I wield power with my innate talents, and forge the Heavenly Court.

After listening to everyone's discussion, Lu Jun decisively spoke up:
"This is not an ordinary mental illusion; it's more like some kind of special mirage."

"How can this be?"

Looking at the illusory vision before them, some people frowned slightly and couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.

The others also looked at Lu Jun with the same confusion, hoping to get an explanation from him.

Although it's somewhat unreal, it's different from a mirage.

Faced with everyone's doubts, Lu Jun didn't hide anything and directly explained:

"I can feel a power of time and space in the illusion before my eyes, as if it is connected to some distant place."

The illusion before my eyes seems to be a projection from there.

Lu Jun narrowed his eyes, sensing the situation of the illusions within his territory.

If those illusions were elsewhere, he wouldn't be able to perceive so many with his current level of cultivation.

However, some of those illusions have merged with its territory to a certain extent, and some of the territory's rules have even begun to seep into the fantasy world.

Thus, by leveraging the power of the territory's rules, he could indeed perceive some of the changes in those rules.

"Does the teacher mean that the 'mirage' in front of us is a reflection of the past?"

"Hmm, more or less! But it doesn't quite feel right to me, it's kind of ambiguous."

"Oh!"

Everyone nodded, lost in thought as they gazed at the scene before them. Their divine senses swept back and forth, but apart from being shattered by the chaotic spatial rules, they made no other discoveries.

"Hey, why think so much? Just go in and see for yourself, then you'll know."

After a long while, seeing that no further discoveries had been made, one of them said somewhat impatiently.

As he spoke, he pulled a stack of paper figures from his pocket and threw them out.

"crash"

The paper scraps flew around, but when they landed on the ground, they didn't lie flat like other scraps of paper. Instead, they stood upright, like little people standing up.

As soon as that person had a thought, the countless paper figures floated forward and disappeared one by one into the illusory world.

As a lineage of paper dolls, the paper-cutting lineage carries countless paper-cut figures wherever it goes.

Exploration, service, combat, and more—they are all excellent assistants.

In situations like the one we're in now, using these low-level paper figures to check for danger is the best option.

Yes, the paper figures are divided into three grades: low, medium, and high.

The paper figures that are casually tossed around in front of you are the lowest level of paper figures, with only the most basic movement and detection capabilities.

The paper-cut figures from Zhongji have been enhanced with corresponding finger-transformation, spraying, and pseudo-shape-transformation runes. They can transform from a small paper-cut figure into the shape and size of a human body and possess a certain degree of cognitive and judgmental abilities.

However, it still looks like a paper figure, pale white all over, eerie and creepy.

Advanced paper-cut figures are almost indistinguishable from real people, possessing powerful combat abilities and a certain degree of intelligence, capable of making appropriate judgments based on the current situation.

However, correspondingly, high-level paper-cut figures are more difficult to make, while low-level paper-cut figures are much simpler and can be made in large quantities easily.

Therefore, many people learn how to make basic paper-cut figures.

For no other reason than that it is simple to make, easy to carry, and you can easily carry countless of them, and you won't feel bad even if you lose them.

As the countless paper-cut figures entered the illusionary world one by one, Lu Jun and the others instantly became serious, watching the paper-cut figures with nervousness.

It's important to understand that mental illusions are not just simple fantasies, because they involve the rules of the celestial realm.

Therefore, the various powers it unleashes also possess extremely strong offensive capabilities.

Although what descends to the Immortal Realm are their minds and consciousness.

However, if they are killed or defeated, although they will not die, they will be mentally exhausted and have headaches for a while.

If everyone could be well, who would want to suffer?
Under everyone's watchful eyes, after the paper-cut figures entered the illusionary world, apart from a few unlucky ones who encountered spatial rifts, they did not encounter any danger.

Moreover, as time passed, the conflict between the strong and weak forces in the surrounding space weakened, and after spatial rifts ceased to be generated, they were no longer in danger.

The villagers, merchants, and travelers who came and went seemed to ignore them, each going about their own business.

Some people even bumped into the paper figure and passed right through it, as if it were just an illusion.

Seeing this, everyone breathed a slight sigh of relief.

It seems that the illusion before my eyes is indeed not a mental illusion, but rather something like a mirage.

Although mental illusions are somewhat mechanical and have a fixed pattern of behavioral development, they are still able to interact with outsiders to some extent.

Otherwise, its attacks would not cause any harm to people.

The owner of those paper-cut figures suddenly had a thought. One of the paper-cut figures suddenly floated up and appeared in front of a child, swaying in front of him before slowly drifting down.

This time, however, the child seemed to sense something and slowly lowered his head along with the paper figure.

"Eh~?"

Upon seeing this, everyone couldn't help but feel surprised and puzzled.

Before, wasn't there no way to communicate? Even those figures could pass right through the paper figures.

So what's going on now? Is it just a coincidence?

But in the next instant, they knew it was no coincidence.

The child suddenly squatted down, looked at the paper figure, and said in a low voice:
"Did you see me?"

The paper figure remained silent, only raising its head to look back.

"Hehe, I knew it, you saw us. Can you see me? Hehehe."

As the child uttered those eerie words, the people around, who had been going about their business, all stopped abruptly and turned their heads stiffly to look in the direction of the paper figure.

In an instant, a strange and eerie aura suddenly erupted, instantly covering the area around the paper-cut figure, making the space around it seem as if it had frozen.

In the next instant, the child suddenly reached out, grabbed the paper figure, and tore it to shreds in an instant. The wisp of energy attached to it dissipated in a flash.

Only then did the gazes that had been fixed on the paper figures shift away.

However, instead of going their own way as before, they looked at the other paper-cutting figures.

Upon seeing this, Lu Jun and the others were stunned once again.

What's going on? Weren't they previously completely independent and even able to pass right through each other?

How come we can contact each other again now?

Even worse, they launched an attack.

In the instant everyone was stunned, those who were looking at the paper-cut figure rushed towards it.

Some of the paper-cut figures are attached to their owners, and when they see the figures rushing towards them, they can't help but respond, either turning their heads or turning around to look at them.

Then, those figures rushed up and tore them to pieces.

On the contrary, the paper figures that had no spiritual attachment and completely ignored the figures were passed right through without suffering any harm. Seeing this discrepancy, everyone was stunned once again.

This is?

They were somewhat confused as to why such a drastically different situation had occurred.

However, the owner of those paper-cut figures seemed to have realized something at this moment.

Think of those torn paper-cut figures; it seems they all had his spiritual attachment and responded to those figures.

So, does that mean that if there is no response or emotional fluctuation, one will not be harmed?
Without thinking, he once again diverted some of his attention to the remaining paper-cut figures.

As expected, his guess proved correct. As long as he did not respond to those figures, he would not be harmed by them. Even if they made contact, they would pass each other like phantoms.

After he shared his discovery with everyone, they all suddenly realized what he had found.

They finally understood why some paper figures were torn to pieces while others remained completely unharmed.

While everyone was testing the situation in the illusionary world, Wang Chao's mind had already merged into it.

Following the fluctuations and power of the spatial rules, using the illusory image of heaven and earth as an anchor point, and drawing upon the power of the rules radiating from heaven and earth towards the late Ming world, it instantly transformed into a mysterious fluctuation, traversing boundless space and time, and entered the late Ming world.

Late Ming Dynasty, Xincheng, Henan.
Wang Chao's figure slowly emerged, surveyed the passersby around him, and quickly walked to the roadside.

Even in his current state, if anyone were to run into him head-on, they would simply pass right by.

However, the dynasty still avoided the roadside.

Even if it wouldn't have any effect, he didn't want anyone to go in and out of his body.

After moving to the side of the road, Wang Chao began to sense the surrounding environment.

The energy of heaven and earth has become much richer, which is a result of the previous ascension of heaven and earth.

However, the rich energy of heaven and earth was somewhat biased towards yin, with a hint of eeriness about it.

Furthermore, these energies became even more active after the dynasty's rise, naturally converging towards it and spontaneously merging into its body.

Without thinking, a smile appeared on Wang Chao's face.

This must be because of this world, because of him, because of the eerie energy of the underworld that it was elevated.

At the same time, he could also sense that there was a place far to the northeast that had established contact with him.

Needless to say, that place is naturally the underworld of this late Ming Dynasty world.

Once the mind focused on sensing, the connection instantly became clear, and a dark and gloomy space appeared in the senses.

Over the years, the underworld has grown to many times its former size, now covering not only the entire Liaodong region, but also Shanhaiguan and parts of Beizhili.

In those places, the gods of the Celestial Empire's underworld were unable to descend into the real world at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

However, they can spare a portion of their mind to descend to the underworld, where they can create their own divine image, drawing upon the power and rules of the underworld to strengthen their own status.

They can also suppress and capture vengeful spirits and evil ghosts by bestowing divine power.

Just as the dynasty was sensing the underworld and thinking about how to quickly expand its territory, a commotion suddenly broke out ahead.

Wang Chao raised an eyebrow slightly, instantly regaining his composure and looking ahead in the direction of the sound.

A large man, his face pale, scrambled out of an alley.

As he ran, he shouted in terror.

"How strange, how strange, how eerie!"

Upon seeing this, everyone turned to look at him, then at the alley he had just run out of, and panicked, retreating in all directions.

In the last decade or so, ghosts, or rather, strange occurrences, have been appearing all over the world.

Because of the eeriness of these ghost-like creatures, they are different from the vengeful ghosts in legends. They often appear and disappear in an instant and are not afraid of sunlight.

If we pretend we can't see them, we can coexist peacefully, just like a mirage. Even if they touch, they will pass right through each other without interfering with each other.

If a conflict were to break out between the two sides, it would inevitably be a fight to the death, until the entity that provoked them perished.

Because of this bizarre situation, some people simply named it "weird".

A bizarre phenomenon, a bizarre existence.

However, after a while, no one noticed anything unusual in the alley, and they began to relax slightly.

"Hey Xu Lao Er, are you sure you're not mistaken?"

"Yeah, what's so weird about it?"

"If there's anything strange about this, with your reaction, you'd probably be killed by now, wouldn't you?"

Are you seeing things?

"Hahaha"

After arriving in the crowd, Xu Lao Er, whose emotions had calmed down somewhat, listened to the discussions and jokes of the crowd and couldn't help but look back at the alley again, a hint of doubt arising in his heart.

Or perhaps I'm just seeing things?

After carefully recalling what he had just seen, Xu Lao Er said with certainty:

"I'm absolutely not seeing things; it must be something eerie."

"Oh? Did you see anything strange?"

"The paper figure, which was about the size of a palm, suddenly appeared in front of me."

It just slowly walked towards me like that.

"A paper figure? Could it have been blown away by the wind?"

"Impossible, there was absolutely no wind at the time."

"Uh, you mentioned a paper figure the size of a palm. It can't move very fast, right? Could it not have come out yet?"

"."

At that moment, everyone fell silent.

"Wow~!"

Without a word, everyone left instantly, leaving Xu Lao Er standing alone in the alley with a grim expression.

After a while, a wisp of paper actually emerged from the alleyway.

Upon seeing this, Xu Lao Er's face turned deathly pale, and a thought flashed through his mind.

"It's over!"

Step by step, the eerie paper figure came to Xu Lao Er and pressed down on his ankle.

Seeing this, Xu Lao Er, whose face was even more ashen than if he were crying, suddenly felt a surge of ruthlessness. He raised his foot and stomped down heavily.

"puff!"

An extremely subtle sound instantly rang out, and a thin, eerie aura dissipated with a bang, part of it merging into the heavens and earth, while the rest invaded Xu Lao Er's body. (End of Chapter)