Chapter 175 - Illusion II

Perceiving that the snake had shot out towards him, Xiao Lin tried his utmost best to garner more power in his legs so as to evade the gigantic serpent rushing towards him from up in the air.

However, what Xiao Lin didn't know that although he tried to move very fast using his powerful Movement Techniques, he was however fixed at a spot, as a particular, imperceptible inhibiting force had descended upon him from above and fully encompassed his being so as to prevent him from dashing off into the distance in horror due to what he saw in his vision.

So, in his vision, he was using a particular Movement Technique to increase his speed to shocking levels, he was however fixed at a spot by the force that unexpectedly surfaced above him and fully bore down on him in an imperceivable manner to restrain him.

However, it wasn't only Xiao Lin that the movement-inhibition force was affecting, it was affecting all of them taking this particular test, with Zhao Yu being the only exception.

She still remained where she was, however, a small aura of horror could be seen slowly building around her body, meaning that she was gradually being terrified by what she saw in her vision.

As for Tian Xi, he had started to scream and launch powerful Spiritual Energy attacks at the inexistent, horrifying entities in his mind, due to the continuous projections of illusionary elements into his head. But thankfully, the massive and towering, glowing pillar of energy that rose from within the ground around everyone of them to protect them from each other's attacks, easily absorbed the devastating power of his attacks, therefore preventing destructive shockwaves from surfacing and moving on to impact Tian Xi in his body and seriously injuring him.

Xiao Lin at the moment who couldn't understand why such an alarmingly gigantic beast had appeared in his vision, began to wonder if the colossal, shiny serpent that seemed to be formed from metal was real. Although he could just wait there and let the snake hit him to know if it was true or not, but he couldn't do that, as he wasn't entirely sure if the serpent was real. The thought that surfaced in his mind and horrified him was that what if it was actually real and then gulped him whole simply because he was thinking that it was an illusion. So, he didn't want to have any regret and do one thing that he could do best in this place at the moment, which was Run.

Besides, Xiao Lin felt that it was true, as he had basically gone deaf with his powerful Vampiric Hearing not healing in the next moment to return his hearing ability to him. Also, he was racked by a severe headache that made him feel like continuous, powerful chain explosions were going on within his head once he was hit by the sound wave of the sky-shaking deafening growl of that lustering serpent which simply overshadowed the whole landscape of the region in his mind.

So, because of these things that happened to him, Xiao Lin was forced to believe that the snake before him could be possibly true.

But this was only an illusion, a much more powerful version of illusion called Hyper-Realistic Illusion, which was there to force everyone of them into believing that was was happening to them was actually true.

Like one who had been caught up with it as he ran in horror and became unfortunately surrounded by three gigantic, thousand-legged cyan spiders that released green-colored lava from certain orifices in their anuses and formed surprisingly thick webs of molten magma which didn't solidify and maintained their partly-liquid, partly-solid form, couldn't help but screech out in great pain when they wrapped him with their hot green lava into a large cocoon.

So, due to being attacked by the spiders and giving in to the illusion, he was abruptly taken out of the illusion ground before his mind would break and result in him entering into a vegetative state, since the illusion would force him to believe that he would die after being wrapped up in a green-colored cocoon of burning hot lava.

...

- Hall of Elders -

"Many of them will be taken away from this legacy ground very soon, their minds are already breaking. They wouldn't be able to really last for long in the tests." One elder said to another elder who was seated beside him.

"Yes. Very soon. But those guys that have switched first, second and third position amongst themselves are still going to retain their top positions." That elder that was spoken to, mentioned to the elder that talked to him.

"But take a look at that girl, she is relatively calm than the rest. Her mind is strong. I am impressed. She isn't even horrified by the dreadful, utterly strange things occurring in her mind. Haha. I like that. I guess that for this year's batch, she holds the number one position, while Devil Fang holds the second position. Then as for that short boy, he will have the third position. And now that they seem to have become friends, they could possibly form a small group that will contest with or be challenged by other groups existing in the sect. Can't wait to see their individual growths, their growth as a group, and how far they would be able to go in this eminent sect of ours." One elder said while the rest nodded their heads in agreement to what he said.

Xiao Lin at the moment who was trying to leave an astonishingly wide gap between himself and the gleaming serpent that was raging towards him, thought to himself that he would continue to run till the time for the test was eventually up. And since he wouldn't collapse to the ground in a vegetative state, then he would have successfully passed the test.

However, what he didn't know was that, the test which was meant to assess the determination and perseverance level of each their minds, and their individual degrees of resoluteness, could go on and on for months until basically everyone of them had surrendered to the illusions operating in each of their minds after exhausting both their physical and mental energies.

So, as Xiao Lin ran, hoping to leave the colossal serpent far behind, suddenly found that same serpent far in front of him and was shooting towards him at a great speed.

"What the hell?" He asked with a solemn expression manifesting in his face and a terrified gaze appearing in his narrowed eyes.

He then swiftly turned back to see if it was that same gigantic snake chasing after him from before that had suddenly appeared far in front of him. However, seeing that exact glistening snake behind him, Xiao Lin shook his head with an awry expression surfacing in his face. Then very quickly, he changed his direction and prepared to move in the left direction instead of the front as he was previously doing.

But the instant that he took a step, he found himself at the edge of the black-soiled barren island, with his leg going straight into the seemingly boundless lake of lava surrounding the massive, mystifying black island.

Plosh!

His body fell into the lava and Xiao Lin couldn't help but scream out in pain and agony.

Arghhhhh!!

Everything was too abrupt for him and so he couldn't stop himself on time from falling into the pool.

Suddenly appearing at the edge of the island had taken him by tremendous surprise. He wasn't expecting that in any way at all.

Then the illusion being an Hyper-Realistic Illusion, made Xiao Lin feel a great degree of heat that caused his amazingly tough body to begin to burn off very quickly, causing him a great deal of pain that racked both his mind and powerful senses. Then his senses being powerful ones, ones which were much more powerful than those of his peer cultivators and those a step or two steps above his current cultivation stage, the pain that he felt was increased many times more, causing him to begin to writhe in pain and agony like a worm doused with salt water within the non-existent lake of constantly fuming, red-hot lava.

Seeing how quick his tough body burnt off and rapidly charred because of the intense heat produced by the immense lake of lava that he fell into, Xiao Lin began to try his best to swim back to the edge of the island and climb back on it before his body will literally burn off to ashes.

However, as soon as that intention surfaced in his mind, he suddenly found himself at a place farther away from the edge of the island. Then before he could even blink his eyes in horror at what was happening, he unexpectedly found himself at a place in the lake of lava where he couldn't even see the island again. It was simply like he had been moved to the center of the seemingly endless lake of lava.. Then not quite long, an actual incomprehensible storm began to manifest where he was, resulting in the occurrence of an enormous whirlpool in the lava which abruptly pulled him towards it center.