Chapter 396: The True Terrifying Nature of the Illusion!
After Li Mo asked that question, the three women, who had initially looked worried, gradually straightened up and lined up.
Their gazes were filled with mischief.
“Fei Yan” teased, “The Lord of the Divine is indeed extraordinary; you’ve uncovered another flaw.”
Li Mo’s pupils suddenly constricted as he gritted his teeth and said, “Chiyou!”
If the previous illusion had made him feel apprehensive, now he truly realized the terror of this illusion.
He had thought he had escaped the illusion and found the waiting Fei Yan and the others outside.
But now he understood.
Everything happening now was still fake!
He was still trapped in the illusion!
Just moments ago, he had sighed in relief, thinking he had cracked the illusion and reunited with Fei Yan and the others.
If that weren’t the case and something had happened to them, he would surely struggle to overcome his guilt.
However, the comfort Fei Yan offered revealed a flaw.
She said that even if they weren’t there, someone at home was still waiting for him to return.
There were Jing Ni, Yan’er, Yan Lingji, and… the Snow Woman, who had just moved to the Mountain Courtyard at the age of sixteen!
It was true that he and the Snow Woman had developed a deeper connection while teaching her martial arts, and he had indeed invited her to live in the Mountain Courtyard.
But she had rejected him.
When he and Fei Yan had come searching for Loulan, the Snow Woman was still living in the Xi’an City’s Fei Xue Pavilion.
He even learned she had moved to the Mountain Courtyard only because Wei Zhuang mentioned it while testing the fake Jing Ni not long ago.
Wei Zhuang personally delivered Li Mo’s letter to the Mountain Courtyard and handed it to Jing Ni.
That was when he found out about the Snow Woman living there.
And it was obvious what kind of relationship Li Mo had with the woman residing there.
Thus, he would use the issue of the Snow Woman’s pregnancy to test the previous “Jing Ni.”
Sure enough, that person let slip a clue.
But!
Fei Yan and the Moon Goddess didn’t know!
They had come to Loulan with him, while the Snow Woman had been invited to live in the Mountain Courtyard only after he left.
She could decline his invitation but couldn’t refuse the invitation of the matron.
But how on earth did this “Fei Yan” know about that?
Earlier, he had only mentioned encountering the illusion with Wei Zhuang at the Grand Priestess’s banquet and had never brought up the Snow Woman moving to the Mountain Courtyard.
How could she possibly know?
The only ones aware of that were himself and Wei Zhuang!
Suddenly, Li Mo understood where the true horror of this illusion lay.
It could pry into the secrets of his heart!
The reason this fake “Fei Yan” knew about the Snow Woman moving to the Mountain Courtyard was that he knew about it.
The illusion utilized his own thoughts.
Therefore, whatever he knew, the illusion would also know.
And whatever he didn’t know, the illusion naturally wouldn’t know.
Just like how the earlier fake “Jing Ni” didn’t know whether the Snow Woman’s pregnancy was true or not.
This also further confirmed that Wei Zhuang, who was with him, was genuine!
After seeing through the tricks of the illusion, the three figures before him vanished into bubbles once more.
Li Mo didn’t have time to ponder and turned to rush towards Wei Zhuang’s residence.
“Wei Zhuang! Wei Zhuang!”
Wei Zhuang, just back in his place, heard the commotion and came out of his room, puzzled, “Why are you here?”
With three wives not accompanying him, what could he want?
But the serious look on Li Mo’s face told him that it wasn’t that simple.
Sure enough, Li Mo arrived and bluntly stated, “We are still in an illusion.”
Wei Zhuang froze in place!
Such news was even more shocking than the Chiyou Demon Spirit escaping!
“Everything here is also fake!”
Li Mo stretched out his hand and pulled a guard over from the air.
With a slight effort, he snapped the guard’s neck.
However, a bizarre scene unfolded!
Though this guard died on the spot, he didn’t turn to yellow sand like before.
Wei Zhuang looked at the body on the ground, then at Li Mo.
He pursed his lips and said, “Are you feeling a bit overwhelmed?”
During the time in the illusion, he had personally tested it.
Those killed had turned to yellow sand.
This was how the illusion differed from reality.
But now, the guard who had just died at Li Mo’s hands was merely a regular corpse.
Li Mo naturally understood the difference.
Just moments ago, Fei Yan and the Moon Goddess had become bubbles in front of him.
Thinking for a moment, he took a deep breath.
“This illusion is growing!”
That was the only explanation!
The illusion was growing!
It was continually cycling, continually fixing its flaws, making this world resemble the real one.
Thereby making it impossible to distinguish reality from illusion.
If it weren’t for “Fei Yan’s” words that made him sense something was off earlier, he would have thought this was truly the real world.
He could have been trapped in this illusion forever without realizing it!
This was the true terrifying nature of this illusion!
It made it impossible to discern between reality and the virtual.
Wei Zhuang stared intently at Li Mo, confirming he wasn’t joking before his expression changed.
“If that’s the case, then this place is far more terrifying than we imagined!”
The fear of this place lay in the fact that you simply didn’t know whether you were in reality or in an illusion.
Once this illusion fully matured, they would have no way to distinguish between the two.
Even if they managed to escape, they would still believe they were within the illusion, trapped in a loop, driving themselves mad!
After verifying, the two finally realized that the growth speed of this illusion was even faster than they thought.
After several cycles, they went from breaking the illusion to reuniting with “Fei Yan” and the others, and then leaving the underground space.
After several “cycles,” the illusion had nearly reached a point of being flawless.
Looking at the smiles of “Fei Yan” and the others, Li Mo even thought he had truly returned to the real world!
However, that was not Li Mo’s biggest concern.
He was not worried about differentiating between reality and illusion but about how to get out.
“What do you have in your hand?”
Wei Zhuang and Li Mo sat in a pavilion, his gaze again sweeping over the wooden box in Li Mo’s hand.
Since when did Li Mo have that wooden box?
Li Mo looked down and replied calmly, “This is something that can help us distinguish between the illusion and reality.”
“So all this time, you’ve been using it to determine whether we’ve escaped the illusion?”
Li Mo slowly nodded.
This illusion was so real that they could no longer find any flaws to break it.
But fortunately, he still had a way to figure it out.
After experimenting and confirming that this item couldn’t be simulated by the illusion world, he dared to use it as proof.
“What exactly is inside?”
After going through several cycles, the two were still within the illusion.
Wei Zhuang was beginning to doubt whether Li Mo’s method of discernment was reliable.
What if they escape the illusion and still think they are in it?
Li Mo placed the wooden box on the stone and slowly opened the latch, lifting the lid.
Wei Zhuang leaned in to take a look.
Inside the wooden box, it was unexpectedly empty!
POOF!
My site has received a lot of DMCA notices, lol. From now on, I will update the MTL on https://darkmtl.com/.
The site is fast and lightweight because there are no ads yet. However, the theme is different from Cybor-TL, so take some time to familiarize yourself.
Support me by donating at least $10, and you'll have the right to request any novel from Novelpia (excluding 19+ content) using a newly developed tool.