Edited by Ea

  The next moment, he was completely surrounded by white mist and could no longer see the mountain road nor the sky.

  In the dark, somehow, a force stood in front of him, as if blocking his downward steps.

  If Huandang Mountain had sentience, it would be asking him: “Do you really want to leave this world?”

  Lin Shu thought about it, but he didn’t think it could be called “leaving this world”.

  He had a bad life in his previous life, so he wanted to escape far away and go to a place where there was no one.

  He didn’t know why, but the people he met in this life didn’t hold any ill will towards him. He even had Yue Ruohe, whom he was familiar with, and a “rich woman”.

  It seemed that living like this all the time also wasn’t bad.

  He was merely going with the flow. He accepted all the people around him, no matter whether they were malicious or kind.

  Lin Shu continued to descend. Although that resistance had always existed, it could only be regarded as obstruction. It would completely lose its effect if you truly wanted to go down.

  He took one more step. The sky started spinning, and he saw a glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel.

  Lin Shu stepped on the real mountain road. The white mist around him all dispersed; he had left the Heavenly Stairway.

  He thought that the Heavenly Stairway was really magical.

  It was impossible for modern science and technology to read people’s thoughts through their spirits and souls, then make judgments accordingly.

  It was said that the Boundless Maze and Exquisite Fairyland after this were also very magical. Moreover, the Heavenly Stairway and the Boundless Maze were not created by humans, and there were also no arrays. They were created purely by nature. All kinds of supernatural phenomena were attributed to the Dao of Heaven.

  Such a magical mountain was only used as a cram school for young disciples cultivating immortality; the Academy really was extravagant.

  When Lin Shu looked back, he saw that the place where he had come from was blocked by a barrier made of white mist. In a flash, someone else had also come out.

  After a few more seconds, Ling Xiao stepped out of the white fog. When he saw Lin Shu, he walked to his side: “You surprise me too much.”

  Lin Shu continued to be ashamed.

  Because the salted fish was too confident, he was let out by the Heavenly Stairway. If word gets out, It won’t sound very good.

  Ling Xiao continued: “However, there are 3,000 paths in the great Dao. Anyone who can walk out of the Heavenly Stairway has found the right way to cultivate immortality. You don’t need to worry about this.”

  Cousin, what’s the matter with you?

  Were you possessed by Mr. Meng?

  After thinking about it, Ling Xiao learned martial arts from a sect on the outside and wasn’t one of Shangling Academy’s students, so he shouldn’t have seen Mr. Meng. He just spoke this way because of his good nature.

  It could be seen that although Cousin looked very similar to Big Miss, his personality was as different as Heaven and Earth. Big Miss’s temper was not determined by genes.

  Ling Xiao: “Let’s go.”

  Lin Shu: “En.”

  They went up the mountain road and climbed countless steps. Lin Shu finally saw a stone carving on the mountain wall with the word “Illusion” written on it.

  \r \r \r

  There was a vast sea of white fog ahead, which was the so-called “Boundless Maze”.

  Lin Shu had read the book that Big Miss gave him before, and he knew that there were two kinds of illusions in the world. The first one must be broken by force. This kind of illusion relied on arrays or hallucinatory drugs. If one fell into such an illusion, they needed to concentrate on finding and destroying the eye of the array, which was its weak spot. Generally, the illusion would collapse. The second kind of illusion must be broken by using one’s heart. Those who fell into the illusion would see the psychological obstacles they might encounter during cultivation — or they would see demons of the mind, and then be trapped by the mind demon, making it difficult to escape. Only by overcoming the mind demon and changing one’s state of mind would they be able to leave the illusion.

  Huandang Mountain was an immortal mountain connected to the Heavenly Stairway. If it really was the first kind of illusion, then that would be too simple, so it was naturally the second.

  When stepping into the Boundless Maze, some people returned to the worst parts of their lives, some fell into the tender land in their dreams, some experienced both, while others went through multiple illusions, one after another, illusion within illusion. In short, it tempered their state of mind.

  The disciples who came to Huandang Mountain generally had two purposes. One was to cultivate. These disciples often stayed in the Heavenly Stairway and Boundless Maze for a long time to sharpen their cultivation base and state of mind. The other wanted to pass the Heavenly Stairway, Boundless Maze, and the Exquisite Fairyland to come to the Floating Immortal Palace in order to meet the Mountain Keeper and obtain the unique treasures in the Immortal Palace.

  Lin Shu undoubtedly belonged to the second kind.

  Ling Xiao seemed to know this clearly and said, “Let’s both get this over with quickly. If any of us comes out first, he will wait outside the fog sea.”

  Lin Shu hesitated a little.

  He knew what his mind demon was.

  That really wasn’t very pleasant. Ever since he found out the existence of the Boundless Maze, he also thought about how to crack it, but he never came up with a perfect solution.

  He would probably return to his school days, to the suffocating classroom. He would likely see the crowd again, hearing their ridicules filled with maliciousness.

  He said, “I may take longer.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Ling Xiao replied. “I wanted to say this just now. Your mind is pure, and getting out of the illusion is not a problem, but I am not.”

  Lin Shu looked at him.

  Although the time they spent together was very short, this cousin’s character had already been revealed–Lin Shu thought he was a very confident and unrestrained person.

  Will such a person also have a mind demon?

  Ling Xiao raised his eyebrows: “Why do you keep looking at me?”

  Lin Shu obediently turned his gaze away and walked into the sea of fog. He seemed to hear Ling Xiao laughing in his ears.

  Walking forward, he heard the sound of heavy traffic.

  He felt like he was in a trance, as if he just had a distant dream.

  Lin Shu woke up.

  Yesterday, he recited the sword manual until late at night, so he couldn’t help but doze off in class. He could only vaguely remember that it was something about a matter from the ancient times. A group of people were cultivating immortality in the mountains, and there was a beautiful but very bad-tempered person.

  Lin Shu rubbed his face to make himself more clear-minded. He looked to the front and tried to keep up with the math teacher’s train of thought.

  His position was too far back and remote, so his dozing off hadn’t been discovered by the teacher.

  Today, a transfer girl came to the class and sat in the first row.

  His heart suddenly jumped, and the scene seemed to be familiar.

  On the day when a girl transferred to class, what did he encounter?

  He looked at his desk drawer.

  Empty. There was only one exercise book.

  That’s right. On this day, they hid his schoolbag during recess.

  This kind of thing has happened many times. They would hide his items in various places, from the pile of brooms to outside the window sill.

  Lin Shu didn’t know why these people could always enjoy watching him rummage around for his school bag.

  After class, he left his seat.

  Not in the broom pile, not outside the window sill, not anywhere within sight.

  He can vaguely sense those excited and malicious gazes, and felt nauseated.

  Yet when he stood blankly in the middle of the aisle, someone suddenly tugged on his sleeve.

  Then a ball of paper was gently stuffed into his hand.

  He turned and saw that it was the new girl, who gave him a kind smile.

  Lin Shu was stunned. He thought that such a smile was the best expression that could be made by one’s face.

  He unwrapped the note in his hand, and inside it was scrawled the words “the school bag is on the cabinet in front of the first row”.

  No one had ever treated him like that before, never.

  When Lin Shu stepped on the bench, he saw that there was indeed a book bag on top of the bookcase. The cabinet was high, and it was just in the blind spot of one’s line of sight.

  He took back his school bag and went down the aisle, staring at the girl.

  According to the rules of human interaction, he should thank her.

  But when he opened his mouth, he couldn’t say anything. Something got stuck in his throat. Once he opened his mouth, the feeling of vomiting would creep up quietly.

  He hadn’t spoken to outsiders for a long time. He was afraid to speak.

  The little girl looked at him. First, she looked at him very kindly. When she saw that he didn’t speak for a long time, she became confused.

  Lin Shu’s heart pounded a few times, but he still couldn’t say anything.

  He felt embarrassed, as if staying in front of her a little longer would reveal more embarrassment.

  He had to run away.

  He finally discovered that he was such a person.

  Even if he looked exactly like everyone else, he would never be able to fit into the crowd.

  It was his fault, not anyone else’s, that people suffocated him like a bog of life.

  However, he also wanted to say thank you to the girl.

  He…… also wanted to have friends.

  He returned to his position, the sour pain stuck in his throat. He lowered his head to read, but nothing registered.

  When being bullied, he had merely wanted to throw up.

  But right now, he wanted to cry.

  This was his real mind demon.

  ———

  TL’s Mini Theatre:

  Zaki: This chapter makes my heart break. I can relate to being bullied at school. *teary eyes*

  Ea: awww zaki, I’m sorry to hear that *pats zaki’s back* Did you report it? Or did you just ignored them?

  Zaki: *sniffs* I just ignored them…… *sniffs* I just ignored…… their pleading to stop beating them and not to kill them *evil eyes*

  Ea: (—__—)