Deep within, a voice seemed to be constantly whispering to him:
"Because this is your fate."
He didn't know where the voice came from. Desperately, he searched, but it felt as though something was obscuring his vision, preventing him from seeing what lay ahead.
In his world, there was only endless chaos.
It felt like an eternity had passed.
Finally, he saw something. Amidst the chaos, a dark, shapeless mass began to coalesce.
Then, he heard a ghostly voice seep into his mind:
"You did nothing wrong. This world is like this."
"Do you want to change it?"
"Go on, change it."
"Destruction and extinction are the true paths."
"See? Every form of life ultimately heads toward death, doesn't it?"
"Join me, and you'll witness a brand new world..."
The voice was like sharp, cold needles piercing his brain, each strike reverberating in his heart like a heavy drum, causing unbearable pain.
He clutched his head, writhing on the ground in agony.
"Shut up...!"
But the voice continued relentlessly:
"Surrender to oblivion. Oblivion is eternal."
"Shut up..."
"Destruction is the only eternal power..."
The dark mass swirled and expanded, growing larger and larger.
Meanwhile, the small, huddled figure on the ground seemed to shrink before it, becoming smaller and smaller.
Until he became just a tiny dot, like a fragile flame in the vast, endless night—one that could be snuffed out by the smallest breeze.
Meanwhile, the number of people on Wenxin Road had significantly decreased.
When Liu Yunan and the others arrived beneath the Ten Li Peach Blossom Tree, they saw the people undergoing the trial on Wenxin Road were surrounded by a faint, sinister black mist.
Each person's face was twisted with anxiety, and some even appeared grotesque, as if they were facing extreme hardship.
The trials on Wenxin Road were designed to be extraordinarily realistic, almost indistinguishable from true experience.
To preserve the authenticity of the experience, the connection between the dream state and the real body was kept minimal.
Otherwise, the participants could easily wake from the dream.
But now, it was clear that the intensity of the trials had reached an unprecedented level, so much so that the participants' reactions were surfacing in their real bodies.
Seeing this, everyone grew anxious, but no one dared to act rashly. None of them had encountered this before.
Only Lin Xiao fully understood Wenxin Road, but he was still in seclusion.
Everyone turned to Liu Yunan for guidance.
Glancing at the inactive identity token on his waist, Liu Yunan said to the group:
"I'll check the control room. Keep an eye on them. If the situation worsens, signal me, and I'll shut down Wenxin Road!"
With that, he hurried toward the control room.
The others, under Qin Jianghe's direction, began checking the physical condition of each participant.
After examining several of them, the group felt a little relieved.
So far, the black mist didn't seem to be causing any immediate harm to their bodies.
However, they couldn't let their guard down. Constant monitoring was necessary.
Suddenly, Qin Jianghe's voice echoed from the middle of the mountain path:
"Yigao! Come over here, quickly!"
Upon hearing the call, Sun Yigao moved swiftly and arrived at his side in a breath.
Others nearby, who were also inspecting the participants, quickly gathered around.
When they reached Qin Jianghe, they found that the person he was checking was Tong Jialiang, the boy Sun Yigao had been treating for years.
One look, and they understood why Qin Jianghe had called for Sun Yigao.
At that moment, Tong Jialiang was nearly engulfed in black mist, far more than anyone else around him. The mist seemed as though it was devouring him, a stark contrast to the faint wisps surrounding the others.
On closer inspection, they realized the black mist was seeping from his eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and several vital points like his forehead and heart.
The mist first coiled tightly around him, but as it grew thicker and denser, it began to spread outward.
The black mist didn't linger near Qin Jianghe or the others. It passed through their bodies as if they weren't there, without causing any sensation.
The mist then wove its way toward the other participants, wrapping around them.
They tried to touch it, to block it with spiritual energy, but all their efforts were in vain.
The mist was untouchable, as if it existed in a different realm.
Someone couldn't help but ask, "What's going on?"
Sun Yigao immediately grasped Tong Jialiang's wrist, infusing him with spiritual energy to conduct a thorough check.
However, there was no abnormality within his body.
After multiple checks, Sun Yigao finally raised his head, his expression grave, and shook it.
"I can't find anything wrong with him..."
That could only mean the issue lay within his mind—his dream.
Jiang Youfu stepped closer, carefully observing the scene and sniffing the air before speaking:
"This doesn't seem like a typical case of deviation that cultivators suffer from. It doesn't even smell the same."
Sun Yigao tried using a third-tier purification spell, Jingxin Technique, on Tong Jialiang.
But the black mist remained unaffected.
The result wasn't surprising. After all, over the years, Sun Yigao had tried this spell several times on Tong Jialiang, knowing that Lin Xiao had used it to cleanse the heart demons of the Yuanying elder from the Yuan family.
However, this spell never worked on Tong Jialiang's condition, possibly because it was something entirely different.
Sun Yigao had hoped it might work now, but clearly, it did not.
Jiang Youfu lost his appetite for his fried beans, looking at those entangled in the black mist with worry.
"What do we do? Who knows when Brother Xiao will come out of seclusion."
If Brother Xiao were here, they would surely have a solution.
Faced with this predicament, there was little they could do but stand guard, monitoring the participants' conditions with spiritual energy.
They had to be ready to inform Liu Yunan at the first sign of danger.
Meanwhile, in the control room, Liu Yunan quickly navigated the control panel that Lin Xiao had taught him.
After confirming that the option to shut down Wenxin Road was operational, he breathed a small sigh of relief and began exploring other options.
At least if something went terribly wrong, he could shut it down immediately.
However, after scouring the controls, Liu Yunan found no solution to the current problem on Wenxin Road.