Phoenix's Requiem

Chapter 433: Trapped in an Illusion

When the blinding light finally vanished, everyone saw Li Mo dressed in silver. With his transformation, the spiritual membrane surrounding him reformed stronger than ever.

His ice-blue eyes looked toward Yun Ruoyan, and he extended a hand toward her. As Yun Ruoyan took his hand, his spiritual membrane spread to her. Together, they glanced coldly at Pi Yan and Pi Batian.

“Father, what’s going on with Li Mo?” Pi Batian handed Madam Hong to a swordsman by his side. He was standing right next to Pi Yan, and both of them seemed shocked at Li Mo’s sudden transformation.

“A silver dragon...” Pi Yan murmured. “How could it be? How could he be a member of the silver dragons?!”

Li Mo didn’t notice the shocked expression on Pi Yan’s face. Instead, he was entirely focused on getting rid of the Pi swordsmen around him. Dozens of swordsmen fell to Li Mo; even without Yun Ruoyan’s help, he was able to slaughter most of them just with a few sweeps of his sword.

Zhuo Yifeng finally broke through the mists just in time to observe Li Mo’s unusual metamorphosis.

“To think he’s from the silver dragon clan!” the demonic spirit cried out. “Brat, there’s no need for you to do anything. These cultivators are nothing to a member of the silver dragons.”

Since Yun Ruoyan didn’t need his help, Zhuo Yifeng hid by one side of the valley to observe the situation unfold.

“Father...” Pi Batian muttered anxiously, seeing that all their swordsmen had been wiped out.

“What’s the matter? Don’t we still have what the silver dragon elder gave us?” Pi Yan replied calmly.

“If you hand over Madam Hong, we’ll spare your life,” Yun Ruoyan called out to the swordsman who was holding onto her. Li Mo’s icy blue eyes also turned to the swordsman, who released Madam Hong in fear as he tried to soar away.

“Argh!” Just as he was about to fly off, he fell back down to the ground, a ball of mud-yellow spiritual energy having shot into his back.

“The Pi family has no need for cowards,” Pi Yan said coldly, and Madam Hong returned to Pi Batian’s grasp.

“Yan’er, how do you want to deal with these two?”

“We’ll leave their corpses untouched if they release Madam Hong,” Yun Ruoyan replied. “Otherwise, smash their bones to smithereens.”

Despite the threat, Pi Yan only smiled. “Oh? Let’s see if you can live through this, first.” Pi Yan pointed at a spot in the air, and a white beam of light shone from his fingertip. Instantly, a large, circular array surrounded Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo.

Faint grey mist enveloped them both.

“An illusion array!” the demonic spirit murmured.

“What’s an illusion array?” Zhuo Yifeng asked.

“A very powerful array, one that will entrap all cultivators within. These two cultivators don’t have the skill to set up such an array, so it must be their mysterious backer—ah, brat, what’re you doing?!”

Zhuo Yifeng suddenly dashed out of his hiding spot and into the vanishing array.

Pi Yan’s eyes widened as he looked toward Zhuo Yifeng’s vanishing form. To think that there’s someone who would rush to his death like that...!

“Father, the illusion array that the silver dragon elder handed us is truly remarkable. If it were so easy to entrap them both, why did we spend so much effort trying to capture them in the first place?” Pi Batian asked.

Pi Yan shook his head. “Don’t be so happy quite yet. The elder stated that the array might not be able to trap them, so we’ll have to be careful.”

“Pi Batian, release Madam Hong!” Suddenly, a shout rang out from above their heads.

“Feng Yicheng and Feng Bo!” Pi Batian reared back in alarm. “To think this valley was found so quickly!”

“Father, I’ll handle Feng Yicheng. You deal with Feng Bo,” Pi Batian said, then knocked Madam Hong unconscious.

“Don’t be rash.” Pi Yan halted Pi Batian, who was just about to rush out. “Leave this woman behind and let’s go.”

Pi Yan took out the heaven-transcending mirror and reflected it at the array, which morphed into a diagram that entered the mirror. Then, Pi Yan and Pi Batian flew off on their swords.

When Feng Yicheng saw Madam Hong lying unconscious on the ground, he immediately landed to inspect her. Feng Bo followed suit; Feng Yicheng was the new lord of the Feng family, and protecting him was his first and foremost responsibility.

Pi Batian’s blow had been infused with enough spiritual power to give Madam Hong a severe injury, and she needed immediate treatment. Feng Bo glanced at the corpses strewn across the valley and noted that Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo weren’t present. He didn’t have much time to investigate, however, and instead brought Madam Hong back to the main Feng encampment.

Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo found themselves surrounded by gray mist. They walked and walked, but found no sign of anything to mark their way. The dim half-light that surrounded them remained dim, without any sign of growing brighter or darker. It felt as though they were trapped in a space outside time, outside life, with nothing but empty space where they were.

Fortunately, both Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo could sustain themselves on spiritual energy alone. Otherwise, without any food, they would surely starve to death.

“Li Mo, it doesn’t seem like we’ll be able to escape so easily,” Yun Ruoyan murmured.

Li Mo, who was walking in front while holding onto her hand, suddenly stopped and turned around. His ice-blue eyes suddenly dimmed, he stumbled, and his body slumped to the ground in a heap. His silvery robes faded back to black—he had consumed too much of his spiritual energy.

Yun Ruoyan hurriedly took ahold of him and fed him a spirit-gathering pill. At the same time, Qiuqiu chirped to her, “Li Mo’s silver dragon bloodline isn’t very strong, and his transformation consumes an incredible amount of spiritual energy. It’ll be hard for him to get back to fighting shape in the near future.”

Li Mo had mentioned this to Yun Ruoyan in the past. Unless it was absolutely necessary, Li Mo wouldn’t transform: if he hadn’t dealt with his opponent by the time his transformation was cancelled, he would be dead meat.

Yun Ruoyan glanced all around her with some desperation, hoping that nothing unusual would happen before Li Mo recovered. Although she was a peak ninth-rank blademaster, her cultivation was insufficient to guarantee their safety in this mysterious place.

“Mistress, I sense someone approaching!” Qiuqiu suddenly exclaimed. At almost the same time, Yun Ruoyan also detected a man’s aura.

Yun Ruoyan drew her Scarlet Eye and stepped in front of Li Mo.

Pi Yan and Pi Batian found a secluded area in which to land. Pi Yan held out the heaven-transcending mirror in his hand, and the silver dragon elder’s image appeared on its surface. “Elder, Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo are both trapped within the illusion array in this mirror,” Pi Yan stated.

“Good.” The elder let out a satisfied smile. “Extract them from the mirror the way I taught you. I’ll personally come claim them tomorrow afternoon.”

After finishing his report to the silver dragon elder, Pi Yan began to extract Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo from the array. Since the elder only stipulated that he wanted them alive, there was no reason Pi Yan couldn’t give them a little payback for what they’d done to him and his beloved son. As for Zhuo Yifeng, if he so desperately wanted to die, Pi Yan would fulfill his wish.

He made a hand gesture, and the runes on the illusion array lit up in multicolored light...

Zhuo Yifeng entered the illusion array after Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo, causing them to be separated by quite some distance. After entering the array, he had started to follow Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo’s scent. Just as he discovered a shadow before him, a fireball shot out from the fog directly at him. He hurriedly blocked the attack with his sword, then called out, “Ruoyan, it’s me, Zhuo Yifeng!”

“Zhuo Yifeng? What are you doing here?”

Only when Zhuo Yifeng walked within visible range did Yun Ruoyan finally sheathe her sword. He explained what happened, and how he had dashed into the array at the last possible moment. “I’ll get both of you out.”

“You have a way to leave?”

“While searching for you, I discovered the way out. Follow me.” Zhuo Yifeng reached out to support Li Mo, but the moment he touched him, Li Mo awoke.

“Li Mo, you’re awake! How are you?” Yun Ruoyan immediately asked in concern.

“I’m alright. And you?” He subconsciously looked toward Yun Ruoyan’s stomach, which she patted gently.

“I’m alright too. I’m sorry, I acted too rashly. Not only did I fail to save Madam Hong, I even got both of us ambushed.”

Li Mo didn’t intend on forgiving Yun Ruoyan so easily, or she would keep acting this impulsively in the future. Just then, however, Qiuqiu jumped in. “Silver dragons are crafty by nature, and demonic dragons impulsive. My mistress possesses the demonic dragon bloodline, and unless she can control it fully, she won’t be able to avoid her rash tendencies.”