blogombal Chapter 25 Failed Inheritance
Chapter 25 Failed Inheritance
silence.
A long silence.
Zhuge Yan hangs in the center of the collapsed interior, with the abyss churning beneath his feet and cracks spreading above his head.
He knew that his inner demon was right; he simply couldn't answer that question.
At this moment, he was neither a sorcerer nor a Qi cultivator; he was simply a person.
How can a person determine whether the world they live in is real?
All senses can be simulated, all memories can be implanted, and all "realism" can be created.
In all the books he had read in his previous life, no one had ever truly answered this question.
He thought he had traveled into a comic book world.
But what if even that "comic book world" is just another layer of virtuality?
What if he is now standing in the inner realm, and outside the inner realm, the alchemy room, Zhuge Duan, the three clan elders, the Wuhou faction, the Shu region, and even the entire world of extraordinary people are just another, larger inner realm?
Zhuge Yan didn't know, and he had no way of knowing.
He lowered his head and remained silent for perhaps the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, or perhaps longer.
There is no time in the interior, only feeling.
Then he spoke, his voice very soft.
"Yes, I can't answer that. I'm a sorcerer, not a god; sorcerers are human too."
How can a person determine whether the world they live in is real? I have no way of knowing.
He raised his gaze and looked at the inner demon's bloodshot eyes.
"But I can be sure of one other thing: I cried when I was born twelve years ago."
Three years ago, when I first tried to infuse Qi into my brain, I almost died from bleeding from all seven orifices. I'm scared now.
These are not fake. Fake things wouldn't hurt this much.
He paused.
"So even if I can't answer whether this world is real or fake, these feelings are real."
The inner demon stared at him silently for a long time.
Within those crimson eye sockets, deep within the murky bloodshot depths, something stirred slightly.
It didn't disappear, it didn't disintegrate, it just moved slightly.
Then it slowly retracted the step it had taken, retreating to its original distance.
"Perhaps you're right, but you still haven't answered the question you fear most..."
As the inner demon finished speaking, the collapsing inner landscape began to rotate.
The shattered sky and the churning abyss mingled together, and fragments of water were swept up by invisible whirlpools, swirling between him and his inner demons.
The outline of the inner demon receded further and further into the vortex, its crimson eyes giving him one last look.
It wasn't mockery, nor pity; it was something Zhuge Yan couldn't understand.
Then, darkness swallowed everything.
Meanwhile, outside...
Zhuge Duan, who was silently protecting Zhuge Yan, also suddenly changed his expression.
Because a white flame suddenly ignited above Zhuge Yan's head.
Before he could even speak, Zhuge Yan's body trembled violently in the center of the Bagua diagram.
It's not an external movement, it's an internal movement.
His body remained in the position of facing upwards, but the three people present could all feel that the true qi within his body was spiraling out of control at a frantic speed.
The flow of Qi in the Ren and Du meridians was simultaneously disordered, and the essence fire and Qi fire collided back and forth between the Dantian and the Tanzhong point. Meanwhile, the pure white light of the upper Dan fire was being stained into a turbid dark red at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Then, Zhuge Yan's face began to contort.
His face remained calm as if he were in meditation, but beneath that calm, something was struggling to break free.
His brows were furrowed, his lips were pale, and a fine layer of cold sweat beaded on his forehead.
Immediately afterwards, two thin streaks of blood meandered down from the nasal cavity.
One drop, two drops.
Then the ears and the corners of the eyes.
Blood seeped from all seven orifices simultaneously, the blood dark and flowing down his cheeks and jawbone, dripping onto his moon-white Taoist robe, spreading out in dark red patterns.
Zhuge Duan suddenly stood up, his right thumb and middle finger interlocked, his index finger straightened, and his ring and little fingers curled up.
"Return to Origin Formation!!!"
His voice boomed in the alchemy room.
The Guiyuan Formation is the most advanced escape technique of the Wuhou School, a spell that requires nine sacrifices to set up.
The offerings were named "Qi" and arranged according to the time of day, namely:
The four auspicious symbols, Yi Qi, Bing Qi, Ding Qi, Wu Qi, Ji Qi, Geng Qi, Xin Qi, Ren Qi, and Gui Qi, are spells that allow multiple people to enter the inner world.
Zhuge Zhong and Zhuge Ji both changed color, but their reactions were faster than their thoughts.
Zhuge Zhong made a hand seal with his left hand, and true qi surged in from Ding Qi.
Zhuge Ji pressed his right hand to the ground, and true qi flowed into him from within.
The three streams of true qi converge at the center of the Bagua diagram, forming a three-dimensional array surrounding Zhuge Yan.
Zhuge Duan's true qi was the first to touch Zhuge Yan's consciousness.
His senses were instantly pulled into a completely unfamiliar interior.
The sky shattered, the water collapsed, and the abyss surged silently beneath our feet.
In the center of the darkness stood a person and a shadow that looked exactly like that person.
The shadowy eye sockets had no pupils, only a burning crimson.
"What exactly is going on with this interior?"
Zhuge Duan didn't have time to identify what the shadow was.
His true qi transformed into a rope, wrapping around Zhuge Yan's body, with the true qi of Zhuge Zhong and Zhuge Ji following closely behind.
With the combined strength of the three clan elders, the three ropes of true qi tightened simultaneously, pulling Zhuge Yan, who was suspended in the center of the collapsed inner landscape, upwards.
The inner landscape was tearing apart. The shattered sky was ripped open by the power of the Returning Origin Array, creating an even larger crack. The surging abyss let out a silent roar, and darkness pressed in from all directions.
The shadow with crimson eyes glanced at Zhuge Duan at the last moment before disappearing completely into the depths of the collapsing inner landscape.
"Return to Origin Formation, dispel!"
As Zhuge Duan deactivated the Guiyuan Formation, Zhuge Yan's body suddenly sprang to the center of the Bagua diagram, like a drowning person struggling to be pulled from the bottom of the water.
Then he gasped for breath, his eyes snapped open, the whites of his eyes were bloodshot, his pupils were dilated, his lips turned purple, and his chest heaved violently.
Blood was still seeping from his seven orifices, and the blood in his nose was flowing even faster than before, running down the corner of his mouth and mixing with the blood seeping from the corner of his eyes, forming a dark red stream at his chin.
Zhuge Duan put away the seal, and his body swayed slightly.
A tiny trickle of blood oozed from the corner of his mouth, but he wiped it away discreetly with his sleeve.
Zhuge Zhong rested his hands on his knees, panting heavily, his Taoist robe soaked with sweat.
Zhuge Ji remained silent. He didn't say anything, but closed his eyes and regulated his breathing for a while. However, the knuckles of the hand he pressed on the ground turned white, and the veins on the back of his hand were already bulging.
The room was filled with the stench of blood.
Zhuge Yan sat in the center of the Bagua diagram, blood still seeping from his seven orifices, but his eyes had regained their clarity.
He looked down at the dark red bloodstains on his Taoist robe, then looked up at the bloodstains on his father's lips that he hadn't had time to wipe away, and then turned his gaze to the two clan elders.
In that instant, he understood everything.
He ultimately failed in his attempt to inherit the Samadhi True Fire...