Chapter 225: I Also Know a Thing or Two About This Magic
Chapter 225: Chapter 152: I Also Know a Thing or Two About This Magic
He had already dealt with two of the monkeys; two remained.
A Monkey Demon tried to ambush him from behind, but Su Wuxiang backhanded it with his sword, striking its head. Its skull instantly burst open, splattering brains everywhere.
Seeing its companion’s gruesome death, the last Monkey Demon let out a piercing shriek. It tore off its human clothes, revealing a body covered in black fur. Its form swelled, fangs protruded, and it fully revealed its demonic shape.
At almost the same time,
Lu Changyuan raised Broken Thought.
A Sword from the West!
A brilliant flash of sword light streaked across the room. The tip of the blade pierced through the black mist and accurately stabbed the eye in the palm of the Champion Scholar’s demonic hand. He let out a deafening, agonized howl as black blood gushed from the wound.
A Third Realm Demon.
‘Too weak.’
“Taken care of?” Su Wuxiang asked.
Lu Changyuan gently flicked the black blood from his sword. “Yes.”
Su Wuxiang held back no longer. His Iron Sword whistled through the air as he brought it down heavily, cleaving the last Monkey Demon in two. Guts and blood spilled all over the floor.
“Wait,” Su Wuxiang suddenly shouted. “What’s that?”
The patrons inside the brothel had long since fled. Two magnificent folding screens were in tatters, and a hanging Palace Lantern had fallen and shattered.
Amid the wreckage, the Champion Scholar killed by Lu Changyuan and the Monkey Demon slain by Su Wuxiang both dissolved into black liquid. The two pools of black liquid writhed and merged, emanating a deeply unsettling aura.
Su Wuxiang stared in astonishment at the pool of black liquid. They had killed many Demons, but this was the first time he had ever seen anything like this.
The pool of black sludge did not attack them. Instead, it squirmed and, with incredible speed, attached itself to the veiled statue of Guanyin.
The instant the black sludge covered it,
the ordinary statue of Guanyin sprouted thousands of demonic hands. Then, as if coming to life, it stood up, transforming into an Evil Guanyin.
Su Wuxiang cried out in disbelief, “A Fifth Realm!”
‘A Third Realm Champion Scholar and a few Second Realm monkeys fused into a Fifth Realm Guanyin?!’
There was no time to think.
The Evil Guanyin’s hands formed one mudra after another in mid-air, unleashing a terrifying, chilling Buddha’s Intent as it attacked Lu Changyuan.
Accompanying the Buddha’s hands were dazzling golden palaces of light and shadow, impossible to look at directly.
Lu Changyuan raised Broken Thought and clashed with it head-on. “Help me!”
Su Wuxiang grunted in acknowledgment. He brought his heavy sword down, blocking one of the arms for Lu Changyuan. The immense force pressed down on his greatsword. “So strong. I don’t think I can beat this.”
“Just hold on for a moment. I have another move.”
“Then hurry up.”
“Okay.”
“Done.”
Su Wuxiang’s face lit up. “That was fast?!”
SHLICK.
A hand plunged into flesh. Lu Changyuan stopped resisting the Evil Guanyin. Instead, he had thrust his hand straight through Su Wuxiang. He then said calmly, “I was going to play along with you for a while longer, but never mind.”
The Five Desires and Six Dust Heart Transformation Technique activated, and Su Wuxiang’s figure slowly began to fade.
He asked in disbelief, “When did you… see through it?”
“Right after I entered the building.” Lu Changyuan narrowed his eyes as the surroundings began to fade. “I was originally planning to see what kind of game you were playing.”
The Evil Guanyin’s hands dissolved into countless Silver Needles. Before him appeared a silver-haired maiden holding a fox. The true form of the Evil Guanyin was a girl so beautiful she seemed otherworldly… There was no Evil Guanyin at all.
Su Youwan breathed a sigh of relief. “Young Master Lu is finally back to normal.”
From the moment Lu Changyuan entered Chang’an, he had been dragged into a Magic woven by this Dream Demon.
Its goal was quite simple: to lure Lu Changyuan and Su Youwan into fighting each other.
This was a Sixth Realm Dream Demon.
The Dream Demon couldn’t deal with Su Youwan directly. This was because Su Youwan was Supreme, and she also held a needle given to her by the Sun and Moon Palace Master. If struck by that needle, the Dream Demon would surely die. Therefore, the Dream Demon could only take an indirect approach.
It exploited Su Youwan’s unwillingness to harm mortals, trapping her in the brothel and then looking for a chance to trick her into using the needle.
Lu Changyuan happened to enter the city at that very moment.
The Dream Demon first tried to forcibly pull Lu Changyuan into a dream, but his will was too strong. She had to use all her power just to get him into a half-dreaming, half-awake state.
However, the slightest disturbance would cause Lu Changyuan to wake up completely.
So, to blur the line between dream and reality for Lu Changyuan, the Sixth Realm Dream Demon collected the dreams of the city’s people.
As for the Champion Scholar.
Such a person had indeed existed in the Wei Dynasty. Many commoners had seen the Champion Scholar, and later, he was killed by Qiu Yuehan. On that day, many people had also witnessed his Demon Body after he had Fallen into Demon.
Many of a person’s memories are hidden in their dreams. The Dream Demon pieced together the commoners’ memories to resurrect the Champion Scholar, bringing him to life.
This made the half-real, half-false dream feel all the more authentic.
From the Ghost Daoist to the horse-riding monkeys, and then the Champion Scholar—all of these were arranged to force Lu Changyuan deeper into the dream.
After all that truth, it constructed a false Evil Guanyin and hid Su Youwan behind it.
All it had to do was wait for Lu Changyuan to strike the Evil Guanyin with his sword.
Nine parts truth and one part lie—the most fatal deception.
The Demons before were all real, and then the black sludge possessed the Guanyin statue. A person would instinctively assume the Evil Guanyin was something vile.
Attacking it with a sword would be the logical next step.
But the Dream Demon miscalculated one thing.
Lu Changyuan would never mistake Su Youwan for someone else, because her feelings were inside his body.
Su Youwan would never mistake Lu Changyuan either. Not to mention, after the Silver-haired Maiden felt her heart pounding, she was certain that Lu Changyuan had entered Chang’an.
The Destined Celestial Dao was at work.
She had embroidered a future where she and Lu Changyuan would meet and recognize each other.
With so many factors naturally countering the Dream Demon, the moment Lu Changyuan entered the building, he recognized who was behind the Evil Guanyin illusion.
After that, Lu Changyuan woke up completely, and everything else followed logically.
Su Youwan nodded at Lu Changyuan. “Young Master Lu, it’s been a while.”
“Yes.”
“Dream Demons are as difficult to deal with as they say.”
These disgusting things can not only forcibly pull people into dreams to kill them, but they can also manifest things from their dreams.
In particular, they can turn a person’s deepest fears—things they’ve dreamed of before—into reality and use them as weapons.
The Nightmare Ghost from before could only interfere with people’s emotions. This Dream Demon Lu Changyuan had encountered was even more powerful than that Nightmare Ghost.
After all, for a creature like a Dream Demon, the higher its Realm, the more terrifying it becomes.
But the Dream Demon’s most powerful ability—manifesting a person’s fears—was useless against Lu Changyuan.
This was because the person Lu Changyuan feared most, he only feared slightly. That person was the Daoist Sect Master, and the Dream Demon didn’t dare bear the Karma of manifesting him.
The Silver-haired Maiden tilted her head, looking rather cute.
“Since you’re awake, Young Master Lu, have you found its true body?”
The most common way to kill a Dream Demon in the Cultivation Realm is to enter its dream and find its true body. Only then can it be killed.
But there were still many commoners in Chang’an City. The Dream Demon had already pulled them into dreams and could hide in any of their dreams at any time.
Unless one killed all these people, it would be difficult to force the Dream Demon out.
Lu Changyuan shook his head. “I didn’t find it. I just suddenly realized there’s an easier way.”
The Silver-haired Maiden said softly, “Could it be that you, Young Master Lu, can also destroy everyone’s dreams with a single sword strike without harming them, just like the Red-clothed Sword Immortal?”
‘Jiang Jiayi has that kind of ability?’
Lu Changyuan extended a hand into the empty air. “I just realized that this Dream Demon’s methods are somewhat similar to a Demon I killed before.”
Su Youwan paused for a moment, then stepped forward and offered her delicate hand to Lu Changyuan.
Lu Changyuan was taken aback. “What are you doing?”
“Didn’t you want my hand, Young Master Lu?”
‘Of course not!’
Lu Changyuan slapped away the soft, boneless little hand.
‘It was pretty soft, though.’
“Miss Su, are you certain the city beneath your feet is real? Or is it something the Dream Demon pieced together from the dreams of the common people?”
Being Supreme could protect the maiden herself from being affected by the Dream Demon, but what if the surrounding scenery was all part of the Dream Demon’s machinations?
There was no way to tell.
No way at all.
Su Youwan found talking with Lu Changyuan very interesting, so she continued in her ethereal voice, “Does Young Master Lu have a way to verify it?”
If Mei Zhaozhao were awake, she would have undoubtedly cursed them both—these two weirdos who answered questions with more questions!
“I do,” Lu Changyuan said with a strange smile.
A stream of Ink-Wash Qi flowed from Lu Changyuan’s hand, instantly engulfing the entire city of Chang’an. The rain in the sky turned the color of ink.
As the rain fell, everything began to lose its color. The buildings became Ink-Wash pavilions, and the people became Ink-Wash People.
The sky pulled back like a curtain, and a white scroll began to reflect every detail of Chang’an.
“This technique of turning illusion into reality… I know a little something about it myself.”
Lu Changyuan had absorbed the entire Dao of a Painting Demon. This art of turning falsehood into truth was something he understood a little bit about as well.
“I’ve turned Chang’an City into a painting. This way, I can avoid harming the commoners while forcing it to reveal itself.”