Chapter 1091: "Atheism, No Buddha, No Law, and No Heaven" Equals "Demonic Possession"?

Illusions, the array core... At this moment, the two gold-ranked bounty hunter assassins, realizing they were trapped in an illusion array, felt their blood run cold.

Below the Half-Saint level, who could possibly make these two experienced assassins unknowingly and willingly step into an illusion array set up by their opponent? This was simply impossible! Even a Grandmaster of Spirit Arrays couldn't do it!

"But why didn't my 'Array Sensing Device' react? This definitely can't be an illusion array... at least, not an ordinary one!" Elder Xie's heart turned cold. He frantically searched for the array core, but his thoughts and intentions were completely misaligned. His Array Sensing Device was something he had acquired at great cost. Apart from Saint-level arrays and Heavenly Secret Arts, it was impossible for it not to react to an illusion array below the Half-Saint level. So... was it a Saint-level illusion array? Granny Ghost had already said that those two had not reached the Saint realm! They absolutely couldn't be Half-Saints! Otherwise, just one glance from the Soul-Face Banner earlier would have killed them both instantly, just like when they faced a Saint before!

There was no time to think. Since they were trapped, finding a way out was their only option. Elder Xie and Granny Ghost cast aside distracting thoughts, fully unleashed their spiritual senses, and desperately searched for the array core. To their horror, upon extending their spiritual senses, they discovered that even though they had clearly crossed sixteen streets, their current location was still precisely where they had started! This meant that their opponent had set up the illusion array right where they had been, and might even have overheard their entire battle plan!

The timing didn't match. As the two assassins thought of this, their minds froze. From the moment the enraged "Who seeks death?" rang out, they had moved. How could their opponent have had time to set up an illusion array beneath them? Setting up an array takes time!

Elder Xie's mind was clearly in a panic. He was afraid. He just wanted to grab Granny Ghost by the head and scream, "I told you not to act! I told you there might be danger, that we should have refined the Blood Tree's Shadow Branch before making a move!"

"Stop thinking nonsense, idiot, find the array core!" Granny Ghost, sensing Elder Xie's furious gaze, shrieked, her voice tinged with fear. Elder Xie's thoughts steadied. Realizing his mind was being affected by the illusion array, he dared not think aimlessly anymore. He unleashed a torrent of dark, malevolent energy, which instantly ravaged an area of several hundred li.

But... within those hundreds of li, dozens of streets, all looked exactly the same—precisely like the long street they were currently on! "Infinite loop..." A cold breeze pierced him from his feet to the crown of his head. Elder Xie's heart almost stopped. The range of this illusion array was ridiculously vast! What kind of mastery was this?

*Clang-clang-clang...* Just then, as they fruitlessly searched, a crisp sound of clashing weapons came from above. "Up there!" Granny Ghost shrieked, as if finally enlightened. She looked up, and then her entire body stiffened as if struck by lightning. Elder Xie's pupils abruptly contracted. He assumed a defensive stance and followed her gaze upwards, instantly becoming rigid as if turned to stone, his body fixed in place, unable to move.

High above, a silver moon, large enough to almost cover the entire Giant Kingdom, hung in the sky. Its cold moonlight fell mercilessly, filling their vision with a silvery shimmer—but there was no moon on Void Island! Even more terrifying was that beneath this full moon, a backlit black figure stood proudly and alone, his swordsman's robe rustling in the evening breeze. With effort, they could vaguely make out that the swordsman was carrying a snakeskin sack on his shoulder, from which the clanging of metal clearly originated. His face was handsome, his demeanor elegant, like a scholar well-versed in literature. His gentle expression held a pair of squinting eyes full of hidden smiles, as soft as moonlight in the night.

"Swordsman..." "Illusion..." Elder Xie and Granny Ghost's hearts pounded violently. In their minds, a single phrase popped out simultaneously: Ancient Sword Cultivator! Ancient Sword Cultivators, a byword for terror! Under the law of the jungle, ancient sword cultivators who failed to achieve anything in the current era were all trash; but those who grew strong were devils who could fight enemies beyond their level and take on a hundred opponents alone!

*Gulp* At this, the two gold-ranked bounty hunter assassins felt their hearts turn completely cold. "One against two..." Granny Ghost thought of her naive earlier idea and wanted to slap herself hard. *What was I thinking?* "Direct assault, go straight for Xu Xiaoshou..." Elder Xie's mind was now filled only with the word "absurd." *It's all Granny Ghost's fault! I said we shouldn't act now! Damn it!*

"Sixteen breaths..." The middle-aged man with the silver moon behind him tightened the sack in his left hand, slightly turned his head, and pressed two fingers of his right hand to his temple, speaking thoughtfully: "It took you a full sixteen breaths to find me. So, calculate how long it will take you to defeat me and break this array core of mine?"

The array core of the Illusionary Sword Art was the Ancient Sword Cultivator himself! Beneath the silver moon, the casually spoken words carried immense pressure from the heavens. The man's aura, high in the sky, was like an entire world hanging behind him, instilling such terrifying pressure that one couldn't help but want to kneel in worship. Elder Xie and Granny Ghost heard this and knew that if this person had acted earlier, they would have probably reincarnated sixteen times in sixteen breaths. How could they dare to fight this Ancient Sword Cultivator? At this moment, only one thought remained in their minds: "Run! Run with all their might, using every trick they had, run for their lives!"

But with such expressions clearly displayed, how could the sword-robed man beneath the silver moon in the night not see it? Everyone who faced him before had the same thought. "Why so quiet?" He chuckled. "You two are truly impolite. Since you've found me, shouldn't you introduce yourselves? I don't recognize you... By the way, I'm even more interested in the person behind you!" He paused, then the gentle, squinting-eyed man seemed to recall something, let out an "Oh," and said with a smile: "My apologies, I was rude first. I forgot to introduce myself. Of course, you should know me, or at least have heard my name... Cangyue Immortal City, Xiao Kongtong!"

*Whoosh* Amidst a wave of chaos. The moment a surge of demonic energy erupted from his body, his spiritual world, a direct manifestation of his will, was almost simultaneously dyed a pure black. The "Gods and Buddhas Before My Eyes" and "Sword Manifestation" in front of him disappeared, all transforming into terrifying monsters wreathed in demonic energy. The ancient giant striding from afar seemed to become an unspeakable evil god, delivering the most direct mental impact and terrifying pressure. Surging evil energy permeated the air, and Xu Xiaoshou felt things had gotten serious.

"Damn it, I'm being affected by the info bar!" This was something he had never imagined. Before entering meditation, Xu Xiaoshou was certain that nothing unexpected would happen during this cultivation session. Who was Xiao Kongtong? Who was Mei Sir? With these two protecting him, how could his Heart Sword Art cultivation go wrong? But things were so unpredictable... Perhaps the person "watching" him on Void Island hadn't even made a move yet, but Xu Xiaoshou himself had become a frightened bird, affected by "being watched," and entered a state of qi deviation!

"Being watched..." It could be said that his current reaction was purely due to the truly terrifying pressure that "being watched" had brought him every single time before. Either it was the terrifying sensation from seeing Elder Sang's ghostly face for the first time at Goose Lake, when he forcefully fed him the fire seed. Or it was like Yu Lingdi in the White Cave, clearly watching him, yet he was forced to forget about it even after knowing. Or it was various other instances of "being watched" that he still hadn't figured out or knew the source of. In summary, Xu Xiaoshou had developed a sensitive reaction to the words "being watched." He was like someone who had consumed a large amount of pills using the Breathing Method, and in the short term, seeing any small, round object would trigger a certain stress response.

"I'm doomed, I'm doomed!" "How do I break free from this 'qi deviation'?" Xu Xiaoshou's greatest fear of "qi deviation" was still rooted in the scene from the Eight Palaces, when Elder Sang was struck by an arrow from the Evil Sin Bow of Loving All Beings. The old man, usually omnipotent, became so helpless after that arrow! As a result, the moment Xu Xiaoshou realized his current state was wrong, he almost succumbed to the vast demonic energy in his spiritual world and lost his sanity. At this very moment, he felt a frantic evil intent transform into physical devils in his spiritual world, baring their fangs and claws, rampaging wildly, causing his thoughts to become chaotic. Each of these devils had a name: Elder Sang, Bazun An, Yu Lingdi, Shouye, the Arrow of Evil Sin Bow, Half-Saint Zangren, Half-Saint Jiang Buyi... a dazzling array, countless names! Those he had seen, those he hadn't fully seen, and even those he hadn't seen at all... Anyone or anything that had left a trace of fear in his soul and will was now magnified and transformed into heinous devils.

*Screech!* Evil spirits roared, as if the gates of the Nine Nether Purgatory had been opened. All order vanished, leaving only chaos in the world. Xu Xiaoshou clutched his head, overwhelmed by pain. The tiny bit of lucidity he managed to retain seemed about to give way, to be assimilated and transform into a malevolent will!

"No!" "Don't!" "Stop struggling!!!" A drop of water fell from the sky, its crisp sound jarring in the endless chaos. Xu Xiaoshou's pupils abruptly contracted, no longer able to suppress the magnification of his inner fear. *Roar!* After a beastly roar, his "ego" will, which had just been behaving, barely clear in form, and had only just surpassed the "Gods and Buddhas Before My Eyes" and "Sword Manifestation," suddenly took on its most tangible form. It transformed into the most berserk winged giant Xu Xiaoshou had ever turned into when facing the Double Idiots, stepping on a flourishing ice lotus, with white flames surging around him, like the most contradictory god of ice and fire. But in the next second, this ice-fire god, still possessing a hint of sacred aura, was immediately engulfed by demonic energy, transforming into a winged black demonic berserk giant. This was the strongest berserk giant he had manifested during his battle with the Abnormality, with four swords in his left hand and a fiery python in his right, but having lost all reason, it now acted like a madman, slaying the "Gods and Buddhas Before My Eyes" and "Sword Manifestation" before it, one by one, until they were all destroyed.

"Ugh!" Inside his spiritual world, painful roars echoed all around. Xu Xiaoshou felt himself splitting, divided into two wills. One will frantically tried to stop his insane actions: "No! Not like this! I'm cultivating the Heart Sword Art right now!" But the other will sneered and retorted: "Isn't this the Heart Sword Art? In my spiritual world, how can I tolerate others' Heart Sword Art imagery? What does it mean to surpass this trash? If I don't annihilate them completely, what's the point of 'no gods, no buddhas, no laws, no heaven'!" "You make a good point... No gods, no buddhas, no laws, no heaven, that truly is equivalent to a state of qi deviation..." Xu Xiaoshou felt his benevolent will was instantly convinced. He murmured to himself and willingly extended his head into the mouth of the evil will. "Eat me, turn me into nourishment. We are, after all, one!" *Gulp!* His vision turned black, and Xu Xiaoshou fell into oblivion.

"Xu Xiaoshou, hold on, you can definitely get through this!" On the long street, Mei Sir, holding his stone sword, stared fixedly at Xu Xiaoshou, who was now bound in a mass of demonic energy and hovering in the air. His heart was in his throat. From the painful expression on the young man's face, he could glimpse a bit of what he was currently enduring in his spiritual world. But Mei Sir couldn't intervene! While he could certainly use his Heart Sword Art to directly invade Xu Xiaoshou's spiritual world and help him eliminate the inner demons, it wasn't the limit yet; he couldn't use that method!

"He hasn't opened his eyes yet..." Although Xu Xiaoshou seemed to have ended his meditation and appeared to have completely gone berserk, Mei Sir still held a sliver of hope—Xu Xiaoshou's eyes were still tightly closed! As he had said, Heart Sword Art cultivated intent. And "the heart is the abode of intent, the eyes are the windows of the body." As long as Xu Xiaoshou hadn't opened his eyes, no matter how wrong his state seemed, the devils within him had not yet been unleashed. This meant there was still a chance! "Perhaps Xu Xiaoshou can suppress the qi deviation and use it to cultivate an even stronger Heart Sword Art? This wasn't unprecedented..." Mei Sir's thoughts stopped abruptly there. "Hmm, there has indeed never been anyone who cultivated the Heart Sword Art, went berserk, and still succeeded... No, survived. But perhaps, Xu Xiaoshou, you will be the first?" If it were an ordinary person, Mei Sir would have already intervened to help slay the inner demons. But "geniuses" and "monsters" were different! Xu Xiaoshou was to Mei Sir what Bazun An was to Yu Tu. Mei Sir truly regarded Xu Xiaoshou as a "monster-level genius" like Bazun An and was cultivating him as such. So even though neither he nor any of his past students had ever experienced a situation like Xu Xiaoshou's, Mei Sir still believed Xu Xiaoshou could resolve it on his own. As long as he hadn't opened his eyes and released the inner demons, there was still room for things to turn around!

Worst-case scenario... Mei Sir dared to wait this long without intervening because he could sense that whenever Xu Xiaoshou reached the brink of losing control, his spiritual will would undergo an awakening. It appeared as if he had cultivated some passive "purification" ability. It was this very method that kept Xu Xiaoshou's sliver of sanity intact and showed Mei Sir the possibility of Xu Xiaoshou suppressing the qi deviation on his own!

"Hold on..." If he could suppress the qi deviation, and even if there was a slight chance, incorporate this power into his "Gods and Buddhas Before My Eyes," then... Mei Sir could barely imagine how terrifying Xu Xiaoshou's Heart Sword Art would be then. How unconstrained and unnamable his "Gods and Buddhas Before My Eyes" would become! Wasn't this precisely what his school of Heart Sword Art sought? The unknown, transcendence! "Forged in a hundred trials..." "Xu Xiaoshou, will you be that 'one'?"