Under the moonlight, four Celestial Army soldiers unfurled their wings and skimmed silently along the forest floor, shadows of the trees flashing across their bodies as they swiftly reached the mountain summit.
Standing atop the cliff, the leading Heavenly General bowed his head to peer into the valley below.
The vast valley lay entirely within his field of vision, but unfortunately, it was pitch-black—nothing could be seen.
At such a distance, he could sense nothing at all.
"It seems we'll have to enter the valley after all."
The three Celestial Soldiers behind him drew closer.
"General Mu, should we go in directly from here?" one of the soldiers asked.
The Heavenly General stood at the edge of the precipice, bent down, and closed his eyes to sense carefully.
After a long moment, he opened his eyes, picked up a stone from the ground and weighed it in his hand before putting it back. "I can't feel any fluctuations from a defensive formation, but who knows if there might be a passive array hidden here."
Thinking this, he couldn't help but sigh. "Honestly, I'd rather sense one or two arrays. Not sensing anything at all is even more..."
Instead, his heart grew even more uneasy.
His brows furrowed slightly, and beads of sweat as large as beans slowly rolled down his forehead.
When he first received this order, he nearly coughed up blood from sheer frustration.
To infiltrate the territory of Elder Stillwater at Crescent Star Cave...
Now he finally understood why General Skyler wanted a Spirit-Transformation-level Heavenly General like himself to personally lead this scouting mission. From the start, Skyler had decided that if nothing could be found outside the valley, he'd have him slip inside instead.
He hesitated in place for a long time before finally saying, "Let's check out some other spots before deciding."
With the three Celestial Soldiers in tow, he quietly darted toward a distant slope.
......
Inside the pavilion, Elder Stillwater knelt serenely with his knees drawn up. He reached out to smooth his long hair at the temples, while the fingers of his other hand traced a slow circle through the air.
......
After flying low for quite a while, the Heavenly General suddenly sensed something was off.
The scenery around them was clearly rushing past, yet no matter how they flew, they weren't getting any closer to the slope.
He abruptly halted in midair, and the three Celestial Soldiers behind him quickly stopped as well.
"What's wrong, General Mu?"
"I feel... something's not right..." The Heavenly General turned to look around, and when his eyes caught sight of a stone on the ground, he suddenly widened them in alarm.
He quickly strode over and picked up the stone. "Don't tell me... we've already entered an illusion array?"
At the thought, cold sweat broke out all over him.
"Th-then what do we do now?"
"Don't worry. At worst, we've only entered the illusion array—we haven't triggered any alarms yet." The Heavenly General crushed the stone in his palm.
Turning his head, he glanced at the path down the mountain, then at the cliff.
"Let's just go down from here. Whether we succeed or not, we have to give it a try. Otherwise, how will we explain ourselves when we return?"
With that, he spread his wings and leapt off the cliff.
The three Celestial Soldiers quickly followed.
......
Inside the pavilion, Elder Stillwater smiled faintly, stroked his long beard, and traced a rune in the air with his left hand.
......
Skimming along the cliff face, they descended soundlessly toward the ground, dodging the trees growing from the rock as they went.
Yet before long, the Heavenly General again felt something was amiss.
"Why? Why is it taking so long to reach the bottom of the cliff?"
It's been about the time it takes for a stick of incense to burn, hasn't it?
Could there really be illusion arrays even here? That's impossible. Illusion arrays can only distort vision—they shouldn't be able to confuse up and down!
Soon, the Heavenly General finally caught a glimpse of the pitch-black ground below, and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
Just as he was about to land, suddenly the world flipped upside down—the pitch-black ground silently vanished, replaced by a sky full of stars!
He had no idea when he'd become completely inverted.
Startled, he nearly lost control and crashed into the cliff face beside him.
It took all his effort to regain control; panting, the four of them landed once again on the steep cliff.
The powder from the stone he'd just crushed was right beside him—they were back where they started!
"Richard Mulkey... What do we do now?" one Skyward Legionnaire asked in a low voice, swallowing nervously.
What was going on? Was the whole place riddled with bizarre illusion arrays?
The Heavenly General turned to look into the valley, blinking rapidly, his breath quickening.