Chapter 101 — Three Days of Blood and Despair

Chapter 101: Chapter 101 — Three Days of Blood and Despair

The second day of the Maze of Ancient Illusions began without warning.

Across the maze, cultivators who had survived the first night continued their search for an exit. Some moved alone, unwilling to trust anyone. Others formed temporary groups, believing that strength in numbers would protect them.

Neither approach guaranteed survival.

The maze had found new ways to exploit their memories, and its illusions were becoming increasingly difficult to recognize.

In one chamber, a group of Holy Land disciples stood before a familiar-looking elder.

The elder’s expression was cold.

"After everything the Holy Land has done for you, this is how you repay us?"

The leading disciple froze.

He recognized the elder. He remembered receiving guidance from him, being praised for his talent, and swearing to repay the Holy Land’s kindness.

Yet the elder before him accused him of stealing a treasured technique and murdering a fellow disciple.

"I never did any of those things!" the young man shouted.

The elder’s eyes turned murderous.

"Then why are you resisting your punishment?"

The scene felt so real that the disciple’s companions began to doubt him. Within moments, suspicion spread through the group.

A disagreement became an argument.

The argument became a fight.

And the fight ended with several disciples attacking one another, each convinced that the others had betrayed their sect.

When the illusion finally broke for the few who remained, they discovered that their companions had already been eliminated.

There was no time to mourn.

The maze continued.

***

By the end of the second day, the number of cultivators moving through the corridors had fallen considerably.

The third day was worse.

The illusions no longer relied solely on familiar faces or painful memories. They twisted regrets, ambitions, and private fears into experiences that felt indistinguishable from reality.

Some cultivators saw opportunities they had dreamed of for years.

Others were forced to relive their greatest failures.

A few were shown futures in which their families were destroyed, their sects abandoned them, or the people they trusted most turned against them.

Those who allowed their emotions to dictate their actions often paid the price.

A talented saintess from a Holy Land found herself standing before a scene from her childhood. Her deceased mother appeared before her, smiling gently and calling her closer.

For a moment, the saintess forgot where she was.

She had not seen that smile in decades.

She took a step forward.

Then another.

When she realized that the figure had no place in the present, she tried to retreat, but the illusion had already consumed her judgment. She resisted the correction of her own senses until the maze’s restriction took effect.

A flash of light carried her out of the ruin.

Her cultivation had fallen by 1 minor level.

She had survived, but she had lost her chance to continue the trial.

Elsewhere, another saint mistook a fellow disciple for the person who had ruined his family. He attacked without hesitation, forcing everyone around him into a desperate struggle to restrain him.

By the time he understood his mistake, the opportunity to escape the illusion had passed.

One after another, talented cultivators disappeared from the maze.

Holy Land disciples who had once entered the ruin with confidence were eliminated. Saints and saintesses who had stood above their peers found themselves unable to overcome the weaknesses they had never considered dangerous.

Their talent had not disappeared.

Their cultivation had not suddenly become useless.

But the maze did not care about either.

It demanded clear judgment from people whose memories were being turned against them.

And many failed.

***

The losses among the Holy Families were equally severe.

The younger generation of these powerful families had entered the ruin with considerable confidence. Their resources, cultivation techniques, and bloodline advantages had helped them survive earlier challenges.

However, the Maze of Ancient Illusions offered no guarantee that those advantages would save them.

One Holy Family successor spent hours fighting an enemy who existed only in his memories. Another became convinced that his own family had abandoned him and refused to believe the warnings of the people around him.

Several others were eliminated while attempting to force their way through illusions they could neither understand nor overcome.

By the end of the third day, only 3 Holy Family successors remained.

**Long Aotian of the Long Family.**

**Yue Kun of the Yue Family.**

**Fu Xingchen of the Fu Family.**

The other Holy Family successors had been eliminated.

Long Aotian advanced with a grim expression, refusing to let the maze dictate his thoughts. Yue Kun moved with similar caution, carefully examining every suspicious encounter before acting. Fu Xingchen, meanwhile, relied on patience rather than force, avoiding decisions he could not confidently justify.

None of the 3 was careless enough to assume that surviving until that point meant victory was assured.

They had endured 3 days.

One remained.

The Forbidden Families and Forbidden Sects also suffered heavy losses among their ordinary disciples.

Their younger generations were powerful compared with most cultivators who had entered the ruin, but even they were vulnerable to the maze’s attacks on their memories.

Dozens were eliminated.

Some fell after mistaking allies for enemies. Others became trapped in illusions built around their deepest regrets. A few recognized the deception too late to save themselves.

Eventually, the ordinary disciples who had accompanied the powerful factions dwindled sharply.

The designated successors of the Forbidden Families and Forbidden Sects, however, remained in the trial.

They had endured the brutal progression of the maze, though none could afford to become complacent.

Survival was not the same as safety.

And the final day had yet to begin.

***

Meanwhile, the 10 youngsters of the Lin Clan continued forward together.

They had learned from their earlier encounters.

Whenever one of them encountered something suspicious, the others did not immediately accept the first explanation presented to them. They stopped, examined the situation, and compared what they had witnessed before making a decision.

This caution saved them more than once.

On the third day, they entered a vast chamber filled with towering stone pillars.

The moment they crossed the threshold, the surroundings changed.

A violent explosion shook the chamber.

Several figures appeared among the pillars, their faces familiar to the Lin Clan youngsters. They shouted accusations, raised weapons, and charged toward the group.

The illusion attempted to provoke an immediate response.

Lin Mo nearly moved to intercept one of the approaching figures, but Lin Chen caught his arm.

"Wait."

Lin Mo frowned. "They’re attacking us!"

"Then why haven’t they reached us yet?"

Lin Chen’s question made everyone pause.

The figures continued shouting, yet their movements did not match the sounds echoing through the chamber. Their spiritual pressure also fluctuated in a strangely repetitive pattern.

Lin Qing narrowed his eyes.

"Don’t react to what you see. Observe the entire scene."

The 10 youngsters spread out slightly, maintaining their formation while examining the illusion.

Lin Yuexin noticed that the same explosion repeated at regular intervals. Lin Xuan discovered that one of the approaching figures always stopped at precisely the same distance. Lin Zhen identified a narrow section of the chamber where the spiritual energy behaved differently from the rest.

They shared their observations.

Instead of allowing the illusion to separate them, they used their combined judgment to identify its weakness.

Lin Qing struck the ground at the point Lin Zhen had indicated.

The spiritual energy rippled.

Cracks spread across the false battlefield, and the attacking figures shattered into fragments of light.

The stone pillars returned to their original positions.

Silence settled over the chamber.

Lin Mo exhaled and shook his head.

"This maze really doesn’t want us to have a peaceful journey."

Lin Jue gave him a sideways glance.

"Did you expect a trial inside an ancient ruin to be peaceful?"

"I expected it to be difficult. I didn’t expect it to start using my memories against me."

"Then stop giving it opportunities to fool you."

Lin Mo clicked his tongue but offered no argument.

Lin Chen looked around at the others.

"Everyone accounted for?"

"Here."

"Present."

"All good."

One after another, the responses came.

All 10 were still together.

None had been eliminated.

Lin Qing nodded. "Then let’s continue. We don’t know what the final day will bring."

Without wasting any more time, the group left the chamber.

They had no intention of allowing the maze to separate them.

***

Elsewhere, the remaining cultivators pressed onward.

By the fourth day, the corridors that had once been filled with countless figures had become noticeably quieter.

The absence of footsteps was unsettling.

Occasionally, a distant shout echoed through the maze, followed by silence. Sometimes a burst of spiritual energy erupted behind a wall, only to fade moments later.

Cultivators who encountered one another exchanged wary glances before continuing in separate directions.

Trust had become a dangerous luxury.

Even those who had survived the previous days could no longer be certain that their memories were reliable. Every familiar voice demanded scrutiny. Every emotional reaction had to be questioned.

The maze had transformed the simple act of making a decision into a test of survival.

And the pressure continued to mount as the remaining time dwindled.

Then, just as the cultivators began to wonder how much longer they would have to endure, a deep, ancient voice resounded throughout the Maze of Ancient Illusions.

Its sound passed through every corridor and chamber, reaching every cultivator still inside.

"Three days have passed since the beginning of the Maze of Ancient Illusions."

The remaining cultivators stopped in their tracks.

The voice continued.

"One day remains."

A brief silence followed.

"Those who fail to escape before the deadline will be eliminated from the trial and transported outside the ruin. Their cultivation will be reduced by 1 minor level."

The announcement ended.

For several moments, no one moved.

One day.

After everything they had endured, they had only 1 day left to escape.

Long Aotian clenched his fists and continued forward.

Yue Kun’s expression grew solemn.

Fu Xingchen took a slow breath before choosing another corridor.

The designated successors of the Forbidden Families and Forbidden Sects also resumed their search.

And within another section of the maze, the 10 Lin Clan youngsters advanced together, fully aware that the final day might be more dangerous than all the days that had come before it.

The trial was approaching its end.

But the Maze of Ancient Illusions had not yet revealed its final challenge.