of surprises, and not all surprises are bad.

Mu Lin never expected that he would obtain Divinity while still weak in strength, and Divinity that was highly compatible with Illusion Abilities.

After the Manjusaka fused with the Joy and Desire Divinity, it soared to new heights, transforming into a Divine Flower.

In such circumstances, the Other Shore Flower being powerful is reasonable; it would be strange if it were weak.

After all, Divinity is almost synonymous with strength.

Another point is that when activating the Other Shore Flower, Mu Lin didn’t just use its own power. He also drew upon the Earth Veins, gaining nearly limitless Mana, and activated the Heaven Grade array—the Twilight Illusion Life-Death Array.

With these several abilities combined, it was only natural for Mu Lin to overpower Ji Xing. Fighting him on equal terms would have been an insult to his own cultivation (cheating).

“In Ping’an Ancient County, I am now invincible among my peers!”

…

While Mu Lin was reflecting, the Other Shore Flower had completely parasitized Ji Xing, continuously absorbing his Mana, Qi and Blood, Divine Soul power, and memories.

Soon, everything about him was plundered by the Manjusaka. Beneath the eerie yet beautiful Other Shore Flower Sea, another skeleton would be added.

“Boom!”

However, just as Ji Xing was about to die, before Mu Lin could rejoice, a deadly crisis suddenly surged in his heart.

Looking up at the sky, Mu Lin narrowed his eyes and discovered a small meteor trailing a long tail of flame rapidly descending from beyond the heavens.

The target of its fall was undoubtedly Ping’an Ancient County—a powerful figure from the Demonic Sect of the Star Moon Sect had taken action.

Although there was an unspoken rule among humans not to assassinate the Prodigies of opposing factions, rescuing one’s own was permissible.

At this moment, the Demonic Sect powerhouse of the Star Moon Sect intended to clear the dark mist with the meteor and rescue their own Prodigy.

As for the casualties caused by the meteor’s impact, that was not even a consideration for the Star Moon Sect powerhouse.

However, while he could disregard it, Mu Lin could not.

What made Mu Lin’s expression even more grim was that, as the meteor descended from the sky, the Star Moon Sect powerhouse used some method to directly teleport Ji Xing’s severely weakened body out of Ping’an Ancient County.

“Bastard!”

This scene made Mu Lin grit his teeth in anger.

Fortunately, there was also good news. Perhaps due to the influence of the Twilight Illusion Life-Death Array, or perhaps because the Star Moon Sect powerhouse’s spell was designed this way, Ji Xing was not directly teleported to the Star Moon Sect powerhouse’s side but instead appeared in the sky above Ping’an Ancient County.

Seeing this, Mu Lin clenched his teeth and issued a command to his Netherworld Soldiers.

“Kill him!”

“Hiss…”

As Mu Lin’s command was given, accompanied by the sound of neighing horses, the Black Mist he summoned surged violently like a sea of fog.

In the next moment, the Black Mist soared into the sky like a mountain, heading straight for Ji Xing.

Following closely behind, charging toward the sky, were the three thousand Beiwei Army under Mu Lin’s command.

“Thunderous…”

Their iron hooves rumbled like thunder, shaking the Void. The simultaneous advance of three thousand Beiwei Army soldiers already carried an unstoppable momentum.

What was even more alarming was that this disciplined and powerful iron army also knew how to form Arrays.

“Hum!”

During the charge, the auras of the Beiwei Army interconnected, merging their momentum with the Black Mist to form a shattered, iron-blooded fortress.

Although this fortress was severely damaged, with half its gate broken, anyone who saw its ruined gate and shattered walls felt as though it could stand forever.

“The Jade Gate Pass of Cangshan—he can actually summon this fortress!”

“The key isn’t the fortress projection, it’s the people—those iron-masked, wolf-like troops. Could they be the legendary Beiwei Army? I remember they all died fighting at this fortress.”

“No, no, no. Neither the people nor the fortress matters now. What’s most urgent is that Lin Qiu seems to be confronting the Star Moon Sect’s guardian head-on.”

“Good heavens, how dare he? That guardian is a Mortal Shedding Adept. Even a casual strike from him would be too much for Lin Qiu to handle!”

Even after the Mortal Shedding Adept made his move, Mu Lin still refused to give up. This scene truly stunned Jiang Yingying, Buddha Son Fa Yan, and the others.

They never expected ‘Lin Qiu’ to be so vengeful and so forceful.

Among the demonic disciples, the one most shocked and emotionally shaken wasn’t Buddha Son Fa Yan, Blood River, Jiang Yingying, or the others.

The one most deeply shaken was Ghost Shadow, hiding in the shadows.

Looking at the Black Mist enveloping the entire city, then gazing at the unstoppable Beiwei Army charging toward the sky, a wave of lingering fear washed over Ghost Shadow’s heart.

“Whew, thank goodness Ji Xing made the first move. Otherwise, it would have been me fighting Lin Qiu.”

(End of Chapter)