"Li Fei?"
Lei Xiuyuan yanked her back. Her body was weak and limp, utterly incapable of resistance as he pressed her to the ground, forcing her to meet his gaze in terror.
"...What illusion did you just see?" He stared intently at her.
Li Fei turned her head away and closed her eyes. This might be yet another illusion—she couldn't bear to be hurt again. She struggled weakly with her legs, trying to break free, but for every inch she managed to move, he followed relentlessly.
"What did you see?" he asked again.
She didn't want to hear his voice. Covering her ears with her hands, she curled into a ball on the ground.
After what felt like an eternity, a mournful wind howled suddenly. Tiny, scorching specks seemed to fall upon her skin. Li Fei slowly cracked her eyelids open to see dense black ash raining down like sand. The floating island had inexplicably crumbled into fine powder in an instant, carried by the wind to settle on everyone like glowing snowflakes.
As the ash fell, Li Fei felt strength gradually returning to her weakened limbs. She struggled to get up when suddenly, a pair of feet appeared in her line of sight. Without looking up, she knew who it was. She scrambled to sit up, staggering as she tried to crawl away, only for her collar to be seized. Helplessly, she was pulled face-to-face with Lei Xiuyuan.
He frowned at her. Whether it was her imagination or not, his eyes seemed to hold sharp golden light, and even his skin bore a cold, radiant golden sheen that made him appear utterly unfamiliar.
"The Mirage Dragon is gone. Still trying to run?" Lei Xiuyuan clapped his hands against her cheeks with a sharp smack. The pain made Li Fei instinctively swing her hand, landing a heavy slap on his ear. He didn't dodge, merely watching her calmly. "Does it hurt? If it hurts, then it's not an illusion. Everything you saw earlier was fake."
He emphasized the word "fake" heavily. Li Fei's chaotic thoughts gradually settled as she looked around. The ground was littered with unconscious disciples. The thick mist hadn't fully dispersed yet—the Mirage Dragon had lured every disciple on the island here, each still trapped in dreams or nightmares.
Her gaze returned to Lei Xiuyuan's face—the same features, the same expression.
Thankfully, those were all fake.
Li Fei forced a faint smile. "...Could you not hit so hard next time?"
Lei Xiuyuan pinched her cheek again. "Not hard enough and you wouldn't feel it. What did you see?"
Li Fei recalled the warm dreams that had filled the cracks in her heart, and the nightmares that had laid her deepest fears bare under broad daylight. In the illusions, she had asked a question she'd always wanted to ask and received the answer she'd most desired. Yet all of it had been false, nonexistent.
A pang of sorrow passed through her. What she most wished for had been granted in the illusion; what she most feared had been experienced there too. In the end, she and he were nothing alike. Lei Xiuyuan was a heaven-sent prodigy destined for greatness, while she was an anomaly who had to carefully conceal her secrets just to survive.
That question which had unsettled her these past days—suddenly, she no longer wanted to ask it. Didn't dare to.
"What about you? What did you see?" she countered, trying to sound lighthearted.Lei Xiuyuan was uncharacteristically taken aback for a moment. He slowly crossed his arms, resting a finger against his chin as he gazed at her thoughtfully. Li Fei had only asked casually, but seeing his reaction suddenly piqued her curiosity. What did his expression mean? Could it be that she had appeared in his illusions too? What kind of illusions were they?!
She stared at him, dumbfounded. Lei Xiuyuan seemed to be lost in thought for a long while before noticing her intense gaze. He chuckled, "Do you want to know?"
Playing coy again? Li Fei suddenly remembered it was him who had woken her up. She couldn't help but smile bitterly to herself—for someone like him, illusions probably didn't even manifest. Even if they did, they were likely about dominating the world or becoming the most powerful Celestial. Her presence in them would be insignificant at best. But she was different. Her illusions had been filled entirely with him—the one who had brought her both extreme happiness and extreme pain.
She let out a soft, involuntary laugh, though whether she was laughing at the illusions or at herself, she couldn't tell.
The tangled, directionless emotions in her heart were finally beginning to settle. It really was time to calm down properly. She didn’t want to be the only one in turmoil from start to finish, like a fool. Like, or dislike? At most, it was just three words, wasn’t it?
"No, never mind. Let’s not talk about this."
She averted her gaze. The scorching black ash was still falling. The body of the Ferocious beast, the Mirage Dragon, had long turned to dust, its original form now unrecognizable. That lush little island must have been an illusion too. The thick fog hadn’t yet dispersed, and hundreds of disciples lay sprawled on the ground, some smiling blissfully, others gritting their teeth in frustration. What a terrifying Ferocious beast—no wonder Ri Yan had said even he would be affected. The Mirage Dragon didn’t need overwhelming demonic power or fearsome combat strength; it only needed to conjure illusions to kill without a trace.
Such a formidable Ferocious beast—what method had Lei Xiuyuan used to reduce it to ashes so quickly? He had killed the Mirage Dragon silently, without a word, just as expected of him.
She glanced at him. The golden glow in his skin and eyes was rapidly fading, soon becoming completely imperceptible.
"Were you showing off again just now?" Li Fei asked quietly. "Was it the same move as last time in Chestnut Blaze Valley?"
Lei Xiuyuan was still watching her thoughtfully. After a long pause, he replied, "Once you break free from the Mirage Dragon’s illusions, it’s not hard to kill. You could kill it just standing there."
Kill it just standing there? Li Fei couldn’t help but laugh. He was always like this—showing off one moment, only to collapse in exhaustion and pain the next. She raised her hand and cast another Healing Net over him, just in case.
She stood up, brushing off the ash. "I’ll go check on the others."
Lei Xiuyuan suddenly pinched her cheek lightly, forcing her to turn back to him. He looked displeased. "You haven’t answered my question yet."
Li Fei swatted his hand away, ignoring his darkening expression. "Stop touching me." With that, she strode off.
She soon spotted Ge Lin and the others. They had all collapsed almost in a heap. Baili Gelin was lying face down on the ground, softly crying and muttering something unintelligible. Li Fei hurried over and gave her face two firm slaps. "Ge Lin! Wake up!"Baili Gelin suddenly opened her eyes, large teardrops rolling down her face. Her eyes were bloodshot, filled with despair, as she abruptly grabbed Li Fei and trembled, "Where's my sister? How is she? If something happens to her, I... I..."
Li Fei wrapped her arms around her, gently patting her back. "It's alright, everything's fine. It was just an illusion."
Baili Gelin hugged her knees and cried for a long time before gradually realizing that everything had been just an illusion. Her reddened eyes stared at the unconscious Ye Ye for a while before finally shedding another tear and letting out a long sigh.
"I'm going to find my sister," she said, standing up and leaving without another word.
Li Fei then woke Lu Li with a pat. After coming to, he looked around in confusion and managed only half a question, "Gelin, she—" Before he could finish, the perceptive man seemed to notice something amiss and immediately fell silent. He then sat motionless to the side, lost in thought.
Noticing Ji Tongzhou lying the farthest away and trembling slightly, Li Fei feared he might be trapped in a nightmare. She approached him, ready to slap him awake, but before she could, he suddenly opened his eyes and sat up abruptly, his face covered in cold sweat. He turned to look at her, his gaze burning intensely yet seemingly filled with endless sorrow.
She quickly reassured him, "Are you alright? It was just a dream—" Before she could finish, Ji Tongzhou suddenly pulled her into a tight embrace. His heartbeat was rapid, his breathing uneven, and even his voice trembled. "You didn't leave! Thank goodness! You didn't leave!"
Li Fei awkwardly pushed him away. "Ji Tongzhou, what kind of dream did you have? Wake up already!"
His sweaty, feverish palm cupped her face, and Li Fei suddenly felt a tear fall onto her cheek. The prince, still lost in the illusion, held her tightly as he wept. She was so stunned her entire body froze—he was crying?! Ji Tongzhou was crying?! What kind of dream had he had? Could it have been about her?
Li Fei felt like she was being crushed by his grip. His strength was terrifying, and no matter how hard she struggled, it was useless. She could only pound his back in desperation. "Let go! It was just a nightmare! None of it was real!"
He seemed not to hear her. Left with no choice, Li Fei bit his arm hard. Ji Tongzhou jolted in pain and finally released her. She sprang back like a startled rabbit, retreating several steps as she glared at him warily and helplessly. He stared at her blankly at first, but slowly, as if waking up, he turned his head to look around before finally freezing in place.
A dream? It was just a dream?
Ji Tongzhou didn’t know whether to feel relief or agony. That absurd illusion had given him everything he desired, only to cruelly shatter it all before his eyes—Yue Country destroyed, his beloved abandoning him, leaving him standing alone in a vast, desolate snowfield with nowhere to go.
Thankfully, it was just a fleeting dream... Ji Tongzhou wearily covered his forehead. The remnants of a painful sob and a tearing ache still lingered in his throat. Instinctively, he looked up to search for Jiang Li Fei, only to find she had already left. Another pang of sorrow passed through his heart—why was it only a dream? In that dream, he had loved and hated her, experienced the greatest joys of three thousand worlds and the deepest agonies of the nineteen layers of hell. Yet in the fleeting illusion of life, it had all been but a grand dream, leaving nothing behind upon waking.
At least, in that illusion, he had once held her. But now, awake, he couldn’t even embrace her.Ji Tongzhou raised his head, feeling as though he were suffocating. Invisible flames raged across the mountains and plains, burning his heart and body. Trapped in this illusion with no escape, the boundaries between reality and fantasy blurred. Though life was but a fleeting dream, he felt as though he had already lived an entire lifetime—an experience he could never forget.
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