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Li Fenglan trembled all over when Ling Buyan appeared, and the overwhelming hatred in his heart disappeared at that moment.
Born into an aristocratic family and later entering the Tianmian Palace for cultivation, Li Fenglan was not someone who was good at expressing his emotions publicly. But now, he instinctively repeated his feelings and fragmented memories over and over again.
At some point, Ling Buyan had become an extremely special person to Li Fenglan.
Seeing the scene in front of him, Meng Linzhou, who had ignored his injuries due to nervousness earlier, couldn’t help but cough lightly and ask, “Ahem… Are we safe now?”
Since the moment the illusion disappeared, the suffocating emotions Li Fenglan had felt had disappeared as well.
Meng Linzhou’s voice, like his appearance, sounded very deep and cold, so when he spoke, he immediately pulled Li Fenglan out of his previous emotions.
After calming down, Li Fenglan quickly realized that he was tightly hugging Ling Buyan. But before he could instinctively step back, Ling Buyan gently released him and took his hand.
As if nothing had happened, Ling Buyan turned around and looked at Meng Linzhou, saying, “It’s safe for now.”
Meng Linzhou: !!!
“I’m asking my master, not you!” At this moment, Meng Linzhou felt a surge of bitterness in his heart, as if he had spilled a bottle of vinegar.
After saying this, Meng Linzhou originally wanted to continue speaking to Ling Buyan, telling him to let go of Li Fenglan, who couldn’t be touched casually. But this time… Meng Linzhou’s almost non-existent emotional intelligence miraculously kicked in. Before he could say what he wanted to say, the words “self-inflicted humiliation” suddenly flashed through his mind, so… He forcibly swallowed his words for the first time.
After hearing Meng Linzhou’s impolite words, Li Fenglan frowned disapprovingly at his disciple and said, “My master has been to the Guanzhi Mountain Secret Realm before. Since he says it’s safe now, it should be.”
“Oh…” Meng Linzhou’s heart felt even more sour.
But after all, they were still in the secret realm, so even though Ling Buyan said it was safe, they couldn’t delay any longer.
Li Fenglan had Cheng Huang carry Meng Linzhou again, and then they continued to move forward in the direction where the Tianmian Palace disciples had disappeared, according to Meng Linzhou’s memory.
As they walked forward, Li Fenglan couldn’t help but ask, “Master, what was that illusion just now?”
Upon hearing this, Meng Linzhou and Duan Wannian both looked towards the illusion with curiosity. It was apparent that they were not the only ones, as they were also curious about what this illusion was all about, not just Li Fenglan. However, their hatred was not as great as Li Fenglan’s, and they were not as affected by the illusion as he was.
They didn’t fully understand the dangers of the illusion, at most they were just startled by Li Fenglan’s reaction.
Ling Buyan remained silent for a moment and then said, “This illusion was originally very simple. It just captures the strongest emotions in a person’s heart and amplifies them.”
Li Fenglan nodded. This type of illusion was very common in the world of cultivation.
“…But as you can see, the owner of this illusion encountered some problems, and this illusion captured not only the emotions of the intruders, but also the emotions of the illusion’s owner.”
The strongest emotion in the heart of the Xuanchu Immortal Ancestor was hatred. Li Fenglan was the only one among them who was similar to him in this regard, and thus was more affected by the illusion.
After hearing Ling Buyan’s words, the group fell into silence.
The name of the Xuanchu Immortal Ancestor was familiar to both cultivators and demons alike. However, in the perception of all those who knew him, he had no connection to the word “hate.”
After a while, Duan Wannian thought for a moment and asked, “Regardless of whose emotions influenced this illusion, it still belongs to the Xuanchu Immortal Ancestor. We didn’t do anything just now, so how did we get out of this?”
“Yes,” Meng Linzhou also nodded in agreement.
Seeing Li Fenglan looking curious, Ling Buyan finally smiled and said, “This formation was actually broken a long time ago. Since this illusion was influenced by the Xuanchu Immortal Ancestor’s state of mind, he was the one who broke it. What we just saw was just the residual power of this formation.”
So that’s how it was… Li Fenglan couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief.
Although he didn’t know why the Xuanchu Immortal Ancestor would have such emotions, at least he had broken out of the hatred. Li Fenglan, who understood how great the hatred was, subconsciously felt relieved.
This time, the group consisting of Li Fenglan and Ling Buyan hadn’t walked for long when they felt a surge of spiritual energy and aura that soared into the sky.
Seeing this, Ling Buyan’s long sword, which had given birth to a sword spirit, suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It hung high in the air, and the blade quivered lightly.
“This sword…” Li Fenglan looked at the black long sword and asked, “Has it been affected by the secret realm?”
Upon hearing Li Fenglan’s question, Ling Buyan nodded and then shook his head, saying, “There is a sword formation in the distance, and I think the cultivators who came with Meng Linzhou earlier should be trapped in it. My sword has not been affected by the sword formation. It just…”
Ling Buyan paused here and seemed unsure how to continue. After a moment, he spoke again, “It just wants to intimidate the swords in the sword forest.”
“Intimidate?” Li Fenglan couldn’t help but be surprised when he heard this, and then said subconsciously, “When we were in the sword forest of Tianmian Palace, Finished Karma also intimidated the other spirit swords in the forest…”
Li Fenglan vaguely felt that he had said something very extraordinary just now.
At the same time, the black long sword that had been “looking” towards the distant sword formation suddenly turned around and brushed against Li Fenglan’s sleeve.
But before Li Fenglan could think deeply or touch the sword next to him, they finally saw the large sword formation after passing over a small hill.
Li Fenglan had seen many sword formations before, and even broke through the sword formation of his past life’s master, Qiu Wanyou, not long ago. However, the scene in front of him was completely different from what Li Fenglan had imagined.
At first glance, Li Fenglan saw more than ten cultivators that he was familiar with, and what they faced was not thousands of long swords as in ordinary sword formations, but just one.
“Winning without relying on numbers?” Seeing this scene, Duan Wannian couldn’t help but speak. She was a demon cultivator who had lived for thousands of years. Demon cultivators like her would familiarize themselves with the portraits of the immortal masters of various sects and their best skills before crossing Duozhi Mountain and entering the human realm. This would make it easier for them to escape danger.
Therefore, although Duan Wannian couldn’t set up a sword formation, she had seen and heard a lot about them.
In her impression, most of the sword formations in the cultivation world relied on “sword sea tactics” and won by quantity. The one that Li Fenglan had faced before was indeed just as Duan Wannian knew.
Compared with other sword formations in the world, the one appearing in front of them now was an anomaly.
“Be careful and don’t move for now,” Li Fenglan turned around and said to Duan Wannian and Cheng Huang.
If this sword formation was like the others he had encountered before, Li Fenglan would have chosen to break the formation from the outside as soon as possible. But this sword formation was too strange… After looking at it for a while, Li Fenglan spoke again, “The swords in this formation are not real swords.”
Upon hearing Li Fenglan’s words, everyone turned to look at him.
Even Ling Buyan’s gaze toward Li Fenglan was especially complex.
Li Fenglan continued, “Feel carefully, the spiritual energy on each sword is just like that of the person wielding it. That means there are actually no swords in this formation at all. Everything we see, including the swords and sword techniques, are all duplicated by this formation according to the sword and spiritual energy of the person entering the formation.”
As he finished speaking, Li Fenglan’s tone was unexpectedly excited.
He had never seen a sword formation like this before.
“…So that means, to get out of this formation, the person inside needs to defeat themselves, not a specific sword,” Li Fenglan summarized in the end.
At this point, Ling Buyan, who had been listening quietly, finally nodded, “Fenglan is right.”
“I see…” Meng Linzhou nodded blankly and said, “So it seems that the Xuanchu Immortal Ancestor Ancestor is indeed terrifying. From the inside, it’s impossible to break this formation.”
Ling Buyan: “…”
This formation had indeed left no way out for the people inside. Not to mention what would happen to them inside the formation. If they wanted to forcibly break the formation from the outside with long swords, the formation would not be affected at all. On the contrary, it would sense their spiritual energy and sword qi, and then duplicate it again.
In other words, they would also be caught in the formation.
“Then let’s forget about it,” Meng Linzhou looked at the sword formation with some hesitation, then in the next moment he said, “Let’s continue forward.”
“What?” Li Fenglan was shocked when he heard Meng Linzhou’s words and looked at him in disbelief.
Most of the people trapped inside the formation were cultivators from Tianmian Palace, and Li Fenglan even saw a young disciple wearing the robe of the Law Court. Li Fenglan never expected that Meng Linzhou would so easily plan to bypass this place and continue forward.
Meng Linzhou, who was feeling extremely guilty in front of his master, couldn’t help but turn his gaze to the side and say, “Why don’t we… go in and take a look?”
Li Fenglan: “…” Was it really that easy to just go in and take a look?
He really didn’t understand this line of thinking.
Just as Meng Linzhou was struggling with what his master really wanted, Ling Buyan spoke up.
Li Fenglan saw Ling Buyan take down the black long sword that was hanging high in the air and looked at the formation with a serious and complicated expression.
He said, “Someone tampered with this formation.”