Then, he reversed the flow and launched an offensive against XÄ«.
An endless array of swordsmanship, combined with various Elemental Magic, shot straight toward XÄ«!
“If I’m not mistaken, you still haven’t touched him, have you?”
“Do you also believe that, having those memories sealed and lying in bed like a sickly patient for so long, he’s already turned utterly useless, rotten?”
“Admit it, he lost that one quality you were so obsessed with long ago…”
“With your elegance and extreme pickiness, deep down, do you also think he’s far from perfect?”
“Clang! Clang! Clang!”
The opponent’s attacks became even more ferocious.
The slashes, upward sweeps, and straight thrusts of that sword came at XÄ« like a relentless rainstorm, forcing her to retreat again and again.
“And me, look at me!”
“You admire his bravery. Eight years ago, I personally witnessed his deeds. I learned his courage and inherited it. Now I am far stronger than he is, far more perfect!”
His words gradually carried a proud, disparaging tone: “I gave myself his face, I learned his personality, I’ve mastered countless magic he never could, I’m proficient in swordsmanship he never wished to learn, and now, could never possibly learn!”
“Perhaps if he’d never lost those memories eight years ago, never spent all that time in illness, he’d be just like me now…”
“I am him. An even more perfect version of him.”
“Still, to you…” As the man before her unleashed a full-strength downward strike, XÄ« deftly dodged.
The attack shattered the entire railing and set the massive ship trembling as if in an earthquake.
He bared his teeth and continued, “The one who obeys your every word. But why are you still stubbornly choosing him, and won’t even spare me a glance?”
“Squelch-“
A chilling sensation pierced from back to abdomen, making the false Lin Nuo lower his head to look at his body.
At some unknown moment, the faceless Paper Golem that XÄ« had secretly formed slipped behind him.
Just as he grew frenzied, trying to wake her from her delusions, the sharp magic paper spike drove right through his heart…
XÄ« stared at him coldly.
From start to finish, her eyes had never wavered.
The false Lin Nuo merely pulled out the paper spike.
As the wound from his back to his chest and abdomen gradually healed, the smile on his face grew increasingly manic.
It was as if some more sinister scheme was brewing in that creeping chill.
“Your magic power is nearly depleted, isn’t it?”
Realizing that this fake—who couldn’t be killed as long as he remained in the mirage—wasn’t the key, Surrounded by Paper Blossoms, XÄ« shielded herself with the Art of Ritual Paper.
As she pondered what other ways there might be to break the deadlock—
“Clang—”
A sharp wind howled, signaling another attack from the shadows.
An incredibly dangerous chill made XÄ« look up.
One of the cultists trapped inside a Paper Blossom bud thrust a magic-imbued spear right through the flower from within.
Now, the spear was shooting straight toward her face—
“Clang!”
Before she could react, someone suddenly appeared in front of her, blocking the attack with the solid form of a magic-breaking gauntlet.
XÄ« glanced sideways ever so slightly.
It was the real Lin Nuo, who had come to her side.
Helping her fend off this sudden, unperceived assault, Lin Nuo’s action seemed to reveal something to XÄ«.
Her expression grew a degree colder, “You’ve realized! At last, you’ve finally realized! Can you guess why Lin Nuo knew before you did exactly where the attack would come from?”
“Because…” The fake Lin Nuo’s tone blazed even hotter: “In this mirage, all your actions and every possible outcome within five seconds are foreseen by him in advance and you cannot kill him…”
“But, Wise Princess, have you ever considered things from his perspective that the only chance to escape lies in killing your Lin Nuo, Noble Young Master.”
“Lin Nuo, who spent eight whole years replacing maids and resisting ordinary girls just to avoid the possibility of ever having you in his future…..”
“That as long as he breaks this illusion and escapes, Dax Migludia will be waiting to receive him, and I’ll never have the chance to trouble him again. Lin Nuo, Noble Young Master, will be perfectly safe and by quietly killing you here, he can place all the blame on me, and Shilang Bay won’t seek revenge against him.”
“Five seconds is more than enough for him to predict your every attack, enough to fight with you even though your magic is less than half what it was, and even to kill you, take revenge for being imprisoned and mind-controlled by you, and finally, never see you again, as he wishes…”
“Oh dear… Only one of you can survive; killing you is the most reasonable choice, even morality itself would stand on his side.” The fake Lin Nuo spread his hands, smiling subtly and sighing, “So many, and all entirely to his benefit without a single downside!”
“Do you really think, with so many conditions… He wouldn’t turn around and kill you?”
The wind howled, blades and spears clashed, enemy screams echoed sharply amidst the carnage…
His voice, within the crash of waves, the wind at sea, and the bloodthirsty cries of the cultists, quickly dissipated like blue smoke.
Before XÄ«’s eyes, the cultists still surged forward, not a single one diminished.
The mounting tension pushed her mind to the brink.
All of it made this illusory magic-formed sea feel as oppressively hopeless as a hellish prison.
“So foolish, this isn’t like you at all, Princess of Shilang Bay!” The fake Lin Nuo pressed on relentlessly, his words a bone-chilling murmur: “Haven’t you thought,after just being hypnotized and mind-controlled, in that Secret Chamber illusion, could he truly tell which ‘you’ is real, so quickly?”
“What if he’s aiming for the real you, and means to use the Wrist Blade,to slit your throat…”
The girl’s next attack clearly slowed.
The last hint of a smile at the corner of her eyes vanished.
***
“The Evil God! It’s The Evil God!”
“Let me go, I cannot investigate! This magic truly comes from the Evil—”
“Smack!”
Silence fell, tense and heavy as a dark Secret Chamber.
A middle-aged man with water-blue hair, face twisted with rage, flung away his cane.
Without mercy, he slapped the scouting agent who had just detected that the invading magic belonged to The Evil God, causing the terrified agent’s nose to burst with blood.
His eyes instantly cleared.
“The hell with your evil! Keep searching!”
“Alright, I understand, my lord…” The scouting agent, cowering under the Count’s pressure, could only nod dumbly and raise his trembling hand to continue sensing the traces of illusion magic that lingered in the Secret Chamber…
And those drawn into that power, now vanished without a trace—Xī, the Priestess of the Clemence Family, and Lin Nuo, Noble Young Master of Clemence.
At Westshore Lowtide Port, in an underground Secret Chamber guarded by the Treading Wave Sea Guard Knights.
This was a cellar where no one usually ever set foot.
At that moment, the blue-haired, limping Count Dax Migludia of the Migludia Family waited there with a dark expression.
Behind him stood his bannerman and the leader of the Sea Guard Holy Knights, posted at the door.
At the words “The Evil God,” they all clenched their fists in anxiety.
The chief healer, robed in mage’s garb, had already taken his place, his face equally grim.
“It really is… The Evil God!”
“But fortunately—fortunately, it’s not His true body…”
Only after the scouting agent confirmed the type of this illusion magic did he breathe a sigh of relief.
Then his breathing quickened again: “The one who took the Young Master is a blood-bound follower of The Evil God…”
“What’s their title?”
“….” The agent wiped his cold sweat, glanced fearfully at Dax, and then whispered, “The Noble Young Master is trapped in that magic… Illusory Cycle Mirage.”