“Mom? Dad?” Shin muttered out.

“Shin!” The lady rushed forward, tears welling up in her eyes. Shin was unable to resist the ‘attack’, and his entire body was enveloped by the woman’s touch. Unlike the silverback gorilla, Shin felt the skin of the lady. Her sweet and calming aroma was the first thing that Shin noticed. She was a head shorter than the fully-grown Shin, so her face could fall flat on the youth’s chest. Shin felt his upper robes turn wet as snot and tears stained his body.

“I missed you so… so… much...” Shin’s mother cried. She held the boy firmly, locking her fingers behind Shin’s back. The young man stood firm, not moving his hands in the slightest. However, the woman didn’t care. She tightened her grip on Shin and brought one hand to pat the sharp chin of the young man. “You’ve grown so much… So handsome and strong...”

The man standing behind the lady took two steps forward, his face grinning from ear to ear. “Cassiel, you’re choking our son! Calm yourself a little!”

“Errol! How could you say that?” The lady turned around and reprimanded the man. “We haven’t seen him for such a long time! We should spend as much time as we possibly can with him!”

“Haha! See, Shin! This is what it’s like to deal with your mother!”

The couple continued to banter, all while Shin stood there silently. His mind was blank. The famed Black-Haired Tyrant, the young man who could think ten, twenty steps ahead, didn’t have a mental capacity to handle his current situation. Shin gazed around. Now, he finally understood why this place looked so familiar to him… It was Awter Lake.

The decrepit buildings that were filled with moss and dirt had been reverted back to its original state. Just like Longyu Palace, there was a considerable structure floating in the centre of Awter Lake. Dozens of watchtowers stood overhead, and hundreds of men and women walked around in peace and harmony. It really was a picture-perfect scene. It really was… An image that Shin had dreamt of.

Ever since he was a child, Shin had always wondered. What would it be like to have a real family? What if he wasn’t an orphan that was picked up by the Frie Clan. As he grew older and unravelled more details about his heritage, the alternate universe that he imagined slowly took shape, becoming closer and closer to his ideal. He could imagine his parent’s face, what kind of life they would have led. And each time Shin thought of it, all he could think about was a nest of joy.

“What’s wrong, Shin?” Cassiel held onto the youth’s shoulders, worried about the young man’s lack of response.

“Mom… I wanted to see you too...”

“Hmmm? Aren’t I here already?”

“Yes… Yes, you are...” Shin pushed the woman away from his embrace. His mind had faltered for a moment there, he had to admit, but Shin knew the true face of this world. Shin knew that it was all illusions. The alternate reality that he wanted to be real could never be real.

It pained Shin to push away his mother. A person he had dreamt about and prayed so long to see. But it was the right choice. No, it was the only choice that Shin had. “I’m sorry. I want to talk to you again… But not like this...”

Shin shook his head and leapt backwards. Closing his eyes, the youth congregated his mana into his mind. The ‘world’ that Shin was in became translucent as the handsome couple began to fade. Cassiel’s voice, her scent, her touch… They were all disappearing. The dead couldn’t be revived. Everything that Shin was experiencing was just a figment of his imagination that had been exploited by Jingyu Taiyi.

In the material world, the clown was beginning to feel a little frightened. Illusionists usually preyed on their victim’s emotions to keep them in a trance. Fear was a common emotion to exploit. However, when attacked by the silverback gorilla, Shin just stood there and ignored the threat altogether. Love was another vital emotion to keep illusions going. If the Illusionist could keep their victims happy in a utopian world, chances are, they would never find the exit, nor would they want to. After all, everything that they ever wanted was in that paradise. Alas, Shin had been through many trials and tribulations thus far, too many to count. He wouldn’t be so easily swayed by Taiyi’s illusions.

‘Hmmm, what about this?!’

The young Luminary played around with Shin’s mind before finding the perfect chance to strike. The mind-elements around him started to become crazy, and his mana reached a whole other level. Kanari was the one most acutely aware of the Taiyi’s change. She could tell that the man was about to execute something far more sinister.

‘Only two minutes have passed, and Taiyi’s already pushed to this point? That’s a first...’ Jingyu Shenxian mused, her brows raised and lips curved upwards. As one of the highest-ranking individuals in the Jingyu Clan, she knew how powerful the youth’s illusions were. Even Rank 50 Spirit Lords, if they weren’t amply prepared, would fall miserably against the young prodigy.

However, Taiyi was forced to amp up his spiritual ability to the maximum within two minutes, which could only mean one thing. The youth’s mental tolerance was much higher than anyone expected. It was probably a matter of time before Shin could break free of the illusion, beating the third Luminary and taking one step closer to the Celestial River. Still, that didn’t mean that Taiyi was going to give up without a fight.

The mirrors around Shin released a tremendous deathly radiance, blinding many who sat too close to the arena. In Shin’s mind, the illusory world that was crumbling became much more corporeal. His mind was firm, and he was well aware that the world surrounding him was false. However, the illusory world was still going strong.

Shin was compelled to open his eyes. Taiyi’s Mind-Element had crept up further into Shin’s subconsciousness, and the youth’s mental resistance wasn’t enough to just fight it off. Brought into a new place, Shin spun around once. Awter Lake had disappeared. The bright sunny afternoon had been swapped with a blanket of stars.

‘This is!’

Shin knew this place. All too well, in fact. A tall mountain, filled with man made structures that were fit for a modernised town. There were burns all over the hill as a flaming hell dominated the landscape. Beasts flew overhead, and brave men and women repelled the attacks from assailants with darkened robes.

Shin… He had been brought back to the time where the Black Masks attacked Frie Mountain.

Just like the day itself, Frie Mountain was engulfed in panic and disorder. Countless warriors were falling like flies while the children hid with shaken legs and ashen faces. Pandemonium, that was the aptest description that Shin could think of. Everyone was fighting hard to keep the place they loved afloat, but the beasts continued to overwhelm them. And then… Shin saw it.

On the floor, just a few metres away from where he was standing, a young boy was bearing the same features as him. Same hair, same face, same eyes. There was one difference, though. The youth was much younger, probably a few years since puberty had hit. In the boy’s hands, a bleeding red-haired girl laid utterly still. She was sleeping in a pool of crimson blood, and her body was damaged beyond repair.

The young boy kept begging for the girl to wake up and continuously provided mana to his fingertips in hopes of resuscitating her. An elderly blonde woman stood on by, shaking her head in anxiety, while a couple of youngsters continued to wail at the side.

That’s right… Taiyi had just brought up Shin’s most hated memory.

Shin could taste the crackling of the flames, and his feet got soiled by the blood of the girl he loved. Shin’s felt his heart clench and his face tighten. Yes, he knew that it was an illusion, but it just felt so real. Unlike the encounter with his parents, Shin had lived through this event. He knew what exactly happened. How much pain and suffering he had to go through and how much time it took for him to recover.

Taiyi thought that since Shin was immune to illusions using fear or love, he could at least be affected by the immense grief and sadness that he’d kept buried deep in his heart. And well… Taiyi got his wish. Shin really was affected by the new illusory world that the Luminary had brought him into… Just not in the way that he’d expected.

“You dare...”

Ariel’s death was Shin’s most feared memory. It was one he never wanted to see again but always came back to. It was perhaps the first pivotal point in his life and in a sense, it was his most precious memory. So, it also meant that Shin treasured this memory like nothing else in the world. And yet… Jingyu Taiyi dared to deface it, all for a match.

“YOU FUCKING DARE!!!” Shin screamed. He was still under an illusion, but Shin didn’t care anymore.

Frie Mountain broke down instantly, and the image of Ariel and his younger self disappeared. The Mind-Element only affects a person’s consciousness. If one was strong enough to resist the illusions of the caster, one could permanently destroy the false world that was created.

Shin broke the illusory world in half and brought them all into his Spectre Soul. The familiar five crystal obelisks levitated up high in the centre of the lake while millions of Mind-Element particles floated down like falling snow. Shin had broken free of the illusions, taking back control over his consciousness.

Jingyu Taiyi’s entire body stiffened up. His extended hand was pulsating out even more energy, and his face was crumpling. Shin wasn’t just going to let Jingyu Taiyi off for touching his reverse scale. The Luminary wasn’t in control of his mana anymore and soon… Neither was his consciousness.

Jingyu Taiyi opened his ‘eyes,’ only to find that Yingxiong Amphitheatre had wholly vanished. A primitive lake with an endless amount of starlight reflections dominated his senses. The sweet music of water, the chilling cold of the lake and the bizarre freezing touch of the surface… They were all so real…

No, it was real.

Taiyi was a master Illusionist, so he could instantly tell the difference between fantasy and reality. By some mystical ability, Shin had brought the Luminary into his Spectre Soul, without even meaning to. Shin was levitating a few metres above the five obelisks that governed his soul. With closed eyes and raised arms, the young man brought forth endless amounts of spiritual energies. There was the apparent Water-Element that controlled everything that Shin could do. There was even a tinge of Ice-Elements and Mist-Elements in the area. However, there was one thing that Taiyi couldn’t overlook.

The snowy light touched Taiyi’s palms and instantly melted into his body. They had a familiar touch and scent, an element that the Luminary was more than familiar with.

“Mind-Element…” he muttered. All of Taiyi’s mana, which had been used to create the illusory world to trap Shin, was now part of the Prince of Water’s Spectre Soul, nourishing it with every passing second. It really was a sight that one could never see, even if a million years had passed. How could someone who clearly didn’t possess the means to harvest the Mind-Element, obtain that much power from a foreign element? It didn’t make sense!

And then… Taiyi saw it…

“W-What’s t-th-hat?!” There was an enormous scar breaking the night sky in half. The mark wasn’t like a simple tear in the void. Instead, it took the characteristics of a pulsating heart. However, what really tripped Taiyi over, was just the sheer size of the object. His own Mark of the Celestial Dragon wasn’t even a tenth the size of Shin’s.

Shin was still in a trance from absorbing that much mana, so he wasn’t aware of the changes in his Spectre Soul, let alone the fact that someone else had invaded it. Shin kept cultivating himself, giving himself more and more mana by the second.

For the first time in his life, Taiyi felt a primal fear pushing through all his veins. He wasn’t in the mood to play the clown anymore. All he wanted to do was run away, as far as he possibly could. Alas, that wasn’t possible…

The scar continued to terrorise the poor Luminary. Taiyi wanted to summon out his Colossal Leviathan to protect himself, but the Scion of Water feared to come out. It was trembling and bending down. If it were a mortal, the Leviathan would be wailing like a miscreant, asking the Priest to forgive its sins.

Taiyi wasn’t dumb. He played the fool a lot, but he was by far one of the most intelligent for his age. If the Colossal Leviathan feared to come out, that could only mean one thing…

“Celestial Dragon...”

The moment Taiyi said those words, the tranquil lake broke into gigantic rogue waves and the night sky became all the more ethereal. Shin’s Spectre Soul had suddenly become a vacuum, sucking in all the foreign spiritual energies inside. That includes the poor Clown that dared to challenge the Prince’s sovereignty.

“My God...”

Those were Taiyi’s last words before the man’s consciousness was ripped from him, and his mana drained out entirely.