An Understated Dominance

 The illusion formation had been forcefully broken apart for the most part, and the guards who had fallen into it slowly regained their senses. When they saw the grim reality around them — the bodies of their fallen companions lying in pools of blood — their faces turned ashen, trembling with lingering terror. “What a terrifying illusion… to so perfectly mirror the desires within the human heart,” Margaret whispered, her voice quivering. Gratitude toward Dustin filled her eyes. Dustin’s gaze flashed like lightning as he suddenly turned his eyes toward the deepest part of the valley — the only truly real place — the spring. The air above the spring began to twist and ripple, as a vague silhouette slowly took shape. It was a woman dressed in flowing robes of seven-colored light, her beauty dazzling and almost inhumanly bewitching. Her body seemed to be woven from mist and radiance, flickering between existence and illusion. Barefoot, she hovered above the spring, surrounded by an aur...

 “Hm?” Margaret turned around in surprise, looking at Dustin in confusion. Dustin’s gaze did not linger on the breathtaking scenery before them. Instead, his sharp eyes swept slowly across the entire valley—like an eagle’s, carrying a chill that could pierce through illusion. “What we see before us may not be real,” he said calmly. “The spiritual energy here is abundant, yet unstable—lacking any foundation. The celestial music sounds beautiful, yet its rhythm is too perfect, losing all natural flow. Feel carefully—the scent of the flowers, the sound of water, the drifting mist… don’t they seem too deliberate? As if crafted solely to please the senses?” At his words, Margaret and several of the stronger guards focused their senses—and indeed began to notice something wrong. The floral fragrance, when inhaled for too long, turned cloying and dizzying. The sound of the running water never changed in rhythm, as if endlessly repeating the same tune. Even the mist that swirled around the...

 “Steady your mind! Attack them!” Margaret shouted sharply. The short sword in her hand gleamed with a cold light, and a sword aura slashed toward one of the approaching gray shadows. The sword aura passed through it—the gray figure twisted and rippled, thinning slightly and letting out an even sharper shriek, but it did not dissipate completely. Instead, it lunged forward even more ferociously. The other guards’ attacks had similar results. Their blade auras and sword Qi had limited effect against these misty wraiths—each took several blows to barely destroy. The wraiths’ attacks, however, were disturbingly strange. They could easily penetrate ordinary protective Qi barriers and directly touch the body. Once entangled, a wave of freezing cold would surge through the victim, and their vital energy would drain away like floodwaters through a broken dam. One guard, caught off guard, was struck on the arm by a wraith. His arm instantly turned gray and shriveled, as though all moisture...

 The bronze gate loomed tall and solemn—behind it might lie the legendary  Hanging Garden , or perhaps an even deeper trap. The dark-golden vines coiling through the cracks seemed withered, yet when touched, they felt as hard as metal—unyielding and cold. Ancient cloud-shaped runes glimmered faintly upon the gate’s surface, forming a powerful sealing array. Forcing it open would be no easy feat—and might bring catastrophic consequences. Dustin extended his divine sense, probing carefully for a long while before shaking his head. “The seal is intact and bound to the earth veins. Forcing it would trigger unknown dangers. There may be another entrance—or a specific key to open it.” Hope, so close at hand yet barred behind the gate, gave rise to quiet disappointment. Margaret gazed toward the mist-wreathed mountain fissure and said thoughtfully, “Since this path is blocked for now, let’s follow the edge of this rift. We may find another way. The murals mentioned the ‘Jade Pool’—it...

 “It’s those who landed on the island before us!” another guard cried out. A slightly older, more experienced guard stepped forward to inspect the corpses. His face darkened. “They’ve been dead no more than a month. Judging by these wounds… not caused by ordinary weapons or beasts. More like they were pierced clean through by an extremely fine, razor-sharp beam of energy.” At that moment, Dustin suddenly looked up sharply, eyes narrowing toward a patch of ground ahead—behind the half-buried remains of what looked like a massive bronze cauldron. “Be careful!” Before he could finish, several faint “shhh” sounds sliced through the air. A few hair-thin, almost invisible grayish beams of energy shot out from behind the wreckage like vipers, streaking straight toward the guards who had just cried out! Their speed far surpassed that of a crossbow bolt. But Dustin moved even faster. The instant he sensed danger, his fingers came together like a sword, and an arc-shaped slash of sword energ...

 Passing through the canyon sealed by the five-colored cocoon felt like stepping from one nightmare into another—older, deeper, and far more silent. The air was thick with decay, mixed with a metallic tang of rust and the dry dust of countless ages. Light filtered weakly through narrow cracks high in the cliff walls, falling in scattered beams that barely illuminated what lay ahead—an endless expanse of ancient battlefield ruins. There were no banners fluttering, no mountains of corpses. Only a silence so absolute it seemed time itself had scoured all life away. Enormous bones, pale as carved jade, were scattered across the wasteland. Some rib bones arched high like gateways; some skulls were the size of houses. They belonged to colossal beasts long extinct, lying motionless among shattered weapons and fallen stone pillars. Though eroded by the passage of ages, the remains still exuded a faint aura of oppression. All around were fragments of weapons and armor—dull, corroded, broken...

 The atmosphere in the canyon, which had just surged from despair to wild relief, plunged once more into a deeper abyss of hopelessness. Once, twice, three times… Each time,  Dustin’s  sword-light precisely shredded the re-forming crimson energy, scattering it to dust finer than ash. Within his strikes surged a will of annihilation so profound that it could obliterate body, spirit, and even soul imprints. Yet the strange energy born from the humanoid beast clung like bone maggots, cursed with an unending existence. No matter how thoroughly Dustin destroyed it, from the smallest mote of dust it would begin to gather again—each time quicker than the last. The crimson vortex at the center seemed like a mocking pupil, coldly watching every futile effort to erase it. Each resurrection carried a deeper stench of death and hatred. “How… how can this be? It won’t die… it simply can’t be killed!” “Even Mister Dustin… even he can’t destroy it?” Faces blanched as despair clawed at t...