NOVEL NEXT Chapter 24 - This Is an Illusion, Master Wanjun
“Why is Fairy Xue heading towards Xiao Ye?”
“Could it be that she already knows him?”
“No way! Xiao Ye is nothing but a shameless creep!”
“Please, don’t let someone like him join Purple Cloud Peak!”
Below the Ascension Platform, Xue Jinli’s admirers silently prayed, their faces filled with worry.
Shangguan Shu’s expression shifted slightly. This didn’t make sense. When Xiao Ye had submitted his request to meet her earlier, Xue Jinli had clearly shown no recognition of him.
Watching Xue Jinli walk gracefully towards him, Xiao Ye’s throat tightened, and his eyes sparkled with admiration. Speaking to Elder Li within his jade pendant, he boasted confidently, “Master, you were right! I am the chosen one!”
“Even though she didn’t know my name before, she secretly saved my portrait. She must like me!”
“Do you think if she confesses to me in front of everyone, I should accept?”
“Disciple, from her expression, it doesn’t look like she’s coming here to confess…”
Elder Li’s keen senses picked up something off. Despite Xue Jinli’s extraordinary talent in hiding her intent—even Nascent Soul cultivators might be unaware of her murderous aura—it couldn’t escape his notice.
Xue Jinli was here to kill Xiao Ye.
“Master, what are you saying? Fairy Xue must be coming to…”
Before Xiao Ye could finish, Xue Jinli’s aura erupted, a surge of overwhelming energy flooding the air like an unleashed tidal wave.
The oppressive force made everyone feel as though the sky itself was collapsing. Even breathing became laborious, and their souls quivered.
Confronted with this powerful pressure, Xiao Ye felt as though an ocean had trapped him, compressing his organs and limbs. The three thousand droplets of essence energy within his body were locked, leaving him completely powerless.
“Fairy Xue, you…”
With his chest ablaze and throat burning, Xiao Ye raised his head, looking in disbelief at the stunning woman before him.
“Silence,” Xue Jinli snapped coldly, her voice dripping with menace.
To her, the fact that Xiao Ye dared to join the Purple Cloud Peak selection openly—after being marked for death by her senior sister—was nothing short of a slap in Purple Cloud Peak’s face.
As the third direct disciple of Purple Cloud Peak, she had no choice but to eliminate this nuisance with swift, merciless efficiency.
Around the platform, the crowd’s tense atmosphere quickly turned amused.
“Haha, I was actually worried Fairy Xue knew him!”
“Xiao Ye’s done this to himself. If he’d just stepped down, nothing would’ve happened. Now he’s made Fairy Xue angry.”
“Fairy Xue is bringing him justice—why doesn’t he look happy?”
“Xiao Ye: I’ll behave! Just let me go!”
The entire crowd seemed to laugh at Xiao Ye’s plight.
As he faced this immense pressure, Xiao Ye’s bones creaked under the strain, and an intense killing intent clawed at his already fragile psyche.
Blood began to seep from his orifices, and unable to withstand the weight, he fell to his knees.
Why was this happening?
He was the chosen one. Shouldn’t all beauties be flocking to him?
Then why was Xue Jinli…
“Master, what should I do?” Xiao Ye cried desperately within his jade pendant, but there was only silence.
“Master, I’m on the verge of death! Please save me! Don’t you want to regain your physical form?” Xiao Ye pleaded, but still received no response.
“Master, are you truly abandoning me… I understand now! This place was never meant to be my opportunity but my grave. You tricked me into coming here so you could switch to a new host, right?”
“I won’t let you get your way!”
“I’ll destroy you!”
With a twisted expression, Xiao Ye reached toward the jade pendant on his chest, intent on smashing it.
In the corner of the jade pendant, Elder Li felt a surge of relief.
‘Go ahead, shatter it! Then we can be done with this miserable partnership!’
Elder Li was exhausted. Every decision he’d made had been for his disciple’s benefit, but Xiao Ye’s arrogance and blind confidence had turned him into a reckless fool, ignoring every piece of advice.
If only Xiao Ye had listened, today’s predicament could have been avoided.
Suddenly, Xiao Ye’s mind flashed back to the illusion he had experienced on the Heart Inquiry Platform. Everything he was facing now—the beautiful woman trying to kill him, the master who wouldn’t save him—it was exactly like the illusion.
So…
With a twisted smile and a sinister laugh, Xiao Ye muttered, “Heh… hahaha… This is an illusion, isn’t it? I’m still trapped in an illusion!”
“Go ahead! Kill me!” His expression contorted, looking as if he were possessed.
Elder Li felt himself on the edge of madness.
‘An illusion? After expending all of your mental energy in the Heart Inquiry test, has your brain been drained as well? Just smash the pendant already!’
For the first time, Elder Li wondered if he had somehow miscalculated Xiao Ye’s fate. Was this not his destined path but a trap of misfortune?
Below the platform, the onlookers watched in bewilderment.
“Is Xiao Ye losing his mind?”
“His willpower was always weak. Facing Fairy Xue’s intimidation, it’s no wonder he’s snapped!”
“I don’t think so. I bet he’s pretending to be crazy to escape punishment!”
“As if that would fool Fairy Xue!”
“Pathetic.”
Xue Jinli’s green eyes shimmered with icy disdain. With a single flick of her whip, streams of red light intertwined within, forming a fiery dragon that lunged toward Xiao Ye.
However, just as the attack was about to land—
A sudden surge of divine light filled the air, as if a river of heavenly energy poured down from the skies. A massive thunderbolt appeared out of nowhere, intercepting the fiery dragon mid-flight.
Sizzle!
The dragon clashed with the lightning, and the searing heat instantly melted away in the face of the immense thunder, scattering into the air.
“Such powerful lightning!”
The crowd gasped in awe.
Xue Jinli’s gaze shifted toward the direction from which the lightning had come. There stood a middle-aged man in a gray Taoist robe, holding a jade-handled whisk and a rustic sword slung across his back. His face looked rather unscrupulous, with a bit of a smirk.
With a nonchalant stroke of his mustache, he spoke smoothly, “Junior Sister Xue, this young man hasn’t committed any serious crimes. Why insist on taking his life? For your senior’s sake, why not spare him?”
The newcomer was none other than Master Wanjun, the leader of Heavenly Thunder Peak, one of the six main peaks of the Qingming Sect.