CHAPTER 481: CHAPTER 432: BACKLASH

In the real world, Sui Yi looked on in astonishment as the Shadow Demons stopped their tide-like attack; they receded slowly like melting snow under the scorching sun.

What was going on?

Her hand, clutching the hilt of her sword, relaxed subconsciously. She looked around and saw the common people of Xingzhou City on the streets, whose souls were being siphoned away; their eyes gradually returned to normal, and the white rays of light extending from their foreheads slowly retracted.

Had their souls returned?

Sui Yi was in doubt; she knew that most rituals and ceremonies involving souls, once started, were very difficult to reverse. Forcibly stopping them often led to backlash against the caster.

Could it be that Li Ang had won a debate in the Illusion Realm, causing Jianquan to prefer suffering the backlash over keeping Li Ang in the Illusion Realm?Or had Li Ang defeated Jianquan in the Illusion Realm?

A nearly impossible guess flashed through Sui Yi’s mind, and just as she thought of it, she shook her head and denied it.

After all, Jianquan had been a Zen grandmaster who had cultivated for many years; his will was stronger than steel and fixed on the Dao Path he believed in. Such a figure, even in the relatively fair Illusion Realm, was far more powerful than an ordinary cultivator by tenfold, a hundredfold.Li Ang was simply too young, lacking in experience.

As Sui Yi thought this, she saw Li Ang silently open his eyes, flex his stiff muscles, and deeply exhaled, "HUFF..."

His Spirit Vein had suffered almost no loss; the only toll had been on his spirit—his eyes and brows revealed intense fatigue and weariness.

A soft sigh came from above Xingzhou City as Jianquan also opened his eyes. He looked down at Li Ang and asked softly, "The light in the Illusion Realm... what was it?"

"It was the limit of technology."

Li Ang spread his palms and said calmly, "Your Excellency thinks too little of ordinary people. Besides the Cultivation Path, they have another grand avenue—their own wisdom."

"Wisdom, hm?"

Jianquan furrowed his brow, recalling the white light that devoured and destroyed everything, still unable to imagine such a force appearing in the real world.

He did not suspect that Li Ang was lying.

Things in the Illusion Realm originated from the "belief" of the imaginer. The more the imaginer understood and believed in something, the more real the creation within the Illusion Realm.

(For example, an old farmer who has never read a Natural Science journal perceives the Sun as a tiny fireball. Thus, his imagined result will also be a fireball, not a magnificent star with thousands of degrees Celsius. Similarly, Li Ang could only conceive of strategic bombers and nuclear bombs as he thought reasonable, but not Gundams or antimatter weapons.)

Jianquan, having cultivated the Buddha Sutra for many years, had a profound understanding of the Pure Land Buddha Country, which was why he could create a version of the Buddha Country spanning billion miles.

The strange devices Li Ang imagined—their design and behavior followed a strict logic, distinct from cultivation and divergent from puppetry techniques handed down for thousands of years in this world.

"Final question... How did you know?"

After a moment of silence, Jianquan earnestly asked Li Ang, "I’ve read the Academic Palace’s Natural Science journals too, and those certainly shouldn’t exist in this world."

Li Ang was about to open his mouth, perhaps with a lie to muddle through, but Jianquan cut him off, saying, "Don’t try to deceive me with anything about the Former Sui Sect. Even the most mysterious and profound sects don’t possess such power."

Under Sui Yi’s puzzled gaze, Li Ang, now cut short in speech, fell silent—he had indeed wanted to shift the blame to sects like the Supreme Mysterious Sect.Regardless, whatever bizarre items those Late Sui madmen came up with, they never seemed particularly incongruous to outsiders.

"Could it be that there truly are those born with innate knowledge? Those dreams..."

Jianquan murmured softly, his face, neck, arms, and fingertips all emitting a faint light, penetrating his skin and illuminating the darkness around him. This was the result of the Illusion Realm collapsing, compounded by the backlash from the Six Paths Reincarnation Technique—now that the Six Paths Reincarnation Technique had begun and no candidate for the Human Path had been selected, the whole ceremony began to backlash against Jianquan himself.

Worse yet, as if foreseeing something, Jianquan turned his head westward. He could feel a strong presence speeding toward Xingzhou City; clearly, reinforcements were on their way.

Even if I chose a new candidate for the Human Path, extracted their soul, and restarted the Six Paths of Reincarnation, there wouldn’t be enough time. I couldn’t carry out the original plan to "take away" all 800,000 people of Xingzhou City.

Li Ang noticed the subtle change in Jianquan’s expression and felt a sense of relief; he had won the gamble.

His expression unchanged, he surreptitiously poked Sui Yi’s lower back. Jianquan’s plan has likely mostly failed, but he’s still one of the strongest Candle Cloud Cultivators in the world. Even at the end of his rope, he’s far beyond what we two juniors can handle.Especially after the Six Paths of Reincarnation failed, a Jianquan who can free his hands and focus all his energy will only be stronger.We need to be ready to run at any moment.

Sui Yi understood Li Ang’s hint, keeping her calm and silently adjusting her grip on the Yinghuo Sword, ready at any moment to react violently and escape with Li Ang far away.

However, Jianquan seemed to have regained the demeanor of a venerable high monk, not lashing out to kill them in anger. He withdrew his gaze from the west and simply stood in mid-air, continually emitting rays of light from his body, his eyebrows tightly knitted, pondering some critically important question.

"...third year of Changle, July."

Suddenly, Jianquan sharply raised his head and asked, "A strange light crossed the sky at night. The Turkic, Jing Country, and Yu Country all observed it. The Turkic High Priest thought it was a sinister demon light; the Observatory of Jing Country thought it was an auspicious sign celebrating the Empress’s pregnancy; and the Observatory of Yu Country thought it was Tianshu’s streaming light, symbolizing that great changes were coming to the world. When were you born?"

The third year of Changle?Wasn’t that... eighteen years ago?

Li Ang didn’t understand what Jianquan was getting at again and answered truthfully, "January of the fourth year of Changle."

"Really?"

Disappointed, the old monk muttered to himself, "How can it be? How could the timing not match..."