Chapter 67
It seemed like she had been walking for a long time. The silent darkness dulled her senses, making it difficult to perceive the passage of time.
Suddenly, a light appeared ahead. Heng Yu instinctively raised a hand to shield her eyes, averting her gaze to avoid the sudden brightness. After her eyes adjusted, she lowered her hand and continued walking.
As she approached the light, the darkness receded like a tide. In the next moment, Heng Yu found herself in a different environment.
She was standing in a small courtyard. A lush parasol tree grew in the center, its branches full of leaves. It was the season for falling leaves, and the ground was covered with yellow foliage. Several Hehuan trees also grew around the perimeter of the courtyard.
This place looked familiar.
Before Heng Yu could search her memory, a creaking sound came from behind her—the sound of a wooden door opening.
A woman in a goose-yellow dress walked out of the room. She had a cold demeanor, yet her movements carried a subtle charm. She seemed not to notice Heng Yu and walked directly past her, sitting on a swing in the middle of the courtyard. She swung gently, her skirt fluttering in the air.
Seeing this woman, whose face was identical to hers, Heng Yu immediately understood why this place looked familiar.
Wasn’t this her residence in the Hehuan Sect? And the woman before her was the original owner of her body.
With this realization, Heng Yu looked at the original owner again, noticing her cultivation was at the late stage of Foundation Establishment.
“Strange, I’ve been feeling restless lately. It must be my imagination,” the original owner frowned slightly, looking troubled. “I’ve been stuck at late Foundation Establishment for so long. Why can’t I find the opportunity to break through to peak Foundation Establishment? Master isn’t at the sect, so I can’t ask him for guidance. Should I ask Martial Uncle, the Sect Leader?… No, my cultivation probably hasn’t reached the required level yet. I’ll go into seclusion and cultivate for a while.”
After hearing the original owner’s mutterings, Heng Yu’s eyes lit up.
This timing! If she wasn’t mistaken, this was just before the original owner suffered Qi deviation. This illusion might be showing her the missing part of the original owner’s memories, the part from just before her death.
Heng Yu guessed that the formation must have detected her deepest memories, hence this illusion. This mental fortitude testing formation had existed for tens of thousands of years and was extremely profound; it wasn’t surprising that it could do this.
Heng Yu stood quietly, patiently waiting for the original owner’s next move. She watched as the original owner got up from the swing, returned to her room, activated a barrier, and entered seclusion to attempt a breakthrough.
It was difficult to estimate the passage of time within the illusion. Heng Yu didn’t know how long had passed, but she patiently waited for something to happen. However, even as the original owner was about to succeed in her breakthrough, nothing happened.
Bored, Heng Yu looked around. Just as her gaze was about to move away from a corner of the courtyard, she noticed something unusual and focused on it again. There, a strange black line was visible.
At first, the black line was barely noticeable, but as if sensing no threat, it gradually grew larger, expanding into a black mist that quickly spread and enveloped the original owner.
Heng Yu’s eyes narrowed. If she hadn’t recognized it at first, she certainly did now.
“How can there be demonic Qi in the Hehuan Sect?”
Before she could figure this out, seeing the demonic Qi about to invade the original owner’s body, Heng Yu quickly acted to stop it, lest she fail the mental fortitude test. But as soon as her spiritual energy touched the demonic Qi, it seemed to sense her presence. It abandoned the original owner, who was sitting in meditation, and lunged towards Heng Yu.
The change happened so fast that Heng Yu had no time to react before she was enveloped by the demonic Qi. A chilling aura seeped through her skin and into her bones, making her shiver involuntarily. Heng Yu tried to channel her spiritual energy to dispel the demonic Qi, but was shocked to find she couldn’t.
She remained calm, about to consider her next move, when unfamiliar images suddenly flooded her mind.
—In a clean room, a woman in seductive clothing knelt on the floor. Her face was blurry, but her eyes, fixed on someone beside her, shone with respect and admiration. In the next moment, her heart was devoured by black mist. Shock, fear, and confusion flashed in the woman’s eyes. Finally, she died in pain and despair.
—On a mountain peak, a young man in sturdy clothing practiced sword techniques. Seemingly having received praise from an elder, he radiated joy. In the next moment, he coughed up black blood, looking at the person opposite him with disbelief as he collapsed. He seemed to want to struggle, but more and more black blood spilled from his lips. He lay on the ground, slowly closing his eyes in despair.
…
In each scene, Heng Yu could clearly feel the person’s joy, followed by the shock and despair of a sudden attack. The despair clung to her, and Heng Yu frowned.
The scenes flashed by like a revolving lantern. Finally, the scene changed to a bedroom. The original owner, in a goose-yellow dress, sat cross-legged on the floor, gradually being enveloped by black mist. At a crucial moment in her breakthrough, the original owner was affected by the black mist, suffering Qi deviation. She clutched her chest, coughed up blood, collapsed unconscious, and her aura slowly faded.
The black mist hesitated for a long time, then receded like a tide without devouring the original owner. The images in her mind ended, but the lingering despair and fear intensified, so strong that Heng Yu couldn’t focus on who the people in those scenes were, or why there was demonic Qi in the Hehuan Sect.
Heng Yu closed her eyes tightly, forcibly suppressing these emotions that didn’t belong to her. Then, she sat cross-legged on the floor and, through gritted teeth, recited the demon-dispelling mantra Liaowu had taught her, one word at a time.
After reciting the first complete mantra, Heng Yu felt the negative emotions lessen slightly. The mantra was indeed effective against demonic Qi. Heng Yu calmed her mind, focusing entirely on reciting it.
When she finished reciting the entire mantra, the negative emotions completely subsided, leaving her pale and covered in cold sweat.
Taking a deep breath, Heng Yu pushed herself up from the ground with one hand. Her legs were numb.
After regaining feeling in her legs, Heng Yu looked around and found that the illusion of the original owner on the meditation cushion had disappeared.
She walked to the closed wooden door, pulled the bolt, and stepped outside. The illusion vanished, and she was back in the Sword Testing Grounds, surrounded by a crowd of cultivators.
“She cleared it so fast.”
“Yeah, it’s only been half an hour, right?”
“Which sect is she from? She’s not wearing sect robes. Could she be from an ordinary sect?”
“Are you blind? That’s Lord Luo of the Hehuan Sect.”
“I remember now! The winner of the sparring tournament! Her strength and mental fortitude truly match.”
The whispers around her drifted into Heng Yu’s ears. She was about to wipe the cold sweat from her face when a damp handkerchief was offered to her.
Heng Yu smiled and took the handkerchief. The cool cloth against her face calmed her racing heart. She smiled at Liaowu. “The mental fortitude test is quite interesting.”
It even managed to dredge up that sealed memory. Illusions couldn’t lie; they only brought out one’s deepest fears, so Heng Yu didn’t doubt its authenticity.
Since it was real, things became more interesting. The original owner had been in seclusion within the sect; how could she have been affected by demonic Qi? And who were the young men and women she saw in those images? Their clothing style resembled that of Hehuan Sect disciples.
If they were indeed Hehuan Sect disciples, who killed them?
“What are you thinking about?” Liaowu’s clear voice brought Heng Yu out of her thoughts.
Heng Yu shook her head, took a deep breath, and temporarily put those thoughts aside. Meeting Liaowu’s concerned gaze, she said after some thought, “I think I’ve discovered some secrets.”
Since it was a secret, she naturally couldn’t reveal it. Liaowu didn’t press further, pulling Heng Yu aside and handing her a water bottle.
As Heng Yu caught her breath, more people were spat out of the gate, all disciples who had failed the mental fortitude test.
Not paying much attention to them, Heng Yu pondered a serious question—should she tell You Yun the true cause of the original owner’s Qi deviation?
The presence of demonic Qi within the sect meant someone might be corrupted by it, and that person was hiding very well, holding a significant position within the sect.
However—
The original owner had been in seclusion right next to You Yun’s residence. Could demonic Qi really penetrate the territory of a late Nascent Soul cultivator so easily? Could that demonic Qi… have something to do with You Yun?
After a moment of thought, Heng Yu dismissed the suspicion against her master and decided to tell him part of what she had seen in the illusion later.
The person who had killed those young disciples was clearly someone highly respected. The expressions on the disciples’ faces as they died were all of disbelief and shock, clearly not expecting such an attack.
Therefore—that person couldn’t possibly be her master! Her master was so carefree and casual. Although he held the position of Elder, he wasn’t particularly influential within the sect and didn’t fit the description of “highly respected” at all!
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