Chapter 78 - Mental Demon

Out of nowhere, Jiang Ying Yue saw a red lion in front of her.

The lion ran towards Su Zihao!

Su Zihao panicked and tried to run but the red lion reached to him first.

The lion roared and his claw scratched Su Zihao on his back making him fall!

Jiang Ying Yue saw this and she wanted to help but remembering the pain in her heart from those images, she stopped.

Maybe, this would be her revenge against him. The pain her heart was too much!

She could just walk away and not help.

She took one last glance at Su Zihao who was shouting for help on the floor.

The lion was now above him and Su Zihao was pushing the lion with all of his might. Jiang Ying Yue saw the plead in Su Zihao's eyes but she didn't want to help. He caused her a lot of pain. She trusted him! But he betrayed her!

She took a step forward but suddenly she stopped.

Her heart was in a turmoil just now when she saw him but now when she thought about it back, maybe all of this was her test?

Su Zihao wasn't real and the red lion wasn't real too?

But when she touched Su Zihao just now, he felt real. The warmth on his skin told her that he was real but maybe, all of this was just an illusion. Yes! Maybe this was a mental strength test just like the one master tested her with before!

Her eyes widened at that sudden thought!

And why didn't the red lion attack her?

As if hearing her thoughts, the red lion stopped attacking Su Zihao and started attacking her!

The lion ran towards her and opened it's mouth wide as if to bite her head off!

Jiang Ying Yue evaded the lion and bang!

She punched it with her fist covered in Spiritual Qi.

It was at this moment that she saw the blood on Su Zihao's chest and his pale face. Maybe the lion hurt him when it was on top of Su Zihao just now.

Her heart hurt at that sight. Maybe, she could always hurt him back emotionally but not physically like this. He had never hurt her physically anyways.

But it was at this moment she saw a loophole! Ha! She saw the tenderness in Su Zihao's eyes filled with love and sincerity when he looked at her eyes.

She had never seen that in his eyes before. So this must be an illusion all along!

The lion was enraged that Jiang Ying Yue spaced out tin the middle of fight and it gathered a strong wave of Spiritual Qi on it's claws. The lion lifted it's paw towards Jiang Ying Yue but before the paw reached her, Jiang Ying Yue hardened her heart and emptied her mind before shouting, "Stop! You are not real! You are just an illusion!"

The lion paused and the light around them went dim and the lion disappeared.

Silent returned to the tunnel just like before. Jiang Ying Yue couldn't even see the lion nor Su Zihao's silhouette.

"Congratulations. You passed the first test, the mental demon. Everything that you saw just now was just an illusion created by your greatest fear and pain. You managed to break out of it by believing that it was an illusion. If you still had an ounce of fear, you wouldn't be able to break out of it at all. Your second test will start now."

The deep male voice was heard again.

So she was right with her gamble. It was just all an illusion that came from her own fear and pain.

There was no way Su Zihao would've been here out of nowhere. Her emotions were all over the place just now making her dumb for a moment. It seemed like she needed to work harder to forget about Su Zihao and the memories from that night so that this momentary stupidity wouldn't happen again.

Jiang Ying Yue was looking forward to the second test by now.

What was it going to be?

Suddenly she heard a slow and calming melody of flute coming from in front of her.

Ha? Music?

She felt calm listening to it but she was still being alert. Maybe this music would make her enter an illusion or control her mind again.

Jiang Ying Yue could feel her nerves calming as if listening to the song and she that this was dangerous! There was something about the sound of the flute that almost made her body want to listen to it.

She fought the feeling and next, she heard the sound of zither being plucked.

The tune was slow and steady at first, merging with the flute sound but then, the tune started getting faster and faster.

It almost sounded like a war song!

Jiang Ying Yue felt her body going hotter and hotter and she knew that this was the effect of the sound! Her blood felt like it was boiling and moving at a very fast speed.

Her mind seemed like it was frozen and she couldn't think but she fought it.

Odd enough, the more she fought the feeling in her body and mind, the fiercer the tune of the zither and flute.

She fought the pain in her body with all the she could. Blood dripped from her nose and in no time, her ears started bleeding too.

Her eyes started getting hazy and her mind was clouded.

Hold on Ying Yue! Hold on!

Don't succumb to the sound.

It was as if the sound of zither and flute merging together wanted her to listen and succumb to it.

Jiang Ying Yue felt blood surging in her throat and she forcibly swallowed it back down.

But the tune was getting faster and faster and *purgh*. Jiang Ying Yue vomited blood. She couldn't hold it in anymore. She was covered in blood once again.

By she was pretty sure she would get anemia with the amount of blood lost since her battle with the pack of wolves.

Jiang Ying Yue persevered and after god knew how long, the sound stopped and everything was calm once again.