Wayfarer

Chapter 15: A Sudden Death

In the public square of the Hall of Immortal Recruitment, Elder Ku's guqin continued to ring out.

Those disciples who had been scared off by the first wave of the third trial were destined only to be nominal disciples. The remainder, who had passed all three trials and had had their nature and will proven, qualified to become formal disciples despite their lacking talent.

The disciples of the four divisions were carefully watching the recruits, wanting to snatch up the best of the bunch.

Meanwhile, the horror of the illusion continued to ramp up.

There were still a hundred or so recruits in the public square. Although their faces were pale and their foreheads beading with sweat, they continued to persist through the trial.

Not long later, another recruit cried out, so scared he stumbled to the ground.

"Why are they so scared even though they know it's an illusion?" Ye Dafu asked curiously.

His third uncle, not wanting to engender too many comparisons to his nephew and the truly talented, shook his head. "You were freed from the illusion, so you don't understand just how frightening the third trial is. What lies within the third trial is so realistic that you'll forget you're in an illusion altogether. These disciples must have inordinate willpower to have made it this far, but even if they tell themselves that everything they see is fake, that won't stop them from feeling an innate sense of fear."

"But why's that brat doing just fine, then? Could he have fallen asleep?"

"Hmm? Which one?" Ye Dafu's third uncle asked curiously.

Ye Dafu pointed straight at Xiao Nanfeng.

His third uncle's eyes lit up upon seeing Xiao Nanfeng's vacant expression.

"Senior Brother, I found someone good! Yes, that youth over there! Look at how expressionless he is even when faced with Elder Ku's illusion!" Ye Dafu's third uncle cried out.

The senior disciple's eyes grew wide when he saw Xiao Nanfeng. "Who is he?"

"His name is Nanfeng. His cultivation is very poor—he's only at the sixth stage of Acquisition," Ye Dafu replied, envy creeping into his tone.

"Nanfeng? Quick, get his information. We're claiming this youth!" the senior disciple shouted.

"Senior, didn't you hear what I said? Nanfeng's only at the sixth stage of Acquisition..." Ye Dafu murmured.

However, the senior disciple completely ignored him. He was staring intently at Xiao Nanfeng, whose demeanor remained perfectly unruffled. His eyes grew brighter and brighter. "To be able to remain so calm even with a malicious demon roaming around him—incredible, incredible! We have to snatch him up at all costs!"

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"Don't worry, Senior Brother! We'll get him even if it costs us an Immanence cultivator in his teens!" a group of junior disciples swore.

Ye Dafu: ... What do all of you mean? You'd rather give up an Immanence cultivator in his teens? Me? You'd rather take that poor bastard over me? Why? He's only at the sixth stage of Acquisition!

By that point, however, no one was paying attention to Ye Dafu's sullen expression. They were all focused on Xiao Nanfeng.

The other divisions' disciples were also paying careful attention to these recruits. Xiao Nanfeng's impassive expression quickly drew the eyes of many, who were watching him eagerly.

As the guqin continued to play, the illusory realm grew more and more frightening. The recruits, unable to overcome the fear that overwhelmed them, began to move their bodies and wake up.

Those who did so were immediately escorted out of the square and quickly surrounded by recruiters from the various divisions, ready to accept them as formal disciples.

Soon enough, there were only thirty recruits left in the square, the targets whom all four divisions' disciples would try to recruit at any cost.

Xiao Nanfeng was among them, his expression still not having changed.

The illusory mist continued to spread. Xiao Nanfeng looked all around him. The beauty from before, who had turned into an evil monster, had long since vanished. At this point, he wasn't facing just a single monster, but a whole group of them.

"Is this... a group of zombies?" Xiao Nanfeng's expression turned strange.

Others might have begun to panic in fear, but Xiao Nanfeng was a horror movie aficionado. These decaying, bloodied faces, sawtooth-like incisors, and skeletal claws—he couldn't help but compare them to the zombie flicks he had seen.

Was this it?

Xiao Nanfeng was starting to find the illusory trial not interesting, not frightening, but rather somewhat boring.

However, in order to achieve a better performance, Xiao Nanfeng could only tough it out.

Just then, he saw a ball of black fog in the distance, with a pale white skeleton standing amidst the fog. It was motionless.

"Ah? Isn't this supposed to be a zombie movie? Where did that skeleton come from?" Xiao Nanfeng was visibly confused.

The appearance of the skeleton, which was completely incompatible with the previous monsters to date, made Xiao Nanfeng feel as though he was in a parody.

The next moment, he found that he could suddenly see the other 29 recruits. The others all noticed something amiss as well—had their illusions all merged?

"What's going on?" the recruits wondered.

They didn't know that, back in the real world, Elder Ku's guqin suddenly trembled, and one string snapped.

Everyone looked toward Elder Ku in surprise.

The elder himself suddenly stood up.

"What's the matter, Elder Ku?" one Taiqing sect disciple stepped forward and asked.

"Something's wrong, something's wrong!" Elder Ku cried out. "Have the recruits awoken?"

"No, the thirty of them are still in the illusion. Oh, their expressions seem to have changed—ah, what's wrong with that one?!" one disciple shouted.

One of the thirty recruits suddenly made a face of extreme fear and shock. His mouth opened wide, and a mouthful of blood sprayed out.

The recruit fell paralyzed to the ground.

"Isn't it an illusion? Why did he suddenly vomit blood?!" Ye Dafu exclaimed.

Several Taiqing sect disciples rushed forward to help him, but the recruit never awakened. He remained paralyzed on the ground, forcing the disciples to take a closer look.

"He's dead!" one of them shouted.

"What? How could he have died? Aren't they all taking part in a trial in an illusion?" Ye Dafu was taken aback.

In the distance, the Taiqing disciples were themselves shocked by the events that had transpired.

"Elder Ku, one of the recruits suddenly vomited blood and died!"

"Elder Ku, the other 29 recruits still haven't woken up."

"Elder Ku, haven't you stopped playing? Whenever you did so in the past, the illusion would stop! Why haven't they woken up yet, and how did this one recruit die?!"

The disciples responsible for administering the test were themselves shocked by the ominous turn of events, but Elder Ku most of all. "Bring me over. Don't attempt to wake any of the recruits up, and don't touch them at any cost."

"Yes, Elder!"

The disciples brought Elder Ku near the recruit who had perished. Elder Ku touched the victim, a pale blue glow appearing by his palm. After a moment, Elder Ku's face suddenly blanched.

"Elder Ku? How did this recruit perish?" The disciples all looked toward Elder Ku nervously.

Elder Ku didn't reply. His face was taut with tension.

Just then, another recruit vomited fresh blood and fell paralyzed to the ground.

"Elder Ku, another victim! Another recruit has died!"

"Don't touch them!" Elder Ku instructed. "Do not touch the remaining recruits at any cost!"

The situation was quickly spiraling out of control. This was only ever meant to be a test of nature and will—how had anyone died? Even those disciples watching from afar were shaken by the ordeal.

"Elder Ku, how is it that people are dying within the illusion?" someone cried out.

"An illusion is a representation of the world that I imposed and transmitted to their consciousness, or which I generated from their inner emotions and turmoil. Now, however, something is wrong with their consciousness," Elder Ku replied, taking a deep breath.

Just then, when the thirty recruits had suddenly appeared within the same illusory realm, no one thought it a problem. After all, they had all been watching horror films individually for quite some time. Now that everyone else was with them, they would be even less afraid. None of the zombies would actually attack them, after all, so there was nothing to fear.

Some of the recruits even began to chat with one another.

Xiao Nanfeng didn't do so—he was still staring at the unusual skeleton. He didn't see it moving until it suddenly seemed to teleport to a recruit's side.

"Oh, what's this? A skeleton? It's not frightening at all. My father's a coroner, and I've seen a lot of corpses since my childhood. Do you think you can scare me like this? Haha!" a recruit scoffed at the skeleton before him.

Because they knew that this was an illusion, that everything they saw was fake, they were entirely unafraid of what might happen. The other recruits also began teasing the skeleton.

The skeleton's head suddenly moved and quietly stared at the youth who had ridiculed it. As he laughed, the skeleton suddenly reached out and pierced through the youth's chest, sending fresh blood spraying all over. His laughter became a gurgle of blood; his eyes widened in disbelief.

The youth spat out a mouthful of blood and pointed at the skeleton as though something unbelievable had happened.

"Hey, there's no need to try to pull a prank on us! As if we don't know that nothing here can hurt us," someone joked.

The youth whose chest had been impaled was unable to even speak. He coughed out more blood, then slumped to the ground.

"Is he... is he dead? How could someone die in this illusory realm?" One recruit frowned, unable to believe what had just occurred.

Blood spilled out of the recruit who had been killed by the skeleton, a puddle that grew larger every second. The recruit's body slowly morphed into pale mist, which the skeleton absorbed through its mouth.

The corpse vanished, but the recruits' laughter had already stopped short. Had the 'dead' recruit really died, or had he simply returned to reality?

A sense of unease filled the air, but the recruits didn't dare move. Could this still be part of the test?

Only Xiao Nanfeng sensed something amiss. Unease filled his body. He didn't want to stay in this realm any longer; he firmly took a step back, intending to leave the illusion.

However, he remained in place, as did the skeleton.

"We can't leave," Xiao Nanfeng cried out.

"What?" Everyone turned to him.

"I took a step back, but I can't leave the illusion. Can any of you do so?" Xiao Nanfeng glanced all around him, tension suddenly filling his body.