Gu Xiechen rushed towards the Purple Bamboo Forest. Instantly, the surroundings spun into a dizzying vortex. His vision was flooded with a blinding, snowy white mist; beyond that, nothing could be discerned. The ground beneath his feet felt soft, like raw cotton, offering no purchase whatsoever. After only a few steps, Dan Dan felt the ground give way beneath him, and he tumbled unceremoniously to the ground with a rolling sound. At that moment, strange, faint grey-blue light filtered through. The thick white mist gradually receded, and taking advantage of this strange luminescence, Gu Xiechen realized he had arrived in a bizarre locale.

All around him were halos of varying sizes, much like the sun's corona seen during a summer downpour. These luminous rings, large and small, slowly revolved in the grey-blue light, stirring up wisps of light-rain—an ethereal, dreamlike spectacle that momentarily stunned Gu Xiechen. Looking around him, the sky above was a vast, murky blue. Boundless azure clouds hovered less than ten zhang overhead, rolling thickly, leaving a cloying sensation in his chest, as if breathing itself were labored. Beneath his feet was also an endless expanse of azure clouds. The soft, cottony layers yielded too easily. Gu Xiechen attempted to walk a few steps atop them, but his feet slid on the yielding surface, and he fell again. After finally managing to stand, Gu Xiechen shouted toward the heavens, “Hey! Anyone there?”

Go to hell!

No one answered his call, but instead, an enemy emerged. From a halo approximately a hundred meters away, the viciously hostile Montedetti suddenly burst forth. He flew toward Gu Xiechen without his feet touching the ground. Waves of psychic shock tore through the air, whistling with dense sonic booms, as his claw shot straight toward Gu Xiechen’s sternum—a clear intention to rip his heart out. Such a violent assault startled even Gu Xiechen. But before he could evade, a halo abruptly shifted in front of Montedetti, and the aggressively attacking foe plunged headlong into the ring of light, vanishing with a whoosh.

Immediately following, Montedetti’s shadow materialized within a halo close to Gu Xiechen. Several enormous bears, their entire bodies engulfed in roaring flames, were locked in a frenzied melee with him. Claws the size of washbasins slammed repeatedly into Montedetti’s body. Watching from the side, Gu Xiechen felt sympathetic aches resonate through his own frame. The roaring, screaming Montedetti stumbled out of another halo, having somehow misjudged his trajectory. Before the black smoke and flames clinging to him from the first halo could dissipate, his sudden rush sent him slamming into yet another ring of light. This time, Montedetti found himself in a world buried under snow and ice, where dozens of ice vultures, with wingspans of fifteen meters and wreathed in chilling winds, entangled him. Montedetti mustered his divine strength and killed five vultures, but the remaining dozen erupted in fury, spitting out crystal-like orbs, each the size of a fist and perfectly white, which pelted Montedetti’s body. Gu Xiechen could actually hear the sound of Montedetti’s body cracking under the impact.

Gu Xiechen tapped his forehead a few times, letting out a few sympathetic groans over Montedetti’s wretched fate. A halo nearby began to convulse violently. Montedetti, now covered in a thin layer of ice and radiating cold, burst out. This time, he stood cautiously, pausing for a moment of stunned realization. He then spotted Gu Xiechen about ten meters away. With extreme caution, Montedetti shuffled a few steps closer. He glanced left and right, then closed the distance again. Gu Xiechen gathered a breath of true qi, preparing to retreat and evade, but just then, the azure cloud beneath Montedetti’s feet dissolved, and a halo about two meters in diameter materialized precisely where he stood. With an unwilling roar of Tsk-woo, Montedetti’s footing vanished, and he plunged into another halo.

A halo ten meters away throbbed violently. This time, Gu Xiechen saw Montedetti appear on a towering mountain. At the summit stood a magnificent temple, its gateway easily a hundred zhang high. Guarding the gate were one hundred and eighty disciples from Buddhist lore—the Mighty Strength Guardians. These Dharma protectors, each towering fifteen meters, spotted Montedetti tumbling down from the sky. Without a word, they seized their heavy weapons—staves thick as water vats, Arhat clubs, and golden ropes—and began raining them down upon him.

“Is this truly a real world? Or merely an illusion?” Gu Xiechen watched blankly as Montedetti, battered until he was spitting blood from all seven orifices, rolled on the ground on all fours in the shimmering light. He thoughtfully stroked his chin while contemplating the question. If it were an illusion, why was Montedetti beaten so thoroughly? If it were real, did these temples and guardians truly exist, meaning this small area of halos represented an entire world?

“How extraordinary,” Gu Xiechen decided to himself. A universe in a grain of sand, a Buddha in a speck of dust. Though this was a concept found in Buddhist scriptures, Gu Xiechen couldn't believe he was lucky enough to witness it. Montedetti’s screams and howls seemed to bleed through the halo, the sounds of extreme agony sending shivers down Gu Xiechen’s own spine. Cautiously observing his surroundings, Gu Xiechen steeled his resolve and chose a direction to walk, intent on discovering the nature of this place. He certainly couldn't remain trapped here until death.

As he moved, Montedetti, whose body was blood-soaked and half his bones crushed to powder, fell out of a halo floating thirty zhang high, landing on the ground. He materialized less than three meters from Gu Xiechen. He struggled to lift his head and glanced at Gu Xiechen. Before he could utter a single syllable, a strange, eerie green rune flickered behind him. The azure cloud beneath Montedetti’s body dissolved again, and another halo swallowed him whole.

“The Curse of Misfortune!”

Gu Xiechen’s eyes widened. He finally understood why both of them had fallen into this bizarre place, yet only Montedetti suffered such relentless bad luck. The most potent curse of the Temple of Calamity, powered by draining one’s own soul essence, truly lived up to its reputation! Seeing the torturous state Montedetti was reduced to, one could gauge the immense damage inflicted by the Curse of Misfortune.

It seemed Montedetti’s luck had turned—this time he landed in a lavishly decorated, decadently atmospheric palace. Hundreds of beautiful, scantily clad women were within, playing instruments, painting, composing poetry, and engaging in witty banter—a scene of opulent pleasure. Upon seeing Montedetti descend from the sky, these women rushed forward with charming giggles, carefully lifting him onto a rose-pink divan.

“This fellow is having a good run this time!” Gu Xiechen muttered in appreciation. Then he saw excitement ripple through the sheer, translucent dresses of the women as snow-white fox tails—one, two, or even three—shot up behind them. The severely wounded Montedetti, lacking any strength to resist, was quickly stripped bare by the women. Then, a beautiful matron with three tails trailing behind her lustfully mounted Montedetti’s body. Gu Xiechen watched this erotic spectacle with relish. The poor Montedetti was ravaged in turn by hundreds of women. It was unclear what strange methods they employed, but Montedetti endured hundreds of ejaculations while remaining hard. However, his body, which had been nearly transparent, became dull and listless. His firm, jelly-like flesh turned shriveled like dehydrated grapes, his skin hanging loosely. His previously dazzlingly bright eyes dimmed to the luster of charcoal pebbles. Gu Xiechen could sense virtually no life force left in him.

With a snap, Montedetti fell out of a halo next to Gu Xiechen, utterly exhausted. Gasping for breath, he struggled to raise his head. He managed to part his lips and begged piteously, “Kill me… I beg you… kill me.”

“I have always been willing to help those in need.” Gu Xiechen carefully projected a few claw strikes to sever the main meridians in Montedetti’s limbs, then smiled with satisfaction. This fellow truly had no strength left to resist. Such a formidable master of the Illusion Race was being tormented to the brink of death by this strange place. Since this was the case, Gu Xiechen was happy to offer him release from suffering. Just as he was about to send a strike through Montedetti’s skull, a halo materialized beside the man, and an invisible suction pulled Montedetti inside. Gu Xiechen, who had already condensed a sliver of Soul Spirit qi strike, watched the halo grimly, muttering, “It’s not that I won’t help; it’s just that you are too unlucky.”

Montedetti was subjected to over a dozen more horrifying rounds of torture across seven or eight halos, and finally, utterly mangled, he was lucky enough to return before Gu Xiechen one last time. This time, Gu Xiechen offered no hesitation, shooting a strike through Montedetti’s heart. Gu Xiechen clasped his hands and murmured a prayer, “May God have mercy on you, you poor child.”

Upon death, the bodies of Illusion Race members bizarrely dissolved into streams of drifting energy that returned to nature. Montedetti’s body began to burn right beside Gu Xiechen. Streams of bluish light-rain shot up from the flames, strangely merging with the blue expanse of the world. Watching Montedetti’s body vanish in the fire, and then looking at the countless halos surrounding him, Gu Xiechen felt a complex mix of emotions. The cursed Montedetti had found release, but how was he to escape this damned place?

“Could it be that I’ve been infected by Montedetti’s bad luck? Otherwise, how could I have ended up in this hellhole?”

Gu Xiechen stumbled again as the azure cloud beneath his feet suddenly dissipated, forcing a wry smile. Looking at the boundless clouds and countless halos, a headache began to form. He sat down cross-legged, intending to use his mental power to contact Xin Jia, whom he had left monitoring Ying Ge Xing and the others in the dense forest. To his shock, he discovered that this strange place completely severed his telepathic link with Xin Jia. Unable to reach Xin Jia, he inadvertently disturbed a subordinate spirit remnant of Xin Jia that was cultivating within his Sea of Consciousness. A familiar aura…