Chapter 100 When Memories Become Weapons

Chapter 100: Chapter 100 When Memories Become Weapons

The ancient voice echoed throughout the Maze of Ancient Illusions.

"Welcome to the true beginning of the Maze of Ancient Illusions."

As the final word faded, the entire maze fell silent.

For a brief moment, nothing happened.

Then, deep within the ancient structure, countless runes illuminated the stone walls.

The faint light spread through the corridors, passing through hidden formations and ancient inscriptions. One after another, the runes awakened, releasing strange fluctuations that swept through the maze.

The surviving cultivators felt the changes immediately.

Some stopped walking and looked around cautiously. Others strengthened their spiritual defenses, preparing for whatever might come next.

Nobody knew what the ancient voice meant by the true beginning.

However, after everything they had experienced so far, no one dared to assume that the next challenge would be simple.

***

Inside the Ji Family’s section of the maze, Ji Xueyan led Ji Minghao and Ji Ruolan through a narrow corridor.

The 3 had survived the previous illusion, but the sight of their fellow disciples attacking one another remained fresh in their minds.

Ji Xueyan had witnessed the consequences firsthand.

She had escaped the illusion, only to discover that her fellow disciples could no longer hear her warnings. They had been trapped in their own experiences, fighting people they believed were their enemies.

By the time the illusion ended, almost all of them had been eliminated.

She had no intention of allowing the same thing to happen to the remaining members of her family.

"Stay close," she reminded the other 2. "If anything unusual happens, inform me immediately."

Ji Minghao nodded.

"Understood, Senior Sister."

Ji Ruolan also nodded.

The 3 continued forward.

Soon, they entered a broad chamber containing several stone pillars. Ancient inscriptions covered the walls, while a faint mist drifted across the floor.

Ji Xueyan stopped at the entrance.

"Be careful. We don’t know what this chamber contains."

She examined the pillars, searching for anything unusual.

Nothing appeared out of place.

After a brief inspection, the 3 entered.

They had barely crossed the middle of the chamber when Ji Minghao suddenly stopped walking.

His eyes widened.

"Senior Sister..."

Ji Xueyan turned toward him.

"What is it?"

Ji Minghao didn’t answer.

He was staring at Ji Xueyan, but his expression had changed completely.

Moments earlier, he had looked cautious and alert. Now, his face was filled with disbelief and anger.

"Why?" he whispered.

Ji Xueyan frowned.

"Why what?"

Ji Minghao clenched his fists.

"After everything I’ve done for you, how could you betray me?"

Ji Xueyan’s expression changed.

"What are you talking about?"

"You know exactly what I’m talking about!"

Ji Minghao’s voice rose.

"That day, when the elders decided who would receive the family’s inheritance, you promised to help me. You told me that we would advance together!"

He took a step backward, his eyes filled with hatred.

"But you secretly took everything for yourself! You even told the elders that I was unworthy!"

Ji Xueyan stared at him.

She had never made such a promise to him.

There had been no such incident involving the family’s inheritance.

Yet Ji Minghao looked utterly convinced that it had happened.

To him, the betrayal wasn’t a distant memory.

It was happening now.

In his mind, he could see Ji Xueyan standing before the family elders, presenting evidence against him while the other disciples looked at him with contempt.

He could hear her voice as she declared that he was unworthy of receiving the inheritance.

The humiliation felt real.

The anger was real.

And the person standing before him seemed to be the same person who had destroyed his future.

"Ji Xueyan!" he roared.

Spiritual energy erupted from his body.

Ji Xueyan immediately stepped back.

"Ji Minghao, calm down! None of that ever happened!"

But her words only intensified his anger.

"Stop pretending!"

He launched an attack.

Ji Xueyan’s eyes widened as she hurriedly dodged.

BOOM!

The attack struck a stone pillar, sending fragments scattering across the chamber.

"Ji Minghao, wake up!"

She avoided his next strike and retreated several steps.

However, he continued attacking, his movements growing more aggressive as the false memory overwhelmed his judgment.

Ji Xueyan gritted her teeth.

She couldn’t understand why he was behaving this way.

Then she remembered what had happened to the Ji Family disciples in the previous illusion.

They had seen their fellow family members as enemies.

They had believed that those people had betrayed them.

And now Ji Minghao was doing the same thing.

"An illusion..."

Her expression turned serious.

"Ji Minghao, listen to me! This isn’t real!"

He didn’t listen.

Instead, he gathered more spiritual energy and rushed toward her.

Ji Xueyan had no choice but to defend herself.

She dodged his attacks without striking back, trying to find an opportunity to restrain him.

But the chamber’s mist was gradually thickening, and the spiritual energy surrounding them was becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish.

She couldn’t afford to remain distracted for too long.

***

Several corridors away, Ji Ruolan stood alone.

She had initially been standing beside Ji Xueyan and Ji Minghao.

But the moment Ji Minghao launched his first attack, the chamber’s mist had surged between them.

Ji Ruolan had tried to reach the other 2.

Then she heard a familiar voice.

"Ruolan."

She froze.

Standing before her was a young man she recognized immediately.

Her older brother.

He had died several years earlier during an expedition with the Ji Family.

Ji Ruolan stared at him in disbelief.

"Brother?"

The young man smiled faintly.

"Ruolan, I’ve finally found you."

Her eyes immediately filled with tears.

She remembered the day her brother had left for the expedition.

She remembered his promise to return.

She remembered waiting for him, only to receive the news of his death.

But now he was standing before her.

Alive.

Unharmed.

Looking exactly as she remembered him.

"How... how is this possible?"

Her brother approached her.

"Why are you asking that? Don’t you recognize me?"

Ji Ruolan shook her head.

"No, I... I thought you were..."

"Dead?"

His smile disappeared.

"You really believed I would abandon you like that?"

She hurriedly shook her head.

"No! That’s not what I meant!"

"Then why did you leave me?"

Ji Ruolan’s expression changed.

The scene around her shifted.

She was no longer standing in the mist-covered chamber.

Instead, she found herself in the courtyard where she had last seen her brother before his expedition.

Her brother stood before her, his expression filled with disappointment.

"You promised you would wait for me," he said. "But when I needed you, you weren’t there."

Ji Ruolan’s breathing became uneven.

That had never happened.

She had waited for him.

She had searched for news of him.

She had cried when she learned that he would never return.

Yet the scene before her felt so real that she struggled to hold on to those facts.

Her brother extended his hand.

"Come with me, Ruolan. Let’s go home."

She hesitated.

Then she took a step toward him.

The moment her foot touched the ground, the image of her brother smiled.

Something about that smile was wrong.

Ji Ruolan stopped.

Her brother had always smiled warmly at her. Even when he teased her, there had been kindness in his eyes.

This smile held none of that warmth.

Instead, it carried a coldness she had never seen before.

Ji Ruolan’s heart pounded.

"Who are you?"

The young man’s expression darkened.

"I am your brother."

"No!"

Ji Ruolan stumbled backward.

"My brother would never say those things to me!"

The courtyard trembled.

Her brother’s figure began to distort, and the scene around them cracked like glass.

In an instant, the courtyard disappeared.

Ji Ruolan found herself back inside the mist-covered chamber.

She staggered, nearly falling to her knees.

Her eyes widened as she looked around.

The entire experience had felt real.

She had seen her brother.

She had heard his voice.

She had remembered events that had never happened.

And for a brief moment, she had believed them.

"This maze..."

Her voice trembled.

"It can create memories that never existed?"

Before she could think further, the mist around her began to move again.

Ji Ruolan immediately strengthened her spiritual defenses and prepared herself for whatever came next.

She had escaped the illusion once.

She would not allow it to deceive her again so easily.

***

Elsewhere, Luo Xue and several Blood Moon Sect disciples were cautiously advancing through another corridor.

The group had already encountered a false exit and narrowly avoided walking into a formation.

As a result, Luo Xue had become even more careful.

"Don’t separate," she instructed. "If you notice anything unusual, inform the others immediately."

The disciples acknowledged her.

They continued forward until they reached a chamber containing several stone statues.

Each statue depicted a cultivator holding a different weapon.

Luo Xue examined them briefly before moving toward the opposite passage.

Then a voice sounded behind her.

"Luo Xue."

She stopped.

The voice was familiar.

Far too familiar.

She slowly turned around.

A man stood beside one of the statues.

He wore the robes of the Blood Moon Sect, and his face was one Luo Xue recognized.

An elder who had once supervised her cultivation.

But he had died many years ago.

Luo Xue’s eyes narrowed.

The man looked at her with disappointment.

"You have changed."

Luo Xue remained silent.

"You once promised that you would protect the sect’s younger generation. Yet look at you now. You only care about your own survival."

The chamber around her began to change.

Suddenly, Luo Xue found herself standing in a familiar training ground.

Several Blood Moon Sect disciples lay injured on the ground.

The elder stood before her.

"You could have saved them," he said. "But you chose to abandon them."

Luo Xue’s expression hardened.

She remembered the training ground.

She remembered the elder.

But she had never abandoned those disciples.

The entire incident was fabricated.

"You are an illusion," she said coldly.

The elder shook his head.

"Is that what you tell yourself?"

Luo Xue’s eyes flashed.

"Even if you can imitate his appearance and voice, you cannot change what happened."

She released a surge of spiritual energy.

The false training ground trembled.

For a brief moment, the elder’s expression twisted into something unnatural.

Then the entire scene collapsed.

Luo Xue found herself back inside the chamber, standing before the stone statues.

One of the Blood Moon Sect disciples hurried toward her.

"Senior Sister Luo, are you alright?"

Luo Xue took a slow breath.

"I’m fine."

She glanced at the statues.

The experience had been convincing enough to provoke anger, but she had recognized the contradiction before allowing it to overwhelm her.

"Be careful," she warned the others. "The illusions may now create experiences that feel like real memories. Don’t make a decision simply because you believe you remember something."

The disciples exchanged uneasy glances.

They understood that the maze had become even more dangerous.

***

Back in the Ji Family’s chamber, Ji Xueyan was still defending herself against Ji Minghao.

His attacks had grown increasingly fierce.

Every time she tried to explain the truth, he became more convinced that she was mocking him.

Finally, Ji Xueyan dodged another strike and retreated toward a stone pillar.

"Ji Minghao! Look at me!"

He roared and rushed forward.

She waited until the last moment before shifting aside.

His attack missed her and struck the pillar.

CRACK!

The pillar split, and stone fragments fell to the ground.

Ji Minghao staggered.

For a brief moment, his eyes cleared.

He looked around the chamber, confusion replacing his anger.

"Senior Sister...?"

Ji Xueyan immediately approached him.

"Ji Minghao, can you hear me?"

He stared at her.

"What... happened?"

"You were trapped in an illusion. You attacked me because you believed I had betrayed you."

Ji Minghao’s face went pale.

"I... I remember..."

His expression suddenly changed.

He looked at Ji Xueyan again, and the anger returned.

"You think you can fool me!"

Spiritual energy erupted from his body once more.

Ji Xueyan’s heart sank.

The illusion had pulled him back into the false memory before he could fully recover.

She retreated as another attack came toward her.

This time, she understood the danger more clearly.

The illusion wasn’t simply showing him something false.

It was making him experience the fabricated betrayal as though it were happening in the present, repeatedly dragging him back into the same emotional reaction.

As long as he remained trapped in that experience, ordinary explanations might not be enough to reach him.

Ji Xueyan gritted her teeth.

She needed to find a way to break the illusion without seriously injuring him.

Otherwise, the maze might force them into a fight neither of them had chosen.

***

Inside another chamber, the Lin Clan youngsters encountered their own challenge.

They had been moving together when the spiritual energy in the corridor suddenly surged.

Lin Qing immediately raised her hand.

"Stop!"

Everyone halted.

Before they could examine the disturbance, Lin Chen heard a familiar voice.

"Lin Chen!"

He turned.

Standing behind him was one of his closest clan companions.

The young man looked furious.

"You finally have the chance to take revenge, don’t you?"

Lin Chen frowned.

"What are you talking about?"

"You know exactly what I’m talking about!"

The corridor disappeared.

Lin Chen suddenly found himself standing in the Lin Clan’s training ground.

Several clan members were gathered nearby, watching him with hostile expressions.

The companion before him pointed at him accusingly.

"You remember what happened during the clan competition. You deliberately injured me because you were jealous of my progress!"

Lin Chen stared at him.

The clan competition had never ended that way.

He had never deliberately injured this person.

Yet the false memory unfolded before him with astonishing clarity.

He remembered the competition.

He remembered the accusation.

He remembered the anger he had supposedly felt.

For a brief moment, the fabricated memory threatened to overwhelm his judgment.

Then Lin Chen noticed something.

The spiritual energy surrounding the training ground wasn’t flowing naturally.

It moved in a repeating pattern, circling the same section of the ground before returning to its starting point.

His expression changed.

"This is an illusion."

The companion’s face twisted with anger.

"Stop pretending!"

He rushed forward.

Lin Chen raised his sword to defend himself.

Their weapons collided.

CLANG!

The impact sent a shock through Lin Chen’s arm.

He immediately realized that the attack wasn’t merely an image in his mind. The illusion was influencing his experience strongly enough that he could feel the collision.

He retreated, refusing to launch a counterattack.

"You’re not real!"

The companion attacked again.

Lin Chen evaded the strike and focused on the repeating spiritual energy.

He followed its flow until he identified the point where the pattern began.

Then he gathered his spiritual energy and struck that location.

BOOM!

The training ground shattered.

The hostile figures disappeared.

Lin Chen found himself standing in the original corridor, his sword still in his hand.

He took a deep breath.

The experience had lasted only a short time, but it had felt far longer.

He looked around.

The other 9 youngsters were still nearby, although several of them had tense expressions.

"Everyone, are you alright?" he asked.

Lin Qing turned toward him.

"We’re here. What did you experience?"

"An illusion based on a false memory. It made me believe one of our clan companions had betrayed me."

Lin Jue’s expression became serious.

"I experienced something similar. I was made to believe that I had caused a disaster during a mission and that the clan members who died blamed me for it."

Lin Yu nodded slowly.

"My illusion tried to convince me that the people I trusted were hiding something from me."

Lin Mo clenched his fists.

"Mine showed me a clan member accusing me of stealing a valuable cultivation resource. I nearly attacked him before I realized the spiritual energy was repeating itself."

Lin Qing looked around at everyone.

"So the maze is using false memories to provoke us into acting on emotions rather than reason."

Lin Chen nodded.

"That’s what it seems like. The experiences feel real, but there are inconsistencies if we pay attention."

Lin Jue examined the corridor.

"We shouldn’t assume that every illusion will have the same weakness. The repeating spiritual energy helped Lin Chen, but another formation might operate differently."

"Agreed," Lin Qing said. "From now on, if anyone suddenly becomes hostile or begins behaving strangely, the rest of us must avoid escalating the situation. We should try to determine whether that person is trapped in an illusion."

Lin Zhen let out a breath.

"So the maze is trying to make us fight each other without giving us a real enemy to fight."

"Exactly," Lin Qing replied.

Lin Mo shook his head.

"What a troublesome place."

Despite his complaint, he remained alert.

The 10 youngsters regrouped and checked that everyone was present.

They had all encountered different false memories, and none of them could be certain what the maze would show them next.

However, they had learned something important.

The danger wasn’t limited to seeing something that didn’t exist.

The maze could make them believe they had experienced events that had never happened, then force them to react as though those events were unfolding before their eyes.

That made it much harder to recognize the deception.

Still, the Lin Clan youngsters had survived their first encounter with the new ability.

They continued forward together, keeping a close watch on one another.

***

Across the maze, other cultivators were not as fortunate.

Some were consumed by anger after experiencing fabricated betrayals.

Others broke down after reliving painful memories that had never occurred.

A few recognized the illusions but struggled to escape them before their emotions overwhelmed their judgment.

The maze did not need to create powerful enemies to threaten them.

It only needed to make them believe that someone they trusted had become their greatest enemy.

And as the ancient formations continued operating throughout the maze, the surviving cultivators faced a challenge far more dangerous than the illusions they had encountered before.

They were no longer fighting only to find the exit.

They were fighting to preserve their judgment, their trust, and their ability to distinguish the truth from memories that had never existed.

The Maze of Ancient Illusions had finally revealed a more terrifying side of its power.