Everything was in complete chaos. The parrot and the meat jelly shrieked and tried to flee at top speed. As soon as they attempted to make their escape, the land in the area distorted and returned to how it looked before. There was no fissure in the ground, no hole, no Immortal’s cave, not even any fearsome restrictive spells.
There had never been an Immortal’s cave in the area, only a valley. Everything had been an illusion, a very realistic illusion.
The source of the entire illusion was the black feather that the parrot gripped in its talons. The feather gave off a bizarre, flickering glow, a power that would influence the area around it and create illusions.
Meng Hao watched as the parrot and meat jelly attempted to flee. He made no move to pursue them, but instead stood there and coldly said. “I’ll give you three breaths of time to get back here. Whoever returns first will be exempt from punishment. The other will receive double punishment for abandoning me in my moment of crisis that year.”
As soon as his voice rang out, the meat jelly and the parrot came to a stop in midair.
“Dammit,” thought the parrot, “that meat jelly has a completely one-track mind. That idiot will definitely be fooled by this. That means that the safest thing is for Lord Fifth to be fooled first!” Immediately, he turned around and shot toward Meng Hao as fast as he could.
The meat jelly trembled.
“That parrot is completely crafty. He was the cause of all of this! He was the one who incited me to flee in the first place. There’s no way I’ll take his punishment for him!” Almost in the same instant that the parrot turned around, the air surrounding the meat jelly began to crackle with lightning. He employed all the power he could muster to shoot back toward Meng Hao.
“I surrender!!”
“Fudge! I also surrender!”
The parrot and the meat jelly shot back toward Meng Hao urgently. Meng Hao gave a cold snort and suddenly lifted his right hand up into the air, within which appeared the copper mirror. The parrot squawked, transforming into a beam of light that shot into the mirror.
As for the black feather, it floated down into Meng Hao’s hand. The meat jelly was trembling as it began to cry out.
“Master, Lord Third has missed you to death! It was that damned parrot who dragged me with him when he left that year! It’s his fault, master! Let’s convert him together!”
Meng Hao slapped out with his right hand, hitting the top of the meat jelly’s head. A boom could be heard as it shrank down into a tiny ball that Meng Hao grabbed in his hand then tossed down toward the ground. The ground trembled as a huge crater appeared. The meat jelly let out a miserable shriek as it bounced up and Meng Hao grabbed it again. As he proceeded forward, he bounced the meat jelly down again and again, causing it to let out continuous screeches.
“Quit faking,” said Meng Hao, causing the meat jelly’s screams to instantly turn into entreaties.