Black and red mist coiled around Tang Sui's snow-white ankles, like a series of binding shackles. Now, as her aura ascended, those restraints were being pried loose.
Her braided princess bun, meticulously arranged, unraveled in the wisps of black and red mist. Strands of silky, raven-black hair puffed out and danced behind her head. Coupled with a pitch-black mask, she resembled a nascent evil spirit, fixing her terrifying gaze upon Bai An Nian, who stood frozen in stunned disbelief.
"Hoo—"
An afterimage streaked past. Bai An Nian's pupils constricted, her eyeballs bulging slightly. With immense difficulty, she raised a hand, attempting to pry away the hand that was suffocatingly clamping her throat.
The black and red mist flowed over her fair skin. No matter how Bai An Nian clawed and scratched, she couldn't truly touch that pale hand or leave any mark upon it.
The agony of suffocation gradually consumed her mind. Blood could not flow freely, and her neck and jaw turned a deep red, crisscrossed with blood vessels. Her bloodshot eyes locked onto the dark pupils beneath the terrifying mask.
With a contorted expression and a frenzied gaze, Bai An Nian became like a second evil spirit. But now, only one evil spirit could survive.
"This feeling... mmmph... you, it feels like I'm killing you for the second time, doesn't it?"
She slowly tightened her grip, her fingers like cold, unyielding steel, sealing shut. As oxygen dwindled, Bai An Nian emitted choked gasps from her throat. Her desperate clawing at Tang Sui's hand grew fiercer and more frantic, like a final struggle before death.
Beneath the mask, Tang Sui's voice, tinged with contemplation, resonated, a stark contrast to the monstrous visage she wore.
"What is real, and what is illusion?"
"Crack—"
The sound of bone shattering came from beneath her hand.
Tang Sui released her grip. Bai An Nian's corpse collapsed limply onto the ground, her wide, bulging eyes fixed in a stare of unconcealed resentment and unwillingness.
The world was like an ink wash painting, its depiction of black and grey dissolving with the opening of the memory palace.
The false scroll tore apart, scattering into ashes amidst the inverted cityscape and the disorienting vision.
"Tap, tap."
Step by deliberate step.
Before Tang Sui, the exquisitely decorated European-style corridor was gone, as was Bai An Nian's corpse with its unseeing eyes. In its place stood a middle-aged man in a Soul Master's robe, hunched over and scratching at his throat, his face contorted in pain.
"So it was you causing trouble."
All memories returned, the genuine and the false, the illusory and the real, finally sorting themselves into an ordered tapestry of truth.
The lifelike face of Anger, along with two other masks—one grinning, one wide-eyed—emerged from the void, hovering beside their owner.
"You, who in the world are you!?" Shi Nian had never dreamed that within Tang San's mental space lurked such a malevolent entity.
And he couldn't withdraw his spiritual energy. No... that wasn't right. He remembered... his physical self in the outside world had already fallen victim to Tang San's hidden weapons. As for him now...
He was merely a wisp of lingering resentment trapped within Tang San's soul space, waiting to unleash a soul shock upon his enemy, Tang San.
"You actually... managed to detain my soul!!"
Shi Nian's aged, wrinkled face resembled dried meat. The sores and traces of time on its surface eroded, revealing stark white bone. His jaw, missing a tooth or two, opened and closed, emitting a "clack-clack" sound.
Flesh and blood peeled away in pieces. His protruding eyeballs, corroded by the lingering malevolence of his soul, became hollow sockets. In an instant, Shi Nian transformed into an empty skeleton draped in a Soul Master's robe. Sudan Novel Network
"You're finally back."
The system's slightly anxious voice echoed in Tang Sui's mind once more. She couldn't tell what role it had played in that protracted ordeal, but she detected a hint of weariness in its tone.
'Just now, was it Shi Nian causing trouble?'
"More than that... let's not explain so much for now. Shi Nian's soul fragment is mixed with a lot of negative energy. You should absorb him first. To help you regain clarity, I expended a lot of energy, and I need to replenish it with other power."
For the first time, the system didn't argue with Tang Sui.
Tang Sui lowered her gaze. Beneath her feet, black and red demonic energy surged like a tide, thick as ink, enveloping and devouring the skeleton filled with negative energy, extinguishing all sounds and disturbances.
"Boom—!"
The grey, hazy world trembled. The next moment, Tang Sui's familiar darkness covered the sky, and the entire world fell under her mental perception once more.
She knew. She had returned to her own mental world.
"What exactly happened just now?" Tang Sui looked at her newly awakened mask—Anger—and projected her thoughts outward, asking the system.
The system, while processing the replenished energy, explained to Tang Sui: "It was the laws."
"What?"
"Tang San fell into Shi Nian's illusion. Before he could realize it was Shi Nian's trap, his perception of your existence wavered. The consequence of being denied by the Son of Destiny... the heavenly dao seized this loophole, and you were plunged into a dream that was both real and illusory."
"If you had truly succumbed to the dream, living like a walking corpse, in the Douluo world, your body would have become vegetative, your mind turned into an idiot, and your soul's aura would have gradually dissipated. Lacking its core—the soul—your body would have died completely, and you would never have been able to reincarnate."
The system spoke the truth of the ordeal with heavy finality. Tang Sui pursed her lips, a lingering sense of dread washing over her.
So, she had truly been on the verge of... never returning...
She turned her head to look at her new awakened mask, which let out a huff. "You were close to not coming back. If it weren't for me, you'd be gone now."