238: Chapter 238: As expected of a Nascent Soul stage master

"Xiao Ran, you've been tricked."

Li Changsheng's voice came through the Soul Link like a bucket of ice water being poured over his head.

Xiao Ran was stunned.

What did... Li Changsheng just say?

When had he ever said he was going deep into the well to retrieve the flower?

He clearly remembered getting the equinox flower, looking at the stone tablet, bowing, and walking out of the hall.

He even remembered the dark red halo fading and the mist dispersing.

He had even reported his success to Li Changsheng.

But Li Changsheng said that what he had just said was that he was preparing to go deep into the well to retrieve the flower.

This wasn't right.

The timeline didn't match up.

Xiao Ran stopped in his tracks, standing in place as his mind raced.

He tried to recall the conversation he just had with Li Changsheng.

No, he hadn't spoken to Li Changsheng after retrieving the flower at all.

He had chatted with Li Changsheng before retrieving the flower, while he was lying on the earthen slope.

At that time, Li Changsheng had fallen into a pit and said there was a skeleton at the bottom who wanted to take him as a successor.

He had made fun of Li Changsheng and then cut off the link.

After that—retrieving the flower, the battle, seeing the stone tablet, walking out of the hall... Li Changsheng had never appeared.

"When did I tell Li Changsheng I was going deep into the well?"

Xiao Ran muttered to himself in a low voice.

He couldn't remember.

His memory was like a segment that had been cut out, skipping directly from walking out of the hall to the present.

The middle section was a complete blank.

"Xiao Ran! Wake up! Your state just now wasn't right. I called you several times and you didn't respond!"

Li Changsheng's voice came through again, carrying obvious anxiety.

"You're fucking caught in an illusion!"

Illusion.

These words were like a hammer smashing into the crown of Xiao Ran's head.

He abruptly bit the tip of his tongue. Sharp pain flared, and the taste of blood filled his mouth.

He closed his eyes, his Divine Sense operating at full power as his Guixu Body frantically devoured every trace of foreign spiritual energy in his body.

The Guixu Vortex in his Dantian spun rapidly, forcing out a cold aura hidden deep within his Meridians like pulling silk from a cocoon.

That aura was eerie green and smelled of decay, like a wind blowing out from a thousand-year-old Ancient Tomb.

“Pfft—”

Xiao Ran spat out a mouthful of black blood.

The blood hit the ground and evaporated instantly, turning into a wisp of eerie green smoke that dissipated into the air.

He opened his eyes.

The scene before him was like a veil being pulled back, revealing the hideous reality beneath.

The hall was still that hall.

Dark red stone, slanted pillars, hollow doors and windows, and a floor covered in runes.

Everlasting Lamps hung on the walls, the flames within them eerie green and flickering silently.

But everything had changed.

In his previous memory, the hall was wide and empty, armor stood in neat ranks, and the equinox flower grew on the edge of a well, golden and bright, warm and peaceful.

Now, he saw the truth clearly.

The hall was ten times larger than what he had seen before, with a ceiling so high it was unfathomable, hidden in the darkness.

The walls were densely covered in runes, each one slowly writhing as if it were alive.

The Everlasting Lamps were not hanging on the walls but were embedded in the eye sockets of skulls.

Those skulls were stacked into pillars, extending from the floor all the way to the ceiling, too many to count.

The floor of the hall was not made of stone slabs but was paved with countless skeletons.

There were human bones, beast bones, some intact, some shattered, layered upon each other. Stepping on them produced a crisp cracking sound.

He looked down and found himself standing on a pile of skeletons.

Some of those skeletons still had dried flesh and blood on them, emitting a pungent stench of rot.

The ranks of armor in his memory were not armor at all.

They were intact corpses.

The corpses wore tattered battle armor and held rusted long halberds, maintaining a standing posture.

There was no flesh on their faces, only bleached white bone, and eerie green ghost fires flickered in their eye sockets.

They weren't in formation; they were fixed in place by an invisible force to serve as guards for this palace.

And the well in his memory was not a well.

It was a massive pit, at least ten feet in diameter. The edge of the pit was carved with blood-red runes, each one glowing.

The eerie green mist churning in the pit was a thick liquid, bubbling like lava.

The human faces in the mist were not phantoms but real human faces.

Those Souls trapped in the yellow spring qi were opening their mouths, silently screaming, weeping, and struggling.

The equinox flower grew right on the edge of the pit.

But it was not the golden, warm flower from his memory.

It was a demonic flower, entirely purple. Its petals were like ink, with dark red patterns flowing along the edges like blood vessels.

The stamens were black, like wriggling worms, slowly twisting in the center of the flower.

The entire flower emitted a blurry purple light. That light was eerie and enchanting; one look made it impossible to turn away.

The moment Xiao Ran saw that flower, an uncontrollable urge surged in his heart.

He wanted to get closer, to touch it, to pluck it.

That urge did not come from his body but from the depths of his Soul, as if something were calling out to him.

Xiao Ran abruptly looked away, gasping for air.

"This flower... is not right."

His voice was hoarse, and his back was already soaked with cold sweat.

He thought of the words of the President of the Wanhua Society.

"The equinox flower is born in the Yellow Springs and exists between Yin and Yang."

"He who obtains it can cleanse the Divine Soul and purify spiritual energy."

But the President of the Wanhua Society hadn't mentioned that the equinox flower was also one of the most dangerous spiritual items in the world because it could bewitch a person's mind, leading them toward death unknowingly.

Just now, Xiao Ran had almost walked into the pit.

In his memory, he had walked to the edge of the well and plucked the equinox flower.

In reality, he had likely already reached the edge of the pit and was preparing to jump in.

He took a few steps back, keeping his distance from the pit.

"Li Changsheng, are you still alive?" Xiao Ran asked through the Soul Link.

"Nonsense, I'm alive. Are you awake now?"

"I'm awake. Thanks, brother."

"Thanks for what? Just hurry up and get out of there. I don't want to stay in this hellhole for another second."

The two of them cut the link.

Xiao Ran took a deep breath and re-examined the hall.

The number of the Yellow Spring Army was far greater than what he had seen in the illusion.

Those warriors stood densely throughout the hall. At a glance, there were at least a thousand of them.

They were arranged in square formations, every row and column perfectly aligned, their halberds pointed outward as if ready to charge at any moment.

Furthermore, their cultivation levels were not at the Peak Soul Transformation Stage as they were in the illusion.

Xiao Ran sensed carefully and found that the auras of these corpses varied, ranging from the Early Stage of Spirit Severing to the Peak Soul Transformation Stage.

There were even a few particularly tall corpses whose auras were close to the Void Refinement Stage.

"Over a thousand Soul Transformation Stage undead... even someone at the Void Refinement Stage would have to kneel."

Xiao Ran's scalp felt numb.

But he had to go over.

The equinox flower was at the edge of the pit, and the pit was at the deepest part of the hall. Those thousand-plus corpses stood between him and the flower.

To get there, he had to pass through the formations of the Yellow Spring Army.

Charge through?

That would be a bit like seeking death!

Xiao Ran thought for a moment, took out a Spiritual Qi Pill from his storage ring, and crushed it.

Then he scattered the powder on the ground.

The powder fell to the floor without causing any reaction.

He then took out a piece of dried Yao Beast meat and threw it toward the corpse formation.

The dried meat traced an arc through the air, landed in front of the formation, and bounced twice.

None of the corpses moved.

"Same as before? They only attack things with a life force?" Xiao Ran narrowed his eyes.

He cautiously took a step forward.

His foot touched the ground, so light it was almost silent.

No corpses moved.

He took a second step.

Still, no corpses moved.

Third step.

Fourth step.