Wàng: First update has arrived. Brothers, it seems there’s no burning desire to cast votes today, tearing up inside! % *Hiss!*

A nearly inaudible whoosh of air sounded from behind. Nie Kong shifted his step, a faint flicker of red light vanished past his shoulder. Someone in the mist! The thought flashed through his mind. Nie Kong swiftly spun around. Everything before him was hazy, still nothing but thick white fog, without a discernible figure.

“Ah-ya-ya!”

The little creature inside the “Yaochi Acupoint” suddenly began to bounce vigorously.

“Is this a Spirit Herb?”

Grasping the meaning behind the little one’s cry, Nie Kong was momentarily stunned. If it hadn't alerted him, he truly wouldn't have noticed. In fact, the closer he got to the illusion ahead, the fainter the vitality he sensed became, until now, where he could barely perceive anything at all—likely interfered with by the illusion itself.

However, if this surrounding white fog was conjured from a Spirit Herb, then the problem was solvable!

“Xiangxiang, eat it!”

A faint whooshing sound came again from behind. Little Nie Kong, treading on the Flying Flower Flowing Shadow technique, narrowly dodged the streak of red light, lunging his right arm in the direction the light had originated from.

*Bang-bang-bang-bang!*

A series of almost overlapping explosive sounds suddenly erupted. Nie Kong’s Cloud Flower Four Folds struck clean air, finding no point of resistance. The scattered surge of energy merely caused the white mist around his fist to undulate slightly a few times before immediately returning to its original state.

“Ah-ya-ya!”

The little creature grew excited, its roots and stems twisting incessantly. Wisps of green shot out of the Yaochi Acupoint like feelers, spiraling around Nie Kong’s body following his emerald spiritual energy. As the green rapidly swayed, the white mist surrounding Nie Kong behaved like iron filings encountering a magnet, drilling madly into his body.

“Oh?”

Faintly, Nie Kong heard a surprised, soft gasp from behind. The voice was delicate, seemingly belonging to a woman. Nie Kong hesitated not at all, immediately condensing a long broadsword in his palm and sweeping it out horizontally with a reverse grip. The emerald blade light seemed capable of slicing the fog in half.

*Bang!*

Within the white mist, a vague burst of brilliant red light flared up.

Nie Kong’s eyes narrowed slightly, his wrist flicked sharply, and the broadsword tumbled as it cleaved down ferociously again. With a loud, intense tremor, the broadsword, condensed from Nie Kong’s spiritual power, struck the ground, seemingly kicking up dust and sand, but it failed to touch the hidden figure in the mist again.

Nie Kong vigilantly monitored the surroundings, guarding against another surprise attack, but to his surprise, the figure ceased all movement.

“Whoosh!”

Like a massive whale inhaling, the white mist spanning several meters rapidly contracted. Within ten seconds, it was entirely absorbed into the little creature within the Yaochi Acupoint, condensing into a ball of pure white medicinal power, which it then presented like a treasure, holding it up with its roots and tossing it into a new minor acupoint Nie Kong had recently opened.

His vision clearing, Nie Kong looked up to see a stunning woman in a red dress standing elegantly fifteen or sixteen meters ahead. Her small, crimson lips were slightly parted, and her cerulean eyes held an expression of astonishment, staring at Nie Kong as if she had seen a ghost.

“Tai Ji!”

He hadn't expected that the one hiding in the fog was her!

Nie Kong’s lips twitched slightly: “Senior Sister Tai Ji, what Spirit Herb did you use? Lying in wait just outside this illusion is completely impossible to defend against!”

“Fog Concealment Pill!”

Tai Ji snapped back to reality and walked gracefully toward Nie Kong, her beautiful eyes appraising him from head to toe. “A Spirit Herb I researched myself. I saw you approaching and initially wanted to give you a fright. I never expected to be the one startled in the end! Nie Kong, how did you absorb it?”

Recalling the scene of the white fog rushing into Nie Kong’s body, Tai Ji was still utterly bewildered.

“Oh, that’s a secret,” Nie Kong chuckled evasively. “Senior Sister Tai Ji, what are the effects of your ‘Fog Concealment Pill’? It seems quite miraculous.”

Tai Ji smiled sweetly: “I accidentally concocted this a few days ago while refining medicine. Once shrouded by its mist, it will follow you like a shadow, tracking fluctuations in spiritual energy until the effect wears off. If you don’t take an antidote beforehand, you can see almost nothing in the fog.”

“Truly a potent weapon for sneak attacks!” Nie Kong’s mouth curled slightly. He had gone through acting, setting up a diversion, and exhausting himself to finally net a catch. But Tai Ji had simply set up camp outside the illusion with a ‘Fog Concealment Pill,’ waiting for people to deliver themselves to her doorstep. Moreover, anyone who reached this spot was usually a big fish.

Tai Ji shot Nie Kong a sidelong glance and chuckled flirtatiously: “A sneak attack weapon, so what? When it met you, it still had no effect whatsoever?”

“Luck, pure luck.”

Nie Kong laughed heartily, “Senior Sister Tai Ji, judging by how smoothly you manipulated the mist, you must have done this quite a few times. How were your harvests?”

“Not much, only twice. Thirty maps,” Tai Ji’s delicate face bloomed like a flower, her blue eyes shimmering with a gentle smile. “Should be enough to enter the Inner City. Nie Kong, since you arrived so early, you must have gathered quite a few maps too, right?”

Seeing her smile so brilliantly, Nie Kong chuckled inwardly and deliberately put on a dissatisfied expression: “Only a paltry one hundred and twenty or so maps.”

“H-how many? O-one hundred and twenty maps?” Tai Ji’s eyes widened roundly, her mouth gaping wide enough to fit two eggs.

“Alas, just so-so,” Nie Kong sighed mournfully.

Seeing Nie Kong put on such an act, Tai Ji was left speechless. This fellow had managed to get one hundred and twenty maps in just one morning and still claimed it was ‘just so-so.’ He was clearly trying to provoke her! Tai Ji glared fiercely at Nie Kong, clutching her fist as if she wanted to snatch all the maps from his embrace.

“Ahem!”

He’d overdone the showing off! Nie Kong coughed dryly, “Senior Sister Tai Ji, you continue guarding here to catch rabbits. I’ll be going ahead. Oh right, your brother is named Tai Hong, isn't he? He’s looking for you over there. Getting one hundred and twenty maps today is all thanks to your brother’s cooperation, ha ha!”

Nie Kong chuckled and slipped toward the illusion ahead.

“My brother?”

Tai Ji blinked suspiciously, then suddenly called out sweetly toward Nie Kong’s retreating back, “Nie Kong, how many maps does my brother have?”

“Not many, only fifty!” Nie Kong waved his hand back, his figure plunging into the hazy white curtain.

“Fifty isn’t many?”

Tai Ji almost fainted, then grew suspicious again. “Did I hear that wrong? With my brother’s personality, could he really get fifty? Hmm, five would be good.”

Muttering to herself, Tai Ji returned to the edge of the illusion. She then pulled out a smooth white pill from her embrace, wrapping it in fiery red spiritual energy. The pill began to dissolve at a visible speed, and wisps of white mist rose from her palm, enveloping her delicate body.

In a moment, Tai Ji’s figure vanished without a trace. The ball of white mist trembled slightly a few times, then merged completely with the hazy fog behind her.

That had been a false alarm; he hadn't expected Tai Ji to be the one to appear in the end. He believed her claim about just wanting to scare him. Knowing her identity, Nie Kong understood that Tai Ji hadn't used her full strength in those two attacks. Otherwise, with Tai Ji’s cultivation at the Seventh Grade of Spirit Fusion, launching a surprise attack in that environment, it wouldn't have been so easy for him to evade.

After traversing the final stretch, even if other Spirit Guardian City disciples were hidden within the illusion, Nie Kong had no need to worry. According to the rules of this supplementary test, any attacks ceased at the front of the illusion; hiding inside and launching sneak attacks on others meant immediate disqualification.

Nie Kong didn’t know much about the illusion itself.

Stepping into the thick mist, the surrounding scenery seemed unchanged: the trees were still trees, the rocks remained rocks. Holding the map, Nie Kong proceeded slowly. After advancing about a hundred meters, the fog gradually thinned, and visibility brightened.

*Rumble!*

Circling a towering ridge as marked on the map, a steep and wide river blocked his path. Waves rolled violently, sending spray high into the air. Looking upstream, the river appeared like a white dragon tumbling from the mountains. Nie Kong stood on the bank, sensing an astonishing momentum.

According to the map, this river shouldn't exist. Yet, as Nie Kong saw it now, this great river looked even more real than reality. Furthermore, if someone truly treated it as a fake river and carelessly walked into it, there would only be one outcome: drowning!

A moment later, Nie Kong collected himself and slowly moved his steps. Only when the flashing green dot on the map aligned perfectly with the red line marking the path did Nie Kong begin searching along the riverbank. Sure enough, he found a few scattered bluestones dotted across the lush green grassland before him.

Nie Kong stepped onto the stones, his figure flashing left and right, forward and back. Each time his foot touched the stone surface, a streak of emerald spiritual energy flashed swiftly.

After ten seconds, countless brilliant emerald glows rose from the river surface. Almost instantaneously, the dense, crisscrossing emerald radiance split the river into two sections. The water above still surged fiercely, without any flow spilling over the banks; the water below still churned energetically, showing no sign of dropping in level. However, the area segmented by the green light revealed verdant grass and trees.

Peeking through the foliage were bluestones, extending all the way across.

Nie Kong didn't delay, stepping quickly across the stones on the riverbed. His feet flashed with green energy, and his movement was swift as a bird taking flight. In less than half a minute, Nie Kong passed the expanse covered by the great river, and the bluestones on the ground disappeared at the far bank. As Nie Kong leaped off the last stone, he looked back to see the brilliant green light in the river vanish without a trace, and the bisected river reconnected as if nothing had happened.

The route across just one river was so troublesome. If Nie Kong had taken a single wrong step earlier, it would have been impossible to activate the spiritual markings within the river, let alone interrupt the illusion dividing the waters.

Just as Sha Yan had said, for Spirit Fusion Masters like them, passing through the illusion to reach the Inner City without a map was nothing short of delusional. He wondered if entering and leaving the Inner City would remain this troublesome in the future. While contemplating, Nie Kong quickened his pace, his anticipation for the Inner City—a place yearned for by countless Spirit Guardian City disciples—growing stronger. That place would definitely be much more interesting than the Outer City.