I forge immortality with a pagoda.

Shen Yu placed the jade box back on the wooden shelf.

He then opened the remaining jade boxes, which contained either dried-up Ganoderma lucidum or powdered medicinal vines, and the original shapes of these herbs could only be vaguely discerned.

"It seems that no Dao seed remains in this building."

He muttered to himself, then turned his head and saw Yue Jianxin and Yue Ling walking down the stairs one after the other.

Yue Jianxin shook his head. "Let's go. The second floor is also empty."

This building has three floors. The roof at the top has collapsed due to years of disrepair, with rafters and broken tiles piled up haphazardly. If there were something with spiritual light emanating from it, like a seed of Tao, it would be difficult to escape everyone's perception.

Now that they had explored the second floor and found nothing, they had no choice but to leave.

The group stepped out of the attic, where the outside was still shrouded in a perpetual mist that hung over the ruins, making the light dim.

They followed the road to the next still intact building.

After exploring seven or eight pavilions in succession, the scenes were all similar. Apart from the dregs of medicine, broken alchemy furnaces, and jade bottles, which were abandoned by everyone, not to mention the seeds of Taoism, not even a decent magic artifact or a complete jade slip was found.

"Could it be that there were no Dao Seeds within these ruins to begin with? Were they all scattered in the outer area?"

Yue Ling frowned slightly and said with some doubt.

Yue Jianxin pressed his hand to the longsword at his waist and pondered, "It shouldn't be like that. Now that the Suspended Dao Field has appeared, its core area has the strongest restrictions, making it the most dangerous for cultivators. Ironically, it's also the best protector of the Dao Seed, preventing it from being easily taken away by cultivators. If the Dao Seed isn't here, where else could it go?"

"Master is absolutely right."

Shen Yu's gaze swept over the door of the pavilion he had just left, and his eyes narrowed slightly. "In my opinion, the absence of Dao Seeds here is not due to natural occurrence, but rather because someone has already taken all the Dao Seeds here before us."

"Oh?" Yue Jianxin glanced sideways. "Why do you say that, Yu'er?"

Shen Yu did not answer, but instead said solemnly, "Please, Master, do your best to attack this disciple."

Upon hearing this, not only Yue Jianxin was taken aback, but Yue Ling and Cui Youxin, who had been silently following along, also looked astonished.

"Brother Shen, why is that?" Yue Ling asked, puzzled.

Shen Yu slowly said, "From the moment we stepped into the second pavilion, although the layouts of the pavilions we passed through were not exactly the same, upon closer inspection, many of the furnishings and objects inside seemed to have been carved from the same mold."

"Senior Sister Yue Ling, perhaps you could recall whether the three-legged bronze cauldron in the first building and the one seen in the fourth building were both engraved with cloud and sea wave patterns, and whether they both had a piece of old verdigris peeling off in the same spot on the left side of their legs?"

Yue Ling pondered intently for a moment, then her eyes narrowed: "Indeed! Not only the alchemy cauldron, but even the broken shape of the second-floor window frame, the direction of the cracks in the corner bricks... Brother Shen, after you mentioned it, they are all exactly the same. Could it be that we still haven't escaped the illusion?"

Yue Jianxin gripped his sword hilt and said in a deep voice, "Is it another illusion?"

"It may not be a simple illusion." Shen Yu shook his head, his gaze calm. "Therefore, I need my master to attack me with all his might to verify this."

"No!" Yue Ling exclaimed urgently, "Senior Yue's sword is incredibly sharp. If it's just an illusion, that's fine, but if it's real, wouldn't Brother Shen be in grave danger?"

Shen Yu explained, "If everything is still an illusion, then my master's sword cannot harm me in the slightest. If it is real, I have my own way to protect myself and will not perish. This is the fastest way to break the deadlock."

After speaking, he moved his lips almost imperceptibly, transmitting a few words to Yue Jianxin in a secret voice.

Yue Jianxin listened without showing any emotion, but gave Shen Yu a deep look and nodded, saying, "In that case, I will do as you say and be careful."

Seeing this, Yue Ling was still worried. Suddenly, she raised her slender hand, her fingertips circulating true qi, condensing into a three-inch-long qi blade, and without hesitation slashed it towards her other palm!

"Senior sister!" Shen Yu tried to speak up to dissuade her, but it was too late.

As the blade of energy slashed across, a bloody gash immediately appeared on Yue Ling's fair palm, from which blood seeped out.

Yue Ling frowned and whispered, "This pain is incredibly real, unlike anything that illusions can replicate."

Shen Yu stared at the bright red stain and pondered, "Ordinary illusions can bewitch the five senses and even simulate pain. But if this illusion is so sophisticated that it has reached the point of 'transforming the unreal into the real, and intertwining truth and falsehood,' then such verification alone may not be enough to distinguish between truth and falsehood."

He turned to Yue Jianxin again, his expression resolute: "Master, please."

Yue Jianxin said no more, stood with his hand on his sword, his aura subtly concealed, and simply said, "Let's go, let's go check out the next place."

Yue Ling and Cui Youxin looked at each other, puzzled. Just now these two wanted to test their swords, but now they want to continue exploring. What kind of logic is this?

However, Shen Yu had already taken the lead, and Yue Jianxin followed suit. The two had no choice but to suppress their doubts and follow.

The group entered another adjacent pavilion, where the scene was not much different from the previous ones: the medicine shelves were dilapidated and the floor was covered in dust.

Just as Yue Ling's gaze swept over a pill furnace hidden in the shadows, a sudden change occurred.

Yue Jianxin moved without warning!

He twisted his body on the spot, pointed his fingers like a sword, and stabbed towards Shen Yu's back.

This strike was delivered without reservation, a sharp sword intent bursting forth from his fingertips, like a silver bottle suddenly shattering, its cold light flashing out.

The incident happened so suddenly that Yue Ling and Cui Youxin had no time to react. They only saw a blur before their eyes, and the incomparably sharp sword energy had completely entered Shen Yu's body.

"Senior Yue!" Yue Ling exclaimed in shock, her phoenix eyes wide with disbelief.

However, the expected scene of blood splattering did not occur.

Shen Yu, who was pierced by the sword energy, only swayed slightly before standing up straight as if nothing had happened, and gently patted the dust off his robe.

The moment he raised his hand and flicked his sleeve, the surrounding scenery suddenly cracked like a shattered mirror.

The carved window frames, the dilapidated medicine shelves, the mottled walls, and even the dust floating in the air—everything began to peel away and dissipate, revealing a completely different true face behind them.

They never left the second pavilion, still standing among the wooden shelves with the jade boxes, the same blue bricks beneath their feet, and the same dim light outside the window.

All the explorations and conversations in the pavilions, and even the wound on Yue Ling's palm that she had just experienced, were like bubbles, vanishing without a trace.

"It really was an illusion!" Choi Yoo-shin gasped.

Almost at the same instant the illusion shattered, a blurry black shadow suddenly sprang up from the dark corner deep inside the attic and rushed toward the window.

"Someone's chasing us!"

Yue Jianxin shouted sharply, his body transforming into a long rainbow of sword energy. He arrived faster than the one in front of him, and in the blink of an eye, he had caught up to the black-clad figure less than three zhang behind.

Gu Xuan sensed the approaching sword energy from behind and glanced back as he charged forward.

Two ghastly white bolts of lightning suddenly shot out from his pupils, piercing straight into Yue Jian's spiritual platform.

Yue Jianxin felt a blinding light explode before his eyes, and it was as if thousands of thunderbolts were roaring in his ears at the same time. His primordial spirit was hit by a heavy hammer, and a violent dizziness struck him. His body swayed and he fell straight down.