81: Chapter 81 Sinking

Chen Zilong's consciousness awakened once more, his heavy eyelids slowly prying open.

After a flash of blinding white light, a familiar scene crashed into his vision:

Neatly arranged desks, a blackboard covered in formulas, and the afternoon sunlight streaming through the window, illuminating floating dust motes.

This is...

An eleventh-grade classroom!

"This place again..."

Alarm bells rang in his mind as his Adam's apple bobbed silently. A cold realization pierced through the chaos: "The Second Layer of the Inner Demon Illusion."

Looking around, the people were like puppets on a stage, placed in their respective positions by invisible threads.

Ye Xishui, the class beauty surrounded like a moon by stars.

She was his deskmate now. When those clear eyes occasionally glanced at him, they flickered with a shy glimmer that he could clearly capture.

Tu Shan Xiaoxiao had shed her fox tribe markings, transforming into a genius girl who had skipped grades, her expression focused and cold.

Liu Mei, standing on the podium, looked impossibly young; she was his current homeroom teacher.

The majestic figure patrolling at the end of the corridor was Principal Li Xuan.

The person wearing a white lab coat in the biology lab was Song Xiangsi.

Li Xiaoyao, Lu Bingyun, Ding Shuyao, Li Chenger...

These familiar names in his head had all become his teenage classmates!

In this splendid cage woven by the illusion, Chen Zilong was molded into a template of human perfection.

Whenever the homeroom teacher Liu Mei's gaze fell upon him, it always carried an imperceptible warmth.

A lottery ticket bought on a whim easily brought home a ten-billion-dollar jackpot.

Before the age of twenty, he possessed overwhelming wealth, trampling 'financial freedom' under his feet.

Even though his physical appearance remained ordinary, he seemed to possess an invisible gravity that made a peerless beauty like Liu Mei fall deeply in love with him.

Every time he indulged in this reachable perfection, the temptation to 'stay here forever' would wrap around his soul like poisonous vines, threatening to drag him into eternal sleep.

Fortunately, deep within his sea of consciousness, there was always a faint thread of clear light, like a candle in the wind, stubbornly flickering.

Time fast-forwarded within the illusion.

Three years of high school passed in a flash, and he entered university.

It was incredible yet felt perfectly logical.

He and his former homeroom teacher, Liu Mei, fell secretly in love under the shadows of the trees in the ivory tower.

After graduating from university, he purchased a top-tier luxury mansion in a first-tier city with a full cash payment.

Amidst the envious gazes of friends and relatives, he and Liu Mei walked into the hall of marriage.

As the years flowed by, a pair of children as beautiful as carved jade brought joy to his knees.

Life seemed to be coated in an unfading golden glow, overflowing with all the stability and sweetness the mortal world could imagine.

However, beneath this flawless facade of happiness, a bone-chilling sense of unreality, like an underground current, constantly surged and eroded the deepest parts of Chen Zilong's soul.

Initially, a voice shrieked sharply deep within his sea of consciousness:

"Illusion! Inner Demon!"

It was as clear as a sudden clap of thunder.

But the body heat of Liu Mei snuggled in his arms was so burning and real, the crisp laughter of his children filled the entire space, and every texture of life was full and vibrant.

How could all of this be fake?

Day after day, year after year.

That warning voice was layered over and worn down by the cloying sweetness of daily life, gradually growing weaker.

Like a distress signal sinking into the deep sea, it only occasionally struggled to surface in his consciousness once every few months.

One evening at dusk, he was driving through the city's busiest intersection.

A massive electronic screen abruptly occupied his vision, broadcasting an interview.

The reporter thrust a microphone toward several elderly men dressed in Taoist robes with immortal air, their voices piercing through the clamor:

"May I ask the masters, did the legendary era of cultivation truly exist?"

The leading old Taoist had hair and a beard as white as snow, his gaze as deep as an ancient well, and his tone carried a vastness and certainty that transcended time and space:

"It once flourished in the world, and it once withered into the dust..."

"Cultivation..." Chen Zilong's lips moved slightly. These words slipped out of his mouth without warning, like a sigh from another soul.

An utterly absurd thought, like the most violent tribulation lightning from the nine heavens, tore through his calm mental barriers without warning and exploded.

I...

Could it be...

I was once a cultivator?!

"Preposterous!" He shook his head violently, a thick sense of self-mockery tugging at the corners of his mouth as he tried to shake this crazy idea out of his head.

However, his body seemed to betray his will instantly. As if possessed, he actually raised a hand and pointed sharply at the void of the bustling traffic outside the car window, a shout bursting uncontrollably from his lips:

"Five Thunders Orthodoxy!"

What followed was a deathly silence.

There was only the slight hum of the car's air conditioning and the noisy waves of the city coming from outside the window.

The expected thunderous crash and the changing of heaven and earth were nowhere to be found.

Several surprised gazes were cast from the sidewalk, filled with the curiosity and confusion of looking at a freak.

Chen Zilong felt a surge of blood rush to his face, burning his ears hot. He slammed on the gas pedal in embarrassment, and the car fled in panic.

The lights at home were soft.

As he pushed the door open and entered, he happened to meet his wife, Liu Mei, returning.

Her wavy black hair was lazily draped over her shoulders, and she wore a simple white shirt and black skirt that outlined her graceful curves.

Especially that face—it was breathtakingly beautiful, carrying a classical immortal charm that far surpassed the mundane, as if she did not belong to the mortal world.

In an instant, a completely different image exploded in Chen Zilong's mind, so clear it stung his nerves:

It was Liu Mei!

But she was in a purple dress trailing like flowing clouds, her ink-jade hair moving without wind, and her entire being surrounded by an ethereal immortal aura that would not dissipate!

"Why..."

Chen Zilong's breath hitched, a chasm of confusion cracking open in the depths of his pupils. "Why does that purple-clad figure in my mind feel... more real? Who exactly am I?"

"Little husband," Liu Mei in his arms looked up, her voice as sweet as honey.

Her long eyelashes trembled as they lowered, and an intoxicating blush rose on her cheeks.

The flush spread all the way to her fair ears and swan-like neck. "The children have been sent to their grandmother's house. Tonight..."

Her voice lowered, filled with infinite shyness, "is our world for two."

Chen Zilong forcibly suppressed that purple-clad phantom that had suddenly intruded and disturbed his mind, tightly embracing the warm and fragrant beauty before him.

Lips and teeth met, breaths intertwined, falling into a vortex of the senses...

The night grew deep.

Liu Mei slept peacefully and quietly in his arms, her breathing even and long.

The clothes scattered on the floor still held the lingering scent of the recent intimacy.

Chen Zilong, however, had a hollow gaze, staring blankly at the heavy darkness of the ceiling as if he wanted to pierce through this solid roof and into the depths of that unknown sky.

"This world... does it really exist?" The silent questioning stirred up monstrous waves in the lake of his heart.

Instead of dissipating, that purple-clad immortal shadow became increasingly clear and intense, like a volcano that had been suppressed for billions of years.

Carrying a will to incinerate everything, it violently struck the 'reality' barrier before him!

Countless forgotten fragments...

The cold edge of a sword, thunder tearing through the sky, the vast and boundless ancient starry path...

They exploded thunderously deep within his sea of consciousness!

"Liu Mei... Teacher... No!"

The last trace of confusion in Chen Zilong's eyes was completely ignited and incinerated. A terrifying glint, like the first lightning bolt of creation, erupted!

Deep in his sea of consciousness, that purple-clad figure stood tall, finally transforming into the dawn light that tore through all falsehood!

"It's... Master!"

This is an Inner Demon dream!

Break for me—!

BOOM—!!!

Will and power accumulated for far too long finally broke through all shackles!

Around Chen Zilong's body, ten thousand feet of lightning erupted without warning!

That was no mundane lightning, but a chaotic thunder dragon carrying fragments of the Heavenly Dao's laws and containing the great power of destruction and creation!

The blinding purple-white brilliance instantly swallowed the entire room, swallowed the warm and soft body in his arms, and swallowed this meticulously constructed, soul-sinking cage of tenderness!

CRACK—!!!

The world before him, this seemingly impregnable perfect illusion, let out an unbearable wail like a glass dome struck by a heavy hammer.

Massive, crisscrossing cracks appeared out of thin air, spreading and expanding frantically!

Amidst the deafening sound of shattering, the entire world disintegrated and collapsed inch by inch!

The magnificent villa, his wife's peaceful sleeping face, the brilliant lights of ten thousand homes outside the window...

All colors and forms twisted, peeled off, and turned into the dust of nothingness in the blinding thunderlight!

Caught in that violent vortex of lightning, everything returned completely to the dark abyss of silence.

The mortal world's splendor woven by the Inner Demon was finally incinerated into ashes by the wrath of thunder...

...

[Dear readers, I am sorry.]

[Yesterday, the editor's family member fell ill, so I took a day off.]

[The editor will write the subsequent plot today.]

[Updates will still be in the early morning of the next day, with a daily update of 600 words.]

[To my handsome reader fathers, please look forward to it, nudge for updates, give free gifts, add to your bookshelf, and try to give a full five-star review.]

[The editor is here begging on my knees.]