“Thump! Thump!”
Li Fan’s heart began to beat uncontrollably as if he had witnessed his own tragic death moments away.
Instinctively, Li Fan was about to silently chant [Truth] in his heart to return to the anchor point.
However, in the blink of an eye, he felt something was amiss and forcibly stopped himself.
The Xuanhuang Heart Refinement Mantra slowly shattered the fear that continuously surged in his heart, turning it into mental nourishment while also providing Li Fan with a precious moment of calm reflection.
“Could it be that Zhang Zhiliang has discovered something and intends to harm me through this method?”
“No… he should have already advanced to the Soul Transformation stage. There’s no need for such elaborate schemes against a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator like me.”
“He could have just attacked directly.”
“So, the reason for this strange premonition is the effect of the Intent Horse itself?”
As he thought so, Li Fan suddenly felt a trance-like sensation.
His hair stood on end as if someone was staring at him.
Startled, Li Fan immediately turned around.
He saw Zhang Zhiliang gazing at him, wearing an indescribable smile.
Li Fan instinctively retreated, his spiritual energy surged, and the Cong Yun Sword was about to be unleashed.
But in the blink of an eye, Zhang Zhiliang’s figure disappeared.
Li Fan was momentarily stunned, then realized he was still inside the Tianxuan Mirror.
Even beings like the Heavenly Doctor would cause quite a stir if they tried to intrude forcefully.
How could Zhang Zhiliang sneak in so quietly?
“An illusion?”
Li Fan turned to look at the Intent Horse corpse on the ground and immediately noticed something unusual, furrowing his brows.
The Intent Horse corpse had inexplicably changed its posture without him noticing.
“Is it dead or alive?” Li Fan couldn’t help but question.
Fear surged in his heart once again, echoing for a long time.
His body felt chilly.
“This Intent Horse is a bit strange.”
“However, I have [Truth]. No matter how dangerous it is, it can’t harm my life…”
Thinking of this, Li Fan felt slightly relieved.
Strangely enough, when he thought so, the inexplicable sense of fear in his heart suddenly receded like a tide.
“Interesting…”
Li Fan’s eyes flickered.
However, he still possessed a horse face, indicating that the situation was not over yet.
Seizing this opportunity, Li Fan’s mind raced as he considered countermeasures.
However, before Li Fan could think of anything, the situation changed once again.
The sound of an arrow piercing through the air suddenly came.
This was followed by the dull sound of it piercing flesh.
Li Fan followed the sound and saw an arrow coming from nowhere.
It hit the left arm of the Intent Horse corpse directly.
Just as Li Fan was about to pull out the arrow to see if it was real or not, a sudden intense pain struck.
Coincidentally, the pain also came from his left arm.
Li Fan scanned with his spiritual consciousness, his face immediately darkening.
The same position, the same wound!
Even when Li Fan tried to use his spiritual energy, he couldn’t heal the wound.
He bought a healing pill from the Tianxuan Mirror and swallowed it, but it still had no effect.
The wound remained.
“This…”
“Is it real or fake?”
Li Fan sensed the burning pain on his arm, which felt undoubtedly real.
“So, does everything that happens on the Intent Horse reflect on me?”
“If…”
Li Fan’s thoughts didn’t continue, and he forcefully activated the Xuanhuang Heart Refinement Mantra to clear his mind.
Ignoring the pain in his body, he continued to think about countermeasures.
“In theory, Zhang Zhiliang has no reason to toy with me. This Intent Horse is indeed a treasure that can enhance the soul.”
“So, I can deduce that the strange scenes that just happened felt so real because they bypassed my senses and directly affected my soul?”
“It’s beyond ordinary illusions, and directly targets the soul…”
As Li Fan contemplated, a sharp sword suddenly appeared.
With a cold gleam, it severed the index finger of the Intent Horse’s right hand.
The intense pain made Li Fan involuntarily suck in a breath of cold air.
Looking at his right hand, the index finger was indeed missing.
It was continuously bleeding.
Li Fan placed his mutilated right hand in front of his eyes, carefully observing.
“Is it real…”
“Or fake?”
Logic told Li Fan that everything happening to him was just the effect of the Intent Horse on his soul. It was all illusory.
But the constant burning pain made Li Fan doubt his own judgment.
“If all of this is just an illusion, then it doesn’t matter.”
“But what if I’m wrong, and these wounds are real?”
“If I continue to sit back and watch it happen, am I waiting to die?”
A thought emerged involuntarily.
“To determine if it’s real or fake, why not ask others to verify?”
With that thought, Li Fan left the Tianxuan Mirror.
When he, with a horse face, wandered in front of other cultivators without attracting any strange looks, Li Fan finally confirmed that it was indeed an illusion brought about by the Intent Horse.
But…
“Hiss!”
Li Fan touched his chest, where another deep wound appeared.
While he was verifying the illusion outside, a total of eight wounds appeared on Li Fan’s body.
“The speed of occurrence is getting faster, and the wounds are getting larger.”
“Even if I know these are all illusions, at this intensity…”
“It doesn’t matter whether they’re real or fake anymore.”
“If this continues to develop, could I really die?”
Before transmigrating, Li Fan had heard of a certain punishment.
A prisoner would be blindfolded and his arms would be slashed with a knife.
Then, mimic the sound of blood dripping with water drops while continuously whispering about blood loss to them.
Although the wound on the arm had long since coagulated and wouldn’t lose much blood, under constant psychological suggestion from oneself and others, some prisoners would truly believe that they were losing too much blood and eventually die.
When they believed they were dead, they would die.
Li Fan guessed that the effect of the Intent Horse was similar because the illusion had reached a point where it was almost indistinguishable from reality.
If he didn’t do anything and just waited for the situation to continue to develop, when the Intent Horse’s body received fatal injuries such as an exploding head, Li Fan would also likely be affected by the synchronous injuries and truly believe that he was severely wounded.
Then, he would inexplicably die.
This was the influence of self-cognition on the body.
And to avoid this…
Li Fan opened the [Truth] panel.
He stared closely at the charging progress.
“As long as the automatic protection of [Truth] is not triggered, no matter how real the sensation is, there is no danger to my life.”
With that thought, Li Fan felt much more at ease.
The fear in his heart gradually dissipated.