Jiaochu

Chapter 538 Hallucination
There was fog all around, and it became thicker as we walked forward.

The two hid in the bushes. Ye Xingye looked back quietly and asked, "Where are the Dragon Shadow Guards?" Yan Fei stared at the thick fog in front of him and simply replied with two words, "Behind." Ye Xingye looked back again, but still didn't see anyone. He turned his sight back to the front and muttered why the fog was so thick.

Yan Fei raised his hand and shushed, and Ye Xingye immediately became alert. A black shadow flashed in the fog, and before Ye Xingye could react, Yan Fei pulled him back. He felt a gust of cold wind blowing in front of him, and a ghost claw flashed by. He was startled by the suddenness, and before he could stand firm, the ghost claw stretched out from the fog again and was chopped in half by Yan Fei's knife. In a flash, he threw a dart back and repelled the other ghost claw.

There were dark shadows flickering in the mist, and there was more than one person.

Yan Fei blew a whistle, and several figures fell from the sky and surrounded the two of them. Ye Xingye saw that the four heroes who fell from the sky all wore masks on their faces, the same as the mask on Yan Fei's face. He knew that they were also Dragon Shadow Guards, but he didn't know that they were the Death Shadows among the Dragon Shadow Guards.

All four of them wielded swords. They landed on the ground and swung their swords respectively. The fog that filled the surroundings was immediately swept away by the sword energy, revealing the true appearance of those black shadows.

Ye Xingye was startled at first sight.

With disheveled hair and crawling on the ground like wild beasts, with scarlet blood shooting out of their pupils, four such monsters jumped up and suddenly launched an attack, fighting with the four dead shadows. There was still one left wandering around, not in a hurry to launch an attack, like the leader of these four.

Yan Fei threw a dart at him, which really angered him. They both jumped up almost at the same time, and their figures overlapped in the air for a second. When they landed again, a drop of dark blood dripped down the tip of Yan Fei's knife.

Ye Xingye plucked up his courage and was about to go over to take a look at the corpse, but he didn't expect that it was not dead yet. It suddenly stood up from the ground. He was so shocked that he took a breath. The next moment, a bright knife flashed before his eyes. Yan Fei threw his sword with his backhand, and the sharp tip of the knife pierced through the opponent's heart in an instant. The opponent fell straight to the ground, and he didn't come back to life this time.

Yan Fei came over and drew his saber. Ye Xingye smelled a foul odor, like the smell of rotting animal organs. He covered his mouth and nose and fanned with his hands, muttering, "Why is it so smelly?" Yan Fei remembered that he had smelled this disgusting smell in Tiger Lord's cockfighting arena before. He immediately gathered his thoughts, squatted down, pushed aside the messy hair on the other person's face, and took a look. The pupils were still moving. A closer look revealed that it was not the pupils that were moving, but the dense black dots inside. Soon they stopped moving and lost their vitality. The pupils also turned into a strange gray-white color, like the white eyes of a dead fish.

Ye Xingye was frightened again and asked Yan Fei if this was the living dead he had mentioned before. Yan Fei nodded, raised his hand to close his gray eyes, then stood up and looked around. There were four more corpses on the ground, four dead shadows standing in their respective positions, and the dirty blood on the sword blades had been shaken off.

"Your Highness, do you still want to go?" Yan Fei asked, looking at the thick fog ahead.

Although Ye Xingye was a little scared, his determination became stronger. He looked at the thick fog ahead and said two words firmly, "Let's go."

Yan Fei originally disagreed with Ye Xingye leaving the city, but was stumped by his question:
"What if Lingxi is in danger?"

……

After groping in the thick fog for an unknown amount of time, a city appeared in front of them.

In order to avoid getting lost on the road, Ye Xingye grabbed Yan Fei's clothes and wanted to hold his hand, but Yan Fei decisively refused.

The city gate was opened, and the inside looked gloomy and eerie. There was silence on the city wall, no torch light, and no soldiers patrolling.

Ye Xingye bravely shouted towards the city wall, "Is anyone there?" There was no response. Looking at the dark street behind the city gate, he encouraged himself in his heart, and then told Yan Fei to go in and take a look.

Yan Fei lit a tinder, and the faint light could only illuminate a few steps around him. After entering the city, Ye Xingye muttered why there was no one there?
The faint light of the fire starter moved slowly across the dark street, heading towards the palace.

Arriving at the gate of the palace, Ye Xingye ran in excitedly. Less than a second later, when Yan Fei entered, he had disappeared. He had seen that Mu Qi's wound was self-inflicted. One possibility was that he was drugged or had an illusion, and his mind was confused, so he hurt himself. Another possibility was that someone had set up a mysterious formation here. A figure walked over from the front.

He gripped the hilt of the knife and stared at the approaching figure. When the other person approached, the yard suddenly became brighter and a bright full moon appeared above the yard, illuminating the faces of the two men in the sky.

When he saw that face, Yan Fei's heart was inexplicably shaken, an indescribable complex emotion suddenly surged up, and he felt an inexplicable sense of intimacy with the person in front of him.

"Fei'er, you've grown up."

Hearing this, he froze, his whole body seemed to be petrified, his eye sockets were slightly scarlet, his lips trembled slightly, and when the voice came out of his throat, it became a little hoarse, "Father...Father?"

Yan Hai smiled and nodded, then sighed and said guiltily: "It's father's fault. I shouldn't have abandoned you and your son." He walked over two steps, raised his hand and patted Yan Fei on the shoulder, saying with relief that he had grown up.

Yan Fei looked at the man in front of him, trying to equate this face with the one in his memory, but the one in his memory was what he heard from Yan Jiang. Before he could remember anything, Yan Hai was gone. He heard Yan Jiang talk about how his father was both civil and military when he was a child, how he was brave and resourceful on the battlefield when he grew up, how he was popular among the girls in the capital, and how he and his mother went from childhood sweethearts to getting married... He used these things to piece together the image of his father bit by bit: tall and mighty, bright and handsome, brave and good at fighting...

The man standing in front of him did not disappoint him at all. He also smiled, a little shyly like a young boy. However, the next moment, the smile froze at the corners of his mouth, and the smile in his eyes turned into disbelief. He looked down and saw a dagger stuck in his body.

The hand holding the dagger loosened, and he fell to the ground, staring at the cold face. Blood continued to flow out of his mouth, drowning out his voice, "Why...why...?"

That cold face became blurred in his gradually dilating pupils. Before he completely sank into darkness, another person's voice suddenly came to his ears, "Brother Yan, wake up, don't sleep, Brother Yan, Brother Yan..." The voices of Brother Yan pulled him back from the dark abyss. He suddenly woke up and realized that everything was his illusion. He was still standing there, without a dagger on his body and no one in front of him.

At this time, a strange bell sound was heard. He followed the direction of the sound and walked inside until he came to the Begonia Garden where he lived before. The sound came from the yard.

He walked in and followed the sound to the crabapple tree in the yard. He held up a tinder to shine on the tree and saw a copper bell and a small copper mirror hanging on the branches. He felt that these two things were causing trouble. When he reached out to take them down, a sharp sound of bells rang in his head, like countless awls stabbing his head. He endured the pain and pulled off the copper bell. The sharp sound stopped abruptly. He then pulled off the small copper mirror. Suddenly, fog filled the air around him. When the fog dissipated, he found himself still in the wilderness.

……

The image in the mirror faded.

"I said your formation can't trap him," she said.

"Not necessarily." He said, looking at her with a gentle gaze and a slight smile on his face. She turned her back and leaned on the pillow, supporting her head with one hand, and continued reading.

……

Yan Fei glanced at the copper bell and small copper mirror in his hand, shook the copper bell twice, but there was no sound. He raised the small copper mirror and looked, but could not see anything. He put the two things in his arms first and whistled. No dead figure appeared. He searched nearby for a while, but could not find Ye Xingye. He looked at the thick fog in front of him, stopped for a moment, and walked in again.

……