Taking control of someone’s mind by force is a very complicated act, but once accomplished, the attacker can even send the victim on a killing spree, without the victim ever being able to realize the consequences of his actions.
At the present state that Bi Fan’s mind was in, all he wanted to do was to kill everyone that was in front of him.
Bi Fan was constantly chopping and slashing, but Zhu San and the others, simply wouldn’t disappear; on the contrary, they were only becoming more and more real, and their voices were only growing louder and louder.
Only one thread of reason was still functional in Bi Fan’s mind, which was constantly telling him: “Kill them all, and things will get better, it’s all just an illusion…”
This last thread of thought in mind was fueling him to kill everything in sight, and by doing so, his restless heart would finally be able to find some peace.
But those Devils weren’t going to let go of him that easily, and the illusions were becoming more and more realistic by the pa.s.sing second, and their effect too, was becoming more and more terrifying. They kept aligning their illusions with the tragedies that Bi Fan had suffered in the past, which was making thing seven worse for him.
Since Bi Fan was being made to experience all those tragedies again, all at once, his mind, naturally, couldn’t stay calm.
The Yin Yang Lotus, which lurked inside Bi Fan’s body, concealed from the outside world, began to realize that Bi Fan was about to lose his mind, and so, it finally started to show signs of activity.
Radiant threads, black and white in color, started to emerge from within the Lotus; the White threads started to enclose Bi Fan’s mind, soul, and spirit from the attacks.
While the shining black ones, flew out of his body, and began devouring the Devils that surrounded him.
The Black threads, as it turned out, were a bane for the Devils, and even though the Devils tried to resist it, the black threads started to swallow them whole, regardless of their efforts.
Once the Black threads had swallowed the ones that lurked around Bi Fan, they started to expand, rapidly, so they could take in the others in the vicinity as well. The Devils tried to make a run for it, but the black threads didn’t give them any room to escape, so much so, that even the great Devils fell prey to the threads.
The Black threads continued to grow and expand, until they had cleared the area of the Devils, and then quickly retreated back into Bi Fan’s body, and then back into the Yin Yang Lotus they came out of.
Since all the Devils had been eliminated, naturally, the illusion disappeared.
Wan Zhong, Blue Dragon, Lone Leaf, and Bi Fan, all, snapped out of the illusions, soaking wet with fear and sweat, while their faces were pale with the terrors that they had just been subjected to.
w.a.n.g Zhong, relatively, was still able to cope up with the effect of illusions, as he had dealt with the Devils before.
Lone Leaf had entered the Devil’s Abyss several times in the past, which is why he was already prepared to face something like this, and hence, was somehow coping up with it, to some extent.
Bi Fan and Blue Dragon, were both in a miserable condition, as both of them had suffered a lot of adversities in their respective pasts, which is exactly what a Devils uses against its foe.
If the Yin Yang Lotus hadn’t come to their aid, then Bi Fan would have surely lost his mind, and would have probably slaughtered everyone, believing them to be Zhu San, and the others boys at the orchard.
However, since the White threads from the Yin Yang Lotus had protected Bi Fan from the attacks, towards the end, he was still in a better shape than Blue Dragon.
Blue Dragon, like Bi Fan, was almost on the verge of being possessed by the Devils by the time the Black threads came to their aid.
If the Black threads had delayed their actions, even by a moment, then the effect of the Devils’ attack on Blue Dragon would have crossed his resistance’s threshold, and he would have fallen prey to them.
Their group had grossly underestimated the Devils, and learnt one h.e.l.l of a lesson from their mistake.
w.a.n.g Zhong started to wonder: “How did all those Devils disappear all of a sudden?”
“If those devils hadn’t disappeared, then I would have definitely died.” Blue Dragon exhaled, his eyes were still reflecting trepidation of the trauma that he had just suffered.
Lone Leaf added: “I had almost given up…”
“That was a bit messy, but I managed to get a great harvest from it, I will soon be able to breakthrough to the next layer. So, I’m going to start meditating now, please watch my back.” Bi Fan was really excited.
He really needed to meditate and practice; moreover, he desperately needed to change the subject, otherwise, w.a.n.g Zhong and the others, would definitely not rest until they got to the bottom of things.
Bi Fan had been lingering around the peak of the ‘brave’ layer for a while now, but the ‘spiritual intelligence’ layer bottleneck was a tough one to breakthrough to; it was a gigantic gap, and one that Bi Fan had been stuck at, for a long time now.
At present, the Devils had tormented him to a great extent, but they had also given him enough experience to, hopefully, breakthrough to the next layer.
Bi Fan sat down on the floor, and started to practice and meditate.
Since w.a.n.g Zhong and the Chimera were present at the scene, Bi Fan was quite confident that neither Blue Dragon, nor Lone Leaf would attempt to harm him.
Since, they were inside the Devil’s Abyss, there would be other threats as well, in the form of both, humans and beasts, but Bi Fan didn’t have the time to think about so many things right now.
This was a rare opportunity; so naturally, Bi Fan didn’t want to miss his train.
This was the perfect time to make the breakthrough, as Bi Fan had been able to acc.u.mulate enough energy for it; but still, his psychological condition wasn’t very stable at the moment.
Bi Fan clamed himself down first, and then he started to approach the bottleneck. He quickly surpa.s.sed the barrier, and broke into the ‘spiritual intelligence’ layer.
Once he was done with his primary task, Bi Fan still didn’t end his practice, as the energy levels inside his body were still soaring like tsunami waves.
His inner energy exploded to nine Yun Shi before it began to stabilize; not only that, his physical strength too, rose, and had reached almost ten Yun Shi by now.
At present, Bi Fan was already as strong as an ‘emerging from the Womb’ layer pract.i.tioner; the only difference was the rating in terms of inner energy levels.
Blue Dragon and the others, had been staring at Bi Fan, completely shocked to see the sudden, and explosive, rise in his strength.
Most people take a long time to stabilize their energy in order to prepare for a breakthrough, a feat that Bi Fan had been able to achieve in no time at all, and on top of that, had already managed to stabilize it as well.
“Brother Bi Fan, you’ve become so strong now! This is simply amazing!” w.a.n.g Zhong murmured out of surprise.
Blue Dragon was equally surprised: “Brother Bi Fan, how are you doing this? Amazing!…..”
“Bi Fan, Brother, you’re a true genius, I don’t know many people, even in the Jui Yu Da Sect (Da means ancient, or majority) who have the capability to match up to your talent!” Lone Leaf was extremely impressed with Bi Fan.
It was a while before Bi Fan finished his practice. As he got up, he could feel his new strength vibrating throughout his body; he looked up towards the sky, and roared.
“Brother Bi Fan, congratulations on your achievement!” Lone Leaf praised.
Blue Dragon expressed his happiness as well, in his own way: “Bi Fan, keep doing what you’re doing, because I’ll never stop competing with you, and your progress will drive me to strive harder.”
“You are most welcome Brothers!” Bi Fan smiled.
Compet.i.tion always finds a way to sow the seeds for motivation. And Bi Fan relished this friendly rivalry with his friends.
w.a.n.g Zhong spoke up: “Brother Bi Fan, at your present level, you have surpa.s.sed me; I have no doubts of that anymore. And now, I will follow you with all my heart.”
“You really will?” Bi Fan asked, as a smile creased his face.
“I will serve you, watch your back, and follow you into the future.” w.a.n.g Zhong smiled back.
“Woah, that’s really excellent!” Bi Fan was really pleased.
Bi Fan was clear on the fact, that w.a.n.g Zhong only followed him because he didn’t have any other option, after all, he was bound by a Blood Oath; but he had never done so willingly.
But now, w.a.n.g Zhong had finally surrender himself to Bi Fan, and had finally accepted his leadership, which meant, that now, he would willingly follow Bi Fan.
This was an excellent thing as far as Bi Fan was concerned; so naturally, he was extremely happy about it.
Bi Fan’s strength had seen an exponential rise, which meant that their future inside the Devil’s Abyss, was even more secure than it was before, so obviously, everyone was in a very cheerful mood.
“If we encounter another group of Devils, I will try harder; if I too am able to gain the experience that you have, then, I too shall be able to make the breakthrough to the next layer.” Blue Dragon was somewhat lamenting on missing out on this opportunity.
w.a.n.g Zhong laughed: “The chances of you b.u.mping into a flock of Devils inside the first layer are very rare. But once you’re a little stronger, you can always go to the second layer. Devils literally flutter like the breeze over there; there are so many of them, that they practically give you a headache.”
“Someday, I will go there. After today’s experience, I know how to deal with them better.” Blue Dragon replied.
“I hope that I can accompany you in the future as well, it’s better to go with you guys than alone. My seniors sometimes don’t take me with them.” Lone Leaf’s face reflected a hint of a profound longing.
Bi Fan smiled: “Let’s hope for that. But for now, let’s quickly restore our energies, so we can continue to venture further, and maybe we will find ourselves another flock of Devils. Or, who knows, we might just b.u.mp into the Layer’s King as well.”
“That’s right. Let’s get moving as quickly as possible.” Blue Dragon was really excited.
After seeing Bi Fan break his way through the bottle neck, Blue Dragon was genuinely very happy for his friend, but still, a hint of sadness lurked inside his heart.
Both of them were considerably strong and roughly the same age; but now, Bi Fan had just stepped ahead of him in every respect.
Blue Dragon was a very compet.i.tive person, and wouldn’t easily reconcile to lag behind anyone.