Chapter 196 - 193: The Loophole of the Peach Blossom Spring Illusion Realm

By the edge of the mire, a chill crept into the hearts of all the students.

In the Deceitful Realm, everything seemed to follow a certain logic, yet it was also completely illogical.

Mr. Gao pointed at the treacherous mire and called it the classroom. Not only did he call it that, but he also clasped his hands behind his back, held his head high, and strode into the bog.

But the soft, wet mud didn’t swallow him. The moment his feet touched the mire, they instantly mutated, sprouting countless radiating tentacles!

The dense mass of tentacles pierced through his black, multi-layered cloth shoes, weaving themselves into two round discs like Pillows. These discs held his short frame steady upon the sodden mire, not only preventing him from sinking but allowing him to walk on it as if it were solid ground.

He walked quickly to the center of the mire, then turned to face the group of white-haired students.

He first pointed at Zhang You and said, "Zhang You, you are excused from the classroom for now. Go and copy poems a hundred times, then come back!"

Zhang You’s body trembled slightly. He straightened his somewhat stooped back, momentarily unsure whether to be shocked or overjoyed.

Copying poems a hundred times was, of course, no easy task. After all, his Power was completely sealed. He couldn’t open his Storage Pouch or use his Storage Talisman. With no brush, ink, paper, or inkstone, he had no way to even begin, even if he obediently tried to start copying.

And from the looks of Mr. Gao, it was highly unlikely he would be provided with any writing materials.

’Could the monsters of the Deceitful Realm possibly be merciful?’

Zhang You knew he was in a desperate situation, but everything is relative.

The desperate plight of copying poems without paper or a brush seemed far gentler when compared to the desperate plight of the mire right in front of him.

After all, Mr. Gao hadn’t specified a time limit for copying the poems. The mire before them, however, was clearly a massive trap!

If the Cultivators present hadn’t lost their Power, not a single one would fear this mire. But as things stood, their Power was completely gone. Besides their own thoughts, they were no different from ordinary mortals—

No, they were even weaker than most mortals.

With their teeth loose, hair falling out, and heads full of white, what could be expected from such frail bodies?

In comparison, Song Ciwan actually looked the youngest of the group.

Amidst all this, there was one strange thing Song Ciwan couldn’t figure out.

’Back when I was trapped in the Wealth Village Deceitful Realm, my Power was completely gone, so my Fetal Transformation and Shape-shifting’s Face-Changing Technique failed right from the start.’

’Before entering the Wealth Village Deceitful Realm, I was wearing the face of an unfamiliar Yellow-faced Youth. But after entering, I reverted back to being ’Song Ciwan’!’

’This strange Peach Blossom Spring Illusion Realm has the same suppressive effect on a living person’s Power. My True Qi is indeed suppressed to the point where I can’t circulate it at all. And yet, my Fetal Transformation Technique somehow remains active!’

The Fetal Transformation and Shape-shifting hadn’t been dispelled. Thus, "Xin Mian was still Xin Mian," and had not changed back into "Song Ciwan."

’Isn’t that strange?’

’Is it because my Cultivation is higher now, so the Deceitful Realm’s suppression isn’t complete and missed the Fetal Transformation and Shape-shifting? Or is this Deceitful Realm too "intelligent," so much so that it possesses a filtering ability and deliberately overlooked my Fetal Transformation and Shape-shifting?’

’In any case... it can’t be that the Level of this Deceitful Realm is lower than Wealth Village, right?’

’That’s impossible.’

Wealth Village was probably completely incomparable to this Peach Blossom Spring Illusion Realm!

A thousand thoughts raced through Song Ciwan’s mind, all centered on the Fetal Transformation and Shape-shifting, as she tried to find a loophole in this Deceitful Realm.

At the same time, she didn’t forget to deal with the immediate crisis.

Crossing the mire, let alone standing in it for a class, was simply too much to ask of the Cultivators in their current state.

Song Ciwan counted out just three Ancestral Dragon Coins and handed them to Xie Yunxiang. "Senior Brother Xie," she said, "Mr. Gao has ordered us to return to the classroom for our lesson. However, we have been too crude and haven’t even prepared a single Pillow. Why don’t you take this money, go into the village, and buy a few Pillows to bring back..."

She wanted Xie Yunxiang to buy Pillows. The surface of a Pillow was flat enough that it might be able to support everyone as they stepped safely into the mire.

But before Song Ciwan could finish, Mr. Gao, who was standing in the mire ahead, suddenly widened his eye, and it PLOPPED right out of its socket!

Yes, this time Mr. Gao’s eyeball had truly, physically, rolled out of its socket.

He shrieked, cutting Song Ciwan off. "Xin Mian, you have money! You actually have money?"

As he screamed, he fumbled to catch the falling eyeball.

He hastily shoved the rolling eyeball back into its socket, but his other eye slipped through his fingers and fell straight into the mire below!

GURGLE. It was as if the mire contained countless little, bottomless mouths.

As soon as Mr. Gao’s eyeball dropped, it was instantly enveloped by the wet mud and sank rapidly.

In the blink of an eye, in a single instant, in the space between one life and the next, Mr. Gao’s eyeball vanished into the bottomless pit of the mire, never to be seen again.

Mr. Gao shrieked at the sky. Countless tentacles sprouted from his empty eye socket, writhing as they lifted him instantly out of the mire.

WHOOSH!

As if teleporting, Mr. Gao appeared before Song Ciwan.

His single remaining eye stared death at Song Ciwan as he asked, "You have money? You actually have money? How much money do you have? AH! Tell me! Tell me clearly, just how much money do you have?!"

His shrill voice, faint and indistinct, seemed to echo across the vast mire.

An indescribable pressure bore down on everyone present, making their nerves tighten and their scalps tingle.

Song Ciwan placed a hand over her heart to calm its beating and said slowly, "To answer your question, Mr. Gao, this student does have some money."

Some?

How much was "some"?

In truth, Song Ciwan had quite a few Ancestral Dragon Coins on hand.

She had exchanged Primordial Longevity Pearls for them using the Heaven and Earth Scale; one Primordial Longevity Pearl could be sold for ten Ancestral Dragon Coins.

Initially, Song Ciwan had sold three Primordial Longevity Pearls. Later, she killed many Cultivators who had come through the gate from Illusory Nether City. She had conveniently collected most of their bodies, and these people all carried a fair number of Primordial Longevity Pearls.

Assuming a minimum of twenty-one per person, Song Ciwan had accumulated over two hundred Primordial Longevity Pearls in her Heaven and Earth Scale just from collecting corpses!

Once these Primordial Longevity Pearls entered the Heaven and Earth Scale, they could not be taken out again except to be sold. Song Ciwan had recently sold two batches, twenty-four pearls in total, which netted her two hundred and forty Ancestral Dragon Coins.

Therefore, she was not actually short on Ancestral Dragon Coins.

Furthermore, she still had six opportunities to make an exchange today. If necessary, she could sell several more batches of Primordial Longevity Pearls without any issue.

The problem now was that Song Ciwan had discovered that Ancestral Dragon Coins seemed to be extremely valuable in this Peach Blossom Spring Illusion Realm.

Therefore, how to make use of these cast coins was a profound art in itself.