The Genius Illusionist

No one could say who broke first. A single figure turned and fled down the snow‑caked slope in terror, and then the rout became universal. The spellmasters and spiritists who had filled the sky dove away in frantic haste.

Xiao Chen was too terrible—too like a demon. So many had come to encircle and kill him, and yet he had butchered more than a dozen expert cultivators with his own hand. He was as pitiless as an Asura climbing out of hell, drunk on blood, slaughtering without mercy.

The stench of gore choked the summit. Blood had utterly dyed this world of white snow; a crimson mist coiled around the peak. Severed limbs and shattered bodies were scattered everywhere—a butcher’s yard out of some nightmare.

Xiao Chen stood leaning on his sword. The Divine‑Sealing Light Screen had long since dimmed. His whole body was drenched in blood, yet he remained as daunting as a drawn divine blade.

Both snowy peaks had fallen into absolute silence. The weight of Xiao Chen’s ferocity and dread pressed down on every watcher.

Most had come only to observe. Those who had once harbored designs on him now fell quiet. A few among them might be able to match him in combat, but they had to recalculate the cost of such a confrontation.

Then, without warning, a blaze of glorious light—like a cascade of falling stars—swept toward Xiao Chen. The spiritual power fluctuations were immense; even the distant onlookers felt them clearly. It was a storm of energy‑blades, a force that seemed no weaker than Xiao Chen’s own attacks.

His divine sword blazed like a rainbow, dazzling to behold. Xiao Chen left afterimages across the snowy peak, each step hurling out a stream of incandescent sword light that shattered rank after rank of the blade rain. Through sheer instinct, he knew this was a powerful enemy. He had not yet located the attacker’s position.

Suddenly, the divine sword in his hand seemed to lose its point of purchase. The blade rain grew even denser, but now most of it felt illusory, not condensed from spiritual energy.

“The genius illusionist spiritist—Kailuo!” Xiao Chen knew at once who had come. Even knowing it was an illusion, he dared not lower his guard. Somewhere within that false rain, a real volley could be hidden.

At the same moment, Yan Qingcheng burst from the snow. Her face, enough to topple cities and kingdoms, was as dreamlike as a vision. Her violet robes stirred with the wind, making her seem even more ethereal and otherworldly atop the snowy peak.

In that instant, the summit was flooded with dazzling purple light. Yan Qingcheng rose lightly into the air like a dancing spirit, flying gracefully at low altitude. Violet energy swirled around her, coalescing behind her into a pair of nearly transparent purple wings that allowed her brief flight. At that moment, she was truly transcendent.

The incomparably beautiful Yan Qingcheng transformed into a streak of purple light in the sky and unleashed the legendary Undying Demon Art. Streams of violet power flowed from her hands like living lightning, lancing toward Xiao Chen.

Yan Qingcheng was at the Fifth Heaven of Mortal-Shedding!

Xiao Chen’s heart tightened. No wonder she had dared to challenge him to a mortal duel. If he had not broken through to the Sixth Heaven, the outcome would have been uncertain.

But now Yan Qingcheng was not his only foe. Hidden within the illusion, the genius illusionist spiritist seemed to have reached the Sixth Heaven of Mortal-Shedding as well! His alternating real and illusory attacks were nearly impossible to defend against. And somewhere in the shadows, the inheritor of the Little Li Flying Dagger had yet to show himself.

Xiao Chen decided to retreat for now and pick them off one by one. A full confrontation with a Sixth Heaven illusionist would be a pitched battle, and with Yan Qingcheng and the still‑hidden Wang Tong, his position was far too dangerous.

But at that moment, the genius illusionist Kailuo finally struck in earnest. Hundreds of identical golden‑haired youths surrounded Xiao Chen. Without doubt, they were all phantoms; only one was Kailuo’s true body.

Kailuo’s face was not handsome, but his bearing was extraordinary—the kind of man people called “promising,” one who would surely rise like a dragon. His blue eyes were as deep as the sea, impossible to meet directly.

The illusion he wove blanketed the entire summit. Swords, long blades, lightning, heavenly fire—every kind of physical and energy attack raged across the peak, as if hundreds of fighters were unleashing their powers. Thunder shook the ears, dazzling divine blades tore the void, endless celestial flames burned the sky red, and cascading light fell like meteors.

Countless phantoms filled this world of ice and snow, the spectacle so tremendous it seemed a full war was raging, not a single combat. Everyone present was shaken to the core.

A terrifying genius illusionist spiritist!

Xiao Chen was in deep trouble. On this summit, he could not afford to ignore any wave of attacks, for it was impossible to tell which were real and which were false.

The genius illusionist Kailuo lived up to his reputation.

Torrents of fearsome energy surged like a great river in flood, like a vast green ocean churning. The summit was chaos, the sheer scale deafening. Real and unreal blurred together; there was no way to separate the deadly strikes from the mirages.

Xiao Chen’s disheveled hair flew in the wind, his eyes blazing like stars. His tall, straight frame stood as immovable as a pine, but the divine sword in his hand had become a thousand overlapping shadows. The brilliant sword light condensed into a dense net, sealing off all the fearsome attacks. At the same time, the Divine‑Sealing Light Screen reappeared, enfolding his body to block the endless energy currents.

As long as he could not locate Kailuo within the illusion, he could not end this battle. Twin beams of solid light shot from Xiao Chen’s eyes as he searched for Kailuo’s true form through a thousand veils of light, all while fending off Yan Qingcheng, who soared through the air on her light wings.

Yet his energy steadily drained, and still he could not find where Kailuo was hiding. Only because Xiao Chen’s life essence far exceeded an ordinary cultivator’s could he have survived this long without collapsing from exhaustion. Endless divine light poured from his body, not only sustaining the Big Dipper Sealing Divinity screen but also shattering the endless layers of illusory and real spiritual attacks.

At last, Xiao Chen found a flaw—a single, barely perceptible flaw. His keen spiritual sense caught a heartbeat so faint it was almost inaudible, revealing the location of Kailuo’s true body.

With one sword stroke, he sent Yan Qingcheng, who had been diving at him, flying backward. Then he turned himself into a beam of light and charged forward, straight toward Kailuo’s hiding place.

Dozens of bolts of lightning interwove to block his path; blazing fire poured down from the sky like an avalanche. Rank after rank of terrifying blade rain fell, all meant to stop Xiao Chen’s advance.

All of these were genuine energy attacks, not illusions.

Xiao Chen smiled coldly, even more certain that he had found Kailuo’s true body. His divine sword swept wide and fierce, shattering more than a dozen curtains of light, scattering the boundless flames. His towering figure burst through the obstruction like a god of slaughter.

But in that instant, every hair on his body stood on end. A premonition of doom flooded his mind, and then he felt an overwhelming danger closing in on him.

He had shattered the blade rain ahead, but one point of light blazed brighter than all the rest, streaking toward him like a comet crossing the sky. It was so dazzling he could hardly keep his eyes open. The sword in his hand was shattered by that single, piercing flash of light!

Little Li Flying Dagger!

The legendary, unerring flying dagger!