Without Jiang Yin, Tang Muxi’s desire to explore plummeted to zero.
She wandered aimlessly alone among the giant trees.
The great demon, clearly detestable, teased her, threatened her, and was sarcastically insincere.
Yet, suddenly without her, Tang Muxi found herself somewhat unaccustomed.
Before entering the secret realm, she had thought about performing well to gain the great demon’s trust as soon as possible, then live a lazy life.
Who knew the lousy secret realm would be so uncooperative, thwarting her plans on the very first day.
How annoying.
Thinking this, Tang Muxi angrily kicked a huge vine next to her, not expecting her foot to actually pass through it.
Tang Muxi paused, reached out to touch the green vine, and got the same result as before.
But this time, she saw clearly.
The moment her limb touched the vine, its surface trembled like water ripples, emitting a faint spiritual power fluctuation, like an elusive illusion, impossible to grasp.
Undeterred, Tang Muxi tried to touch all the visible plants around her, with the same result without exception.
Apart from the thick, moist soil under her feet, she couldn’t touch anything in this fairy-like giant forest.
Could it be that she had entered an illusion?
If she remembered correctly, many spiritual plants and trees in the cultivation world would create illusions after becoming spirits.
Once someone strayed into them, they would lose themselves, be lured by demons, and eventually become their food.
Thinking this, Tang Muxi shivered and tentatively called out, “Hello, is anyone there?”
No way, the secret realm couldn’t hate her this much.
Was it necessary to sentence her to death just for cursing a few times?
Receiving no reply, and not sure if it was just Tang Muxi’s imagination, the ground under her feet seemed to become somewhat slippery, as if she had really entered the belly of a monster.
“Um, Mr. Secret Realm? Monster Daddy? I don’t have much meat on me, not tasty…”
Tang Muxi tried to plead for mercy, the jade talisman her master gave her was clutched tightly in her hands.
In theory, a full-strength strike from a Golden Core stage should allow her to roam freely in the initial area, but she still felt uneasy.
The trees around her towered into the clouds, majestic and vast, stretching as far as the eye could see, with rich spiritual energy and a misty fog.
Such a beautiful and vast illusion couldn’t possibly be cast by a mere Foundation Building demon.
If she didn’t even have this bit of knowledge after living so many lifetimes, then she had lived in vain.
The jade talisman was her last resort, better not used unless absolutely necessary.
Otherwise, if she really angered the other party, she might not survive the day.
However, her pleas fell on deaf ears.
The entity that set up the illusion had no intention of harming her, nor did it wish to let her go, trapping her here.
Tang Muxi kept walking forward, the scenery constantly changing, yet seemingly without an end, impossible to escape.
She could feel a gaze on her all the time, but that was it.
Aside from spying, the entity showed no intention of appearing.
There was no sunrise or sunset in the illusion, making the passage of time very vague.
Tang Muxi didn’t know how long she had walked, her body exhausted.
Eventually, she simply found a clearing to sit down and rest.
Hungry, she was glad for her foresight in bringing all necessary cooking utensils.
But when she took out the ingredients and seasonings, she realized an embarrassingly obvious problem.
No firewood.
Before coming in, she only thought about bringing food and clothing, assuming she could find firewood easily.
But who could have expected to fall into this unlucky illusion right after entering, surrounded by towering trees that were, unfortunately, all fake.
With no other choice, Tang Muxi began to rely on her memory to condense flames with spiritual power.
Fortunately, although this was an illusion, the spiritual power was quite rich.
Before long, a small but vigorous fire appeared before her.
“Hmph, think you can stump me? Impossible.”
Today, in the wilderness, without the great demon by her side, there was no need to make anything too lavish or luxurious.
Tang Muxi decided to keep it simple, directly roasting the prepared chicken over the fire, then sprinkling some chili, salt, and other seasonings.
Soon, a fragrant, golden, crispy on the outside and tender on the inside roasted chicken was ready.
The chicken was too big to handle easily, so Tang Muxi cut it into pieces, placed them on a plate, and ate with chopsticks.
The pure and simple flavor of the meat, combined with the basic seasonings, was warm and delicious.
At this moment of physical and mental exhaustion, it was an extraordinary comfort.
Tang Muxi quickly finished a piece, also taking out ice water to drink, feeling utterly refreshed.
At this moment, she even thought that if she really couldn’t get out, she might as well stay in this illusion.
After all, she had no worries about food and drink, and the spiritual energy was rich, so she could just consider it a change of scenery for cultivation.
The roasted chicken was quite large, and Tang Muxi couldn’t finish it by herself, so she wrapped up the remaining half to eat later.
After the meal, Tang Muxi simply stopped wasting energy and sat down to absorb spiritual energy.
Since the demon wouldn’t let her go, she couldn’t possibly break through the illusion.
Cultivating, eating, and using a dust-removal spell when dirty—although not as refreshing as a bath, after all, this was an illusion, and the water in her storage bag was for drinking, not to be wasted.
After repeating this routine several times, Tang Muxi slowly noticed something wrong.
A small portion of her prepared food would disappear without a trace each time.
At first, she thought she had eaten it and not noticed, but as more and more food went missing, she had to face the fact.
Her food was being stolen, and the only culprit could be the demon trapping her in the illusion.
“Hey… big demon, if you want to eat, just tell me. I can’t beat you anyway, no need to sneak around.”
Her voice echoed in the vast illusion; the big demon couldn’t possibly not hear her.
But there was no response, presumably still wary of her.
Tang Muxi found it quite amusing.
This entity had the power to create such a vast illusion, why would it fear her, a mere Qi Cultivation stage small fry?
It was baffling.
But after this incident, Tang Muxi consciously made an extra portion of food, placing it at the other end of the table, clearly for the demon to eat.
At first, the demon was very reserved, unwilling to show itself, only stealthily stealing the food when she was meditating, leaving behind an empty bowl.
Later, it seemed to realize Tang Muxi truly bore no ill will, and its courage grew, joining her for meals.
However, it never showed itself; from Tang Muxi’s perspective, the food in the other bowl would disappear bit by bit, as if by magic.
This scared Tang Muxi so much that she dared not look up while eating.
Through shared meals, the relationship between the human and the demon gradually warmed.
Tang Muxi, unsatisfied with being trapped in the illusion, began to try communicating with the big demon.
“Hey, big demon, my food is almost eaten by you. I’ll starve to death soon if this goes on. Don’t you plan to let me go?”
Tang Muxi lied without hesitation.
In reality, she still had plenty of food in her storage bag; she was just trying to play the victim to gain her freedom.
Through their days together, she realized the big demon truly bore no malice, only trapping her in the illusion out of caution.
However, this time, there was still no response.
Tang Muxi knew the big demon heard her, but to convince it, she began to act.
When cooking, she started reducing the amount of food.
The first time by a quarter, the second time by another quarter, and so on.
In just a few days, the amount of food drastically decreased, leaving not just the demon, but even Tang Muxi herself starving.
Tang Muxi paid a heavy price for her act, fully expecting the big demon to let her go.
But to her surprise, on the third day, she woke up to find a cow, larger than herself and half-dead, lying on the ground in front of her.
Tang Muxi: …
There was no need, really no need.
Would letting me go cost you a piece of meat?
At that moment, Tang Muxi was utterly devastated.
She even suspected the big demon couldn’t bear to part with her cooking, so it decided not to let her go, intending to keep her as a cook forever.
Her plan was a failure.
But Tang Muxi wasn’t one to give up easily; she was here to cling to the great demon’s leg, not to be a cook!
If she counted three meals a day, it had already been ten days.
Ten whole days, three times longer than she had ever spent with the great demon in her entire life!
The great demon might have already forgotten about her!
This wouldn’t do; she had to escape this lousy illusion as soon as possible.
So, after behaving for two days, Tang Muxi started causing trouble again.
While cultivating, she deliberately retracted the spiritual energy that resisted the cold.
This place was strange; despite the bright sunshine, the temperature was as cold as winter.
This should have quickly led to her catching a cold and falling ill.
However, Tang Muxi found that aside from feeling cold on the first day, she adapted to the low temperature from the second day onwards.
She thought the big demon had discovered her plan and intentionally raised the illusion’s temperature, but later realized it wasn’t the illusion’s temperature that had increased, but her own body temperature that had decreased.
Tang Muxi: …
Well played.
Tang Muxi refused to give up, starting to abuse her body in various ways, even poisoning herself.
Unfortunately, her blood naturally had healing and detoxifying effects; a whole bottle of poison went down like drinking water, leaving her completely unaffected.
Cutting her arm with a knife would heal the wound in the blink of an eye.
Tang Muxi tried everything, and just when she was about to break down and give up, she accidentally discovered the most effective way to harm herself while cooking.
Fire.
Her body could automatically adjust in extreme cold, but fire was different.
Burns from fire would hurt for a long time before healing, as if the blood’s recovery effect was suppressed.
Accidentally discovering this, an idea began to form.
Of course, she wouldn’t directly burn herself; not only would the big demon likely stop her, but it would also be very painful, hardly worth it.
Relying on the ability to freely transform spiritual energy, Tang Muxi slowly converted all the spiritual energy in her body into scorching fire spiritual energy.
At first, she didn’t find it strange; after all, whether it was spiritual energy or demonic energy, she had a good affinity with it and couldn’t be harmed by her own body’s spiritual energy.
But when all the spiritual energy in her body turned into scorching fire spiritual energy, she suddenly found her control over these energies gradually blocked.
The dry, hot breath spread throughout her body, as if burning through her meridians.
Tang Muxi was alarmed, instinctively feeling something was wrong, and tried to convert some of the fire spiritual energy into water spiritual energy to ease the burning sensation.
But then she discovered that the fire spiritual energy in her body had already gone out of control, completely ignoring her commands.
The spiritual energy ran amok, crashing through her body.
This was no small matter; she could die at any moment.
In an instant, a mouthful of scorching blood spewed out, and at that moment, Tang Muxi realized she might have gone too far .
Her body swayed, and soon she fell to the ground, losing consciousness completely.
In the moment before she blacked out, she seemed to see a fluffy thing panicking and rushing towards her.
She thought, this gluttonous creature wouldn’t eat her, would it?
But before she could ponder the answer, she plunged into a scorching darkness.
