Nanmen roared regretfully as he charged wildly, brandishing his sword and running into the distance. Lin Yuan, no longer willing to play along, turned and carried Xiao Yuhan away.
...
Within the illusion of the River of No Return, Xiao Yuhan had lost track of how many years had passed. The surroundings were deathly silent, and his sense of time had become blurred. However, he knew that he had been in this silent and dark space for a very long time—years? decades? He couldn't say for sure, but his mental state was on the verge of collapse. A person like that, alone in the darkness, could only hear his own breathing.
He counted by his breaths, but by the end he was too tired to continue.
He tried every method he knew, but to no avail.
In the darkness, Xiao Yuhan murmured, "I am Xiao Yuhan... I am fighting against Beiyuan and Qiu Xinghen... I have fallen under Lin Yuan's illusion... I must go and save Yao'er... I am an elder of the Heavenly Sword Sect..."
He could only remind himself not to get lost in the long darkness by talking to himself like this, because he knew that a person could easily drive himself crazy in absolute silence. He had also seen prisoners who had been locked up in dungeons for decades, and most of them were mentally unstable.
This is an illusion. Time in the spiritual world has no meaning. Perhaps his true body is still stuck in the moment he was under the illusion. So he is still hoping that he can break the illusion and return to reality.
Moreover, once he returned to reality, he might have to face the enemy again, so he had to keep his mind clear. Therefore, over the long years, he did everything that could keep his mind active, from counting to memorizing techniques and practicing the sword intent taught to him by his senior brother.
When he was about to give up, he recalled the peaceful years he spent in the Heavenly Sword Sect, the years he spent with his senior brothers and sisters, and the years Yao'er stayed by his side. Thinking of these things helped him persevere.
The endless darkness was also terrifying to him, but not to the extreme. What was truly despairing was that he didn't know how long this situation would last, nor how long he could endure it.
Just when he thought he would be trapped in this place forever, a faint light suddenly appeared in the distance.
Hearing the beeping of a machine, Xiao Yuhan suddenly opened his eyes. He found himself in a hospital room, lying on a hospital bed with a ventilator on his face. He stared wide-eyed, then took off the ventilator and began to gasp for breath. The smell of medicine in the room made him uncomfortable, but at this moment, he was back in his real world.
He leaned against the window of the ward, watching the bustling traffic below the tall buildings. In a daze, his face turned extremely pale. He lowered his head and clenched his fist, wanting to test whether he could still use the Thunder Magic, but there was no response at all.
Has I really returned to reality?
But why does it still feel so unreal? Xiao Yuhan tried hard to recall what happened before he traveled to that world. Was he unconscious after staying up all night in an internet cafe? It seemed so, but he couldn't quite remember.
At this moment, the nurse pushed open the door and walked in, followed by his mother whom he hadn't seen for many years. Xiao Yuhan immediately realized that he couldn't be sure about anything else, but his mother had already passed away. How could she be here now?
But the moment he realized the problem, the surrounding environment began to collapse, and the floor beneath his feet also began to collapse. He fell from the sky and was plunged into darkness once again. But this time, light appeared before his eyes, and he woke up in his hospital bed again, as if reliving the scene. However, this time he did not see his mother again.
A young nurse pushed open the door and entered. After what had just happened, she knew that this was an illusion, so she instinctively resisted and shouted angrily, "Don't lie to me! This is just an illusion!"
So the illusion collapsed and reformed once again, and once again the scene of the nurse pushing open the door and entering was reached. This happened several times, until finally Xiao Yuhan had no choice but to think that even if this was an illusion, at least there were people here. She decided to take it one step at a time.
This time, when the nurse pushed open the door and took off her mask, he noticed that the nurse's face looked exactly like his junior sister, Nangong Ling'er.
At this moment, Xiao Yuhan's expression grew even more grim. He grabbed the nurse and asked, "Junior Sister!? What are you doing here?"
The nurse smiled slightly, but the smile was somewhat eerie. "Because I'm in your heart... This illusion was prepared for you. Whether you realize the falseness of this world now or not, after experiencing the same scenes countless times, you will slowly accept it. Because people's sense of novelty is very fickle. That century of darkness was the first step in your descent. When you stay in the darkness alone for too long, you will crave someone's presence, you will crave new things. So, the game has only just begun..."
Xiao Yuhan was furious and kicked the hospital bed, but the illusion did not disappear. Only then did Xiao Yuhan realize that in this place, as long as he could clearly realize that this was an illusion, the illusion would be broken. But to his despair, the illusion would always come back, like an inescapable cycle.
He silently recited the Purification Sutra and the Purification Mantra, but it still had no effect, until he saw his junior sister again.
"Senior brother, accept it. This is your reality. In this illusion, you are the king. You can become the ruler of this world. Even if you want me, I can immediately offer myself to you!"
As she spoke, the nurse, who looked just like her junior sister, pushed Xiao Yuhan onto the hospital bed and kissed her directly.
Xiao Yuhan pushed her away. He knew that the illusion here was meant to make her fall into it, so the initial darkness was just to soften his heart. Then, he would set up illusions step by step. When a person gets tired of the monotony, he will want to find different kinds of excitement.
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