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Chapter 24 Zhuge Yan's Inner Demons
A deep blue flame exploded in his dantian, without any burning pain, only an extreme, purified coolness.
Like drinking a mouthful of ice spring water on a sweltering summer day, the coolness surges from the dantian to the limbs and bones, sweeping away impurities from the meridians wherever it passes.
The flame has been ignited.
Then Zhuge Yan began to reach out to ignite the fire in the middle elixir.
The crimson flames traveled up the Du meridian and landed in the middle Dantian (CV17) acupoint.
This time it's warm, not scalding, not dry, but extremely gentle, like the first rain of early spring seeping into the frozen soil.
The Tanzhong acupoint is where the ancestral energy gathers. The fire of the middle elixir burns here, refining and purifying the true qi flowing through his meridians layer by layer.
The Qi fire has been ignited.
"It went quite smoothly, which is unexpected. It seems that cultivating the Samadhi True Fire isn't as dangerous as I imagined..."
While thinking, Zhuge Yan raised his hand again to ignite the third flame.
The fire of the upper elixir, pure gold, hangs at the Baihui point (crown of the head) to refine the spirit.
The moment his fingertips touched the golden flame, the entire interior scene froze.
Then, the sky cracked!
A silent tear spread simultaneously from the center of "heaven" in all directions.
The soft, even light was like a shattered mirror, the cracks revealing absolute darkness behind it, devoid of any light.
The water surface collapsed at the same instant, not creating waves, but the entire surface collapsed downwards, as if something at the bottom of the water had opened a huge mouth and sucked all the water in.
Zhuge Yan is suspended in the center of the collapsed interior, neither touching the sky nor the ground.
He looked down and saw the abyss revealed after the water surface shattered, and looked up and saw the darkness beyond the crack that did not belong to any color.
Then, after an unknown amount of time, he heard a voice.
It didn't come from the outside; it surged up from the deepest part of his heart.
"You've arrived."
That voice was exactly the same as his.
Something is slowly rising from the bottom of the abyss.
It is not water, not fire, not light.
It was a darkness darker than the abyss itself, yet still clearly discernible in the lightless void.
It rose to the same height as Zhuge Yan, and then the darkness began to recede, forming an outline.
First the feet, then the legs, then the torso, and then the arms.
Finally, there's the face.
That face looks exactly like his!
The curve of every eyebrow, the line of every jawbone, the luster of every inch of skin—it's as if she stepped out of a mirror.
There was only one difference: its eye sockets had no whites, no pupils, only a burning, murky crimson, like two pieces of iron that had been heated through and then cooled, cooled and then heated through again.
"As expected... it wasn't as simple as I thought..."
The person opposite Zhuge Yan, or rather, the one who looked exactly like him, tilted his head.
The bloodshot eyes had no pupils, but Zhuge Yan could clearly feel them looking at him.
It's not about looks, it's not about the body, it's about something deeper.
"Is this my inner demon?"
Zhuge Yan was not flustered by this sudden change, but instead looked the other party up and down with great interest.
"They look so alike! Except for the eyes, they're almost identical."
"Of course, otherwise why would I say I'm your inner demon?"
The inner demon smiled slightly, his tone exactly the same as Zhuge Yan's, even his voice was exactly the same.
"I am the words you dared not say, the things you dared not think, and the truths you dared not face all these years."
Zhuge Yan did not answer.
He was suspended in the collapsing interior, face to face with his own version of himself with crimson eyes.
The inner demon took a step forward, and ripples spread across the abyss beneath its feet.
"You have never told anyone what you fear most. Not your father, not the clan elders, not anyone from the Wuhou faction, not even yourself."
Zhuge Yan's heart skipped a beat.
"You're afraid this world... isn't real."
The inner demon's voice was very soft, as if it were telling a secret that only two people could hear.
But these words, when placed within the collapsing interior, carry a weight far heavier than the force of the sky splitting open.
The surging darkness in the abyss suddenly stopped, and the shattered sky ceased its spread. The entire interior seemed to be nailed to the spot by these words.
"You are a time traveler."
The inner demon tilted its head, its bloodshot eyes revealing no emotion.
"In the world you came from, everything here—the Wuhou Sect, the Sanyi Sect, the Triple Rebirth, the Eight Extraordinary Techniques, the Jia Shen Rebellion…"
Everything is just a comic book, a story, a story drawn by one person.
Zhuge Zhao is a panel you glanced at while turning the pages, Lu Jin is a fleeting image you caught as you turned the page, and your father is a name you'll never think of again after you close the book.
Zhuge Yan didn't speak; it was as if something was blocking his throat.
"The interior is virtual."
The inner demon spread its hands, pointing to the collapsing water beneath its feet and the shattered sky above its head.
"When a sorcerer enters the inner realm, everyone knows it's virtual; I don't need you to tell me that."
But can you tell me, what makes you so certain that the world outside you is real?
Zhuge Yan opened his mouth, but no sound came out.
"You can't be sure."
The inner demon spoke for him.
"You've been here for over a decade, and you've never truly believed in this world."
You cultivate here, you bleed and sweat here, you fight Lu Jin here, but there is always a voice in your heart saying: This is just a story.
Their joys and sorrows are stories, their life and death are stories, but they are just stories.
It took another step forward, facing Zhuge Yan face to face, their noses almost touching.
In those bloodshot eyes, deep within the murky depths of blood, Zhuge Yan saw his own reflection.
"It's true that the interior is fake, but if the exterior is fake too, then what are you?"
Zhuge Yan closed his eyes.
"I read a story about someone in my past life."
He spoke, but in a very low voice.
"There is a type of sorcerer who sees things he shouldn't see in his inner vision."
The laws of heaven and earth, the truth of all things—sorcerers revere heaven, but they are also the most vulnerable to being swallowed by it.
What they saw, no one knows, but they all went mad inside the interior.
He opened his eyes and looked into the eyes of the inner demon that were exactly the same as his own.
"What you're afraid of isn't the person in front of you."
The inner demon's voice suddenly softened.
What you fear is that one day you will discover that even the world you were living in was fake.
You fear that all the hard work you've put into these things over the years will be for naught once you discover they're all fake.
If all of this is fake, then what's the point of all your hard work and cultivation?
There was no wind in the abyss, but something was vibrating slightly, transmitting a very deep and low hum, like magma slowly flowing from the depths of the earth.
"And what scares you the most..."
The inner demon's voice was suppressed to the lowest level.
"It's because you can't even answer this question."