Chapter 1788: Boundaries and Reversal

Dong Rui casually asked the monk, “Your childhood? How long ago was that?”

The man’s face already showed prominent nasolabial folds.

“Forty… no, forty-three years ago!”

The others didn't respond, but thought in unison: *You must be mistaken.*

It’s perfectly normal for a boy so young to coincidentally resemble someone.

To their surprise, the monk continued to stare at the boy: “He drowned in Yaozi Lake when he was six years old, just this size! Do you see that butterfly-shaped red scar on his left temple? He fell onto a hoe when he was little and survived, but it left this mark.”

Sure enough, the boy had an old scar on his face, clearly from an injury that hadn't healed properly.

The more the monk thought about it, the more unsettled he became. He walked over to the boy and asked, “What’s your name?”

The boy wasn't intimidated and replied frankly, “Yu Xian.”

The monk’s expression grew even more troubled: “What village is this?”

“Yu Village,” the boy chuckled, “the character ‘Yu’!”

The Illusion Sect members, known for their keen hearing, exchanged glances upon hearing the name “Yu Village.”

What was the connection between the real world and the illusionary realm?

The monk then asked, “Where are your family members?”

At that moment, the wooden door creaked open, and a farmer emerged, standing beside the boy and looking at the monk warily.

“This is my father,” Yu Xian said, looking up. “My mother passed away a long time ago.”

His father, in turn, asked the monk, “Are you guards from Sunwheel City? What brings you here?”

The monk shook his head, offering no reply. He walked back blankly, muttering, “His name really is Yu Xian!”

His childhood playmate, who had drowned, had appeared in a village in the real world. Could this be a mere coincidence?

Forty-three years had passed, yet this boy named Yu Xian hadn't grown, still appearing to be six or seven years old.

The monk couldn't help but look back, seeing the father and son still standing there, watching him.

“In the illusionary realm, I remember Yu Xian lived with his mother; his father died very early!”

But here, Yu Xian’s father stood beside him, while his mother had died prematurely.

It was precisely the opposite of the illusionary realm.

“How did he die?”

“Lung… tuberculosis.”

Dong Rui glanced at Elder Liu, knowing he wouldn’t get answers there, so he whispered to He Lingchuan, “What’s going on?”

He Lingchuan didn't answer but instead asked the monk, “In the illusionary realm, is Yu Xian’s mother still alive?”

“She’s alive, at least until last night,” the monk replied. “I saw her at the market half a month ago.”

He Lingchuan looked at Dong Rui and simply said three words:

“Upside-Down Sea.”

Hadn’t the name of this mansion hinted from the start that “upside down” was the key?

“I thought ‘upside down’ referred to the formation… I didn’t realize it meant life and death,” Dong Rui’s voice trailed off. “Never mind. Are you saying that people who die in the illusionary realm actually come here?”

He also noticed that one didn’t have to drown in Yaozi Lake to come here, as Yu Xian’s father clearly hadn’t drowned.

Madam Zhu added, “These dead people don’t even know they’re dead.”

The villagers lived as usual, farming and raising children, completely undisturbed.

Once they understood this, the pastoral scene before them felt chillingly eerie.

Dong Rui was reminded of the Inverted Dipper Grand Formation, where the main and inverse formations were symmetrical and complementary, with neither able to exist independently.

So, did life and death at the Upside-Down Sea cycle repeatedly between the real world and the illusionary formation?

Hold on, hold on, that thought isn’t right. He reminded himself that Thousand Illusions shouldn’t possess such power.

“What is life, what is death?” He Lingchuan suddenly said. “Do you think they are alive in the illusionary realm and dead in the real world? What if the truth is exactly the opposite?”

He kicked a pebble on the ground. “Don’t forget, Elder Liu said this is the real world.”

“Hey, hey, speak plainly!” Dong Rui’s head buzzed and began to ache again. “Don’t try to be as mysterious as Thousand Illusions!”

Back at Wenhua Pavilion, Thousand Illusions and He Lingchuan had exchanged cryptic remarks about boundaries and rules, which he had found confusing.

What did ‘confusing’ mean? It meant that at first listen, it seemed a little clear, but upon deeper thought, no, he actually didn’t understand.

He Lingchuan smiled. “When you came to the real world, Yu Xian spoke of the grief of losing his mother; when you go to the illusionary realm, Yu Xian’s mother speaks to you of the grief of losing her husband and son. Which one do you believe? Or rather, which one do you think is real?”

“Uh…” Dong Rui scratched his head, finding it a genuinely difficult question to answer.

Wanqiliang, who was behind them, suddenly said, “Both are real.”

He Lingchuan asked him, “Why?”

“Their emotions are real to them.”

He Lingchuan let out an “oh.” “So the boundary between real and false emotions lies with the speaker themselves?”

When his leader countered with that question, Wanqiliang was somewhat confused. He hesitated, then nodded cautiously.

Wang Fubao chuckled. “Idiot, you fell for the boss’s trick! If the person telling you the story isn’t necessarily real, do you think their emotions are real?”

Now it was Wanqiliang’s turn to scratch his head.

He Lingchuan smiled. “The people themselves might be real, but their memories might not be. Yu Xian believes his mother died of tuberculosis, but she is clearly alive in the illusionary realm. How do you explain this memory of her cause of death?”

If the memories that serve as their foundation are flawed, can their emotions still be real?

After hearing this, the Black Armored Army’s minds were thoroughly muddled.

He Lingchuan ignored them and suddenly walked up to Elder Liu, asking an unrelated question:

“Why do Silver Bead Fruits only grow in the illusionary realm? People who bring Silver Bead Fruits from the illusionary realm to the real world cannot return if they don’t go back within fifteen minutes.”

On the shores of Upside-Down Lake in the real world, no glowing Silver Bead Fruit trees grew, only ordinary pear trees. This was a confession from True Person Jieshui, captured by Elder Liu and He Lingchuan. Earlier, at the lighthouse by the lake, Jieshui had overheard several monsters who had entered Yaozi Lake reporting back to Bai Ziqi.

Therefore, people who came from the illusionary realm to the real world couldn’t obtain Silver Bead Fruits here, and thus naturally couldn’t return to the illusionary realm.

Elder Liu shook his head. “Only the Immortal Venerable knows the answer to that.”

So, was this Thousand Illusions’ deliberate design, offering people from the illusionary realm only a one-way ticket?

Did he not want people from the real world to go to the illusionary realm?

He Lingchuan nodded, asking no more questions.

The Illusion Sect team continued forward, discovering many villages and towns along the way, at least four to five times more numerous than in the illusionary realm. They even passed two small cities, bustling with all kinds of businesses, each potentially home to thirty to fifty thousand people.

With a hundred thousand people in the two cities, this figure already exceeded the total number of living residents in the illusionary realm before the Heavenly Demon invasion.

As they climbed halfway up the mountain and looked down upon the large city at the island’s center, everyone was even more astonished, as its scale appeared to be several times larger than Silver Bead City.