Free Web NovelChapter 31: Chapter 31—Breaking free from illusion
Chapter 31—Breaking free from illusion
Crack!
Lei Cheng’s illusion shattered.
Lin Mei froze—her claw hanging suspended in mid-air, descending toward the precise spot where Lei Cheng’s throat had been a moment before. There was nothing there now. The image had vanished like smoke. She landed on the ground in a daze.
Xiao Ming blazed with eerie golden energy. The Ninth Elder’s eyes swept the courtyard. Lin Mei still stood motionless, processing what had just happened.
All three of them turned at once—and found Lei Cheng standing quietly to the side, beside Mo Ming’s unconscious body.
Lei Cheng rubbed the back of his neck and let out a small sigh. "I really wanted to finish this without any fighting on my part. What a pity."
He had built the illusion to make the three of them tear each other apart while he watched from a comfortable distance. It had worked beautifully—right up until the Ninth Elder broke it.
’Not everything goes according to plan.’
"Human—you have truly angered me!" the Ninth Elder snarled.
"Celestial Fox Mirage." He poured every last trace of Clan Head Nie’s borrowed power into it.
Lei Cheng had already studied the Fox Clan’s powers through Lin Mei’s memories. The moment the Ninth Elder hissed the technique name, he dropped his gaze—deliberately avoiding eye contact, not daring to let their eyes meet for even a fraction of a second.
But it made no difference.
Ting!
The sound of a bell echoed through the courtyard. The Ninth Elder’s eyes flared with golden light—and Lei Cheng found himself standing in a forest.
Dense, ancient trees pressed in from every direction, forming a canopy above his head, with massive boulders scattered between them. From between them, fox after fox after fox emerged—dozens of Bizarre Foxes with varying numbers of tails, every one of them radiating golden energy, advancing on him from all sides simultaneously.
He glanced around. There was no end to the forest.
’Damn it. His illusion is too powerful.’
His Illusion Intent allowed him to stay focused and resist the worst of the Ninth Elder’s illusion by a large margin. Had Xiao Ming or Lin Mei been trapped inside this, they would have lost their memories entirely and wandered in circles.
Lei Cheng clicked his tongue. ’I didn’t even make eye contact—and it still caught me.’ His thoughts raced. ’He must be using a different sense as the entry point. Sound, perhaps. Or smell. Something other than sight.’ The illusion had manifested too fast for him to identify the trigger.
It didn’t matter. The foxes were already closing in.
"Celestial Fox Claw." "Celestial Twin Strike." "Celestial Fox Enhancement."
Each fox moved with its own technique, its own angle, its own timing. They converged on him from every direction, golden energy blazing, leaving no gap.
’One strike from any one of them is enough to kill me.’
He did not forget for a single moment what his actual strength was. He had not yet begun formal cultivation. His physical body was frail—barely above ordinary. Every edge he possessed came entirely from his Dao Intent, and nothing else. And here, inside an illusion, attacks could manifest with real, lethal force in the physical world through the supernatural power of the foxes. He did not forget that either.
Fox claws converged on his face, throat, and vital spots from multiple directions, the tips a hair’s breadth away.
He murmured, "Life Intent."
Green Dao energy erupted from his body in a shockwave—rolling outward in every direction, slamming every fox simultaneously and flinging them back through the air. The foxes hissed as they tumbled and landed. Green energy had seeped into their bodies on contact—corroding their bodies and leaving glowing green scars across their skin. The wounds looked deeply painful. Several foxes writhed on the ground. One dissolved entirely into green dust and disappeared.
Lei Cheng blinked.
’Life Intent is extraordinarily effective against Bizarre Creatures.’ He had confirmed it several times already. ’No wonder she told me not to use Death Intent—she wanted me to understand the power of Life Intent.’ A faint smile appeared on his face. ’Bizarre Creatures exist in a state of death yet alive—and Life Dao tears at that contradiction directly.’
He spread both arms wide.
Green Dao energy detonated outward from him in massive, cascading waves—billowing in every direction without pause, without limit. It did not matter whether a fox had one tail or nine. It did not matter how dense their energy was, how oppressive their pressure, how exceptional their movements were.
Every Bizarre Fox in his vision was erased in a single sweep.
He exhaled. ’Now for the illusion itself.’
"You are not the only one with illusion powers."
His eyes ignited—white light flooding into both irises, then blazing even brighter. Under the extreme output of his Illusion Intent, the ceiling of the never-ending forest began to crack. Three fractures spread across the false sky above him—small, each no wider than an adult human’s palm, each separated from the next by roughly a meter. They spread across the painted canopy like tears in a canvas.
’Three cracks. One is enough.’
He raised his palm and directed a focused burst of Life Intent upward into the nearest crack—a thin, sharp beam aimed precisely through the gap.
Outside, in the real courtyard, Lei Cheng’s body had gone completely still the moment the Ninth Elder’s illusion struck him—locked in place, unresponsive, his expression frozen.
Xiao Ming, Lin Mei, and the Ninth Elder bore down on him together, eyes burning with fury.
Lin Mei was the first to understand what she had done. She stopped mid-stride. Her eyes filled with tears as she turned and looked at the scattered bodies of the foxes around her—the ones she herself had killed while trapped inside Lei Cheng’s illusion, believing them to be him. She rushed toward one of them and howled, voice breaking. "I’m sorry—I didn’t do it on purpose. I didn’t know—"
Xiao Ming paid the dead foxes no attention at all. She walked forward with slow, deliberate steps toward Lei Cheng’s frozen form and held his gaze—a faint, almost admiring smile on her lips. "Good," she said softly. "Very good. You are the first mortal human to make me feel something like this." frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
The Ninth Elder settled back onto his haunches and licked his claws lazily. Then he hissed. "Xiao Ming—finish him. Make it painful."
Lin Mei raised her head, trembling slightly. "Elder—is it safe to take the time to torture him? He’s too—"
"I want to snap his neck immediately," Xiao Ming cut in. She did not wait for the Ninth Elder to weigh in further. Her fox claw blazed to life with bright golden energy as she raised it and swung at Lei Cheng’s throat—
"Celestial Fox Claw."
Hua Mingyue sat calmly atop the broken section of wall in the corner, her lips upward ever so slightly.
’What do you take Lei Cheng for?’
The moment Xiao Ming’s claw touched the edge of Lei Cheng’s neck—
Boom!
The ground shuddered. Green energy erupted from Lei Cheng’s body in a massive, instantaneous outburst—a shockwave that tore outward in all directions simultaneously. Mo Ming’s unconscious body was hurled into the air. The three foxes were flung skyward. The remnants of the broken courtyard walls crumbled further, and a thick cloud of dust and debris blew outward in every direction.
Hua Mingyue and the broken wall she sat upon did not move a single inch.
The three foxes landed back on their feet, shaken. Mo Ming’s body hit the ground hard, blood seeping from a gash along his back.
Lei Cheng shattered the illusion with his two intents combined, Life and Illusion.
The Ninth Elder’s eyes had gone wide. "How did he break out of my illusion?" His mouth parted slightly. "This is—unbelievable."
"Elder," Lin Mei called out, her voice trembling.
Xiao Ming’s claw clenched tight. She turned a mocking look on the Ninth Elder. "Have you gotten weak, Elder?"
The Ninth Elder’s expression darkened. "What do you know, girl? I have already used even Patriarch Nie’s portion of power. It is not that I have weakened—it is that he is strong." He paused. Then, with evident reluctance, "Isn’t it?"
Xiao Ming said nothing. She had already arrived at the same conclusion.
Lin Mei took one look at the two of them and slowly lowered herself onto all four. She bowed her fox head toward the ground and pressed it down, eyes squeezed shut.
’I just hope I survive this.’
"Life Intent."
Lei Cheng’s voice was quiet—almost a whisper. He raised his palm and clenched his fist.
Crack!
The ground beneath the Ninth Elder split. A thick dark-green vine surged up from the break and coiled itself around the Ninth Elder’s body—winding tight, locking his limbs, constricting his frame from every angle. The attack came too suddenly. He was bound before he could blink.
Lei Cheng released his fist.
The vine detonated—erupting outward in a blaze of green light from every coil simultaneously. Hissing, corrosive sounds filled the air. Massive amounts of Life energy poured into the Ninth Elder’s body.
The Ninth Elder screamed. "Stop—stop it, puny human! How dare you harm me?!" He howled and thrashed against the burning coils even as he scolded—his voice caught between fury and pain.
"Let him go."
Xiao Ming lunged, with her eyes closed.
"Celestial Fox Enhancement—Celestial Fox Twin Strike!"
Both fox claws ignited, golden energy blazing from tip to shoulder. Her entire body wrapped in dense golden light, her combat ability multiplying enormously as she closed the gap between herself and Lei Cheng in an instant.
