Chapter 129: Illusory Realm Tricks the Heart

Zhao Er shivered, instinctively wanting to resist. But considering the other party's unfathomable strength, he submitted. Feeling the cold gaze lingering on him, Zhao Er said with a mournful expression, "Alright, senior!"

Then he formed a hand seal. The stone pillar rumbled up from the seabed. Zhao Er, crestfallen, said, "Senior, please enter!" With that, he walked inside, following the stairs in the center of the stone pillar.

Li Fan's divine sense swept around. Having studied the jade slip for over a year, he was no longer completely ignorant of array formations. Inside this stone pillar, there were only a few simple water-repelling and dust-cleansing arrays, with no signs of offensive formations. However, Li Fan did not lower his guard; he still activated a protective talisman before following him inside.

Clearly, Li Fan had worried too much. The interior of this stone pillar was quite rudimentary. Most of it consisted of storage rooms for collected items. Zhao Er led Li Fan to a relatively spacious room. In the middle was a large table, on which lay what appeared to be a miniature model of Congyun Sea.

"Senior, please sit," Zhao Er stammered, speaking with difficulty.

Li Fan calmly sat down, looked at the pale Zhao Er, and said, "Shall I ask you one by one, or will you honestly confess everything yourself?"

Zhao Er opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but only managed a smile uglier than a cry: "Senior, I don't know what to confess!"

Li Fan snorted coldly, reactivating his Binding Art. Zhao Er was instantly restrained again. Controlling the Azure Flame Phantom Spirit, a visible chill spread from the ground, like an icy blue serpent, slowly crawling onto Zhao Er's body. In an instant, Zhao Er's lower limbs were frozen by blue ice crystals.

"I wonder, with your cultivation, if your body can recover after being shattered into ice shards," Li Fan said with a hint of curiosity.

A trace of fear flickered in Zhao Er's eyes, but he quickly suppressed it. There was no sign of him begging for mercy, showing a spirit of preferring death to dishonor. Li Fan also saw that Zhao Er truly didn't seem to be faking it.

"Interesting," Li Fan smiled, then brought Zhao Er with him to the adjacent storage room. Zhao Er's eyes suddenly filled with terror.

"Oh dear, these items here seem really exquisite. You must have put a lot of effort into collecting them," Li Fan said, gently running his hand over the aged artifacts.

"Crash!" As he touched a porcelain bowl, he threw it to the ground. "Tsk, tsk, tsk, how embarrassing. I wasn't careful and broke it," Li Fan said with apparent regret.

"Smash!" Another piece of porcelain shattered. Raging fury flared in Zhao Er's eyes as he glared at Li Fan. He looked as if he wanted to tear Li Fan to shreds.

However, as the fragile ancient artifacts in the room were destroyed one after another, Zhao Er's gaze gradually shifted from fierce to heartbroken, then from heartbroken to panicked, and from panicked to pleading for mercy.

Li Fan, however, showed no intention of stopping. He took Zhao Er through every room within the stone pillar, destroying years of his collection in an instant, right before his eyes.

Looking at the fragments scattered across the floor, Zhao Er's eyes were filled with despair. As his body loosened and he regained control, Zhao Er lunged forward, bursting into loud sobs. His cries shook the heavens; his heartbroken appearance was truly unbearable to witness.

As Zhao Er wept, he suddenly realized the fragments in his hand were gone. He was still restrained, in the original room. It turned out that everything that had just happened was merely an illusion! The drastic reversal of emotions, from despair to overwhelming relief, almost caused Zhao Er to lose his breath.

The restraint on his body vanished, and Zhao Er collapsed to the floor. He felt completely weak, but he struggled to rush to the adjacent storage room, where he saw his beloved collections still intact. He couldn't help but cry tears of joy, yet he wept even more bitterly. In Zhao Er's eyes, the recent illusion was ten thousand times more terrifying than the worst nightmare. He never wanted to experience it again!

"Now, do you know what to confess?" The nightmarish voice echoed in his ear. Zhao Er trembled, feeling that the other party's mind-manipulating trick was truly terrifying!

"Speak, I'll tell you everything!" he stammered, shivering repeatedly. Fearing that Li Fan would truly destroy all his collections.

The two returned, one after the other. Li Fan sat, while Zhao Er stood meekly by his side. Zhao Er opened his mouth, then hesitated to speak. After a long pause, Zhao Er finally spoke hesitantly: "This junior, Zhao Erbao, is a local cultivator from Congyun Sea. I am sixty-eight years old this year..."

Li Fan's face darkened, and he quickly interrupted him: "Who asked you to confess that? I'm asking you, what is the use of these items you've collected? And where is that place you mentioned? Why don't you use a spatial ring for transport, but insist on personally moving them on and off a flying boat?"

With each question, Zhao Erbao's body trembled. After Li Fan finished questioning, Zhao Erbao said with a bitter expression, "Senior is truly immensely powerful; nothing can be hidden from you."

He paused, seemingly organizing his thoughts. After a moment, he stammered again, "The reason this junior spent his entire life collecting these ancient artifacts is because of a secret I discovered when I was still a mortal."

"A secret?" Li Fan looked at Zhao Erbao with interest, waiting for him to continue.

Zhao Erbao nodded: "My family has dealt in antiques for generations. Being immersed in it since childhood, I also developed a strong interest in the ancient artifacts salvaged from the deep sea. Perhaps due to my innate talent, I could always easily distinguish genuine ancient artifacts from imitations. So, my family gradually had me take over all the appraisal work. This also allowed me to come into contact with a large number of ancient artifacts every day. It was also through this that I subtly uncovered this secret hidden in the dust of history."

"Congyun Sea, it seems, once harbored a lost civilization," Zhao Erbao's expression turned serious, his eyes narrowed slightly, as if recalling something. "The artifacts belonging to this civilization have a very unique style, distinctly different from those of other eras in Congyun Sea. All the ancient artifacts stored in this junior's base belong to this civilization."

Li Fan slowly nodded: "What's special about this civilization? I see these items, though old, seem to be just mundane objects. They shouldn't be of much use to you, a Qi Condensation cultivator, should they?"

"These items themselves indeed hold little value. What's truly precious are the things attached to them," Zhao Erbao said.

"Senior, do you know that the seabed of Congyun Sea is filled with architectural ruins?" Zhao Erbao changed the subject, asking abruptly.