Chương 340: Nightmare illusion beast

The serene heaven mystic realm wasn't far from what Long Feng imagined, but it was also different from his expectations. The hazy sky was a stretch of gray and black, emitting a thick sense of oppression. It was as if a hand had poured paint on clear paper, soaking the sky and smudging the clouds. The clouds folded over each other, merging together. The earth was dry and desolate, having wide cracks that extended as far as the eye could see in some directions.

The mystic realm appeared completely dull, reminiscent of a dying old man. Overall, it gave Long Feng strangely grim feeling. All Long Feng could see was vast expanse of desolate land with the occasional vague outline of mountains in the far distance. He was basically standing in the middle of nowhere. This was the exact spot he found himself in, and he was simply looking around. The first thing he noticed was rather strange.

"The natural energy… is so much lower here? It's barely twice that of the continent zone now." He didn't expect this in a mystic realm. Shouldn't it have even more natural energy than usual? That was the general logic right? Both the grim atmosphere and the lacking natural energy gave him an unusual sense of danger. He stood there in confusion for a few minutes and soon realized that there was no other anomalies to notice here. If he wanted to understand this place more, he would have to move.

Randomly picking a direction, he began to walk, but just as he took a few steps, his expression suddenly hardened and he leaped from the ground to the sky. The instant he moved, the group beneath where he stood burst open in a billowing cloud of dust and sand. A giant worm like creature burrowed of of the earth, rising tens of meters in height towards Long Feng. Long Feng stared at the giant mouth that was closing in on him.

The creature looked exactly like a worm, just magnified hundreds of times into a dessert giant. The skin looked extremely tough even at a glance and spiky hairs grew out of it, coating the worm in hair. It didn't have any eyes or nose, just a single giant mouth that occupied it's entire face with circular rows of sharp teeth that spiralled into it's throat showing when it opened wide. Long Feng watched this strange worm rush at him with it's rather scary mouth closing the distance.

A glint flashed through his eyes and his sword appeared in his grasp. Unleashing the full power of his minor sword Intent, he rapidly descended and swung the sword, stirring up a powerful gust of wind. The blinding sword energy cleaved down like a huge blade, passing straight through the open mouth of the creature down to it's tail. Purple blood exploded like rain as the worm slowly split apart and both parts fell from the sky, stirring up an even greater storm of dust and leaving two craters on the floor.

Long Feng watch the mangled corpse and the purplish blood that gushed out and filled the two craters. He calmly spread out his soul power and made sure there was nothing nearby that was of threat to him, then he sped away in a random direction. Along the way, he assessed the strength of the giant worm beast.

"That's definitely a wild beast, and it's strength is roughly between rank seven and eight Imperial realm. Such beats are of no threat whatsoever to the disciples in here." All the disciples in this mystic realm were peak Imperials at least without exception. The only exception would be Long Feng himself, and his combat power made up for his weakness.

"I don't know much about this realm, not as much as the other disciples. The Wardens should have given us some directions at least. How am I supposed to navigate through this place?" He sighed and sped up slightly while keeping his guards up as he searched for anything noteworthy.

In another part of the mystic realm, Bai Zijun casually strolled through a rather dense forest. All around him, strange cries and sounds abounded, but his expression remained completely indifferent. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Some wild beasts would occasionally leap out of the surroundings trees and attack him, but they would strangely turn to ashes once they come within a few feet of him.

He walked for several minutes before he paused and took out a jade and sent his consciousness into it. A few seconds later, a light frown replaced his indifference.

"There's something wrong. I've been walking for a while… according to the map, I should've already left this forest." He muttered, then calmly looked around. A glimmer appeared in his eyes as he stared at a certain direction.

"Hm? I see." He took a step forward and vanished, reappearing tens of meters away just before a complete ordinary tree. The tree had nothing to make it stand out. There were literally thousands of similar trees in this forest. But Bai Zijun stared at this tree and raised his palm, gathering a frightening amount of energy. The surrounding temperature rose dramatically and all the surrounding trees immediately burst into flames.

Some nearby wild beasts weren't spared; they all burst into flames as well and burned to ashes amidst their painful cries. Just by gathering his energy, Bai Zijun set this part of the forest on fire. The tree he was facing was the only exception. It didn't burst into flames. Instead, it began to shake as many of it's branches extended and stabbed towards Bai Zijun.

"Hmph." Bai Zijun's gaze turned frosty as he snorted. He unhurriedly thrust out his palm at the numerous branches. Instantly, a powerful wave of energy spread out. The branches were reduced to ashes and the tree it's blew apart. The shockwaves went ahead to reduce all the surrounding flaming trees to ashes, creating a large open area in the forest. A sharp shriek echoed as the area before Bai Zijun warped. The tree changes, transforming into a strange beast.

It was just the size of a toddler and it's body was entirely black. It has several tentacles around it's body, each containing a shocking force. It's face comprised of it's yellow eyes, two holes for noses and a mouth full of fangs. As for the aura the wild beast emanated… it was a deity level beast. From it's energy, not even crimson Chen would stand much of a chance at defeating it.

"Just as I thought. A nightmare illusion beast, though it's still an infant." Bai Zijun stared at the beast with a slight change in his expression.

"An adult nightmare Illusion beast can reach the Dao realm and gain the ability to entrance a whole city in it's illusion if there's no Dao realm master present."

"But you're far from that level. Your illusions can't affect my mind, only confuse my sense of direction slightly." He smiled as he said this. The nightmare Illusion beast screeched, releasing a circular sound wave that put out the burning flames wherever they passed. Then the dozens of tentacles swept straight at Bai Zijun, each of them having enough power to directly kill a peak Imperial realm genius. Bai Zijun's expression didn't change at all. He raised his palm again and pushed it out slowly.

Crimson red flames covered the palm and swept out, stirring up a flame hurricane. The tentacles all caught fire. Some of them began to explode and melt even before they reached their target. The nightmare Illusion beast screeched in pain and suddenly vanished, leaving no trace of it's existence. Along with it's disappearance, a subtle wave of soul energy spread out. It was extremely hard to sense and even Bai Zijun wouldn't have sensed it if he wasn't focused. He grinned.

"The same trick doesn't work on me twice." The flame converged and formed a large palm that slammed down at the same position where the nightmare Illusion vanished. The air itself was burned due to the extreme heat of the flames. It was unlikely that even the strongest peak Imperial would be able to survive these flames. Another loud screech echoed, filled with pain. The nightmare Illusion beast reappeared in the same place with nearly all of it's tentacles completely destroyed.

It's face was filled with pain and savageness as it lunged at Bai Zijun. A destructive energy began to seep out of it's body, forcing the flames away. Bai Zijun's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Using true essence huh?" He murmured. Just as human deities could refine true essence, wild beasts could do the same. No matter which lifeform it was, true essence was the one universal way for them to become a deity. The nightmare Illusion beast was rather weak in actual combat power compared to other wild beasts. It's main ability was form illusions and draw opponents into the Illusion. After that, it would easily devour their souls and increase it's strength.

Literally no imperial realm warrior could escape from a nightmare illusion beast alive, after all, there was a fundamental difference between their souls. Escaping the illusion would be an impossible feat. But for a deity like Bai Zijun, the illusion of an infant nightmare illusion beast wasn't able to fully affect him. It only managed to distort his sense of direction and make him walk in circles through the forest.

Strictly speaking, this nightmare illusion beast would only be able to affect someone like crimson Chen with it's illusion. But when it also used it's tentacles and essence, then even crimson Chen would be forced to flee. Bai Zijun clenched his outstretched palm calmly.

"I don't think I'll need to use my essence to defeat you. This should be enough." Even hotter flames poured out of his arm. The heat was so great that even breathing would feel like inhaling a gaseous lava. It was hard to believe that this was the strength of an early stage deity. Truthfully, if Bai Zijun went to the continent zone, then he would be able to defeat even mid stage deities. But in the mainland, he still wasn't very special.

"World Extermination Flame art… Ring of destruction!" The flame around his palm seemed to reach a new height. The heat burned greater than ever and the flame itself took on a deeper shade, becoming substantially different from usual flames. The destructive power of the flame also doubled, completely suppressing the energy of the nightmare illusion beast. But that wasn't all. The flames compressed into a ball of fire that exploded with a circular ring of blazing energy that spread outwards.

This ring of flame contained a shocking power. The nightmare illusion beast collided against the ring and unleashed an extremely powerful true essence, but the flame was still superior. The true essence slowly burned away, leaving the beast defenseless. Before it could shriek, it was completely swallowed by the ring of flame. When the ring passed, the nightmare illusion beast was nowhere to be found. Instead, a layer of ashes settled on the ground, containing some remnants of the beast's aura.

The ring of flame lost most of it's power, but it didn't immediately disperse. It spread through a great deal of the forest and set nearly half of it on fire before it faded away. In a short few breaths of time, nearly a hundred different wild beasts lost their lives to the flames and a large part of the forest was gone, burned to the ground. Bai Zijun watched the destruction caused by his technique and he nodded in satisfaction. Turning around, he tightly clenched the jade that was still in his other arm.

Throughout the fight, he had only used a single arm while his other hand held the map. Now, he calmly sent his consciousness into it again.

"If I leave this forest, my next destination will be the serene heaven Dao inheritance ground. All other opportunities are lacking compared to that inheritance." Many outer peak disciples have attempted to gain the inheritance over the last few hundred years, but they all failed. I suppose it's natural that a powerful Dao realm master's inheritance can't be easy to acquire." He put the map away with a glint in his eyes.

"But it will be mine anyway. And once I get it, defeating Qiu Yushi would be a walk in the park. I will become a mid stage deity, maybe even a late stage deity and gain respect even among the inner peak disciples." As this thought crossed his mind, he remembered something and frowned.

"There's also that Long Feng. I can't let him leave this realm alive. It would be great if he comes to the serene heaven inheritance ground, but if he doesn't, it changes nothing. I'll clear the inheritance and take my time to find him. Long Feng right? … I'll let you live for a few more days. Enjoy your life while you still can." Muttering this, he moved, continuing his stroll through the forest. The only difference was that right now, there was no trees or wild beast around him; only destruction.