78 Messing Around

Ye Xiu had forgotten the little tidbit that the satyr didn't actually require its miasma in order for it to use its illusions. It only meant that the strength of its illusions wasn't as strong as they were supposed to be. He was caught in an illusion that he didn't even realise until he spotted discrepancies in the Qi flow around the area.

He had realised that he had been attacking an illusion for the past five minutes and he was certainly furious. He managed to dispel the illusion by disrupting the flow of Qi that the illusion was relying on to fool him. He had learnt how to dispel illusions at the drop of a hat together with everyone else since they had to make sure that they didn't get caught by Shang Yang's illusions. They learnt the telltale signs of her illusions

Since he had learnt the telltale signs, he was able to recognise the similarities in the Qi flow around him. It was difficult to see the Qi flow of the satyr since it had a lot of experience using them which meant that it knew how to make his Qi signature extremely soft and it became hardly discernible unless you were extremely sharp.

Ye Xiu could hear the menacing laughter as he searched the forest for the satyr. He could see why Bai Tian had told him that the satyr was the strongest beast in the area. Though it didn't have the highest cultivation since that went towards Bai Tian, it certainly made up for it with its numerous amount of abilities that it could use.

"You managed to break out of the illusion. I applaud since not many recognise the signs of an illusion." The voice sounded from all directions around Ye Xiu. He knew that the satyr was probably using another illusion to make sure that Ye Xiu would be unable to locate him. Ye Xiu knew that with the amount that he had been trapped in the illusion the satyr would've probably set up multiple illusions.

The worst thing about this satyr's illusions was that it made the surroundings look exactly the same as they were in reality. This confused Ye Xiu greatly and so he could only focus his efforts on trying to detect Qi flow abnormalities or the satyr's Qi signature. The satyr was taunting Ye Xiu though Ye Xiu tried his best to ignore them.

"You'll never be able to fight me if you just get caught in my illusions. You'll die of hunger and thirst by the time I'm done with you. Your body will be a delicious meal for me." The satyr chuckled as if it was thinking about the taste of Ye Xiu's body.

Ye Xiu's eyebrows furrowed in frustration. 'There was a trick that I was planning on testing out... should I try it now? If it works then it'll definitely help me a lot in this fight.' He wasn't sure whether his idea would work out since he had never tried to attempt it before. He had all the time in the world since the satyr wasn't actually attacking him yet.

Ye Xiu gathered up his Qi and released it in a concentrated manner. He essentially released a pulse of Qi that would go as far as his control allowed him to. The pulse was released in a circular manner so it would affect all areas around him just not below him. This would help him find the Qi signatures that were foreign as it passed through which would allow him to systematically destroy the illusions quickly.

Ye Xiu's idea worked and he managed to find multiple areas where the satyr had placed his illusions. The satyr was peeved that his fun was going to come to an end so quickly. "You managed to find my illusions so quickly. I congratulate you. With death." The satyr started to attack Ye Xiu as he was getting rid of the illusions which made his work much harder than it should've been.

Ye Xiu was calmly dodging the attacks that the satyr had been throwing at him since he had no inclination in being hit by the satyr. The miasma was starting to affect Ye Xiu's vision as it was extremely dense. He wondered how the satyr managed to create and emit so much miasma but when he thought about it he was less surprised. The satyr probably had years to build up its miasma and held it in so that it wouldn't escape.

Ye Xiu wasn't happy to see the miasma so he pulled on his Qi and split it off into different directions. One to continue helping him find the illusions and the other towards his dimensional storage so he could get his whip. He had his whip in hand and started to light the whip on flames. He had modified his whip in the past few months so that it would be able to withstand the heat that his flames would produce.

Once the flame was aflame, he took out his second whip before lighting it aflame as well. He used his dual whip style to create a dome of defence around him. Since the whips were aflame, the miasma that tried to get past was instantly burnt and it disappeared. Ye Xiu was also removing the illusions as he swung his whip around because it managed to get many areas in the forest that he wouldn't normally hit.

The flames were slowly burning the forest but Ye Xiu didn't mind. The flames that lit up the environment was easily extinguished by his whips as they created enough wind to blow out the fires. The satyr wasn't panicking yet which was interesting to Ye Xiu but it also made him extremely cautious. If the satyr wasn't even worried that one of its main methods of attacking was being countered then he knew that the satyr definitely still had tricks up his sleeve.

His father had told him that all satyrs have the same set of abilities but each individual one can develop a different set of abilities together with the one they were born with. Ye Xiu kept up his dome of defence as the miasma kept on being released, as Ye Xiu stepped forward the satyr retreated. After a few minutes of burning the miasma, the satyr was bored of the fight. "Are you seriously going to spend your entire time trying to get rid of my miasma?"

"You're going to have to tire sooner or later." The satyr was being extremely idle as it watched Ye Xiu. "If you aren't going to come to me, then I'll come to you." Though the satyr was idle, it had gotten impatient and wanted a fight. The horns on the satyr disappeared and a set of daggers appeared in its hands.

The satyr threw one of the daggers that it held towards Ye Xiu where it was promptly hit away by the whips. As the whip hit the dagger, the satyr teleported to where it was and threw its next dagger which managed to get past Ye Xiu's dome. The satyr dropped down to the ground as it picked up the fallen dagger before teleporting to the dagger that was close to Ye Xiu.

Ye Xiu stopped swinging his whips and pulled them back towards him, he was hoping that he would be able to trap the satyr as it moved towards him. He managed to get both his whips to bind around the satyr as he let his hold on the two whips go and kicked the dagger that was flying towards his face.

The whips that were binding the satyr went slack in less than a few moments since the satyr managed to teleport to the kicked dagger. Ye Xiu wasn't expecting much when he was trying to bind the satyr since he knew that it could teleport around the place.

The satyr was more difficult than Ye Xiu expected it to be. When his father had told him about the battle that they had against the satyr that had kidnapped him, he was obviously intrigued about how they fought and he listened closely but he didn't expect that it would be this hard. Though he had something coming for him if he thought that he would be able to take something down alone easily when it had taken six people working together with extremely fluid teamwork.

Ye Xiu had guessed that his parents, Xiao Tu's parents and grandparents had probably restrained their strength in that entire fight with the satyr because they didn't want to bring down the building if they did use their full strength. Ye Xiu had a sneaking suspicion that his parents were definitely much stronger than the third realm after San Guo had revealed that everybody above that realm restrained their Qi base.

The satyr was extremely fluid when it came to its teleportation ability since it was abusing the technique to get out of sticky situations that Ye Xiu managed to put it in. So far, Ye Xiu had managed to not get hit by any of the satyr's daggers which was definitely a good thing for him since he would've suffered from being attacked at a random moment if the satyr felt like it during the battle.

He had taken out his katana so that he wouldn't be defenceless when he was trying to dodge the satyr's daggers. "You're pretty good at dodging though you have to be tired when you've been flaunting around those flaming whips of yours." The satyr was trying to rile up Ye Xiu but instead, it made him snort in amusement though he made no other noise and he had no intention in talking to the satyr.

Ye Xiu never noticed the miasma coming at him from behind when he was suddenly enveloped completely by it. Ye Xiu inhaled a huge amount of the miasma due to surprise and it allowed the satyr to feast on Ye Xiu's memories. The satyr started to look through every single one of Ye Xiu's memories, trying to find his worst one so that he could make it into his personal nightmare.

"Should I take this memory or this one? Nah, this one seems interesting." The satyr flicked through years of memories quickly but with a speed that allowed him to take a cursory glance before dismissing them. To Ye Xiu, he was in a dark abyss and time seemed to be passing extremely slowly for him.

When the satyr flicked to one of the earliest memories that Ye Xiu had, he was obviously intrigued. "There's another world? What are all these things moving around?" It had managed to find the memories that Ye Xiu had of his previous life and the satyr was taking its time to look through them. It was giggling in childish delight as he saw all the possible things that the cultivation could've achieved through different means.

Once the satyr managed to sate its curiosity, it found a memory that seemed to be a traumatic experience for Ye Xiu. Ye Xiu hadn't repressed the memory in any way since he wanted to remember it for what it was but he had placed the memory to one of the darker corners of his mind palace which the satyr happened to stumble upon.

"Now this... this is excellent nightmare material. I'm impressed that the kid managed to survive an encounter with another of my kind even though it was because of his guardians. At least I'll get to have fun tormenting him." The satyr began to mould the nightmare to one that would suit its sadistic needs.

"Imagine if I took this kid's body for myself... I have his memories so his friends won't be able to recognise anything is wrong." The satyr began to plot as he inserted the nightmare into the kid's dreamscape.

Screams erupted in the forested area as the nightmare took place.