Chapter 34 Would you like to leave with me? ...
"[Is this really an illusion? Amazing, it even fooled me.]" the system exclaimed.
Since the last Phantom Demon incident, He has adjusted His mode to allow Him to enter the illusionary realm along with His host. This way, if such a situation arises again in the future, He can help His host break through it instead of waiting foolishly outside the illusion.
Gu Xiaozhu was a little confused: "Stay... what do you mean?"
A Cui chuckled: "You've seen it too. The illusion I created is so realistic that it's almost indistinguishable from reality. As long as you're willing to stay, I can create a beautiful and carefree illusion world, where we can live freely, happily, and unrestrained forever."
"Isn't this better?"
Gu Xiaozhu looked at A Cui for a while, but instead of answering her question, she asked in return, "Can I see the other people? And my friends?"
Ah Cui raised her eyebrows slightly and beckoned with her slender fingers.
The surrounding white sea of flowers rippled, and one after another, huge, translucent white buds broke through the soil. Inside these buds, monks slept peacefully with their eyes closed.
Gu Xiaozhu walked over and took a look around, and quickly realized that something was wrong.
She saw Ling Qiu, she saw Wu Jiangxue, but...
She didn't see Jiang Zhihe.
"System, where is Jiang Zhihe?"
[The tests show that he is... uh?]
The system's voice carried a hint of surprise.
Is he... right beside you?
Gu Xiaozhu: "...?"
She looked around again, carefully scanning all the flower buds around her.
No.
Jiang Zhihe was nowhere to be seen.
Strange, the system's detection doesn't make any mistakes, so where exactly is the problem?
An idea popped into her mind, and she turned her gaze to Acui, who was standing not far away, smiling at her.
"Where is Jiang Zhihe?" Gu Xiaozhu asked.
Ah Cui's eyes flickered slightly, but she still said, "They're all here."
"You haven't answered my question yet. Are you going to stay?"
Gu Xiaozhu looked at her and finally shook her head: "I'm sorry, I won't stay."
Ah Cui's hands, hanging by her sides, clenched slightly: "Why?" The three words trembled slightly.
“If it were in the past, perhaps I would have agreed. After all, reality is indeed terrible, even suffocating,” Gu Xiaozhu said, looking at her.
“But…” she changed the subject, as if she had thought of something, and a smile involuntarily appeared in her eyes.
"After coming into this world, I found that it wasn't as bad as I had imagined."
"Although there are bad people here, I can also see good people who are kind to the world and grow like sunflowers."
"Not to mention, I also have friends who care about me and take care of me."
Gu Xiaozhu looked at A Cui in front of her and smiled gently, but her eyes held a hint of apology: "So I'm sorry... I can't let go of reality."
Ah Cui stood there, her eyes fixed on her: "Even if you get hurt by reality?"
Gu Xiaozhu smiled faintly: "Even if I get hurt, I won't change my mind."
"So now..."
"Can you let me return to reality?"
Ah Cui's eyes widened suddenly, her gaze filled with undisguised astonishment as she looked at Gu Xiaozhu: "You... how did you know..."
Gu Xiaozhu: "Isn't Jiang Zhihe not here because he's not in this illusion?"
Ah Cui's expression twisted for a moment: "He..."
Looking at A Cui's expression, Gu Xiaozhu knew she had guessed correctly.
The system said that Jiang Zhihe was right beside her, and even when she was walking around, the system still gave this answer.
He was right beside her, but she couldn't see him. Considering A-Cui's abilities, there was only one possibility—
This is not reality; she is still in a dream world.
This is a two-layered illusion. The first layer is the "secret realm" created by A Cui, and the second layer is this sea of flowers.
The reason she couldn't see Jiang Zhihe beside her was because Jiang Zhihe wasn't in the illusion, but in reality.
That's strange, when did he leave the illusion and return to reality?
A cultivator's soul is in balance with their cultivation level. The stronger the soul, the less susceptible it is to mental attacks such as illusions.
As for why Jiang Zhihe was able to resist the illusions of the Nascent Soul stage with his Golden Core Perfection...
Gu Xiaozhu thought, maybe it's because he's the male lead?
After all, challenging opponents of higher levels should be a very common thing for the male protagonist, right?
Ah Cui stammered for a long time, but couldn't say anything.
Suddenly, she reached out her hand, and a white flower bud appeared in her palm. The petals opened, revealing a translucent, crystal-clear bead.
“Didn’t you want a secret treasure? Here it is, a ten-thousand-year-old spirit pearl. However, it contains a deadly poison. Anyone below the Great Perfection of the Nascent Soul stage will die if they touch it, so it needs to be isolated with a special flower bud.” A pleading look appeared in A Cui’s eyes as she held out the flower bud in her hand: “I’ll give it to you. Please, don’t leave this illusion. Stay here.”
[Host! Host! It's a Spirit Pearl! That's what we're looking for! Take it quickly!]
"Wait a minute," Gu Xiaozhu replied in her mind.
She looked at A-Cui across from her: "You don't want me to leave here so much, is there something in reality that I can't see?"
She observed A-Cui's expression and tentatively asked, "Is... you already dead in reality?"
The moment those words were spoken, the entire sea of flowers trembled for a moment. The petals of the surrounding flowers suddenly became sharp, but when they touched Gu Xiaozhu, they softened again, as if they did not want to hurt her.
Ah Cui lowered her head and remained silent.
After a long silence, she finally spoke: "That's right."
“I am already dead; only in this illusion can my consciousness survive.”
She looked up at Gu Xiaozhu, tears welling up in her eyes: "If you leave here, this will be the last time we meet."
"Once I leave, I will cease to exist. All you will see is a skeleton."
Gu Xiaozhu was taken aback.
She hadn't expected the truth to be like this, and she certainly hadn't expected Ah Cui to be so honest.
Perhaps her candor at this time was one of her methods to retain her identity.
But no matter how pitiful Ah Cui is, she has no chance of staying here.
There are still people waiting for you in reality.
She glanced at the spirit pearl in Ah Cui's hand.
In reality, Ah Cui has already died. The Ah Cui who is alive in the illusion at this moment should be her remaining soul consciousness.
However, according to the worldview of this book, if the remaining soul consciousness is to remain in the world, it must be nurtured by treasures.
The only precious treasure here is this spirit pearl.
Therefore, the reason why A Cui's remnant soul could exist was because this spiritual pearl was constantly nourishing her. And it was precisely because A Cui was a soul that the deadly poison could not harm her.
The reason she cannot appear in reality is probably because the Spirit Pearl is hidden in the illusion, and once her remnant soul leaves the Spirit Pearl and the illusion, it will lose its nourishment and soon her soul will be scattered.
Thinking of this, a hint of doubt arose in Gu Xiaozhu's heart.
She doesn't remember this spirit pearl having this function.
"System, do you have a way to let A Cui's remnant soul reside in the Spirit Pearl? That way, even if the Spirit Pearl leaves the illusion, she won't dissipate and can still appear in reality."
Ah Cui's remnant soul is currently attached to the outside of the Spirit Pearl, not inside it.
[Hmm? You figured that out? No wonder you're the host, you're so smart!]
Of course! Things are different now; I've accumulated a lot of power!
Upon receiving an affirmative answer, Gu Xiaozhu smiled. She looked at Acui and extended her hand: "Acui, if I had a way to help you leave the illusion and go back to reality..."
Would you like to leave this place with me?
A Cui was taken aback.
Previously, she would never have agreed. Her past life had witnessed too much darkness, and she had already lost all illusions about this world.
But after seeing the girl in front of her, witnessing her actions, and seeing her gentleness and tolerance, she miraculously felt a longing for the real world again.
Perhaps reality isn't as terrible as she imagines.
The woman in white took a deep breath and, amidst the swaying white flower sea, grasped the hand that the almond-haired girl extended to her.
"If it were you..."
"I'm willing to give it a try."
Countless petals flew into the sky, and the illusion crumbled inch by inch.
An invisible force carried Ah Cui's remaining soul and threw it into the spirit pearl inside the white flower bud.
The blinding white light engulfed her.
After an unknown amount of time, Gu Xiaozhu's eyelashes trembled slightly, and she slowly opened her eyes.
The first thing that catches the eye is Jiang Zhihe's worried face.
However, the moment Gu Xiaozhu opened her eyes, the worried expression on his face instantly turned into surprise.
"Thank goodness you're alright!" He immediately gave Gu Xiaozhu a big hug.
Gu Xiaozhu patted his back with amusement: "Yeah, I'm fine."
Jiang Zhihe reluctantly let go of her hand and continued, "After I realized you were missing, I went to look for you. It turned out that we were all in an illusion."
“You weren’t in the illusion at the time, so I assumed you had left the illusion and gone to reality.”
Gu Xiaozhu: "So you left the illusion to find me in reality?"
The boy in front of me nodded: "That's right, it turns out there are two layers of illusion. The first layer is the 'secret realm' where most of us are. The second layer... I'm not sure."
He scratched his head and laughed somewhat awkwardly: "I just cleaved a hole with my sword and skipped over the second level to come to reality."
"After seeing that you were still asleep, I realized that the illusion actually had two layers, and I had mistakenly gone over it."
Gu Xiaozhu: "..."
She finally understood why Ah Cui had made that expression back then.
“It’s easy to get out but hard to get back in, so I can only stay by your side for now,” Jiang Zhihe said.
“Sometimes I really feel like you’re not from the Joyful Union Sect, but rather from the Number One Sword Sect,” Gu Xiaozhu said casually.
Jiang Zhihe smiled and said, "You're not the only one who thinks this way; many people feel the same way."
The two were currently inside a cave, with the warm firelight illuminating their surroundings.
"What about the others?" Gu Xiaozhu sat next to Jiang Zhihe, hugging her knees, watching the flickering firelight.
Jiang Zhihe pointed into the cave: "Look, they're all over there. It's actually quite dangerous outside, and it wasn't easy for me to gather all these people in."
Gu Xiaozhu looked in the direction he pointed and saw that there was another space inside the cave, and in that space, people were neatly arranged, looking like corpses waiting to be collected.
"That's strange. The illusion should be over by now, so why haven't those people woken up yet?" Gu Xiaozhu muttered to herself.
"Because the shattering of the illusion also affects the people inside, they will have to wait a while before they wake up." A familiar voice came from around her neck.
Gu Xiaozhu looked down and realized that she had noticed a necklace with spirit beads hanging from it around her neck.
The sound came from inside the spirit pearl.
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