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Book 7, Chapter 60: Bait

These people were the soldiers that had charged straight into Wolfheart Valley.

They had been captured and rendered completely immobile by the Dream Demons, as if they had died. The Dream Demons were beginning to extract the bones from their bodies, using them like logs to construct the castle.

A castle made out of human bones!

At the very center of the castle was an altar made out of human flesh and blood. On top of the altar was a golden crystalline entity. A large eye was suspended above the crystal, glancing back and forth.

Ye Fenghan shivered when he saw the eye. At the same time, the eye spotted him.

The floating eye immediately began to glow with red light, and the Dream Demons constructing the castle seemed to sense something. Instead of charging in his direction, however, they all scattered, disappearing from view almost immediately. Only the half-completed castle remained.

Ye Fenghan was surprised by their behavior, but regardless, he would not allow this castle to remain intact. He flew over and slashed his sword at it.

One of the arms making up the castle suddenly flew forwards, stopping Ye Fenghan’s sword in its tracks.

Hm?

This was?

Ye Fenghan was just about to pull his sword away when a large group of bones also flew into the air, gathering to form a complete human skeleton. Shockingly, that skeleton was now wielding a sharpened bone sword, and used it to attack Ye Fenghan.

What was happening?

Ye Fenghan was completely confused.

Even so, he reacted by parrying the attack. The stream of sword Qi collided with the bone skull, but clanged off with a metallic sound. The skull seemed to be much sturdier than it should have been.

“Hmph!”

Ye Fenghan harrumphed coldly, and flames leapt to life at his fingertips, gradually growing into Flaming Phoenix, the very same one that Su Chen had developed. It slammed into the skull, and under the heat of the fierce flames, the skull began to disintegrate.

Ye Fenghan was just about to rush forwards once more when a black fog began to leak out of the floating eye.

As the black fog descended, skeleton after skeleton wobbled to life.

This time, there was a large group of them.

Even though the Flaming Phoenix Theurgy Art was powerful, using it expended quite a bit of Origin Energy.

Ye Fenghan shuddered slightly when he saw all of these skeletons running in his direction. He infused the next Flaming Phoenix with some immortal energy, imbuing it with a faint white glow. Before it struck any of the skeletons, however, it exploded in the air, scattering globs of white flames onto the army of skeletons. The skeletons began to twist and writhe in pain.

Their howls could not be heard on the physical level, but their cries of pain could be perceived by Ye Fenghan’s consciousness. Even Ye Fenghan found the assault of shrieks somewhat difficult to bear and let out a groan of pain. It was as if there was something boring into his skull.

Even so, Ye Fenghan was quite excited.

“So I finally managed to harm you, huh?” he muttered as he gazed at the floating eye.

“Hiss!”

The floating eye in the sky seemed to expand as it unleashed a wave of murderous intent.

The castle of bones suddenly began to transform, this time forming a giant skeleton instead of an army of small ones. The giant skeleton immediately slammed its arm down at Ye Fenghan.

Ye Fenghan’s sword once again began to glow with white light as it pierced towards the giant skeleton’s hand.

The giant skeleton twisted its arm in midair, avoiding the sword strike.

Ye Fenghan laughed loudly. “So you do know how to dodge after all.”

He unleashed three sword strikes in a row, each one of them imbued with immortal energy. The giant skeleton, however, didn’t seem afraid and opened its mouth instead.

Even though its head was only made up of two bones, a hurricane surged forth from its open maw, sending Ye Fenghan flying backwards.

At the same time, its two large bony arms clapped down onto Ye Fenghan. White light began to glow around Ye Fenghan’s body, and the immortal energy burst forth as soon as the two hands collided with him. The two bony hands were blasted to smithereens, but Ye Fenghan himself felt a wave of dizziness wash over him as well.

The floating eye hissed once more, and countless bone spears appeared in the sky before shooting towards Ye Fenghan.

There was nothing Ye Fenghan could do but teleport away using Whitetower Teleportation.

Surprisingly, however, those bone spears immediately gave chase.

They could teleport as well?

Even as he wondered this, the spears closed in on him, not slowing down in the slightest.

There was nothing Ye Fenghan could do but surround himself with immortal energy, shattering those bone spears.

Immediately afterwards, however, another wave of bone spears appeared and descended towards Ye Fenghan.

The giant skeleton was actually composed of countless bones. At the moment, it was pulling off handfuls of bones at once and hurling them in Ye Fenghan’s direction.

There hadn’t been more than a few hundred imperial soldiers that had charged into the fog, so why did it seem like the giant skeleton was able to throw tens of thousands of bones at him without consequence?

The floating eye glared at him fiercely as it commanded the bone giant to unleash wave after wave of spears.

Immortal energy was more than capable of dealing with the torrent of spears, but the strain it placed on him to use it repeatedly was beginning to drain his reserves.

Dammit!

Ye Fenghan knew that this stalemate could not continue, but the floating eye’s powers were too sinister. Without immortal energy, he would not be able to free himself, not to mention that the terrifying consciousness howls would disrupt his thoughts from time to time......

Wait a minute!

A trace of suspicion suddenly emerged in his heart.

The greatest threat to him was still that consciousness howl.

The consciousness shrieks penetrated his sea of knowledge, negatively affecting his combat abilities.

The giant skeleton, on the other hand, seemed to primarily be forcing him to expend his energy. The actual damage it was doing was minimal.

But if that was the case, then why wouldn’t the floating eye primarily focus on those consciousness attacks? Why would it rely on the skeleton instead?

This was indeed a little nonsensical.

Ye Fenghan had fought enough to know that his opponent was definitely being motivated by some hidden reason.

If consciousness attacks were more effective, but the floating eye continued to insist on using the giant skeleton......

A few different ideas surfaced in Ye Fenghan’s mind.

Just at that moment, the giant skeleton unleashed another handful of bone spears. Ye Fenghan instead gritted his teeth, shut his eyes, and activated a barrier. He had given up on trying to use immortal energy to protect himself.

If this risky action didn’t pay off, he would likely be torn to pieces. It was even possible that he would die immediately.

Even so, Ye Fenghan had chosen to take this risk.

The swarm of spears collided with Ye Fenghan’s barrier.

In theory, this should have been enough to impale him thoroughly.

The end result, however, was shocking.

The barrier flickered slightly, but managed to block all of the bone spears. Ye Fenghan wasn’t wounded in the slightest.

Even the floating eye trembled involuntarily, obviously surprised by such an outcome.

Ye Fenghan slowly opened his eyes. “As I thought. A tangible illusion..... Half of the power is illusive, while the other half is real, right? Your power allows you to give these illusions physical substance. It seems that the Lord of the Dreamrealm is already capable of killing people in the real physical realm, but only commoners. Against stronger cultivators, you have no choice but to scare us a little.”

Ye Fenghan immediately saw through the facade.

The floating eye let out an enraged howl once again.

This time, however, Ye Fenghan could use his immortal energy to shield his consciousness, allowing him to remain unshaken.

Even though the gods were powerful, their strength would still be limited before the Barrier fully collapsed.

What he had just experienced was no more than the Dreamrealm’s ability to make illusions tangible. It was merely playing a trick on Ye Fenghan’s senses.

Once Ye Fenghan had severed his reliance on his own senses, the truth had become clear. The limited power that the Lord of the Dreamrealm controlled could not scare Ye Fenghan. His consciousness power, on the other hand, which was less limited, posed more of a threat.

But targeting his consciousness was also useless now that he was protecting it with immortal energy.

The floating eye writhed in midair. No matter how the giant skeleton thrashed, it could not affect Ye Fenghan. Ye Fenghan kept his eyes closed as he slashed out repeatedly with his sword. Bones cascaded off of the giant skeleton’s body, and even the black fog began to retreat.

Bang, bang, bang, bang.

As the bone giant’s body fragmented, it began to lose its ability to move. Soon, it reverted to a motionless state, but this time in the form of a pile of rubble instead of a neat castle.

Ye Fenghan strode over to the altar.

The floating eye was finally beginning to panic.

But no matter how it struggled, it could not affect Ye Fenghan’s will.

Ye Fenghan’s gaze was captured by the golden crystal placed prominently on the altar.

“No, don’t touch that!” A powerful will infiltrated Ye Fenghan’s consciousness.

Ye Fenghan ignored it and reached out to grab it.

Just as he was about to take it, however, he suddenly stopped.

Ye Fenghan said, “This is the Divine Crystal?”

There was no response.

Ye Fenghan didn’t pick it up. Instead, he calmly stared at the golden crystal. “It seems pretty high-quality.”

“You..... Why didn’t you take it?” The floating eye was stunned.

Ye Fenghan chuckled. “Shouldn’t your tone be one of relief?”

“Relief? Ah...... Yes, I am very lucky, but...... why wouldn’t you take it? This is a Divine Crystal condensed by a god, after all. Even a god would have a hard time producing one of them. If you obtain it, your strength will increase in leaps and bounds.”

“Are you encouraging me?” Ye Fenghan asked.

The floating eye immediately shut its mouth.

Ye Fenghan continued, “Why do I get the impression that you really want me to take it?”

“No, not at all,” the floating eye replied powerlessly. “Dammit, what are you thinking of doing?”

Upon seeing this, Ye Fenghan felt much more at ease. “I don’t think you liked my question very much.”

“AAAGGGHHHH!” The floating eye roared at Ye Fenghan.

But it was too late.

Ye Fenghan calmly retracted his hand. “I don’t think that’s a Divine Crystal.”

“It is! How could it not be?” The floating eye howled, seemingly about to go insane.

Ye Fenghan remained calm as he stared at the floating eye. “So this is a trap, right? The purported Divine Crystal is just a trap used to deceive us. All of the other obstructions were just to make me think that this item was extremely valuable, right? After all, only something that you obtain with significant effort is worth anything.”

“Shut your mouth!” The floating eye yelled madly.

“What is this?” Ye Fenghan asked. “And why would you go to such great lengths for it?”

“Bastard! Hurry up and take it, or else I will kill you!” the Floating Eye roared as it began to revert to its original form.

Unfortunately, these threats were completely useless against Ye Fenghan.

He stared coldly at the floating eye. “Tell me what this is, or I will kill you!”

Both sides were threatening each other, but it seemed as if neither could do anything to the other.

At that moment, however, a voice spoke.

“That is actually a Divine Crystal, but it has been infused by the Lord of the Dreamrealm’s will. If you were to take it, your mind would have been invaded by his will, turning you into a puppet for him to use.

Ye Fenghan and the floating eye were both simultaneously stunned.

Ye Fenghan said, “Master?”

The floating eye roared, “Su Chen!”

A fracture had appeared in the space around them. A person stepped out from the fissure - Su Chen.

As he glanced at the fading eye, Su Chen chuckled, “Long time no see, Lord of the Dreamrealm. It seems that you’ve gotten some new tricks up your sleeves since the last time we met.”