Chapter – 74
A dim night.
Under an unusually close full moon,
a dense forest could be seen far across the vast plain.
The chirping of insects filled the ears, and the raw scent of the wild tickled the nose.
In a landscape calming just by looking at it—
W-what is this…
Yeon Baekrim was in extreme confusion.
Just a moment ago, he had definitely been in the director’s office.
But after blinking once — he was in a field.
“—You’ve been caught…!”
It was right after an unfamiliar voice burst out from the orphanage director who had been seized by the monster.
Th-this… could it be…
Something suddenly came to mind.
He had never experienced it himself, but he knew it as stagecraft.
Like the mask-switching art where faces change in an instant, a technique where the entire stage is replaced during a brief blackout.
A… strange illusion technique.
According to Master Hwang’s script, this technique was a kind of Qimen Dunjia — akin to Zhuge Liang’s famous southeast wind.
Changing winds at will, manipulating people as desired…
or even changing locations entirely, like now.
The script had included this annotation:
“In a prepared place, even the strongest in the world falls.
Outside it, even a third-rate fighter can beat the caster to death.”
It had been memorable enough to remain vivid even years later.
And according to the note that followed,
the preparation of an illusionist usually required a precondition —
the target performing a certain action or entering a certain location.
“You’ve been caught…!”
Was the orphanage director the trigger object?
Whatever it was, an illusionist who prepared this much could not possibly have good intentions.
Yet the supposed target — the monster — was completely carefree.
“Huh. Dreamland.”
“Dreamland?”
The monster looked around.
“If you touch something or step somewhere, you get brought to another place like this. Guess using a lie detector on grandpa director was the trigger.”
“……”
He was clearly describing an illusion technique, yet called it dreamland.
Was that what masters called it?
“Perhaps…”
At that moment, the monster’s eyes turned.
“You don’t know?”
“I know.”
“Huh?”
“I said I know. Dreamland. Who doesn’t?”
Kang Yu clapped his hands.
“I knew you’d know!”
“……”
Watching Kang Yu’s sparkling eyes, Yeon Baekrim swallowed.
As expected of a great demonic being skilled in schemes — attacks always came suddenly.
The moment weakness was exposed, it was over.
He could not relax even for a moment.
Still, the only one who could resolve the situation was the monster.
But an illusionist could defeat even the strongest if prepared.
No matter how talented Kang Yu was for his age, he was at most a transcendent master.
Third rate → second rate → first rate → peak → transcendent → divine realm.
In theater stories, transcendent masters were just fodder for illusionists.
One illusionist could face hundreds of them.
Yet one hope remained:
Kang Yu was far too relaxed.
Surely he had a trump card.
“For now, we should wake up.”
“Huh?”
“It’s dreamland, so shouldn’t we wake up?”
“Oh! Right! But there’s a problem.”
“A problem?”
“I don’t know how.”
“…What?”
“I never learned it.”
Kang Yu looked around.
“I heard only special people can use dreamland — shamans or priestesses. But I’m not special.”
If you’re not special, then what are ordinary people… insects?
“So… no method?”
“What about Divine Dragon?”
“I obviously don’t—”
Yeon Baekrim caught himself.
“It’s not my specialty.”
Kang Yu nodded.
“Yeah, strength and speed are different things.”
“You understand well.”
“Hehe, of course—”
BOOM—
The ground suddenly shook violently.
The dark sky turned blood red.
Crows covered the sky.
The full moon trembled with a strange sound.
Creak… creak…
Yeon Baekrim looked up — and barely held back a scream.
The moon… opened its eye.
A gigantic single eye, hundreds of thousands of times larger than a human.
A vertical serpent pupil.
The eye looked at them — and smiled.
“Kekeke… you’ve been ca—!”
Stab.
Kang Yu’s two fingers pierced the moon’s eye.
* * *
A black sealed chamber.
“G-GAAAAH!”
An old man looking into a water mirror collapsed, clutching his eye.
He staggered up again.
Inside the water reflected a young face.
Kang Yu.
Exactly as he appeared.
The one who destroyed his Five-Elements Cave and rendered his massive Eight-Trigram formation useless.
His eyes burned.
“I will enter personally.”
“But the Bishop ordered only restraint—”
“After seeing this!?”
Inside the formation, he was a god.
He vanished like smoke.
* * *
The moon shattered.
Fragments scattered as Kang Yu flew between them.
Boom—!
The half moon broke apart completely.
Yeon Baekrim stared silently.
Even for illusion… could a human do that?
And on Kang Yu’s fist —
Aura.
Divine-realm power.
He wasn’t transcendent.
He was beyond it.
“Nice technique.”
“……”
Kang Yu beamed happily at the praise.
Just as he was about to act—
“Wretch!”
A giant fireball struck him directly.
BOOM!
His skin burned slightly.
A robed old Daoist appeared.
The illusionist.
“I finally meet you — the one who ruined everything.”
“You know me?”
“Of course!”
The old man formed seals.
Dream Soul-Erasing Art!
Red threads bound Kang Yu.
They began forming the shape of the one he feared most.
A divine beast — then the Bishop — then…
another figure.
A handsome man with a sword.
“The Sun-Moon Divine Sword…!”
The formed figure charged.
And immediately tripped over its own feet and stabbed itself in the stomach.
“…?”
It collapsed.
The illusion broke.
The old man stared in horror.
He neutralized the technique… does he even understand illusion arts?!
Kang Yu whispered to Yeon Baekrim:
“He talked big, but he seems weak.”
Yeon Baekrim silently shut his mouth.
