Chapter 288: Like Reality, Like Illusion
In the wind and snow, Chen Mu led the charge, mounted on his horse.
With each stride covering seven or eight meters, he sprinted down Twin Peaks Mountain at extreme speed.
As he passed by the entrance of a dojo cave, Chen Mu glanced inside with his peripheral vision.
Suddenly, he discovered seven or eight disciples from the Lower Courtyard, all in various short garments, standing right at the doorway.
Their eyes were pale white, staring at him indifferently with their ghastly eyes.
Chen Mu felt the hair on his head nearly stand on end.
He urged on his Divine Steps Thousand Miles, fleeing as if flying!
The six siblings of Wu Mountain did not utter a word, exerting all their strength to follow Chen Mu's pace, running headlong.
By the time they reached the last layer, Chen Mu didn't even take the mountain path; he led the six siblings to jump straight down from the seven or eight-meter-high trail, just like dumplings.
Boom!
The rolling white snow was overturned by the landing force of the several people.
Without waiting for it to disperse, it was once again broken through by the seven people, carrying them straight toward the Scripture Transmission Institute.
...
"Director Fu Zi!" Just as he leapt into the Scripture Cave, Chen Mu shouted loudly.
However, the aloof figure that usually sat behind the counter was nowhere to be seen.
The entire Scripture Cave was eerily quiet. Only the sound of Chen Mu's voice, reflecting off the cave walls, faintly echoed back to his ears.
"I'll go in and look!" Ai Ji lifted his foot to walk further inside.
But he was grabbed by Chen Mu.
A black crescent blade suddenly appeared five meters in front of them.
Boom!
A fistful of white snow burst open suddenly.
Woo-ah...
Accompanied by a miserable scream, the exploded snowflakes slowly dissipated in midair like fireworks.
Only a barely perceivable black powder was left sprinkled on the ground.
Chen Mu's heart sank suddenly.
Director Song was missing, and Director Fu Zi was nowhere to be seen.
The last person with the Condense Aperture Cultivation, Minor Director Liang, was also missing.
And this unknown threat seemed to loom nearby.
"Leave the mountain!"
They must leave Peng Yue Mountain as soon as possible!
...
Not long after Chen Mu left,
a series of gentle footsteps suddenly started in the quiet Scripture Cave.
A black boot stepped out from the shadow of a corridor and onto the black dust.
"Seems someone was calling me?" Fu Zi looked towards the cave entrance with a puzzled expression.
To the south of Peng Yue Mountain, as far as the eye could see, everything was covered in thick snow, a vast expanse of whiteness.
"The snow has finally stopped," Fu Zi remarked with his hands behind his back.
"Having been in the Lower Courtyard of Tongtian River for dozens of years, I've hardly ever seen it snow."
"Well, now I've had enough all at once," Fu Zi thought with glee.
Whether it was an illusion or not, he always felt that under the dim yellow sky, the snow carried a slight dull blue hue.
He glanced at the flickering Glowing Algae Lamps of Cold Moon Workshop down below.
Fu Zi could almost immediately imagine the scene of many disciples from the Lower Courtyard gathering in the pub, listening to storytellers and chatting away, a bustling scene.
"Alas... the bustle is for others,"
"Only the tranquility of the Scripture Cave belongs to me," Fu Zi shook his head slightly, a satisfied smile crossing his face, then he turned and walked back into the Scripture Cave.
The faint sounds of wind and snow started to envelope the entrance of the cave lightly, masking all other noises.
And unknown to them, the patch of black ash on the ground also disappeared without a trace.
...
"Three Yin Slaying Demon!"
Accompanied by a chilling low growl,
thirty-six dismal green Qi Blades crisscrossed and rolled forward.
Sploosh!
A pale-skinned head floating in midair was split in half in an instant.
"What the hell are these things?" Xu Rao stared at the head on the ground—with entirely white hair and eyebrows but blood-red eyes—his face pale and grim.
Boom!
Ai Ji's right hand was wrapped in the Iron Ring-like Soul Strength, and he punched a red-eyed flying head, full of sharp teeth and wailing as it tried to bite him, sending it soaring into the sky.
"Who cares what kind of ghostly things they are, just hitting them is right!" Ai Ji shouted, panting.
Chen Mu was at the very front of the group.
The crescent blades surrounding him would occasionally strike on their own, chopping up one invisible snowball after another, leaving behind a series of mournful screams.
Ever since they left the Scripture Cave, they had been constantly entangled by monsters in the wind and snow.
Though dense and dreadful, the red-eyed flying heads were at least visible, and the siblings from Wu Mountain could barely cope.
But those invisible monsters, no one could see.
Fortunately, the Yin Mistaking Moon Blades had a unique sentience and could identify and attack on their own.
...
Hurrying all the way, the group descended the stone steps on the west side of Cold Moon Workshop and arrived in front of the boundary stone of the Cold Moon Workshop.
The flying red-eyed heads that had been appearing suddenly vanished.
The crescent blades also returned to being obedient, slowly rotating around Chen Mu.
The siblings from Wu Mountain, their faces pale, took a long breath of relief.
Despite their formidable exotic strength, the red-eyed flying heads consumed a lot of their Soul Strength, and their physical strength also dropped rapidly.
"We've finally escaped those monsters' territory," Ai Ji said, still terrified, gasping for air.
"That might not necessarily be the case," Lu Ku said with a solemn look towards Cold Moon Workshop.
At Lu Ku's words, Chen Mu turned his head to look.
Only to see Cold Moon Workshop's crisscross streets brightly lit, yet completely silent.
Where the pubs and tile-roofed houses were once filled with lively noises, now not a sound was heard.
Feeling a chill, Chen Mu did not dare to look any longer. He stepped over the Cold Moon Workshop boundary stone and hurriedly scurried down the mountain.
"We must leave Peng Yue Mountain as quickly as possible!"
As for the Condense Aperture Secret Method.
My life is at stake, and you're worried about the Condense Aperture Secret Method?
Let's escape this disaster first!
...
A quarter of an hour later.
Chen Mu and six others stood in front of the boundary monument with ugly expressions.
They had clearly crossed the boundary marker and descended the mountain.
Yet, they unwittingly found themselves back at the boundary monument.
It was as if the stairs they walked were all an illusion.
"Let's try walking again." Chen Mu pressed his finger into the boundary monument, creating a pit, and then sprinted past the marker once more towards the base of the mountain. Your next journey awaits at empire
This time, he deliberately slowed down, keeping a close eye on the stone steps beneath his feet.
After taking a couple of steps, he would look up and survey his surroundings to make sure he was indeed heading down the mountain.
But it wasn't long before he stopped in his tracks.
Not far off, a two-meter-tall black rock stood erect.
One face of the rock was flattened, and on it were carved three big characters—Cold Moon Lodge!
Chen Mu approached the boundary monument with difficulty, looking at the relatively fresh pit with a grim expression.
Had he walked into the crack of a parallel time-space? Or fallen into some kind of infinite loop space?
All sorts of similar movies he had seen in his past life came to mind in rapid succession.
If it really was that kind of unsolvable situation, even a Condense Aperture expert might not be able to escape, right?
A sense of despair began to rise from the depths of his heart.
"I don't believe this!" Ai Ji, in a fit of rage, charged past the boundary monument, closely followed by Xu Rao.
Before long, the sound of footsteps came from behind.
Chen Mu turned around.
As expected...
Ai Ji and Xu Rao appeared behind the group with faces full of disbelief.
"Impossible!" Ai Ji bellowed.
Xu Rao cursed in local dialects that Chen Mu didn't understand, then raised his hand and waved it towards the boundary monument.
"Three Yin Slaying Demon!"
Bang!
The two-meter-tall boundary monument was instantly shattered.
"Have you heard of it?" Lu Ku looked at Wu Ruo.
"The folk tale about ghost hitting the wall?" Wu Ruo frowned.
"Or some kind of large Forbidden Law." Lu Ku pondered deeply, "But Peng Yue Mountain definitely doesn't have any Forbidden Laws."
"Are we still befuddled, never having woken up?" not help but bloken up he looked to Chen Mu.
Just now in the training hall, it was Chen Mu who had slain the invisible monster and awakened them.
Was that fake?
But Chen Mu's eyes suddenly brightened.
This wasn't an infinite space, nor a crack in time-space.
They might have just been misled in their minds and senses!
Even if the real person from the White Tower could transform into a black dragon and ride the clouds and mists, he still left traces and could not travel through space.
How could there be a demon more formidable than the White Tower's true person in the wilds of Peng Yue Mountain?!
"Seven Souls Return to Origin!"
Hum!
Ai Ji, who had been pacing back and forth agitatedly, suddenly slumped to the ground.
Chen Mu's eyes were wide open, intensely observing the surroundings.
"It's not enough!"
With a thought, he connected once more to a star within the mist.
Xu Rao immediately followed Ai Ji's lead, falling to the ground with a thud.
A faint ripple of water flashed by the corner of Chen Mu's eyes.
"Still not enough!"
The next moment, Shi Xian also slumped to the ground.
Hum!
The scene in front of him was flickering as if a video was buffering in a bad internet connection, with the blizzard unexpectedly causing stuttering and flickers?!
"Ha!"
Yu Lin's body suddenly shook, and he kneeled on the ground weakly.
Chen Mu felt his spirit stronger than ever before.
His eyes even began to flicker with a faint silver glow.
Pfft!
The blizzard abruptly stopped, and where Chen Mu gazed, it was like watching a movie screen being ignited, the invisible flames burning the screen and obliterating the images.
The blizzard was gone, the howling wind was gone, and the brightly-lit Cold Moon Lodge turned dim.
The entire Peng Yue Mountain was covered with white snow as usual, quiet up and down the mountain, as if no living thing existed.
Lu Ku hesitantly spoke, "Mr. Gongsun?"
"Tell me, is it still snowing above us?" Chen Mu asked, not directly answering.
"Yes!" Lu Ku's expression shifted, respectfully responding.
What an amazing Exotic Force!
"Follow me, and no matter what you see, don't pay any attention to it!"
"Yes!" Lu Ku's face immediately lit up with joy.
...
A quarter of an hour later.
Chen Mu looked at the familiar log cabin in front of him with relief.
"Is it still snowing above?" Chen Mu asked Lu Ku behind him.
"No more!" Lu Ku, drenched in sweat, had his eyes filled with joy.
Chen Mu let out a sigh of relief.
Finally... finally managed to get down the mountain!