His hands trembled.
He felt a disociación from reality. No matter how real his surroundings were, he felt a disconcerting sense of distrust.
He shakily stood up and swiped away the Dimensional Leaderboard. He walked slowly, arriving in front of the nearest wall.
His hands brushed its surface. Despite its smooth appearance, it was coarse to the touch. It seemed to be made out of some unknown mineral.
Bang!
A single punch from Damien shattered the wall. His blood sprayed in the air as his fist shattered.
The pain wracked his body, and Transcendent Regeneration quickly did its job to heal him. However, that sense of distrust didn't go away.
"Let me out." He said. His body moved following his words, and in the next moment, he found himself back in the depths of the ocean.
The water's immense weight pressed down on his body. The cool, damp feeling on his skin as it coated him made him feel alive.
Sensation.
He didn't feel that in the Challenge Gate, despite the nature of the illusion.
It wasn't a coincidence. In fact, it was the reason he survived.
The moment he entered the Challenge Gate, he utilized the Void Heart Sword Law's Mind Prison to seal away a majority of his ego.
His body moved on instinct and rationality. His every move was calculated. Even when he tore the universe apart, he felt nothing.
Just the fact that he could feel sensation again meant the Mind Prison deactivated. If it did so, it meant he was out of danger.
He was truly in reality.
His body shuddered. The fact that he was still subconsciously unable to accept this truth just went to show the realism of those illusions.
"Hey, finally finished?"
A voice suddenly interrupted his thoughts. When Damien turned around, he saw Leona standing behind him.
"Mm, I just got out." He replied somewhat blandly.
Leona furrowed her brows. Damien's state wasn't natural. "Let's go back to the sect first. We can talk later."
Damien nodded again and slowly followed her. The two flew silently until they arrived back at Seeking Lotus Palace's pocket dimension.
While both of them could teleport, Leona understood that Damien needed time right now. Something must've happened in the Challenge Gate.
'That's strange…the other disciples who entered the gate didn't seem affected at all…what difficulty did the gate assign him?'
Leona's eyes narrowed. Challenge Gates would always give an individual a trial apt for their strength and potential. If Damien's trial was truly something that could faze him to this extent when he could even stare death in the eye calmly…
Then it only meant that both his strength and potential were heaven and earth compared to the standard.
While Leona attempted to rationalize her thoughts, Damien had already retreated to a secluded area he discovered after spreading his awareness.
This place was hidden between the various facilities of the sect, so it went largely unnoticed. Even now, it was completely empty.
But it was a truly beautiful place.
The scenery was simple. A single cherry blossom tree stood proudly in the center. Surrounding it was a bed of beautiful flowers that matched its colors. As the wind blew, the scent of cherry blossoms spread and calmed the mind. The soft trickling of water from a nearby stream only served to heighten the ambiance.
Damien sat down under the cherry blossom tree and closed his eyes. He needed time to process what had happened.
Compared to before he regained his ego, the events after were incredibly short. However, they were far more terrifying.
A perfectly replicated reality. From the people to the environment to even the foundational laws of the world and universe, they were all too accurate.
This wasn't information that a mere Dimensional Leaderboard should possess. In Damien's opinion, even a God didn't have the qualifications for this level of omnipotence.
He was forced to doubt reality itself. If it could be done once, who said it couldn't be done again?
Perhaps he was still on earth, comatose after the dungeon raid where he fell. Perhaps everything he saw now was an illusion of the mind. Or perhaps, someone put him under this illusion after learning of the Void Physique's existence.
To doubt reality itself wasn't rational. Even if Damien doubted it, he wasn't at a level where he could do anything about it.
The only straw he could grasp onto was the Void.
The Void cannot be imitated; these were the words he unconsciously spoke while destroying the universe.
As Damien looked at the pitch-black mana on his fingertips, he sighed.
Right, it was pointless to worry.
Even if this reality was fake, his experiences weren't. He at least knew that mana had to be real for his doubts to hold truth.
If mana existed, then the World Awakening truly happened. In that case, even if he was truly held captive and forced into this illusion, he'd be able to gain strength with time.
His comprehension couldn't be faked. His abilities couldn't be faked. These were things he earned with hard work and effort. Even if he lost them, he'd simply work hard enough to get them back.
Damien's closed eyes opened. Night had turned to day while he was drowned in his thoughts. At some point, Zara had emerged from his shadow as well.
Currently, Damien's head was shoved in her bosom as she held him. Realizing this, Damien smiled wryly.
'That Tang Lingzi…what is she teaching you?'
He carefully extracted himself from her grip, even utilizing space to do so without creating a disturbance. Seeing Zara sleep so peacefully, he couldn't bear to wake her up.
'Phew…enough contemplating bullshit. I'm tired of overthinking.'
He teleported through the Seeking Lotus Palace's grounds until he arrived at Leona's residence. Before he could even knock, she opened the door.
"Come in. I've been waiting to talk to you."
Damien nodded and entered. The following conversation…almost exactly followed the flow of the conversation he had with her in the illusion.
After some discussion about the Challenge Gate and what happened inside, she allowed him to view the sect's techniques.
And just as he'd seen before, the Ethereal Seeking Lotus was truly an evolutionary technique. It was the exact same.
Damien once again shuddered at the realism of that illusion. At the same time, however, he felt relieved that a good amount of his time was saved because of it.
He didn't have to think about his decision anymore since he'd already made it long ago when he first saw the Seeking Lotus Palace's techniques.
With this in mind, he returned to Leona and told her the good news. After he spoke to Jiao Mei and got her opinion, he'd bring her to visit the sect so she could make an informed decision.
But until then…
Leona had another matter to discuss with Damien.
"So…as you know, I follow the sect's traditions without fail to disguise my identity as this world's Star Master. Now that I've continued this facade for so long, if I fail to do so even once, people will question it." She said hesitantly.
Damien tilted his head in confusion. "Okay, and?"
"And…" Leona continued. "I think we have to get married."
