Chapter 66 Doesn't Senior Brother hate me? (8) Looking at those eyes...

As the boy's body crumbled, the surrounding landscape completely disintegrated, revealing a long stone corridor. The walls were all made of stone, riddled with ravines, shaped like the tracks left by a giant worm crawling forward, not like they were carved by human hands.

Using the faint light inside the cave, Chongjingge took out a luminous pearl to illuminate the unfathomable darkness ahead and walked forward without hesitation.

On the other side, after the blinding white light faded, Fu Li found herself back in her old dormitory at the Mecha Academy. The table and bed were piled high with snacks, their colorful packaging making them incredibly tempting.

Fu Li said with a touch of nostalgia, "These were my favorite foods back then. It's a pity I can't eat them anymore."

The system said, somewhat speechless: "[What appears in the illusion is the deepest desire in people's hearts, and yours is just eating snacks?!]"

Fu Li explained with dissatisfaction, "What do you know?! My roommate back then was incredibly difficult to please. That guy claimed to be a germaphobe and wouldn't let me bring any food back to the dorm. I complained to the school about it several times, but because his family is rich or something, the school just rejected my complaints. As a result, I didn't eat any snacks in the dorm for four whole years!"

The system was even more speechless in the face of Fu Li's protest.

[You used to be a student at the Imperial Mecha Academy, so how did you become a notorious wanted criminal?]

At this point, Fu Li's tone suddenly changed, and she said thoughtfully, "At most, I only committed minor crimes like fraud and desertion. The fact that I became the universe's most wanted criminal might be related to that guy. He must have had a grudge against me during our school days, so he's using his family connections to kick me while I'm down..."

His rambling became increasingly absurd, and the system lost interest in listening. It reminded him: "This isn't a very stable illusion. As long as you resist the temptation and don't touch anything, you can escape."

Fu Li nodded, avoided the mountain of snack bags on the table, opened the door and went out.

The view outside the door suddenly changed into a long stone corridor. There was no light around, and it seemed as if I stepped on something, making a crisp cracking sound.

Fu Li stood in the middle, somewhat bewildered, and subconsciously asked the system, "Where is this?"

However, the system did not respond to him again.

He simply condensed a flame in his palm, illuminating most of the scene in the cave, and at the same time, he could see what he was stepping on: a human leg bone.

Even though she was mentally prepared, Fu Li was still startled. After calming down, she found that the person lying next to her was a completely skeletal corpse, whose clothes suggested that the person was a resident of Golden Feather Town.

He crouched down to examine it closely, his expression serious: "It seems this monster hunts using illusions. This is how this person died here, isn't it? It's completely different from the known hunting methods of the Golden Feather Eagle."

Just then, out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a long sword standing upright in front of him. Turning his head, he saw that the sword's blade was as white as jade, floating silently in mid-air.

"Isn't this Chongjing Pavilion's natal sword? Why isn't it with him?" Fu Li couldn't help but wonder.

But does this mean that Chongjing Pavilion is currently in the same cave as him? He thought to himself, "If that's the case, I should go find someone."

Fu Li stood up and carefully walked forward. Along the way, he saw skeletons dressed in various clothes inside the cave, all the bodies of townspeople who had disappeared here. They were either lying or sitting against the cave walls, seemingly having died without much struggle.

Qintian followed closely behind him, like a loyal guardian. Its presence gave Fu Li a great sense of security.

However, after walking for a long time, there was nothing. Just as Fu Li was wondering if she had reached the next level of the illusion, she saw a figure lying on the ground not far away.

Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be Xiao Yue.

His consciousness seemed not to have left the illusion; a joyful smile graced his handsome face, as if he had fallen into a blissful dream. His limbs twitched intermittently, and he murmured something.

Fu Li squatted down and patted his face, then cast a calming spell into his body, but there was still no sign of him waking up.

Helpless, he could only resign himself to squatting down and carrying the person on his back. Xiao Yue rested her chin on his shoulder, and her lips were close to Fu Li's ear.

At this moment, Fu Li finally heard his murmured words clearly:

"Hehe, Ah Li's little hands are so soft and tender, let your senior brother touch them again."

Fu Li: "..."

What's even more embarrassing is that, for some reason, Fu Li gradually felt as if a stick was poking his back. The sensation became more and more obvious, and the stick was as hard as iron.

His face immediately darkened.

Based on Xiao Yue's muttered words, one can roughly guess what the other person saw.

This guy's illusion is actually the Spirit Spring Pool of Dragon's Gate Mountain!

That day, he and Xiao Yue only helped each other once, but in Xiao Yue's illusion, they were upgraded.

This guy is suspicious! He keeps making lewd laughs and panting heavily.

Although she really wanted to throw the person on her back off, Fu Li resisted the urge and quickened her pace to walk forward.

Before long, the shadows on the cave wall not far away were suddenly illuminated by a beam of dark blue light. Fu Li paused, about to prepare to defend himself, but was pleasantly surprised to find that it was a pathfinding talisman used by cultivators.

He shouted in an instant, "We're here!"

A moment later, he came face to face with Chongjing Pavilion, who had been hurrying to find him.

Chongjingge still had that calm and aloof expression, but the moment he saw Fu Li, his expression seemed to relax.

Fu Li quickly stepped forward, his face beaming with joy. Never before had the appearance of Chongjing Pavilion made him so happy.

"Senior Brother! That's great, you've escaped the illusion too! Fourth Senior Brother seems to be trapped inside and hasn't woken up yet."

Chongjingge nodded and said calmly, "Did you see the corpses along the way? They were all townspeople. They must have been dragged here by demonic beasts after falling into the illusion, and then their minds were consumed by the illusion before their souls were devoured."

After hearing his story, Fu Li's expression turned somewhat unpleasant.

"Could this really be the same thing that the Golden-Feathered Eagle once did, the one who helped the villagers ward off natural disasters?"

Chongjingge glanced down and quickly checked on the two of them. Fu Li was unharmed, but her fair face was stained with mud. Her upturned face held a dependent smile, like a kitten with a dirty face.

Chongjingge silently reached out and gently stroked his cheek. Seeing Fu Li's strange gaze, he said calmly, "There's something dirty in there."

"Really? Thank you, senior brother."

Looking at those obsidian-like eyes gazing at him with innocent eyes, the man couldn't help but squeeze the fingers that had just touched the boy's cheek.

---Hmm, it's a bit soft.

But when he lifted the person off Fu Li's back, his gaze couldn't help but notice a bulge in the fabric, which was very obvious and abrupt.

Seeing the slightly embarrassed expression on Fu Li's face, Chong Jingge instantly understood what was going on. A fleeting, almost imperceptible emotion flashed in his cold eyes.

He then expressionlessly hoisted Xiao Yue onto his back in a face-up position, clearly showing his disgust.

He turned to Fu Li and said, "Leave him to me from now on."

Fu Li nodded, then asked somewhat shyly, "But, senior brother, how do we get out? Can you find out where the exit is?"

The reason he asked this question was that Chongjing Pavilion possessed a wind spirit root, making it extremely sensitive to the flow of wind and best able to detect where the cave entrance was.

However, Chongjingge simply extended a hand to him and calmly instructed, "There shouldn't be anyone else inside. Hold on tight to me."

"Huh?" Fu Li was taken aback for a moment, then did as he was told, grabbing the other's outstretched arm with both hands. He immediately felt the strong, taut muscles under the fabric, as solid and hard as a tree trunk.

Thinking of my slender, soft arms, I couldn't help but feel a pang of envy.

However, the person he was holding suddenly paused, as if their body had stiffened.

Then Fu Li heard a deafening roar, and countless fragments of stone flew around him before he was sent flying upwards.

When he opened his eyes again, he found that Chongjingge had already led them out of the stone cave and flew into the sky above Jinyu Temple.

From the air, a large hole could be seen in the ground behind the examination hall, which was presumably where the three of them had just been.

The white mist above the ancestral hall spotted the three people and quickly gathered around them.

Chongjingge's eyes narrowed. He had intended to break the barrier, but then he remembered that there were other people below. So he took Fu Li and the other two and flew down to land steadily on the ground.

Once their feet were firmly on the ground, Fu Li finally came to her senses. The stone cave they had just been in was more than ten feet deep above the ground, and even using the Earth Escape Talisman might not have been enough to escape. Yet, Chongjing Pavilion had led the two of them through the stone walls and mud without even getting a speck of dust on them.

The terror of the Nascent Soul stage is self-evident.

On the ground, several disciples collapsed, exhibiting the same symptoms as Xiao Yue—they were all unable to escape the illusion.

Just then, a young man dressed in white got up from the ground and said in a somewhat hoarse voice, "Senior Brother, Junior Brother, have you come out yet?"

Li Weiyan was the only one who saw through the illusion. Even so, he seemed to have suffered great harm; he was swaying unsteadily, and his expression was slightly dazed.

After taking a sip of water, he said in a trembling voice, "It's truly terrifying... to sever all desires and attain immortality. Yet, the desires of the world are so numerous, it's so difficult, so incredibly difficult..."

He kept repeating those three words, as if he had seen something terrifying.

Chongjingge said to him in a deep voice, "Although you have many delusions, you just need to clean them up. If you can't solve it once and for all, you can also peel back the layers and proceed step by step. Junior brother, you are a bit too eager for quick success and your Dao heart is not stable."

He pinpointed Li Weiyan's problem in a single sentence. He then channeled a calming spell into Li Weiyan's temple.

Li Weiyan's emotions gradually calmed down, and he returned to his original gentle and refined gentlemanly demeanor, though he still looked slightly tired.

His gaze seemed to pierce through the thin mist, calm and serene: "Yes, I was too obsessed with my obsession, and my mindset was off. Thank you for pointing it out to me, Senior Brother."

Chongjingge did not criticize him, but said, "You are already better than most people in this world because you were able to get out of the illusion on your own."

As he spoke, he turned to look at his disciples who were lying all over the ground.