PDLP Chapter 343 Mirage
Chapter 343 Mirage
"Wow, Protector Lin is amazing!" Shang Yutang immediately clapped her hands and laughed.
"Alright, that's enough. How can you behave like this in front of so many seniors? It's unbecoming!"
Lin Musen glared fiercely at Shang Yutang, then ignored her. With a flick of his sleeve, more than thirty array-setting tools and a set of array flags flew out and arranged in a specific direction. Before long, they formed a teleportation array about three zhang in diameter on the ground.
When several mid-grade spirit stones were inlaid into the magic array, the entire array immediately shimmered with spiritual light, bursting forth with a five-colored halo that flickered and swirled, dazzling and extremely beautiful.
Just then, a sudden roar came from the magic array, followed by a strange teleportation force that instantly spread out in all directions. Judging from its energy fluctuations, the level of this array should be similar to a medium-sized teleportation array.
"You shall all enter the magic array immediately," Lin Musen said solemnly in a deep voice.
The nineteen Qi Refining stage cultivators were startled. Without Lin Musen giving them any further instructions, they moved instantly as soon as the formation was activated, and stood in neat rows within it.
"The space within the Falling Sand Illusion is vast and boundless, making it difficult for you to encounter each other. However, you must remember that if you do meet within the illusion, you must not fight. Violators will be severely punished and their qualification to comprehend the Falling Sand Illusion will be immediately revoked!"
As Lin Musen spoke, all the figures within the magic circle gradually became illusory and eventually disappeared.
As the nineteen Qi Refining stage cultivators were teleported away by the magic array, Lin Musen turned around.
He glanced around at the Golden Core cultivators, smiled, clasped his hands in a fist salute, and said calmly, "Fellow Daoists, let's wait here for two days. After these little ones emerge, we'll head together to Blazing Flame Island to congratulate Senior Crimson Flame!"
……
The moment he was teleported away, Du Fan felt a dizzying sensation before his eyes.
When he regained his senses, he found himself in a vast desert. He looked around and found that all he could see was endless yellow sand, nothing else.
Not only underfoot, but also in the air, grains of sand slowly fall, scattering everywhere like a rain of yellow sand, dense and seemingly covering an infinite distance, making this place both monotonous and magnificent.
The sand rain in the air and the desert on the ground outline this space as a world of sand.
Du Fan felt that the sand and rain around him were somewhat unreal, and he couldn't help but stretch out a palm to feel it.
But when the sand rain fell into his hand, the sand seemed to pass through his palm as if it were invisible, and continued to fall downwards.
"So the sandstorm was just an illusion."
Du Fan was slightly surprised, but not exactly astonished. After all, this place was called the Falling Sand Illusion, which, as the name suggests, meant that the falling sand was illusory, so it was quite fitting.
Du Fan smiled slightly, then bent down, plunged his hands into the desert, scooped up a handful of yellow sand, and then spread his fingers, letting the sand slowly slide down his fingers. Before long, the sand was reintegrated into the desert.
"The desert is real," Du Fan concluded.
He was about to get up and walk forward when his gaze inadvertently swept across the sandy surface.
The moment his gaze fell upon the sand, his eyes suddenly narrowed, his mind reeling as if struck by lightning, his body trembling, and an expression of disbelief on his face.
"How is this possible? The sandstorm was clearly an illusion, but when it fell into the desert, it actually... actually became real sand, and then merged into the desert, becoming part of the vast desert!"
Du Fan's breathing quickened, and his eyes flashed with a strange light, as if he had vaguely grasped something. After a moment, a flash of inspiration struck him, and he instantly connected with a possibility.
"The sandstorm was originally an illusion, but when it fell into the desert, it transformed from illusion into reality. Each grain of sand seemed to have come from another world and appeared in my world. This is... time travel!"
Du Fan was extremely shocked at this moment. This matter concerned his greatest secret and the eternal pain in his heart. If he had not accidentally traveled to this Blue Star Realm, his life trajectory would have been completely different.
If he hadn't time-traveled, he would already be married to Liang Xin and have children, and the children would most likely be in elementary school by now.
Then he will quit his job at the research institute and run a noodle shop with his wife, or invest in a small business. In short, he will not let himself be too busy with work and will make more free time for his family to accompany his godfather in his old age.
After the godfather passes away, the children should have grown up. Liang Xin once said that children and grandchildren have their own blessings. If we hope that the children can spread their wings and soar, we should not hold them back. Even if the children get tired or fall down one day, that is the life they should enjoy and need to savor themselves. What we need to do is pray for the children in our hearts.
Liang Xin loved snow. Du Fan had thought that they would live in the north in their later years, preferably in the rural areas of Northeast China, where the snow was the cleanest. In winter, when the land was frozen and snow fell for miles, he would take Liang Xin to build two snowmen in front of their house, hand in hand, just like he and Liang Xin, living a simple and peaceful life together until the end of their lives...
Du Fan never spoke of these thoughts to anyone; they remained buried in his heart, brought into this world, and transformed into an unattainable longing and a deep-seated regret.
Du Fan stared blankly at the endless yellow sand. After a long while, he sighed deeply and slowly walked forward. By the time his mind had calmed down, he had walked an unknown distance.
Just then, Du Fan's expression suddenly changed, and his gaze swept in one direction for a moment.
To his left front, perhaps very close, perhaps very far, appeared a Taoist priest in a blurry figure, floating up and down in the sand and rain, as if he would disappear at any moment.
This person is not real; he is like a phantom image, like sand and rain.
The Taoist monk was sitting cross-legged in the sand and rain. His eyes were closed, his brows were slightly furrowed, and his hands were constantly forming hand seals. Every now and then, he would take out a small bottle, pour out a few pills and swallow them, and then continue to form hand seals, repeating the process over and over again.
The movements and rhythm of this Taoist cultivator were noticeably faster than those of a normal person. Du Fan discovered that not only were the hand seals and pill swallowing speed fast, but even the way this person frowned or blinked was as swift as lightning, which was quite strange.
After a while, Du Fan suddenly realized that the Taoist cultivator was not moving quickly, but rather that the passage of time in the space where this person was located was different from that here, and seemed to be accelerated. The ratio of the speed of time in the two worlds was about one to fifteen.
After a short while, the Taoist priest opened his eyes, suddenly stood up, and threw his head back, letting out a maniacal laugh. However, the laugh was as illusory as it was, and no sound came out.
Seeing this, Du Fan finally understood that the Taoist priest was breaking through his cultivation level and had clearly succeeded.
Du Fan then considered the purpose of the Fallen Leaf Island leadership in arranging for them to enter this illusion, and it became easy to guess that the cultivators in the images were mostly breaking through to the Foundation Establishment realm.
Before long, the image of the Taoist monk disappeared, and another figure appeared in another direction. It was a woman in green, whose face was not clearly visible, but she had an excellent figure, with a plump figure and a slender waist, making her a true beauty.
The woman in green was not sitting cross-legged in meditation. Instead, her body swayed and her beautiful movements unfolded continuously. Her movements were graceful and elegant, as if she were dancing, like a fairy in a painting.
About the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the woman suddenly staggered and fell to the ground, spitting out a mouthful of blood.
At this moment, the image of the woman in green disappeared, and from another direction in the sandstorm, a burly man emerged...
And so, one after another, the images of cultivators appeared and disappeared, enacting scenes of breakthroughs in cultivation realms.
As for the results of their breakthroughs, there were both successes and failures, with the numbers ranging from 1 to 9, which seems to suggest the success rate when attempting to break through to the Foundation Establishment realm.
"So this is the essence of the Falling Sand Illusion. There are many images of cultivators breaking through to the Foundation Establishment realm here, which are for those who come here to observe and refer to, and then turn into their own experience to increase the chances of success when they break through to the Foundation Establishment realm in the future."
Du Fan muttered to himself, and just as he began to understand something, his storage bag suddenly trembled slightly.
He was taken aback at first, then suddenly realized something. He patted his storage bag with one hand, and a pink flower bud flew out instantly. This was the special magical artifact that Lin Musen had given to the top five in the competition before they entered the Falling Sand Illusion to record their scores.
Just now, the flower bud in Du Fan's hand had just opened two petals.
Seeing this, Du Fan smiled slightly, then ignored him, picked up the flower bud, and turned his gaze to the distance, where an old man dressed in animal skin was solemnly breaking through to a higher realm.
……
A day later, Du Fan temporarily withdrew his gaze, rubbed his temples, and looked somewhat tired.
"Watching these things is too mentally and physically exhausting."
Next, he sat cross-legged on the desert, took out a medicine bottle, swallowed several ginseng qi pills, and began to meditate and regulate his breathing.
It wasn't until half an hour later that he opened his eyes, his mind once again immersed in the images around him.
At this moment, the flower bud in his storage bag suddenly had seven petals and bloomed in full glory!
After an unknown amount of time, Du Fan seemed to suddenly remember something, and his expression became somewhat strange.
"A mirage!"