"To be fair, her logic gave Lin Feng no room for argument, instantly reminding him of the human elites keeping tabs on the Lin family bloodline! The Qingluan Continent had faced the Demon Race alone for many years, and he had never heard of reinforcements being sent from any of the other human continents.
Many questions that had previously baffled him now vaguely found their answers.
Whether order collapsed or not, the essence of cultivation was simply the process of living beings growing stronger. Whoever blocked the path died—that was probably all there was to it.
Except that among the Demon Race, the law of the jungle was even more blatant!
"You're being hunted by the Great and Little Dragon Kings?"
Recalling the terror in her eyes when she saw the Little Dragon King, the words slipped out of Lin Feng's mouth.
"You know them too?"
"I don't. I've just heard they are the most formidable masters of water spells in the Demon Race!"
"The Great Dragon King cultivates the Heavenly Dao and dislikes taking lives. The Little Dragon King is tyrannical and devoid of conscience. Many of my clansmen have had their shark pearls ripped out by him, condemning them to never return to the shore and never transform into humans. I must kill him!"
Well, they effectively had a common enemy now. Yet Lin Feng snapped back to reality, his mind consumed by how to leave this place, how to verify if Shen Xuanyue was alright, and whether Zhao Wuji was truly on the verge of death.
Scene after scene flashed through his mind, feeling utterly like a dream.
Turandot hung the pouch around his waist and, staying by his side, accompanied him to take a look around the entire perimeter of the altar's first tier.
"Do you know where this is?"
Lin Feng asked intentionally, and Turandot shook her head with a guilty conscience.
"I don't. Whenever I dream, I come here. Hehe, you really are the one destined by the heavens; I've finally waited for you."
It seemed her hatred and sorrow were merely emotions that drifted away with the wind—once they passed, they were gone.
Was she thick-skinned and carefree, or simply incapable of processing it all?
Lin Feng understood the Merfolk Clan's plight, but he couldn't feel any sympathy. Compared to the harm the Demon Race inflicted upon humanity, he felt the entire Demon Race deserved nothing less than extinction.
"Every time you dream?"
Could things even work like that?
The more he knew, the less Lin Feng could make sense of this world.
"Yes, it's as if something here is calling out to me!"
She pointed at the altar, and Lin Feng's attention was drawn back to it.
The scenes carved into these reliefs were startlingly vivid, giving him a vague premonition that this might well be the current state of the Demon Race. Harboring his own selfish motives, he dared not spell it out to her, so he decided to circle around and examine the reliefs once more.
Oblivious to his thoughts, Turandot reached out a hand to touch the altar, standing on her tiptoes with a hint of buoyant excitement.
"Actually, I know you're lying to me!"
"What am I lying to you about?"
With his mind entirely on the reliefs, Lin Feng answered absentmindedly.
"If you can't cultivate, how could you survive a strike from the Little Dragon King? Besides, the books you're carrying are obviously extraordinary!"
Seeing Lin Feng staring at the reliefs, she suddenly puffed out her cheeks and put her hands on her hips.
"And your objective was too clear—you've been staring at the altar the whole time. You knew about this place all along, didn't you?"
He hadn't expected that despite her carefree appearance, she saw everything.
"You're right. I know this is the ancestral land of the Demon Race, a place even the Little Dragon King dares not enter!"
Seeing the serious look on his face, Turandot widened her eyes and froze in place!
"You're saying this is... the ancestral land?"
"That's right, that's what the Little Dragon King said. Can't be wrong, can it?"
Though he acted nonchalant on the surface, Lin Feng was inwardly strained to the absolute limit. He deliberately confessed just to test her attitude toward him; in an unfamiliar place, he couldn't possibly trust her simply because of the tragic stories she had told.
"Is it really the ancestral land? Oh no, we have to hurry, if we're found we're dead!"
Her panic didn't look fake. Lin Feng let her drag him away, weaving through twists and turns. She navigated with practiced ease, far too familiar with the place.
Crying out that they were doomed, Turandot completely forgot to use her cultivation and simply ran for her life.
At a diagonal angle ahead, several cute little foxes were frolicking and playing. Neither of them paid attention, and they crashed straight into them.
The foxes shrieked, and a barrier materialized!
Hum!
A red fox collided squarely with Turandot, sending her clutching her stomach as she collapsed to the ground in pain, while the fox was bounced outside the barrier.
As she stared in shock at the barrier that had suddenly appeared before her, the red fox, eager to rejoin its companion, turned its head and rushed back.
Without a sound, the red fox's head was suddenly severed. No blood flowed from the wound; the head and body separated, and the nearby small animals were too frightened to move. Lin Feng and Turandot turned their heads.
The uppermost tier of the altar flared with a brilliant red light, sensing that a living creature had perished here, and swept outward.
"It's the Blood Fiend, run!"
Turandot sprang up as if on a spring, grabbing Lin Feng and bolting outward. Seeing the other animals dash through the barrier unharmed, they immediately followed suit, and the two of them, leading a tidal wave of wild beasts, raced across the wilderness.
Chapter 8: Illusions
With so many wild beasts suddenly emerging from the serene and peaceful wilderness, Lin Feng felt a chill run through his heart, but fortunately, they were orderly and did not trample them.
Buzz, buzz, buzz!
Light and shadows flickered across the barrier, projecting scenes of war between the human and demon races. The red light crossed the barrier, and any beast swept by it instantly decomposed into a mist of blood, disappearing without a sound.
"What is the Blood Fiend?"
The scene unfolding behind them was utterly bizarre, and Turandot was still running barefoot.
"Stop running, use your cultivation!"
"I don't have cultivation either!"
On the verge of tears, Turandot was forced to reveal her secret. Lin Feng was stunned for just a split second, but that was long enough for the Blood Fiend to engulf them.
"Go!"
At this life-or-death moment, Lin Feng still pushed her away. Since escape was impossible anyway, he simply turned back to see what on earth this Blood Fiend was.
The moment he looked, his vision was filled with red light!
"Kill!"
"Kill!"
Illusions multiplied, revealing a battlefield soaked in slaughter.
Elites from various races passed right through his body, and spiritual light from countless spells rained down upon his head. Just as Lin Feng thought it was all an illusion, boundless killing intent surged from the depths of his soul.
"Kill!"
He roared up at the sky, his eyes bursting with red light. With a fierce wave of Lin Feng's hand, the nearby red light transformed into a bizarrely shaped blood-red saber.
"Kill!"
No matter who stood before him, as long as they were of the Demon Race, he raised his blade and hacked them down.
With boundless momentum and an unstoppable thirst for slaughter, Lin Feng killed like a madman. Demon after demon was cut down by his hand, and the red light gathered around him like a venting outlet, forming a corporeal humanoid figure of bloody water.
Kill, kill them all, avenge the human race!
Immersed on the battlefield and omnipotent, Lin Feng could appear anywhere his will directed. He rushed about saving people everywhere while slaughtering frantically.
There were simply too many demons, wave after wave of them. The sky and the earth were filled with members of the Demon Race, and the surviving human elites began to be systematically hunted down. Though Lin Feng tried to rescue everyone, he was spread too thin, forced to watch helplessly as fewer and fewer people remained standing.
"No, hold on, wait for me!"
Being the sole survivor of an apocalypse, watching each human vanish into ashes made him feel like an abandoned orphan. The sudden memory of growing up all alone amplified this isolation and terror beyond endurance.
Once this feeling took root, he could no longer keep his state of mind untainted, and his killing intent was no longer pure.
All around him, human masters were being brutally dismembered by the demons. Lin Feng could no longer suppress the dread of being left all alone.
No!
Swinging his blade forward, he watched powerlessly as his own kind were slaughtered!
The demon attacks passed right through his body, causing no harm whatsoever.
It's fake, it's all fake!
Come back to life, everything is fake!
Driving himself mad on the spot, Lin Feng slashed about wildly. Yet, even knowing it was an illusion, he could not stop his people from perishing one by one.
"Demon Race!"
Though he retreated in terror, vibrant lives continued to fade away. Lin Feng tried once more to slow down the slaughter of his people through his own killing!
Hahaha!
Hehehe!
The moment such a thought arose, the mockery of the demons echoed from all around. Having shown weakness in his heart, he couldn't even muster the strength to shout curses aloud.
"Don't believe them!"
"That's right, believe in yourself, live for yourself!"
"We are already dead, you must slaughter the Demon Race!"
Realizing Lin Feng's helplessness, the remaining humans gave up defending themselves and opened their arms, striding forward to shield Lin Feng beneath their embrace.
Formed of blood Qi, their towering bodies could not withstand the onslaught, and they were attacked and dissolved into nothingness.
Human after human rushed forward in wave after wave, driving Lin Feng into a frantic retreat.
No, stop, don't come any closer, let me die, let me die!
Unable to bear watching others die for him any longer, Lin Feng completely lost his mind.
Ah!
Kill!
Amidst the bizarre Blood Fiend, he alone faced a phantom army of thousands. Turandot sat huddled on the ground not far away, watching in terror as Lin Feng went berserk, slaughtering endlessly!
He wanted to find someone to fight to the death, but the demons gave him no chance. Flitting about on all sides, they picked off the survivors whenever they had the chance, toying with Lin Feng like a dog on a leash. Despite possessing boundless strength, he could save no one.
"Fool, you are invincible here. You must look into your true heart!"
A towering human man lunged forward, gathering Lin Feng into his embrace. When Lin Feng heard the voice and looked up, the man had transformed into the appearance of Shen Xuanyue!
"Is it really you?"
The scene of her body being blasted apart by an enemy was still fresh in his mind, and Lin Feng instinctively reached out to grab her.
Passing through the illusions and emptiness, his right hand touched his own back, grasping the ice-cold hilt of a sword!
"It's me, slaughter them!"
Shen Xuanyue smiled, her eyes filled with encouragement.
Could she be this vulnerable too?
The tranquility of being held in a mother's embrace washed over him, and Lin Feng naturally pulled the long sword from his spine.
With Qi and blood surging like a dragon, wherever the sword pointed, the red light and blood mist recoiled and converged, rapidly forming a majestic, dark-red suit of armor over his body, with black and gold patterns weaving across the joints—looking both demonic and formidable.
Kill!
"Ah!"
The battle cry forced from the depths of his heart made Turandot recoil in fright.
"No, I beg you!"
The illusion before him vanished, and his resolve for vengeance was cut short. Looking at the mutilated corpses littering the ground, Lin Feng stared down at the sword in his hand.
"Stop killing, I beg you, stop killing!" Disregarding her dignity, Turandot crawled to his feet like a cat that had been abused countless times yet could not bear to leave its master.
"Stop killing, we were wrong!"
As her head rested against his calf, the bizarre armor slowly faded away. A cold breeze blew, and Lin Feng finally noticed that the carcasses of the beasts and small animals were transforming into wisps of blood mist that drifted into the top of the altar.
The ground, littered with mutilated bodies and rattling his soul just moments ago, returned to serenity in the blink of an eye. Inside and outside the barrier, peace was restored.
The arm guards of the armor vanished, and Lin Feng stood in a daze.
"Did I kill all of them? Are they real living creatures?"
Though he truly hated the Demon Race, he found it hard to imagine he had slaughtered so many utterly defenseless beasts that possessed such human-like intuition. Thinking back now, it felt as though he had massacred countless human beings.
"I don't know!"
Grieving as if heartbroken, Turandot sobbed, unable to finish a complete sentence. Lin Feng gazed at the sword in his hand.
With blood-red light flowing across it, it appeared exceedingly sinister.
Through his arm, he seemed to hear the sound of it having eaten its fill.
Natal flying sword, you can take lives, and your master isn't dead, right?
No one answered the question. Subconsciously, Lin Feng thrust it back behind him, and the long sword smoothly merged into his spine.
Startled out of his wits and reacting a beat too late, Lin Feng reached back to pull it out!
The hilt was already gone, and his hand grasped empty air.
Stunned once more, Lin Feng's heart was flooded with a turmoil of complex emotions.
At that moment, several startled beasts returned. Unaware of the barrier's deadliness, they charged straight into it.
The scene of severed heads and bodies repeated silently. Leaving Turandot aside, Lin Feng quickly dipped a finger into a patch of blood and brought it to his nose.
It was real—they were true creatures of flesh and blood. Heavens, what had I just done?
The corpses nearby still radiated warmth. The later arrivals, realizing the presence of the bizarre barrier, crowded and panicked, no longer daring to charge forward.
To Lin Feng's surprise, they prowled along the edge of the barrier and uniformly raised their heads to gaze at the altar—a bizarre sight that made his scalp tingle.
"Duo-duo, what on earth is going on here?"
She didn't know either, but seeing Lin Feng return to normal made her very happy.
Everything before them felt like a grand ritual of sacrifice!
"Audacious! Who dares secretly pry into the heavenly secrets?"
A thunderous roar erupted, making Lin Feng's head spin.
"Hurry, let's go!"
Right beside them was a small stream, and Turandot grabbed him and jumped in.
Though it was clearly less than two feet deep, once inside, Lin Feng found the stream remarkably deep, completely swallowing a height three or four times his own.
Curious fish and shrimp swam alongside Turandot. Giggling merrily, she reached out to tease them as her feet transformed into a tail, leading him deeper into the waters.
"Duo-duo, is this another special ability of yours?"
For her to effortlessly travel through water while carrying a person was something Lin Feng simply couldn't fathom.
"That's right! Whenever I encounter danger on land, I can hide inside the Water-Moon Illusion. In the water, I don't need to waste my strength. So, pretty, isn't it?"
She pointed to the scenery beneath the water, and Lin Feng nodded numbly. He couldn't tell whether he had shrunk or if the mountains, rivers, and little animals here were all just this bizarre.
With crisscrossing water veins leading from darkness into light, the moment sunlight reappeared, Lin Feng was brought to a jade-green deep pool.
Surrounded by emerald greenery and utter serenity, the sound of ocean waves crashing against the shore drifted faintly from afar. Lin Feng watched as she looked around.
"Alright, it's safe here. Ask whatever you want, and I'll tell you!"
He didn't want to ask anything at all; he just wanted to quickly read through the booklet Shen Xuanyue had left him, destroy it, and find a way back to human territory.
Seeing him take out the booklet, Turandot abruptly covered her eyes.
"What are you doing?"
He was truly baffled by her attitude toward him.
"You read here, I'll go keep watch for you!"
Feeling rather strange, he didn't dare waste any more time.
Shen Xuanyue had considered everything thoroughly. The moment he unfolded the booklet, the characters flowed out and flew automatically into his Consciousness Sea.
As he held the booklet and stuffed the text into his mind, Turandot stood nearby, dumbfounded!
Can it even do that?
*Shenxuan Purity*—was this the mental cultivation formula she practiced? Why tell it to me? To have me find a successor for her?
My wife, was my drifting into the Demon Race your deliberate arrangement?
Kind-hearted, possessed of great mercy and compassion—wasn't the person you described none other than Turandot?
He had expected Shen Xuanyue to leave him some cultivation technique, but aside from some basic knowledge of cultivation, there was nothing else, save for the core mental cultivation method—which was only suitable for women to practice.
With a requirement like that, he couldn't help suspecting Shen Xuanyue knew he would run into Turandot!
The Taixu Realm allowed one to sense the mandate of heaven itself—could everything he had experienced really be her arrangement?
Was it for her or for me, and what on earth could I do about it?
After reading through what Shen Xuanyue had left behind, Lin Feng could no longer remain calm. Even a fool would know Shen Xuanyue's flying sword hadn't crossed paths with him by chance; indeed, he felt Shen Xuanyue had specifically set out to find Turandot!
Yet, what on earth did she want with her?
The booklet fluttered without wind, ignited by the sunlight, leaving Lin Feng in a daze.
If you had planned this long ago, you could have just told me!
The bizarre twists of his journey made it impossible for him to believe this was all sheer coincidence.
While he was still deep in doubt, Turandot brought over a piece of embroidered silk from somewhere. The embroidery resembled a round mirror, and the ethereal scene depicted upon it was precisely him burning the book after reading it.
"If you weren't the leader the Merfolk Clan is waiting for, I wouldn't have dreamed of you, nor would I have been guided to meet you!"
This was getting entirely too absurd!
Having just had this thought, Lin Feng snapped his mouth shut.
In the embroidery, the man was burning books, whereas just now, I...
As his thoughts turned, Lin Feng retraced the path she had taken here. From her perspective, she might have thought the two scenes were identical, but the truth was far from it.
Chapter 9: The Mysterious Person
A dream—everything relied solely on a dream?
A sense of the ridiculous welled up inside him, and Lin Feng suddenly closed his mouth.
If that was her inspiration, the price she paid for being unable to cultivate, then why couldn't it be true?
Reviewing everything Shen Xuanyue had left behind in his mind, he gradually began to accept her explanation.
Underground, through the water, traveling at tremendous speed—just as Shen Xuanyue said about shifting through space and time, I must be far away from the Demon Race's ancestral land by now!
Testing the waters intentionally, Lin Feng gave a light cough.
"Duo-duo, where are we right now?"
"This is a secret stronghold of the Merfolk Clan in the Qingniu Continent. We've already left the Fengxing Continent far behind!"
Not getting the direct answer he wanted, Lin Feng pressed on stubbornly, "The ancestral land is in the Fengxing Continent?"
With a sudden flash of realization, Turandot sought confirmation in his expression before her face abruptly turned aggrieved.
"I said that whatever you want to ask, I'll tell you!"
That completely put Lin Feng in the wrong. Without hesitation, she placed both hands over the center of her forehead and drew out a ball of light the size of a shark pearl.
"All the secrets of the Merfolk Clan are inside. Swallow it and you'll understand."
Ignorant and fearless, Lin Feng actually swallowed it in one gulp.
A mist of water flashed across his face as Turandot's memories merged with his own. Something miraculous happened; looking at Turandot felt as though he were looking at himself.
"Hey, why are you staring at me? Stop looking at me!"
Possessing someone else's memories while continuing to stare at them was the height of presumption. Lin Feng raised a hand and slapped his own face.
A legend circulated among the Merfolk Clan that when they were driven to desperation, a compassionate deity would fall in love with the Merfolk Saintess and lead them to a place where they could multiply and thrive.
With your holy land destroyed, do you people really still believe such a legend?
Finally understanding why Turandot looked at him with that specific gaze, Lin Feng was consumed by extreme guilt. Only he knew that the visions she saw weren't real.
Even bolder still was Turandot: without any verification whatsoever, relying purely on a dream, she had dared to hand over her own memories and the secrets of the Merfolk Clan to Lin Feng.
"Duo-duo, I'm really not the deity you're looking for, and besides, I'm human—I can't cultivate!"
Before he could finish, she reached out and pressed a hand over his mouth.
"I know, but at least you've given me hope. We won't blame you!"
Who knew how much displacement and wandering one had to endure to harbor such sorrow? Lin Feng simply didn't want to deceive her. Looking into her eyes, all his words choked in his throat, unable to escape.
"I..."
Being trusted unconditionally, simply because the other party wished to cling to a shred of hope—she wasn't stupid; she knew Lin Feng might not truly be the one she was waiting for.