Just as the Seven Sects Rebellion officially began, inside the forbidden ground.
The moment Gu Fangchen and Xu Yuexiu landed, they were greeted by an endless battlefield.
"Kill-"
"Kill-"
"Kill-!!!"
Countless soldiers roared as they charged, hacking down anything in their path. Heavily armored cavalry thundered forward on tall warhorses, massive swords raised high, eyes beneath their helms cold and vicious as they trampled straight toward the two of them.
Under one horse's hooves, there was even a fragment of scalp and bloody flesh, proof that the beast had just crushed a man to death.
Gu Fangchen's expression remained calm. He had expected such a scene.
After all, he had not only once commanded hundreds of thousands in large-scale battles from a god's-eye view, but had also personally experienced life as a common soldier, spending decades fighting his way up to the rank of... well, a squad leader of ten.
Although memories from within an illusion would gradually fade after leaving it, it hadn't been that long yet. The decades he'd spent there still left him with a deep impression.
Therefore, facing such a scene, Gu Fangchen was still composed.
Xu Yuexiu, however, was a completely different story.
As a purely academy-trained cultivator, she had only ever sparred with other cultivators, rarely fighting more than one or two opponents at once. She had never witnessed the sight of hundreds of thousands charging toward her in unison.
Her face turned deathly pale, body stiff as stone, frozen on the spot.
She still remembered she was a cultivator and instinctively tried to draw her sword, but realized her spiritual power was completely dormant. She was no different from an ordinary mortal.
As the iron hooves thundered toward her, Xu Yuexiu closed her eyes in despair.
Seeing this, Gu Fangchen silently took two steps back.
"Splash!"
Blood splattered, but fortunately did not touch him.
The armored cavalryman laughed loudly, swinging his greatsword to behead Xu Yuexiu.
Taking advantage of the moment, Gu Fangchen kicked up a longsword from the ground, caught it midair, and thrust it straight into the knight's eye. With a twist, he gouged out the eyeball.
"Ahhhh!"
The knight screamed as Gu Fangchen drove the blade through his throat.
Gu Fangchen yanked him off the horse and mounted in his place.
Xu Yuexiu's corpse blurred, then reformed into her original, uninjured self.
The purple-robed woman trembled, dazed and pale. Raising her hand and seeing it unscathed, she finally exhaled in relief.
At the same time, realization dawned, this was an illusion!
Xu Yuexiu snapped her head up, eyes wide in disbelief, and saw Gu Fangchen atop the warhorse, reaching a hand toward her.
"What are you standing there for? Come on."
For a brief moment, Xu Yuexiu looked at him with silent grievance, but still grabbed his hand and climbed up behind him.
The armored horse galloped wildly, crushing through the battlefield, opening a path with ease toward a less crowded area.
Far easier than if they had fought their way through alone.
Xu Yuexiu also picked up a sword and fought in silence, hacking at anything in their way.
Once they reached relative safety, Gu Fangchen shrugged and said gently,
"This was the best way to make you realize you're in an illusion."
Xu Yuexiu's heart still pounded in her chest from the battle she'd just endured. She took several deep breaths before finally calming herself.
Then, at last, she came fully back to her senses and said sincerely,
"I understand now. Thank you, Senior Brother, for saving me!"
Given her fragile state earlier, if Gu Fangchen hadn't let her die once, forcing her to feel anger and shift her focus, she might have remained trapped in confusion for a long time.
She could even have lost her mind and been stuck in this illusion forever.
Xu Yuexiu secretly felt lucky. Thankfully... her "Senior Brother Bingfei" had helped her.
This forbidden ground truly was perilous.
Gu Fangchen knew her temperament well, which was why he'd used that particular method.
Seeing she had adapted, he continued to explain,
"We are currently within the supreme Sword Intent left behind by the Sword Pavilion's Patriarch."
"This battlefield is a manifestation of that Sword Intent, a trial left behind."
There were two ways to pass the trial.
The first was to comprehend the true Sword Intent hidden within this illusion. Do that, and one could exit naturally.
As for the second way,
It was to find the Patriarch himself.
That's right.
The Sword Pavilion's long-circulating rumors were true, the Patriarch's body still existed within this illusion.
But not alive, only his corpse remained.
Gu Fangchen only told Xu Yuexiu about the first method. Then he pointed toward the battlefield and said seriously,
"That's all the guidance I can give."
"Sword Intent is something you must comprehend yourself. If you stay with me, it'll be too safe, you'll gain nothing."
...I can't exactly tell you I'm planning to steal from the Patriarch's corpse.
If a Sword Pavilion disciple saw him doing something so rebellious, his reputation would crash instantly, and he'd be hunted endlessly.
Gu Fangchen felt a pang of guilt.
Xu Yuexiu, hearing his words, felt an almost reverent shame rise within her.
She was too weak!
The moment she entered the illusion, she'd frozen, and had to rely on Senior Brother Bingfei to rescue her.
Someone of his ability could clearly move freely in this illusion. Because he had to protect her, he'd nearly been injured.
Otherwise, she had no doubt, Senior Brother Bingfei could charge through this battlefield seven times over without harm!
They were both entering the forbidden ground for the first time, yet he seemed to know exactly when and where the soldiers would strike, as though he had already foreseen every move.
He was far too powerful!
And to think she had once doubted his strength, suspecting he might just be some elder's spoiled son who got in through connections.
How foolish she had been.
Now, in Xu Yuexiu's eyes, even Gu Fangchen's pale, delicate hands, so slender they once seemed feminine, appeared elegant and refined, the mark of ultimate mastery.
Xu Yuexiu hurriedly said,
"I understand! Thank you for your guidance, Senior Brother! I will not disappoint you!"
Gu Fangchen patted her shoulder kindly.
"Go on. I believe in you."
He waved as she strode off with righteous determination, marching back into that meat-grinder battlefield.
Sorry, Junior Sister Xu.
In truth...
You can also comprehend the true Sword Intent directly from the Patriarch's corpse.
...
Following the route from his memory, Gu Fangchen soon reached the battlefield's edge.
There lay a cliff, bottomless, stretching into darkness.
Anyone would assume this was the illusion's boundary, a dead end.
In the game, there had even been an invisible wall preventing passage.
But at one specific point, there was no such barrier, you could jump straight down.
What looked like a glitch was, in fact, the correct path.
Below lay the Patriarch's corpse.
Gu Fangchen found the exact spot, took a deep breath, stared into the pitch-black abyss, steeled himself mentally, then leapt.