Chapter 153: A Tumultuous Mind

The Holy Lord of Jinde emerged from the illusion array. Having finally seen through the illusion, she felt a surge of quiet triumph in her heart. However, upon discovering that she was actually the last one to finish, her cheeks flushed with sudden humiliation.

"What? Fan Li was the first to break through the array?"

Learning this news, Jinde’s expression darkened even further. But upon a second thought, she figured she 'understood' the truth.

"The Gold Illusion Array must scale its power with the cultivation level of the challenger."

"Fan Li is merely at the Foundation Establishment Realm, so the array's power dropped drastically, allowing him to break through first."

"I am the only Mahayana Realm expert present, so the illusion array I faced was bound to be the most powerful one!"

Jinde’s spiritual energy had also been severely depleted. She produced a medicine bottle and poured several pills into her palm. Just as she was about to raise them to her lips, she noticed that Fan Li and the others were also taking medicine.

Jinde sneered, "The Gold Illusion Array is indeed formidable. Everyone has depleted a significant amount of spiritual energy and needs to replenish it quickly. Unfortunately, these Grade-Seven Earth-Tier Golden Crow Profound Origin Pills must be used in conjunction with a unique secret technique, so I cannot share them with you."

Yet, the moment her voice trailed off, a rich medicinal fragrance wafted through the air.

"You..." The Holy Lord of Jinde swallowed hard. "What kind of pills are you eating?"

Yan Yuan answered truthfully, "Five Spirits Pills."

The Holy Lord of Jinde found it hard to believe. "Grade-One Heaven-Tier pills? How could you bear to use them?!"

She herself carried a single Heaven-Tier pill, but unless it was a matter of life and death or an imminent breakthrough in her cultivation realm, she would never bear to consume it. Using a Heaven-Tier pill merely to recover spiritual energy was nothing short of extravagant waste!

"Given to us by the Duke of Jin, it would be a waste not to eat them," Guo Jia said with a smile, tossing a pill into his mouth. Being naturally flamboyant and unrestrained, his table manners were inevitably somewhat lacking.

Zhugge Liang gently pinched a pill between two fingers and consumed it slowly, his demeanor far more refined and elegant.

"Alas, when will my State of Wu ever be as wealthy as the State of Chu?" Zhou Yu remarked as he too swallowed a Five Spirits Pill, before cupping his hands in gratitude toward Fan Li.

The Holy Lord of Jinde wore a gloomy expression. No matter what, she was utterly unwilling to lower her pride and ask Fan Li for pills. And Fan Li certainly had no intention of giving her any.

"If everyone has rested enough, let us proceed to the third array," Yichuan reminded them.

The group followed him as they continued their ascent up the mountain. Along the way, Yichuan suddenly asked, "May I ask what all of you experienced within the Gold Illusion Array?"

"Must we answer?" The Holy Lord of Jinde frowned and retorted.

Yichuan still remembered that back when he challenged the Five Elements Array, the Gold Illusion Array alone had trapped him for a full month. Yet this group of people before him had all broken through within a single hour at the absolute slowest.

Yichuan felt deeply resentful! Master Guiguzi had once taught that the Gold Illusion Array did not care about cultivation realms; it only tested one's mind and character. Could it be that the character and disposition of every single person here surpassed his own?

"Ahem, answering is mandatory," Yichuan put on a pretentious air. "This was instructed by Master Guiguzi himself, and I am required to relay your answers back to him."

This was, of course, a complete lie. But by wielding the banner of Guiguzi, even the Holy Lord of Jinde was forced to comply.

"I will speak first," Zhang Juzheng suddenly volunteered. He had no wish to be the first bird to stick its neck out, but the Crown Prince Wanli had signaled him with a look. Though Zhang Juzheng was nominally the crown prince's teacher, sovereign and subject held distinct boundaries, leaving him no choice but to scout the path ahead for the prince.

"I dreamed that Yan Song fell from power, Teacher Xu retired into seclusion, and earning the trust of our current Emperor, I was appointed as the Senior Grand Secretary of the Ming Cabinet."

The others nodded inwardly. True to the nature of the Gold Illusion Array, it had struck directly at the deepest desires of the heart. As a civil official of the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Juzheng’s ultimate life goal was naturally the position of Senior Grand Secretary.

Yichuan asked out of curiosity, "Since you held the position of Senior Grand Secretary in your dream, how were you able to resist the temptation and break out of the array?"

Zhang Juzheng smiled bitterly. "Because under the reign of our current Emperor, there is zero possibility that I would ever be promoted to Senior Grand Secretary."

He left it at that. Even if Yichuan pressed further, he refused to utter another word.

"Hey, do you know how Zhang Juzheng managed to see through the illusion?" Lü Fubao asked Fan Li in a hushed, curious whisper. She figured that since Fan Li was a powerful and authoritative chancellor of Chu, he should at least share some mutual understanding with Zhang Juzheng.

Fan Li nodded; he had indeed guessed a thing or two. "You know as well as I do that the most illogical part of an illusion is its greatest flaw."

"Zhang Taiyue possesses the talent of a prime minister and is capable of great responsibilities."

"However, as the teacher of Wanli, once Wanli ascends the throne, his prestige as the imperial preceptor would inevitably elevate him to the pinnacle of officialdom."

"If Emperor Jiajing were to promise him the position of Senior Grand Secretary, then by the time Wanli took the throne, there would be no rewards left to grant and no titles left to bestow."

"Emperor Jiajing was a ruler of grand ambitions; would he ever make things difficult for his own son?"

Lü Fubao suddenly understood. "You truly deserve your reputation as the premier cunning and treacherous official of Chu."

Fan Li: "???"

"Allow me to share as well," Zhugge Liang said, gently waving his feather fan and sighing. "Within the illusion, I assisted His Majesty in restoring the Han Dynasty and returning to our former capital."

With just that single sentence, he stopped speaking.

The former capital of Chang'an now belonged to the territory of the State of Wei. With the three states now allied, how could the Han possibly conquer the capital of Wei?

Guo Jia cast a meaningful glance at Zhugge Liang and said, "What a coincidence. What I witnessed in the illusion happened to be the exact opposite of you, Kongming."

"Oh?" Zhou Yu smiled. "How fortuitous. The scene I beheld in the illusion was also completely opposite to both of yours."

The three of them exchanged silent glances before suddenly bursting into hearty laughter!

"How magnificent!"

"With the realm yet unsettled, we must not let a mere illusion ruin the grand righteous cause of our alliance!"

"Hahahaha!"

Crown Prince Wanli and Zhang Juzheng watched the scene unfold, inwardly sighing with regret. If a single trip through the Gold Illusion Array could have fractured the alliance between Wei, Han, and Wu, it would have been a tremendous blessing for the Ming Dynasty.

Noticing the somewhat peculiar atmosphere, Yan Yuan smiled and said, "In the illusion array, my Confucian scholarship reached its culmination. I took in three thousand disciples, among whom were seventy-two sages. My disciples recorded my teachings into books that spread throughout the world."

"Oh?" Yichuan narrowed his eyes slightly. "Brother Yan possesses great ambitions. How, then, were you able to break the array?"

Yan Yuan shook his head with a bitter smile. "When I opened and read my own book within the illusion, I discovered that every single page was completely blank. Realizing that the Great Dao had not yet been truly mastered, the illusion array shattered at once."

Yichuan felt deeply awkward upon hearing this. He had imagined countless times becoming the greatest Confucian scholar in the world, yet he had never once stopped to ponder whether the ink in his own chest was truly sufficient. The courage Yan Yuan showed in self-denial far surpassed anything Yichuan could manage.

At this moment, everyone's gaze converged on Fan Li.

He scratched his head awkwardly.

"Strange."

"Why on earth did I dream about a matchmaking session?"

"Could it be that deep within my heart, I am actually this starved for romance?"

"Impossible, the Gold Illusion Array must have encountered a bug..."

Just as Fan Li's mind was wandering wildly, he noticed Lü Fubao staring at him with intense curiosity.

"You go first?" Fan Li blurted out reflexively.

It was originally meant as a casual brush-off to stall for time, but to his surprise, Lü Fubao instantly blushed crimson.

"I—I have nothing to say!"

"It was nothing more than daily life—tending to flowers and plants, reading books, and playing the zither."

She wasn't lying, but she hadn't told the whole truth either. Lü Fubao had dreamed that she was still an Imperial Noble Consort within the imperial palace of Chu, spending every day with the Emperor in perfect harmony, as inseparable as glue and paint.

Only, the Emperor in the dream was not Xiang Ning.

"Ahhhhh!"

"Why on earth would I dream of him as the Emperor?"

"Should I admit that I once caught a accidental glimpse of a memorial he submitted to the Emperor and recognized his handwriting?!"

Back in Lü City, that imperial decree with imperial Qi piercing the vault of heaven had deeply awed Lü Chuqiu. Lü Fubao had studied Confucianism under her father since childhood, cultivating the exact same tastes. Every single stroke of that imperial decree seemed to have been carved into her heart.

Who could have imagined that the Emperor of Chu was actually a woman, and that the imperial decree had been authored by Fan Li himself?

Lü Fubao's heart was in complete turmoil.