What Illusion?

Li Xinyi started to set up her talismans in the courtyard after reminding Li Chu.

The last ray of sunlight disappeared from the horizon at this time.

She took out a yellow talisman written in cinnabar from her waist pouch, pinched it with her fingers, and cast it forward. The yellow talisman hit the hall and stuck on to it firmly as if it was a spiritual being.

This was not over yet. She took out a small jade-carved sword, about one finger long with exquisite workmanship, looking crystal clear. It seemed to be just as valuable as jewelry.

Without thinking twice, she cast out the little sword in a flash of blue with the flick of her fingers, nailing the yellow talisman to the wall.

She then fished out another yellow talisman and repeated the process again.

Li Chu watched from the sidelines. He did not know what she was doing, just feeling that she was badass.

This was also something he admired about her.

The world of the orthodox cultivators was full of talismans, magic weapons, elixirs, divine techniques, and all kinds of mysterious things, which he had never come into contact with all the while.

After all, there were no prizes to claim after he beat a monster, and his master had never cared about these things.

Li Xinyi slowly walked around the courtyard, casting out a talisman every three steps and nailing it with a small jade sword. After repeating these actions eighteen times, she finally completed a circle around the little courtyard.

She let out a long sigh of relief, beads of sweat already popping up on her forehead.

Before Li Chu could ask, she had walked over. "Do you know what I have laid out?"

"It is a Sword-Riser Talisman Spirit Array." She revealed the answer before Li Chu could say anything.

Li Chu let out a smile. He understood now that this girl was going to tell everything he was curious about without him even asking.

Sure enough, Li Xinyi spoke again without him asking. "I took these magic talismans from the Bureau's store to deal with ghosts and used the Jade Amulet Swords produced by Danding House to nail them. Each talisman carries my sword Qi. This talismancy is called the Sword-Riser Talisman.

"The eighteen Sword-Riser Talisman are well laid out according to the Nine Palaces of Positive and Negative, which is the more elementary Sword-Riser Talisman Spirit Array. Dealing with a little vengeful spirit is a piece of cake."

Li Xinyi let out a smile that said, "I have finished boasting. Now compliment me."

Li Chu nodded and quietly sighed. This is called professionalism.

In contrast, his own method of exorcising evil was very boring.

With Li Xinyi completing the spirit array at the same time the sun completely set, her precise control of timing could not have been more apparent.

A light white crescent emerged. In fact, it had been hanging in the sky for quite some time. Just that it was not too bright, and so they had not noticed it.

The two lit up a lamp and waited quietly

"Hey, young Daoist, are you scared?" Li Xinyi suddenly asked again.

Li Chu gently shook his head.

"Why? It is a vengeful spirit, you know?" Li Xinyi asked.

"Yeah, is it not a vengeful spirit?" Li Chu asked back.

The two seemed to have said similar things, but they were quite different.

An imperceptible confusion flashed across Li Xinyi's face.

She could not tell if Li Chu was pretending, as he always had a serious look on his face.

But if someone asks you whether you are sacred, it usually means that that person is scared.

Li Xinyi was aware of that.

This was actually her first solo exorcism outing.

She had always been following her mentors from behind. And she just made a breakthrough in her self-cultivation recently. So she pleaded with her mentor, asking for this opportunity to go it alone.

But why couldn't she wait to go on a solo exorcism mission? 

Because a sage by the name of Lu once said that you had to make yourself a name while you are still young.

No matter how nasty an evil spirit you have expelled, the credit will always go to the leading figure.

Only by acting alone will all the achievements be counted on yourself.

She was not even twenty this year. If she could make a name for herself now, people would know her as a heroine or a fairy. Wherever she went, she would surely attract countless fans with her charms.

If she were to wait until the age of 40 or 50 to become famous like her own mentor, what would others call her? Mama heroine.

Li Xinyi tried to shake off this horrible thought from her mind.

Li Chu suddenly focused his eyes on the unknown darkness outside the door.

Li Xinyi had also noticed something wrong, just as she was about to ask.

There was an evil air in the wind.

What they were waiting for had come.

A childish voice suddenly rose in the surroundings. It was as if children were laughing, sounding like silver bells. It was everywhere, crisp, ethereal, and somewhat weird.

"Be careful."

Li Xinyi warned. The voice suddenly sang a ballad.

"Brother killed me. Mother killed him. Father killed her. I killed Father."

...

This ballad drifted in the wind, but it was extremely clear as if it was repeatedly reverberating in the air.

"Brother killed me. Mother killed him. Father killed her. I killed Father."

...

With the ballads heard in her ears, Li Xinyi saw a vision in her eyes: her body shrank, becoming a three or four-year-old girl.

With her still in this room, the surrounding scenes changed, and things suddenly came alive.

She saw her mother, who was stooped and bent despite her young age.

Her mother pressed her head, asking her to greet her father.

But she remembered she had a father.

It was just that her father was put into a black box and buried in the ground.

She and her mother could not survive by themselves, so she had to find her a new father.

The new father also brought a son with him, who always had a smirk on his face.

She thought the new father would be like her own father, protecting her and protecting her mother.

But the reality frightened her.

When he got drunk, he would hit her mother, and very hard at that.

Her half elder brother would emulate him.

He would beat her, just like how his father beat her mother.

Her mother taught her to endure it. So she did, obediently.

After a long time had passed, scars were always on their bodies.

Her brother suddenly stopped beating her one day.

He wanted to strip her clothes off.

Finally, her mother could not endure it anymore and beat her brother.

Of course, her father, who came back at night, also beat her mother vehemently.

Then one day, her brother apologized to her.

He took her to the market and bought a piece of red silk for her.

She had always been envious of other little girls for their red hair ties.

She could not have been happier now as she had it, too.

So she forgave her brother.

Her brother took her to the hillside, wanting to help tie her hair.

So she sat down on the hillside as told.

Then her brother pushed her down.

She rolled down the hill. It was painful.

After that, her vision went dark.

She suddenly became such non-existence for some reason.

She saw her mother go all over the village, looking for her like crazy.

She heard her mother call her name.

She responded, but her mother could not hear her.

Her mother finally found out.

She went out with her brother and never came back.

Her mother said not a word.

Instead, she secretly poured a packet of rat poison into the soup.

My brother was poisoned to death.

Her father was furious, as it was his biological son.

So he beat her mother very hard.

Just like that, her mother was dead after being brutally beaten by her father.

She was furious.

She was still very young and knew not much.

Why was this world like this?

She had always been obedient. Why was she pushed down the hill?

Why was such a wonderful mother beaten to death?

So she appeared and effortlessly killed her father.

Only then did she realize how powerful she was now.

She realized she could choose not to bear with it.

...

"Aah!"

Li Xinyi was suddenly jolted up from the illusions. It turned out that it was Li Chu who pushed her by her shoulder.

"I am sorry, I saw something wrong with you, so I pushed you," said Li Chu.

"It's okay." Li Xinyi shook her head, as if she had just been awake from a dream, panting. "I... I just..."

"Your eyes were closed just now, your face flushing, your body trembling as you kept calling me Father."

Her face blushed even more.

She glanced up at Li Chu. "Why didn't her illusion affect you?"

Revengeful spirits could innately influence people with grievances and cause people to have illusions. Li Xinyi knew this and was very careful.

Just that she did not expect this vengeful spirit of a person who had just died was so powerful. The vengeful spirit hid the illusion in the ballad, catching her off guard.

But why did it not affect Li Chu like it affected her?

Not only that, he even woke her up calmly.

What made him so badass?

Doubts filled Li Xinyi's eyes.

It stunned Li Chu for a second under her watchful eyes. "Illusion... What illusion?"

Only then he was alert, looking up, turning his head cautiously to observe his surroundings.

He was steady.

With hindsight, Li Xinyi looked at him with many black question marks on her mind.

One, two, three, four...

She had guessed two possibilities based on what she knew about illusion.

The first possibility was, this type of illusion attack worked like a flood over a mountain.

The divine consciousness of both sides were water on one side and mountain on the other.

If your water level was high enough to submerge my mountain, then I would be immersed in it, at your mercy.

Sometimes, your water level might not be high enough but could still cover the mountainside. Then things would depend on whether I had revealed any vulnerability.

When I was caught off guard, a gigantic wave of your flood might splash onto the mountaintop, and I would still get tricked.

But if your splash was too small for me, it would be like a child urinating at the foot of a mountain.

Then it was entirely normal for me not to feel a thing.

But was Li Chu that mountain?

Li Xinyi still thought the second possibility was more probable after thinking hard and long about it.

That was, Li Chu was deaf.