As Shi Xuan moved forward, the fog dissipated. Fan Mingzhu, who appeared later, perhaps wanted to do something, but Shi Xuan directly dispersed her.
The illusion was shattered, and could no longer cause any trouble, so it had to be abandoned. For someone with a firm will, coercion and enticement are futile; she will only follow her heart and forge ahead bravely.
Such a illusory test had no effect on her.
Meanwhile, the first few people who entered also fell into the illusion.
As soon as Fan Mingzhu entered the main hall, she was pulled into an illusion. In her illusion, Shi Xuan was living a miserable life after she replaced his spiritual roots. With his useless five spiritual roots, his cultivation was extremely slow, and no sect was willing to accept him as a disciple. He could only live a wandering life as a rogue cultivator.
Fan Mingzhu, possessing a top-grade fire spirit root, progressed rapidly in her cultivation, becoming the most promising young disciple in the Qian Yuan Western Region.
Her alchemy skills became increasingly refined, attracting disciples from all six sects. Her concoctions were priceless. Many devoted themselves to her, hoping to receive even a single word of guidance from her.
Wherever she went, she was always surrounded by a retinue. In front of her, Shi Xuan could only humbly prostrate himself on the ground, not even having the courage to look up at her.
Such a feeling is so captivating that one cannot extricate oneself from it.
For a fleeting moment, Fan Mingzhu wondered if she was dreaming, but if it was, she really didn't want to wake up.
Everything was so wonderful. She was the most celebrated genius among the six sects of Qian Yuan Western Region. She was respected and loved by everyone. She was pursued by countless promising young cultivators. She became the youngest Nascent Soul cultivator in the entire Western Region...
Shi Xuan had already entered the golden palace on the other side of the suspension bridge.
Inside the magnificent palace, what awaited Shi Xuan was not some priceless treasure, but a gigantic ferocious beast.
The ferocious beast had a body as large as a small mountain, with short, thick limbs, and a dark red body covered with thick scales. Its golden eyes shone with a vicious light, and the size of those eyes alone was enough to engulf Shi Xuan entirely.
It has two short black and red horns on its head, and what is most eye-catching is its huge mouth, which is extremely large, with two fangs protruding from both sides. Its expression is ferocious and menacing.
Upon seeing Shi Xuan enter, it slapped him without saying a word.
The giant hand cast a massive shadow above Shi Xuan, enveloping him entirely. If it were to strike him, he would be turned into a meat pie.
Shi Xuan had entered the gate with caution, and now that he encountered danger, he immediately retreated swiftly, withdrawing out of the giant beast's attack range. The giant beast's palm missed its target, striking the open ground and raising a cloud of dust, causing the entire ground to tremble.
Lu Shenzhi exclaimed in astonishment, "What...what kind of ferocious beast is this?"
As Shi Xuan retreated, he glanced at the behemoth and said, "Doesn't it resemble the Taotie described in the book?"
“It really is true,” Lu Shenzhi was even more surprised, “How could an ancient ferocious beast appear in such a low-level secret realm as the Silver Frost Secret Realm? This is not right!”
The red-skinned behemoth missed its first attack, turned its head to look in the direction Shi Xuan had fled, raised its other arm, and delivered another palm strike.
The wind from the palm whistled, blowing Shi Xuan's curly hair into the air.
Shi Xuan dodged again.
The problem now is that with her current cultivation level of only the eighth level of Qi Refining, she can only inflict minor injuries on such a huge ferocious beast even if she uses all her spiritual power.
She didn't act rashly, but instead released her divine sense to make a judgment before the ferocious beast made any unusual movements, and determined the route to dodge.
After several unsuccessful attacks, the ferocious beast grew increasingly agitated as it watched her dart back and forth in front of it, unable to strike her. As the number of attacks increased, its rage began to rise.
It stopped slapping her, instead raising its neck, opening its blood-red maw, and roaring as it took a breath.
The roar was deafening, causing Shi Xuan to momentarily lose his senses. Then came a tremendous suction force, like a vortex, so powerful it seemed capable of sucking everything in the area into its belly.
With its mouth capable of swallowing everything, Shi Xuan and Lu Shenzhi are now officially certain that this ferocious beast is indeed the Taotie!
Shi Xuan was pulled unsteadily by the power of the vortex. She used all her spiritual power, and even with the repulsive force of her spiritual root activated, she could not resist the enormous suction force.
Just as she was about to be sucked into the vortex, she had a flash of inspiration. She summoned the puppet sword, dragged its hilt, and made it move in the opposite direction.
The puppet sword trembled as it struggled against the Taotie's suction force, and it seemed to be doing very little.
Shi Xuan held the puppet sword in one hand and took out a jade sword from his storage space with the other, pouring spiritual power into it and slashing it at the Taotie's face.
Taotie didn't take her attack seriously. In its eyes, such a weak human was no different from an ant, and the blows would not hurt it at all.
However, what it didn't know was that the sword energy emanating from this tiny human was actually from the hand of a Nascent Soul cultivator.
By the time it realized something was wrong as the sword energy approached, it was too late. The metallic sword energy, with its unrestrained sharpness, struck its face squarely.
The Taotie roared in pain, collapsing to the ground with a thud. A long gash had been torn from its scales by the sword energy, and at its thin mouth, the skin was mangled and bloody. Dark red blood streamed down its face, dripping onto the ground and rising in a puff of white smoke.
It was injured, but not severely enough.
Shi Xuan roughly estimated in his mind that even if his master and sect leader unleashed all their sword energy, they probably wouldn't be able to inflict a fatal wound on this ferocious beast; its scales were simply too strong. Moreover, after this, it would definitely be on guard, making it difficult to strike so squarely again.
At this moment, Taotie, whose face was injured, had stopped breathing, and the puppet sword in Shi Xuan's hand seemed to have lost its strength and become less steady.
Shi Xuan sheathed his puppet sword, intending to fly upwards on it to get away from the ferocious beast. However, the palace was like a huge arena; although large, the space was limited, making it unrealistic to try and escape the Taotie.
They couldn't win a fight, and they couldn't escape either.
Shi Xuan calmly analyzed the current situation. Seeing that the Taotie became even more enraged after it reacted, Shi Xuan decided to go all out and fight the Taotie to the death!
Its body is covered with thick scales, providing excellent defense, but its interior must not be as sturdy.
Breaking through from the inside out is one method, but it's too dangerous.
But Shi Xuan couldn't care less about that now. Taotie had already opened its mouth and started its second inhalation, and it seemed that this time the force was even greater than the last time!
There was no time to think about it anymore, and this time it would be even more difficult to dodge, so Shi Xuan simply gave up resisting and rushed into its mouth along with the vortex of its inhalation.
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