At this moment, time seemed to stand still.
Lu Yang stood quietly in place. To his left was the Old Dragon Lord, in front was [Perfected Lord Gangxing Budao], and behind him was [Sky-Shrouding]. He was truly attacked from front and rear.
Almost simultaneously, countless barriers of confusion were shattered.
Things that had been hidden, key points that Lu Yang had subconsciously ignored despite being extremely obvious, all revived at this moment, transforming into a torrent of thoughts.
However, it came at a very inopportune time.
Because right now was a matter of life and death. Sudden enlightenment at this moment was not only too late, but it would even interfere with his life-and-death decisions!
Yet Lu Yang couldn't suppress it.
It was like a sudden burst of a dam. With the thoughts losing the cover of the barriers, they poured out in the end. It was an irreversible process in itself.
The scheme was too good.
At this moment, even as the one being schemed against, Lu Yang couldn't help but sigh in admiration in a low voice—because this wasn't a setup arranged on the fly.
From the very beginning, [Sky-Shrouding] had been laying this trap!
Because there was one problem I never paid attention to, and similar thoughts never even lingered in my mind.
That was the state of [Overturned Lamp Flame]!
Yes, [Overturned Lamp Flame] had indeed been encroached upon by him, but what happened after that encroachment? Did the Dao Fruit collapse, or was it simply that the Dao Fruit profound wonder was gone?
From beginning to end, I never thought about this problem.
Or rather, I assumed by default from the start that the Dao Fruit was already destroyed and gone... That's why I thought there was no fundamental conflict with [Sky-Shrouding].
After all, if the Dao Fruit was gone and the wood had already been made into a boat, what else could [Sky-Shrouding] do?
But was that really the case?
Now Lu Yang had the answer: The Dao Fruit of [Overturned Lamp Flame] is still there! Only the profound wonder and conceptual imagery were encroached upon by me; the Dao Fruit itself did not disappear!
In other words—
If I am killed, or if I am stuffed into the now empty [Overturned Lamp Flame], nine out of ten there is a way to make [Overturned Lamp Flame] revive!
And if [Overturned Lamp Flame] revived, what would happen?
[White Wax Gold]... Perfected One Warding-Evil of the Sword Pavilion failed in seeking the Golden Core. Mu Changsheng turned to attain [Wú Yǒu Heaven], so [Eternal Flowing Water] also remains vacant.
The two dao paths of the Pure Land also have no one to attain them.
Under these circumstances, once [Overturned Lamp Flame] revives, and with Hong Yun gone, [Sky-Shrouding] can completely reverse the [Chen Earth] again and return to being a Great Perfected Lord!
Just this single gap in intelligence directly determined Lu Yang's judgment of [Sky-Shrouding]'s stance—there was never any possibility of the two joining forces. Instead, it was absolute irreconcilable enmity! The previous cooperations and falling-outs were merely means used to interfere with his judgment all along!
This damn Knowledge-Perception Barrier again...
Lu Yang sighed in his heart, recalling a doubt that had involuntarily arisen when he saw the Old Dragon Lord being influenced by [Sky-Shrouding]'s [Knowledge-Perception Barrier] earlier—
If I didn't control the profound wonder of [Overturned Lamp Flame] which is highly targeted defenses, could [Sky-Shrouding] also easily influence my judgment of events?
Facts proved he was still too optimistic.
Even with the profound wonder of [Overturned Lamp Flame], [Sky-Shrouding] could still influence his judgment of events! Perhaps not much, but there was an influence after all!
And [Sky-Shrouding] didn't need to hide too much.
One sentence, one thought, one simple piece of intelligence could reverse a person's entire judgment. This was inherently a method of using a weak force to move a strong force!
And it didn't stop there—
Why did [Perfected Lord Gangxing Budao] and the Old Dragon Lord also attack me?
The reason should lie in the action of pretending to be Gangxing, which [Sky-Shrouding] actively proposed. No wonder I felt something was wrong at the time but didn't think deeply about it.
A steady stream of thoughts and enlightenment crowded Lu Yang's mind.
In that meeting, [Sky-Shrouding] deliberately let the Old Dragon Lord discover a flaw. But the flaw wasn't in the [Knowledge-Perception Barrier], because I was also there at the time.
If there were a flaw in the [Knowledge-Perception Barrier], it was impossible for him not to notice.
The real flaw wasn't in the profound wonder, but in the simplest words—[Sky-Shrouding] actively suggested letting the Old Dragon Lord target Feixue!
This wasn't a reasonable option. Perfected Lord Feixue? She is at the Middle Stage of Golden Core with an unfallen Grotto-Heaven. Even if targeted, what use would it be? As long as she can escape [Nourishing Life Master] and receive the guidance of the Netherworld, resurrection is but a thought. Compared to her, I am the one easier to kill!
After all, I am an Ancient Method Golden Core cultivator.
Although my health bar is thick and I'm not easy to kill, once I die, I'm truly dead. Under the circumstance of having absolute superiority in power, no matter how one thinks, they should kill me!
With [Perfected Lord Gangxing Budao]'s cultivation, knowing that I cultivate the Dharma Body Dao, proposing this request itself was a huge flaw.
I also realized something was wrong at the time.
But the result was still being muddled through by [Sky-Shrouding]... Damn it, how many [Knowledge-Perception Barriers] did that old ghost put on me back then? I actually didn't notice at all!
From this point, it could also be seen that [Sky-Shrouding] had actually been hiding his clumsiness since their very first meeting. He hadn't pushed the [Knowledge-Perception Barrier] to the extreme, and even his killing intent was hidden very well. Only at the last moment did he use the pretense of ambushing [Perfected Lord Gangxing Budao] to design this setup!
He didn't care about [Nourishing Life Master] at all!
Thinking about it now, it's ridiculous that I didn't notice this... Right, [Nourishing Life Master] is actually useless to [Sky-Shrouding]!
Void attainment? [Sky-Shrouding] eighty percent likely has it.
Supreme Dao Fruit books? He has played with [Great Forest Wood] for tens of thousands of years; it has long since taken his shape inside and out. Why would he need such things?
And somehow, I never thought of this
Why didn't he think of it?
Very simple. Because [Sky-Shrouding] showed interest in the [Heavenly Being's Remnant Consciousness] from the very beginning, and the cooperation between the two sides started from this point.
On this basis, just a tiny bit of [Knowledge-Perception Barrier] could deceive him with half the effort.
The same method was also used on the Old Dragon Lord and [Perfected Lord Gangxing Budao].
The Old Dragon Lord... is also treacherous. He remained calm after discovering the flaw at that time. Afterwards, he probably went to contact the real [Perfected Lord Gangxing Budao].
The Old Dragon Lord actively contacting Gangxing... I also failed to consider this afterwards.
And after the Old Dragon Lord contacted the real [Perfected Lord Gangxing Budao], it was only natural to reformulate the plan and place the target on me.
Using weak force to move a strong force, laying down a killing trap right in front of his face!
This was the true [Knowledge-Perception Barrier]!
Not just the extreme application of profound wonder, but also the control of human hearts. The so-called [Knowledge-Perception Barrier] was both a Dao Fruit profound wonder and [Sky-Shrouding]'s style pf conduct!
Thinking of this, Lu Yang had a bit of a headache.
I have had too much contact with [Sky-Shrouding]!
This level of [Knowledge-Perception Barrier] probably wasn't achieved overnight, but was the effect achieved after the two stayed together for a long time!
No wonder that evil old ghost has no Fellow Daoists.
Those who were Fellow Daoists with him back then were probably all implanted with a massive amount of [Knowledge-Perception Barriers] by him in the dark. All of them were his potential targets for betrayal!
Lu Yang finally sorted out his train of thought.
This time wasn't long, not even an instant. But in this instant, his situation was already several times more dangerous than at the beginning.
In front, [Perfected Lord Gangxing Budao]'s sword light had already touched the center of his brow.
To the left, the Old Dragon Lord's technique had already laid upon his arm.
Behind him, [Sky-Shrouding]'s palm had already gouged into his skin, penetrating the flesh. It was only a little bit away from having another heart-to-heart exchange with him.
This clearly exceeded the damage-bearing capacity of the [Future Life Aspect].
A dead end!
A desperate situation!