Chapter 101: Pursuit (6)
An illusion formation!
When they heard this, everyone understood.
What gloomy cavern? What Crystal Labyrinth? It was all an illusion.
This sly Spirit Race individual had tricked them from the very beginning.
He had set up a large illusion formation here. As soon as they entered the mountains, they were brought into the illusion formation. Everything was staged and orchestrated by the illusion formation.
No wonder An Siyuan couldn’t beat this Spirit Race individual even as a Light Shaking Realm cultivator. Within the illusion formation, what they fought with wasn’t raw physical power but consciousness power and imagination.
“So it was all an illusion technique!” An Siyuan also understood immediately.
What damn Specter Demon Claw? What Void Han? They were all illusions generated by the illusion formation that had defeated them one after the other.
Illusion techniques were the Origin Skills that could ignore cultivation base levels the most. A well-orchestrated setup could trick anyone.
However, trickery was still trickery. Wanting to use an illusion technique to kill a person wasn’t easy.
Turning illusion into reality was always the greatest test for an illusions master. Every such person had their own experience in making this happen.
Su Chen had used Fata Morgana to bait the two Yang Opening Realm cultivators into killing themselves. The Spirit Race individual in front of him, however, was even more cunning than he had been.
He had first used an illusion formation to vastly expand the scope of effect of his illusions, instantly plunging everyone into this fantastical scenario, before picking them off one by one.
Because a person would return to the real world just before dying, the most difficult thing for him to do was figure out how to kill his targets while simultaneously preventing the illusion from being broken through.
It seemed that Silence was probably using the illusion formation to create a lot of background noise and lights to cover up the movements in the real world, then using some kind of technique to kill them off one by one.
What this technique was wasn’t easy to pinpoint, but it was likely related to why he had been attacking from weakest to strongest.
This was what had enabled Su Chen to see through him. Silence could only harass them with the illusion realm, but he couldn’t harm Su Chen in reality because he hadn’t reached Su Chen yet in the order of targets to be dealt with.
Of importance was that even though the Silence in the illusion realm was very powerful, he wasn’t invincible.
Excessive strength was always a challenge to an illusion realm and could more easily expose the real situation. When Silence continued to increase his own strength within the illusion realm, he was also giving his opponents more opportunities to see through things. At that point in time, even if the opponent didn’t directly discover that they were in an illusion realm, they would be able to detect something simply because of their own personal mysterious increase in strength.
Su Chen had used this method to confirm that he was in an illusion realm – he first used an Origin Skill that he was familiar with to confirm that the illusion realm could replicate the power of an Origin Skill by reading the user’s memory, then used a skill that he hadn’t even come close to completing.
Because the illusion realm replicated the power of an Origin Skill by reading the user’s memory, and Su Chen knew what the effect of this Origin Skill would be even though he hadn’t completed it, he was able to use an Origin Skill that was still very much incomplete. This in turn allowed him to determine the truth and find the hole.
Once he determined the truth, he then needed to forcibly break through.
There was no point in attacking the targets created by the illusion. The best way to break through an illusion realm was to destroy its boundaries. That was how Iron Cliff had shattered Fata Morgana previously, and was the reason why Su Chen had unleashed a strike at the stone ceiling. Indeed, he had been able to break through with a single blow.
Even though it was never explicitly stated, the people here were all experienced veterans. They were able to quickly piece the majority of the story together.
Having finally realized what had happened, the group of people laughed maliciously, “Let’s see how arrogant you can be now!”
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
A sea of attacks roared in Silence’s direction.
Silence hissed, “Did you think that the noble Spirit Race only knows how to use illusion techniques? Come out for me!”
As he yelled, the valley trembled as the ground beneath them opened up. A massive snake crawled out of the crack in the ground. This time, however, it was not an illusion.
The snake opened its jaw wide and hissed at them as soon as it appeared. Damp waves of foul-smelling air billowed out from its mouth, blowing them all back a bit.
An Siyuan harrumphed, “Do you think that you can still win now that the truth has been revealed? Overlord Fist!”
He used the same technique. This time, however, the true power of a Light Shaking Realm cultivator was fully put on display..
The blow slammed into the snake’s head, causing blood to splash through the air.
The biggest difference between reality and illusion was that people in the real world could be injured.
“Hiss!” the massive snake cried out in pain. Its wild nature exploded forth, causing it to attack the group of people even more ferociously.
The White Lion afterimage appeared behind An Siyuan again, and a white aura billowed forth, wrapping around the massive snake like a long white rope.
Another Overlord Fist was unleashed, slamming into the snake’s underbelly. This time, it penetrated and left a deep hole.
The fists continued to unleash the power of a Light Shaking Realm cultivator. Every fist that descended left behind deep wounds on the massive snake’s body.
“You guys, go and capture that Spirit Race guy!” An Siyuan barked at Chen Wenhui’s patrolmen subordinates.
Those patrolmen hesitated for a moment and glanced at Chen Wenhui. Even though Silence’s large snake was being kept in check by An Siyuan, the Spirit Race had many strange tactics up their sleeves. No one knew what they hadn’t seen yet. If they advanced now, they were very likely to lose their lives.
Upon seeing this situation, An Siyuan suddenly coldly harrumphed and slowed his movements down deliberately, drawing the snake a bit closer.
The snake’s massive body rumbled across the ground as it charged forward and opened its jaw wide again. With this charge, it directly swallowed seven or eight of the patrolmen into its mouth.
“An Siyuan, you!” Chen Wenhui was both shocked and angry.
Even though he had expected An Siyuan to make a move on him, Chen Wenhui was still caught off-guard by An Siyuan’s viciousness.
An Siyuan said darkly, “Chen Wenhui, don’t think that you can oppose me just because someone is protecting you. Your mission today is to apprehend this Spirit Race individual,s o you’d better put some more effort in. Otherwise, everyone here will be able to tell that you didn’t exert any energy. At that time, don’t blame me for being impolite!”
Chen Wenhui also knew that An Siyuan didn’t dare kill him, but that he had already made up his mind to kill Chen Wenhui’s subordinates.
The problem was that Ji Hanyan was here. If he didn’t make a good show of effort and continued to take precautions against An Siyuan, Ji Hanyan could report him later on.
An Siyuan was basically reminding him that he was here to act as cannon fodder.
If you voluntarily act as cannon fodder, everyone will be fine.
If I have to force you to be cannon fodder, Ji Hanyan will report you after I’m done with you.
Faced with these two decisions, Chen Wenhui could only grit his teeth. “You, advance!”
He could only hope that Silence didn’t have any other tactics up his hand.
The patrolmen charged in Silence’s direction.
When he saw the group of people charging at him, Silence hissed, “Accept your punishment!”
A large swath of fog billowed out.
It was the very same fog that he had used before. The sound of chewing could be heard coming from the darkness.
Su Chen, who had seen this tactic twice already, was unsurprised, but this attack was fatal to the patrolmen.
“AH!”
“Save me!”
“Sir, save me!”
Tragic cries began to sound out.
At this point in time, the person who could save them the most was An Siyuan. The giant snake had been badly injured by him and was clearly about to give in. However, when An Siyuan saw the people from the Investigations Bureau in desperate straits, he laughed coldly. Lu Qingguang and the others also slowed their rate of attack.