Chapter 43: THE EXAMINATION(17)

Li Yan remained silent as he listened to them. He knew exactly how he had earned the score, and no amount of accusation could change the fact that he had personally answered every question.

Elder Mo threw the examination paper onto the table. "Leave the sect. Your results will not be recognized."

The pressure around Li Yan’s head suddenly became heavier, and the voices surrounding him grew louder until they blended into an overwhelming noise that seemed determined to drown out his own thoughts.

Then someone called his name.

"Li Yan."

He turned around and saw Gu Jun standing among the examinees with blood covering his clothes. The sight immediately caught his attention because Gu Jun, who had been beside him since they entered the mountain, had suddenly disappeared.

He doubted the Gu Jun in front of him was real as well.

"You said we would climb the mountain together, yet you are still standing here."

Gu Jun stepped closer and extended his hand. "Come with me."

Li Yan stared at him without moving; the situation was wrong in several ways, and the mountain had already shown him that it could use familiar people and memories to construct convincing illusions.

"You are not Gu Jun."

Gu Jun’s expression froze before the blood covering his clothes disappeared, and the familiar face gradually became the same unfamiliar stranger Li Yan had encountered in the courtyard.

"You are learning quickly."

The examination hall began to crack around them, and the walls split apart while the examinees disappeared one after another until the entire scene had been reduced to fragments of light floating in darkness.

Li Yan closed his eyes and steadied his breathing as he allowed the voices to fade from his mind, and he finally understood what the mountain was attempting to accomplish.

It was not trying to defeat his mind through brute force.

It was taking things that were familiar to him and changing them just enough to make him question what he already knew, hoping that his emotions would overwhelm his judgment before he recognized the deception.

Li Yan opened his eyes. "My fate is mine to control, not the heavens’."

The darkness shattered around him, and the familiar mountain path returned as the pressure around his head disappeared.

Li Yan stood still for a moment while he examined the surrounding trees and stone staircase, but he no longer trusted the peaceful appearance of the mountain as the array had already demonstrated how easily it could replace reality with something that looked completely genuine.

Xiaoxiao’s voice sounded inside his mind.

"You have passed the first mental trial."

Li Yan’s expression became thoughtful as he looked toward the summit. "There is more than one?"

"The mountain will continue probing your subconscious as you climb, and each layer will reach deeper into your mind."

Li Yan’s eyes narrowed because the answer explained why the pressure had changed when they reached the higher section.

"What happens if someone cannot distinguish the illusion?"

"They will remain trapped until their consciousness breaks free, or until their token is broken from outside."

Li Yan glanced down at the token hanging from his waist as he considered the implication.

The sect had given them a way to escape if they encountered danger, yet the most dangerous part of this examination was something they could not see with their eyes.

A person could be trapped inside an illusion without realizing that anything was wrong, and if their mind accepted the illusion completely, they might never think to break their token.

Li Yan tightened his fingers around the token before releasing it. He had no intention of using it.

He continued toward the summit, but after several steps, he noticed that the sounds of the other examinees had disappeared.

Li Yan turned around and found the mountain path completely empty behind him, and although he could still see the trail descending toward the lower sections, there was no sign of Gu Jun, Zhou Yuan, or anyone else.

He considered calling out to them before abandoning the thought; the mountain had already proven that it could imitate familiar voices, and searching mindlessly for someone else would only give the array another opportunity to manipulate him.

Li Yan turned back toward the summit and continued climbing alone.

A faint mist had appeared farther ahead, gradually covering the stone staircase as he climbed higher, the surrounding scenery becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish through the white haze.

Li Yan slowed his pace when a building appeared beyond the mist.

He recognized it immediately.

It was the place where he had first awakened in this world.

The sight unsettled him because that memory was not something he had shared with anyone, and he had never told Hu Biyan, Gu Jun, or even Xiaoxiao about the exact circumstances surrounding his arrival.

Yet the building stood before him exactly as he remembered it.

Li Yan approached cautiously as the mist parted around the entrance, revealing the old room where he had first opened his eyes after arriving in this unfamiliar world.

A young man was sitting on the edge of the bed.

Li Yan stopped when he recognized the person.

How could he not, when it was himself.

The young man possessed the same thin body, the same unfamiliar expression, and the same eyes Li Yan remembered from the beginning of his journey, before cultivation had changed his life and before he had decided that he would no longer allow circumstances to determine where he ended up.

The younger Li Yan slowly raised his head and looked toward the doorway until their eyes met. "Why did you take my life?"

Li Yan’s expression changed as the younger version of himself stood from the bed and approached him.

"You were supposed to die. But it was Li Wei who killed you."

Li Yan stared at him because the words struck deeper than the previous illusions had managed to reach, and for the first time, he found himself questioning something he had never considered questioning before.

The younger Li Yan stopped in front of him and looked directly into his eyes.

"You took everything that should have belonged to me."

The room around them began to change, and the walls dissolved into darkness while countless images appeared around Li Yan, each one showing a different fragment of his previous life.

He saw memories he had forgotten, moments he had buried, choices he had regretted, and paths he had once imagined taking before his life had changed completely.

The images continued appearing until the darkness was filled with countless versions of himself, each one standing at a different point along a different path.

Then one image caught Li Yan’s attention.

It showed a vast road stretching toward the heavens, with countless mountains rising beneath a boundless sky.

At the end of the road stood another version of Li Yan.

That figure possessed a cultivation Li Yan could not comprehend, and the pressure radiating from him was so immense that even the surrounding heavens seemed to tremble beneath his presence.

The figure slowly turned around. "You want to control your fate?"

Li Yan’s expression became solemn as the figure raised one hand toward the countless mountains below.

"Then prove that you are worthy of it."

An enormous pressure descended upon Li Yan’s mind.

His body remained completely still, yet his consciousness felt as though it had been thrown beneath an endless ocean, and the memories surrounding him began twisting into countless possibilities that he could neither accept nor reject.

Li Yan gritted his teeth as he remained standing beneath the pressure, refusing to allow the mountain to determine which version of himself he should become.

The figure standing above the heavens slowly smiled.