I used the “Water Curtain Multiple Veils” technique that Yinze had taught me to temporarily block this sword strike, then lightly pushed against the water waves and flashed to a corner. Logically, Fu Chenzhi should have pursued and tried to kill me, but unexpectedly, after I dodged like this, he wandered around like a headless fly and turned to attack Yinze instead.

What was surprising was that Fu Chenzhi could exchange dozens of moves with Yinze. I watched as their figures moved like lightning and swift wind—in the blink of an eye, they had already flown along walls and engaged in countless rounds of combat in the small hall, their sword qi shattering several stone pillars.

Finally, Yinze struck back at Fu Chenzhi with his elbow. Fu Chenzhi’s back hit the wall, and just as he was about to charge forward again, Yinze grabbed his throat and pushed him high up against the wall with one hand. I said, “Grand Master, don’t kill him.”

Without even turning his head, Yinze directly swung his sword and chopped off Fu Chenzhi’s head.

I immediately felt my stomach churning. Before I could even speak, my legs went weak and I collapsed to the ground.

“Don’t make such a fuss, get up. This is merely Fu Chenzhi’s phantom taking physical form.” With that, Yinze threw the corpse to the ground.

Sure enough, the corpse turned into a wisp of smoke and vanished in an instant.

I sprang up from the ground and asked in confusion, “Why would there be his phantom here?”

“Throughout the world, there are countless demons skilled in transformation arts. If you ask me, I don’t know either. We can only continue forward and see.”

As soon as Yinze took two steps forward, I quickly blocked his path: “Wait, could we also be under an illusion?”

After I said this, he didn’t answer, and I didn’t ask again. There was a brief silence between us. I quickly changed my words: “Could I be under an illusion?”

“That depends on your willpower.”

This was like answering without really answering. But thinking about it, forget it—whether demon or devil, when they encounter a Divine Lord, each one is like an evil ghost seeing Zhong Xu. As long as I honestly follow behind him, I’ll be safe and sound. I continued to dutifully follow behind him as his little tail.

However, as soon as we walked through a doorway, we discovered that the scenery around us had changed: beside a long summer river, immortal cranes took flight, startling white feathers to fall. A group of azure-haired children crouched by the shore, using water to carve ice sculptures and playfully manipulating ice shards to throw at each other.

In the center of the crowd, a little girl suddenly stood up. She opened her lively eyes wide and looked toward us—her azure pupils like jade, her skin like fresh snow, two little braids swaying back and forth in the water’s light, just like a doll molded from peach blossoms and ice and snow.

She waved her hand toward us, her voice clear and crisp: “Big brother! Big brother! Don’t always sit there alone—come play with us!”

This little girl looked very familiar. Her big eyes curved into two long, arched slits as she smiled. She lifted her hem and ran over, extending her lotus-root-like little arms toward us. So adorable that even I couldn’t help but reach forward.

However, Yinze raised his sword and cut her in half. I nearly felt sick from this bloody scene again.

The surrounding environment returned to normal. Yinze pointed his sword at the two halves of the child’s body on the ground: “This is you, isn’t it?”

Only then did I suddenly understand. No wonder she looked familiar—this was my childhood appearance.

But even after recognizing it was me, Grand Master still cut her down so efficiently. This truly hurt one’s feelings—like gazing across a demon valley until one’s eyes grew weary, with ghostly fires already at dusk…

“It seems these are all Fu Chenzhi’s memories.” Yinze looked around. “Since even childhood events have been dredged up, it means he’s already been captured by demons.”

“Then we need to hurry and save him. Is he in Lianyao Valley?”

“He’s not far from here.”

After walking forward for another stretch, a sunlit avenue appeared. Pear blossoms bloomed profusely along the roadside, falling like snow. We walked forward along the avenue when suddenly, from behind a pear tree, a young girl’s face popped out.

“Wah!” she called out, as if deliberately trying to startle someone. Then she smiled brilliantly, tilting her head with two long twin ponytails hanging down, her hair and wrists adorned with pink peach blossoms. Flower petals fell among her azure hair, as if they had originally grown there.

She beckoned to us with her finger, whispering: “Big brother, come quickly. I’ll tell you—Hanmo is sleeping under this tree right now, with drool and snot all over his face. So ugly! Hey, look at this.” She picked up a pear blossom petal and rolled it up: “I’m going to stick this in his nostril…”

She had just run two steps when she stopped and turned back: “Hm? What’s wrong? Petal?” She looked at her shoulders, sleeves, and lapels but couldn’t find any petals. She was foolishly unaware that the petal was actually on her head…

I remembered—I had indeed done this before. I stuck the petal into Hanmo’s nostril, but that useless fellow snored so loudly that he sucked the petal into his throat and nearly choked to death. Because of this incident, I was scolded by Father King for three straight days—every time we met, he would scold me. What an unpleasant memory indeed.

However, I had completely forgotten this detail about the petal on my head. Why would Fu Chenzhi remember it so clearly… Moreover, in Fu Chenzhi’s memory, I appeared so beautiful and spirited that I felt somewhat ashamed of myself.

Of course, the final result was that Yinze swung his sword again and cut the girl before us in half.

I observed a moment of silence for my own “corpse” and continued forward with Yinze.

The next scene was particularly familiar: outside the dungeon, the bright moon was like silk, and azure grass grew abundantly. A young girl wore a white cloak, her hair like smoky willows, the cloak trembling slightly in the clear breeze.

She raised her eyes and smiled sweetly at us, that brilliant azure gaze full of stars: “I also like big brother.”

My heart jumped to my throat. I quickly reached out to grab the sword from Yinze’s hand and split that phantom open myself, then returned it to Yinze.

Yinze took the sword and pondered for a moment: “So this was the bright moon, the dungeon, the grass.”

“Right. That night, aside from our intimate encounter, we didn’t do much else.”

“Indeed, still so unrestrained.” Yinze wore an expression of considerable appreciation for me.

Next we passed through many doorways containing phantoms of him taking a master, studying, practicing martial arts… But in the vast majority of his memories, I was present. Only when I truly became an orphan with nowhere to go did I realize that big brother had been just like me all these years.

For some reason, these memories that always included my presence made me inexplicably somewhat sad.

Finally, we entered a doorway where the phantom scene was completely different from the previous ones: the star river turned, the Silver River stretched far away, seeming like a night in the immortal realm. We stepped into a stream where colorful boats had departed, with three li of lotus flowers and nine heavens of delicate clouds.

Beside a stretch of immortal water, ripples glimmered like wrinkled silk. At the pavilion railings, a colorful boat showed its head, the water’s surface reflecting the silhouette of the woman on the boat.

In the reflection, she carried a flower basket full of stars, adorned with water, clothed in wind. Her fingers were white and slender like scallions, her willow-like eyes stirring tender feelings. The reflection wasn’t clear, but this scene was too beautiful for any painting to capture adequately.

Seeing Yinze step forward beside me, I thought he would again swing his sword to cut the person in half. Who knew that he would only stare transfixed at that beautiful silhouette, even forgetting to blink. Finally, the colorful boat slowly moved forward. As the path turned at the stream’s head, the woman on the boat finally appeared before us.

She scattered the stars from her flower basket into the stream, her expression melancholy, starry tears dotting the corners of her eyes. I had always been most afraid of seeing people cry—whenever others cried, I would become flustered and troubled.

However, this was the first time I had seen a girl whose crying was so ethereal that one couldn’t help but want to paint this scene and hang it on the wall.

Beautiful, so beautiful. If Ling Yin’s transformation into Diao Chan represented touchable, tempting beauty, then this woman embodied the divine beauty that could only be admired from afar. It wasn’t in vain that after leaving Suozhao, I had traveled north and south everywhere—here, seeing these beauties was as comfortable as having my eyes massaged.

I was still admiring the beautiful scene before me when I heard Yinze beside me softly say: “Shangyan…”

I looked at him in confusion. Then I heard that immortal woman’s voice ring out like music: “Tianheng, what are you doing there? Come here, come to Mother…”

The immortal woman looked worried. She placed her basket at the bow of the boat, lifted her skirt, and stepped down from the boat, her bare feet entering the stream.

“Don’t come down, the cold water will harm your health.” Yinze dropped his precious sword and strode forward.

“Grand Master, wait!”

I quickly followed and grabbed Yinze’s robe, but was pushed away by his palm.

His strength was great—I was nearly pushed to the ground, but fortunately, I reacted quickly and immediately grabbed his arm, shouting: “Divine Lord Yinze! Don’t take another step forward! That’s an illusion—not a real person!”

Only then did he stop, standing there calmly for a moment, shaking his head.

Then he looked at the weeping immortal woman before him, then back at me, clinging to him with all my strength. His gaze returned to its usual indifference: “Go get my sword.”

I picked up the sword. Seeing him hanging his head in silence, I acted decisively and went forward myself to split open that immortal woman’s phantom. Subsequently, the beautiful, immortal scenery around us also changed back to the bloody lower level of Lianyao Valley.

A voice rang out in the empty room: “Ah, what a pity. Even the lofty Divine Lord Yinze nearly became my prize.”

“Floating Life Emperor, I guessed it was you.” Yinze laughed coldly. “What’s this? Still resentful about being personally sent here by Shangyan back then, so now you want to play the same trick again?”

Floating Life Emperor clicked his tongue: “That stinking hag Shangyan cost me five hundred years of cultivation and got me locked up in this godforsaken place for so many years. But using her as bait—what a sure catch. Whether it’s you or that brat’s father, when you see her, even knowing it’s fake, you’re like you’ve taken aphrodisiacs, stepping into traps yourselves.”

From the doorway ahead, another Fu Chenzhi appeared.

He hung his head, his eyes glowing red, dragging his sword and swaying in place like a zombie. Behind him appeared a small white tiger cub with flapping wings, also swaying—that was Xuanyue!

Floating Life Emperor said, “Just now, if this little demon hadn’t awakened you, I would have had another plaything. Little demon, don’t think you can escape either.”

I said: “I’m not a demon, I’m a spirit!”

But Floating Life Emperor directly ignored me: “Divine Lord Yinze, this is your beloved disciple in person. Today, he fights to the death. Let’s see if you can still cut him in half.”

With these words, Fu Chenzhi slowly raised his head and pointed his sword at us.

Xuanyue also raised her little head, waving her claws and howling at us with blood-red eyes.