The Dong Lin Sect in the illusion was beautiful under the early morning sun. The sunlight covered the sect and caused the shadows outside the Dong Lin Temple to continue to shrink.
The members of the Dong Lin Sect were silently cultivating. They were all absorbing the power of the world to cultivate their bodies.
The entire Dong Lin Sect was like a bubble blown by a mortal child. It shined brightly in the world but was also fragile. It was as if it could break with the touch of a hand.
The more beautiful something was, the more illusory it was.
In the back mountain of this illusion, the birds sang and the fragrance of the flower drifted by. There were bursts of cheerful roars from small beasts, and there was a mighty altar built here.
This altar was like a tower. It was 10,000 feet wide and 1,000 feet tall. It was made of blue stone and gave off a distinct sense of coldness.
Above the altar, there was a platform about 1,000 feet wide, and there was a small pool at the center. The pool looked dry but still had a shallow layer of water. Ripples echoed in the water as the wind blew by.
Some vegetation floated on the surface and moved with the ripples.
Wang Lin stood outside the pool and looked at it with confusion in his eyes. Liu Jinbiao stood behind Wang Lin, and his eyes turned as he looked around, but there was fear in his eyes.
“This damn place is not what I see now. Perhaps there is a skeleton under my feet… That pool of water seems clear, but it may actually be foul water with corpses soaking inside…” The more Liu Jinbiao imagined, the more terrified he felt.
He was not afraid of the corpses, but of the unknown.
While fearing the unknown, he didn’t notice that the confusion in Wang Lin’s eyes had become even stronger. Wang Lin looked at the pool and pondered for a long long time.
“Why is it like this…” Wang Lin closed his eyes and pictured the Dong Lin Sect and the Dong Lin Pool he saw in the dream!
“Why is this Dong Lin Pool completely different from the dream realm created by the Seven-Colored Celestial Sovereign!?!
“The Dong Lin Pool in the Seven-Colored Celestial Sovereign’s memory was also here, but there was no altar and it was a large pool. However, this place… which is real which is fake…” Wang Lin opened his eyes and looked around with a gaze that could break all illusions.
What he saw was greatly different from before. When he looked at the altar, it was ancient and covered in cracks. There were even dried spots of blood everywhere.
Under his gaze, this area was surrounded by an aurea of death. When he saw the pool, his gaze eased slightly. The pool hadn’t changed.
Aside from the pool of water, everything else around it changed.
“This should be the real Dong Lin Pool… Looking at the altar, it has existed for a long time, but if so, why it is different from the memory of the Seven-Colored Celestial Sovereign…
“If this place never changed, then what changed was the Seven-Colored Celestial Sovereign!” Wang Lin silently pondered.
When he stepped into the Dong Lin Sect on the Immortal Astral Continent for the first time and not in the dream, a layer of fog appeared in his mind. He began to question his understanding of the cave world.
“Did I really control everything inside the cave world… The All-Seer’s aura, those stone tablets… The Seven-Colored Celestial Sovereign’s false memories… What kind of secret is hidden in all of this?
“This Dong Lin Sect is no ordinary place. Grand Empyrean Dong Lin appeared here and then fell. Not even his body can be found…
“Who destroyed the entire Dong Lin Sect… Was it the All-Seer? Was it the Seven-Colored Celestial Sovereign? Or was it someone with deep connections to the cave world that I missed…” Wang Lin silently pondered.
Wang Lin looked at the Dong Lin Pool for a long time before he took a deep breath and walked toward it. Outside the pool, he looked down on the water’s surface and saw his own reflection.
When he saw himself with his white hair and white robe, his body trembled. A rumble echoed through his mind and he seemed to remember something.
“One thing was very strange. I used to speculate about it… About my Heaven Defying Bead. Why was the Seven-Colored Celestial Sovereign able to take the Heaven Defying Bead from Grand Empyrean Dao Yi and Teacher without attracting their attention…
“Why is it that in the cave world, Blue Dream and company, including the Seven-Colored Daoist, could see that I have the Heaven Defying Bead… But on the Immortal Astral Continent, even now, no one has noticed it…
“Why did even my teacher, Xuan Luo, not see through it when he went to the cave world? Perhaps he saw through it but didn’t speak?
“If that is really the case, I have also met Grand Empyrean Dao Yi. Why did he not say anything or steal it… I’m more convinced they didn’t see through it!
“What exactly is the Heaven Defying Bead? Who created the compass for the Heaven Defying Bead, and what is its use… Why can some people in the cave world see that I have it, but no one on the Immortal Astral Continent can…”
“When I absorbed the scorpion soul, the scorpion said ‘white bead…’ White bead… Does that mean there is a black bead? What is inside it?
“If I can connect this matter with the destruction of the Dong Lin Sect, perhaps I’ll know what shocking secrets are hidden in the cave world!” Wang Lin’s expression changed as he looked around.
“In truth, I do have another method to see what happened to the Dong Lin Sect, who destroyed it… But even Grand Empyreans can’t divinate it. Even the Imperial Teacher was confused for three days and lost his memory of it. I… Can I do it…”
Wang Lin hesitated for a moment, but soon, his eyes were filled with determination. This was not just something related to the Dong Lin Sect, it was also related to him. After all, he came from the cave world and had the Heaven Defying Bead.
Wang Lin originally thought he had removed the curtain, but he had only lifted a corner – it still covered his eyes. He was now going to pry open the invisible hands blocking his eyes and allow himself to see through the gap!
Taking a deep breath, Wang Lin sat down next to the pool. He didn’t look at the Dong Lin Pool but at the Dong Lin Temple in the distance. His aura seemed to disappear and he entered a strange state.
Liu Jinbiao was beside Wang Lin and suddenly turned around. Wang Lin had disappeared from his senses, but when he looked back, he could see him. However, he felt like Wang Lin didn’t belong here, as if this world was rejecting Wang Lin.
“With my body fused with this world… With my divine sense assimilated with the void… With my soul, create a world; with my dream dream of the change in time…” The fusion of Wang Lin’s dream dao and Flowing Time created a mysterious power that would allow him to return to the past like in the cave world!
Wang Lin didn’t know if others could do this, but out of all the people he had met, only he could use it, and he had to borrow the power of the Great Soul Sect’s Ghostly Sail!
When Wang Lin was immersed in the dream dao, he silently lifted his right hand and waved. The Ghostly Sail appeared and rotated around him.
A dream of thousands of years…
In Wang Lin’s dream, time reversed a thousand years, a thousand years, a thousand years… Until even he forgot how much time had passed. The Dong Lin Sect was still the Dong Lin Sect…
The mountain was still the same and the water was still clear. Countless disciples of the Dong Lin Sect were cultivating in the same morning, causing the entire Dong Lin Sect to be covered in a hazy mist.
It was calm, it was peaceful. There were sounds of dao lectures coming from the great hall, where many disciples were listening.
In the distance, rays of light flew between the mountains and large amounts of celestial cranes were flying in the air… On the ground, there were small, captured beasts letting out cheerful cries. A beautiful woman was smiling as she fed the small beasts pills.
Even further away, in the herb garden of the Dong Lin Sect, the disciples were taking care of the herbs according to their teacher’s commands.
There were Dong Lin Sect disciples walking up and down the stone steps of the mountain. When they met, they would respectfully bow if it was a senior. At the foot of the mountain, a few outer sect disciples were laughing as they carried buckets of water. They wiped the sweat off their foreheads.
This quiet Dong Lin Sect gave Wang Lin a familiar feeling. It was like a bubble that emitted a brilliant light…
At the next instant, the sky darkened, but this didn’t attract the attention of any of the Dong Lin Sect disciples. However, at the next instant, the several disciples carrying the buckets of water trembled and fell to the ground.
The fellow sect members greeting each other all let out let miserable screams and then their bodies became bloody messes and corpses… In the sky, the herb garden, the small beasts, and the dao lectures, miserable screams echoed.
The entire Dong Lin Sect was like a bubble, but at this moment, it was like a hand had touched the bubble, causing this beautiful bubble to pop… As soon as the bubble popped, all life inside died!
As the people of the Dong Lin Sect died, a blurry figure appeared in the sky, under the sun. This figure had the sun behind it, making it impossible to see clearly…
Wang Lin raised his head in the dream to see the appearance of the figure. However, he only saw a blur and then intense pain filled his head. This pain was something he had never experienced before and was far more intense than anything he had ever felt!
