A surge of shame and fury spread through his chest.
In all his years, he had always been the one scheming against others. Never once had anyone schemed against him.
This woman had some nerve!
Liye’s expression twisted with anger. Suddenly, a viscous, dark-green spiritual force erupted from his body and rapidly spread toward the entrance of the underground palace cave.
……
Yuan Shu was someone who treasured her life.
When one could live peacefully, who would willingly go looking for death?
Liye’s strength had already reached the Demon Transformation Realm. She was certain that she was absolutely no match for him.
So from the very beginning, Yuan Shu had never intended to clash with him head-on. Her best option was to make the man lower his guard and find an opportunity to escape.
Yuan Shu had noticed that Liye looked at her with an inexplicable disgust, yet also seemed to possess a morbid desire to control her.
She had conducted a small test and discovered that the more affected and coquettish she acted, the more irritation and loathing appeared in his eyes.
After that, she felt free to put on a performance.
Feigning coyness, looking as though she were about to cry, sobbing and sniffling—Yuan Shu could do all of it with ease.
Sure enough, she had managed to throw Liye’s mind into turmoil.
Yuan Shu had then discreetly sprinkled some paralysis powder on him and seized the right moment to escape.
Everything had gone smoothly!
She remembered the direction in which Li Xie’s group had gone. If she followed this underground palace passage, she would soon run into them.
Yuan Shu moved quickly. After all, the person behind her was in the Demon Transformation Realm, a whole major realm above her. If he recovered, the consequences would be disastrous.
But as she ran, she suddenly realized that something was wrong.
By her estimation, even at the slowest pace, she should have reached the vicinity of Li Xie’s group after a quarter of an hour.
Yet she had been running for so long that she had not even left the underground palace passage, much less encountered Li Xie’s people.
Yuan Shu’s eyes widened slightly. She let out a breath and stopped.
The scene before her abruptly changed.
The originally dim and tranquil underground palace twisted strangely, as though ink had been splashed across paper.
When the transformation ended, what appeared before Yuan Shu was a vast corpse mountain whose depths could not be seen.
Strange and terrifying!
A cold, bloodthirsty red glow hung in the air, concealing the sky’s original color. Even the bright moon overhead had been dyed blood-red.
The boundless world was a sea of scarlet. It was impossible to tell whether the red came from the bloody spiritual energy in the sky or from the blood flowing out of the corpses on the ground.
The entire land was deathly silent. Only a cold, chilly wind blew from ahead, brushing across her face and carrying a nauseating stench of blood and decay.
Yuan Shu stood atop the corpse mountain. Some of the bodies beneath her feet had been dead for a long time, their limbs stiff and their skin bluish-purple. Others had died only recently, and blood was still gushing from them, their flesh soft and yielding.
But without exception, every one of them had lost all signs of life.
Yuan Shu felt like the only living creature in this world, alone as she experienced everything around her.
“Shushu! Shushu! Wake up, Shushu!”
The Hehuan Divine Tree had awakened the instant Yuan Shu’s emotions began to change. It called out anxiously in her sea of consciousness.
Only after a long while did it hear Yuan Shu reply, “I’m fine.”
“Fine? Then why are you standing there like an idiot without moving?” the Hehuan Divine Tree demanded, glaring at her.
Yuan Shu covered her mouth and coughed lightly. “This place stinks too much, and it’s constructed so realistically. I was just overcome by the smell and nearly passed out.”
The Hehuan Divine Tree: “……”
Thank the heavens it was hidden in Yuan Shu’s sea of consciousness and could not smell anything from this illusion!
That was right. This was an illusion.
From the moment the underground palace began to change and the illusion took shape, Yuan Shu had known what it was.
She simply did not understand who had set up this illusion for her.
Or how they had done it.
Was it Liye?
But that fellow should still be unable to move in the cave from earlier.
Could it be someone else from the demon clan?
That seemed unlikely.
She had not offended anyone. Who would spend so much effort setting up an illusion just to deal with her?
After thinking carefully for a moment, Yuan Shu decided that the first possibility was the most likely.
Liye probably had another way to free himself, as well as the ability to pull someone into an illusion without them realizing it.
In the end, she had still underestimated this Third Prince of the demon clan.
He did have a few real skills.
But did he really think that a bloody illusion like this would be enough to frighten her?
He was underestimating her far too much.
Yuan Shu strolled across the corpse mountain and keenly sensed a furtive gaze following her closely from the darkness.
Irritated. Savage.
Yes, it was definitely that fellow Liye.
Yuan Shu’s expression remained indifferent. From one end of the corpse mountain, she stepped through the pool of red blood gathered beneath her feet and walked slowly toward the other side.
Whenever she came across a particularly gruesome corpse, she would even stop to offer a few comments.
“The limbs of this corpse can bend to this degree. It was probably broken apart by a powerful body cultivator while the victim was still alive. Afterward, the victim died from the pain.”
“The construction is excellent. The angles of the bent limbs and the expression on the corpse’s face are both very realistic. Whoever made this must have truly seen something like it before.”
As she spoke, Yuan Shu nodded in approval.
Liye, who was spying from the shadows: “……”
“Those holes made by the corpse insects shouldn’t look like this. Normally, corpse insects first bore a hole in the body and crawl inside, eating away the interior before slowly making their way back out……”
Yuan Shu pointed toward another spot and continued her critique. “This part looks a little fake. Improve it next time.”
Liye: “……”
Was this woman serious or not?
He really had not seen many corpse insects, and he had no idea whether he had constructed them correctly.
Could it be that what she said was true?
No……was this woman even a woman?
Liye stared wide-eyed, his expression shifting unpredictably.
She had suddenly been dragged into an illusion this realistic, yet when faced with an environment like this, she still had the leisure to judge whether his corpse insects had been constructed correctly?
Shouldn’t she have been terrified by this unfamiliar and horrifying place, shrinking back in fear and screaming?
What was wrong with her?
Liye’s face turned even more ashen with anger.
“Add some sounds next time. A silent place doesn’t feel real. You could include the howling of wind through a valley, or perhaps the strange sound waves of the deep sea.”
Yuan Shu continued forward, continuing to offer her suggestions.
Liye’s gaze followed Yuan Shu relentlessly. His expression was furious, and he wished he could rush out and beat her up first.
Who did she think she was?
She had already entered his illusion, yet she was still acting as though she were completely at ease while criticizing it?
But at the crucial moment, he restrained himself.
What if this woman was bluffing?
Perhaps she was terrified inside and was merely trying to trick him into revealing himself.
Once he came out, she might stop being afraid.
Besides, what use was there in saying all that? She still could not escape the illusion.
Liye snorted coldly and continued spying on her.
When Yuan Shu saw that the illusion showed no reaction, she also guessed what Liye was thinking. She simply sighed and turned toward the depths of the corpse mountain.
Since Liye refused to dismantle his own illusion by attacking her, she would have to find the core of the illusion herself.
Yuan Shu’s gaze fell upon a skull not far away.
The flesh on the skull had long since dried out. A hole had been split open in the pale-white bone, and a blood-red spider lily had grown out of it, unfurling its beautiful petals.
In the center of the flower lay a tiny bone no larger than a pinky fingernail. Fresh flesh still clung to it.
It looked as though someone had forcibly dug it out of a corpse.
Yuan Shu stopped in front of the spider lily, parted its petals, and took out the bone.
