Chapter 69: Flower in the Mist, Moon in the Water

In the blink of an eye,

half a month had passed since the last gathering, and Zhou Yi's pace of life had slowed down. Cultivation also requires a balance of tension and relaxation, and the mental strain accumulated over the past year had eased in this leisurely life.

Of course, this did not cause his strength to stagnate; proper rest makes cultivation twice as effective with half the effort. Moreover, it was time for him to properly consolidate what he had learned.

……

On this day,

in the evening,

Tang San and Xiao Wu returned to the academy after their post-dinner walk, only to find the core Training Ground packed with people upon their arrival.

Looking closely, besides Dai Mubai and the other original Shrek students, even the Grandmaster, Flender, Liu Erlong, and Zhao Wuji were there.

Xiao Wu was a person of great curiosity, so she immediately trotted over to Ning Rongrong to find out what was going on.

Tang San also spotted Dai Mubai, so he walked slowly to his side and asked in a low voice.

"Boss Dai, what happened? Why are the teacher and everyone else here?"

Hearing Tang San's words, Dai Mubai did not answer but sighed instead. Tang San also sensed something was wrong and looked at Dai Mubai.

He saw that Dai Mubai's expression was complex, his eyes fixed straight into the Training Ground.

Tang San, noticing his gaze, also turned his eyes over. At this moment, the Training Ground was filled with dense fog, which he could not see through even using his Purple Demon Eye.

Just then, Dai Mubai spoke up.

"Zhou Yi and Zhu Zhuqing's Spirit Fusion Skill is about to be completed."

"Hm? So fast? I remember Brother Yi saying before that it would take at least a month to complete?"

"I'm not sure about that either..."

At this moment, the fog in the arena finally dissipated.

Inside, Zhou Yi and Zhu Zhuqing were seen sitting cross-legged facing each other, palms pressed together. After the Cloud Mist completely cleared, both opened their eyes at the same time, and the crowd could vaguely see a divine light flash across their eyes.

"How is it? Zhuqing?" Zhou Yi asked, looking at Zhuqing.

"It's alright, I feel like I can barely use it."

"It's fine, as long as you can barely use it. We can practice more in the future; today we mainly want to test the effect."

As they spoke, the two stood up, and Zhou Yi looked toward Zhao Wuji, the Grandmaster, and the others not far away.

"Grandmaster, Dean Flender, Dean Liu, I'll have to trouble you all."

The three of them then stepped into the Training Ground.

Flender pushed up his glasses and said.

"No problem, I also want to see what your Spirit Fusion Skill is actually like."

The Grandmaster also added from the side.

"Our three-person Spirit Fusion Skill is equivalent to a Title Douluo; are you sure you can withstand it?"

"Don't worry, I have to trouble you for now. If it were just Uncle Zhao, I could defeat him by myself, and I wouldn't be able to test the effect at all. I even wanted to find Senior Sword Douluo and the others to test the move later, but I'm afraid this move is unstable and might cause a backlash for now. Once I'm thoroughly familiar with it, I can go and test it."

Hearing this, all the core students outside the arena turned to look at Zhao Wuji. Zhao Wuji's face flushed red, but he couldn't refute it and could only glare at the crowd in anger. Under his glare, everyone had no choice but to look back at the Training Ground, though they were all snickering inwardly.

"Since that's the case, we won't be polite."

As the person seeing Zhou Yi perform a move for the first time, Liu Erlong felt both anticipation and skepticism. She truly couldn't believe that the young man before her could be this powerful, but since Xiaogang and Flender both said so, she couldn't say much. This time, she could finally witness it.

As the three released their martial souls, their auras began to coordinate and resonate.

"Sun Moon Radiance Golden Turn!" ×3

As expected of a three-person Spirit Fusion Skill, it forcibly raised their auras to the level of a Title Douluo.

Watching the massive Golden Sacred Dragon shining brilliantly before them, roaring at the two with bared fangs and brandished claws, Zhou Yi and Zhu Zhuqing were not in a hurry. They looked at each other; at this moment, it was as if time had stopped, and there was only each other in their eyes.

The next second, the two looked at the giant dragon, holding hands, while their remaining hands reached forward together, fingers splayed, as if condensing something.

At the same time, as the two released their martial souls, massive visions appeared behind them.

Behind Zhou Yi on the left was a vast expanse of mist, where one could only vaguely see an unknown flower blooming, with butterflies seemingly dancing above it.

Behind Zhu Zhuqing on the right was a tranquil lake. Above the lake, a mysterious and beautiful moon released its lunar radiance to its heart's content, while the lake reflected the mirror image of the moon.

Suddenly, the two visions completely overlapped, and at this moment, the two spoke in perfect unison.

Zhou: "Flower in the Mist!"

Zhu: "Moon in the Water!"

"Mirror Flower Water Moon!" ×2

As soon as the words fell, their palms changed from open to a light grip. A scene appeared in everyone's minds simultaneously: a drop of water fell onto the mirror image of the moon in the water, splashing ripples, and the lunar reflection became elusive and ever-changing.

Then, they saw the space before them constantly shattering like a transparent mirror—no, not just the space before them, but everything they could perceive seemed to have shattered. However, the space immediately returned to normal.

Liu Erlong frowned; was this it? Why did it feel like nothing had happened? But she immediately fell into extreme panic. Looking closely, the surroundings were quiet, and she was the only one left. She ran around, but as soon as she lost focus, she returned to the original spot, as if she had never left. This ignited both the fear and anger in her heart, and she unleashed various soul skills recklessly. Unfortunately, it was useless; in the blink of an eye, the world before her returned to normal.

There were quite a few people in the same situation as her; everyone present had fallen into the illusion.

In the outside world at this time, except for Zhou Yi and Zhu Zhuqing, everyone stood like statues, motionless.

Clearly, everyone's five senses had been manipulated, and they had entered the illusion.

Zhou Yi reached out to hold Zhuqing, who had exhausted her mental power and soul power, and looked at the scene before him, his heart far from calm.

He hadn't expected that the effect of his and Zhuqing's Spirit Fusion Skill would be like this. Isn't this just that move of the Blue One? But this move is truly powerful. Judging by the power just now, even a Title Douluo wouldn't be able to escape the control. If he and Zhuqing's strength grew to a certain level, they might even be able to shield and confuse the divine sense of gods.

Zhou Yi could say without hesitation that this move was the strongest illusion in this realm.

Suddenly, he noticed Liu Erlong, who had the most explosive temper, frowning deeply. After a brief probe, he understood what was going on. Because they weren't familiar with this move yet, the illusion he and Zhuqing set was a bit too simple, making it easy for people to realize they were in an illusion. However, this also made Liu Erlong restless, causing her to use soul skills wantonly in the mental world. This wouldn't break the illusion but would instead cause her to suffer a backlash from her own mental energy.

As for the others, the Grandmaster and the students couldn't cause a backlash even if they were irritable because their mental power was too low; Flender and Zhao Wuji didn't change because they were calmer than Liu Erlong.

This was easy to solve; next time, he would just set a nested illusion, making her think she had broken the illusion when she had actually only reached the second layer. And when the illusion was indistinguishable from reality, she would be content to indulge in the illusion.

Thinking about it, this move was truly terrifying. If it were frequently used on people with low strength, it might even completely alter their subconscious.

Fortunately, this move also had limitations; the duration was affected by the person with the lower soul power between the two, and as for the content of the illusion, to be honest, no matter how much they practiced for now, they couldn't set two layers; they would have to wait until their strength was higher to achieve that.

As for now, the effective duration of this move is merely ten seconds; if it were a high-level Title Douluo, it might only be two seconds.