The vast expanse stretched endlessly, the horizon obscured by a landscape dotted with buildings of varying heights. Han Yi couldn't estimate the region's true size, as he dared not ascend too high, remaining only about a hundred meters above the ground, which allowed him to survey only a small portion of the area.
This was a desolate land. Some sections appeared relatively intact, while others, like the street where he stood, lay in ruins. Still other areas were shrouded in swirling masses of eerie black mist.
Naturally, Han Yi's attention was immediately drawn to these clusters of black mist. Their shapes were irregular, and their sizes varied widely—some enveloped a few buildings, others blanketed entire city blocks, and still others covered areas larger than entire districts. From above, they resembled dark domes randomly scattered across the desolate terrain.
Moreover, Han Yi suspected that the region he was observing was merely a corner of a colossal city. Having previously witnessed the grandeur of the Great Qian Immortal Capital and Shu Capital, he knew how magnificently vast the world's Immortal Cities could be built. However, without any visible city walls from his current vantage point, he hesitated to draw firm conclusions.
After a preliminary survey of his surroundings, Han Yi descended to the abandoned street below. He moved forward cautiously, carefully controlling his pace and keenly observing his surroundings.
Once he had distanced himself from his initial landing point, Han Yi stopped advancing along the street. Instead, he entered one of the buildings lining the road, venturing several hundred meters deeper into the residential area. Now at peak vigilance, he gripped the Seven Stars Kunwu Sword, ready to unleash his mana and conjure a Wind-Fire Shield to repel any potential ambush.
To his relief, nothing unusual occurred until he slipped into a seemingly unremarkable courtyard.
Han Yi thoroughly inspected the courtyard, confirming it was devoid of any immediate threats. Several pavilions had collapsed, and the remaining structures were dilapidated and in disarray, painting a vivid picture of the occupants' hasty and panicked departure.
Using his Divine Sense, Han Yi meticulously scanned the courtyard again and again, even probing beneath the ground. Finally assured there were no hidden dangers, he selected a relatively intact pavilion and activated the Seven Stars Profound Origin Formation.
Within the formation's protective embrace, Han Yi, confident in his thorough preparations, finally allowed himself to relax completely.
A wave of exhaustion washed over Han Yi.
This weariness had struck him three times in the past six months.
Han Yi forced a wry smile.
What karmic debt am I paying? he wondered. Twice he had been forced to return to Shu Capital after leaving, and now, even within its walls, he had faced a life-or-death chase, nearly losing his life.
Given his current cultivation realm, even if he pushed himself to his absolute limit, he was no match for a Golden Core cultivator.
The breakthroughs in his Sword Control Technique and Light Body Technique had merely granted him a slim chance of survival against such opponents, not the strength to contend with them directly.
However, against Foundation Establishment cultivators—even those at the Late or Peak stages—Han Yi was confident he could defeat them.
There was little to analyze from this battle. He had been constantly on the defensive, forced to flee. His sole opportunity had been a desperate gamble with the Five Thunder Pearl, only to discover that his opponent also possessed spirit talismans. Even the poorest Golden Core cultivators could afford Second-Tier talismans, and some might even have one or two Third-Tier ones.
Yet one aspect of the battle warranted further investigation.
Han Yi carefully placed the black token before him, the side with the character "Sui" facing upward. After scrutinizing it closely, he flipped it over to reveal the character "Zhu."
No matter how closely he examined it, the token had completely reverted to its normal state, appearing as ordinary as any Black Iron token.
Yet Han Yi had never underestimated this artifact.
He was now certain that his sudden immersion in the Mirage Immortal Illusionary Realm was directly related to this token.
Had it been triggered, activated, or unlocked? Han Yi couldn't be sure.
Another uncertainty plagued him: Was this Illusionary Realm connected to the mysterious land he had previously accessed using the token above the Luo Clan Spirit Field?
These questions seemed beyond his current cultivation realm to unravel.
After his inspection, Han Yi dared not probe the token with his mana. If it reactivated and dragged him back into that mysterious land, it would be disastrous. Not at full strength, he had no desire to endure another "assessment."
Stowing the token away, Han Yi retrieved a sword artifact.
The entire blade was silver—the Magic Treasure of the Golden Core Sword Cultivator who had pursued him.
Two ancient seal characters were inscribed on the blade.
Silverfrost.
Han Yi was relieved that Mirage Immortal Mountain had transported everyone to random locations within the Illusionary Realm. If the Golden Core cultivator had appeared alongside him, the consequences would have been dire.
However, he couldn't understand why the sword artifact had materialized in his spot instead of remaining with the Golden Core cultivator. He could only speculate that it was a rule of the Mirage Immortal Illusionary Realm, perhaps one that determined weapon ownership based on proximity to the landing point.
Han Yi tried to infuse the Magic Treasure with his Divine Sense, but it remained unresponsive. The Divine Soul Restriction on the blade proved impenetrable.
After several attempts, the magic sword remained steadfastly immobile. Han Yi reluctantly gave up and stowed it away.
"Once I get out of here, I'll sell it," he thought. "The Myriad Immortals Pavilion won't question its origins. This is another major windfall, and it's definitely worth far more than the Golden Light Shuttle."
A smug grin spread across Han Yi's face at the thought.
Despite the terrifying chase and narrow escape, the battle had been highly profitable. He had expended six Second-Tier Spirit Talismans, but he had gained a powerful magic sword—a net gain by any measure.
Still, Han Yi would naturally prefer to avoid such life-threatening encounters.
Even now, his heart still pounded with lingering fear.
Moments later, Han Yi put away his belongings and began cultivating with Spirit Stones.
Seven days passed.
Within his Spirit Sea, Mana surged like a raging tide, its power overwhelming. In his Sea of Consciousness, his Divine Soul solidified, drawing in wisps of gray-white energy to strengthen itself.
This life-or-death chase had pushed Han Yi's cultivation forward another step. He glanced at his Proficiency Panel, noticing significant changes since his last check.
Name: Han Yi
Lifespan: 53/252
Cultivation Realm: Mid-Foundation Establishment (42/100)
Cultivation Technique: Great Sun Divine Gang (Proficiency: 18/100)
Skills:
Sword Control Technique (Return to Simplicity: 10/100)
Light Body Technique (Return to Simplicity: 2/100)
Spirit Void Finger (Peak Perfection: 78/100)
Fire Shield Technique (Peak Perfection: 92/100)
Wind Wall Technique (Peak Perfection: 37/100)
Ninefold Soul Tower (Peak Perfection: 59/100)
Li Fire Sword Manual (Peak Perfection: 39/100)
Alchemy Technique (Perfected Purity: 49/100)
Turtle Breath Technique (Perfected Purity: 82/100)
Spirit Flame Art (Perfected Purity: 38/100)
Aura Concealment Technique (Masterful: 47/100)
Qi Observation Technique (Masterful: 48/100)
Disguise Technique (Masterful: 24/100)
Talisman Crafting Art (Initial Glimpse of the Dao: 29/100)
Change Hexagram Art (Initial Glimpse of the Dao: 79/100)
Thirty-two years had passed since Han Yi's transmigration. He had reached 42/100 progress in the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment.
Among his skills, the Sword Control Technique and Light Body Technique had both reached the Return to Simplicity stage. The Fire Shield Technique, benefiting from a long period of dedicated practice, had surprisingly surpassed the Spirit Void Finger in progress, reaching 92/100. This was likely because Han Yi had devoted more time to practicing the Fire Shield Technique recently.
His other techniques had also improved to varying degrees.
Han Yi glanced at the final line of his Proficiency Panel.
With a snap of his fingers, he lightly brushed his hand before him, conjuring a faint, illusory hexagram. As his mana surged forth and his thoughts shifted, spiritual light pulsed within the hexagram, yet it remained eerily calm, revealing no discernible signs.
"As expected, even here, the Heavenly Secrets remain veiled."
Han Yi wasn't disappointed. He had only cast the Change Hexagram Art as an experiment, never truly expecting this esoteric technique to yield results.
"Mirage Immortal... Mirage Immortal... What secrets does this place hold? It's named after a Mirage Immortal, so there must be a reason. Could this truly be the abode of a fallen immortal? Judging by the current state of this land, even if an immortal once resided here, they must have long since perished."
Thoughts swirled in Han Yi's mind.
In his previous life, he had encountered the term "mirage" in various contexts—the Mirage Dragon, the Mirage City. Each usage referred to something different, yet all were rooted in myths and legends. What exactly was this Mirage Immortal? He knew little about it.
When Zhou Su first introduced the Mirage Immortal Illusionary Realm, Han Yi simply noted the basic information without pressing for further details. He had already decided against venturing to Mirage Immortal Mountain, so he saw no reason to delve deeper.
Now, he couldn't help but feel a pang of regret. He should have asked more questions back then. Still...
Having entered the Mirage Immortal Illusionary Realm, Han Yi felt no remorse—at least, not yet. For now, he had preserved his life.
He retrieved his Spirit Stones and resumed his cultivation.
Three days later, late at night...
Han Yi's eyes snapped open. In a flash, he was at the doorway, the Seven Stars Kunwu Sword already in his hand.
Uncertain of the situation, Han Yi remained vigilant, his most powerful Magic Treasure at the ready. With the Black Light Broken Sword damaged, the Seven Stars Kunwu Sword offered him the greatest sense of security.
Outside the courtyard, a black shadow flickered past.
Han Yi's pupils constricted sharply, not just at the shadow but also at the impenetrable black mist that had already enveloped the area around the courtyard, extending dozens of meters beyond its walls.
Han Yi darted to another window in the pavilion and peered out. The black mist's domain stretched across approximately 10,000 square meters—about one and a half soccer fields in size.
Whoosh!
Suddenly, a black shadow flickered into existence.
It was impossibly fast—far faster than Han Yi could have dodged before mastering the Light Body Technique.
With a swift motion, Han Yi vanished, reappearing fifty meters away.
Yet the black shadow pierced through the pavilion wall, passed through the afterimage Han Yi had left behind, and then pierced through another wall. Upon exiting, it seemed to enter an alternate dimension, vanishing without a trace.
Han Yi's eyebrow twitched.
In that fleeting moment, he had observed that the shadow's form resembled certain demon beasts he had encountered. However, it was composed entirely of black mist, lacking any discernible features. It was similar to the thick black mist that now blanketed half the street outside, except this entity had taken physical form.
Before he could ponder further, another black shadow materialized three meters away, hurtling straight toward him.
Han Yi's eyes flashed with sharp resolve. He casually leveled the Seven Stars Kunwu Sword horizontally. As the shadow collided with him, the blade sliced through its midsection, cleaving it cleanly in two.
Even without activating the magic sword's power, the Seven Stars Kunwu Sword's razor-sharp edge effortlessly severed the black shadow.
This time, it wasn't an illusion, but a tangible sensation. As Han Yi's sword artifact sliced through the Black Shadow, the tactile feedback was indistinguishable from his past encounters with Demon Beasts in the Myriad Demon Mountain Range.
Thwack.
The Black Shadow split in two and collapsed to the ground, without spilling a drop of blood.
However, its demise triggered a transformation.
In an instant, the entire Black Mist Space shuddered violently, as if his strike had disturbed something profound. Han Yi felt a surge of dread.
The next moment, over a hundred more Black Shadows materialized from the Void. Some were the size of the one he had just slain, while others loomed as large as a three-story pavilion, resembling ancient behemoths.
Yet these colossal creatures existed only as shadows, devoid of facial features, silent, and odorless. It was as if they occupied a different dimension, their reality intersecting with his own only upon physical contact.
The shadows varied wildly in form: winged monstrosities, horned beasts, three-legged terrors—yet all moved in eerie silence.
Though these Black Shadows lacked eyes, Han Yi's hair stood on end, his face grim. His intuition screamed that they had already "seen" him.
He surmised that when he used his sword artifact to kill a Black Shadow earlier, he had inadvertently forged a connection to a deeper dimension—the very realm these creatures inhabited.
Yet he felt no regret. It wasn't in his nature to stand idly by when faced with an anomaly, waiting for death to claim him.
Suddenly, a faint glow emanated from the fallen Black Shadow. But there was no time to investigate; a smaller creature, roughly the size of a leopard but with three tails of condensed black mist, lunged at him.
Simultaneously, other Black Shadows surged from behind, above, below, and to either side.
These creatures moved at roughly the same speed as the one he had slain earlier—a fraction slower than Han Yi himself.
That fraction, however, could mean the difference between life and death.
A thought flickered through Han Yi's mind, and the sword in his hand transformed into the Fire Mist Sword. Wielding the Seven Stars Kunwu Sword had been strenuous, but mastering the Fire Mist Sword felt effortless.
The Fire Mist Sword soared into the air, effortlessly piercing the panther-like Black Shadow monster. It then darted sideways, transforming into a blazing crimson streak that obliterated the swarm of approaching shadows one by one.
The scarlet light moved with blinding speed, forming a perfect circular pattern around Han Yi, suspended in mid-air like a luminous coil.
To be continued...
The Fire Mist Sword didn't stop there. It continued to expand its range, piercing every Black Shadow monster within sight.
One sword shatters Myriad Methods, one sword cleaves all existence.
In the darkened sky, the innermost ring of crimson light gradually dissipated, only to be replaced by a new, larger ring expanding outward. Viewed from above or below, the spectacle resembled dazzling fireworks: the inner ring vanishing as a new outer ring materialized, only to fade itself, making way for an even more distant ring.
As the crimson rings expanded, countless Black Shadow monsters plummeted to the ground like falling dumplings, splashing down with dull thuds.
There was no blood, no stench, yet the slain Black Shadows plummeted to the ground with thunderous thuds, as if yanked from the mysterious realm of black mist into Han Yi's reality.
Ten breaths.
In just ten breaths, the Fire Mist Sword returned to Han Yi's side. The Black Mist Space, once teeming with shadow monsters, was now utterly devoid of life.
"Come out."
Han Yi ignored the fallen Black Shadows, their bodies undergoing strange transformations in death. Instead, he fixed his gaze on a spot roughly two hundred meters away at the edge of the mist-shrouded space.
"If you don't show yourself now, don't blame me for what happens next."
His voice remained calm, but the Fire Mist Sword in his hand trembled slightly, ready to unleash its power. A beam of sword light shot skyward.
"Senior, spare me! Don't attack! Don't attack!"
A voice echoed from behind a crumbling wall two hundred meters away. A figure emerged, hands raised in surrender.
Han Yi raised an eyebrow, a faint golden light flickering in his eyes.
The figure was a female cultivator, seemingly under thirty years old. Yet under his Qi Observation Technique, her aura was unmistakable: a Qi Refining Seventh Layer practitioner.
Han Yi's furrowed brow relaxed, though his golden eyes remained vigilant. The Fire Mist Sword hovered horizontally before him as he levitated into the air. Golden light erupted from his eyes, sweeping across the mist-shrouded space.
The Qi Refining Seventh Layer female cultivator posed little threat; the true danger lay in the Black Mist Space itself.
To his astonishment, as he ascended—or, more accurately, as he eradicated all the Black Shadow monsters that had appeared—the black mist enveloping this section of the street began to dissipate. The courtyard had reverted to daylight.
Furthermore, under his Qi Observation Technique, Han Yi detected no further anomalies in any direction.
Yet he still dared not probe with his Divine Sense. Its range now extended to eight kilometers, far beyond his visual reach. To alert some more sinister entity with his Divine Sense would be a suicidal act.
Han Yi refocused his gaze ahead, only to recoil in shock.
Below, the Black Shadows he had just slain had vanished along with the dissipating black mist, fading into nothingness. Yet, where they had fallen, Spirit Light flickered, each corpse leaving behind a single object.
At that moment, Mu Yao emerged from behind the ruined wall, her hand still raised. Though she had been gazing at the cultivator floating in mid-air, whose eyes emitted a faint golden light, she now lowered her gaze to the courtyard floor, staring at the hundred-plus spiritual objects glittering with Spirit Light. A flicker of greed flashed in her eyes.
Han Yi, who had been watching her, noticed this fleeting greed. His expression remained calm, but a hint of displeasure toward the female cultivator stirred within him. How foolish to reveal such avarice before a Mid-Foundation Establishment cultivator! A less temperate practitioner might have struck her down with a single sword stroke.
However, Han Yi was not one for indiscriminate slaughter. He landed on the ground, first sheathing his Fire Mist Sword. Without so much as a glance at the female cultivator, he thought, "A beautiful woman is no more than a red-powdered skeleton. A century, a millennium later, she will ultimately become a handful of yellow earth."
Scattered across the courtyard floor were over a hundred spiritual objects: broken Magic Artifacts, shattered spirit gourds, withered branches emitting a mysterious aura, intact daggers, and blood-stained blades gleaming with a chilling light.
Han Yi summoned a broken sword to his hand. The ancient blade bore no visible rank, its Spirit Light dim and indistinct, yet it was undoubtedly a Magic Artifact. A quick examination revealed it to be a Top-Grade Magic Artifact.
After storing the broken sword in his Storage Ring, Han Yi swept the courtyard with his Divine Sense, gathering all the objects before him for inspection.
His heart leaped with delight when he discovered a damaged Magic Treasure among the collection: a purple Pill Furnace. Though its main body remained intact, only two of its six supporting legs remained; the other four were missing.
In addition, he found several Spirit Herbs valuable even to Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators.
Having stored everything in his Storage Ring, Han Yi glanced at the female cultivator standing a hundred meters away. Her face was twisted with resentment as she watched him claim the treasures. He raised an eyebrow.
"Who are you?"