Chapter 1803

Soil is just soil; it contains the nutrients plants need, mixed with grass roots, bird droppings, and insect eggs.

Miaozhan Tian stared at it for a few breaths before saying repeatedly: "Good, good, so that's how it is!"

Only Bai Ziqi could hear the suppressed anger hidden in His flat tone.

Miaozhan Tian threw away the soil, walked up to Bai Ziqi, and whispered: "Use less supernatural power, use your wings more; burrow into the forest and fly close to the ground, and be sure to find the whereabouts of the Illusion Sect."

Bai Ziqi nodded and walked to the edge of the sand table.

Miaozhan Tian didn't say everything, but he had already understood the subtext:

This world is very tricky; the Illusion Sect is protected, and divine arts may not necessarily find them. At this time, the simplest and crudest methods are the most effective, which is close-range visual reconnaissance.

Going a step further, Miaozhan Tian had already indirectly admitted that some of His divine arts—such as the Eye of Truth—were partially malfunctioning.

"This is not the real world either," Miaozhan Tian's tone was quite firm. "Thousand Illusions has very likely come out of seclusion!"

Bai Ziqi wasn't surprised; this matched his judgment, but his heart still sank: "Have we entered a second Illusion Realm?"

Miaozhan Tian nodded: "Thousand Illusions is even more unrestrained here; the underlying rules he created can reject my lighthouse, just as saline-alkali land cannot grow most of your human crops."

His lighthouse also needs something to rely on to grow. The air cannot support it, and the seawater cannot support it.

Although Bai Seventeen pressed it into the soil, the conditions to trigger its growth could not be met, so the lighthouse could not grow.

In the previous Illusion Realm, Miaozhan Tian's lighthouse caused huge trouble for the Illusion Sect and even changed the situation of the war; in this world, it simply rejected Miaozhan Tian's divine arts from the root.

So Miaozhan Tian believed that Thousand Illusions had already awakened.

His battle of wits with Thousand Illusions began in the previous Illusion Realm, but this change, so targeted at Him, was truly full of subjectivity.

He didn't even need to see Thousand Illusions in person to deduce that He had inadvertently fallen into Thousand Illusions' trap.

Bai Ziqi realized: "Even the Illusion Sect elders are convinced that Waist Lake leads directly to the real world; that's how they were able to deceive us!"

He also gave Miaozhan Tian a way out. If the situation hadn't taken a sharp turn for the worse, how could a proud Heavenly God admit that He had made a mistake?

"They were also kept in the dark by Thousand Illusions," Miaozhan Tian said, with resentment in His tone for the first time. "This old thing, he really doesn't trust anyone!"

Only because the Illusion Sect from top to bottom was deeply convinced would Miaozhan Tian and Bai Ziqi follow suit and believe it to be true.

And this trap had existed for a long time; it wasn't necessarily prepared specifically for the people from the Tiangong, which was why it was so highly deceptive.

Although Bai Ziqi didn't want to admit it, it seemed that Thousand Illusions had taken the upper hand in this opening move, and Miaozhan Tian had misjudged the situation.

For a contest at the True Immortal/True God level, this was an extremely serious mistake.

Right now was when Miaozhan Tian needed him most, so Bai Ziqi cleared his mind and pointed to the sand table: "Assuming the terrain of Silver Pearl Island in both worlds is the same—which it should be—the Illusion Sect is least likely to go to the Upside-Down Lake; the south is the end of the land. The possibility of going west is also small; that's a mining area, all loose rocks. The most likely destination is the two small towns in the northwest, or the big city in the north. This way, with the help of the local dead souls, it will be easier for them to turn around and deal with us."

At once, he sent out demon scouts in these two directions.

Miaozhan Tian's requirement was for those with wings, which wasn't just flying birds. There was also an insect demon in the Tiangong's team whose humanoid body was an insect nest. As long as the main insect gave the order, thousands upon thousands of flying insects would swarm out.

This time, Bai Ziqi sent it out as well.

These tens of thousands of insects searched the mountains and plains in a carpet-like fashion, much faster than humans, or even bird demons, and could maintain a direct connection with the main body. Once they encountered the enemy and couldn't return, the main insect could judge the enemy's whereabouts based on where they disappeared.

"Find the Illusion Sect, and we can follow the vine to find Thousand Illusions!"

Since the Illusion Sect had come to this world, they had to look for their ancestor.

Another group of scouts reported: "The enemy army is less than one hundred and fifty zhang away from us!"

After consulting Miaozhan Tian, Bai Ziqi made a decision: "Since the lighthouse cannot be built, let's go north."

The whole army turned around and headed north.

There were many villages and towns to the north, as well as the largest city in terms of population on Silver Pearl Island.

Soon, the enemy appeared in the field of vision of the Tiangong's team; sure enough, they were all dressed in bright armor and wearing hideous masks.

The images on the masks included fierce beasts, evil ghosts, and Yakshas, with the main theme being terrifying.

Although wearing masks would block part of their vision, the visual effect was outstanding; once good people put them on, they transformed into fierce ghosts.

These strange enemy troops were well-organized, and as soon as they saw them, they rushed up and launched a fierce attack.

Just as the scouts said, the base of these soldiers' armor was coarse cloth clothing; clearly, they were originally ordinary people from nearby villages and towns, but after that long howl before the farmer died, they suddenly put on armor and took up weapons, coming out to make trouble for the Tiangong's team.

Wave after wave, with no cowardice or fear of small-town folk.

The worst part was that their strength was even greater than the previous farmer's!

Even though the Tiangong's team were all battle-hardened elites, dealing with them was exceptionally difficult. Bai Shi and the others even felt that compared to the Yaksha evil ghosts by the Upside-Down Lake earlier, they were no less inferior!

"They are only different from the Yakshas in appearance!" Bai Seventeen reminded everyone to be careful. "Essentially, they are all water shells molded by Thousand Illusions!"

Just then, a huge single-eyed phantom suddenly appeared five zhang directly above Bai Ziqi and the gray parrot.

Miaozhan Tian once again revealed the Eye of Truth, but did not use the lighthouse, instead relying entirely on its own divine power to support it.

The golden light of the single eye covered the entire Tiangong team, emitting a warmth like sunlight, and also leaving the dead who rushed into the light screen with nowhere to hide, instantly revealing their true forms.

As soon as they touched the golden light, their bodies became transparent, and then the water shells fell apart with a clatter. The dead souls hidden inside flew around like headless flies, gradually dissipating into nothingness.

That's more like it. Otherwise, having living people trade their lives for these dead souls would be too uneconomical.

The power of the divine art was unquestionable, and the originally tense battle rhythm was greatly eased. Only then did Bai Shi shake his sore right wrist and spit on the ground: "Pah, to be sent off by the Divine Venerable, it's really cheap for them!"

These dead souls were originally trapped in the Illusion Realm; now, being dissolved by the golden light, it was actually a quick release.

The dead around them emerged endlessly, rushing toward the light shield without hesitation, only to be dissolved one by one.

Braving the tide of the dead, Bai Ziqi ordered the whole army to speed up and continue north.

The Eye of Truth followed them, glowing at every moment. But Bai Ziqi understood that to maintain this light shield, Miaozhan Tian was consuming a huge amount of divine power every moment! Why did they try so hard to build a tower in the Illusion Realm earlier? Because the lighthouse was a shortcut that could use profound crystals to sustain energy and resist the laws of the Upside-Down Sea for a long time; but this world wouldn't let them build it anymore, so Miaozhan Tian could only burn His own divine power directly to maintain the existence of the Eye of Truth.

In this unknown world, He still couldn't abandon His own foundation.

Thousand Illusions didn't show His face, but instead used this method to wear down the opponent's strength.

The contest between the True Immortal and the True God had begun.

Bai Seventeen guarded Bai Ziqi closely, knocking away two flying spears, and asked for advice: "My Lord, what if Thousand Illusions True Person refuses to show his face?"

"Then we must force him to show his face and attack," Bai Ziqi said sternly. "He still has a weak point, which is the Illusion Sect's team."

That was why Miaozhan Tian and he were both in a hurry to find the Illusion Sect.

He Lingchuan twisted the corner of his clothes; the fog-filled jungle was truly too damp. After walking for nearly two quarters of an hour, his clothes were wet instead of dry.

At the end of the woods was another small town.

This town also existed in the Illusion Realm; He Lingchuan had passed by it, and the town was called Tree Heart Town. Because there was an old tree at the entrance of the town that had died and come back to life, the tree trunk had been eroded into a large hole that could accommodate two adults walking side by side, but the top of the tree was still lush with green.

The town wasn't big, just one gray main road and seven or eight shops selling food, clothes, shoes, and miscellaneous goods, but except for the steamed bun shop, there was no business; the shopkeepers had woken up too early and were all dozing in their shops. When the Illusion Sect's team passed through the town, there happened to be a peddler shaking a rattle-drum by the roadside, with a dozen pieces of malt candy and a few grass crickets stuck on his bamboo basket.

The sound of the rattle-drum immediately attracted two children, and the adults behind them had no choice but to follow, but they hesitated about whether to spend money.

The Illusion Sect's team passed through the town, and after experiencing successive fierce battles, seeing this ordinary scene again, many disciples felt as if a lifetime had passed and all sighed.

They were people of Silver Pearl Island, and their relatives and friends were all left in the Illusion Realm, on the other side of the lake. Because the Illusion Sect warned them that the Tiangong's target was only cultivators, as long as they crossed the lake, the Tiangong would surely follow, and they wouldn't slaughter their relatives.

Just then, two shrill horns blasted from somewhere.

Dong Rui and the others had been keeping their nerves taut, but hearing it suddenly, they still couldn't help but be startled.

This sound... how to put it, it was ten times sharper than sawing wood or scraping glass, piercing directly from the eardrum into the back of the skull, making people's brains swell and their scalps tingle.

A leopard demon happened to be walking in front, and as soon as it heard this sound, all its fur stood on end.

"This is ghost crying!" Dong Rui patted his head, trying to shake off the dizziness. "My goodness, who said wolf howling could be mentioned in the same breath as ghost crying? It's a far cry!"

Even Lingguang and the Ghost Ape covered their ears with both hands, squeaking.

Uncomfortable!

The Soul-Absorbing Mirror in He Lingchuan's arms went "wow": "This is a variation of the Soul-Summoning Song; it's not meant for living people to hear at all! Hey, look at these townspeople!"

Actually, without it specifically reminding him, He Lingchuan also noticed that as soon as the horn sounded, the civilians all walked toward the entrance of the town.

Everyone walked out, no matter what they were doing before—peddling, walking, steaming buns, or even sleeping in bed—they suddenly dropped everything and strode forward.