Chapter 55 Breaking the Deadlock

"Do you want to kill me?" Bai Xihe's eyes flickered.

Qi Shaolin replied with complete indifference, "If I don't kill you, how can I break this illusion?"

Almost the exact moment his voice fell, Qi Shaolin flashed across the long street, his lightness skill as weightless as walking on duckweed, heading straight for Bai Xihe's face.

Yet whether Bai Xihe was man or ghost remained unclear, as he dissipated with the wind like a phantom, transforming into a scatter of golden powder.

Shortly after, he reappeared on a rooftop.

"When it comes to martial arts, I cannot defeat you," Bai Xihe smiled, "but within my domain, you cannot win against me."

"Is that so?"

Qi Shaolin leaped against the wind, bounding onto the rooftop.

Yet Bai Xihe dissolved into the wind once more, leaving Qi Shaolin to grasp nothing but a willow leaf in his palm.

"Are we just going to wear each other down like this?" Bai Xihe said. "Perhaps we should stop and have a proper talk..."

"Your illusion targets my five senses," Qi Shaolin stated.

Half-crouched on the eaves, he dropped the willow leaf, letting it flutter down onto the figure of "Jiang Luan."

"Sight, sound, taste, touch, and intellect—as long as one is human, one cannot escape the control of the five senses. That is why you cannot escape," Bai Xihe said earnestly. "Young Master Qi, I have no desire to make an enemy of you. You may not know me, but I am familiar with everything about you. It is only a pity that I arrived a step too late, allowing that scoundrel Jiang Luan..."

"What did you say about Jiang Luan?" Qi Shaolin narrowed his eyes slightly.

Failing to timely perceive Qi Shaolin's rising displeasure, Bai Xihe continued with utter confidence, "I know you were merely putting up a front with him all along. Shameless creatures like Jiang Luan never deserved to live this long..."

Before he could finish his sentence, however, his slender neck was seized by a hand.

Qi Shaolin gazed at him coldly.

It was too late for Bai Xihe to attempt escape. He was not meant to possess a physical form in this space, which was why he could come and go without a trace, yet now Qi Shaolin had him in an iron grip, leaving him utterly unable to break free!

"You..." Bai Xihe was utterly shocked.

He knew Qi Shaolin was powerful—that he would grow even stronger in days to come—but how could this be possible...

"Your illusions affect my five senses, and nothing happening right now is real, which is why I couldn't catch you before," Qi Shaolin said indifferently. "What if I were to catch the real you in the real world instead?"

The moment his words finished, the crowd of walking corpses receded like a tide, revealing their true appearance.

They were no longer fighting on the long street; instead, they were deep in a back alley behind a winery, with Qi Shaolin holding Bai Xihe by the neck as if lifting a stray chick.

Bai Xihe snapped his eyes open, bathed in cold sweat.

To cast this technique, he needed intense concentration, and his own consciousness had to detach from his body, which was why he had hidden his physical form here.

Yet how had Qi Shaolin managed to negotiate with him inside the illusion while simultaneously controlling his physical body to track him down and capture him?

Qi Shaolin's five senses were clearly under his control—it was impossible!

"You talk too much," Qi Shaolin looked at Bai Xihe with a sinister gaze. "You should thank me for being in a rather pleasant mood lately, willing to grant you a swift and clean end."

Sensing Qi Shaolin's fierce killing intent, Bai Xihe lost all his previous composure and shouted breathlessly in a cold sweat, "W-Wait!"

How could he possibly die at Qi Shaolin's hands here?

Qi Shaolin was not the type of person to kill arbitrarily; exactly where had things gone wrong?

Unwilling to listen to any more of his nonsense, Qi Shaolin applied a slight pressure with his hand, eliciting a sharp crack of bones.

Bai Xihe's eyes bulged, his tongue involuntarily protruding as his face turned a deep, suffocation-induced purple, leaving him utterly incapable of uttering a single plea for mercy.

Was he truly going to die here?

No, impossible!

Gathering his last remaining strength, Bai Xihe hurled the golden powder clutched in his hand.

Just as Qi Shaolin was about to snap Bai Xihe's neck, he found that the face before him had transformed into someone else entirely.

"Lin..."

"Jiang Luan" thrashed wildly in Qi Shaolin's grip, on the verge of being choked to death.

!!

Though Qi Shaolin knew deep down this was merely another of Bai Xihe's deceptive illusions, facing Jiang Luan's face rendered him completely unable to follow through, and he abruptly flung the imposter away.

"Jiang Luan" crashed to the ground like a broken ragdoll, clutching his neck and coughing violently.

"To think it is like this..." Rather than rejoicing over escaping death, the imposter wore a look of utter disbelief. "You cannot bring yourself to harm Jiang Luan? You like him? You love him?"

Unfathomable as to why Bai Xihe kept spouting nonsense, Qi Shaolin frowned and said, "What business is it of yours? Drop your disguise, and I might still leave your corpse intact."

Bai Xihe shivered, sensing that Qi Shaolin was not joking in the slightest.

Yet clinging tightly to this borrowed skin was Bai Xihe's only remaining chance at survival, so he blurted out, "You cannot kill me, because I am—"

Qi Shaolin could no longer be bothered to listen to his drivel.

Since this wretch was so despicable, using Jiang Luan's appearance to evade death and staying his hand, Qi Shaolin simply chose not to look at him at all, circling behind him with the intent to strike a fatal blow from the rear.

At that moment, however, someone stepped out to block Qi Shaolin's path.

"Liner, stop!"

Qiu Jietu pressed down on Qi Shaolin's wrist.

Qi Shaolin let out a scornful laugh. "Master, you've finally decided to show yourself. Did you send this man to test me?"

"That was never my intention," Qiu Jietu sighed. "My original order to Young Master Baihe was to lure a large fish today, never expecting that you and Young Master Jiang would also wander into this place..."

Though minor complications had arisen, the "fish" had already taken the bait.

Recently, Qiu Jietu had grown somewhat concerned seeing Qi Shaolin seemingly hopelessly trapped in a "trap of tenderness," so he decided to play along, inviting Bai Xihe to test his disciple's progress—an offer Bai Xihe had readily accepted.

Bai Xihe was an eccentric from the Gu valleys of Southern Xinjiang, renowned for his illusions, who had proactively sought them out to help, sharing their ultimate goal.

Though Bai Xihe's derogatory remarks about Jiang Luan moments earlier had caused Qiu Jietu a flicker of doubt, as a companion for their future endeavors, this man's assistance would be indispensable when Ruizao reclaimed his rightful position.

Having finally recovered his breath, Bai Xihe dropped the illusion to reveal his true appearance, offering a sheepish smile behind Qiu Jietu. "Young Master Qi, it is all truly a misunderstanding..."

"Master, I will ask you only one question," Qi Shaolin ignored Bai Xihe entirely, looking straight at Qiu Jietu. "If my wife and I had not shown up just now, would you truly have sacrificed the Master's daughter of the Jin family?"

"..."

Taken aback by the unexpected question, Qiu Jietu froze momentarily.

That silence alone was enough to plunge Qi Shaolin into profound disappointment.

Without another word, Qi Shaolin merely nodded. "I understand."

The brewing rift between master and disciple made Bai Xihe nervous.

Stepping forward to block Qi Shaolin's path, he advised, "Young Master Qi, to achieve great things, why sweat minor details? She was merely a stranger of a little girl, why harbor such lingering resentment? As the saying goes..."

"Sickening," Qi Shaolin said coldly.

"..." Stunned by the rebuke, a whirlwind of complex emotions surged in Bai Xihe's chest, rendering him instantly speechless.

"Liner..."

Frowning, Qiu Jietu opened his mouth to offer an explanation, but Qi Shaolin cut him off:

"Master, the first time I knelt to take you as my master, you warned me that we were not walking the same path. Back then I did not understand, but looking at it now, those words were entirely true."

"..."

Reading the ominous undertone in Qi Shaolin's words, Qiu Jietu had never anticipated that his disciple would distance himself over a mere little girl.

Qi Shaolin continued, "Rest assured, however. Until the Iron-Faced Lord is dead, I will not betray you, nor will I abandon Ruizao's affairs. But I ask that you refrain from any superfluous actions—such as this person here."

With that, Qi Shaolin cast an indifferent glance at Bai Xihe.

Bai Xihe realized he had earned Qi Shaolin's thorough and utter disgust.

Intending to build a favorable connection, he had instead achieved the exact opposite.

"Your life is spared," Qi Shaolin said. "Are you not going to get out of my way?"

Sighing inwardly, Bai Xihe had no choice but to cautiously step aside.

Knowing how deeply Qi Shaolin cherished Jiang Luan, he attempted a final remedial gesture. "Young Master Jiang is still trapped in the illusion; you will need me to awaken him..."

"That is hardly something you need to trouble yourself with," Qi Shaolin replied expressionlessly.

Across the street, Jiang Luan was standing rigidly amidst the flowing crowd, lost in a daze.

Passersby flowed around him, and though a few cast curious glances, none approached to disturb him.

After a long moment, Jiang Luan let out a sharp breath, looking around in bewilderment.

Had the illusion been broken?

Lost in thought, Jiang Luan lowered his gaze to look at his own hand.

Resting in his palm—which should have been entirely empty—was a single willow leaf.