Chapter 174 - Illusion

Once Elder Chu said that, other elders present in the hall looked at her with all sorts of expressions in their faces.

Then they turned their heads away from her and gazed back at the group of people taking the illusion-based test of perseverance.

...

In Xiao Lin's vision, he found himself in a region that seemed boundless. However, the particular place that he found himself at, was the edge of a massive land that was actually a really large island which was surrounded by a lake of red-hot, churning lava.

Then within this pool of lava that surrounded the black, barren island which had all sorts of miniature, odd-looking creatures such as small, six-headed, grey-colored worms and turtle-shelled, scorpion-tailed spiders burrow out from within it from time to time, could be seen dreadful, winged and scaly monstrous creatures that brought their heads out to look at him as they swam in the lake of lava, and then dipped themselves back into the lava to continue swimming pleasurably.

Xiao Lin who fearfully looked into the eyes of the monsters that intensely gazed at him, was able to read the expressions of their massive frightening eyes, which was that they had seen food and would step out of the lake of lava soon to come devour him.

Huuuu!

He then inhaled deeply and asked within himself, 'Am I still in an illusion? If this is an illusion, it's so scarily real. This black-soiled island, the weird and spooky creatures, the air that I am breathing, the brilliant, deep violet-colored sun, the vast grey-black sky, they all feel very real to me. I definitely have to master the Art of Illusion Projection too. This is certainly a great and easy way to distract or terrify a much more powerful opponent, which would then me give a little bit of time, even just a second, to deal a paralysing or absolutely lethal attack on him or her. Nice! My tiny horizon of combative knowledge has just been broadened further!"

Once Xiao Lin thought this, the dark-black glow that emanated from within his palms as a result of being permeated with his dark-black Spiritual Energy, since he was preparing himself to immediately launch out attacks at anything that will unexpectedly jump in front of him to attack him, began to slowly recede. Then not quite long, the stunning, ink-black glow coming from his hands, completely died off as the energy that had rapidly gathered in his hands due to being alarmed by where he was which didn't firstly seem like an illusion to him, returned to his dantian where they infused into the large, liquid-like mass of seething, dark-black Spiritual Energy floating there.

Immediately the energy moved away from his palms back to his dantian, the elders who could notice the abating, charcoal-black glow in his hands, looked at Elder Chu with intense mocking expressions in their faces before one of them suddenly said out loud, "Elder Chu, I will advise you to think with your brain anytime you want to say anything in regards to that boy called Devil Fang, or he would only continue to disgrace and embarrass you, making you feel like you actually don't know what you are saying. Haha. I like this boy, always proving his enemies and haters wrong by first doing the wrong thing, and then quickly switching it to the right thing to embarrass them. Which lover of his wouldn't love the boy more? Hehe. Ride on, Devil Fang, this old man has got your back."

Once that elder who was a male and was Xiao Lin's staunch supporter said that, Elder Chu looked at him with great annoyance in her eyes. She then turned her head away from him and began to look at Zhao Yu. Then seeing that Zhao Yu didn't cause her strange, fiery Spiritual Energy to permeate her hands in readiness to attack whatever would suddenly appear in front of her to attack her, she produced a glad smile in her face and said within herself, "Nice one, girl. Far better than that sick-looking idiot who I wonder really hard how long he is going to actually live for. Well, I will advise the elder who will accept him to check what sort of illness is wrong with him so that they can cure him of it, since he looks like someone that already has both feet in the grave."

...

As Xiao Lin was busy staring at the gigantic, scaly hideous creatures that brought out their heads from time to time to look at him as they swam enjoyably in the massive pool of lava that surrounded the island that he was on, he suddenly heard numerous low, deep growls behind him.

Once he heard those sounds that seemed to come from beasts, he instantly froze where he was with a petrified look manifesting in his face. He then slowly turned his head back in fear a moment later to see what had surfaced behind him.

Then behold, he could see hundreds of really muscular, nine-headed wild dogs which had fangs that lustered in the blinding, deep violet brilliance that dazzlingly shone from the blazing violet sun hung in the vast, grey-black sky.

Immediately he saw those, two thoughts instantly appeared in his mind, and these were should he attack them or run away from them.

However, he stopped and did nothing, as he realized a moment later that he was in an illusion.

As he waited there and gazed at the ferocious wild dog beasts, they slowly approached him with low deep growls ringing out from them. Then a moment later, they suddenly leaped towards him.

Seeing that he would have to do something since the beasts had leapt towards him, Xiao Lin immediately performed a powerful jump over them and landed at their own position.

So, because there was nothing in their paths when they jumped towards Xiao Lin, they began to fall into the lake of lava that surrounded the black, barren land.

Plosh! Plosh! Plosh!

They began to fall into the lava one after the other and immediately screamed out in intense pain as their bodies rapidly dissolved into the lava pool which was extremely hot.

Xiao Lin who could witness all these, couldn't help but be shocked by what was going on.

"Whether this is an illusion or not, I have to be really careful." Xiao Lin said as he slowly moved further away from his position.

However, the ground started to tremble when he thought of doing do, giving the feeling that something massive and was probably a subterranean creature wanted to burst out from within the earth.

"What's going on now?" Xiao Lin asked as the ground shook.

Then he made up his mind to move to the center of the island, as he wanted to be really far away from the massive lake of lava that surrounded the island. Or if he fell into it, that was death. Even if it was only an illusion, he still had to be wary.

So, as he began to dash towards the center of the island despite it furious trembling like some gigantic, primitive entity dwelling within it wanted to come out from it and take him away to devour him in it massive lair, cracks began to appear at several places of the ground. And once these cracks surfaced, they only spread further into the distance at the speed of lightning before the ground actually started to break apart very quickly, with the pieces falling in to create a massive hole. It was simply like the ground was collapsing in upon itself.

Then a second later, a beast that looked like a snake and had a skin that was gleaming under the brilliant violet sun, giving the feeling that it skin was actual metal, began to slowly rise from the massive hole that was caused by the ground suddenly collapsing in upon itself.

"What? Really? How am I supposed to battle this now?" Xiao Lin who was absolutely terrified of what he saw, said out loud with frustration in his tone.

The snake which had risen from the ground and was looking at him like it had just seen a meal, prepared to dash towards him. Then it opened it mouth wide to reveal a massive circular gum that had giant fangs sticking out of it. Then if one looked further into it mouth, one would notice a smaller circular gum behind that enormous one which also had massive fangs sticking out of it.

Xiao Lin who turned his head back to look at it as he ran, could see this using his powerful vampiric vision. He then put more power into his powered dash to give a massive gap between him and the snake that was still rising towards the sky, seeming as if it had an infinitely-long body, which was something that horrified Xiao Lin.

RAAAARGH!!!

Whoosh!

The thickly-skinned, gargantuan snake-like beast whose shiny, metallic head had actually connected with the sky, casting it unimaginably immense shadow over the island and the lava pool that possibly stretched for an unfathomable amount of length into the distance, suddenly growled that it caused the air to violently roil, and then actually brought deafness to Xiao Lin's ears when it impacted them.

Then a second after it growled, it suddenly shot itself like a massive spear launched from a gigantic bow towards Xiao Lin who was frantically doing his possible best to leave an incredibly great gap between himself and the colossal, metal-skinned serpent.