Lu Yuzhi discovered something was amiss after crossing the suspension bridge. He suddenly opened his eyes and turned to look in Su Muqing's direction.
At this moment, Su Muqing was standing alone at the very edge. Her eyes were closed, her brow furrowed, as she walked through the mist of the night.
Her expression looked very pained. She was kicking her legs and raising her arms, her mouth opening and closing. Judging by the shape of her mouth, she seemed to be cursing someone?
Lu Yuzhi looked at her strange behavior and quickly lowered his gaze to his own feet. There were only a pile of weeds and rocks, no suspension bridge or abyss in sight.
He quickly turned to look at the others around him. They were all closing their eyes and wandering aimlessly.
Each person's demeanor was different. Some were laughing, some were crying. Some were babbling excitedly, while others wore expressions of extreme pain. Some were even harming themselves incessantly!
What had happened to all of them? Why did they all appear to have lost their minds?
Seeing this scene, Lu Yuzhi wanted to go and pull Su Muqing back, but he found that although she was not far away, he could not reach her. So he turned around, intending to wake up Leng Ren and the others first.
But the result was the same. Lu Yuzhi found that they seemed to be trapped in some kind of formation, each immersed in their own imagination, completely oblivious to the people and events around them.
Old Man Tianji stood by, watching Lu Yuzhi look around and move about near those people. He couldn't help but understand; he had finally arrived!
Although Lu Yuzhi was wearing a mask, it was clearly evident that he was not affected by the mist.
When Old Man Tianji first saw the group, the Ice Ling Grass in his arms began to stir restlessly, eager to escape the glazed jar. At that moment, he had already begun to suspect this man who was heavily wrapped up.
He must be the one Master Zhi Kong had spoken of, the person poisoned by the Ice Ling Grass. From his current condition, the poison in his body should have been suppressed by some miraculous medicine.
This was also why he was able to return to reality from the illusory mist so quickly. Because the poison of the Ice Ling Grass was too potent, he was only briefly confused.
Then, that girl...
The girl being spoken of by Old Man Tianji—Su Muqing! She was still hanging upside down on the wooden bridge, her strength clearly waning, her limbs already starting to go numb.
However, she had also noticed that the ball of wind seemed to be able to float only above the wooden bridge, unable to come to the underside.
After she caught her breath, she moved forward using her hands and feet while hanging upside down. After painstakingly moving a small section, she felt that the area beneath her bottom was getting hotter and hotter.
So Su Muqing cautiously tilted her head to look. Damn it! When had the area below turned into a lava pit again?
This was the evidence! That old man definitely wanted to kill her! He even spoke of reality and illusion, of true and false! Now there were wind blades and fire, leaving no way for her to survive!
She was about to lose all her strength. If she fell in, wouldn't she be burned to ashes? Was it really necessary to be so cruel? Wasn't humanity being promoted now!
Su Muqing cursed upwards furiously! "Stinky old man! @#%... If you harm me like this! I won't spare you even as a ghost! 217! You are unjust and unrighteous! You..."
She stopped after cursing for only a moment. Because she realized that cursing consumed even more of her strength. Not only did it not improve her situation, but it made her even more tired!
What should she do now?
Just as Su Muqing was about to give up, an unpleasant smell of burning wafted into her nostrils. Whose pig trotters were being singed?
When she turned to look, she realized that the hair hanging down from her head was rapidly turning to ash.
"My goodness! Are you serious? You dare to play with my hair!" Su Muqing no longer dared to slack off. To avoid being burned to a crisp, she could only summon her last bit of strength and crawl forward quickly.
After narrowly escaping the extremely hot melting pot, Su Muqing, with all her might, crawled back onto the bridge. She lay there like a dead dog, panting heavily. Her hands and feet had started to tremble uncontrollably. "I can't do it anymore! I'm really out of strength."
Before she could even catch her breath, the ball of wind blades floated over again.
Su Muqing felt a surge of anger! Was this never-ending? She raised a hand and pushed aside the stray hair from her forehead. Suddenly, she saw the energy-collecting ring that Ding Mo had given her.
Oh yes! This ring could not only store abilities but also collect them! How could she have forgotten such a precious function? So Su Muqing quickly released the other hand she was using to support herself, and the section of the wooden bridge she had just touched instantly disappeared.
Watching the ball of wind approach, Su Muqing slowly opened her palm and concentrated her spiritual power.
The energy ring was clearly effective, but its absorption speed was very slow, drawing in only a little at a time. Moreover, there seemed to be a mysterious force within the wind cluster that was hindering her absorption.
Seeing that the absorption speed was about to be overcome by the resistance, Su Muqing gritted her teeth. She quickly thrust her hand into the center of the wind cluster and stirred.
As the wind blades blew on her arm, it felt like countless knives were slicing her flesh. Her entire forearm was immediately covered in many wounds.
Furthermore, all the blood flowed towards the Ruyi mark, and was instantly absorbed clean by the Ruyi mark. Some wind blades even cut the same wound, causing her to sweat profusely from the pain.
Fortunately, she discovered that her healing spell was still effective. So Su Muqing could only continuously mobilize her healing spell and concentrate it on her left arm to alleviate the physical pain.
Finally, after stirring in the center of the wind cluster for a while, Su Muqing seemed to see a faint, flickering bluish-white light.
Following this, the Ruyi mark on her arm also emitted a fiery red glow. They seemed to be echoing each other, one lighting up, then the other. The energy ring's absorption speed of the wind cluster also became significantly faster than before.
But strangely, that wisp of bluish-white light refused to enter the ring. Instead, it quickly dodged Su Muqing's fingers and circled the Ruyi mark on her wrist.
Seeing that she couldn't catch it and her arm was in unbearable pain, Su Muqing decided to lure it out. So she pulled her arm back.
As expected, the wisp of bluish-white light also withdrew with her arm, shot out of the wind cluster, drilled into her mark, and then, along her arm, drilled into her eyes!
Standing in the distance, Old Man Tianji saw blood seeping from Su Muqing's lips, and faint, subtle patterns began to appear at the corners of her eyes.
Finally, the patterns became clearer and clearer. They were unmistakably the tail feathers of the ancient divine beast, the phoenix!
Upon seeing this, Old Man Tianji's expression changed drastically. This was followed by an outburst of joy!
It's her! It's really her! She has finally appeared!