đź“– Chapter 1172 - Good Fortune!
“She really is simple.” Wang Baole was extremely excited. With his prior experience, he regained awareness almost instantly after entering the illusion.
As he looked at the world around him, he couldn’t help but let out a sigh.
His surroundings were no longer the worlds of his past lives, but rather a dark void. There were no stars, nor any life. All he could see was an endless darkness, cold and silent.
“This is…” Wang Baole was shocked. Although he had already experienced illusions of his other past lives and was somewhat expecting this, he still felt extremely shocked by the red-clothed woman’s divine ability.
In fact, his past lives filled with stories and scenery were relatively easy to make illusions out of. But this place… was a past life where he was unconscious in the empty void. It was surprising that the red-clothed woman could pull him into this past life as well.
In the void, Wang Baole immediately checked his surroundings. The first thing he looked at was himself. Just as he remembered, the “Wang Baole” in this life was… just a black wooden board.
Just that and nothing more.
Wang Baole fell silent. Somewhat reluctant, he carefully took another look around. This illusion was particularly important to him; after all, back when he was in the trial at Planet Heaven’s Mandate, he hadn’t had very much self-awareness during this past life.
But unfortunately, no matter how hard he looked, he couldn’t see anything special about this void. Soon, he felt tugging come at his neck again, but he didn’t pay any attention to it and instead kept searching furiously.
It wasn’t until the tugging came and went more than thirty times over that Wang Baole sighed and gave up. It seemed that there was indeed nothing special about the lives he spent in this void. Thus, he placed his expectations on the next illusions.
Soon, the tugging feeling came again, and the void all around him collapsed. Wang Baole knew that this meant that the illusion was coming to an end, and the foolish red-clothed woman had failed to dismantle him again.
But just as the fragmentation of the world spread and the illusion was about to completely collapse, Wang Baole suddenly felt a jolt run through his mind. He abruptly swiveled his head and looked into the distance.
There, he seemed to vaguely see a thread… But before he could take a second look, the void collapsed, and his consciousness returned to his body. When he opened his eyes, he saw the foolish red-clothed woman glaring at him, panting heavily.
“What… did I just see?” Wang Baole ignored the red-clothed woman, furrowing his brows as he tried to recall. However, the red-clothed woman seemed to be unable to control herself and roared furiously.
Her roar whipped up a storm that interrupted Wang Baole’s pondering. He instantly grew unhappy, raising his head and frowning at the foolish red-clothed woman.
“Can’t you just shut up?”
The red-clothed woman’s singular eye erupted with madness, and she roared even louder. Her trembling right hand rose and pointed at Wang Baole, causing him… to enter an illusion again.
This time, the red-clothed woman immediately grabbed the wooden Wang Baole. She didn’t pull with her hands, but stuck his head in her mouth and bit down without hesitation!
Wang Baole, who had just awakened inside the illusion, immediately felt a sting in his neck before the world around him fully formed. This time, it wasn’t a tugging sensation, but rather more like a knife cutting at his neck.
However… nothing happened.
Wang Baole scratched his neck before ignoring the sensation. He quickly looked around and recalled his previous feeling, dispersing his divine sense and observing carefully.
Just like that, after the invisible knife chopped more than ten times in this endless void, Wang Baole finally caught sight of the fleeting thread in the distance!
“Over there!” Wang Baole’s soul instantly shot over, chasing that thin thread. However, no matter how fast he went, the thread remained elusive. It was often the case that it seemed right in front of him, but suddenly appeared in the opposite direction a moment later.
This made Wang Baole instantly grow anxious. He moved his divine soul even faster, and even used a divine ability to split it up into clones, trying to catch the thread by encircling it from different directions.
But he never got close enough to touch the thread. In fact, he couldn’t even get close enough to see it clearly.
Time passed quickly, and after Wang Baole felt the sting in his neck for the thirty-fifth time, he woke up. The red-clothed woman was in front of him, her singular eye crazy as ever, but this time… the teeth in her mouth seemed slightly worn away.
Also, there was some unknown liquid dripping down his hair and neck… But Wang Baole wasn’t in the mood to pay attention to any of this.
That was because as soon as he woke up, his mind rumbled. To his shock, he discovered that his divine soul had walked more than thirty steps on the stairway of the Eternal Star Realm’s great circle!
Previously, he had only taken a few steps on that stairway. This rate of improvement could be considered utterly terrifying, and it caused Wang Baole’s eyes to shine brightly. He ignored the red-clothed woman’s madness and the unidentified liquid in his hair. Instead, he cupped his fists and bowed deeply, eyes full of anticipation and even gratitude.
“Senior, many thanks for…”
Before Wang Baole could finish speaking, the red-clothed woman seemed to have been provoked to an unprecedented degree and let out a deafening roar. Standing up from her seated position, she grabbed toward Wang Baole with both her hands.
Wang Baole didn’t dodge. Instead, filled with emotion and gratitude, he even took the initiative to fly toward the woman. In an instant… he entered another illusion. It was still that empty void, and he immediately resumed his pursuit of the thread.
This time, due to the previous growth, Wang Baole’s soul was able to split even more. After enduring the tugging sensation, the stinging of a knife, and even a crushing feeling many times, Wang Baole finally… approached the thread. For an instant, he clearly saw its true appearance!
It was…
A severed hand!
This severed hand was filled with indescribably powerful natural and magical laws, as well as endless mysteries of Dao that seemed to transcend all things. Just a glance caused Wang Baole’s divine soul to rumble, and infinite information seemed to pour into his mind. All his split souls instantly exploded, and only his main soul barely withstood the influx.
At that moment, the void all around him collapsed. After Wang Baole regained consciousness, he had no time to look at the red-clothed woman. He instantly closed his eyes, as if trying to seal his gains and prevent them from escaping his body. His body trembled violently as his divine soul gave its all to slowly digested the huge influx of information. All this information seemed to fill in the gaps in his own Dao and evolve it even further, causing his withered divine soul to recover in an instant and advance by leaps and bounds. From the initial state of thirty steps on the stairway of the great circle, he quickly reached ninety steps!
Wang Baole’s body shuddered. When he opened his eyes, there was a scorching light within them that couldn’t be suppressed. Looking at the red-clothed woman, he felt huge waves crashing around in his heart.
He had already guessed the owner of the severed hand, and it was precisely because of this that he was so shocked by the red-clothed woman’s ability to call forth its image.
“Is it because they share a common origin?” Even as Wang Baole’s mind filled with speculations, the red-clothed woman seemed to be losing her mind. She roared at Wang Baole and lifted her hand, but paused, apparently hesitating over something. In the end, rather than point at Wang Baole, her finger pointed in a different direction…
A vortex suddenly appeared where she pointed. It was the exit.
When he saw that the red-clothed woman wanted to send him away, Wang Baole was stunned. But after a moment of dumbfoundedness, he instantly became anxious. How could he let go of such a good opportunity? Thus, his mind turned rapidly. After a moment of thought, he opened his eyes wide and spoke loudly to the red-clothed woman.
“Stupid, come at me!” Wang Baole gave the red-clothed woman a look of disdain and arrogance as he crooked his finger at her.
But the red-clothed woman suppressed her anger and ignored him.
Wang Baole became even more anxious and quickly tried other methods, but the red-clothed woman endured his provocation every time. Finally, she seemed to grow impatient and flicked her finger. The vortex that was the exit suddenly released a powerful suction force, and despite his efforts, Wang Baole was slowly sucked in.
This made Wang Baole’s eyes turn completely bloodshot. Letting out a vicious roar, he clenched his hand toward… the dearly beloved wooden puppets in front of the red-clothed woman. The numerous puppets instantly flew toward Wang Baole, and it seemed he was going to take them all with him.
At last, the red-clothed woman could no longer hold herself back. Stomping her feet, an endlessly imposing aura suddenly erupted from her body. Cracks appeared in the void as the world quaked, seeming like it was about to collapse. Jumping in fright, Wang Baole suddenly wondered if he had gone too far. A moment later… the red-clothed woman turned into a crimson light that shot straight toward Wang Baole.
She entered his body in an instant!
An explosion seemed to go off in Wang Baole’s mind, and he once again sank into illusion!
When he regained awareness a moment later… he saw a scene that caused his heart to tremble like mad. There were countless cultivators laying prostrate in worship as… a massive piece of wood slowly descended from a vortex that led to some unknown location!