Chapter 191: Against an Army

Yu Xuan took the lead, guiding Lingluo carefully along a path only he could discern. His [Soul Vision] allowed him to see the threads of deception woven into the world, and he moved in a way that skirted around the most dangerous parts of the illusion formation.Though elaborate at first glance, to Yu Xuan’s eyes the formation was... crude. The intricacies were shallow, the layering sloppy. Compared to the flawless nightmare-weaves his mother had once forced him to endure in training, this was almost laughable.

But even so, he kept his guard up. A "crude" trap could still kill one if underestimated.

When they finally passed through, both siblings realized the space beyond was far broader than it appeared from outside. The black castle loomed larger, its towers stretching higher, its gates impossibly tall.

Then, Yu Xuan stiffened.

A gaze. Cold. Piercing. Heavy, like a hand pressing against his chest was fixed on him. Lingluo felt it too, her stance tensed.

Yu Xuan scanned the surroundings, but there was no figure, no beast. Nothing.

’Maybe the final boss,’ Yu Xuan thought wryly, his mind still colored by his habit of framing danger in game-like terms.

But the humor didn’t soothe the unease gnawing at him. This wasn’t a playful encounter, this was something watching them, measuring them.

The tension broke an instant later.

From the yawning doors of the black castle, a figure emerged.

Clad in a hooded cloak that billowed like living shadow, the figure walked with deliberate calm. Step by step, the vast army of monsters shifted their focus, first one, then many, then all. Hundreds of gazes snapped toward the newcomer as if dragged by invisible strings.

And then... that same oppressive gaze turned fully upon Yu Xuan and Lingluo.

’This is not that earlier gaze.’ Yu Xuan thought.

The hooded figure raised a single hand.

At once, the entire army of creatures, dragonoids, hunters, winged beasts, sword-humans, green monstrosities — all turned in unison, their eyes flaring crimson. Their killing intent surged like a tidal wave, drowning the surroundings in malice. It even produced an tangible effect.

Lingluo exhaled slowly

"...Junior Brother, this doesn’t look good." her antics remained the same.

Yu Xuan said nothing.

From beneath the hood, the figure studied them, silent and unmoving. And within his mind, thoughts churned.

’They escaped the illusion formation. And yet their minds remain steady...?’

The hooded figure paused. The hood tilted slightly, as though intrigued.

’Did I underestimate them?’

A faint, inaudible chuckle.

’Then this may take longer than I thought. Perhaps... even I will need to intervene personally.’

"Look who we have here," the figure continued, stepping fully from the castle’s shadow. Its tone widened to fill the plains.

"Humans are you here to kill, or to be killed?"

Yu Xuan’s reply was casual, almost bored, but every syllable echoed just as loudly.

"Do we have a choice? Why don’t you make it easy on both of us and just kill yourself."

He sounded untroubled.

"What?" Yu Xuan snapped, arrogance sharpened into a blade. "This this is your fate. Just drop dead and save us the trouble."

The hooded figure’s patience cracked. For a breathless moment the place held its breath; then, behind his hood, something like amusement slid into something far darker.

’Calm down,’ the figure thought inwardly.

’They’re fools. Let them scoff. Soon my lady and I will be free and before departing I will kill him.’

Lingluo, squinted at him.

"Is his face ugly?" she asked bluntly, as if discussing the weather.

That was the final straw.

The hooded figure snapped. Where his voice before had been distant and smooth, it now was furious.

"Attack!" It was a single word.

"Kill those two! Whoever brings me their heads will be rewarded."

At once the plain erupted.

The illusionary formation around the castle peeled away like a skin, revealing the true scale of the threat: a battlefield synchronized to one will.

Yu Xuan’s eyes narrowed; the golden glow of his [Immortal’s Gaze] flickered behind his eyelids. He felt the blast of killing intent sweep over him like a physical force.

Lingluo’s purple aura flared in response, claws cracking with energy.

Her grin was wide. "Finally," she said, and the single word was enough to tell him she had been waiting.

Yu Xuan stepped forward. Words were done. Around them the mass of enemies converged, a river of red eyes and sharpened teeth.

The hooded figure watched, arms folded beneath his cloak, expression unreadable beneath the shadow.

He had lit the match; the plains burned in answer.

And in that burning, Yu Xuan understood, with unnerving clarity again, that this was no ordinary trial. It was a mechanism set to test, to harvest, to prepare Irregulars.

He took a steadying breath, his eyes flickering. Then he met Lingluo’s gaze.

"Shall we go all out from the start?" she asked, her voice calm, almost eager.

Yu Xuan gave a single nod. To counter the army, they had to reduce it to ash before it could swallow them. The hooded figure watched from afar, unmoving, while that hidden gaze from earlier still bothered him.

"Well then," Lingluo said, stretching as though limbering up for a morning walk.

"Let me try something."

In the next heartbeat, her entire body shifted. The violet aura that had always surrounded her — suddenly collapsed inward and vanished. Gone.

Yu Xuan blinked, a flicker of confusion breaking through his calm. Enemies were approaching them, a thousand footsteps shaking the earth, and she chose now to... experiment?

Still, he didn’t move. It wasn’t hesitation. It was choice. He had reflected on his choices a lot.

Because if Lingluo acted this recklessly, she wasn’t gambling — she was certain.

Either they were courageous beyond sense, or utterly insane, to stand unmoving while an army advanced to tear them apart. These monsters were supposed to be stronger than them, and yet...

Yu Xuan waited. He would not interrupt.

Because even in this trial, even in the face of impossible difficulty, there was one thing he was sure of; He trusted her.

***

Lingluo closed her eyes then turned her focus inward.

Ever since she had begun to awaken her bloodline, the little time she slept had been plagued — no, gifted with strange dreams she could never fully comprehend.

It seemed Yu Xuan wasn’t the only one with dream problems.

In those visions, she was impossibly vast.

No longer the small figure bound by earth and air, but a colossus striding through the void.

Each step carried her across hundreds of thousands of kilometers in an instant, yet she never touched land. She walked through the starry sky itself, moving at speeds beyond mortal comprehension.

And wherever her steps landed, the cosmos trembled.

Space itself warped and tore, leaving behind long trails that shimmered like cracks in glass. But those trails did not heal — they unraveled.

The fabric of reality seemed to dissolve back into a primordial storm, as though the universe itself were regressing, returning to the chaos from which it had once been born.

To any sane mind, it would have been terrifying.

To Lingluo, it was beautiful.

She didn’t know why, but the sight of order unraveling, of the cosmos collapsing into raw, chaotic beauty — it stirred something deep inside her blood, something ancient and terrifying.

And the more she thought about it, the more it felt as if her entire being was resonating with that vision.

Her Qi began to shift. Not flowing along the rigid meridians of normal cultivation, but weaving in impossible, spiraling patterns no human body should have been able to endure.

Her whole cultivation path had always been different.

Outwardly, her hair shifted, strands darkening into a shimmering violet that caught the dim light like liquid crystal. The change did not stop there — her very physique seemed to power her thoughts.

Power surged through her veins. Not the infinite, godlike power she had glimpsed in her dreams, but still... it was staggering.

And then it happened.

As if by a law higher than gravity, Lingluo’s body lifted from the ground. Slowly, effortlessly, she floated into the air.

Yu Xuan’s eyes widened. Even with everything he had seen, this startled him — who just floated into the sky after deciding to? This was beyond abnormal.

But stranger things were still to come.

From her rising form, an aura began to spread — not savage, not violent, but noble. It was a radiance that made her seem untouchable, the most precious existence between heaven and earth. The battlefield seemed to still under its weight.

The army that had been charging so ferociously faltered. Their steps slowed, their eyes flickered with unease. It wasn’t awe that made them hesitate — it was instinct. The primal, bone-deep awareness of a threat beyond reason.

Behind them, the hooded figure’s expression finally cracked. His composure faltered at this variable.

’What is that creature?’ he thought, a chill racing down his spine.

And then, Lingluo’s form stilled. She folded her hands into a meditative stance as if transcending the chaos around her.

From the void beneath her feet, light bloomed. A lotus — vast, resplendent, impossibly perfect unfolded petal by petal, cradling her in midair. Its radiance was both serene and apocalyptic, a paradox of beauty and destruction.

The battlefield fell silent, as though heaven and earth themselves were holding their breath.