Cave Refuge

Even though the scenery in his field of vision had changed back to the scene Dong Tianyu first saw upon arriving here, Dong Tianyu turned his head to look outside the courtyard, only to find that the situation outside was exactly as he had first seen it.

If an ordinary person saw this, they might very likely believe that they had broken free from the illusion, but let's not forget another matter: even though in his visual perspective, Dong Tianyu had left the room and walked outside, as he forcibly opened the courtyard door, the originally exquisite courtyard once again became just as dilapidated as when he first arrived.

This situation seemed very normal, yet the problem was, even though in his visual perspective, Dong Tianyu had left the house to come outside, in his Divine Sense perspective, he was still lying on the lounge chair at his residence, without making any movements.

So even though the scenery in his visual field had restored, through the observation of Divine Sense, Dong Tianyu should still be in a Lucid Dream without having left, or it could also be said he was in a "dream within a dream" and had not broken free.

The method to verify whether his guess was true or false was also very simple. The biggest difference between a Lucid Dream and an ordinary dream is that in an ordinary dream, the stronger an ordinary person's thoughts, the stronger their ability in the dream, after all, a so-called dream is actually a kind of fantasy of theirs.

But a Lucid Dream is different because while in this dream state, the person has a very clear awareness of their own situation, so under normal circumstances, it's very difficult for a person in a Lucid Dream to do something beyond the limits of their abilities. Most people, after entering a Lucid Dream, will only do some things they want to do in the real world but are afraid to do.

This also means that the abilities Dong Tianyu has in the real world are also possessed at this time.

Following a light jump from Dong Tianyu, the Flying Swords instantly appeared below his feet, and as the Flying Swords rapidly ascended, the scenery before Dong Tianyu's eyes gradually became blurry.

After testing, it was found that while dreaming, even if one is submerged in water, the brain's nerves will still be in a very active state, which also means that while dreaming, brain cells are constantly in operation, just like they are when awake.

In a normal awake state, the scenery seen by the eyes is transmitted to the brain through visual perception and does not occupy many brain cells, but if in a dream, all the scenery Dong Tianyu sees is actually constructed by brain cells.

The scenery in the illusion, however, is constructed by the person casting the Illusion Technique. Under normal circumstances, there are only a few methods to forcibly break free from an illusion.

Either one has a strong spiritual power and directly breaks free from the illusion.

Or one has a strong willpower and denies the reality of the illusion from start to finish.

Otherwise, it's stimulating the body, causing pain to provoke the body's stress response, thereby forcibly breaking free from the illusion.

The most clever method is to find loopholes in the illusion, and then deny and solve the illusion through these holes. This method doesn't seem much different from the second method on the surface, but the second method works with prior knowledge, rejecting the illusion indiscriminately right from entering it, while the fourth method involves finding loopholes in the illusion and then systematically denying it.

Although the two methods of solving the illusion seem very similar, the time they consume is starkly different. The second method sits still from the moment one knows they have fallen into an illusion, using a war of attrition to break the illusion.

The fourth method, on the other hand, is to find the loophole in the illusion and directly deny its reality, ultimately achieving the result of swiftly breaking free from the illusion.

Dong Tianyu's act of Sword Flight was actually aimed at rising into the air to see a broader view, preventing the enemy from quickly constructing the surrounding scenery, thus revealing flaws and allowing Dong Tianyu to directly break free from the illusion.

Dong Tianyu's strategy had no flaws, and as the Flying Swords directly took him high into the sky, the surrounding scenery slowly entered Dong Tianyu's gaze, he noticed that the further away the scenery, the more blurred it became.

This blurriness was not the kind caused by poor vision, but rather resembled that of a poorly constructed 3D movie, creating an immediate sense of falsehood upon viewing.

With the thoughts circulating in Dong Tianyu's mind, cracks gradually began to appear in the space around him, accompanied by crunching noises. Dong Tianyu was taken aback when, all of a sudden, he sat up from the lounge chair.

At this moment, Dong Tianyu was observing himself with his Divine Sense and indeed saw that he had sat up from the lounge chair. Just when Dong Tianyu thought he had escaped the illusion... he suddenly noticed that his eyes remained unopened.

It was important to note that Dong Tianyu could indeed see the scene in front of him with his eyes, but somehow, they remained fully closed.

This left Dong Tianyu feeling somewhat at a loss. Just as he inadvertently turned to look out the window, he found the sunlight today a bit too glaring and subconsciously took a pair of sunglasses out of his Storage Space to wear.

Although Dong Tianyu's visual perspective, as well as his Divine Sense perspective, both showed him taking out a pair of sunglasses from the Cave and putting them on—and the styles of both pairs of sunglasses were exactly the same—this still made Dong Tianyu feel that something was off, especially since his eyes were still firmly shut.

Then Dong Tianyu stood up from the lounge chair and walked around the room, browsing about. He found that the scenery reflected in both perspectives was completely identical. Dong Tianyu's inner resolve began to waver. Could it be that he had gained a special ability that allowed him a third perspective, even with his eyes closed?

After that, Dong Tianyu immediately took off the sunglasses and took a mirror out of his Storage Space. After seeing his face appear in the mirror from both perspectives, Dong Tianyu finally confirmed that he hadn't acquired any special ability. The reason for this situation was likely that he was still trapped within an illusion.

The main reason for this conclusion was that in the vision's perspective, the image of Dong Tianyu in the mirror was stern and his piercing eyes captivating, while in the perspective of his Divine Sense, the face in the mirror was still handsome, but the tightly closed eyes and somewhat pale complexion clearly indicated there were some issues with his body.

Realizing he hadn't escaped the illusion, Dong Tianyu faced an Illusion Technique that directly mirrored the environment with alarming realism, rendering his fourth method of finding discrepancies to escape useless.

Having confirmed the failure of his fourth method to break free from the illusion, Dong Tianyu, still within the illusion but now with control over his body, chose to stimulate his physical being, to enter a stress response, thus freeing himself from the grasp of the illusion as his third escape method.

Ordinary pain didn't affect Dong Tianyu; after all, his body had been indirectly tempered during the Cultivation process of absorbing Spirit Energy, not to mention that following his previous baptism of Life Energy, Dong Tianyu's physical strength had far surpassed the imagination of others.

Therefore, to ensure success in one attempt, Dong Tianyu directly took out his specially crafted Armor-Piercing Flying Needle from his Storage Space, considering his healing abilities while preparing to give himself a hard hit.

As Dong Tianyu pondered, the Flying Needle continuously spun in his palm. In an instant, Dong Tianyu took hold of the needle and thrust it deep into his thigh.

As the intense pain shot straight to his skull, Dong Tianyu felt confident that this time, he would definitely be able to break out of the illusion. But as the pain gradually subsided, he noticed that the scenes within his field of vision finally began to show discrepancies from those seen with his Divine Sense.

In the visual perspective, the Flying Needle in Dong Tianyu's hand was already more than halfway embedded into his thigh.

In the Divine Sense perspective, however, the Flying Needle in Dong Tianyu's hand, though very close to his thigh, had not only not penetrated but hadn't touched his thigh at all.

Dong Tianyu never expected that the illusion could simulate pain so realistically.