The cold air inside the karst cave slipped past his collar and bit into the back of Ye Fan's neck. His fingertips trembled slightly against the hilt of the Dark Iron Saber—not out of fear, but as a bodily instinct reacting to danger. In his past life as a grandmaster of the Inquiry Realm, he had witnessed countless monumental scenes, yet facing the Iron-masked Man right now, he unexpectedly felt a trace of the pressing urgency he had experienced when first entering the martial world.
"Who goes there?" Ye Fan asked, his voice steady to the point that it surprised even himself. He lowered his gaze to glance at the half-bronze token at his waist; its markings were seven-tenths similar to the "Jiuxiao Token" recorded in the secret manuals of the Ye Family, deepening his suspicions a notch.
The Iron-masked Man did not answer immediately. His gaze swept over the green light coiled around Ye Fan's wrist, the binding imprint proactively released by the Jiuxiao Huanpei. A faint sound of metal scraping came from beneath the mask, sounding like a cold laugh or perhaps a sigh: "Who I am does not matter. What matters is..." He raised his hand and made a gripping motion in the void, causing the stalactites at the top of the cave to suddenly emit a harsh, snapping sound. "...whether you can survive these Three Tribulations of the Illusionary Sea."
Before his voice faded, the ground beneath Ye Fan's feet began to twist. The first thing to wash over him was the smell of blood. A heavy, metallic stench crashed into his nasal cavity, and his pupils constricted sharply—this was not the damp aura of the cave, but the bloody air that had billowed out when his chest was pierced through at the moment of his fall in his past life.
The scene before him instantly tore apart. He saw his sixteen-year-old self collapsed in a pool of blood, while a "friend" standing opposite him brandished a blood-stained sword, the cold sneer at the corner of his mouth identical to his memories. "Illusion arises from the heart." Ye Fan bit the tip of his tongue, the sharp pain clearing his consciousness slightly. He circulated the "Unity of Heaven and Man" talent, and the square inch of space within his Inner World suddenly expanded by three inches, a wisp of ethereal Power of the Heavenly Dao meandering along his meridians.
The surrounding illusions began to turn transparent. He saw the Iron-masked Man standing in the real space, his right index finger gently tapping, every motion resembling the plucking of an invisible zither. The second wave of illusions struck even more fiercely. This time, it was saber light. Hundreds upon hundreds of Dark Iron Sabers slashed at him from all directions, the wind of the blades making his cheeks sting.
Instead of retreating, Ye Fan advanced, holding the Dark Iron Saber horizontally across his chest—in his past life, he had used this move to break the "Ten Thousand Sabers Formation," but now the Power of the Heavenly Dao within his Inner World suddenly surged, condensing into a pale cyan light in the depths of his eyes. He saw clearly that the trajectories of those saber images followed a pattern, revealing a flaw with every seventh saber.
"Clang!" The first saber cleaved against the Dark Iron Saber, numbing the web between his thumb and forefinger, but this was a genuine tactile sensation. Ye Fan's pupils flared brightly—it turned out that illusion and reality were intertwined within the Illusionary Sea, and the most dangerous attacks were precisely those "real" ones that overlapped with his memories. He spun to dodge three illusory sabers attacking from his left side, and with a backhand strike used the flat of his blade to knock away the real saber on his right carrying biting frost poison, his saber tip smoothly flicking toward the Iron-masked Man's throat. This was his counterattack.
The Iron-masked Man's pupils contracted slightly behind the mask. He did not dodge, allowing that trace of cold light to halt half an inch from his Adam's apple. All the illusions in the cave suddenly dissipated, and water droplets on the stalactites fell with a sharp plop, exceptionally clear in the silence.
"A fine display of breaking illusions with illusion." The Iron-masked Man spoke, his voice carrying a bit more approval. "This talent of yours for 'Unity of Heaven and Man' is indeed somewhat more marvelous than that old fellow's 'Heavenly Sight and Earthly Hearing' back then." He raised his hand and pressed it onto the bronze platform; the Jiuxiao Huanpei suddenly emitted a resonant ring, and within the illusory mountains and rivers on its surface, a line of ancient seal script unexpectedly emerged—"He who claims ownership must break the Three Tribulations and bear the Jiuxiao Will."
Only then did Ye Fan understand that the illusions just now were not the Iron-masked Man deliberately making things difficult, but rather the test for the Jiuxiao Huanpei to recognize its master. He withdrew his saber and lowered his gaze to look at his palm—at some unknown point, the Huanpei had automatically landed in the center of his hand, its warm and cool touch resembling jade soaked in morning dew. The square inch of space inside his Inner World suddenly began to expand; the space that could originally only accommodate a single blade of grass could now plant half an acre of green bamboo.
"Remember." The Iron-masked Man turned and walked toward the entrance of the cave, his black cloak brushing against the sabers of the dead mercenaries scattered across the ground. "The Jiuxiao Huanpei is no mortal item. It can help you deduce cultivation techniques, refine elixirs and forge weapons, and also draw forth the tribulations of heaven and earth. Since you could break the Illusionary Sea Tribulation today, another day..." His figure suddenly vanished into a wisp of cyan mist, yet his voice clearly struck into Ye Fan's ears. "...will you dare to face the Dao-Slaughter Tribulation?"
The cave plunged back into silence. Ye Fan gripped the Huanpei tightly, feeling a warm current darting from his palm into his meridians, causing the bottleneck stuck at the Qi Condensation Mid-Stage to loosen somewhat. Just as he wanted to circulate his cultivation technique to stabilize his realm, hurried footsteps suddenly came from outside the cave.
"Young Master! The people from the Zhao Estate have charged in with thirty guards!" It was the voice of Ye Family shadow guard A San, carrying a hint of anxiety. "They claim we stole Young Master Zhao's heirloom and want to wash the karst cave in blood!"
Ye Fan's gaze turned sharp. He swiftly tucked the Jiuxiao Huanpei into his tunic, and the Dark Iron Saber executed a flash spin at his fingertips. The torchlight from outside shone through the cave entrance, casting alternating shadows of light and dark across his face—this time, he would never let anyone destroy the destiny that belonged to him.