Chapter 769: Mirage

Legend has it that the Shen race was once immensely powerful, ranking among the top ten clans of the East Sea, with their most renowned divine ability being the Mirage. Eight thousand years ago, an ancestor of the Shen race suffered a deviation while meditating on his spells, driving himself into madness and causing the Mirage to spiral out of control, swallowing the core members of the clan.

Since then, the Shen race fell from their position among the top ten, while the rogue Mirage drifted aimlessly through the East Sea, swallowing living beings, whether they were of the human race or the sea race.

Some beings managed to walk out of the Mirage, either emerging safe and sound or driven completely mad, their minds entirely shattered.

Still more beings vanished within the Mirage, never to appear again.

According to the recollections of those who walked out safely, they encountered the vanished people inside the Mirage, except those individuals were entirely controlled by the illusion and were extremely aggressive.

Once, several demon emperors of the Tribulation Transmutation Stage joined forces in an attempt to disperse the Mirage, only to encounter the already maddened ancestor of the Shen race. The ancestor fought a great battle against the crowd and died of sheer exhaustion, yet even after his death, the Mirage still did not dissipate.

From then on, no one ever attempted to fight the Mirage again; instead, they regarded it as a moving disaster and fled the moment they laid eyes on it.

"What? The life tablet can no longer sense Xinghai's location?!" Patriarch Xiao, who was currently recovering from his injuries, discovered that Xiao Xinghai's life tablet had gone dark for no apparent reason. This was not death, but rather a displacement beyond the tablet's sensing range.

"Exceeding the range of the life tablet means they have entered a secret realm of a considerably high level? No, although Xinghai loves to cause mischief, he wouldn't dare take guests into a secret realm without saying a word!"

"Could they have been swept into some place... Oh no, it is the Mirage!" Patriarch Xiao reacted very quickly.

"Oh, Patriarch Xiao, how do you have the leisure to visit our place today!" Hearing of Patriarch Xiao's arrival, the Patriarch of the Shen race hurriedly came out to welcome him, who had transformed into his true form.

How could Patriarch Xiao have the leisure to bicker with the Shen Patriarch now? His emerald-green eyes stared coldly at the Shen Patriarch, his hooked beak poking right at the man's forehead.

"I am telling you, my son and the distinguished guests of my clan are all trapped in that Mirage you people created. If even one of them has a mishap, you just wait for our retaliation!"

The Patriarch of the Shen race turned deathly pale with fright.

"Tell me, how exactly does one break free from the Mirage!" Patriarch Xiao prepared to enter the Mirage for a search and rescue operation. Before coming to the Shen race, he had already sent people to find the moving mist near his territory, confirming his suspicion.

The Shen Patriarch wanted to weep but had no tears: "Patriarch Xiao, that is not a Mirage at all, otherwise our clan wouldn't be completely helpless against it!"

"Not a Mirage?"

"Yes. Eight thousand years ago, the ancestor found a mysterious space. He said that if he could comprehend the secrets of that mysterious space, it might be possible to become a half-immortal. For this reason, he set up layers of formations and entered secluded cultivation."

"Later, no one knows what the ancestor did, but the mysterious space erupted, turning into a cloud of mist. Those formations did not help in the slightest. The ancestor's place of seclusion was the very core of our clan, so when the mysterious space erupted, it swallowed more than half of our core members."

Patriarch Xiao's expression grew heavier and heavier.

"What do we do now?" Lu Yang and his group were trapped inside the Mirage, not daring to move an inch.

They attempted to probe the area with their divine sense, only to find that their consciousness could not move a single step here, and even Su Yiren of the Body Integration Stage was no exception.

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"According to the recollections of those who walked out safely, whether you stay still or walk aimlessly, you can leave this place!" Xiao Xinghai recalled the intelligence.

The safe emergence he spoke of referred to those who had not turned mad.

"So no matter what we do, we can leave?" Mangu asked.

"It is not that simple. Those who went mad, as well as those who vanished in the Mirage, probably did the same thing, so whether we remain safe is entirely a matter of luck."

"If you are lucky, nothing happens, and the Mirage leaves us. If you are a bit less fortunate, you get attacked by the people previously trapped here, but you can still leave after dragging it out for a while. According to the records, more than one expert of the Body Integration Stage has been trapped here. If your luck is even worse, you are either killed or driven mad by the illusion."

"Fairy, do you have any solution for this situation?" The Mirage was vastly famous in the East Sea. Lu Yang knew this was not a situation he could resolve on his own and needed to call for a helper.

The Immortal Fairy, who had turned into a mermaid, was currently lying on the sea asleep, and was pulled awake by Lu Yang quite reluctantly.

"What is it... *yawn*... what happened?"

"We are trapped by a Mirage."

"A Mirage? The divine ability of the Shen race... *yawn*... isn't that something you can blow away with a single breath?"

"Wait a minute, this is not a Mirage. How could the Shen race have the ability to conjure up this kind of thing?" The Immortal Fairy knew exactly how many ounces of capability the Shen race possessed.

"Then what is this?"

The Immortal Fairy frowned, speaking gravely: "An Immortal War Ruin! Both sides of the battle were Immortals. This place is filled with the traces left behind by an immortal conflict and Dao Fruits!"

"Tell me, why did you just say this place was a Mirage?"

Lu Yang recounted all the legends regarding the Mirage.

"A Mirage created by a Tribulation Transmutation expert of the Shen race... this is definitely a lie."

"More likely, that Tribulation Transmutation expert of the Shen race sensed the traces of an immortal war here and tried to comprehend the prototype of a Dao Fruit through this method. In the end, he made a careless mistake, lost control, and caused the residual power of this Immortal War Ruin to erupt, swallowing himself as well."

"Then who fought in this place?"

The Immortal Fairy carefully sensed the ruins of this immortal war: "I can feel that one of the parties was the Qilin Immortal. The Qilin Immortal's Law of the Jungle Dao Fruit is suited for every member of the demon race—it is the innate nature of demons. Perhaps that Tribulation Transmutation expert of the Shen race also vaguely sensed it!"

"But this isn't right. In my memory, after the Qilin Immortal achieved immortality, he never went through this kind of battle!"

Lu Yang also grew tense, realizing something was amiss: "Could it be that battle between the four ancient Immortals and the mastermind behind the scenes after you fell, Fairy?"

The Immortal Fairy shook her head: "It shouldn't be. This battle wasn't that exaggerated, but this was definitely not a sparring match; they were playing for keeps."

Lu Yang pondered. How could this be possible? The enemy of the four ancient Immortals should only be the mastermind behind the scenes, so who else could the Qilin Immortal have fought.

Wait, it seemed there really was one.

"Fairy, do you remember that after you fell, there also appeared a Xinhuo Dynasty? The Xinhuo Dynasty was suspected to have given birth to an Immortal, who deliberately erased the existence of the Xinhuo Dynasty."

"Could the Qilin Immortal's opponent possibly be an Immortal born during the era of the Xinhuo Dynasty?"

"An Immortal born in the Xinhuo Dynasty? That is indeed possible."

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