Chapter 424: with translation of chapter title

This is not the true Changle Palace, nor is it a palace simulating Changle Palace; it is merely an illusion, and she has not yet left Juechen Valley!

But does Xiao Yichen have such ability?

A Zi is already half-dead, and obviously it is not A Zi who is helping.

Could it be that they have another helper?!

Moreover, there is an illusion master who has sneaked into Juechen Valley, and they don't know about it?

If that is the case, it would be terrible.

Anderluo, just how many people did he bring?

What was that shaking just now? Was the expert who cast the illusion attacked?

Just as Mu Yuanzhi was puzzling over this, the room door was suddenly pushed open from outside!

Mu Yuanzhi was frightened and immediately stopped moving; she hurriedly hid her hands behind her back, not letting the newcomer notice her intention to break the iron chain just now.

What surprised her was that the person who came was not Xiao Yichen, but actually Ruohua?!

"Are you alright?" Mu Yuanzhi exclaimed in shock.

Although she had not seen Ruohua in a long time, Cao Cixiu had once told her that Ruohua was no different from dead, yet now she stands here unharmed, which is truly bewildering.

But she quickly realized that this Ruohua was strange: she did not speak, her expression and movements were stiff, and she came over step by step in a slow, halting manner.

Like a walking corpse, especially eerie and frightening.

"Ruohua?"

Mu Yuanzhi tried calling out.

No response.

Ruohua still walked toward her in a dull manner.

Mu Yuanzhi forced herself to stay calm; being afraid was useless and would only cause panic.

"Senior sister?"

"Junior sister?"

"Disciple?"

Mu Yuanzhi varied her forms of address, trying to disguise herself as someone else to provoke a reaction from Ruohua.

After she called out "disciple," Ruohua suddenly shuddered, stared blankly at Mu Yuanzhi, moved her mouth, and after a long while uttered two words: "Master......"

Great, she hit the mark!

"Disciple, why have you come here?"

Mu Yuanzhi also did not know what to say to Ruohua, so first she stabilized the other's emotions.

Ruohua's previously dull eyes instantly filled with various emotions—grievance, unwillingness, incomprehension, and many others that Mu Yuanzhi could not understand.

"Master, you have finally come to see me!"

Ruohua fell to the ground with a thud, instantly bursting into tears: "I never thought of harming Juechen Valley! I never thought of harming anyone! This was forced upon me! I don't want to kill them!"

"Disciple, since you know your fault, why then did you imprison your master here?" Mu Yuanzhi began to speak nonsense.

What if Ruohua could get her out?

Ruohua stopped crying, she gazed blankly at Mu Yuanzhi, her eyes gradually filling with doubt.

Mu Yuanzhi concealed her inner tension and met Ruohua's gaze.

"No, how could the master be imprisoned by me?" Ruohua shook her head, "The master is so strong, could she be imprisoned by me?"

Oh no……have they discovered it?

Mu Yuanzhi swallowed hard with difficulty.

Ruohua kept shaking her head, "Is the master deceiving me? Why?"

She muttered as she got up, steadily retreating: "It was you who imprisoned me, exiled me to the Back Mountain, locked me beneath the swamp……"

Ruohua, as she spoke, began to hysteric: "Exactly! You locked me in the lightless swamp below! You made life worse than death! Master, your heart is so cruel! Why?! Why?!"

She roared like a beast, her voice so loud it was deafening, not something an ordinary human could produce.

Mu Yuanzhi's ears felt a sharp pain; she quickly covered them to keep the earth-shaking noise from assaulting her fragile eardrums.

Is this Ruohua really a person?

At this very moment, the entire hall began to shake violently, even starting to collapse, as if it were being shaken apart by Ruohua's deafening voice.

At this moment, Mu Yuanzhi could completely confirm that this was an illusion; it was all too familiar, the sensation of an illusion collapsing!

It's all because this illusion is too realistic, making her not suspect it at first; the level of this man-made illusion can rival that of Master Yuan Yan!

After a spell of dizziness, Mu Yuanzhi regained her senses and found herself seemingly in a cave.

Everything around had changed, and Ruohua was no longer there.

Could Ruohua also be merely a hallucination?

But why would she see such a hallucination?

Recalling the previous few times she had fallen into an illusion, what she saw were always people and matters closely related to her; her relationship with Ruohua had not yet reached that level.

A flash of inspiration struck Mu Yuanzhi's mind; she recalled what the Qilin and others had said: in the Back Mountain, Ruohua could control many things, just like the mountain's lethal aura.

Therefore, the Ruohua she had just seen might not be the real Ruohua, but merely the lethal aura of this place!

No matter what it is, anyway she is now saved!

Mu Yuanzhi's joy did not last long before she realized the space was fake, but the iron chains locking her were quite real!

……

Damn that despicable, contemptible Xiao Yichen!

Mu Yuanzhi pulled on the iron chains; they were firmly locked to the rock behind her, the rock having two holes through which the chains passed.

Unless she could drag that rock along, she would still be unable to move an inch.

Obviously, she couldn't even move such a large rock, let alone drag it away.

But I don't know if it's because the surroundings have become

Thanks to the openness, compared to when she was previously in the illusionary Changle Palace, her fear has obviously decreased a lot.

But she still couldn't leave, as Xiao Yichen might return at any moment.

Mu Yuanzhi looked around, not knowing where the cave's exit was; a faint light seemed to shine in, just enough for her to barely make out her surroundings.

It must still be daytime, otherwise no light could get in.

As expected, does she still have to wait for Rong Jin to come rescue her?

While thinking this, Mu Yuanzhi suddenly noticed a strange caterpillar beside her foot.

She isn't afraid of insects, probably because her junior martial brother is skilled in gu techniques.

But who knows if this worm is poisonous in a place like this? She's never seen this species before.

Mu Yuanzhi tried to move aside as much as she could, but the caterpillar crawled toward her feet again.

"Get out of the way, go to the side!"

"Even if it doesn't understand, she still disgustedly drives it away!"

It's unclear whether the caterpillar understood Mu Yuanzhi's words, but it actually crawled back, and did so very quickly, disappearing in an instant.

She didn't know that this strange caterpillar, at an incomprehensible speed, hurriedly crawled back to Cao Cixiu's side.

At this point, there had been no movement underground for a long time—so long that Cao Cixiu was about to grab some ants to ask questions—and then the caterpillar he had sent out returned, crawling onto his shoulder.

After hearing its report, Cao Cixiu smirked: "I already know where the princess is."

Upon hearing this, Pei Sihe and the monk both looked toward Cao Cixiu, seeing the caterpillar on his shoulder near his ear crawl back onto his shoulder, arching its body as if seeking credit.

Such a scene was nothing unusual to Pei Si, while the monk's mouth twitched slightly: "Now we just wait for Patron Gu."