On the dark mottled bridge, Li Luo's face turned gloomy. He stared at the old lady who had remained unfazed after receiving the brunt of his Duke Art, the Underworld River's Black Dragon Banner.
Lu Ming and the group were simply terrified at this result.
"Is that an Other?" Lu Ming asked.
Li Luo shook his head and replied, "It doesn't give off the feel of an Other. Rather, it feels like she doesn't really exist."
He began to ponder over the current situation for a moment. Suddenly, he took the initiative to walk up and gradually approached the old lady. Lu Ming and the rest could only grit their teeth and reluctantly tail him.
"Do you want to get out of here, children?" the old lady asked once more with a grin.
Li Luo looked back at her. His eyes lit up and he nodded. "Yes we do," he replied.
As soon as the old lady heard this, her gaze changed and her wrinkled face appeared lively. She then reached into her sleeve and pulled out four bowls of dark tea with trembling hands and placed them in front of her.
"Four bowls of tea. Three of them contain a curse and one of them will dispel the ward. If you drink one bowl each, you can all get out," the old lady said with a cackle.
"Who would dare to drink this strange liquid?!" Lu Ming scolded back angrily. Lightning sparks appeared on her palm, and she fired straight at the old lady.
When the lightning bolt hit her face, it slid off like slippery mud. However, a few moments later, the old lady recovered and simply stared back at the four of them with a grin.
Li Luo frowned. "This seems to be some kind of illusionary ward that requires us to follow specific rules. Since we cannot break out forcefully, we have to follow the rules that have been set here."
"Are we really going to drink this?" Sun Dasheng cried out.
"Let's ignore her. Shall we keep walking on and see?" Jing Taixu suggested.
Li Luo nodded. That was a feasible idea as well, so the four of them ignored the old lady. They walked around her and continued down the bridge.
After dozens of minutes, they came to a stop again. Their faces turned ugly when they realized who was before them. The strange old lady had appeared yet again.
The old lady grinned and looked back at them. "Do you want to get out, children?"
The eerie voice sent chills up their spines.
Lu Ming sighed dejectedly. "It's not working. It's impossible to get out."
"d.a.m.n it, go to h.e.l.l!"
Sun Dasheng took out his iron rod and swung it at the old lady. However, it was just a waste of strength. As he was panting from the exertion, the old lady reappeared in front of them, intact as usual.
Jing Taixu had been quiet. He stared at the four bowls of black tea in front of the old lady. "If there's really no choice, shall we try following the rules?"
"Three out of the four bowls contain a curse. The probability is too high," Lu Ming responded.
"But we have no other choice. We can't be trapped in this illusionary realm forever. I have a feeling that if we hang around too long, there will be even greater danger," Jing Taixu said in a serious tone.
Li Luo frowned. This illusion realm was likely a creation of the All-Beings Devil King. How could they dare to underestimate it? It was hard to tell what would happen if they continued to linger around. It was likely that their situation would become even more perilous.
Their priority right now was to get out of this illusionary realm.
"There is no other choice. We'll have to do it since the rules have been set. It's unlikely our situation will resolve itself if we continue to wait. When we get out, we can find our comrades and seek help," Li Luo said slowly.
After that, he reached out and took a bowl.
Lu Ming stopped him immediately. She stared at Li Luo and said seriously, "If we have to drink them, you should be the last one. You are the strongest out of all of us. If something happens, you will be able to protect us. Besides, I trust you will think of a way to help us afterwards."
Li Luo remained silent.
Sun Dasheng nodded in agreement. He then added on with a smile, "That makes sense. Li Luo, if you end up cursed, we will lose our only backer here."
Jing Taixu did not say anything. He simply reached out for the rightmost bowl. He hesitated for a moment before he gritted his teeth and swallowed the contents in one gulp.
The tea entered his body. Soon, Jing Taixu could see black marks that looked like worms wriggling on his palm. The marks rapidly spread across his whole body.
"This bowl contains a curse," he told them through gritted teeth.
Seeing this, Sun Dasheng reached out for a bowl of black tea and drank it too.
Very soon, black marks popped up all over his skin. It was an extremely horrifying sight.
Clearly, this bowl was similarly cursed.
"d.a.m.n it. How unlucky," Sun Dasheng said angrily.
Seeing how the other two had fallen for it, Lu Ming smiled and said, "Guess it's a fifty percent chance for me. If I get the right bowl, we can dispel the ward. Pretty girls sure are lucky."
When she finished talking, she reached out for a bowl of black tea.
Just as she was about to drink it, Li Luo stopped her in a hurry. He frowned and said, "The risk is too great. Shall we try something else?"
Jing Taixu and Sun Dasheng had both been afflicted with the curse just like that. Something didn't feel right. Could the solution really just be as simple as drinking all four bowls of tea?
Lu Ming stared back at Li Luo. She replied solemnly, "I do know that there is a risk to this. However, we'll have to try our best to break out now that we're trapped here. I also know it's dangerous to drink these unknown liquids, but we have no other choice. We have to try it to give you the best chance of success. Li Luo, our hopes rest on you."
Lu Ming gave him a beautiful smile. She did not hesitate any further and gulped down the whole bowl.
Afterwards, she frantically checked her slender, white arms. There were no signs of any black marks, so she heaved a sigh of relief and said happily, "I picked the right bowl, didn't I?"
However, she sensed that there was something wrong with the way the other three were looking back at her. Their eyes were fixed on her face, and her heart skipped a beat.
"What happened?" Lu Ming asked worriedly.
Li Luo kept quiet for a moment before water resonant power rose up from his palm and transformed into a mirror. Lu Ming looked at the reflection. Black marks had appeared all over her originally cute face, and it was a truly horrifying sight.
Clearly, she had gotten cursed too.
Lu Ming was completely taken aback, but she did not scream out. She sighed as she waved the mirror out of the way. "Since the three of us have been cursed, is the last bowl the right one?"
Li Luo reached out for the last bowl and stared at the pitch black tea.
Jing Taixu was looking a little gloomy. "All three bowls were cursed. Isn't this a little too unlucky? Or maybe all four of them were cursed from the start? Is its goal just to make all of us drink it and be cursed?"
"d.a.m.n it! Is this thing tricking us?" Sun Dasheng was furious. He took his rod out as if he wanted to start a fight.
Li Luo looked at it solemnly. Although drinking the liquid was risky, there was no reason for him to back down now that Lu Ming and the rest had sacrificed themselves already.
He raised the bowl and slowly moved it towards his mouth.
The wrinkled face of the strange old lady was reflected in his eyes. Just as the tea was about to touch Li Luo's lips, he suddenly paused.
An idea flashed across his mind.
Li Luo stared at the old lady and said slowly, "You mentioned just now that everyone has to drink one bowl each?"
The old lady smiled back gently. "One bowl each indeed."
Li Luo pondered for a while. "So are you counted as well?"
Lu Ming and the others were stunned when they heard this. What did Li Luo mean?
Li Luo slowly moved the bowl of black tea over to the old lady's mouth. He whispered to himself, "It does not matter whether this bowl contains a curse or dispels the ward. If you're the one that drinks it, we'll minimize our risk, right? If drinking what's in this bowl dispels the ward and you drink it, the ward will naturally be dispelled. If it contains a curse, will it be strong enough to get rid of you too? And if we destroy you, will it be considered as dispelling the illusionary realm?
"In conclusion, the last bowl... should be for you. Right?"
The old lady continued to grin at him, though she did not pull away.
Lu Ming and the rest finally understood. They exclaimed in surprise, "You can do that?!"
None of them had considered the old lady in front of them as one of the people to drink the black tea.
"We'll know after giving it a try," Li Luo said. He poured the tea into the old lady's dark mouth directly. The old lady did not dodge it and let him do whatever he wanted.
In the blink of an eye, all the tea was poured in. The four of them stared at the old lady nervously.
The old woman smiled back at them gently. However, this only lasted for a while before she slowly turned vicious and her body began to dissolve.
After a few moments, the old lady had completely melted. She turned into black smoke and disappeared into thin air.
"She was destroyed like that?!" Lu Ming and the group were astonished by this.
At the next moment, the surrounding world s.p.a.ce began to twist. The mottled black bridge below them disappeared, replaced with street with dark water flowing beside it.
It seemed like they had entered the Black Swamp City without even realizing it.
"Has the illusionary realm been dispelled?" The three looked at each other with eyes full of excitement.