Michael's heart began to tremble violently, and he tightly clenched his hands. He knew that it was an illusion from the mist, so he was unable to do anything about it. All he could do was remain clear-headed and not fall into it.
At that very exact moment, Michael's body jerked violently. To his side, he suddenly saw a redhead girl who seemed to be in her late twenties walking out of the mist to stand next to the old man. Just like the old man, she too wore a black suit and trousers with a black-tie but her white shirt was drenched in blood.
"You...you killed me!" Suddenly, the girl, with her bloody face, saw Michael and cried out. Her voice was extremely miserable, it contained a mix of anger as well as sadness. Soon after the girl, more and more black-suited people drenched in blood appeared out of the mist. All of their bodies were littered with bullet holes.
Michael's body began to tremble violently while a monstrous killing intent had already appeared in his heart. Just when he was staring at the twenty people he knew extremely well, more figures walked out of the mist, and this time, they weren't grown men in black suits but gentle-looking women and little children. The commonality between the latter and the black-suited people was they all had bloody wounds.
"This is all an illusion. Spectre is dead, all of his students are dead, I killed them" Michael constantly mumbled to himself, forcing himself to calm down. Although he knew this was all just an illusion, what was happening was actually Michael's greatest anguish.
"Aren't you gonna save me, Michael?" the girl called out for help once again. Her despaired voice was heard by Michael, slowly piercing Michael's heart.
"Argh!" A miserable cry came from the other side, he turned to see one of the gentle-looking women was shot in the chest by one of the black-suited people.
The woman collapsed in a pool of blood. Her clothes were dyed red by the blood, and even the ground had become red. The children were screaming in horror but it just put a wicked grin on the black suit man's face as he slowly made his way towards the children like a tiger hunting a group of helpless rabbits.
"Michael...Michael... save- save- save them…" the woman who got shot by the man looked towards Michael lifelessly, and spoke weakly. The light in her eyes was quickly disappearing, soon becoming dull. In the end, she laid on the ground, unmoving.
Michael's heart trembled greatly, while overwhelming anger and sadness clenched his heart. Two streaks of sorrowful tears flowed from his eyes without any control. Although he trained himself to overcome the emotions, he failed to keep himself calm seeing the sight in front of him. It was an unimaginable mental blow to Michael to see the orphanage he grew up getting slaughtered by the black suit man. After he cleansed the arms dealing operations that put him in the path of becoming a hitman, he killed every single person who had a link to the criminal organization that ran the orphanage. It was his training. After cleansing the orphanage, he really thought the orphans there could have a better life than him, yet, it was the same man who trained him who ordered the massacre of his orphanage.
Knowing that he was the reason for their deaths was Michael's greatest grief and regret. The illusion conjured by the mist had already deeply affected Michael.
"I asked you to kill one kid, only one, Ghost. If you hadn't refused, they would have been alive right now, well except for that one kid" Spectre, the old man said, playing with his pistol. The sight of his smiling broke the barrier that suppressing Michael's anger.
"Argh!" Michael roared powerfully at the sky. The sound was earth-shaking, resounding in the entire region. With the roar, an immense murderous aura, along with extremely dense killing intent, began to radiate from his body, The Arch energy in his body poured steadily into the sword, causing it to glow brightly with its dark light. Afterward, Michael swung it towards the old man who was smiling at him.
Thrum!
Suddenly, a loud and clear veena sound, like a huge bell, appeared. A powerful sound wave with visible ripples collided with the sword in his hand, and the powerful strike directly forced the sword to bounce backward.
Not only did the bell-like sound block Michael's attack, but the remaining sound waves also entered Michael's mind. It collided with his spirit like a boulder, causing Michael to feel like his head was exploding. He could not help but cry out painfully.
"Just mere, inferior illusions got you good. This is only the very outskirts of the Treacherous Ocean; there are more powerful illusions further on in. I really wonder how you're going to handle those." Lailah's cold voice suddenly appeared in Michael's mind.
Michael immediately snapped back to reality. A moment ago, when he had swung his sword at the enemies that killed his orphanage, he actually swung the sword at Lailah, not at the old man.
"The illusions here really are powerful," Michael mumbled gently. His emotions, affected by the illusions before, slowly began to calm down.
"The illusion wasn't strong, your mental state is too weak. The illusion sucked you in so easily. It originates from your heart and mind, if your heart and mind are flawless and free from worries, how would a mere illusion affect you? This illusion can be considered as the weakest type, there'll be more powerful ones once you enter The Treacherous Ocean." Lailah spoke coldly.
"Looks like I'm overestimating you. Perhaps coming to The Treacherous Ocean with you was the wrong decision." she didn't change her cold tone at all.
Her words really bothered him but he agreed with her. Although he trained himself to suppress his emotions, he did not achieve perfection as Spectre.
He couldn't be even compared with Lailah in mental power, after all, he was still too young. Even with his two lifetimes combined, he was less than sixty years old. Meanwhile, people like Lailah were people who had lived for centuries with enough descendants to form a large house. Michael may overcome them in terms of talent because of the system, but he was nowhere close in terms of life experience.
The illusion was able to mess him up too much because of the bond he had with the orphanage and the people who lived there. Michael treated them with too much importance, practically viewing them as more important than his own life at one point in his life. He had clearly known that the images in the mist before were illusions, yet he still could not help but fall for them; Michael still was unable to endure the things happening despite knowing it was all fake. That day, he lost everyone who knew the real him, after that day, he became Ghost. The reason he chants 'Diddle diddle' before killing was to remind himself not to become like the man who trained him, Spectre. Never take a life without a reason and conscience, this was Michael's code.
People like Lailah on the other hand would not fall for illusions such as this as easily as Michael. They had lived for centuries, or even millennia, and had plenty of descendants. They probably have witnessed some of them dying of old age themselves. As a result, they would no longer treat the bond of the family as important and would be able to resist the illusions easily.
Illusions originated from the mind and heart. If there were concerns or obsessions, the mist would create illusions accordingly, displaying your weakest point right before you.
Illusions did not test a person's strength, but a person's heart and mind. He may have seemed like an invulnerable perfect person, but he was just a human being with his own flaws and imperfections at the end of the day.
Michael's mind became much more resolute after experiencing what had happened before. He stared into the mist before him. The mist continued to surge, tossing about and changing around as if there was something ready to come out. However, Michael's state of mind immediately became like still water, free of any ripples. He did not think about anything, nor did he guess about anything, the silhouettes of the people instantly vanished from his sight except the old man's figure, he was following Michael.
Michael ignored the old man, continuing to follow Lailah. After over two hours of slow-flying, he and Lailah finally passed through the region of fog. The misty-white blanket had finally disappeared from before them, replaced by deep blue seawater.
"Haaaaa," Michael breathed out loudly. He felt much more relaxed after passing through the mist. He looked around but only saw that the surroundings and sky were all a surface of white. They were enveloped by a layer of dense, yet odd, mist as if it formed the edges of a separate world. The only thing still lingered around from the mist was Spectre but Michael knew the old man was in his head, not in front of him, so he ignored Spectre.
Below him was deep blue seawater. The water was smooth, like a mirror, and without any ripples, stagnant. It was extremely strange. In the center of all that was a huge island. It had an extremely large surface area and did not seem like it could be called an island, but rather a small continent. The island was mountainous, littered with trees, and was entirely blanketed by a thin layer of fog. It was hazy, adding on a layer of mysteriousness.
Michael stared cautiously at the huge island before him and asked, "Is this the Treacherous Ocean?"
Lailah looked towards the island before her. She was rather stern, and she said, "Correct, this is The Treacherous Ocean, as well as the holy land of the former Dragon clan, Dragon Island. Many millennials ago, there were not Eight but Nine Great Clans, the strongest of them all was the Dragon Clan.
But something happened to them and changed the once Great Dragon Clan to the current Treacherous Ocean"
"What happened to all those dragons?" Michael asked in doubt.
Lailah shook her head gently, "I do not know much about what happened in that age either. The very limited information on this matter all originate from rumors or those ancient records in the kingdom of Nagas. However, not a lot is recorded regarding what happened to the Dragons who lived in that age or to the Dragon Island"