Chapter 101: Temptation and Fear

In the end, Miss Vilyric circled around and chose the 【Gate of Humanity】.

Though Miss Xiao Kong seemed to hint that she wanted her to choose the 【Heaven Gate】, her attitude was not too forceful. Seeing that the Priestess had already made a decision, she didn’t meddle further.

According to her introduction, the 【Gate of Humanity】 among the six gates of the Six-Element Array Palace was the most moderate and peaceful one. As a representation of the human realm within the six paths, the challenges here rarely led to death but would definitely trouble you in a rather annoying way.

As for what kind of trouble that was…

Stepping through the door inscribed with the phrase, “Those who enter this door must experience the myriad aspects of humanity, face greed, fear, decay, love, evil desires, and only then may they exit,” Miss Vilyric quickly grasped its meaning.

The moment she crossed the threshold, the surroundings suddenly shifted. The figures of Miss Xiao Kong and Murong Yun that stood on either side vanished, replaced instead by a grand hall.

Here lay a mountain of dazzling treasures, piled high almost to the dome of the hall, with a staggering number of rare jewels sparkling in every color imaginable, nearly blinding anyone who looked!

“Oh… so that’s what it means~”

The Priestess walked closer to the seemingly endless mountain of treasures, bent down, and picked up a semi-transparent gem that had just rolled to her foot, examining it curiously.

This wasn’t just some simple illusion; the immense wealth before Vilyric, practically worth a nation, was all very real.

At least the gem in her hand, based on the feedback from her 【Information Detection】 investigation, showed no sign of anything amiss.

In other words, if the Priestess so wished, she could easily toss this gem, estimated to be worth at least several million Four Sacred Gold Coins, into her bag right now.

This was true temptation, wealth within reach.

And because of that, it was even more deadly.

“Hmph…”

Carelessly tossing the priceless gem back onto the pile of treasures, the girl surveyed the dazzling jewels around her, yet her heart remained calm and untroubled without a hint of desire to claim even the smallest piece for herself.

These treasures presented no issues, were incredibly realistic, and had no poison or other underhanded tricks, but if she were to let in a greedy thought, passing this trial through normal means would become nearly impossible.

She gently closed her eyes, blocking out the dazzling light of the treasures.

Heart Demon.

This was a term that Vilyric had heard more than once since arriving in the Ancient Spirit Realm.

A heart demon is something quite enigmatic; it exists, yet it can also be said not to exist.

From a broad perspective, it can be regarded as the other side of the soul; hence, the stronger the power one possesses, the more likely they are to give rise to a powerful heart demon.

If we were to explain it in detail…

In this world, any intelligent being with a “heart” is bound to develop emotions and desires — fear, hatred, love, greed, and countless others.

The ever-growing strength and skill require a correspondingly powerful mentality to manage; if one merely obsesses over physical training without cultivating their heart, lacking the psychological qualities that match their own power, heart demons will sprout and grow in the dark corners, eventually bursting forth at some point.

Heart demons are not entirely negative.

In the common view of the Ancient Spirit Realm, no one can completely rid themselves of their heart demon, as it represents your desires. If a person loses all feelings and desires, their essence becomes not much different from a soulless corpse.

Thus, Ling Feng has her heart demons, Bai’er has her heart demons, and Murong Yun has mentioned his biggest heart demon more than once — even the mighty Saint Peach Blossom is not exempt.

Naturally, Vilyric has her own as well.

At least… that’s what she hoped.

And this 【Gate of Humanity】 within the Six-Element Array Palace would amplify the hidden heart demons lurking within people’s hearts countless times, igniting and exploding the most secret wounds buried deep in their memories, thus hindering their passage.

But unfortunately, Miss Vilyric didn’t have much desire for wealth, or rather, for the simple emotion of 【Greed】. Forget these mundane objects; even if she were presented with a hundred divine artifacts, that Someone would likely only be curious about which ones had better attributes or interesting effects…

Just like how she had never once thought of claiming the mighty Sword of Origin for herself after encountering it.

Though she always acted calculative and unwilling to lose out on things, in reality, she viewed things outside of herself quite lightly.

When she opened her eyes again, that vast treasure had vanished, and the surrounding scene had turned upside down.

Dense fog rolled in from all directions, covering everything in sight.

Vilyric tried to raise her hand but found that she could hardly even distinguish her own fingers up close. Looking out, she saw nothing at all.

A faint stench of decay filled the air, the stench that belonged only to corpses and rotting objects.

“What… is this again?”

Frowning, she moved her nose and spotted a long saint staff in her hand, instinctively taking two steps to the side.

“Whoosh!!!”

A sharp, cold wind swept past her neck, bringing a slight chill that penetrated to her bones, causing her to stop in her tracks.

“Hehehehehe…”

A chilling laughter echoed from deep within the abyss, not loud, even difficult to discern, yet it lingered like a pestilence, making it impossible to ignore.

It felt as though a pair of sinister eyes were watching her from the shadows, waiting for the right moment to strike.

“Creak… creak…”

Not far away, a strange sound, similar to bones crunching over dried leaves, drew closer slowly. However, when she turned to follow the source of the sound, visibility was completely blocked by the thick fog, making it impossible to see anything.

“…”

Vilyric looked around and noticed in the depths of the murky fog, a few sinister, wolf-like green eyes flickered ominously, akin to the faint sound of drool dripping from a beast, sending shivers down her spine.

If it were an ordinary person, caught in such a vision-limited state with strange sounds surrounding them, and every sense dominated by the terror of the unknown, they would likely lose their sanity and flee in panic before long.

If they were even weaker, going mad right then and there wasn’t out of the question.

However, fortunately, the Priestess did not fall into that category.

“Ah, so it turns out greed is followed by fear. This atmosphere is quite well-crafted; it’s far more realistic than any 3D horror game! What a shame…”

The black-haired girl smiled slightly.

“I am indeed a little afraid of ghosts, but the precondition is — I don’t have a weapon in hand.”

A spark of golden light erupted from the gem atop the 【Eternal Staff · Heart of the World】.

The light became a radiant sun dispersing the thick fog, expanding with the wind. Where it passed, the mist instantly vanished, and in just a moment, the eerie haze enveloping the space had completely cleared, revealing the true surroundings.

It was merely an ordinary forest; there were no monsters lurking within the fog, and what had been spoken of as the stench of decay, chilling winds, and ominous glances, along with those strange sounds, were all simply illusions conjured from nowhere, vanishing along with the thick fog.

In this world, mystery is the greatest horror. Once the true nature of many seemingly terrifying things is unveiled, they often turn out to be simpler and more boring than imagined.

Ultimately, it was just a heart demon at play, scaring herself.

As the black-haired girl shook her head with a helpless smile, the surroundings began to change once again.

   

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