The wind blew, and in the air was only Dou Niang’s low sobbing.

The Mirage Woman’s fingernails lightly scraped across the gems embedded in her snake staff, producing harsh scratching sounds.

“You do have some backbone.” After a moment of silence, she smiled mockingly. “Since that’s the case, then just die here.” As she finished speaking, the snake staff in her hand suddenly swelled violently, the giant serpent within writhing as it brutally lunged toward everyone present.

All their spirit artifacts had turned to sand, and their Yuanli completely disappeared. The giant snake’s head opened its maw in mid-air. Zanxing retreated backward, but behind her had somehow become dunes. Before she could react, she felt a weight on her body—the giant snake had coiled around her, like a writhing muddy swamp, rolling her up tightly. A suffocating sensation of being unable to breathe surged from her chest.

Looking around, everyone was the same. Having lost their Yuanli, the group was no different from ordinary people. And Gu Baiying, who had the highest cultivation, had no power to fight back due to his damaged spiritual veins. Even if they hadn’t encountered the Mirage Woman, his body probably couldn’t have lasted much longer.

“Uncle Master!” Mendong’s panicked voice suddenly rang out: “This demon woman—this demon woman is absorbing your Yuanli!”

Zanxing suddenly raised her eyes.

When they fell into this place, their Yuanli had disappeared under the constraints of the rules, but it wasn’t truly gone—it just couldn’t be deployed. And this demon woman’s snake staff seemed to have some ability to absorb others’ Yuanli. Seeing the giant snake coiled around her body growing larger and larger, Zanxing felt she would suffocate at any moment.

“Senior Brother Mu…” Zanxing turned her head with difficulty, looking toward Mu Cengxiao: “Think of something quickly!”

Mu Cengxiao, also coiled by the giant snake and unable to move, was somewhat puzzled upon hearing this: “…What method?”

“Your saber? Cough cough cough—”

“Isn’t it… the same as yours… all turned to sand…” After saying this, the giant snake around him suddenly tightened. Mu Cengxiao’s face went pale, and he fell silent.

Could he be dead? Zanxing was startled.

In “Nine Heaven Summit,” there was no plot about Wufan City. But Mu Cengxiao was the protagonist, and as long as someone was the protagonist, you never heard of them dying midway through—this was also why Zanxing had remained so calm until now.

But now Mu Cengxiao was being strangled until his face was blue-purple, looking like he would breathe his last at any moment. He didn’t look like he could still find hope in despair. What were they to do? Could it be that their entire group would go out on a trip, gain nothing, and die in such an illusion?

This was too depressing!

Perhaps because of the Xiaoyuan Pearl, or perhaps because Zanxing’s Yuanli was originally the weakest among the group, the Mirage Woman’s snake staff had the least effect on her. She still had the energy to think. Meanwhile, the senior sisters and brothers around her had all been coiled by the snake staff until they seemed unconscious, barely breathing.

This couldn’t continue—were they going to die here?

Just then, she suddenly glimpsed Gu Baiying—specifically, the hair ribbon on Gu Baiying’s head.

The bright red “Zhuyan” in the youth’s hair was like a red plum blossom adorning snowy ground. This hair ribbon had once been removed by Gu Baiying and handed to Zanxing, telling her to leave first, but Zanxing had refused it, losing this escape opportunity.

But when cultivators encountered opponents with higher cultivation than themselves, escape wasn’t the only option.

In the secret realm of Li’er Kingdom, Qinghua Xianzi had given her the inheritance. Those cultivation techniques and mental formulas were obscure and numerous as cow hair. Zanxing hadn’t had time to read through and organize them all, but she vaguely remembered seeing such a line: If disciples encounter danger and cannot escape, and the opponent’s cultivation far exceeds their own, they can burn their own Yuanli to temporarily raise their cultivation and fight.

Burning one’s own Yuanli was, in some sense, like burning one’s lifespan. The lost Yuanli wouldn’t return, but the benefit was raising one’s cultivation in the shortest time possible, gaining the ability to fight the opponent.

Now she was also in this place, constrained by the “rules” of the illusion, and her Yuanli had completely disappeared. But she still had the Xiaoyuan Pearl.

That omnipotent Xiaoyuan Pearl was beating faintly in her heart. Zanxing could even sense its longing and trembling.

She could burn the Yuanli within the Xiaoyuan Pearl.

Only…

Her palm began to ache faintly. Without thinking, she knew that the flower-shaped red mark was reminding her.

If she stepped forward, the plot would naturally change. Having stolen Mu Cengxiao’s fortune and spotlight, she would inevitably be punished by “Heaven’s Way.” Just like how the Xiaoyuan Pearl had changed from a supreme treasure to a demonic object, just like how she had mistakenly entered Taiyan Sect and sunk deeper step by step.

The Mirage Woman’s wanton laughter echoed in the vast desert, while the companions around her had fallen silent.

Zanxing’s gaze darkened.

Breaking “Heaven’s Way” would indeed bring new punishment, but if she didn’t break it, she would lose her life right now.

Since that was the case, she might as well go all out and fight with everything she had.

Thinking of this, Zanxing closed her eyes. From the warm pearl at her chest, white light suddenly erupted. This white light was different from before—no longer scorching hot, but like a quietly flowing stream, slowly flowing through one’s heart.

The Mirage Woman sensed something was wrong. Looking at Zanxing again, her gaze was different. She murmured, “You are strange.” One hand reached toward Zanxing.

Zanxing frowned. The next moment, her hand was suddenly grasped. She looked down in surprise and saw the little girl with braids—Dou Niang—holding her hand and looking up at her.

A clammy, sweaty dampness came from her palm. Her vision blurred, and everything disappeared completely. She saw her own feet—the soles of her cloth shoes had been worn through, her insteps were tanned dark, and a rough, sandy texture came from her mouth.

All around was a barren desert without a single blade of grass. Zanxing saw her own hands, small, with braids hanging down from her chest. She had become Xu Dou Niang.

Zanxing—or rather, Xu Dou Niang—was slowly walking in the desert. She seemed to have been walking for a very, very long time—so long she couldn’t remember the days, that there was no food or water left in her bundle. She was still walking because she wanted to go home.

She didn’t know when she had come to this desert, nor how much longer it would take to walk out of it. She felt famished and parched. When night came, she would hide behind dunes to sleep, and when daylight emerged, she would set off again with her bundle.

Like an animal lost in the wasteland.

Walking like this, she didn’t know how much time had passed. Another dusk arrived. Hungry and thirsty, she lay down fully clothed behind a dune, watching countless glittering stars appear in the darkening vast sky. The boundless, lonely, and desolate desert possessed the world’s most lively Milky Way. She closed her eyes and faintly heard a woman’s gentle voice by her ear asking: What do you want most?

What did she want most?

Xu Dou Niang thought—she wanted to return to many years ago, before she was sold to a wealthy household as a servant girl, when Father hadn’t yet become obsessed with gambling, when Mother was still alive. On summer days like this, after she finished kicking shuttlecocks in the courtyard and entered the small room covered in sweat, Father would wipe her sweat with one hand and bring her chilled sour plum soup from the table with the other. The sour plum soup was both sour and sweet. Drinking it all at once made even her tongue sweet. Father would pick her up from the ground and lift her very high.

She heard that voice by her ear become even gentler, saying: Sleep, sleep, everything will be fine when you wake up.

Xu Dou Niang fell asleep peacefully.

The first ray of sunlight broke through the clouds, falling on the girl’s face, fuzzy and warm. She opened her eyes and saw Xu Fu sitting beside her, looking at her gently. She stared in disbelief with wide eyes. Her father patted her head and smiled: “Our Dou Niang has grown so big.”

Xu Dou Niang stared blankly at the person before her, tears flowing down.

Her father took her hand and walked toward that city in the desert. That city was warm and prosperous, everyone was kind—it was an oasis in the wasteland. They settled down, built a house there, and had a home.

Beautiful like a fantasy dream.

The present world was peaceful, the years quiet and good, exactly like everything she had imagined.

Only, only…

Did she not know it was a dream?

She had been away from home so long—Xu Fu had already aged. How could he still look like he did when young? He always made shuttlecocks for her, but she was long past being a little girl who kicked shuttlecocks.

Those inconsistencies, those inappropriateness in daily life, were like sand grains in shoe soles, using their sharpness to constantly remind one of reality versus illusion. All the traces and clues—she ignored them all.

Illusions were beautiful dreams woven by great demons. Some people were intoxicated and didn’t know the way back; some people sank into them while fully conscious.

The little stream behind the dune had dried up. The dried traces remained on the ground, reminding travelers that long ago, there had once been a clear spring here.

The girl lying against the dune never woke up again.

Zanxing suddenly opened her eyes.

The Panhua Stick had somehow returned to her hands. All the sand grains had disappeared, and what she touched were hard stone walls.

The illusion was broken.

The Mirage Woman’s expression changed drastically as she shrieked: “This is impossible—”

Zanxing looked at the little girl beside her with a complex expression and sighed: “So you knew all along.”

Xu Dou Niang had known all along.

She knew it was fake. She knew everything was just a fantasy dream. She knew a ruined desert couldn’t possibly have an oasis, that a father thousands of miles away couldn’t suddenly appear by her side. She knew Xu Fu was fake, Wufan City was fake, and all the warm feelings between father and daughter were fake.

She had gotten lost in the desert before even seeing her father. She died without ever finding the way home.

How cruel reality was, and how beautiful dreams were.

So even after discovering that everything was false, Xu Dou Niang willingly lived in the woven illusion.

Until she met Tian Fangfang.

“I don’t want to hurt Big Brother Tian.” Xu Dou Niang smiled bitterly at Zanxing, her body gradually becoming ethereal. “Since everything started because of me, let it end with me.”

“Damn it,” the Mirage Woman flew into a rage. “You actually deceived me—” She struck toward Xu Dou Niang with her staff, but was blocked sideways.

Zanxing’s Panhua Stick, broken into two pieces, blocked in front of her.

“Now it’s my turn,” she said.