Passerby: Secret Image of Ancient Scrolls

There was no roar, no burst of light, when the illusion collapsed.

Only a chilling wind, carrying a putrid stench, lashed against everyone's faces.

The lingering chill from the illusion hadn't dissipated when it was enveloped by the biting wind from the frozen river, like countless fine needles piercing into everyone's flesh and soul.

The world felt like it was being tightly covered by a hand immersed in ice water.

The sound became distant, muffled, and sluggish, as if wrapped in a thick cloth. The wind was still blowing, but the howling could not be heard. The ice was still cold, but it was not the cold of the skin and flesh; it was a bone-chilling cold that penetrated the soul and went into the marrow.

Each breath felt like swallowing a mouthful of ice shards; an invisible weight pressed down on my chest, making even my heartbeat feel sluggish.

Lin Jian opened her mouth, but couldn't hear her own voice. Her vision blurred, and it felt as if countless hands, white from being soaked in water, were reaching out from the cracks in the darkness to drag her into the river beneath the ice.

Ye Zhuo held the riot shield in front of him, firmly protecting Lin Jian and the distraught Old Gu behind him.

She was standing on solid ice, yet she felt the ice beneath her feet melting, the icy river water washing over her ankles, and a subtle, stinging pain emanating from the depths of her soul—the omnipresent gaze upon them: beneath the ice, in the wind, and in the black mist, countless eyes were staring intently at them.

The one who's the most suspicious is Lao Gu.

His body was stiff, his pupils were slightly dilated, and his face was as white as ice, without a trace of blood.

It wasn't just fear, but a chill that seeped from his very bones, spreading through his veins to every part of his body—he felt as if something was gently touching his ankles under the ice, again and again, as light as breathing, yet it made his hair stand on end and his heart clench.

The image of Xiulian from the river thirty years ago seemed to have seeped into his bones again, suffocating him. The guilt he had deliberately buried deep within him began to frantically grow and spread in this eerie silence.

Shen Xun stood at the forefront, holding the peach wood staff horizontally in his hand. The golden patterns on his forearm and the Samsara Well mark on his left chest shone with a faint golden light, resisting the surging chill around him that could devour his soul.

He didn't make a move immediately, but merely frowned slightly, his gaze fixed on the churning black mist in front of him—the evil creature that had escaped from the illusion showed no signs of defeat whatsoever.

It will keep its vow, even if it means its soul is scattered, it will take everyone down with it.

The black mist suddenly surged, no longer resembling the terrifying illusion, but rather a more frenzied, destructive turmoil.

Countless bluish-gray tentacles burst forth wildly from the black mist, their surfaces covered with pale, bleached human faces, as thick as the roots of a century-old tree.

Each face carried the despair of a drowning person, lashing out fiercely at the crowd.

Wherever the whiskers passed, the ice instantly cracked open with countless fissures, and dark river water seeped out from the cracks, carrying a putrid, fishy smell, freezing even the air itself.

"Watch out!" Ye Zhu roared, slamming his shield into the ground and slashing at the tentacles with his entrenching tool.

The moment the metal collided with the black mist, it emitted a piercing sizzling sound. From where the tendrils were severed, countless tiny, pale human hands emerged, climbing up the entrenching tool to wrap around her wrists.

She felt a sharp pain in her soul, and a hallucination of being submerged in the river flashed before her eyes. Her chest felt so tight it felt like it was going to explode, and she spat out a mouthful of blood.

As Lin Jian heard the cries of countless drowning victims piercing her ears like countless fine needles into her soul, her vision blurred and her legs went weak. If Ye Zhuo hadn't supported her with his back, she would have almost collapsed onto the ice.

Deep within the black mist, the evil creature let out a frenzied shriek, and strange colorful energy appeared on its body, the eerie aura it had picked up while devouring Shen Xun's memories in the illusion.

The patterns flickered wildly, and countless blurry phantoms of drowning people instantly surged out of the black mist. They opened their mouths and roared silently as they rushed towards the group—wherever they passed, even the cold wind became more biting.

The White Impermanence transformed into black mist, blocking Shen Xun's path, but was instantly shattered by the evil creature's shrill cry, shrinking back into the form of a young girl, her face deathly pale, her whole body trembling: "It's gone mad! It's burning its own spiritual energy! It doesn't want to live anymore!"

Shen Xun's eyes darkened, and the golden light of his peach wood staff surged as he swung it to meet the oncoming phantom.

The power of reincarnation pierced through the clouds like the rising sun, instantly shattering most of the illusions. However, the remaining illusions became even more frenzied, bypassing the golden light and rushing towards Lin Jian, Ye Zhuo, and Lao Gu behind them.

The most dangerous one is Old Gu.

The evil entity precisely seized upon his deepest vulnerability. In countless phantoms, Xiulian's figure repeatedly appeared. She struggled in the river, reaching out to Old Gu, silently calling out, "Save me."

Old Gu trembled violently, his pupils dilated, and he walked step by step toward the ice crevice, repeatedly muttering, "Xiulian, I'm here to save you," completely unaware that countless bluish-gray hands had already reached out from the ice crevice, trying to drag him to the bottom of the river.

"Old Gu! Come back!" Ye Zhu roared, trying to pull him back, but she was tightly entangled by two tentacles that her entrenching tool couldn't cut through. The human face on the tentacles grinned at her, instantly doubling the pain in her soul.

She gritted her teeth and struggled, tearing the wound on her arm open even more, and blood instantly soaked through her sleeve, but she still refused to let go of the weapon in her hand.

Just then, Shen Xun made a move.

A stream of golden primordial blood seeped from his fingertips and dripped onto the peach wood staff, instantly causing the snake-eye patterns on the staff to light up with a dazzling light.

He leaped into the air, his peachwood staff carrying the all-encompassing power of reincarnation, and thrust fiercely towards the core of the black mist—this strike was his full power, a strike that would either crush the evil entity or drag it down with him to his death.

The evil creature let out an even more frenzied shriek, and all its tentacles instantly retracted, condensing into an incredibly thick black blade that slashed towards the peach wood staff.

The golden light and black mist collided violently, causing the entire ice surface to tremble. The cracks in the ice layer grew larger and larger, and the pitch-black river water surged out wildly. The evil creature's black blade shattered inch by inch, and the black mist began to dissipate violently, about to be completely swallowed by the golden light.

But at that moment, a large amount of viscous, colorful gas suddenly surged out from the cracks in the ice.

The cloud of energy carried an eerie chill, sharing the same origin as the colorful energy on the surface of the evil object, but it was even more violent and darker.

The gas surged wildly into the core of the evil creature's black mist, causing the previously dissipated black mist to swell instantly. The evil creature's shriek now carried a hint of cold malice that did not belong to it.

The once-weak tentacles grew thick again, and colorful patterns covered the entire black mist. Even the surrounding phantoms became more solid and ferocious.

Shen Xun frowned, the peach wood staff at his fingertips trembled slightly, and a sharp pain shot through the Samsara Well mark on his left chest.

He clearly sensed that this was not the power of the evil entity itself.

Beneath the ice, someone was feeding this dying, malevolent creature its final madness.

"Shen Xun! It's gotten stronger again!" Bai Wuchang screamed, transforming once more into a chaotic black shadow, entangled with the tentacles that lunged at Shen Xun.

However, its power had already been exhausted in the illusion, and it could not last long. The shadow was torn by the tentacles and became fainter and fainter, and the edges began to become transparent. It was about to completely disappear, but it still refused to retreat even half a step.

Ye Zhuo's riot shield was almost cracked from the tentacles' blows. His left arm, which had just withstood the heavy blows from the tentacles, was now numb and weak. Blood dripped from his fingertips from the deep, bone-revealing wound, hitting the ice and instantly freezing into dazzling red ice beads.

But she didn't back down at all. Even though her hands holding the entrenching tool were shaking violently, she still held the shield firmly in front of Lin Jian and Lao Gu, her back straight, like a wall nailed to the ice.

Lin Jian finally pressed the shutter with all his might. A white light burst out from the lens, temporarily dispelling the phantom that was clinging to Lao Gu. However, the camera went completely dark and could not be turned on for a while.

She held onto the camera tightly. She knew that Shen Xun was giving it his all and Ye Zhuo was gritting his teeth and holding on. She couldn't cause any more trouble for everyone.

Old Gu finally snapped out of his hallucination. He looked at the churning black mist before him, at Ye Zhuo, who was covered in wounds but still fiercely protecting him, at Lin Jian, who was pale and could barely stand, at Shen Xun, who had exhausted his own energy and single-handedly withstood all the attacks from the evil creature, and then back at the phantom of Xiu Lian in the ice crevice that kept reaching out to him. His heart felt as if it were being squeezed tightly by two hands.

On one hand, there is the guilt and longing etched into my bones for thirty years; on the other hand, there is the heart-wrenching self-blame after I came to my senses.

He always believed that by staying by the river, he was atoning for his sins against Xiulian.

Only now did he realize that his so-called guilt was nothing more than trapping himself in the cage of the past, and even becoming a weapon used by evil to harm those around him.

What trapped him was never Xiulian's resentment, but his own stubbornness that he refused to let go of.

He couldn't go on like this any longer.

That's enough.

Old Gu's voice wasn't loud, but it carried an unprecedented firmness. He abruptly turned around, facing the black mist of the evil entity, and shouted in Shen Xun's direction, "Shen Xun! Attack! I won't be trapped by it anymore!"

As soon as he uttered those words, the obsession he had suppressed for thirty years was finally released.

The evil creature, fueled by obsession, trembled violently, and the light from its colorful patterns dimmed. Now!

A blinding golden light suddenly flashed in Shen Xun's eyes as he poured all the remaining primal power into the peach wood staff.

The staff emitted a clear, resonant ringing sound, and a golden beam of light, like a thunderclap from the sky, pierced straight through the black mist and plunged fiercely into the core of the evil creature.

The evil creature let out an extremely mournful cry, and its core exploded.

The colorful cloud of gas lost its anchor and fled frantically. Some of it merged into the dark river, while others dissipated in the wind and snow. Before it vanished, a faint, cold laugh could be heard, but it was gone in an instant, as if it had never existed.

Instead of dissipating, the black mist began to collapse violently from the inside.

Countless twisted black shadows surged and roared wildly in the black mist, like wild beasts that had been imprisoned for decades, finally breaking free of their cages and about to burst forth.

The chill on the ice instantly doubled, and even Shen Xun's expression changed drastically. He gripped his peach wood staff tightly and warned everyone sharply, "Not good! Its core has shattered, and it's about to release all the souls that have been imprisoned for thirty years!"

Ye Zhuo instantly gripped the entrenching tool and shielded Lin Jian behind him; Lin Jian hugged the camera even tighter, staring intently at the churning black mist; Old Gu stood still, his face ashen, but he didn't retreat another step, his gaze fixed on the depths of the black mist, as if waiting for something.