With these thoughts in mind, Yun Fei slightly closed her eyes, using her Spiritual Power for the first time to perform an internal inspection of this body she had grown into.
In a short while, after her Spiritual Power had completed a circuit, Yun Fei suddenly discovered that there indeed seemed to be something inside her head.
“Ah! I found it!”
This was a major discovery.
The thing was hidden deep within her head, extremely well-concealed.
If she hadn’t acted on a sudden whim, she might never have found it!
“Found it? Where is it?”
“Hehe~ it’s in my head~”
As she spoke, Yun Fei circulated her Demonic Power, attaching it to her fingertips.
She tapped her forehead and pulled, drawing a murky grey mass of mist out from her brow.
Seeing this, Mu Lingxi’s eyes widened, her small mouth forming a perfect “O” as an expression of shock flooded her face.
“This… how is this possible? It was really inside your body?”
Mu Lingxi felt as though her repository of knowledge had taken a serious hit, but immediately after, a flash of excitement crossed her face, showing no sign of being discouraged.
She rushed forward quickly and grabbed Yun Fei’s hand, preventing her from taking any further action.
Her lively eyes flickered back and forth between Yun Fei and the Disorder Point in her hand, as if she were looking at a rare and precious treasure.
“What are you doing now? Don’t you want to get out!”
Yun Fei didn’t care about anything else; her only goal was to get out of this godforsaken place.
However, Mu Lingxi’s strange strength was simply too absurd. Under Mu Lingxi’s powerful control, her hand was unable to move even a fraction of an inch.
“Stop shouting! Let me see!”
Mu Lingxi glared fiercely at Yun Fei, then began to observe the still-restless Disorder Point in her hand.
Yun Fei was stunned for a moment by that sudden roar.
For a time, she didn’t know how to respond and remained frozen in place, motionless.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk~ truly miraculous! Such an unstable Disorder Point was actually hidden in your head, and you didn’t even notice. I’ve figured it out!”
Mu Lingxi’s eyes sparkled with the light of excited curiosity.
Looking into her eyes, Yun Fei had the illusion that she had become meat on a chopping block—it was quite similar to the gaze one would use on a laboratory mouse…
“What… what did you figure out?”
Yun Fei asked weakly.
Mu Lingxi’s current aura could be described as quite terrifying.
“The problem isn’t with this Disorder Point. It’s no different from the ones I’ve seen before. The problem lies with your body!”
“My body? What’s wrong with my… hey, wait, no! You’re leading me off track. We need to get out now, understand! Forget about bodies or whatever, let’s talk once we’re out. I really don’t want to stay here anymore, I feel uncomfortable all over!”
“…Fine then. After the Aptitude Test and the College Allocation are over, let me examine your body, okay?”
“What did you say? Examine… my body? No, Mu Lingxi, is there something wrong with you? Are we even that close? Even my Mother hasn’t examined my body, and now you want to?”
Yun Fei’s forehead was covered in black lines after hearing Mu Lingxi’s words.
Without further nonsense, Yun Fei broke free from Mu Lingxi’s hand in a fit of anger and immediately crushed the Disorder Point in her hand.
A bout of dizziness followed.
When she opened her eyes again, the scene before her finally felt right.
Steps that reached the heavens pierced straight into the sea of clouds.
She was standing on the one-thousandth step, unsure of how long she had been standing still.
At that moment, her five senses finally returned.
But following that was a cold sensation coming from her right hand.
Yun Fei turned her head and saw that Mu Lingxi’s hand was still gripping hers, while Mu Lingxi was slowly waking up.
It seemed that while they were in the Illusion Realm, they had been holding hands in reality as well?
“Let go! I’m going up. If you haven’t recovered yet, just stay here for a while!”
Yun Fei pried Mu Lingxi’s hand away, speaking with a cold face to the just-awakened Mu Lingxi.
Then, regardless of her reaction, she headed straight up.
Perhaps because her body in reality had been resting in place while she was in the Illusion Realm, Yun Fei now felt that her physical strength had recovered significantly.
In the distance between the thousandth and two-thousandth steps, Yun Fei felt nothing special other than the doubled pressure.
She had reason to suspect that the most challenging parts were on the steps marking every thousand.
Stopping on the 1,999th step, Yun Fei looked back.
She saw Mu Lingxi smiling at her with a relaxed expression, then suddenly accelerating until she stood beside her in no time.
“What? Afraid to go up? Are you afraid of encountering another illusion like before and need an experienced person like me to go with you?”
Seeing Yun Fei’s expression, Mu Lingxi couldn’t help but chuckle and tease her.
“Who said I’m afraid! It’s just that I was the one who stepped up first at the thousandth level. Now it’s your turn to go first, otherwise it’s not fair!”
“Fair? Pffft… fine, I’ll go. Watch closely~”
With that, Mu Lingxi stepped onto the two-thousandth step without any hesitation, but then she suddenly went still.
“Another illusion? This immortal artifact isn’t all that great~ it’s just the same few tricks over and over~”
Shaking her head, Yun Fei also stepped onto this level.
However, the expected scene did not appear.
Before her eyes were still those sky-piercing steps, unchanged.
The only difference was that the pressure had suddenly jumped to a higher level.
Yun Fei looked at her side in confusion.
Mu Lingxi was still standing there blankly, her eyes hollow—clearly a symptom of being trapped in an illusion.
“No? This illusion actually discriminates between people?”
Yun Fei looked surprised, but being carefree, she simply shook her head.
She made a face at Mu Lingxi, who couldn’t see her, and prepared to continue upward.
But just then, an ice-blue flash flickered repeatedly on the back of Mu Lingxi’s hand, catching Yun Fei’s attention.
“What is that thing?”
Just as she was wondering, an ominous feeling suddenly surfaced in her mind.
At the same time, the Corroding Ice Curse dormant within her body began to pulse unstably.
A chill began to spread from her back to her entire body.
Yun Fei’s body suddenly stiffened.
The Corroding Ice Curse spread rapidly.
In a few seconds, her left pupil changed from purple to ice-blue.
Once she realized what was happening, Yun Fei quickly mobilized the Nether Realm Purple Fire in her body to combat the Corroding Ice Curse.
But the icy aura emitted by the Corroding Ice Curse now was completely different from before.
Originally, its ice could be firmly suppressed by her Nether Realm Purple Fire, but now it had actually reached a point where they were evenly matched. Was this some kind of joke!
Yun Fei struggled to open her eyes, which were tightly shut in pain, and stared fixedly at the ice-blue pattern on the back of Mu Lingxi’s hand.
“What on earth is that? Why is it strengthening the power of the Corroding Ice Curse?”
Without time for further careful thought, Yun Fei decided she needed to get away from Mu Lingxi.
But just as she took a step upward, a feeling of weightlessness overcame her.
Yun Fei felt as if her brain had been struck by a heavy blow, and she immediately lost consciousness.
—
In the outside world, while the group of Elders was discussing why Yun Fei was immune to the illusion despite the effects of her demonic artifacts being restricted, they suddenly saw Yun Fei’s body vanish in the Water Mirror.
“What happened?”
At that moment, the Elders were instantly ignited by the turn of events.
They stopped their discussion one after another and turned to look at the woman previously called Hong Niang.
The Principal’s consciousness had long since transferred away from the puppet; the one currently in charge was primarily the Vice Principal before them.
Hong Niang’s expression turned somewhat serious.
“Stop the others from climbing. Bring them up directly and start the next phase. I will go check on those two girls.”
With that, Hong Niang vanished from the spot, leaving the rest of the Elders to look at each other in bewilderment.
It was common knowledge that Hong Niang was the Academy’s famous optimist.
Almost no one present had ever seen her show such an expression.
“This… what exactly is the situation? Why is Hong Niang in such a hurry?”
“Hurry? How could she not be? Back then, Hong Niang’s life was saved by the Demon Sovereign. Now that the Demon Sovereign’s child has met with an accident right under her nose, if it were you, wouldn’t you be in a hurry too?”
“Oh! True. Let’s hurry up and act according to her instructions then, so we don’t cause more trouble.”
—
At the position of the two-thousandth step, Hong Niang appeared in front of Mu Lingxi with a flash.
She waved her hand before her, and Mu Lingxi immediately emerged from the illusion.
She dazed for a moment.
Although she wasn’t very familiar with this woman in red, she knew who she was.
Precisely because she recognized her, her groggy consciousness—just returning from the illusion—seemed even more confused.
Why was the Vice Principal here?
This was still the Five Thousand Steps of Ever-bright, right?
“Awake? If you’re awake, take my hand and follow me.”
Hong Niang’s tone was serious, but without waiting for Mu Lingxi to grab her hand, she directly pulled Mu Lingxi’s hand—which was still emitting frost-white mist—and hurried away.
—
An unknown amount of time passed before Yun Fei slowly opened her eyes.
The sharp pain in her body had already vanished, but the white as far as the eye could see still kept her from relaxing.
She propped up her body and crawled out from the snow.
Yun Fei looked around.
The environment she was currently in was an endless Snowy Plain.
Every breath she exhaled quickly condensed into tiny water droplets in the air.
“So… so cold…”
Yun Fei was still wearing her original clothes, which appeared so thin amidst this white snow.
She constantly channeled her flames to keep herself warm, walking along a randomly chosen path.
She didn’t know where this was, or if it was another Illusion Realm.
But waiting in place was clearly unwise.
She had to take action, even if it might be in vain.
The cold wind howled, the strong gales carrying swirling snow that flew across the sky, making Yun Fei’s face sting.
“A blizzard…”
Yun Fei struggled to squeeze out a few words, her eyes darkening slightly.
I need to hide quickly.
The current situation is very unclear.
Yun Fei thought secretly.
She found a protruding small hill and used her fire to blast out a small cave entrance.
She quickly hid inside and sealed the entrance with snow, leaving only a tiny crack.
Having done all this, Yun Fei’s hands were already frozen to a purplish-red.
The temperature here was definitely not just normally low.
Even with Demonic Power protecting her body, she had actually been frozen into this state…
Yun Fei dragged her stiff body and rummaged through her Portable Space for a few logs of wood from unknown origin.
She piled them together and lit them with fire, creating a crude campfire.