“What a foolish disciple. Put that blade down. If that strike truly lands, I don’t know what would happen to the Illusionary Realm, but you would certainly be dead yourself.”
The wound on Qian Yu’s wrist was gently healed by a soft yet irresistible force.
She looked up in shock, only to see a hazy figure dressed in white who had appeared in the thatched cottage at some point.
Moonlight filtered through the window paper, spilling over the person.
The white robes were as white as snow, untainted by dust, and her figure was graceful and ethereal.
Ink-black hair was loosely tied up with a plain white jade hairpin, with a few strands falling beside her cheeks.
Her beautiful face was unclear, as if hidden behind a layer of flowing mist.
Only a pair of clear eyes gazed at her quietly, swirling with unfamiliar emotions that Qian Yu could not read.
Because those emotions were likely called pity and tenderness.
Qian Yu had not seen them for many years.
“Master… are you really not dead?”
Qian Yu’s voice was dry and hoarse, trembling with disbelief as she called out once more.
“Not quite. I died a long time ago. I’ve intentionally returned as a ghost to scare you. Terrifying, isn’t it?”
The woman in white smiled playfully and picked up her signature wine flask, but the wine flowed straight through her and onto the ground, revealing her status as a soul.
“But…”
Qian Yu stared blankly at the phantom.
Then, after thinking of something, she suddenly relaxed and smiled.
“Are you the remnant soul from the Ancient Saint Crater?”
“Why come into my Illusionary Realm to scare me? Hurry up and take me out.”
“Foolish disciple, don’t you understand yet? This is reality. The memories you experienced before were the dream — a dream I derived based on the inertia of the world’s development.”
The woman in white looked regretfully at the spilled wine on the ground, then pointed at Qian Yu’s wrist.
The pain there was incredibly real, and the weakness from blood loss continued to spread, attempting to prove that everything her Master said was true.
But Qian Yu was no fool; how could she be deceived by such a simple trick?
“Tsk. So you aren’t even a remnant soul. You’re just a Heart Demon trying to stop me from leaving the Illusionary Realm.”
Qian Yu made a face, picked up the dagger, and moved to slit her own throat.
If the woman wouldn’t let her commit suicide, then she insisted on dying.
“Truly a fool.”
A gentle force once again knocked Qian Yu’s dagger away.
The woman in white’s tone held much pity.
She likely saw from her disciple’s lack of hesitation before the suicide attempt just what kind of life she had lived for more than ten years.
She sighed softly and extended a translucent finger, lightly tapping the air toward the center of Qian Yu’s brow.
“See for yourself what is real and what is fake.”
‘?’
‘Like hell I will…’
Qian Yu opened her mouth, but before she could make a sound, a force as warm as spring water seeped into her sea of consciousness.
It was much earlier, also in this thatched cottage, where she had already seen her Master.
Back then, the woman had a solemn expression, her fingertips guiding profound laws as she cast a point of spiritual light into the floating phantom of a wheel.
Wrapped within that light was her very soul.
She heard the other’s soft murmur:
“Little Yu, I want to transfer my cultivation to you through the Yi Pan. But your experiences over these past ten or so years have left too many flaws in your heart. The more normal you appear, the more I worry. Therefore, I could only use the Dream Derivation Heavenly Secret Wheel to construct another dream for you, hoping you would understand what your heart is truly like from within it.”
Images and sounds flowed through her heart like water.
Those memories of struggle, pretense, pain, and exhaustion did not directly overwrite Qian Yu’s memories, but at this moment, they suddenly felt distant.
Like fish in the water, the previous Qian Yu was still playing with them, but now she had already reached the shore.
She understood everything — it turned out that everything she had experienced before was truly just a dream.
Her Master had died in the Ancient Saint Crater more than ten years ago, but she hadn’t died completely.
A few days ago, she emerged from that Secret Realm as a remnant soul.
She carried the Yi Pan, which could hold cultivation, wanting to pass on this final legacy to Qian Yu, only to find that her disciple’s psychological flaws were far too great.
Left with no choice, she could only construct that dream.
It was both a Mind-Illuminating Test and a trial.
And now, the trial was over.
She hadn’t confessed to Nalan Yunyan, nor had she captured Gu Qinghan’s heart.
Even those memories about this world being a novel were entirely fictional plots used to stabilize the dream.
Otherwise, how could there be such bizarre things in this world?
“What a cliché plot. If this were written as a novel, the readers would probably curse it to death,” Qian Yu sighed faintly.
She thought of her Master’s peculiarities.
Why her Master seemed to have foresight, giving her three things, two of which were used.
Qian Yu originally thought her Master actually had some real skill.
It turned out it was because she was the Dream Weaver of this dream.
When the story couldn’t proceed, she would intervene, giving her an extra skill out of thin air and rationalizing it as something her Master had taught her as a child.
And here she was, thinking her Master had some shocking past and used to be some super Saint.
“Who gave you permission to look at your Master with that ‘is that all’ expression?
Even if I am not a Saint, I could still create such a massive dream.
Isn’t that impressive?”
Her Master glared and gave Qian Yu’s head a smack.
“But the plot really is cliché…”
“I said don’t say it!”
Qian Yu felt wronged, but her Master changed the subject immediately.
“Anyway, after going through all this, you should understand. My good disciple, you’re a piece of trash!”
“To survive, you’d do anything heartless. With so many beautiful young women, you weren’t moved at all. You could even use things like hugs and confessions as tools for manipulation. If I hadn’t intentionally intervened with Nalan Yunyan to let her see your ruthlessness, you probably would have tricked her until she was half-dead with love, insisting on having only you, all while your heart remained completely undisturbed.”
“You’re such a bad Master!”
Qian Yu bristled upon hearing this.
She knew that with her intellect, there was no way Nalan Yunyan could have noticed something was wrong just through a heartbeat.
It turned out this wicked woman, her Master, was behind it.
“And besides, I’m not that bad, am I? Later on, I really did want to give half of the Sacred Body to her.”
“If you hadn’t realized that being without a Sacred Body was also fine, would you have given something you already had to someone else?”
“Tsk.”
Qian Yu turned her head and made another face.
She realized that when she wasn’t under pressure, she really was a bit of a scumbag.
But it must have been her Master who corrupted her.
Otherwise, why would she make faces at an elder?
*Bleh.*
“Forget it. At least you have a bit of a conscience and aren’t a total villain, so I’ll consider you to have passed the test.”
Her Master sighed.
“Anyway, I only have you as a disciple. If I don’t give this cultivation to you, I can’t give it to anyone else.”
“I only hope that after you master this power in the future, you follow your heart and become a lazy Fox who takes it easy, rather than a scumbag.”
In the next moment, a Yi Pan emitting a faint divine light was placed into Qian Yu’s hand.
In the dream, she had used it to carry the Sacred Body, but now, it was being used to carry cultivation.
Once Qian Yu absorbed it, her cultivation would soar.
First Realm, Second Realm, Third Realm… until she reached her Master’s peak during her lifetime — Semi-Saint.
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