One minute, two minutes, three minutes...

By now, Hongfei had lost track of how much time had passed. Cold sweat began to form on his forehead... In such a soundless environment, one is plagued by an unprecedented fear, for in this gray and foggy world, apart from oneself, not a single living thing can be found. The phenomenon is extremely terrifying.

After more than ten minutes, even with Hongfei's will as sturdy as steel, he couldn't help but feel a growing sense of panic... He tried pinching himself hard or slapping his body to a non-injurious degree, but no matter how he tried, he couldn't break free from the Kun Dun's prison. His soul seemed to be eternally shackled in this sunless, pitch-black Abyss.

If this is a nightmare, I wish I could wake up soon," Hongfei actually harbored a faint desire to give up in his heart... Yet his subconscious was quietly signaling him that he couldn't give up, that he was still fighting. But in the end, even Hongfei himself wasn't sure any longer—he was battling, or rather, had he been living through a prodigious spring/autumn dream without awakening from it?

Were all his experiences real or mere illusions? In the dream realm, was he still himself, or had he become Mengdie? In a moment, Hongfei was lost in confusion...

All was quiet outside the circle. Watching Hongfei standing motionless in place, with a vacant gaze as if his soul had suddenly departed... Feng Yi shook his head silently; it seemed that Hongfei wouldn't be able to escape. If he couldn't comprehend Mengdie's way, Feng Yi couldn't see how Hongfei would break free from Nangong Qi's binding.

The so-called "Mengdie's Way" is also a phenomenon, which, in his view, is still below the Blank Paper Realm.

In short, Mengdie's Way lies between life and death; alive, one is a person; dead, one becomes a butterfly. Life and death are like a dream, illusory; in a dream, man doesn't know he's a butterfly, and a butterfly in a dream doesn't know it's a man. There's no essential difference between man or butterfly, the reason being, in a dream one is a butterfly, awake one is a person, dead one is again a butterfly, alive, still a person, whether dreams or reality, both are merely two forms of existence. If the dreams are known to be unreal, who's to say reality isn't also a dream?

The so-called miracles all rest on practical steps. In Feng Yi's understanding, one must wholeheartedly accept their environment and with a go-with-the-flow attitude, comprehend reality to truly resonate with nature and achieve unity. Resistance would only backfire. In other words, under these circumstances, perhaps getting some sleep to achieve a serene state of mind and to trigger the "Mengdie Effect" could be the key to escaping the Illusion Technique. Of course, with Feng Yi's current realm, there was no need for that.

Only a few seconds had passed, yet Hongfei's body was already breaking out in cold sweat as if uncontrollably. Nangong Qi slowly lowered her hand...

Stricken by the Illusion Technique, Hongfei suddenly woke from the dream, looking around in disbelief... He couldn't comprehend what had just happened to him; he had actually been trapped by Nangong Qi for hours, or at least that's how it had seemed in Hongfei's mind, as if hours had passed, but in reality, it had been less than ten seconds.

This is terrifying! Hongfei remembered trying to wake himself up by hitting himself countless times in the illusion, but it was futile. Yet when he finally came to his senses, he realized that everything had been just a dream, and he was merely a figure within it.

Once he stepped out of the range of the Illusion Technique, the only thing on his mind was this: if only a few short seconds of control by an Illusion Technique could be so horrifying, imagine how terrible it would be if it were prolonged to several minutes or hours. It's unimaginable the nightmares one could suffer. The Nangong Family's reputation as evil may have much to do with these techniques, and it would be impossible for Hongfei to not feel fear at this point.

"Miss Qi is indeed formidable. I admit defeat," Hongfei bowed with hands clasped and said. Although more than ten seconds had passed on the platform, Hongfei knew inside that Nangong Qi had already eased off. With his ears and eyes attuned to his surroundings, even from the conversations of people nearby, he could tell that only a moment had passed. With this, it appeared that Nangong Qi had indeed shown leniency.

It was a pity that Feng Yi was too far away; he could feel Nangong Qi's strong eye technique and mental strength, but he couldn't hear the conversation between the patriarch on stage and Nangong Qi clearly at all, as the noise of the surrounding crowd buzzed like a swarm of flies.

No sooner had Hongfei bowed and stepped down from the stage than the patriarch of the Nangong Family asked aloud if anyone else wished to challenge. Living in his heart, he was secretly calculating. Marrying Qi'er, who had realized the Flashing Golden Eye, to Hongfei was certainly motivated by more than the previous tripartite agreement. He had indeed said that everything could be considered if one defeated Hongfei within 10 seconds, and Hongfei had agreed. Originally, this was a jest, but who would have thought that Qi'er would actually come to realize the Flashing Golden Eye.

The patriarch sighed deeply, it seemed it was fated. Since Qi'er had realized the Flashing Golden Eye, he had no more concerns. Rather than holding on, it would be better to let her go. This was an opportunity to break off this marriage alliance. It would be acceptable both emotionally and rationally for both families, so he asked if there was still anyone wishing to challenge.

However, Feng Yi hadn't heard the previous conversation between the two, and upon hearing there was a challenge, of course, he wanted to fight. He had only one reason for fighting: he didn't want to let down Qi'er's expectations of him any longer. No matter what, he couldn't just watch Qi'er marry someone she didn't like. No matter what, he must also come clean to Qi'er about his own physical condition. That was the only thing he could do.

"I'll take the challenge."

Everyone was startled upon hearing this, as they could only hear the voice of the person speaking, but couldn't see anyone. What trickery was this? Was someone mocking Nangong Qi's marriage affairs, pretending to issue a challenge and then run off? Hmph, that was taking the Nangong Family too lightly. Yet, as people began to look backwards, they finally found a man in black standing in a very far corner, his head covered with a mask.

His presence was so low that it exceeded normal standards. If he hadn't spoken up voluntarily, perhaps no one would have noticed him. It had to be said that due to the crowd and Feng Yi's low profile in the last row, even Nangong Qi hadn't noticed him at this time. She had just finished fighting and thought no more challengers would come, so she turned to leave with satisfaction.

Little did Nangong Qi know that just as she walked away, someone from behind was shouting that they wanted to challenge.

The many elders of the Nangong Family were looking at each other. Asking for challengers was just a formality, surely this simpleton didn't really think it was his turn to appear? One must know, the evaluators of the Nangong Family were only impressed by two types of people: the first were those with exceedingly outstanding abilities and the second was Feng Yi, the one at the very end, who merely managed to punch with a force of 232 kilograms, also being the male with the lowest strength of all those registered in this marriage contest.

Despite the disdainful glances from the crowd, the Nangong Family patriarch's gaze became sharp upon seeing Feng Yi—he was unable to gauge Feng Yi's depth. With his insight, even the least impressive of people wouldn't escape his notice, after all, this event wasn't as simple as just a martial contest for marriage. It was the first time the Nangong Family had opened their doors to the outsiders, and they had to be wary of those with ill intentions.

However, from yesterday to today, from the beginning to the end, he hadn't noticed such a person. It should be known that a man in black in the crowd was very conspicuous, and this man even wore a mask, which increased the patriarch's suspicion.

If even he hadn't noticed, there were only two possibilities: first, this person had barely shown up in the last two days, perhaps only coming to freeload food and drink, but as a young man, having the guts and the ability to freeload in the Nangong Family was somewhat courageous, and he wasn't to be blamed.

Apart from this first scenario, the remaining possibility was simply unbelievable: this person might be an expert with an extremely high level of mastery, so high that his presence was almost nil. Such a level of existence, apart from when he wished to greet someone, would usually be ignored by people inadvertently, not for any other reason but because such high-level experts were very good at concealing their aura.

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