Tainted will

Bai Ming's eyes turned sharp, flashing a murderously dreadful light.

Slink!

A silver brilliance slid across the air as Bai Ming instinctively swung his sword in a swift fashion, but the only thing the sword cut was the moist air beside him.

"Who is it!?" Bai Ming questioned as callous killing intent flared out, he quickly examined his surroundings, his eyes were like fine daggers looking for the slightest of irregularities.

After waiting for a long time, Bai Ming still didn't see any anomalies. But he didn't let his guard down, if anything he hastily took out a few more defensive treasures and placed them on his body.

'Was it just my imagination...? I don't believe so, it should be the illusion that is affecting my senses, not only is this illusion influencing my sense of direction but it also has this kind of ability, and not to overlook the bizarre fog which can obstruct my divine sense, such a strange place.' Bai Ming pondered while glancing at his reflection on the crystal clear blade.

This was the first time Bai Ming had ever been trapped in an illusion, Bai Ming had plenty of experience in dealing with all sorts of people and situations, be it in this lifetime or during his stay in the mortal world, Bai Ming had gone through a lot, he was someone who had seen both the ugliness and warmth of living. But what he lacked were authentic supernatural experiences, and this trip to the mystic realm was all about surviving these supernatural trials.

'However, what's really odd is that even with my grandmaster realm formation path attainment I cannot locate the root of this illusion.' Bai Ming reflected deeply, searching for answers from his limited knowledge but most of his attention was still placed on the forest around him.

After thinking real hard, Bai Ming still failed to figure out a solution. But he didn't give up, Bai Ming began experimenting with a few theories that were aimlessly spinning in his mind.

Nonetheless, none of them yielded the expected results, making Bai Ming a tad bit frustrated in beginning.

But these so-called failures had their distinctive worth...

As time went on the frustration in his heart only grew stronger, and his crimson eyes were soon drowned in a sea of tiredness.

"I'll rest for just a bit before continuing any further.." Bai Ming sat down on the patch of grass, as he let his mind relax. He was oddly exhausted.

"Hehe.."

Bai Ming's eyes flashed as he suddenly heard a faint giggle, but unlike before the sound came from a distant tree.

Bai Ming stood up with a little effort, he gazed in a certain direction with a dull look on his exhausted face.

A strong wind blew at this moment and the tree branches shook violently as thousands of beautifully shaped leaves rained down.

As the leaves drifted down, a young girl unknowingly stepped out from within the thin blanket of leaves. Her body was devoid of clothing, showcasing her bountiful breasts and a perfectly round and perky ass, it was truly eye-catching. Her body exuded an irresistible sensual charm, But as opposed to her alluring body, her pair of transparent pupils displayed the countenance of a fallen immortal fairy.

Her pair of soul-catching eyes stared at Bai Ming's tired eyes, making his heart beat quicker. Bai Ming's expression changed greatly, the glint in his eyes was dark and lascivious. Licking his lips, he took a step forward.

The young maiden's cheeks turned rosy, she shyly raised her arm and beckoned Bai Ming to come closer while she took a small step back.

"Wait!" Bai Ming stretched out his right arm as he desperately ran toward the young maiden.

"Huff, huff, huff..." Bai Ming breathed heavily as he relentlessly chased after her, when he saw the girl getting further away he let out an anguished cry.

"l am here," a gentle and melodious voice suddenly wafted into Bai Ming's ears.

"Haa," Bai Ming hastily twisted his body only to see the naked girl shyly stealing glances at him while leaning against a nearby tree.

"Please wait for me!" Bai Ming pleaded with a pained look on his face as he hurriedly ran toward her.

When Bai Ming was just dozens of steps away from her, she laughed playfully as the lower half of her body slowly entered the tall tree behind her.

"No!" Bai Ming roared with much heartache as he chased after her. When he was just a breath away from reaching her, Bai Ming tripped over a rock and fell down. But due to the momentum of the fall, he rolled ahead and harshly hit his head against the tree.

"Uhhh" Bai Ming placed both of his arms against the ground as he tried to lift his tired body while facing the earth, the maiden's gaze darted downwards to Bai Ming who was just an arm's length from her.

"Are you hurt?" The Young maiden asked in a delicate voice while bending the upper half of her body and extending out her delicate arm to help Bai Ming up.

"Ughh" Bai Ming could only groan in pain.

"Come with me and everything will be fine." The maiden whispered lovingly as an ominous glint flickered past her eyes. Her face turned demonic as she fiercely tried to snatch Bai Ming away.

Slink!

A ray of sharp silver brilliance made an exquisite arc in the air and met the Young maiden before the blade smoothly glid across her neck, the maiden's expression froze in terror as her head slid off her shoulders, and with a heavy thud, it landed on the grass before turning into a chunk of rotten wood.

"Tsk tsk, so you were the culprit behind this ordeal. Did you have you're fun, huhuhu.." Bai Ming's sinister voice resounded as he leaped backward to pull away from the Ancient Tree.

A cold and callous smile tugged on Bai Ming's lips as he nonchalantly brushed off the dirt on his robes.

Everything that happened before was obviously an act meant to track down the source of the issue. The only authentic part was Bai Ming's exhaustion, the tiredness he felt was real, but it wasn't physical fatigue instead it was mental exhaustion.

Bai Ming had felt it to be slightly strange when he previously began showing signs of exhaustion, with his spirit realm internal cultivation and peak Yin-Yang void body cultivation his endurance and stamina were beyond the norm.

How could he start feeling fatigued after just an hour of wandering, that is when various doubts and wild theories started bubbling up in Bai Ming's crooked mind.

Bai Ming knew for a fact that he couldn't possibly be tired, physically at least. Regardless, the presence of illusion and fog also played a vital role in this scenario, as it really dulled his senses and ever so slightly altered his perception.

Then he commenced testing out his various theories, one such theory was to figure out the actual cause of the sudden exhaustion.

What Bai Ming did was, he first placed a formation on the ground, before he slowly began injecting his divine sense/soul force into the formation, after a dozen breaths Bai Ming's experiments had yielded results.

Bai Ming noticed that no matter how much divine sense he poured into the formation, the formation only lit up with dim lights but it refused to operate fully. What did this mean? It meant that either this place prevented the use of formations or the divine sense being injected into the formation was being stealthily absorbed by an unknown force. Bai Ming immediately chose to believe the second half.

Because greater consumption of divine sense which stems from the cultivator's soul often leads to mental weariness, for example; one might become irritated quite quickly when their soul strength is low, they may even become frustrated and stressed easily, and in some extreme cases; cultivators might even have heightened murderous tendencies.

And since this weird place wanted him to exhaust his divine sense and be fully entrapped by the illusion, Bai Ming just decided to go with the flow to draw the snake out of its hole.

"It was a fun game but now it's time to move on, to higher and larger stages!" Bai Ming laughed heartily as he raised his sword.

Bai Ming's laughter came to an abrupt end as he noticed that all the thick and sturdy ancient trees began shaking intensely before the soil around them splattered to reveal numerous tree roots that seemed like gigantic human feet, quickly uprooted themselves and charged at Bai Ming with vigor.

Bai Ming was unfazed as he faced them head-on, sending a shower of massive fireballs. But deep inside he felt slightly bitter as he had already an impulse of destroying the entire forest to get rid of the illusion in the very beginning, but he was worried doing such a thing would lead to unknown troubles. Hence, he decided to be cautious and go through the long route which inevitably led to his initial thought process.

The huge trees moved their huge branches. Their branches were very peculiar, they were like soft and thick octopus tentacles.

With a loud thud, a tentacle-like branch destroyed a fireball.

With another whipping noise, a branch swung over, causing Bai Ming who was behind the fireball to retreat in a sorry manner.

"Good, your strength is commendable. But not enough!" Bai Ming displayed unrivaled fearlessness as he again raised a fist.

The giant fist Phantom ruthlessly smashed at an ancient tree on the side. The thick and sturdy ancient tree immediately snapped into two.

Boom boom boom…

Bai Ming punched and kicked, the heavy punches and kicks shook the earth, stones flew, trees shattered into minute fragments, and the fog slowly started to disperse.

Bai Ming was relentless in his attacks, he conjured hundreds of giant fireballs, terrifying fist phantoms, and also slashed out with numerous dreadful sword rays that wreaked havoc like none other.

An intense battle raged on.

All sorts of attacks landed on the ancient trees' large bodies, like a beautiful display of fireworks.

Nearly half an hour later,

Bai Ming victoriously flew into the sky, his sight was now crystal clear.

He saw this forest only had a range of a hundred li, he had been moving in a circle the entire time.

Outside of this forest, he saw a scene abundant in nature and life; the wild beasts roaming around, the cries of birds and insects, the gurgling of streams, and wildflowers swaying with the wind.

'It seems this forest itself was special, it should be an extinct tree species. After the trees became sparse, this forest no longer has the bewilderment effect' Bai Ming thought silently while storing a few of the ancient trees in his storage bag.

When Bai Ming had just taken four to five trees, a dog-shaped demonic beast charged down from the top of the small mountain.

Watching this Bai Ming smiled wryly, the bewilderment fog was taken care of, and now this place was vulnerable to outside invaders.

This meant that the formation placed in the underground cave wasn't as secure as before, as outside threats such as beasts can now travel to this side of the forest. But if Bai Ming wanted to continue forward in his journey, this was inevitable.

To gain something precious, one must first possess the heart to sacrifice something of equivalent value.