Chapter 52: Hello, Mirage Demon

Inside the Celestial Master Hall lies the Fire Prison, where a thousand-year-old Mirage Demon has been sealed — a secret known only to the sect masters of the major clans and a handful of elders.

Three hundred years ago, this demon wreaked havoc in the northern lands. Bloodthirsty and violently insane, it cultivated by drinking human blood. It even slaughtered an entire border city, using the population as a living blood sacrifice. Countless celestial masters went to subdue it, but all were devoured. Even the great aristocratic families lost their strongest to it.

The Mirage Demon grew stronger with each massacre, destroying three cities in succession and leaving nothing but corpses in its wake. Just as it was about to invade the Central Plains, the Three Great Sects, Four Main Schools, and Six Noble Families united for the first time in history. They sacrificed countless talented disciples and finally managed to defeat and seal the demon here.

From that day on, the cultivator world realized there were terrors beyond ordinary imagination. To protect the human realm, the sects laid aside grudges and founded the Celestial Master Hall — partly to unite exorcists under one banner, and partly to guard and suppress this demon.

Over the next three centuries, the Mirage Demon’s power slowly waned. Its name was gradually forgotten, and even the entrance to the Fire Prison was lost to time. Only each generation’s Hall Master holds a single teleport talisman — used once a year when the seal is weakest, to check its status.

But Xu Qingfeng, the current Hall Master, had never imagined the entrance to the Fire Prison was right beneath this very examination hall — and that a first-time examinee would stumble into it by accident.

Xu wasn’t worried about the Mirage Demon escaping. What truly made his heart sink was the thought of losing such a rare talent. The Fire Prison was riddled with lethal arrays meant to slay demons. Even a master like Elder Jiao would hesitate to enter, let alone a young disciple.

His first instinct was: “Quickly, rescue that disciple!”

After all, it was their oversight that led to this disaster.

The two elders snapped out of their shock. Elder Jiao was the first to charge inside. But the deeper they went, the more shaken they became.

“Th-These… these arrays… they’ve all been broken!”

“Impossible! These are killing arrays! How did she undo them?”

Lingering traces of dismantled formations lined the passage. Not one or two — every single array they’d passed was destroyed.

The further they walked, the more their unease grew. For the first time, their fear wasn’t for the girl — it was for the demon.

“She hasn’t… released the Mirage Demon, has she?”

Elder Shen’s face turned deathly pale, his voice trembling and growing quiet without him noticing.

“No… she shouldn’t have,” Xu tried to reassure himself, though his heart pounded hard enough to hurt. “The seal gate before the demon’s prison is protected by an ancient isolation array. She couldn’t possibly open it. She’s only been inside for half an hour — that’s far too fast.”

“Hall Master, you mean… that gate?”

Elder Jiao pointed to the corridor’s end — where a door stood wide open, flooding the passage with blinding red light.

Xu Qingfeng: “……”

卧槽！

Σ(°△°|||)︴

A cold dread crashed through him like thunder. His voice shot up several octaves into an almost panicked scream:

“Stop her!”

He spun on his heel and sprinted at full speed, burning a Blink Talisman to rush forward like a gale, ignoring the scorching heat and blinding red glow. His heart was in his throat as he searched.

He arrived just in time to see Yun Jiao, calmly completing her final array placement — a formation flag in hand, driving it into the ground.

“Nooo!”

Xu bellowed with every ounce of his strength — but it was too late. The formation activated the instant her flag settled.

Boom!

The cavern erupted. The massive, man-thick chains snapped apart one by one with deafening cracks. The entire Celestial Master Hall trembled violently as boulders rained from above.

The three elders froze in horror — seasoned cultivators though they were, they instantly understood: the Mirage Demon was awakening. Stopping it was no longer possible. They needed to escape and call the Three Sects, Four Schools, and Six Families to reseal it.

“Move! Get out now!” Xu shouted, voice sharp with urgency. “The demon’s blood mist devours human life!”

Elder Shen nodded and prepared to retreat, but Elder Jiao, seeing Yun Jiao standing there dazed, immediately flashed forward using another Blink Talisman. He grabbed her arm and barked,

“Girl, come with me! The Mirage Demon’s about to awaken — we must leave now!”

“Mirage Demon?”

Yun Jiao blinked, startled. So that’s what was locked up here… no wonder the arrays were so intricate. Before she could protest, Elder Jiao was already hauling her toward the exit.

“Wait—!”

She barely had time to speak before he dragged her forward. The group dodged falling chains and boulders, racing for the corridor.

Suddenly — BOOM!

A glowing formation flared to life across the exit, blocking their way. The stone doors slammed shut with a thunderous crash, etched instantly with dense, glowing runes.

“Damn it!” Xu Qingfeng’s face went ashen. “The Sealing-Slay Array has activated! We’re trapped!”

This was the Fire Prison’s final failsafe — a long-lost earth-grade array designed to lock the Mirage Demon inside once it broke free, even if it meant sacrificing everyone still inside. At best, it could stall the demon long enough for help to arrive.

Now, it had trapped them as well.

“Watch out!”

Elder Shen yanked the despairing Hall Master aside just in time to avoid a cascade of falling chains. His eyes snapped to Elder Jiao.

“Elder Jiao! Think of something! Can you break that door array? We’ll be buried alive if we stay here!”

“No way!” Jiao shook his head sharply. “That’s an ancient earth-grade Sealing-Slay Array. It’s long lost — even if I tried to crack it, it would take far more time than we have.”

“Then what do we do?”

Elder Shen’s panic spiked as more chains and boulders rained down. “At this rate, we’ll be crushed before the demon even gets us!”

“Uh… excuse me…”

All this time, Yun Jiao — still in Elder Jiao’s grip — hesitated, then raised her hand a little.

“I… think we can hide over there.”

She pointed toward a side alcove behind them.

The three elders turned to look — and froze.

Not far behind, there was a clear ten-foot-wide area. No chains fell there. No rocks tumbled. It was spotless, as if something deliberately left it untouched.

Coincidentally, it was exactly where Yun Jiao had been standing earlier when she finished her formation.

Elder Shen: “……”

Hall Master Xu: “……”

Elder Jiao: “……”

(End of Chapter)