848: Chapter 848 The Little Bear Breaks the Illusion!

"I cannot rule out that possibility," Saintess An Miaoyi did not deny it.

"But it could also just be a coincidence."

"Although the Antarctic is a land of ice and snow, anything is possible within the underground ruins."

"The appearance of a spirit beast cub here doesn't necessarily mean it has a direct connection to this ancient city."

Ye Chen reached out and rubbed the little bear's head, laughing, "Who cares if there's a connection? It's mine now anyway. Even if it fell from the moon, it would still be mine."

Upon hearing this, the little bear immediately nuzzled its head into the crook of his neck and fell fast asleep.

Mo Yuan watched this scene, the corner of his mouth twitching, but he ultimately swallowed the words that had reached his lips.

Ye Chen stopped dwelling on the stone carvings and continued walking forward.

But he had only taken three steps...

"Hum..." A buzzing sound came from beneath their feet, as if something had been awakened by his footsteps.

Ye Chen paused.

Saintess An Miaoyi and Mo Yuan stopped at the same time, looking around vigilantly.

Immediately after, complex patterns suddenly lit up in concentric circles on the stone-tiled ground beneath their feet.

These patterns spread out in all directions from the tower base, covering the area within a hundred paces in the blink of an eye.

The light grew brighter and brighter, turning from pale blue to silvery white, swallowing the figures of the three.

"Not good, it's a triggered formation!" Saintess An Miaoyi let out a low cry, instinctively moving closer to Ye Chen.

Mo Yuan's expression changed drastically, and he immediately channeled his True Qi to form a protective barrier around his body.

But it was already too late.

The light retracted sharply. The three felt a blur before their eyes; the ground beneath them vanished, replaced by a vast, white wasteland.

Cold winds howled, and the sky was grey.

The surrounding ice plains were boundless, looking no different from the Antarctic ice surface they had been on before, but Ye Chen could feel...

This place was not the real world.

"An illusion?" Ye Chen narrowed his eyes.

Saintess An Miaoyi stood not far from his side, her expression very grave.

"That's right..."

"The formation eye should be inside that tower. We accidentally triggered the outer defensive formation and were pulled into this illusion."

Mo Yuan's face was extremely ugly: "An illusion? Then how are we supposed to get out?"

Illusions—this sort of thing was terrifying.

It relies on the terrain and core energy to be broken.

Ordinary people simply cannot break it.

And they... had actually stumbled into an illusion without even realizing it.

He tried to circulate his True Qi, discovering that his cultivation was flowing as usual and was not suppressed, but no matter which direction he walked, the surrounding scenery did not change.

"It cannot be broken," Saintess An Miaoyi shook her head.

"There are only two ways to break an illusion formation..."

"First, find the formation eye and destroy it; second, wait for the formation's spiritual energy to exhaust itself."

"Judging by the scale of this formation, its spiritual energy reserves can maintain it for at least a hundred years."

Mo Yuan's face became even uglier: "A hundred years? I couldn't even last that long without eating or drinking!"

Ye Chen, on the contrary, was very calm, looking down at the little bear on his shoulder.

"What do you think?"

The little bear tilted its head, sniffing here and there.

Then, it let out a "woo-woo" sound.

Ye Chen smiled: "You also think this illusion is quite boring, right?"

The little bear nodded.

Mo Yuan was just about to mock him, when suddenly...

"Roar!!!" A deafening roar came from deep within the wind and snow.

The sound was dull, as if some kind of behemoth was approaching.

The three turned their gazes simultaneously toward the direction the sound came from.

But they saw... Amidst the churning wind and snow, a huge silhouette gradually emerged from the curtain of snow.

It was a bear. A giant bear covered in long fur, its size as tall as a two-story building, its limbs thick like pillars; every step it took on the ice made a dull, trembling sound.

Its eyes were amber, glowing with a cold light under the grey sky, and it was staring at the three of them from a distance of over ten zhang.

"Roar!!!" Another angry roar, and another giant bear stepped out.

"Roar!" "Roar!!" "Roar!!!"

Giant bears followed one after another; the entire scene was plunged into an ocean of "bears."

Every one of them was no smaller than the first, and some were even larger.

Mo Yuan gasped, his face as pale as paper: "This... so many? What exactly does this illusion want to do?"

Ye Chen scanned the surroundings, looking very astonished.

"Good grief, is this treating us like a buffet?"

Saintess An Miaoyi stood by his side, her hands slowly forming seals, a pale blue halo rising around her body.

"Their aura is very real; they don't seem like mere illusions."

"These giant bears are likely an offensive measure nested within the illusion formation, capable of causing substantial harm to intruders."

Ye Chen nodded: "Then let's fight."

The moment he finished speaking, the giant bear closest to him suddenly let out a heaven-shaking roar.

Then, it pushed off with all four limbs, its entire body like a moving mountain, crushing toward him.

The moment the giant bear shattered the ice surface, Ye Chen could even feel the vibration of the ice layer beneath his feet.

But he did not retreat; instead, he took a step forward and casually raised his right hand.

"Bang!" He slapped the giant bear's lunging front paw; the giant bear's momentum of nearly a thousand catties was actually blocked head-on.

Ye Chen shook his numb right wrist and clicked his tongue twice: "The bears in this illusion formation sure have solid strength."

Another giant bear had already circled to the flank, opening its bloody maw to bite at Saintess An Miaoyi.

Saintess An Miaoyi lightly tapped the ground with her toes, her figure drifting back several feet like willow catkins. At the same time, she flipped her right hand, and a three-foot-long azure blade unsheathed, its tip slicing a thin, long line of blood across the giant bear's nose.

The giant bear felt pain and roared, shaking its head, but Saintess An Miaoyi had already used the force to leap onto its back, the sword tip pressed against the back of its neck, emitting a burst of True Qi.

"Puchi!" The giant bear's massive body crashed to the ground, sending snow splattering everywhere.

Mo Yuan was not so composed. He was blocked in front of an ice hill by two giant bears, struggling to parry, forced to retreat repeatedly.

One giant bear swiped its claw. He hurriedly dodged to the side, but the claw's edge grazed his ribs, tearing open a wound.

"Damn it!"

Mo Yuan gritted his teeth, pushing both palms out together. Ink-colored True Qi transformed into two flood dragons, slamming into one of the giant bears and forcing it back several steps.

But the other giant bear had already lunged at him from behind...

The little bear, lying on Ye Chen's shoulder, watched Mo Yuan's disheveled state and actually cracked its mouth open, as if mocking him.

Ye Chen slapped away the third giant bear that lunged at him, scanning behind him with his peripheral vision: "Hey, Your Highness the Holy Son, how many more rounds can you last?"

Mo Yuan's face turned green from his words: "Just worry about yourself!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the giant bear behind him lunged onto his back. Mo Yuan couldn't turn in time and could only cross his arms to protect the back of his head, taking the blow head-on.

"Bang!" Mo Yuan was smashed away like a cannonball, rolling three times on the snow.

Seeing this, Saintess An Miaoyi turned her blade, and several sword lights flew from her hand, forcing back the giant bear pursuing Mo Yuan.

Then, she stepped back to Mo Yuan's side and said coldly: "Don't try to be a hero."

Mo Yuan clutched his chest, his face livid. He really couldn't hold on anymore.

At this moment, Ye Chen had already taken down four more giant bears, but he could see that these giant bears were simply endless.

The ones whose heads he had just smashed had already turned into clusters of ice mist in the snow, and new giant bears immediately re-condensed from the ice mist.

"Endless?" Ye Chen raised an eyebrow, "Then these things are no fun."

He was just about to try other methods when the little bear on his shoulder suddenly jumped down from Ye Chen's shoulder.

Ye Chen looked down: "What..." Before he could finish.

The little bear suddenly opened its mouth and let out a roar.

"Awoo!!!" That roar was completely different from its usual milky, baby-like cries; it was thick and deep, like the long tolling of an ancient bell rising from deep underground, shaking the wind and snow until they froze in mid-air.

Immediately after, the little bear's body swelled in the wind.

The palm-sized fur ball instantly expanded into a behemoth three zhang tall.

The terrifying pressure released by its body was like an invisible mountain crushing toward all directions.

All the lunging giant bears stopped in their tracks at this moment, fear appearing in their eyes.

The next second, they all shivered in unison, their bodies crumbling inch by inch from their feet, turning into sky-filling ice shards that dissipated with the wind.

The wind and snow stopped as well. The grey sky tore open, and the illusion, like a shattered mirror, began to collapse from the top, turning into countless fragments and dissipating into the air.

Ye Chen felt a blur before his eyes, and then he was standing in front of the tower base, with Saintess An Miaoyi and Mo Yuan behind him, and the ancient stone gate in front of him.

Everything had returned to normal, like a dream.

The giant white bear's body quickly shrank back to its original appearance.

Then, it skillfully leaped up, clinging to Ye Chen's embrace, let out two "woo-woo" sounds, and rubbed against his chin.

Ye Chen was astonished: "Not bad, kid. I didn't expect that besides space manipulation, you can also break illusions?"

That's right! The little white bear's operation just now had directly broken the core of the illusion.

So much so that Ye Chen, who had originally intended to take action to break it, didn't even have the chance...