Chapter 189 - 188: Meeting Chu Kuang
A few miles away from the crater’s edge, moving swiftly over the black basalt terrain, were two figures.
One was Chu Hua, her body stained with dried blood from her catastrophic encounter in the quartz canyon days prior. Every few steps, a fresh tremor ran through her body, and she had to grit her teeth to keep from crying out. She walked with a noticeable limp, her face pale, completely devoid of her former haughtiness.
Walking a half-step behind her, his pristine black and white robes untouched by the dust of the battlefield, was Lin Yuan. Not a single speck of ash clung to the pale silk, as though the desolation of this land did not dare to touch him. His hands were clasped casually behind his back, his deep purple eyes scanning the desolate landscape with the mild, unhurried curiosity of a man out for an afternoon stroll.
They finally crested a large basalt ridge. Below them lay the massive crater, entirely obscured by the churning, violent dome of the violet illusion formation. The dome pulsed like something alive, tendrils of light writhing across its surface, and a low, keening hum rolled off it that made the very stones beneath their feet shiver.
Chu Hua stopped, leaning heavily against a jagged rock, exhaling a ragged breath. Sweat beaded on her brow despite the cold mountain air, and her fingers dug into the stone as though the rock itself could lend her strength. She pointed a trembling finger toward the massive dome.
"This is it," she said, her voice laced with a mixture of exhaustion and lingering, bitter spite. "This is the main camp. But you have forced me to walk you to your own grave, Lin Yuan. The camp is covered by an illusion."
Lin Yuan looked at the massive formation. His comprehension instantly detected the horrific anomaly woven into the center of the array. He could hear the faint, telepathic screams of the bound spirit echoing in his mind, a chorus of grief so old it had curdled into something closer to madness. For the briefest instant, something like distaste flickered behind his composed expression.
A formation spirit at the Soul Transformation realm, Lin Yuan thought, a genuine flicker of surprise crossing his flawless face. How did Chu Kuang, a mere Spirit Severing cultivator, get his hands on the bound soul of an expert of such caliber? Did his Patriarch slay a rival and gift the soul to his heir as a mere formation tool? The foundations of the Central Continent are truly steeped in blood.
But his surprise was fleeting, gone as quickly as it had come, replaced by the same cold indifference he wore for everything that did not concern him directly. A tool was just a tool, regardless of its origins. Whatever tragedy had birthed this formation, it was not his to mourn.
Seeing Lin Yuan pause, Chu Hua misinterpreted his silence as fear. Hope flared in her chest, ugly and desperate, and a weak, mocking smile returned to her pale lips.
"You feel it, don’t you?" she sneered, leaning her head back against the rock. Her breathing had grown ragged with the effort of speaking, but the venom in her tone lost none of its edge. "The absolute terror of a realm you cannot comprehend. That illusion is powered by the actual soul of a Soul Transformation expert! Unless you yourself possess a cultivation base at the Soul Transformation realm, attempting to see through it is pointless! You will wander into the fog, lose your mind to the screaming spirits, and eventually be executed by the perimeter guards before you even see the camp."
She raised her right hand, revealing a glowing, intricate rune carved into her palm. The mark pulsed faintly in time with the dome below, a sickly violet light seeping between her fingers.
"I can pass freely," Chu Hua boasted weakly, though her voice cracked at the edges, betraying just how much this final act of defiance was costing her. "This rune grants me safe passage through the veil. But for you? You are locked out. Your arrogant little crusade ends here, peasant. Figure it out for yourself. I am leaving!"
She pushed off the rock, ignoring the fresh spike of pain that shot through her ribs, intending to activate her rune and flee into the safety of the violet fog, leaving Lin Yuan stranded to whatever fate the illusion had in store for him.
"Wait."
The word was spoken softly, yet it carried an undeniable weight that caused the surrounding to vibrate. Loose pebbles skittered off the ridge and tumbled into the dark below.
Chu Hua froze mid-step, one foot still hovering above the ground, the lingering terror of the quartz canyon rushing back into her veins like ice water. Her carefully rebuilt bravado shattered in an instant. She slowly turned her head, looking at Lin Yuan, and found herself unable to look away from those glowing purple eyes.
Lin Yuan unclasped his hands. His deep purple eyes locked onto hers, glowing with a cold light that made the air around them feel several degrees colder.
"Take another step," Lin Yuan commanded smoothly, "and face my might once more. Did you truly believe I brought you all this way just to stare at a cloud of purple smoke?"
Chu Hua’s throat went dry. Her mind flashed back to the moment his power had first descended upon her like a mountain given divine will. She swallowed hard, her raised hand trembling now for an entirely different reason than exhaustion.
"Before you leave," Lin Yuan continued, turning his gaze toward the massive, churning dome of the illusion formation, utterly unbothered by her terror, "I have to break the formation. I need to make an entrance."
Chu Hua stared at him, her mouth falling open in disbelief. For a moment she forgot even her pain, forgot the rune still glowing faintly in her palm. She let out a hysterical, disbelieving laugh, the sound scraping raw against her throat. "Are you deaf?! I just told you! You cannot break it! It is powered by a Soul Transformation spirit! You are at the Early Stage of Spirit Severing! Why waste my time with this arrogant posturing? Just accept that you are out of your depth!"
Lin Yuan didn’t bother to argue with the ignorance of a lower lifeform. Explaining himself to an ant, he thought, had never once changed the outcome of anything.
He took a single step toward the edge of the ridge, the basalt crunching softly beneath his boot, and simply narrowed his eyes and activated his divine skill.
Shatter Illusion, See Truth!