Phoenix's Requiem

Chapter 434: Zhuo Yifeng’s Compromise

Li Mo and Yun Ruoyan could sense the truth of Qiuqiu’s words. Although they had already known this at a subconscious level, Qiuqiu had drawn their attention to the problem that Yun Ruoyan’s bloodline presented.

“Let’s go. We’d best not stay here too long,” Zhuo Yifeng said, then tried to reach out for Li Mo again. The moment he touched Li Mo, however, Li Mo frowned and moved aside.

Zhuo Yifeng didn't mind Li Mo’s gesture. He motioned for them to follow him as he took the lead. Yun Ruoyan, supporting Li Mo, walked behind him. Not too long after they began walking, flames suddenly began to blaze all around them, so tall they could lick the crown of Yun Ruoyan’s head.

Yun Ruoyan took to her sword, trying to fly herself and Li Mo out of the fire, when the route ahead of her suddenly filled with flames. The sea of fire smothered the three cultivators entirely.

“Are they going to burn to death?” Pi Batian asked. Through the array, they could see what was happening to Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo from within.

“This is an illusion,” Pi Yan murmured.

“Father, you mean that the flames surrounding them are fake?”

“More or less. Those flames are facsimiles conjured up from the spiritual energy fed into the array. It’ll hurt their spirit, but not their body, and it certainly won’t burn them to death,” Pi Yan replied.

Pi Yan and Pi Batian gleefully watched on, only to see the three cultivators walk out of the fire shielded by Yun Ruoyan’s Scarlet Eye. Her sword boasted dominion over fire, and the spirit fire produced by the illusion array clearly was no match for it.

“Father, they’ve escaped!”

Pi Yan narrowed his eyes, and his hands continued to manipulate the array.

Countless swords of ice immediately appeared in front of the cultivators. Yun Ruoyan stepped in front of Li Mo and blocked them with a swing of her Scarlet Eye. “Zhuo Yifeng, what’re you doing? Come help!” Yun Ruoyan called out.

Zhuo Yifeng drew his sword, but his eyes suddenly turned cold. Instead of helping Yun Ruoyan, he stabbed at Li Mo’s back. With a metallic clink, Li Mo barely blocked Zhuo Yifeng’s attack, knocking him back.

“Zhuo Yifeng, what’re you doing?!” Yun Ruoyan shouted. He seemed to have turned into another person entirely. Raising his sword high into the air, he again thrusted at Li Mo. Li Mo had expended his last bit of spiritual energy to block Zhuo Yifeng’s attack; as Yun Ruoyan dealt with the hail of blades in front of her, she released a few fireballs in Zhuo Yifeng’s direction.

However, those fireballs didn’t dissuade him from his attack. He blocked them and continued walking toward Li Mo and Yun Ruoyan, his gaze filled with killing intent.

Just then, a shadow suddenly appeared by Zhuo Yifeng’s side. With a clean snick, a blade was thrust through Zhuo Yifeng’s chest.

“Zhuo Yifeng!” Despite the sudden betrayal, Yun Ruoyan’s heart clenched in pain. She hadn’t expected that Zhuo Yifeng would suddenly attack them, nor that he would die equally suddenly. They had been comrades who had seen death together, and they had promised to return to the Chenyuan continent together.

The shock to her mind caused her to falter in blocking the swords of ice still streaming toward her, and a number of swords broke through her defenses. Li Mo hurriedly pulled her aside. The shadowy figure who had killed Zhuo Yifeng appeared before the two cultivators, a pitch-black shield in his hand blocking the innumerable swords in front of them.

“Quick, leave this place!” he shouted.

Yun Ruoyan turned her gaze from Zhuo Yifeng’s corpse to the speaker, then gasped. “Zhuo Yifeng? What’s going on?”

“Quick, come with me!” Zhuo Yifeng clearly didn’t have the time to explain himself further, and he retreated with the two cultivators. As they did so, the swords of ice clearly diminished in number before vanishing entirely.

“Zhuo Yifeng, what’s going on?”

“This is an illusion array,” he replied, stowing his shield. “That me you saw just now was just an illusion.”

“It’s fortunate that you arrived when you did, or Yan’er and I would be in mortal danger,” Li Mo said.” When Zhuo Yifeng tried to get close to Li Mo, Li Mo had discovered that that Zhuo Yifeng was just a fake, and he had been guarding his back since. Only his caution had saved him from being stabbed in the back.

“This array has many nuclei, some of which represent safe shelter, and others of which represent mortal peril,” Zhuo Yifeng explained. “The two of you were in a region of mortal peril, and there are often many traps laid out around such an area.”

“If we head to nuclei representing safe shelter, does that mean we can escape?” Yun Ruoyan hazarded a guess.

“No.” Zhuo Yifeng shook his head. “We’re by one such nucleus right now, but it only guarantees our safety for the moment.”

Without any means of escaping the array, the three cultivators decided to rest for the moment. Yun Ruoyan handed her sage-grade spirit crystal to Li Mo, who was finally able to recover about a third of his spiritual energy. He opened his eyes and glanced around him, noting that Yun Ruoyan was in cultivation by his side. Zhuo Yifeng was sitting not too far away from them, his eyes slightly open. Perhaps because he sensed Li Mo’s gaze, Zhuo Yifeng opened his eyes wide, and their gazes met.

When Li Mo confirmed that there was temporarily no danger, he closed his eyes and continued to cultivate.

As they rested, the demonic spirit in Zhuo Yifeng’s head continued to whisper, “Brat, I’m the only one who can help all of you escape. Why are you hesitating? Do you want to be trapped here for eternity? Or do you want the mysterious backer behind the Pi family to appear and capture all of you?”

“Be quiet,” Zhuo Yifeng replied. “Unless it’s necessary, I won’t accept.”

“Oh, there’s something I almost forgot to tell you,” the demonic spirit continued. “This array’s nuclei are labile, and an area of safe shelter might easily transform into a deadly trap.”

Zhuo Yifeng’s brows furrowed, but he didn’t reply. When the demonic spirit noticed that Zhuo Yifeng was ignoring him, it finally stopped talking. However, Zhuo Yifeng didn’t dare relax. Although his eyes were closed, his spiritual perception was extended to its maximum possible range.

“Father, I’m sure the silver dragon elder will be here shortly.” Pi Batian and Pi Yan hadn’t slept for the entire night. Pi Yan had been manipulating the array all this time, while Pi Batian watched on from the side.

The figures of the three cultivators could still be seen from the formation.

“Father, if we still haven’t caught them by the time the elder arrives...” Pi Batian sounded a little worried.

Pi Yan smiled. “Don’t worry, they have no chance of escaping now. I’ve gathered the array’s perilous nuclei together, so they won’t escape unless they can teleport.

Within the array, the three cultivators felt a sudden sense of disquiet simultaneously. They opened their eyes to find their surroundings quaking. Flames, swords of ice, vines, dust, and boulders overwhelmed them, rushing toward them like an avalanche.

They immediately gathered into a close circle. Zhuo Yifeng used his shield to block the attacks, while Li Mo and Yun Ruoyan began striking at the obstacles with their swords to dissipate them. Their defense seemed impenetrable, only to have a crack open up under their feet. Luckily, all three of them reacted in time, taking to the skies on their swords.

However, the crack then started to suck them downward. Yun Ruoyan glanced beneath her at the roaring, blood-red magma that could be seen through the crack. The heated air felt so real that, although she knew she was in an illusion array, the consequences for being dragged below would hardly be better than death.

As the suction force grew stronger and stronger, and the three of them were battered all over by the attacks flying from every direction, they all received some amount of superficial injury. For the time being, none of them had been gravely injured, but their position was untenable in the long term.

“Well, brat? Won’t you accept my suggestion?” the demonic spirit whispered again. “As long as you fully merge with me, my power is more than sufficient to get everyone out of here. Not only will you be able to save your own life, but also that of your two friends. Time’s ticking, and you’d best not hesitate any longer.”

“If I die, you’ll have to vanish as well. I know you have other strategies to save me that don’t involve merging with me,” Zhuo Yifeng replied.

“Oh, I do. But if you don’t merge with me, you’ll be the only one I save. The woman you love will forever perish in this array—but since she doesn’t like you, who cares?”

Zhuo Yifeng gritted his teeth and finally relented. “Alright, I agree to your conditions.”

“Heh, as expected, you’re someone who values your relationships.”

“Father, now they surely won’t be able to escape!” Pi Batian crowed, smirking at the three cultivators as they desperately fended for their lives amidst the attacks storming toward them.

“Watch this.” Pi Yan manipulated the array again, but before whatever cruel attack he had planned could materialize, Zhuo Yifeng’s hands suddenly began to glow in black. He clawed at empty space, tearing a hole in the array that slowly morphed into the shape of a door.

“Quick, escape from here!” Zhuo Yifeng called out.