Another 3 days had passed, perhaps because of the defeat of the Black Death Sandstorm before, the journey had been calm. There was not even a single demonic beast assaulting them.
If Regia’s surrender to Chen Rui was because of Veronica, he was now completely convinced.
After climbing over a huge sand dune, Regia, who was looking at the head of the ship, exclaimed, “Sir, over there!”
Chen Rui, who was closing his eyes and resting, suddenly opened his eyes. He got up and took a look, only to see a little greenery in the flat topography in the distance. There was a faint light in the green, which seemed to be a water reflection.
“Oasis!”
Chen Rui regained his energy and commanded the sandmen to drive the Red Sand Ship at full speed toward the green light.
When the oasis was getting closer, Regia exclaimed in surprise, “This fresh breath! This charming green! Yes, it’s the Dreamy Oasis! I still remember what it looked like!”
Hearing what Regia said, Chen Rui also felt some kind of fresh greenery. He was secretly delighted. As long as I find the fire condensing crystal sand and the Phantom Ice Spring in it, I will be able to save Duoduo and the Water Elemental King.
“Great! We finally found this moving oasis!” Regia suppressed her excitement and took a deep breath, “Sir, although we have found the oasis, we should still be careful.”
“You’re right, let’s get off the ship first!” Chen Rui nodded as he put away the sandmen and walked toward the oasis with Regia.
Trees and grass could be seen everywhere in the oasis, and the air humidity was obviously higher than that in the desert, so there was no such dry and scorching vibe. After traveling in the desert for so long, they felt extra comfortable after entering the oasis. Nonetheless, entering the oasis did not mean safety. Apart from the highly poisonous things like the Phantom Springwater, there might be other dangers. Therefore, Chen Rui and Regia did not let their guard down.
Not far away was a small lake. As the cool wind blew, sparkling waves spread out, wrinkling the reflected green trees.
“Sir, be careful. The last time I entered this oasis, I encountered the Phantom Springwater near this small lake. Several judges who were chasing me were engulfed by the springwater that suddenly appeared. They were quickly corroded. Not even their bones remained in the end. I had a companion who fled to the front, and the springwater moved to him in an instant to devour him. I noticed that the situation was not good, so while it was devouring others, I escaped from the oasis without looking back. I’m ashamed to say that that’s all I know about this oasis. Later, I heard a lot of rumors that most of the adventurers who had gone to the Dreamy Oasis never returned. When I recalled the past, I was really lucky.”
“Don’t worry, I’m here.” Chen Rui patted Regia’s shoulder, “I’ll do my best to keep you safe.”
Chen Rui said something similar before coming to the Black Prison Desert. At that time, Regia secretly snorted and did not take it seriously. Now, after witnessing Chen Rui defeat the scary Black Death Sandstorm, Regia was deeply confident in this sir’s strength, so he nodded.
Chen Rui slowed down, opened his perception, and walked toward the small lake with Regia.
After walking along the small lake for a while, he didn’t locate the Phantom Springwater, and there was no abnormality in his perception. On the contrary, the Super System indicated that there was a spirit invasion and was automatically converted. It seemed that there was no doubt that this oasis was strange.
“Sir!” Regia whispered, “Look there…”
Chen Rui looked in the direction he was pointing. Beside the bush, there was a clear springwater, transpiring with white air and faintly showing a faint green light.
“This is the Phantom Springwater?”
“En. This is what I encountered last time. It just appeared, but sir, be careful.”
Chen Rui’s eyes lit up. I didn’t seem to notice the appearance of the springwater. Really worthy of the name ‘phantom’.
The Phantom Springwater seemed to have realized their gaze and gradually disappeared in the vision. This springwater will really turn invisible!
At this moment, Chen Rui’s mind had a warning sign. A pale green light suddenly appeared in the air, coming down toward him and Regia.
Chen Rui’s figure flickered, and he had already shifted together with Regia. After the pale green light missed the target, it seemed to seep into the ground and disappeared.
“Sir…” Regia finally came to his senses, still having a lingering shock. Just now, he told Chen Rui to be careful, but he was almost devoured. .
Before he could finish speaking, Chen Rui started shifting again, and they appeared by the small lake. The green light under them missed another blow.
Chen Rui’s brows furrowed slightly – This Phantom Springwater is really as Regia said at the beginning like an invisible predator. Water element demonic beast?
But strangely, there is no response in the [Analytical Eyes] as if the springwater doesn’t exist at all.
At this time, a huge wave suddenly set off in the small lake and transformed into a huge hand glowing with a faint green light. The huge hand grabbed Chen Rui. Chen Rui tapped his feet and took off into the air with Regia. Since repairing the elemental heart required the Phantom Springwater, Chen Rui did not activate the destructive power, but he chose to catch it ‘alive’. When his mind moved, he activated the time law.
The strange thing was that the giant hand was not controlled by the time law. It was still approaching without slowing down.
Chen Rui was taken aback. He flickered again and dodged.
Is the special environment here immune to time law or is the activated power not enough? Should I use the [Pole Star Transformation]?
A strange green color appeared under Chen Rui’s feet again and approached speedily. Chen Rui sensed the spirit power invasion that the Super System had been prompting. He had a plan in his mind. He actually didn’t avoid it, which startled Regia.
The pale green light enveloped Chen Rui and Regia. Regia’s vision turned black, and his body seemed to be torn apart by countless sharp teeth. He couldn’t help screaming.
At this moment, he felt that his soul was shaken heavily by something. He opened my eyes involuntarily and found that he was safe and sound. He was protected by a translucent dome, which was the defensive shield that Chen Rui activated.
“Quite amazing spiritual talent, even I was fooled by it…” Chen Rui’s eyes flashed with a scorching light as he glanced at the Phantom Fountain that kept hitting the defensive shield.
“Sir, what happened?”
“Did you feel like you were devoured just now, then found out that you’re alright?”
“Yes, why is that?”
“Because this defensive shield isolates spiritual power. I can now confirm that you really entered here when you escaped the pursuit of the church back then.”
“Sure, I remember this Dreamy Oasis.”
“No, what you entered is only here, and here is not the Dreamy Oasis at all.” Chen Rui shook his head, “You were really lucky at the time or maybe ‘it’ was sleeping, so it was just instinctual preying. Otherwise, you would not survive even with bones.”
“Is the ‘it’ that sir just said referring to this Phantom Springwater?” Regia pointed to the pale green light that was still attacking the defensive shield.
“This is not the Phantom Springwater; it’s just a preying power. More precisely, a substantial illusion.” Chen Rui took a deep breath, “I don’t know if you’ve heard of the ‘mirage’ creature?”
Chen Rui encountered the mirage on the Hidden Misty Island when he was in the Dead Sea, and he was almost bewildered by the illusion. In the end, with Shura’s help, he defeated the mirage and Adeline absorbed the mirage’s illusion power.
“Mirage?” Regia thought quickly, “The kind of demonic beasts that create large-scale illusions to prey on? I’ve only heard of this rare creature, but I’ve never seen what it looks like.”
“As expected of a royal instructor, full of wisdom.” Chen Rui nodded approvingly, “The power of the mirage should have reached the super-level. In addition to the illusion talent, it also possesses special space abilities, otherwise I would have been able to detect its existence long ago.”
The power of the current mirage was far more than the previous one, probably not only at the Kingdom level, but at the Demi-God level. The spirit talent was extremely wonderful. Not only the illusion became substantial, but it could even emit corresponding fluctuations according to one’s mental state, which made the illusion more realistic. Chen Rui’s perception of this oasis was mostly based on Regia’s subjective feeling and introduction. Even the discovery of the Phantom Fountain was also an illusion generated by Regia’s mentality, thus affecting Chen Rui.
If one was trapped in the illusion for too long, even if the mirage did not devour him, the person’s soul and would be weakened step by step until he collapsed.
Regia was shocked, “Sir is saying that what I saw back then… and what I see now, is the illusion created by the mirage?”
“The only difference is that now the mirage is awake.” Chen Rui’s eyes see through the ‘Phantom Fountain’ that was constantly attacking the defensive shield in front of him like a sharp sword. The awakening was not necessarily ‘natural awakening’. It was probably related to the desert goddess that they encountered before.
“No wonder the Dreamy Oasis in the Black Prison Desert can move! It turns out that it sometimes wakes up! So, is the Dreamy Oasis real or…”
“No matter what, let’s get rid of this illusion first.” Chen Rui recalled what the Light Elemental King said. When Delkus and the Holy Church were in a cooperative relationship, and ‘desert goddess’ was recognized by the Holy Church, the Dreamy Oasis should be a real existence, even without the Phantom Ice Spring, there should be fire condensing crystal sand.
With that said, the defensive shield on Chen Rui’s side disappeared immediately, replaced by a black hole.
At this moment, the nearby things seemed to be torn apart as they twisted and flew toward the black hole. The ‘Phantom Fountain’ was the first to bear the brunt, then the small lake, the woods… everything was devoured by it.
The root of this kind of devour was the spirit power of the mirage. Things that had been devoured previously could continue to recover, then they finally began to fade and unable to recover.
Chen Rui put away the power of [Star Devouring] as his eyes fell in a certain direction in the distance. His hand turned into a knife shape and slashed in the air. The space was divided into 2 like it was an entity. At the same time, a beast grunted miserably.
The space that was slashed apart gradually returned normal, and there was a 5-meter-tall thing there. It was in the shape of a huge 2-lobed shell, emitting silver-gray light. The space inside was blurred, and only 2 blue dim lights flickered faintly like eyes.
An astonishing crack had appeared on the 2 huge silver-gray shells, and green juice was constantly leaking out. It was obviously because of the serious injury from the blow just now.
Race: Mirage
Comprehensive Strength Assessment: SSS+
Physique: SSS-, Strength: SSS, Spirit: SSS+, Speed: SSS-.
[Analysis]: Illusion power, spirit inducement, and space refraction.
Danger level: High.
When this thing appeared, the entire oasis completely disappeared, leaving only the barren desert.
The so-called oasis was just a dream.
TL: Another mirage? Can he enslave it and force it to find the Dreamy Oasis or it doesn’t exist at all?
Find out what happens next by getting early access to chapters with Patreon! Please do check out the community goal in our Patreon as well! Thanks for the support! Click here to access our Patreon page.