Tian Fangfang didn’t move at all.

After pushing him for a long while with no response, finally, Mendong gathered his courage and slapped Tian Fangfang across the face, shouting: “Senior Brother Tian!”

Tian Fangfang slept sweetly.

Mendong grabbed his hair and pulled outward, like pulling a large radish stuck in the ground: “Senior—Brother—Tian—”

“Senior Brother Tian” had no response whatsoever, even smiling slightly at the corners of his mouth with a face full of happiness, as if deeply immersed in a beautiful dream.

Mendong plopped down on the ground, immediately feeling helpless. His cultivation was already mediocre, and now with his Yuanli completely lost and his Qiankun Bag unable to open, he couldn’t wake Tian Fangfang no matter what. If Tian Fangfang didn’t wake up, how could he go find the others by himself?

Mendong sat on the ground, dejectedly wiping the corner of his eyes. After all that commotion, Tian Fangfang had been dragged by him from inside the chamber to outside it. That protruding leg had been pulled so much that even his shoe had fallen off, revealing a sock with a hole in it.

In the sect at Gufeng Mountain, clothing had fixed allowances, and socks were sewn from special white silk. But Tian Fangfang’s socks were red—he had sold the distributed socks and replaced them with cheap goods. Now that the sock had a hole revealing one of his toes. Mendong looked and looked, his heart suddenly stirring.

Why not try a different method?

……

The dishes on the table were all things he loved to eat, but previously couldn’t afford.

Eight-treasure wild duck, Buddha’s hand golden rolls, stir-fried squid strips, golden thread pastry, milk fish fillets, colorful beef strips… Tian Fangfang wolfed down the food. When he ate too hastily, he’d grab the flower-carved wine jar beside him and take a gulp.

When the Qian family fell, the former servants scattered. He didn’t want silver or antiques, but asked for a plot of land at the east end of the village. He originally intended to use this land to grow sweet potatoes and such to stave off hunger when there wasn’t enough to eat. Unexpectedly, on the first day of clearing the land, one hoe strike dug up a chest of gold ingots.

He used this chest of gold ingots to buy fields and land, built a beautiful, large mansion, and brought his parents to live there.

After having money, he could eat his fill every day and no longer had to endure constant beatings and scolding as before. Tian Fangfang felt that everything around him had become better. No wait, there was still one thing that wasn’t good—his memory had gotten worse. For instance, the ins and outs of how he made his fortune and came to own this mansion were told to him by a maidservant in the house. Only after the maidservant reminded him did he vaguely remember that such a thing had happened.

However, when people get older, poor memory is common. When he was a long-term worker at the Qian estate, he only hoped that one day he could eat his fill of steamed buns, have meat at every meal, and sleep in the softest bed. He never expected it would all come true now. Good fortune had come too suddenly, like a dream.

He picked up a piece of snow-white fish meat with his chopsticks and put it in his mouth. The fish meat was sweet and delicate. Tian Fangfang smacked his lips contentedly, then suddenly felt something tickling around his feet. Looking down, he nearly lost his soul.

A gray mouse was circling his feet, its two paws seeming to want to climb up his trouser leg. His shoes had somehow disappeared, and his two feet were stepping naked on the ground. He could feel the tingly sensation of the mouse crawling over his instep.

“Mother! How can there be mice here?” Tian Fangfang cried out in horror.

When he was young and poor, the house didn’t even have a bed—just a low couch piled up with mud. Because there wasn’t enough food at home, even the mice went crazy with hunger. Sometimes, when sleeping until midnight, mice would climb onto the bed and bite people. When Tian Fangfang was eight years old, the newborn baby next door had his nose gnawed off by mice at night. He still remembered that bloody scene. In Tian Fangfang’s heart, nothing was more terrifying than mice.

Now, in his exquisitely luxurious mansion, there were mice too?

“Someone—someone—” he shouted.

But the mice under his feet grew more and more numerous. He didn’t know where they came from—he only saw gray tides surging from all directions. Those furry things brushed over his instep. He climbed onto a stool, but the mice followed him up. He climbed onto the table, but the mice pursued relentlessly. The tingly sensation spread over his body, and an unbearable itch forced him to shout: “Get away!” while reaching for the axe at his waist.

His hand grasped empty air.

Where was the axe? Where was his Qianyang Axe?

But wait, what was the Qianyang Axe?

Tian Fangfang felt his mind suddenly becoming chaotic, as if his memories had gone wrong. Those gray, noisy tides stopped in front of him, the mansion gradually became blurry, and a clear voice sounded beside his ear, accompanied by the tickling sensation on his soles: “Senior Brother Tian! Senior—Brother—Tian—”

Tian Fangfang suddenly opened his eyes.

The little child in front of him was hugging his foot to his chest, his small face flushed red from holding his breath. Tian Fangfang was stunned for a moment, then suddenly reacted, yanking his foot back and looking at Mendong with an extremely complex expression: “Junior brother, I never thought you had this kind of hobby?”

Mendong was unexpectedly kicked by him and, after a while, climbed up from the ground, his face iron-blue with anger: “Who has this kind of hobby? If it weren’t for seeing you completely immersed in the illusion with no way to wake up, who would want to take off your socks?” He pinched his nose: “They stink to death!”

At that time, Tian Fangfang showed no signs of waking, so Mendong treated it as a last resort—he simply took off Tian Fangfang’s socks and tickled his soles. Unexpectedly, this method worked so well that Tian Fangfang woke up.

“Illusion?” Tian Fangfang was stunned for a moment, putting on his socks while saying, “That was just an illusion?”

“What did you dream about?” Mendong moved closer to ask.

Tian Fangfang didn’t speak. In that illusion, there was indeed everything he wanted to obtain. If Mendong hadn’t awakened him from it, who knows how long he would have remained immersed.

“But junior brother,” he finished putting on both socks and started putting on his shoes: “how did you wake up?”

Mendong hesitated: “I have Spirit Apertures, perhaps because of this reason.”

Because he had Spirit Apertures, his sense of smell and taste were different from others. The brown sugar cake in the illusion, despite trying its best to mimic the fragrance in his memory, still revealed the fishy smell of sand and soil when he bit into it. When he noticed something amiss, the illusion would show flaws, like that tiger, and he would follow that flaw to find the truth.

Tian Fangfang finished putting on his shoes and stomped on the ground, then suddenly spat several times: “Ptui, ptui, ptui,” saying suspiciously: “Why is there sand in my mouth?”

“Did you eat things inside?” Mendong asked.

“Yes!”

“Food in illusions is mostly transformed from sand and soil,” Mendong said with his face tightly drawn: “Forget it, let’s go find Senior Sister Meng and the others first.”

This corridor was very long, but Tian Fangfang and Mendong had only walked a few steps when they saw Mu Cengxiao.

He was half-sitting against the wall with his head lowered, holding the Mieshen Saber in his arms. At first glance, you’d think he was still awake. Tian Fangfang walked up and patted his shoulder: “Junior brother—”

Mu Cengxiao’s eyes were tightly closed, with no response.

“Looks like he’s also immersed in an illusion,” Mendong frowned after watching for a while, then crouched down to lift one of Mu Cengxiao’s legs, calling to Tian Fangfang beside him: “Hurry up, you help too.”

Tian Fangfang also crouched down and said to Mendong, “Let me do it, you just stay to the side.”

……

The autumn sky seemed to be golden too.

Fallen leaves covered the ground everywhere. In the distance, flocks of geese crossed gray shadows over the clouds and disappeared far away.

Mu Cengxiao looked down at the sword in his hand.

This sword was given to him by the Lord of Yue City to congratulate him on forming his Golden Core. Now he was the first genius in all of Yue City to form a Golden Core before age eighteen. Everyone respected and feared him. He and Liu Yunxin no longer had to live looking at others’ faces. Even Wang Shao, the young lord of Yue City, had to be respectful when he saw him.

Liu Yunxin sat on a blue stone in the woods, embroidering a fan in her hands. Though the weather was getting colder, she insisted on embroidering a fan. Mu Cengxiao’s gaze passed over her face and returned to the long sword in his hand.

This sword was very beautiful, with a blood-colored gem inlaid on the scabbard. Most importantly, it was a mid-grade spiritual artifact. Such a gorgeous and imposing weapon was something he hadn’t dared even think about in the past. He should have been proud to possess this sword, but for some reason, whenever he looked at it, a strange feeling arose in his heart, as if… as if this wasn’t his sword.

He shook his head, casting aside that strange feeling, and drew his sword to begin cultivation. However, just as he moved, he heard an earth-shaking, tremendous crash from all around.

Liu Yunxin looked at him in panic and ran toward him desperately. He shouted “Yunxin” and was about to rush over to save her. However, between him and Liu Yunxin, the ground suddenly split open a crack. Then water seeped out from that crack, and a black, enormous creature rushed out, wrapping around his legs.

His heart shook: “It’s the ‘Yu’!”

“Yunxin, run quickly! Don’t let its sand hit you!” Mu Cengxiao shouted to Liu Yunxin.

As soon as the words left his mouth, he suddenly froze. These words seemed so familiar, and the scene before his eyes seemed to have been seen somewhere before.

That black demon beast with a blurred face seemed unwilling to let him go, firmly wrapping around his legs and dragging him toward the underground crack.

He struggled desperately, but when he looked up, Liu Yunxin had somehow disappeared. The half-embroidered fan was thrown on the ground, its embroidery crude and rough.

Liu Yunxin couldn’t possibly abandon him and escape alone, nor could Liu Yunxin embroider such an ugly fan.

Like a beautiful ink painting being gradually washed away by raindrops, the oil colors on the paper began to run. Those exquisite patterns started becoming chaotic and unrecognizable, losing their original appearance. The geese disappeared, the light disappeared, and the golden sky became confused. He saw dark fire swaying before him, and human voices sounded beside his ear, urgent and repeated.

“Junior brother! Junior Brother Mu!”

“Mu—Senior—Brother—”

The voices grew louder and louder, as if crossing countless false noises to ring clearly beside his ear. A coolness rose from his feet, as if someone was manipulating his body. This disturbance made him alert.

Mu Cengxiao suddenly opened his eyes.