Chương 593: Chapter 588: Masks and Vulnerabilities

When it was all said and done, the mirror's surface released me. I stepped out into the corridor, and it took me a moment to orient myself and realise that I wasn't alone, as there were three people already there waiting, which honestly didn't surprise me. The reason why I'd taken longer for this trial was because I let myself look, I let myself experience what Hou's perfect world would have been like. That hadn't been the smartest choice, but it wasn't one that I regretted.

On the far wall, there was a figure sitting cross-legged with his hands moving in strange patterns through the air like he was tracing paths that were invisible to the rest of us. Every now and then, he'd stop and tilt his head like he was listening to something, then he'd nod as though agreeing with this silent voice and continue his invisible drawing. This was Pan Jun, it seemed like his condition had only deteriorated… A respectful distance away from the corrupted cultivator was Xu Feng.

From the helpless expression, it was obvious that he wanted to help, but had no idea how to do so. It was like watching someone drown, but knowing that you didn't know how to swim and nor did the other people with you. Leaning on the opposite wall, arms crossed was Tian. He was keeping an eye on Pan Jun with an expression that I couldn't quite read, and when he saw me emerge, he gave me a simple nod, exactly what I would expect from Wu Kangming.

After all, the sword cultivator wasn't one to give smiles or drawn-out greeting. A nod was enough.

"How long have you been out?" I asked Xu Feng as I walked over to him.

"Around ten minutes," he replied.

"Pan was the first one to finish the trial, then it was Tian, and then it was me." He then paused to glance at Pan Jun again.

"I'm worried about him, he's getting worse…"

"Did he say anything?"

"Yeah," Xu Feng whispered.

"When I came out, I saw him speaking to Tian and telling him that Tian is just a part of this palace like him. That in some way, they were both brothers, and then asked if Tian remembered how he was created. That Pan Jun had witnessed his creation, and that he had even participated in it…"

"What did Tian say to that?"

"Nothing. He just walked away." Xu Feng shifted his weight between one foot and the other.

"Then Pan Jun had walked over to me and tried to explain the trial showed him the truth and that accepting it would make my life so much easier."

"He took the shortcut again, didn't he?"

"Yeah," Xu Feng sighed.

"It seems like it. He's not himself anymore, is he? He's not Pan Jun…"

"I don't know what he is." The next few minutes passed in silence because we didn't know what else to say about it. It was Pan Jun who had made the decision to accept the fragments of the Dreamgod's consciousness in order to avoid confronting his heart demons, and now he was simply suffering the consequences. It sounded harsh but it was the brutal truth in a world like this. From Xu Feng's reaction, I could tell that he was struggling to accept the reality of the situation.

"What is it that you saw in the trial?" I asked, breaking the silence because I wanted to change the subject to something less bleak, but also, I had to admit I was genuinely curious what he was tested with. Xu Feng must have understood what I was trying to do because he brightened up a little.

"My paradise?" he said, turning to face me fully.

"It was the workshop I left behind in Greenwater City. Oh, you wouldn't believe it. The formation arrays that surrounded me. And all of them were created by me! My parents were there, congratulating me, telling me how proud they were, how I'd become the greatest formation specialist in the world."

"That sounds nice," I smiled, surprised to find out that Xu Feng was interested in formations. Honestly, he never gave any indication in the time we spent together.

"Yeah, it was nice, a little too nice," he smiled slightly.

"Which is exactly why I knew it wasn't real. You see my parents died when I was young in a spatial rift accident. And I'm nowhere close to being a formation specialist. I mean, if you ask anyone that knows me, they'd admit that I was barely competent with basic arrays."

"The trial showed you the paradise you wanted, but got the details wrong by making it too perfect, too artificial?"

"Yeah, that's exactly it," Xu Feng nodded.

"What about you? What did you see?"

"Similar to you," I replied.

"Family and friends that I'd lost. A life that could have been."

"And you had to destroy it?"

"Yeah," I sighed.

"I did."

"That must have been difficult." That made me pause while Grandmother Hou's face flashed across my mind, the confusion and hurt in her expression when she realised what I was about to do. How she stepped back, not understanding why I would reject something so beautiful.

"It was difficult, but it was necessary," I said finally. Fortunately, Xu Feng understood that I didn't want to elaborate, so he didn't push me, instead, we fell into a comfortable silence as we watched Pan Jun continue his invisible work. It didn't take too long until the mirror rippled, and a figure walked out. It was Li Na.

She paused and looked around at all of us, taking in the strange scene of Pan Jun, who was now lying flat on his back, arms and legs spread wide as he stared up at the ceiling while muttering to himself. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"So, he accepted another fragment?" she asked as she walked over to us.

"Yeah, that's what we think," Xu Feng confirmed. Li Na was silent for a few minutes before surprisingly opening up about what she had experienced in the trial.

"It showed me my sister," she whispered.

"She died in a sect war fifteen years ago. The paradise brought her back, showed us living together in a small house on a mountain as mortals. It was a simple life. But it was ours…"

"That sounds peaceful," Xu Feng offered.

"It was." The young girl sighed.

"She looked exactly how I remembered her. The smile was the same. The laugh was the same. She even called me her 'little shadow' because I was always following her around when we were young." She paused, her hands clasping together in front of her.

"But she would never have wanted that life," Li Na continued.

"My sister loved cultivation. She lived for it. The sect, the training, the constant improvement. Even knowing she might die, she wouldn't have given it up for anything."

"So, the trial showed you the sister you wanted her to be?" I asked.

"And that's how you knew it was wrong?"

"Yes, but even though I knew it wasn't real, I didn't want to leave her." Her quiet voice dropped even lower.

"I stood there for what felt like days, talking to her and pretending it was all real. But… but I couldn't stay there forever. That would have been selfish. That would have dishonored her memory. I couldn't do that to her… so I… so I left." Xu Feng looked like he wanted to say something comforting but didn't know what. I understood the feeling. What did you say to someone who'd just relived losing their sister?

Any words I could think of felt inadequate so we both decided to stay quiet and just give slow reassuring nods.

"It's fine. I'm fine," Li Na said, clearly having sensed our discomfort.

"The trial was designed to hurt. That's the point. I passed it. That's what matters." We were saved for thinking of a response as the mirror rippled again. This time it was Xie Ling that stepped out, but she looked different, and honestly, I never expected to see the ice beauty in this state. Her pale eyes were red like she'd been fighting back tears for a while. Her white robes were pristine as always, but her hands were clenched into fists at her sides, and her jaw was tight.

When she noticed us all staring with wide eyes, her face immediately hardened as she tried to rebuild that mask of untouchable coldness, but it was too late, we had already seen the emotion underneath. The silence stretched out until it became awkward and uncomfortable because no one knew what to do. After all, Xie Ling had spent the whole expedition being distant, some might even say she had been hostile. The girl had rejected every attempt at normal social interaction.

So that was why even though she was standing there looking vulnerable, we didn't know how to act, but that didn't stop some of us from trying.

"Are you—" Xu Feng opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again.

"I saw my son," Xie Ling interrupted, her voice flat.

"He died when he was four years old from a dream fever. We…we couldn't get the medicine in time to save him." The words hung in the air because none of us had expected such a scenario.

"The paradise let me raise him again," she continued, her voice softening.

"It let me see what he would have looked like at five, at ten, at fifteen. I got the chance to teach him cultivation and see him become the man he never got to be." She unclenched one fist, looked at her palm like she was seeing something there that the rest of us couldn't.

"I knew it wasn't real from the moment I saw him," she said.

"But I stayed anyway. I watched him learn his first technique, celebrated his breakthroughs, I even attended his wedding." Her fist clenched again.

"Then I destroyed all of it. I burned down the whole paradise with ice. I froze my son solid and shattered him into pieces." She finally looked up at us. Her eyes were dry now, the redness fading. The mask was rebuilding itself, layer by layer.

"So, if any of you are going to say something comforting, don't. I don't need it. I made my choice. I'll live with it." I nodded while trying to make my expression understanding without being pitying. I wasn't equipped for this kind of situation.

Social comfort wasn't something I'd ever been particularly good at, and trying to console someone who'd just relived their child's death felt far beyond my capabilities because honestly, there was no competition, it was clear that Xie Ling had gone through the worst experience anyone possibly could. Xie Ling seemed to appreciate the lack of response. With a nod, she walked past us to find her own section of wall to lean against, as far from everyone else as the corridor allowed.

As more time passed, I found myself wondering what was taking the two Lucid Lawbearers so long. This was the second trial that they were the last two to come out of. They should have recognized the paradise immediately and destroyed it without hesitation. Unless their paradises were particularly well-crafted; tempting enough that even experienced cultivators struggled to reject them. After all, the difficulty was actually about being mentally strong enough to break down the illusion.

Finally, the mirror rippled, and Shen Bolin walked through. The man looked completely unaffected by whatever he'd seen. His eyes swept the corridor, counting heads, and when he realized Song Wei wasn't present yet, a small, satisfied smile appeared on his face.

"You took your time, teacher," Li Na said. Shen Bolin's smile widened slightly.

"The trial was more…. persistent than I expected."

"What did you see?" Xu Feng straightened from the wall. Shen Bolin was quiet for a moment. I really thought he wasn't going to answer, but then he simply said, "A world where Shen Mohai never existed." That stumped everyone. Xu Feng's forehead creased, Li Na frowned, even Xie Ling, still maintaining her distance, tilted her head slightly in question, yet no one asked for clarification.

It was clear that Shen Bolin's relationship with the Dreamgod who'd built this palace was very personal and complicated, so pushing for details felt like overstepping, but more importantly, it was unlikely to lead anywhere since cultivators were rarely straightforward with personal details.

"I hope Song Wei gets lost in his paradise," Shen Bolin muttered.

"Would save everyone a lot of trouble."

"Don't count on it," a voice came from behind him. We all turned to see Song Wei stepping out of the mirror, looking tired but with no visible injuries or signs of corruption.

"Are you disappointed?" Song Wei asked.

"Constantly," Shen Bolin replied.

"Feeling's mutual." The two stared at each other for a moment before Song Wei turned his attention to the rest of us.

"Only six of you," he said.

"Where's Pan Jun?"

"Over there," Xu Feng pointed. We all looked at where Pan Jun lay spread-eagled on the floor, but wasn't moving anymore, instead, his eyes were open and tracking something across the ceiling while he occasionally laughed quietly to himself. Song Wei studied him for several seconds.

"The fool took another shortcut."

"Yes," Shen Bolin confirmed.

"So he has two fragments now?"

"At least two…" Before Song Wei could respond, Pan Jun suddenly sat up and turned to look at us, but his movements were stiff and unnatural, like someone had taken control of his body and wasn't quite sure how to operate it properly. Then he stood and walked over to where the two Lucid Lawbearers stood facing each other.

"Wait," Xu Feng said, starting forward.

"Pan, don't—" Pan Jun ignored him. He reached up and put one arm around Song Wei's shoulders and the other around Shen Bolin's. Then he tried to pull them together into a group embrace, but it didn't work. The physical power gap was too great. Pan Jun's arms might as well have been trying to move stone mountains. Neither Lucid Lawbearer budged at all.

"It saddens me," Pan Jun murmured, "to see myself fighting amongst myself." Song Wei and Shen Bolin glanced at each other, and I realised that an agreement had been reached without words.

"Why hide it any longer?" Pan Jun continued, oblivious.

"We're all o—" Shen Bolin's fist drove deep into Pan Jun's chest.