Jiang Zhaoxue naturally knew this nonsense, but as the only person currently out of the Mizhen Illusion Array with a functioning brain, she couldn’t just shout “we’re doomed” like A’Nan. She raised her hand to stop A’Nan’s shouting and thought aloud: “Don’t speak first. Let me think.”

“Think!” A’Nan urged. “Think quickly! You’re so smart, you must have a solution. This Song Wulan is so petty. He threw himself on the sword just to prevent you from blood sacrificing him to save everyone, right? Really doesn’t have any spirit of dedication at all. What’s wrong with sacrificing one person to save everyone? As the main culprit, shouldn’t he do this? You refining him into a pill serves him right…”

Before finishing, A’Nan suddenly realized something, and Jiang Zhaoxue also reacted.

The person and bird looked at each other. A’Nan blinked and suddenly said: “You’re saying, you could use a substitution talisman to disguise as Mu Jinyue…”

“I’ve already obtained his avatar,” Jiang Zhaoxue thought, “so can’t I also disguise myself as Song Wulan?”

Spiritual formations recognize humans by their spiritual power aura.

This was extremely difficult to forge, but if she had the essence pill refined from Song Wulan’s avatar…

Jiang Zhaoxue took out the essence pill refined from Song Wulan, studying it seriously, thinking: “If I swallow this essence pill, I can digest all the spiritual power in his flesh and blood. After disguising as him and linking with the Mizhen Illusion Array, as long as I can figure out the incantation to break the Mizhen Illusion Array, won’t I be able to open it?”

The essence of formations was another form of talisman language. Breaking a formation meant finding patterns in this formation’s language.

Only the formation setter knew their own method to break it, but if she could connect to the Mizhen Illusion Array as Song Wulan, she could see clearly the formation patterns of the illusion he laid down. Finding the incantation to break it would just be a matter of time.

“But…” A’Nan hesitated somewhat. “Can Pei Zichen and Shen Yuqing hold out that long?”

The longer they remained in the illusion, the more power they gave to the Mizhen Illusion Array, and the more difficult it would be to break.

Most importantly, if Shen Yuqing lost control and killed Pei Zichen…

Just thinking of this possibility, Jiang Zhaoxue felt a somewhat undeniable stinging pain in her heart. She calmly suppressed it, trying her utmost to think rationally. If Pei Zichen died, then everything she’d done would be wasted. She would never be able to break the Mutual Heart Contract.

Conversely, if Pei Zichen killed Shen Yuqing—

She would have to die.

Moreover, Pei Zichen didn’t even need to kill Shen Yuqing. He only needed to expose his Jiuyou Realm techniques. Even if they walked out of the Mizhen Illusion Array alive, Shen Yuqing would absolutely never give him the God-Slaying Sword. Unless Shen Yuqing was killed, Pei Zichen could never return to the True Immortal Realm.

Furthermore, Shen Yuqing was limited by the Time-Seeking Mirror. Once his power was fully unleashed, he would be taken away from this space-time by the Time-Seeking Mirror. So although he was very strong, he couldn’t possibly give all his power to the Mizhen Illusion Array.

But Pei Zichen was different. Once Pei Zichen acted, he would use the power of the Lingxu Fan and Yuan Luogong. For the Mizhen Illusion Array, this kind of divine artifact power would be like adding wings to a tiger. If strengthened by the power of Yuan Luogong and Lingxu Fan, she truly had no confidence in opening the Mizhen Illusion Array.

“Actually, there’s another method…”

Jiang Zhaoxue thought, looking at the person desperately dodging Shen Yuqing in the water mirror ahead: “The Mizhen Illusion Array’s so-called ‘no exit, no entry’ is actually based on a fixed number of people. If I go in, I can exchange for one person to come out. I can use myself to exchange one person out and separate those two.”

“After separating them?” A’Nan asked curiously. “Who will disguise as Song Wulan to break this formation?”

This question stumped Jiang Zhaoxue.

She couldn’t fathom Mu Jinyue’s depths. The other mortals weren’t worth considering. As for Shen Yuqing and Pei Zichen, though they had considerable achievements in swordsmanship and knew a bit about other formations and talismans, asking them to figure out Song Wulan’s formation breaking method—she truly didn’t dare gamble on that possibility.

Over the years, she’d seen too many sword cultivators with handsome exteriors and clever appearances but actually dumb as grass. They practiced swordsmanship too arduously and simply had no time for cultural courses.

“How about,” A’Nan guessed her thoughts and suggested, “we choose to trust them once?”

Jiang Zhaoxue raised her eyes to look at A’Nan. A’Nan stood on the bed holding her physical body in the distance, tilting her head: “What Shen Yuqing saw was too shocking. It’s understandable he wants to act. But hasn’t Pei Zichen not acted yet?”

This made Jiang Zhaoxue pause, hesitating: “But… he cultivates Jiuyou Realm techniques to begin with, so he’s more easily influenced than ordinary people…”

“But he hasn’t done it yet.” A’Nan didn’t understand. “For something he hasn’t done, why presume he’s done it?”

Hearing this, Jiang Zhaoxue fell silent. A’Nan continued: “Back in the illusion, you thought he wanted to trap you for life, but all he wanted was four years. Now he hasn’t done anything. How about we just wait? Maybe he can hold out until you break the formation? Even if you don’t break it completely, if you get halfway and exchange for Shen Yuqing or Pei Zichen, it’ll be much easier for them to understand, right?”

“Then…” Jiang Zhaoxue still hesitated. “What about Shen Yuqing?”

A’Nan didn’t understand: “Shen Yuqing?”

“I can trust that Pei Zichen won’t act rashly. But Shen Yuqing is already acting to kill him. If Pei Zichen doesn’t use Jiuyou Realm techniques, he can’t last a moment under Shen Yuqing’s hands. What if Shen Yuqing really kills him?”

“He’s the Child of Heavenly Dao. Can Shen Yuqing even kill him?”

A’Nan reminded, somewhat helplessly: “You’ve walked the road so long, you’ve forgotten how you set out, haven’t you?”

This made Jiang Zhaoxue freeze, instantly reacting.

She thought for a long while and realized the best method now was just this.

After much deliberation, no longer hesitating, she nodded and said in a low voice: “This is the only way.”

With that, she let her soul float forward, landing on her own physical body. Her soul hadn’t returned for a long time. Just returning to her body, she was still somewhat unaccustomed. She tried sensing for a moment, finally completely controlling her body. Opening her eyes, she sat up.

She quickly got off the bed, sat down on the open ground, lowered her head, and began drawing a formation. Then she took out the golden pill refined from Song Wulan.

Spiritual power swirled around the golden pill. Looking at it, Jiang Zhaoxue still felt somewhat disgusted.

“Speaking of which,” A’Nan watched and couldn’t help but say, “if you find it so disgusting, why did you insist on refining him into a pill? What were you thinking? Such a good thing, are you really giving it to Pei Zichen?”

“Give it my ass!” Hearing this, Jiang Zhaoxue immediately retorted. “Doesn’t he have enough good things already? I finally managed to squeeze a little something good from Heavenly Dao through my own efforts, just to piss off Song Wulan. Did you really think I’d actually give it?!”

“Don’t get agitated,” seeing her angry, A’Nan quickly said, “I knew you weren’t that generous. Hurry up and eat it.”

Hearing this, Jiang Zhaoxue also knew she had to face it.

She took a deep breath, took out a pot of strong liquor from her qiankun pouch, closed her eyes, and swallowed the golden pill.

The pill dissolved into spiritual power upon entering her mouth, nourishing her entire body. There wasn’t really any disgusting feeling, but psychologically she still felt somewhat uncomfortable. Forcing herself not to overthink, she sent the wine pot back into the qiankun pouch and began shaking divination sticks.

With the golden pill transformed from Song Wulan’s avatar, disguising as him wasn’t difficult. Once the supreme fortune stick appeared, she felt the aura around her body change instantly.

She knew this succeeded and closed her eyes, tentatively sensing and linking with the Mizhen Illusion Array.

The moment her divine soul touched the Mizhen Illusion Array, a drawn circular formation immediately appeared before her eyes, shining in her sea of consciousness.

She carefully observed every line of the formation, thinking about where to start breaking it. After watching for a long time, she finally raised her finger. Dharmic light emanated from her hand as it slowly descended to the first position of the formation.

When Jiang Zhaoxue drew the first stroke of the formation-breaking rune, inside the Mizhen Illusion Array, Shen Yuqing fiercely struck his sword against Pei Zichen’s blade.

With a “boom,” sword intent collided, yet Pei Zichen didn’t retreat half a step.

Flying stones and dust rose, the earth shook. Shen Yuqing’s sword was fast as dense rain, Pei Zichen’s form like a spider web. In an instant, the two exchanged no less than a hundred moves, surprisingly evenly matched.

This wasn’t the first time master and disciple had crossed hands since meeting.

But last time, neither used spiritual power, only fighting within a room. In such a small space, Shen Yuqing had no time at all to probe his depths.

Now, fighting with him, he was shocked to realize—

Too fast.

Pei Zichen’s growth speed was terrifyingly fast, shockingly fast.

Since landing, he’d exchanged at least a thousand moves with him. What ordinary disciple had such ability?

More importantly—

Shen Yuqing infused spiritual power and slashed his sword toward Pei Zichen. Pei Zichen, unable to withstand the direct resistance, flipped backward following Shen Yuqing’s sword intent. Shen Yuqing pursued victoriously with another slash. But at the instant of landing, Pei Zichen raised his hand to form an array. A light shield crashed against Shen Yuqing’s sword intent!

Ordinary sword cultivators wouldn’t casually form arrays while fighting. And this method of casual array formation…

Was taught by Jiang Zhaoxue.

Shen Yuqing watched as Pei Zichen slashed with his sword, simultaneously forming an array with his left hand and striking toward Pei Zichen. Pei Zichen clearly hadn’t expected Shen Yuqing would also do this and was shocked into quick retreat!

One array fell empty. Shen Yuqing’s right-hand longsword immediately followed up. Pei Zichen gasped and raised his eyes, simultaneously seeing clearly the uncontrollable killing intent in the other’s eyes.

The two’s sword edges met. Every move carried shadows of the past.

No matter which direction Shen Yuqing thrust, his left hand always maintained a defensive posture protecting someone, while Pei Zichen consistently left a completely meaningless safe zone behind him.

With a casual gesture, Pei Zichen used Penglai formations, while Shen Yuqing raised his hand with Jiang Zhaoxue’s most commonly used formations.

They were like a mirror, reflecting past and future.

Only Shen Yuqing clearly knew he was the past.

He was those two hundred years. Every sword Pei Zichen wielded now, he had once wielded. Every move Pei Zichen used, he had used countless times.

In Pei Zichen’s every sword, he heard Jiang Zhaoxue’s voice, heard her again and again.

“Zeyuan, I’ll teach you Penglai formations.”

“Who says sword cultivators can’t use formations? I’ve modified the spiritual power method of this formation. You can too.”

“I won’t tell others. This kind of winning treasure, I’ll only tell you alone!”

“A’Xue, this is the last time. Don’t make mistakes again.”

For an instant, he seemed to return to that night when he found Mu Jinyue.

They had clearly agreed. They had clearly agreed it was the last time.

How could she keep making mistakes, mistake after mistake!

The scenes he’d seen in the river water surged forth.

She and Pei Zichen bowed to heaven and earth. She looked up to Pei Zichen becoming sect leader. She kissed him across that wooden door on New Year’s Eve, shameless on Qixi night, even in that broken temple—

Thinking of the male and female silhouettes on the thin gauze, Shen Yuqing’s hand gripping his sword nearly bled from clenching.

Why…

She was his wife!

She said she would only have him alone.

Her jade pendant was only given to him alone.

Her formations were only taught to him alone.

Jiang Zhaoxue’s entire life would only love Shen Zeyuan alone.

Pei Zichen.

These three characters were like a heart-gouging blade. He looked at Pei Zichen, his mind full of that moment when Jiang Zhaoxue followed him falling off the cliff.

It was at that moment she broke the dao companion contract.

It was at that moment she chose to leave him.

He deserved to die.

The surrounding ground trembled. Shen Yuqing’s sword momentum surged violently. Pei Zichen raised his sword in formation. Shen Yuqing disregarded everything, slashing urgently forward!

His sword momentum like the Milky Way hanging upside down, a waterfall suspended from heaven, surging forth like ocean waves, shocking Yuan Luo into crying out and straining forward: “Master!!”

However, Yuan Luo had just moved when she was urgently restrained by Pei Zichen. Sword light immediately crisscrossed together, weaving into a light net, trying to block Shen Yuqing’s assault.

But Shen Yuqing was half-step Tribulation Crossing after all. How could a Nascent Soul stage cultivator block him?

The sword formation like white paper meeting a blade instantly became critical. Pei Zichen was blown away by sword qi. Before he could rise, Shen Yuqing grabbed his throat and fiercely slammed him into the ground.

Pei Zichen heard the sound of his own bones shattering, feeling his entire body suppressed by sword intent, unable to move.

Only Shen Yuqing half-knelt before him, tightly gripping his throat, looking at him coldly.

The sword edge suspended above, Shen Yuqing stared at him deadly: “Who is she?”

Pei Zichen didn’t speak, looking at the sharp blade before him.

Blood surged in his chest as he listened to Shen Yuqing’s interrogation: “I’m asking you, who is the person who formed a marriage bond contract with you?!”