# Chapter 334: Fantasy Made Manifest, Every Trump Card Played

Red Maple City.

Si Chengxin was training in the Gravity Room when he sensed that terrifying aura. His eyes snapped open, his expression shifting dramatically.

He burst out of the room and rose into the sky. Alongside him floated numerous Battle King and Battle Sovereign-rank warriors of the Red Maple Empire.

Every one of them stared toward the distant source of the aura.

The distance was so vast that even Battle Sovereigns could barely make out what was happening there.

Beside Si Chengxin, one Battle Sovereign exclaimed in alarm:

"That direction... isn't that toward the Mist Forest?! What in the world is happening over there?"

Si Chengxin shook his head, his expression grave.

"No idea. But if the aura from the Mist Forest can reach all the way here—and with this kind of intensity—it's no ordinary event. At the very least, we're talking about a Battle Saint-level powerhouse. Possibly even a War God."

"A War God? There are War Gods in the Lower Layer of the Land of Origin?"

The Battle Kings and Battle Sovereigns nearby looked stunned, barely able to believe what they were hearing.

"Perhaps? What else could produce an aura this overwhelming?"

"Should we go investigate?"

Si Chengxin considered for a moment, then spoke.

"Notify the elders in the Upper Layer first. Let them decide."

The others nodded in agreement.

Meanwhile, in Youming City, the Cat-kin's Battle Kings, Battle Sovereigns, and even Battle Emperors were equally shaken by the anomaly emanating from the Mist Forest.

Everyone debated furiously, deciding to notify the Tianming Sage before making any moves.

Above the Mist Forest.

Lu Yuan stared at the sea of clouds formed from the dense fog, his expression deadly serious.

From within the cloud sea, the Mirage Dragon raised its massive head, its voice rumbling like rolling thunder.

"Not all Divine Grades are equal. Even if you temper a Divine Grade gene to perfection, without absorbing the knowledge of Law application contained within that gene, you would be nothing more than an ordinary War God. I have pushed my mastery of the Laws to the absolute limit—I can advance no further unless I achieve complete dominion over the Laws themselves. Come, then. Let me test your current strength, Inheritor of the Origin."

A spark of battle lust flickered in Lu Yuan's eyes. He smiled.

"In that case—let's do this."

This was the first time Lu Yuan had gone all-out since breaking through to this level.

Terrifying Spirit Power surged forth as he activated Shadow Divine Kingdom, expanding it outward.

When the darkness of Shadow Divine Kingdom collided with the thick fog of the cloud sea, a series of deafening booms erupted.

The two forces clashed and intertwined. Lu Yuan noticed that the cloud sea's mist stood immovable as a mountain, while his Shadow Divine Kingdom wavered and shook.

He had already tempered Shadow Divine Kingdom to perfection, and with his base attributes amplifying it further, the domain was extraordinarily powerful. Yet even so, it couldn't match this cloud sea. The Mirage Dragon's earlier words clearly hadn't been empty boasting.

It was formidable indeed.

Clock hands materialized in Lu Yuan's eyes, and within the darkness, a field of ethereal bronze sand grains appeared.

Sands of Time.

The Sands of Time reinforced Shadow Divine Kingdom, stabilizing the once-turbulent darkness.

Immense power surged as the two forces deadlocked, eroding each other, each standing firm within their own domain, facing off across the divide.

Golden-green light flashed in the Mirage Dragon's eyes. The next instant, its majestic voice rang out:

"Let there be light."

A devastating force of radiance erupted within Shadow Divine Kingdom. Under the onslaught of light, the shadow power weakened drastically.

Lu Yuan stiffened in surprise—but the clock hands in his eyes spun in reverse. The light receded, as though it had never appeared at all, and the entire domain plunged back into darkness.

The Mirage Dragon watched this with an amused expression.

"My power is the Law of Illusion. Anything I imagine can become reality. At my level, there is virtually nothing I cannot manifest."

Even as it spoke, golden-green light shimmered in its eyes. Terrifying Spatial Rifts suddenly tore open throughout Shadow Divine Kingdom, spatial storms raging as if to devour the entire domain.

The Mirage Dragon had manifested an entire field of Spatial Rifts.

Lu Yuan frowned and once again wielded the power of time, restoring the Spatial Rifts within his domain to their normal state.

He smiled.

"Within my Temporal Domain, as long as something doesn't exceed the limit, any anomaly can be reversed. Tricks like that won't work on me."

The Mirage Dragon said nothing. Golden-green orbs of light appeared around its body, five-colored rays swirling within each one.

One by one, the orbs transformed into streaks of light and shot toward Lu Yuan inside the Shadow Divine Kingdom.

Lu Yuan moved to defend himself—then his mind suddenly went blank.

The next instant, he found himself inside the villa in the Upper Layer of the Land of Origin. He was in bed, and beside him lay Li Qinghe, Si Tingxue, and several others.

The young women gazed at him with shy expressions, their eyes extending a silent, unmistakable invitation.

Lu Yuan froze for a heartbeat, then immediately unleashed a psychic storm, shattering the illusion.

*If it were really them, there's absolutely no way they'd be making faces like that.*

The moment he broke free, golden-green light flared and slammed directly into him.

**Boom! Boom! Boom!**

Explosions rocked Shadow Divine Kingdom. Space rippled, dark power churned, and even the Sands of Time flickered unstably.

A horrifying force poured into his body—so powerful that even his current physique strained to withstand it. Wounds tore open across his skin.

His expression changed drastically. He immediately activated Cosmic Body, channeling the devastating energy into the inner cosmos within him.

The golden-green light detonated inside the microcosm. Stars collapsed, galaxies shattered, and the entire inner cosmos trembled.

Fortunately, Lu Yuan's Cosmic Body had also been tempered to perfection. He managed—barely—to absorb the attack.

A trace of lingering fear crossed his eyes.

The Mirage Dragon's attacks were overwhelmingly powerful, and not just in raw force—they could disorient the mind as well. He had escaped the illusion as fast as humanly possible, yet he'd still been dazed for that one critical instant.

For beings at this level, a single instant was more than enough to change everything.

Green light shimmered around Lu Yuan's body as life energy mended his injuries.

Simultaneously, over a hundred Shadow Divine Messengers materialized within his domain. Lu Yuan's body flickered between their positions, swapping places constantly, making it nearly impossible for the Mirage Dragon to lock onto him.

At the same time, massive Spirit Cannons emerged within the Shadow Divine Kingdom. Under Mechanical Apotheosis, intricate patterns spread across their surfaces as a terrifying charge began to build.

The Wheel of Fate appeared in Lu Yuan's eyes.

He layered Fortune upon himself and directed Misfortune toward the Mirage Dragon.

But as expected, the moment the Misfortune aura drew close, the phantom afterimages surrounding the Mirage Dragon deflected it to some unknown destination. Those phantom remnants were like individual worlds unto themselves—bizarre realms conjured from the dragon's imagination.

While Lu Yuan pressed his assault, the Mirage Dragon naturally didn't sit idle.

The illusory worlds surrounding it opened their gates.

From one gate, a colossal skeleton over ten thousand meters tall stepped forth. It radiated dense death energy, as though everything in its path would be swallowed by oblivion.

Divine Grade.

Shock flickered across Lu Yuan's face.

From another gate, an enormous ice-blue bird soared into the sky, its cry echoing across the heavens. A terrifying frost mist billowed outward, carrying an overwhelmingly powerful aura.

Another Divine Grade.

Gate after gate opened. One after another, powerful Divine Grade beings emerged.

A humanoid figure wreathed entirely in flame. A massive serpent oozing corrosive energy. A giant striding atop ocean waves.

These Divine Grade powerhouses materialized in the sky, their combined might so immense it felt as though time itself had ground to a halt.

The Mirage Dragon laughed softly.

"These are worlds I've imagined over the endless ages. I can summon their mightiest inhabitants to this reality—to a certain extent—and have them fight on my behalf."

Lu Yuan swept his gaze over the Divine Grade beings and their overwhelming auras. The corner of his mouth twitched.

*Worthy of a veteran Divine Grade powerhouse. Eons spent refining its mastery over the Laws, and the result is truly terrifying.*

Fortunately, he didn't consider himself weak either.

Light gleamed in his eyes as Shadow Divine Messengers deployed in groups—several to a team, each squad engaging one of the Divine Grade beings that had emerged from the illusory worlds.

Though each Shadow Divine Messenger possessed only eighty percent of Lu Yuan's strength, at his current level, even eighty percent was enough to rival a War God.

Several working together could handle even one of those illusory Divine Grade beings.

Armies of War God-level combatants clashed across the domains of Lu Yuan and the Mirage Dragon. Devastating auras surged, and both domains rippled violently.

The staggering overflow of energy tore gashes through space itself. Below, vast swaths of the Mist Forest were shredded by the shockwaves, leaving behind horrifying trenches and craters.

In distant cities, warriors who sensed the ever-growing cascade of powerful auras felt chills crawl up their spines, their minds going blank.

They couldn't begin to fathom why such an absurd battle was taking place in the Lower Layer of the Land of Origin.

Forget the Lower Layer—even in the Upper Layer, a battle of this scale would be extraordinarily rare.

While the Shadow Divine Messengers battled the phantom War Gods, Lu Yuan continued charging the mechanical Spirit Cannons. Simultaneously, he struck at the Mirage Dragon with the Scythe of Death, harassing it constantly to ensure the Spirit Cannons could complete their charge.

With their destructive power, a clean hit from the Spirit Cannons would hurt even the Mirage Dragon.

The Mirage Dragon retaliated with volleys of golden-green energy blasts, but Lu Yuan deflected every one through Spatial Rift, redirecting them back toward the dragon or harmlessly into empty space.

Lu Yuan's use of so many Combat Techniques burned through his reserves at a staggering rate, but with his enormous stockpile of Spirit Crystals, he didn't need to worry about running low on Spirit Power.

The Mirage Dragon's consumption was equally massive, yet it showed no signs of strain whatsoever.

Clearly, the endless ages had given the dragon vast Spirit Power reserves. Then again, it was equally possible that the Mirage Dragon had simply imagined itself having inexhaustible Spirit Power—and made that fantasy real.

Honestly, Lu Yuan could achieve something similar. By leveraging the power of time, he could keep his own Spirit Power perpetually at peak capacity.

Moments later, enormous bronze Spirit Power shells materialized at the muzzles of all five mechanical Spirit Cannons.

Charging complete.

A smile tugged at Lu Yuan's lips. With a thought, he commanded the Spirit Cannons to fire on the Mirage Dragon.

Then every single cannon swiveled around and aimed directly at him.

**BOOM!!**

All five Spirit Cannons opened fire—on Lu Yuan.

*What?!*

Ice shot down his spine. He frantically activated Spatial Rift, trying to redirect the blasts.

But the Spirit Cannons' power was too great—even Spatial Rift couldn't deflect them.

With no time to think, Lu Yuan froze time around him for a split second and vanished from the spot.

The instant after he disappeared, the Spirit Cannon blasts shattered through the frozen time and tore through the space where he'd been standing.

The devastating energy streaked onward, ripping through Shadow Divine Kingdom and vanishing beyond the horizon.

A trace of lingering dread still showed in Lu Yuan's eyes.

He'd come within a hair's breadth of being struck by his own Spirit Cannons.

Five Spirit Cannons firing simultaneously—even with his extraordinarily powerful defenses, a direct hit would have killed him on the spot.

He stared incredulously toward the Spirit Cannons, utterly blindsided. They had attacked *him*?

*How is that possible?*

Noticing Lu Yuan's confusion, the Mirage Dragon chuckled.

"My illusions don't only work on living things. I can trap inanimate objects in phantasms as well. Take your Spirit Cannons—they received the command to attack me, yes. But in their perception, your current position *is* my position. Why do you think I let you charge them uninterrupted? If I'd wanted to disrupt the process, I had ways."

A chill ran through Lu Yuan as the explanation sank in.

*It can do that too?!*

After a moment's thought, he dismissed the Spirit Cannons entirely.

He could evade the Mirage Dragon's illusions by constantly swapping positions with Shadow Divine Messengers, or even by using death energy to destroy the phantasms. But there was no way to protect inanimate Spirit Cannons from the same trick.

Better to take them off the field.

The battle between Lu Yuan and the Mirage Dragon raged on.

Lu Yuan reached into the river of time and pulled. A figure identical to him in every way emerged.

His Temporal Projection.

He reached in again—and again—pulling out three more.

Four Lu Yuans simultaneously launched their assault on the Mirage Dragon.

It wasn't that he didn't want more Temporal Projections. His Spirit Power reserves simply couldn't sustain it. Between his own full arsenal of Combat Techniques and supplying three Temporal Projections with enough energy to fight, he was already at his limit.

Any more would lack the power to be effective—liabilities rather than assets.

As Lu Yuan summoned his Temporal Projections, the Mirage Dragon simply smiled. Three additional Mirage Dragons appeared at its side, identical to the original.

Lu Yuan's mouth twitched.

*Of course. If the Mirage Dragon can turn illusions into reality, then imagining copies of itself would work just as well.*

And just like that, even Lu Yuan's final trump card—the Temporal Projections—failed to tip the scales.

The battle ground to a stalemate.