Fate Trading System – Chapter 269

Plan A

Furnace 20

[Refresher: Qi Refining stage → Foundation Establishment stage → Golden Core stage → Nascent Soul stage → Divine Transformation stage → Void Refining stage → Body Integration stage → Great Accomplishment stage]

The man introduced himself as Gui Ziqing¹, and the woman was called Tian Ling².

Su Xin glanced at the girl, who exuded a very strong, mature, and commanding aura. Her name didn’t quite seem to match her image.

Both were at the Late Stage of Foundation Establishment, regular partners who had undertaken several missions together and had good chemistry.

Hearing this, Su Xin felt relieved. She believed group activities were inferior to solo ones, as solo activities offered more freedom. Group activities heavily relied on teamwork and understanding; if there wasn’t enough trust, a single mistake could easily lead to total annihilation.

Furthermore, without sufficient integration in group activities, problems could easily arise, and it was easy for discord to be sown.

Su Xin felt that she and Jing Yueru already had a certain level of understanding and trusted each other implicitly, enough to watch each other’s backs without any issues. After confirming that this pair before them also seemed fine, they set off.

After traveling by sword flight to their destination, Su Xin sensed an unsettling aura.

Although this place was said to be a land of death, it wasn’t a graveyard or a mass burial site as she had imagined. People still lived here; it was clearly a village, albeit one shrouded in a thick, black fog.

“Lord Fourteen, are there any living people inside?”

【No. Host, please be careful. This place is very special. If you perish in here, neither your body nor your soul will be able to return.】

Fourteen was making good use of its golden finger abilities, clearly transmitting the map to her.

“Senior Sister, should we go in directly?”

Gui Ziqing looked at Jing Yueru, clearly ready to follow her lead³.

“Wait a moment, let me assess the situation.”

Jing Yueru squinted at the dense black fog, wondering what lay within that could emit such a strong demonic and evil aura, coupled with a heavy, deathly presence.

Perhaps that demonic cultivator came here and took the lives of all the villagers, turning this place into what it is now.

But strangely, amidst this demonic qi and deathly aura, there was also a thread of life force⁴.

That wisp of life force appeared so abruptly that, under these circumstances, instead of bringing joy, it was spine-chilling and exceedingly strange.

The fog seemed to be contained by something, not spreading outwards but merely swirling above the village. If ordinary people were to look, they would probably only see a desolate village, but cultivators could see the black fog.

Jing Yueru felt that in this situation, there was no need to find out why; direct elimination was the best course of action.

She still had Teleportation Talismans and Summoning Talismans. If the situation got out of control and they couldn’t handle it, she could summon others for help.

Su Xin felt Xilou on her wrist begin to stir.

Xilou seemed very interested in the deathly aura emanating from the village. It had been dormant but had now awakened, moving gently on Su Xin’s wrist.

Although there were no living people in the village, the map showed many red dots.

This indicated that there were still living beings inside. The demonic cultivator should be among them, and the rest were likely his puppets.

“This mission isn’t ordinary. The ones who scouted it probably underestimated its difficulty. I’ll go in first. Follow me closely, and don’t get lost in this fog.”

“Okay.”

Gui Ziqing and Tian Ling both agreed. Jing Yueru took Su Xin’s hand.

“Can you sense what’s in here?”

Jing Yueru asked naturally. She always felt that the person beside her was extraordinary, seemingly knowing many things and many paths.

“There are no living people in here, but there are many puppets. I don’t know where the demonic cultivator is, but he’s definitely in here.”

The red dots on the map were scattered. There were red dots in every part of the village, so she couldn’t determine which red dot represented the demonic cultivator, and naturally, she didn’t know his exact location.

“Alright, let’s go in then.”

Outside, they had smelled an unpleasant odor, but upon entering, that smell vanished.

In its place was a faint, delicate fragrance, elusive and subtle, making one want to pursue it.

This wasn’t miasma, nor was there any illusion formation, but inexplicably, they found themselves trapped in a strange space.

This place was indeed not ordinary. Su Xin took a breath.

Jing Yueru, who had been holding her hand tightly just moments ago, was no longer by her side. A thick fog permeated the surroundings, and there was nothing else.

“Lord Fourteen, what’s going on?”

【It’s likely something that induces hallucinations, reflecting the deepest fears and anxieties of a person’s inner world.】

This is one of the most common tactics in this cultivation world. Whether you’re receiving an inheritance or undergoing a tribulation, this kind of thing is generally called a heart demon, the most formidable obstacle on the path of cultivation.

Once a heart demon takes root, it’s difficult to eradicate and hard to remove. Every subsequent stage of cultivation can be affected.

【Due to my presence, Host, you won’t be affected by any magnetic fields or brainwave interference, but you will still exhibit some basic reactions.】

In short, she was currently in a heart demon illusion formation. However, because she had Lord Fourteen, she wouldn’t truly develop a heart demon; she was just temporarily trapped in this illusion.

Outside this illusion, it was still accompanying her.

“Lord Fourteen, how long until I can wake up?”

【Immediately. Currently eliminating interference for the Host.】

This demonic cultivator set up all this stuff, isn’t it just because he doesn’t want others to know his whereabouts? If anyone intrudes, he’ll definitely try to annihilate them. First, he’ll confuse them, making them unable to extricate themselves, then induce them to kill each other or engage in other behaviors. Then he can easily step in and deal with these outsiders.

They were currently those outsiders.

【Done.】

Everything before her was no longer the black fog from moments ago. Jing Yueru was still quietly by her side, their hands still tightly clasped, but Jing Yueru’s eyes were shut tight, her expression pained.

Gui Ziqing and Tian Ling didn’t look much better. Gui Ziqing’s expression was particularly agonized. Tian Ling was doing slightly better, just frowning lightly, as if caught in some dilemma.

This thing could evoke the memories one least wanted to recall—all negative: despair, sorrow, anger, the things one was most unwilling to face and admit.

“Lord Fourteen, are the things they’re seeing necessarily real?”

【Not necessarily. It could be illusions conjuring up situations they fear most but haven’t happened yet.】

Understood.

Su Xin didn’t dare to rashly try and wake them, fearing it might lead to severe consequences.

She was a little curious about what Jing Yueru was seeing to make her expression so dreadful.

Meanwhile, Gui Ziqing was already crying, looking extremely distressed.

Tian Ling was the second to wake up. She looked at the surroundings, her expression still a bit dazed.

“There’s something here.”

Su Xin pointed to the pervasive black fog. Tian Ling nodded, indicating she understood, then, sword in arms, walked over to Gui Ziqing. Looking at his tears, her expression was a bit helpless.

The demonic cultivator hadn’t appeared, which was strange. Was it because two of them had already woken up, so he chose not to strike at this moment?

“What should we do now?”

Tian Ling wasn’t sure how to address Su Xin, so she just asked directly.

“Let’s wait for the other two to wake up. There’s no other way for now. It’s best not to run around; we don’t know what other dangers lurk here.”

“Okay.”

Before long, Jing Yueru woke up. She suddenly opened her eyes, her grip tightening with a force that made Su Xin wince in pain.

“What’s wrong?”

Seeing this, could it be that what Jing Yueru saw, what she didn’t want to recall or feared, was related to her?

“It’s nothing.”

Jing Yueru took a deep breath, regulated the flow of spiritual energy in her body, and pulled Su Xin into an embrace. Feeling the solidness of Su Xin in her arms brought some peace to her heart. Everything she had just seen was an illusion; it couldn’t possibly happen.

What prophecy? That person couldn’t possibly have such power. It was just to throw their minds into turmoil.

“Did you see something? Don’t believe any of it; it’s all fake.”

Su Xin, held by Jing Yueru, gently patted her back.

“Mm.”

It’s all fake.

But whenever she recalled those images, her heart still ached sharply.

Su Xin stood on the other side of the road, her smile as radiant as ever, but her words were of parting, spoken so casually.

“I don’t need to rely on you anymore, and you don’t need to rely on me. Why don’t we each pursue our own Great Dao?”

“I’ve found someone I like. I want to become Dao companions with him.”

“No! We clearly performed the marriage ceremony!”

“That was just a pretense, just to get what I wanted. You didn’t actually take it seriously, did you? It was just a joke.”

“A joke?”

I never treated it as a joke!

Jing Yueru wanted to vent those intense emotions, but she couldn’t take her anger out on that person.

At that moment, a cool sensation spread from between her brows, and everything before her eyes vanished.

She heard a cold, indifferent voice from within her heart.

Everything in this world is illusory; only what is in your hand is real.

“He hasn’t woken up yet. There was no unusual movement around us just now. Let’s wait for him to wake up before we continue further in.”

“Okay.”

This was just the beginning; they had only just stepped past the village entrance.

Gui Ziqing was the last to wake up. Upon waking, regardless of where he was or who was around, he ran crying into Tian Ling’s arms.

It was only then that Su Xin noticed Tian Ling was actually half a head taller than Gui Ziqing.

“Tsk tsk tsk, is this GB⁵? Stimulating!”

Su Xin felt a tug on her sleeve and turned to meet Jing Yueru’s eyes.

“You say it too.”

Jing Yueru said, a little aggrieved. Only her height prevented her from contorting herself to dive into Su Xin’s embrace.

“Okay, I won’t leave you behind.”

Su Xin stood on her tiptoes and gave Jing Yueru a kiss, her eyes curving into crescents with a smile.

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