“That… ahem!” Lan Hui gave a cough. “It’s good that they are not influenced by the illusions.”

　　Shen Ying: “Heh heh…” Suddenly she did not feel like coming to their rescue.

　　“Who are you?” The two men, who had just drawn in their swords, turned to face the three people who stood a short distance away, their expressions darkening. “Hmph! You still don’t know when to give up! Now you’ve even transformed into three persons.”

　　Lonemoon snorted coldly. Gripping his sword tightly, he prepared to charge at them.

　　“Wait! “Yi Qing pulled him back. “Let’s make sure.”

　　Stepping forwards, he scanned the three people before him, then turning to Shen Ying, asked, “Master, what do you want to eat for lunch?”

　　Shen Ying’s mouth twitched in irritation. She looked back at Father Niu, then said through gritted teeth, “Immortal crane!”

　　Yi Qing: “…”

　　Lonemoon: “…”

　　OK, what she said was true.

　　“Where did you go, why did you take so long to come?” Lonemoon heaved a sigh of relief before walking over. He did not look surprised to see Chu Xuan, whose face was badly bruised and swollen, but exclaimed when he saw Lan Hua, “Why is he here?””

　　“These two “Chicken oil ¹ ” friends just reunited!” Shen Ying explained.

　　What “Chicken oil”?

　　Lan Hua looked baffled by their exchange, but in view of the current situation, refrained from asking. Pointing to the flower meadow, he said, “This is the Illusion Valley. All these flowers can create a false illusion in the mind. Your other disciples are all trapped inside, save them quickly. They won’t be able to escape if they stay too long here.”

　　The two men’s expressions darkened. Yi Qing asked, “Let me know their locations.”

　　“Thirty meters south-west and to the east…” Lan Hua answered, having already memorized their exact locations. “Time is short. Let’s split up to look for…”

　　Before he could finish his sentence, Yi Qing turned around and struck out with his sword. Blades of sword qi shot out and then condensed to form several huge dragons. The dragons charged out in different directions. In their wake, grass and flowers were uprooted, earth and dust flew everywhere; an entire layer of ground was sliced away. Within moments, the whole flower meadow, apart from those near the five specified directions was reduced to a barren dirt field.

　　“Thanks!” Yi Qing summoned his sword and saluted.

　　Chu Xuan: “…”

　　Lan Hua: “…”

　　This sword qi… You call him a young emperor!! Who are you kidding? What happened in the immortal realm during the years he was cultivating to be a demon?

　　Shen Ying and Lonemoon walked towards the directions of their disciples as if nothing unusual had happened. As the flower meadow was now destroyed, the disciples woke up from their dream world.

　　“How do we… destroy this array?” asked Lonemoon.

　　Although they were now safe, there were several people still trapped in other locations that they had to rescue. Moreover they were still trapped in the primordial spirit stage and could not return to their bodies unless the array was destroyed.

　　Shen Ying paused in thought for a moment, then turned behind to look at Chu Xuan.

　　Chu Xuan shivered and quickly told them all he knew. “That … Actually the Illusion Valley is also located within the Immortal Execution Array so the Heart Array Stone… should also be somewhere nearby.”

　　Chu Xuan did not expect that these people could deal with the illusion valley so easily. Although they had entered the array, it would not have trapped them for long.

　　“Then let’s go and find the Heart Array Stone.” Lonemoon gave a few instructions to Yu Hong and set up an array to prevent them from getting lost. Then he led the group of disciples and headed towards the cloud of fog.

　　“By the way.” Shen Ying halted as a thought suddenly occurred to her. “Boss, put this necklace back on.” He looked weird under that layer of black smoke.

　　Lan Hua paused in surprise. Was she… worried that the other immortals would find out that he was from the demon tribe when they regained consciousness? His heart warmed and a familiar feeling overwhelmed him. His hand moved involuntarily to his collar…

　　Wait a moment! Good Heart, don’t be rash!

　　Σ(°△°|||)

　　Even if he had no immortal stones, he should not offer her his clothes!

　　Lan Hua felt an impulse to kill himself. Suddenly he had a eureka moment and turned to grab Chu Xuan.

　　“You… wanted to repay your debt to me, right?”

　　Chu Xuan was overjoyed. “Master! You’ve… finally acknowledged me.”

　　“Do you have a storage bag?” Before Chu Xuan could finish speaking, Lan Hua reached out his hand to him.

　　“Yes… I have.” Chu Xuan handed it over.

　　So the next moment, he saw his benefactor open the bag, remove its contents one by one and then shove it to the Shen lady immortal in front of him. While removing the items, he said, “I don’t know what these things are? But take them, take them!” As long as he did not have to remove his clothes.

　　Oh ho! So this Boss has his uses. Lonemoon’s eyes gleamed. He fished out an empty bag from robes and handed it over to Shen Ying, saying, “Come, Shen Ying! Use this bag.”

　　Yi Qing: “…”

　　All the disciples: “…”

　　Chu Xuan: “…” His heart hurt deeply but he could not speak up.

　　It had to be said, emperors were a wealthy lot. Lan Hua kept fishing inside the bag for almost an hour before he confiscated all the priceless objects inside it.

　　“Emperor… Emperor…” blurted out Chu Xuan as he looked in disbelief at the empty storage bag he was holding. “How is this Shen… Exalted Goddess related to you?”

　　“She’s my Good Heart. Can’t you tell?”

　　“Good … Heart?” Chu Xuan subconsciously touched his swollen face. “You’re sure she’s your Good Heart… and not your Demon Heart?”

　　“…”

　　————————

　　The group of them walked towards the cloud of smog. Apart from some flowers, they did not meet with any danger. After walking for about an hour, Lonemoon, the only expert in array formations, suddenly stopped in his tracks.

　　“The eye of the formation should be just ahead of us.” He said, pointing ahead.

　　Yi Qing conjured a wind seal. Instantly, a huge gust of wind rose and blew away the thick smog, revealing a stone table. Atop it lay various glittering gold dharmic talismans, surrounded by different kinds of array images. A stream of reddish liquid was flowing along the array images and seeping into the ground.

　　A man sat cross-legged In the middle of the formation with his eyes closed. Blood was dripping continuously from a cut in his hand.

　　“Chen Ge!” Lonemoon exclaimed in surprise. Why was he here? And it was not his primordial spirit but his actual body sitting there.

　　“What’s happening?” Lan Hua turned to look at Chu Xuan.

　　The expression in Chu Xuan’s eyes as he looked at the man in the center of the array still bore a hint of resentment. In a grudging tone he explained, “This array was originally laid out using his blood as a catalyst. So his body is what maintains the eye of the formation.” If everything went smoothly, the array would vanish once his body was drained of the last drop of blood and all his immortal qi dissipated completely. Besides, Chen Ge was the one in the array with the highest level of cultivation level, so naturally he was most suitable to be the eye of the array.

　　“He’s now one with Zhu Xian, his body is controlled by the array and his primordial spirit is not in his body. The Heart Array Stone is under his feet. To destroy the array, we need to defeat him.”

　　“I can’t think of a way to make him leave the Heart Array Stone.” He looked a little timidly at Shen Ying before continuing, “So… that’s why I said it cannot be destroyed. If you want to destroy it, you have to fight him. One of you will be injured or even die. He’s your Feng Cang Celestial Emperor, I’m sure you won’t want to injure… Huh? Huh!”

　　Before he could complete his sentence, Yi Qing and Lonemoon had already rushed out with their swords. They showed no signs of hesitation as they swung their swords down on Chen Ge. At the same instant, the man inside the array, Chen Ge, opened his eyes. There was no focus in his gaze. His movements as he fought with them were as mechanical as a wooden puppet .

　　What luck! They had been waiting to beat this asshole for the longest time!

　　Chu Xuan: “…”

　　Was it an error of perception? Why did he have the feeling that these two sword immortals seemed overly eager to fight? Don’t the citizens of Feng Cang continent look up to their emperor?