Shortly after Song Ting Yu fled, I had to go around waking up the students who were caught in her illusion. Clapping my hands and allowing my frosty qi to flood the area, I basically froze them out of the illusion the lady had woven.

Fortunately, Song Ting Yu was no longer around, and the illusion she cast on my schoolmates and classmates was not on the same level as the complex technique she had used to try and ensnare me, so it was pretty simple to break.

"..what happened?"

"I don't know."

"Huh? Why are we here?"

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I didn't want to go through the trouble of explaining, so I merely stayed silent and put on a fake smile, pretending that I didn't know anything.

Unfortunately, that didn't work.

"Fei Wu! Are you all right?! I'm here to help you!"

Zhu Jiao appeared, bounding over. He skidded to a stop and looked around, almost as confused as the students around us.

"Eh? Where is that woman?" he stopped to peer at me. "And you..are no longer caught in an illusion?"

"I was never caught in an illusion," I replied, trying to mask my irritation. For some reason, Zhu Jiao looked disappointed.

"That's not supposed to happen. Then how am I supposed to save you?"

"What makes you think I need saving?" I retorted, annoyed. "I can take care of myself."

"Uh, right." Zhu Jiao forced a laugh, realizing how stupid his statement sounded. "Of course you can. Sorry about that."

The bastard clearly treated everyone as needing him to save them. He was obviously suffering from protagonist syndrome, where the protagonist had to go around saving all the other side characters, whose role was to solely exist to be rescued by him.

"Fei Wu! What happened?!"

Tong Xue and Lian Rou joined us, having distanced themselves earlier to stay out of the range of Song Ting Yu's charm technique. Now that she had flown off, they thought it was safe to approach me. They had clearly seen the panicked manner in which Song Ting Yu left, and were naturally curious as to what had transpired.

I grimaced as I recalled the illusion that Song Ting Yu tried to trap me inside. Other than the idiotic storyline about toxic relationships and me being cast in the ridiculous role of a rich, powerful and handsome CEO, the illusion almost seemed real. Thankfully Song Ting Yu sucked at writing a romance story, or I would have fallen for it if it was even the least bit realistic.

There were still some remnants of the seed she had tried to implant in my mind, but using Heaven and Earth Formula, I could easily erase them. Also, thanks to my own experience in writing stories (though admittedly I sucked and could only rip off other people's stories), I was somewhat able to differentiate reality from fiction.

Even so, I recognized what a formidable opponent Song Ting Yu was.

"What a terrifying woman!"

I shook my head as I reviewed the scenes that I had seen. Song Ting Yu's charm technique had enchanted my soul and almost enslaved my mind. If I had allowed that to happen, then I would have her figure imprinted deeply within my heart for the rest of my life. Song Ting Yu would then be able to exploit that and control my emotions however she wanted.

What a bitch.

Frowning, I realized what a despicable human being she was. Thinking seriously about this, I was sure that Song Ting Yu used this power regularly. That was why the Martial Arts Alliance always sent her off on diplomatic missions. So she had been screwing people over for Heavens knew how many years. If she succeeded in rendering every single of them so infatuated with her, I was sure they would start killing each other in order to possess her.

..then again, the horrible story she came up with for her illusion was just unbelievable. Only a fool would believe himself to be a rich, powerful CEO who believed that indulging in toxic relationships, domestic abuse and delusions was a great idea.

"Are you all right?" Tong Xue stared at me in concern. "What did that woman do to you? You don't look so good."

"Considering what she would have done if I hadn't broken her illusion, I think I got off pretty lightly," I replied flippantly.

Lian Rou frowned. "Really? You still look pretty pale."

"Do you need me to chase down that woman to erase whatever lingering effects she left on you?" Zhu Jiao asked enthusiastically, but I was under the impression that he was more excited about the prospect of adding a new member to his harem after conquering her.

Raising my hands to stall him, I shook my head. "No need. She tried to enchant my mind and enslave me with her charm. But she failed and gave up. That's why she left. Don't worry, whatever she intended to do to me didn't work."

Obviously, at that time, I was completely unaware that Song Ting Yu had left because my attempt to rewrite her romance narrative had caused her charm to be reflected back onto her. Instead, she ended up having me deeply imprinted into her mind, so she had hastily withdrawn before she could fall deeper into the effects.

"Song Ting Yu will be back," Tong Xue warned gravely. "She's a representative from the Martial Arts Alliance and the only daughter of Song Yu. I don't understand why she left this time, but I'm sure she'll be back to haunt us,"

I shrugged casually. "We'll deal with her when she returns. No point needlessly worrying over it until then."

"True." Zhu Jiao nodded and grinned. He cracked his knuckles as he glanced into the distance – which happened to be the wrong direction if he was trying to track down where Song Ting Yu had fled to. "We'll be ready for her then."

"Will you really be all right?" Lian Rou asked in concern. "I know you managed to fight her off this time, but she's pretty formidable. She might come up with a countermeasure for your defenses when she returns."

"I'll upgrade my defenses then," I assured her. I realized how effective my Snow Aegis was. Even so, I wasn't going to underestimate her, but there was little point in upgrading my Spirit Shield. Instead, I should focus on my innate spiritual defense.

"Hah! This is Fei Wu we're talking about here!" Tong Xue threw an arm over my shoulders, almost weighing me down. "He'll figure something out!"

"If he doesn't, I'll just help him!" Zhu Jiao added, being the typical protagonist who had to save everybody.

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," I muttered under my breath.

*

Well..obviously I couldn't just copy Spirit Realm and went back to forging Terminator Profound Bombs. I mean Sunburst bombs. You know what I mean.

Especially with Tang Qi Hong dead and all that, so it made no sense for me to teach her the forging methods while I inscribed the Spirit Diagrams. She was no longer around to assist me, so I had to do it alone.

Honestly, this was too heavy a burden to entrust to anyone but Sect Leader Zi Shou De himself, and I didn't want to burden Lian Rou with this. She would become a target for abduction or assassination like me.

So for now I kept the assembly methods to myself and focused on other things. Such as the upcoming mission.

"Hmm, so we'll be heading to Sen Lin Forest again," I murmured as I reviewed the mission details. That was actually vaguer than it sounded. Sen Lin Forest was so vast that it was practically a country on its own. The real question was precisely which part of Sen Lin Forest we were heading to this time.

"..the Toxic Marshes."

I frowned when I caught sight of the name of the specific area we were assigned to. The Toxic Marshes were notorious for the insane number of venomous demonic creatures inhabiting them. Some of which were gigantic bugs, and I hated bugs with a blinding passion.

"..this sucks."

If this was the case, then we were going to need a lot of antidotes and preparations. I didn't need them because Heaven and Earth Formula rendered me immune to all poisons and venoms, but obviously the same couldn't be said about my teammates.

Speaking of which, who were my teammates supposed to be?

I didn't know. The system didn't reveal their identities. It only showed that three people had signed up so far, out of the ten available slots. Including me that would be four. There was space for six more.

Should I ask Zhu Jiao to join us? Nah..the guy had been obnoxious lately, thinking he was some sort of hero in a xianxia story and feeling the compulsive need to save everyone. I would never hear the end of it if he rescued us.

Not to mention, even if he didn't come along, I wouldn't be surprised if he showed up out of the blue while we were all in danger, and haul our sorry asses out of the fire anyway. The fucking plot seemed to revolve around him.

"..I guess I'll find out on the day itself."

Shaking my head, I studied the request on my smartphone and wondered out loud.

"Why they're sending us to the Toxic Marshes in the first place? That's like, the worst place ever for a mission."

Then I realized why when I read further on.

"..the Black Venom Cult."

The higher-ups wanted to send us students to eliminate an uprising demonic sect. Recently, new demonic sects had been springing to life all over the Great Zhou Empire. With the Imperial Guard stretched across the borders, and the Martial Arts Alliance greatly weakened after their abortive attempt to invade Nine-Tailed Fox Sect, the demonic martial artists were seizing the chance to strike out for glory and resources, raiding towns and plundering vulnerable villages, as well as kidnapping women and draining the men of their qi.

The Black Venom Cult in particular had its headquarters stationed in the Toxic Marshes. Which was fitting, now that I thought about it, given how most of their techniques focused on poison. No doubt they relied on the venomous creatures living in the Toxic Marshes to craft their weapons and tools of trade.

They were also the perfect enemy for me, given how I was completely immune to poison. I would love to see the looks on their faces when they stabbed me with say, a poison dagger, and I just shrugged it off. Those shocked expressions would be priceless.

Unfortunately, the nature of the mission meant that I was reluctant to ask Tong Xue and Lian Rou to come along for the mission. I would be worried about them, especially since they didn't share my resistance to poison. If Lian Rou was the same character from the original Spirit Realm, she would possess some knowledge of poisons and antidotes, which would mitigate the dangers she would face, but she wasn't the same character despite sharing the same name and serving the same role as her namesake (as Tang Qi Hong's best friend).

On the other hand, I wasn't worried about getting Zhu Jiao involved becase the bastard's plot armor was as thick as an encyclopedia. The fucker could get stung by a Thousand Venom Centipede and shrug it off because he would conveniently and coincidentally come across the antidote he needed, or his master Qi Lin would help him suppress the poison until he concocted the antidote he needed. More likely, though, he would be the one doing the saving and searching for an antidote to help all the girls (it was always a girl – the guys will die instantly, true to xianxia novels' form) who were poisoned. And get praised for it while gaining additional harem members.

All the more reason not to involve that guy..

Well, I was being selfish, of course. If I was thinking about my teammates' benefit and welfare, I should put aside my grudge and recruit Zhu Jiao at all costs. It was the ethical thing to do, plus it would save lives.

Sighing heavily, I picked up my smartphone and called Zhu Jiao.

"Hey, Fei Wu!"

Zhu Jiao sounded distracted on the other side of the phone. I could hear intense noises around him as well, which sounded like metal clashing and people shouting furiously. Something whistled over the phone, sounding like a fireball zooming past Zhu Jiao's location.

"Sorry, I'm a bit busy at the moment. I'll call you back?"

"Sure," I replied, and hung up immediately.

A few minutes later, Zhu Jiao called me.

"Sorry about that," he apologized, sounding out of breath. "I was in the middle of a fight."

"And somehow you still had the time to answer your phone," I remarked dryly. If I were him, I would have just ignored the phone and call back later, instead of answering it in the middle of a fight. Then again, Zhu Jiao was known for pulling all sorts of audacious stunts.

"Well, you called," Zhu Jiao pointed out, not unreasonably. I couldn't be bothered to argue with him, so I just sighed. Zhu Jiao ignored my exasperated exhalation and pressed urgently, "What's up?"

"The ceiling," I answered automatically. If I could see him, I was sure that Zhu Jiao was frowning in annoyance right now.

"I'm sure you didn't call me to make stupid jokes."

"You're right." I sighed again. "I was going to ask you if you would like to join me on a mission to the Toxic Marshes, to wipe out a demonic sect there."

"Hmm, sounds interesting. I'm in. When are you moving out?"

I removed my smartphone from the ear and alt-tabbed to check the date. Once I confirmed it, I brought my phone back to my ear.

"In a week," I replied. "Is that good enough for you?"

"A week, huh?" Zhu Jiao sounded distracted. He probably was consulting his schedule. "Sorry. Right now I'm already in the midst of another mission. I won't be back until another three weeks or a month."

Then why even bother saying you were in? Did you think a mission I was asking you to join would take place a month later?

But I was more diplomatic than that, so I merely nodded. Remembering that he couldn't see me, I acknowledged his response.

"That's too bad then. We'll be worse off without you."

"I'm sure you'll manage something." Zhu Jiao laughed on the other end. "But wiping out a demonic sect, huh? I wish I could be part of that."

Allowing curiosity to get the better of me, I inquired, "What mission are you on right now?"

"Hmm? Me?" Zhu Jiao sounded proud and pleased with himself. "They found another tomb several dozen kilometers from the academy, so I was invited to check it out." I heard some jingling of metallic stuff on the other side – most likely gold coins or treasure weapons. "They got some awesome stuff here."

"..and you didn't bother to tell me about it?"

I felt a little hurt. I thought we were friends. Yet the bastard ran off to explore a tomb and hoard all the treasures on his own without informing me. Wow..just wow.

"Oh..sorry about that." Zhu Jiao sounded a little sheepish. To be fair, it probably didn't even occur to him. Like all xianxia protagonists, he was used to operating alone. Nonetheless, it didn't absolve him of pulling a dick move. "I was invited by the White Tiger Sect to come along. Ning Xue personally asked me. I felt that it would be rude to her if I invited people on my own, you know?"

"I see. That makes sense." That was a lot more understandable. If Zhu Jiao was already invited by another group, he couldn't just go and invite his own friends. The White Tiger Sect members wouldn't be too happy about that, especially since it meant their share of treasure would be reduced further. If I was in his position, I would probably do the same. "Nah, it's all right then." Forcing some levity into my tone, I chuckled. "We'll have to clean up the bad guys without you then."

"I'm sure you'll be able to manage." Zhu Jiao sounded confident in us. "If I come back early, I'll head there. Assuming you guys haven't finished your mission already."

"Nah, you don't have to," I assured him. "It'll be hard to meet up with you in the middle of the forest. We won't have signals on our phones, so we can't communicate, and you might end up blundering into the enemy and spoiling our plans instead."

"Fair enough."

After exchanging a bit of banter, I hung up and proceeded to focus on my preparations. I had to get some healing potions and antidotes – even if I was immune to poison, my teammates weren't, and it would be better to have some spare antidotes on hand just in case.

"I guess I should head to the pharmacy then," I muttered to myself. What, you think I should go to a medicinal hall instead? This was the twenty-first century. Medicinal halls had been replaced by pharmacies. In fact, I was surprised they weren't selling potions and antidotes in convenient supermarts instead.

While I proceeded to the pharmacy, I was unaware of a dark, handsome man from Green Dragon Sect stepping into the vicinity of Wu Ling Academy.

He was the man called Mo Long, the dude Jian Ao dispatched to assassinate me.

Mo Long stealthily stuck to the shadows and listened to the conversations of the students and teachers in Wu Ling Academy, hoping to get some information regarding my whereabouts. At that time, I had already left for the pharmacy, so nobody knew where I was. Actually, nobody even mentioned my name at all.

Mo Long wasn't annoyed. Instead, he patiently waited while awaiting even the slightest change in mood and atmosphere. Like a shadowy predator lying in ambush, he scanned the surroundings and occasionally shifted to make sure he didn't miss me.

It was during one of his translocations that he encountered Song Ting Yu, who had sought refuge in one of the houses near Wu Ling Academy.

In the porch of the remote house, Song Ting Yu was sitting cross-legged on the wood while her Flowing Cloud Rainbow Butterfly was perched on the roof. A cordon of bodyguards had formed a perimeter, vigilantly looking out for enemies. When Mo Long approached, they stiffened and formed a defensive pattern around her.

At first, Song Ting Yu didn't react. She was still busily trying to get rid of the imprint that I had left behind in her mind.

Before her encounter with me, she had never suffered a backlash from her technique before, so this was her first time trying to deal with such a crisis. She had no experience eliminating such powerful imprints that had been reflected onto her own heart. However, she remained calm and continued to explore her various options and experimented with several methods.

However, she was suddenly aware of the movement in her bodyguards. Opening her eyes, she issued a soft command.

"Stand down."

"Yes, Miss."

As her bodyguards relaxed, Song Ting Yu rose to her feet and stared in Mo Long's direction. She could sense his presence, even if she couldn't see him directly.

"Who is there?"

"The Miss of the Song Family, Song Ting Yu." Mo Long appeared, hovering lowly above the ground as he greeted her politely. "Why are you here? Do you have some business with Wu Ling Academy?"

"Senior Mo Long!" When Song Ting Yu saw the identity of the shadowy presence, she was taken aback. But she hid her surprise and smiled brightly. "That's right. I wanted to talk to one of the students here. What about you? Are you also here to deal with Wu Ling Academy?"

"I'm looking for Fei Wu." Mo Long had no reason to hide his intentions. "Sect Leader has dispatched me on a mission." He grinned darkly. "He has sent me to take the life of that brat."

Song Ting Yu's eyes flared up and she glared at him.

"You want to assassinate my fiancé?" she snarled fiercely.

Mo Long stared at her in astonishment, trying to stop his jaw from dropping. "Your fiancé? When did he become your fiancé?"

"Not long ago." Song Ting Yu looked slightly embarrassed, but she maintained her shy smile. "Senior, do you really intend to kill my fiancé? Right now, the Martial Arts Alliance is on the verge of crisis, with all the demonic sects rampaging through the Great Zhou Empire. Yet you want to kill one of the most promising disciples of my generation and cause us to suffer a blow against the demonic martial artists? Are you sure this is wise?"

Song Ting Yu knew very well just how terrifying Mo Long was. The fact that he openly stated his intentions meant that he had absolute confidence in carrying out his orders.

She was aware of his status as one of the top exponents in Green Dragon Sect, and a notorious assassin often employed by Jian Ao to carry out the dirty jobs. Mo Long was known for being able to singlehandedly annihilate a small sect by himself.

From Song Ting Yu's perspective, even the old demon named Tian Yu Di would most likely be incapable of stopping Mo Long. Worse, she had already received intelligence reports that Tian Yu Di had already left me and Heaven and Earth Sect.

For what it was worth, she was dead wrong. My Ancestral Master would probably kill this idiotic Mo Long with a flick of his finger.

Anyway, Song Ting Yu was thinking that there was nobody who could stop Mo Long, and thus forgetting about Xiao Zhang, Teacher Jiao and all the highly skilled staff in Wu Ling Academy. Granted, most of them were not on the same level as Mo Long (the teachers couldn't even defeat Lei Yong Chun), but they weren't to be underestimated either.

Unfortunately, I wasn't there to correct her misconception.

Song Ting Yu, aware that she and her bodyguards lacked the strength to prevent Mo Long from killing me, had resorted to lying. If she could convince him that I was her fiancé, she might be able to use her status in the Martial Arts Alliance to force him to back off.

But Mo Long was not so easily fooled.

"Your fiancé?" the handsome man scoffed. "Young Miss of the Song family, do you think I'm stupid? With your status in the Martial Arts Alliance, there is no way you would lower yourself to marry some random kid from a decimated sect. And this boy isn't even that strong. I know how proud you are – you'll never be attracted to a loser like him."

Wow, the bastard was insulting me and calling me a loser. Granted, there was absolutely nothing I could do against him, but it still stung.

I couldn't wait to beat his face in.

Song Ting Yu, on the other hand, had less confidence in my strength, so she merely retorted.

"He has potential. Did you not hear of how he destroyed Jiu Liu Yu in combat with Heaven and Earth Formula?" she lowered her voice conspiratorially. "They say he has attained the Divine Origin Spirit. Are you sure you can best him if he chooses to activate it?"

Lady, I don't even need that to bash his face into the ground.

"All the more reason to kill him now before he becomes immensely powerful." Mo Long chuckled darkly. "If we wait for him to become stronger..I'm afraid it'll become much more difficult to slay him in future."

"Why do you want to slay him?" Song Ting Yu snapped.

"Why do you want to save him?" Mo Long retorted, and then smiled frostily. "With your pride and intelligence, you wouldn't just be attracted to his potential. I see..you intend to save this boy so that you can swallow whole everything that he possesses. I'm sorry, but my Green Dragon Sect cannot allow that to happen."

Song Ting Yu felt a despairing chill as a murderous aura emanated from Mo Long.