Ao Fan was naturally an impatient fellow, and now, consumed by a thirst for revenge, being forced to wait motionless in the distance for several days was a true ordeal for him.
The two cultivators from the Lan family watched as Ao Fan paced irritably back and forth, clicking his tongue in annoyance from time to time. It took a great deal of placating and honeyed words to finally calm him down enough to continue lying in wait within the thicket.
Nie Shiyun, knowing full well that the dragon was waiting, deliberately slowed his pace, making the wait an agonizing torment for Ao Fan.
Finally, just as Ao Fan had leaned against a tree trunk and drifted off into a bored slumber, the two Lan family members spotted a figure appearing in front of the cave dwelling. It was none other than Nie Shiyun. He was even bold enough not to have taken a Disguise Pill; he seemed entirely confident that there would be no one else on this mountain.
"Young Master Ao Fan, he’s here! He’s here!"
"What!"
Ao Fan was startled awake, nearly tumbling out of the tree in his excitement. The Lan family cultivators hastily pressed their fingers to their lips in a "shush" gesture, signaling for him not to act rashly and alert the enemy.
Fortunately, they were far enough away that Nie Shiyun didn't seem to hear the commotion and headed straight into the cave.
Ao Fan cheered inwardly. They had already inspected the traps and arrays set up in the cave; there was no way a mere Void Refinement cultivator like Nie Shiyun could resist them. Moreover, Nie Shiyun was alone, while they had four cultivators on their side. No matter how cunning he was, he was destined to lose his life here today.
"Where’s the signal?" Ao Fan asked urgently, grabbing the nearby cultivator.
"Young Master Ao Fan, it can't be that fast. Didn't we agree? He has to pretend to give him information and chat for a bit to lower his guard before leading him into the array..." The cultivator, nearly choked by Ao Fan clutching his collar, hurriedly explained.
Ao Fan gave a low "tsk," released his grip, and fixed his gaze unblinkingly on the cave entrance.
After a long wait, just as Ao Fan began to think something had gone wrong and was about to charge in, he finally received the signal from Zhai Bairong.
"Good. You two, keep a tight watch on the cave entrance... No, one at the entrance and one at the back!" Ao Fan commanded hurriedly before rushing toward the cave alone.
"Understood."
The two answered in unison, but by the time they looked up, Ao Fan was already gone, showing just how much he had been looking forward to this.
The two nodded to each other and approached the cave. Ao Fan had already entered; he was likely making his move at this very moment. However, due to the restrictive seals, not a sound could be heard from outside. The surroundings were silent, save for the autumn wind whistling through the mountain forest.
One of them hesitated. "Is it really alright to let Young Master Ao Fan out of our sight? Actually, I feel like we should have reported this to the family..."
"There's only a wall between us; what could go wrong? Besides, he ordered us to stand guard. If we meddle too much, we'll just get scolded," the other patted his shoulder, telling him he was worrying over nothing.
"...I suppose you're right." Thinking of Ao Fan's volatile temperament, the cultivator suppressed his extra thoughts and decided to simply do his duty.
Inside the cave, Ao Fan could no longer suppress his excitement. When he saw Nie Shiyun lying unconscious in the center of the array, seemingly in a deep coma, he couldn't help but let out a triumphant laugh.
"You did a fine job! Much better than those useless fools from the Lan family, haha..."
Zhai Bairong, standing to the side with his hands behind his back, said, "It was merely luck that the target's guard was low. I cannot compare to my seniors."
Ao Fan asked about Nie Shiyun's current state and what he was seeing in the illusion. Zhai Bairong smiled and said that perhaps he was seeing his Dao companion.
"Can't we see it?"
"My apologies, my array skills have not reached that level of sophistication yet..." Zhai Bairong expressed his inability.
"Haha, it doesn't matter." Ao Fan didn't care much and prepared to step directly into the array.
Zhai Bairong quickly stopped him. "Young Master Ao Fan, please wait a moment. Entering the illusion array so abruptly will disturb the formation. Please allow me to open a path for you."
Ao Fan didn't suspect a thing and ordered, "Oh. Then what are you dawdling for? Hurry up."
Zhai Bairong glanced at Nie Shiyun, who was lying on the ground pretending to sleep. Hearing Ao Fan's words, the corner of his mouth twitched as if he found the dragon's behavior amusing.
The illusion array in the cave was not actually active yet. The reason was obvious—the real target who needed to be lured into the illusion was still standing right there.
To an expert, whether an array was active or not could be determined at a glance. However, Ao Fan paid no attention to such details and knew nothing of arrays, so he failed to notice any discrepancy.
Zhai Bairong pretended to adjust the array, moving to a corner and crouching down to fiddle with something. Ao Fan's attention was drawn to him, completely unaware that Nie Shiyun, lying in the center of the array, had quietly moved his fingers. The true activation source of the array was at the center.
"Young Master Ao Fan, the array has been adjusted. You might feel a slight discomfort when you enter; please pay it no mind." Zhai Bairong caught a glimpse of Nie Shiyun finishing his preparations, so he stopped his performative tinkering and stood up.
"Good. You go guard the entrance. If he wakes up from the pain and tries to flee, you must stop him," Ao Fan commanded.
"To avoid unnecessary trouble, Young Master Ao Fan should be swift and decisive. A single fatal blow would be best," Zhai Bairong said neutrally.
"Oh?" Ao Fan looked at him and mocked, "That would be too easy on him! But speaking of which, though your acquaintance with him isn't deep, seeing how he came to this meeting without suspicion, he surely never expected you to be so ruthless for the sake of money. You humans are truly terrifying!"
Zhai Bairong smiled. "Men die for wealth, and birds die for food. Young Master Ao Fan, please keep the matter of the reward in mind."
"That goes without saying." Ao Fan was in high spirits now and waved his hand, telling him not to worry about it.
Nie Shiyun, lying on the ground, was starting to feel a chill on his back, silently complaining about how much this fellow Ao Fan talked.
Finally stepping into the illusion array, Ao Fan felt a wave of dizziness. Because Zhai Bairong had warned him beforehand that there would be some discomfort, Ao Fan didn't think twice about it. He steadied himself, and his blurred vision quickly cleared.
"Hahaha, Nie Shiyun, you didn't expect this, did you? After running for so long, you finally fell into my hands!" Ao Fan laughed triumphantly. He summoned his spiritual sword and drove it through Nie Shiyun's shoulder, pinning him firmly to the ground. Seeing the look of agony on the man's face—though he still didn't wake up—Ao Fan's tension vanished, replaced by a vengeful, manic laughter as he stabbed him several more times.
"Hiss—he's probably stabbing me right now. Looks like it hurts quite a bit."
Near the inner side of the cave entrance, Nie Shiyun, who had long since risen from the illusion array, leaned against the doorframe and mockingly sucked in a breath of cold air. Within the illusion, Nie Shiyun's actual body was no longer there; to an outsider, Ao Fan simply looked like he was going mad, attacking thin air.
Zhai Bairong gave him a light nudge with his elbow, signaling that it wasn't over yet and that they shouldn't let their guard down.
"Do you still think you can escape?" Ao Fan sneered, stomping his foot onto the empty ground. Presumably, in the illusion, the Nie Shiyun he imagined had woken up and was attempting a futile escape.
The real Nie Shiyun clicked his tongue and whispered, "Still trying to run after being turned into a sieve. Just how good at escaping am I in his subconscious...?"
Zhai Bairong gave him a look that said, *'You tell me.'*
In the array, Ao Fan continued his solo performance.
Despite Zhai Bairong's earlier advice to deliver a single fatal blow, Ao Fan clearly hadn't listened.
After a fatal blow, a cultivator's physical body would perish on the spot, turning to ash and leaving only the essence. The thought of Nie Shiyun getting such a quick release didn't satisfy Ao Fan's anger. Everyone he had encountered since childhood had flattered and fawned over him; he had never experienced such humiliation as he did at the Artifact Refining Competition, losing face and having his scale stolen.
Ao Fan wanted to vent all the frustration he had bottled up over the past six months. He relentlessly inflicted physical torment on the half-dead Nie Shiyun in his illusion, laughing wildly.
Nie Shiyun didn't care how his "self" was being retaliated against in the illusion; he felt nothing and couldn't even see what was happening. However, hearing Ao Fan's string of insults and seeing his clearly torturous movements, Nie Shiyun noticed Zhai Bairong's fingers clenching anxiously.
Fortunately, outsiders couldn't see the hallucinations in Ao Fan's mind.
Having lived in peace for too long, Nie Shiyun had almost forgotten that this usually stoic man would undergo a sudden change in temperament whenever Nie Shiyun was in danger...
"It's not real." Nie Shiyun leaned closer to Zhai Bairong, gently entwining his fingers with the other's, easing the tension in his clenched hand and pulling his fingertips away from the palm where they had nearly left marks.
Zhai Bairong snapped back to his senses, realizing his subconscious reaction. He glanced at his palm and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw no red marks. Ao Fan's dullness aside, it would be bad if the Lan family cultivators saw it later and found it suspicious.
He narrowed his eyes and only responded after a long moment. "...But if that were really you, he would do the same."
*Might as well take this chance to finish Ao Fan off here*—such an impulse briefly flashed through Zhai Bairong's mind, but it was only a fleeting thought born of emotion. Stealing a dragon scale and scamming money were minor matters; Ao Fan's rage hadn't provoked any reaction from the higher-ups, but if they actually killed a member of the Dragon Clan, the consequences would be far more severe.
Nie Shiyun knew he was worried for him. He scratched Zhai Bairong's palm with his finger, soothing him. "After this, we'll head to the Lower Realm and stay far away from him."
That had been their plan all along. But hearing Nie Shiyun promise it again, Zhai Bairong's tense mood relaxed slightly.
Nie Shiyun estimated that, no matter what, his illusionary self should be drawing its last breath. If Ao Fan dragged this out for a day and a night, the duration of the illusion array might actually run out, and it would be a joke if they were exposed at this stage. He and Zhai Bairong moved forward, placing various prepared items—clothes, storage rings, and so on—before Ao Fan's eyes.
It would be suspicious if the storage space were empty. To pull off this scam for the immortal crystals, Nie Shiyun had invested some capital. The storage rings contained some immortal crystals, various magic tools, and materials. Of course, Nie Shiyun had only selected common, mediocre items to leave inside. The dragon scale Ao Fan so desperately wanted to recover was, naturally, not there.
Nie Shiyun and Zhai Bairong exchanged a look, timing the release of the illusion.
Although Nie Shiyun himself was not in the array, his aura truly permeated the cave. This was something both Ao Fan and the two Lan family cultivators outside could perceive.
Just like the sensation of entering the array, the victim would feel a brief moment of dizziness when the illusion was lifted. Using this window, Nie Shiyun could enter the Jade Pendant Space, creating the illusion that his aura had vanished along with his death. No matter how much others guessed, they would never figure out how he faked this part, which greatly increased the credibility of his "death."
In truth, there were many flaws in this scheme. If they hadn't known how easy Ao Fan was to fool, they wouldn't have dared to risk such a plan with anyone even slightly knowledgeable about arrays or even someone with a bit more caution.
"Eh..."
"Young Master Ao Fan, are you alright?"
Ao Fan felt that just as Nie Shiyun finally couldn't hold on any longer and was sent to the afterlife by his final blow, another flash of white light appeared before his eyes. Before he could recover, he saw the cultivator who had been guarding the door walk over and ask.
"Why do I feel a bit dizzy again..."
Zhai Bairong pointed to the array, which had turned dim after being used for a while. "The array likely over-exhausted its energy. It's normal for those inside to feel dizzy the moment the array fails. Fortunately, Young Master Ao Fan's goal has been achieved."
While Nie Shiyun (acting as the array master) spoke nonsense, he thought to himself that they should leave the Middle Realm as soon as possible. If Ao Fan ever spoke with someone who understood arrays in the future, he might realize something was amiss.
"Oh, I see... Ah! There it is." Ao Fan turned to look at the ground, seeing only a pile of ash. He kicked it away in disgust, scattering the ashes. Nie Shiyun, who had already entered the jade pendant, felt his heart tighten, wanting to tell him not to provoke Bairong any further...
"Young Master Ao Fan, is this the storage ring you mentioned was worth a bounty of two hundred thousand immortal crystals?" Zhai Bairong pretended not to see Ao Fan's behavior, took a deep breath, and pointed to the rings on the ground, asking a question he already knew the answer to.
"Oh? Yes, that's the one." Ao Fan spotted several storage rings and pouches on the ground near the clothes. Remembering something, he hurriedly crouched down to pick them up.
Ao Fan's attention shifted entirely to the storage spaces. He frantically searched through them, throwing the low-grade materials and magic tools Nie Shiyun had used as filler onto the ground in frustration, muttering "How can it not be here?" over and over.
"Are there... any good things in there worth such a heavy bounty?"
Hearing this, Ao Fan became impatient and waved his hand dismissively. "You don't need to know! I'll pay the money anyway, don't worry."
Zhai Bairong fell silent.
"It's not here... It's not here!" Ao Fan couldn't believe it. He had searched through all the storage rings, and while they were full of miscellaneous items, his scale was nowhere to be found!
Could Nie Shiyun have already sold it? Or used it for artifact refining? Ao Fan checked repeatedly; the remaining amount of immortal crystals didn't look like the proceeds from selling a treasure like a dragon scale, and none of the remaining magic tools carried the aura of the Dragon Clan.
Although a lost dragon scale couldn't be reattached, Ao Fan still hadn't given up on the idea of gluing it back to hide the blemish. Now that he had killed Nie Shiyun, yet couldn't find the scale, his mood wasn't nearly as triumphant as it had been moments ago.
Irritated, Ao Fan could only assume that Nie Shiyun had hidden the scale in some secret place beforehand or used it for cultivation. He glanced at the cultivator standing nearby, who seemed to be asking with his eyes what he was looking for. He cursed under his breath. Although the scale hadn't been recovered, the man had indeed helped him obtain Nie Shiyun's storage treasures. Treating it as if he had lost some pocket change, Ao Fan pulled out the promised five hundred thousand immortal crystals from his own space and tossed them to the other man.
Zhai Bairong caught the large bags of crystals and opened them to check.
"Don't worry, it's all there."
Zhai Bairong nodded. "It is the agreed-upon amount. Thank you. These things on the ground... does Young Master Ao Fan no longer want them? May I have them?"
He was referring to the various materials and magic tools Ao Fan had just tossed out of Nie Shiyun's rings. Hearing Zhai Bairong ask this so casually, Nie Shiyun, listening from within the jade pendant, immediately cheered! Recovering even a bit of the cost was good; even a mosquito's leg is meat.
Seeing how much he loved money, Ao Fan said crossly, "Fine, fine, take them! Take them all! They're just a bunch of junk anyway."
Zhai Bairong didn't respond, simply crouching down to silently gather the items.
Although Ao Fan had taken his revenge and thoroughly tormented Nie Shiyun, he hadn't found the whereabouts of his dragon scale.
He finally left the cave. When the two Lan family cultivators saw his complex expression, they thought something had gone wrong and became nervous. Only after hearing Ao Fan say that Nie Shiyun had truly died by his hand did they breathe a sigh of relief.
"Young Master Ao Fan, we finally don't have to hunt for this guy anymore!"
Ao Fan glanced at him listlessly and said, "Yeah... I suppose. You can tell the Lan family to withdraw the bounty. Hmph, some 'great family' of the Middle Realm; in the end, I had to solve it myself."
"You are quite right..."
Ao Fan thought of the Dragon Clan gathering in a few decades. He was certain to be mocked by his elder brothers and distant relatives, and a shadow fell over his supposedly joyful mood.
At least Nie Shiyun had been killed by his own hand. In this way, he had reclaimed some ground; even if the story got out, it wouldn't be too humiliating for the Dragon Clan...
The two flanked Ao Fan, thinking they could finally return to the city to rest. As for why Ao Fan was still a bit gloomy—what did that have to do with them? Let him be.
Soon, the bounty on Nie Shiyun in the Middle Realm was completely withdrawn. Every family received notice that Nie Shiyun had been personally eliminated by Ao Fan. Finally, the towns relaxed their vigilance regarding the sale of Disguise Pills, and the rules for boarding immortal ships returned to normal, no longer requiring strict inspections.
Although Nie Shiyun very much wanted to visit Madam Shang, he worried that since she was part of a major family, it would be bad if someone saw a "dead man" appearing at the Shang residence. He only sent word to her that his death was a ruse so she wouldn't worry.
Shortly after that, the two of them cleared away all traces of the array in the cave. The following year, Zhai Bairong carried the jade pendant, and the two of them, paying only for one person, returned openly to the Lower Realm.
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Transmigrated into a Total Shou Novel as a Cannon Fodder, but Ended Up 1v1-ing the Male Lead | Chapter 184 | A Fatal Illusion | Novela.app | Novela.app
