Realms In The Firmament

Ye Xiao covered his eyes and walked straight ahead in the bamboo forest. When there was bamboo blocking his way, he would just sway the sword around him. - Shoot… - Endless bamboo were cut down.

He then kept going forward. Step by step, he kept moving straight.

There was praise in Master Bai’s eyes.

[It seems this guy really stays unaffected by the array. The four seasons in the array are so real. He can feel it, but he just treat it as nothing.]

[However… You can’t just ignore it. It exists after all. In your feelings, it exists…” Master Bai smiled blandly. ”However, if people of the Heaven’s Hall are going through this, they have to reach the Clear Mind Stage to do as he can. It seems this Feng Monarch is truly an outstanding figure. It surprised me really…”

Ye Xiao had walked out no less than a thousand steps. There were million bamboos that were cut down by him.

He felt that he was almost there. A thousand steps was over the diameter of the bamboo forest after all. No matter where he was, he should be outside the array now. He should be at least out on the mountain now.

When he took off the cloth on his eyes, he was speechless.

In front of him, there were still a lot of bamboos.

There was no end of it.

Behind him, there was no bamboo that was cut down at all.

Ye Xiao remembered clearly that he had cut down millions of it. How come it suddenly disappeared?

[How could it be? Was it illusion again? But I could feel that I cut down something!]

He couldn’t believe it, so he swayed his sword again. - Shoot, shoot, shoot… -

A lot of bamboo branches fell to the floor, and an empty place showed up around him.

However, the bamboo on the floor suddenly disappeared.

Meanwhile, the empty place became full of bamboo again…

Ye Xiao widely opened his eyes. [What? How can it?]

Then he was enlightened. [Why can’t it? The array can make me feel the four seasons. That is so real. The feeling of me cutting down the bamboo can also be illusory, and it is nothing but an illusion that I thought I was moving forward!

What I have done, every move of me, are all in the man’s eyes, the man who made this array. Whatever I did, it was just like a monkey play!]

Ye Xiao figured it out. He swayed the sword with anger and suddenly stopped. Anger never helped. He had to calm down and think it through. That was the only way to get him out.

He calmed down again. He was here to seek cooperation with Master Bai. They had a deal after all. If he shouted Master Bai’s name, Master Bai would very possibly let him in.

However, Ye Xiao didn’t want to admit defeat.

[You play a tough role to stop me. You think I cannot get through it? You think I have to ask for your help? To send somebody to get me in? Wouldn’t it be too pathetic of me? Wouldn’t I be too weak? And… shameless?!

Besides, I am not totally ignorant about arrays, alright? It didn’t work. Fine. I will change another way then!]

Master Bai looked at Feng Monarch with smile on his face. He couldn’t help but praised him. [He is a proud man. He is somehow… like me?

Whatever he wants, he do it himself!

He won’t count on others!

He knows that if he asks me, I will send somebody to lead him in. However, he just doesn’t want to do it. He wants to do it on his own to break through the Illusory Sky Array.]

”However, you have to be powerful enough to keep your pride. If you are not strong enough, no matter how proud you want to be, you are just a fool being stubborn who was stuck there.” Master Bai smiled and blandly said, ”Since I don’t have anything urgent. Let’s just leave him be. Just let him do it. When he begs, we let him in.”

The man in black nodded. ”Yes.”

And then he disappeared.

Master Bai said that he would just let him be, yet he was still watching the mirror plane in his hand. He looked at Feng Zhiling standing right where he was. He smiled.

”I like those who are determined to challenge me…” He seemed looking at a toy. ”Please don’t beg me to let you in. If you do, I will be disappointed to myself…”

He just sat there, kept watching, like it was a delightful thing for him to watch Feng Monarch embarrassed.

However, his expression changed after a while. He stopped smiling. He stopped being bland. He widely opened his eyes and said, ”Oh?”

And then he rubbed his lower jar and murmured, ”This man… That is a very interesting thing to do…”

Feng Monarch suddenly opened his eyes, like he had finally thought of something.

He just stepped one foot aside to the left. There was a bamboo there, but when he stepped over, the bamboo disappeared right before he touched it.

What he did next was an even bolder comprehension. He didn’t moved the other leg. He just stepped back the left foot.

The bamboo showed up again like it had never disappeared.

”I see,” Feng Monarch murmured, ”what in sight looks real is fake. In other words, what seems fake is actually real? Real or fake, true or false, they are all interlaced. I see. That is it… No big deal…”

He then stepped ahead, but this time, he didn’t step back. He kept move ahead…

Master Bai stared at the moving figure in the bamboo forest with emotions in his eyes. He couldn’t stop smiling.

”Good. Bravo. He actually sees through some of the Illusory Sky Array by watching the details. Well done…”

”Now you finally look like… a man who tries to stop the House of the Chaotic Storms!” Master Bai murmured, ”He has learned about the truth in a certain extent. However, he is still far from the core of the array. But he is moving in a right path now… How does he do that?”

For the wise Master Bai, it was still a question he didn’t know the answer to.

…