Human form disguise

Lin Hei reached into his spatial ring and pulled out a glowing scroll—thin and woven from spirit-thread. He passed it forward carefully, placing it on a nearby stone.

Moonsoul stepped back with the mist girl, letting it lie untouched between them.

Then Lin Hei took a deep breath and began to speak.

And he spoke for a long, long time.

"This land is now known as the Azure Dragon Region, one of the lower-tier territories of the Thousand Realms Continent. It is ruled not by one sect, but five major factions, each guarding a different Divine Peak. The peaks align with the five elements—Flame, Wood, Metal, Water, and Earth—and are said to be remnants of a forgotten Divine War."

Jurra tilted his head.

Lin Hei continued.

"Each peak's faction is led by an immortal Patriarch, most of whom have already reached the Nascent Beast Soul or Void Combining Realm. Beyond the five peaks lies the Forbidden Sky—the central floating continent where no one beneath the Dao Reformation Realm can survive. It is there that the Immortal Clans gather."

The teen adjusted his posture, bowing again respectfully as he continued.

"Right now, the world is in a state of growing tension. The Immortal Clans are divided—those who wish to seal the mortal world from future ascensions, and those who believe in letting new generations ascend and restore balance. This conflict has led to the weakening of the Celestial Accord, an ancient agreement between realms."

Jurra nodded slowly.

This was starting to sound like high-level plot content. Good stuff.

But Lin Hei wasn't done.

"There are three major threats to this land, Senior. The first—Voidspawn Incursions. At the edges of the continent, cracks in the Heavenly Veil are growing. Monsters born of chaos leak into our world. No spirit root. No cultivation. Just destruction. They feed on Qi and devour cores."

Jurra's eyes sharpened. That sounded familiar.

"The second—The Red Eclipse Cult. A heretical group of cultivators who defy the heavens and harvest the blood of dragon beasts to refine their own spirit veins. They've grown increasingly aggressive, especially near the tombs of old dragon lords."

He paused.

"The red dragon that died here may have been their target."

Jurra frowned. He didn't see anyone else. Was he caught in the middle of a quest line? However, he remembered the red dragon mentioning it. But the story is different. 

"And the third threat…" Lin Hei trailed off slightly, his tone dropping.

"The rise of ancient bloodlines—beasts and creatures who have long slumbered and are now awakening with no regard for the balance of cultivation. They are not bound by Dao. Not restricted by spiritual hierarchy. They simply… exist."

He looked up.

"Senior, it is said that these creatures will bring about a new age. Some believe they are the true inheritors of heaven's will."

Jurra remained silent, his thoughts moving fast.

Voidspawn. Cults. Ancient beasts. Cracks in reality.

Everything sounds like a lie. He knows this bastard is lying but there could be some truth in it. But he didn't dwell on it. As long as he knows this is an immortal world, that's enough for now. 

Jurra leaned forward slightly, his voice soft but sharp.

"I see."

Lin Hei looked up, anxious.

Jurra stepped out of the shadows finally, his silhouette tall and armored, framed by moonlight. 

A cloak of black and emerald shimmered across his shoulders, and his eyes—burning with draconic glow—locked on Lin Hei's.

"It seems this place… will become my new Dominion."

And with that realization, Jurra finally smiled.

He wasn't lost.

And this cultivation world?

It would soon know the name—Jurra, the Jurassic Overlord.

Suddenly, a sharp Ding was heard in his ears. 

Jurra's body lit with a faint golden glow. His frame began to shift, pixels dancing across his scaly limbs like fireflies scattering in the night. 

Flesh replaced scales, muscle reformed, skin stretched and smoothed as the transformation completed. Horns vanished. The beastly tail receded. Claws folded into fingers.

A screen briefly flickered before him—transparent, blue, glowing with faint runes:

[Transforming: Human Form - Variant: "Scholar of the Black Sands"]

[Transformation Complete.]

And just like that, standing in place of the war-torn, dragonic overlord was a man.

Not a fearsome hero.

Not a radiant immortal.

Just... a man.

Mid-thirties. Unremarkable height. Soft, forgettable features. Dark eyes that seemed to melt into the shadows, and short-cropped hair that showed neither flair nor elegance. 

He wasn't handsome, but he wasn't ugly either. 

The kind of man who could pass through a city unnoticed—overlooked even by those who looked straight at him.

His face was clean-shaven and mild. A face that told no story. A face built to vanish in a crowd.

He looked like an old mercenary or a retired alchemist. And perhaps that was the point.

Jurra didn't smile.

But he nodded to himself.

With practiced hands, he conjured a black robe out if thin air. 

The cloth was worn, slightly faded, and smelled like old scrolls and burnt incense. It hung around his shoulders like a mourning cloak, stitched with just enough frayed silver lining to resemble a low-level inner disciple robe. 

Nothing about it screamed power. Everything about it said ordinary.

And then, silently, slowly, Jurra stepped forward—into the mouth of the cave.

…

Inside the cave, Lin Hei's breath was shallow.

His spiritual sense, already overworked from trying to track the voice, was failing him. 

The more he tried to reach out and grasp the location of the voice—the one that claimed this place—the more his mind slipped, like trying to hold mist in his palm.

He leaned closer to the small girl at his side. Her translucent form wavered in the dim light, eyes wide, ears twitching with the faint pulse of energy around her.

"Misty," he whispered, barely audible. "Have you found him yet?" they thought that the man in front was just a clone, so they are trying to search him. 

The little girl blinked, then narrowed her crystalline eyes.

"...No," she replied quietly, "I can't sense anything."

"What do you mean?" Lin Hei pressed. "He spoke—he's here. Use your Soul Mist Vision."

"I already did," Misty answered, voice strained. "I can see spiritual flows in twelve miles around. I can sense cultivators in the Nascent Soul realm from mountains away. I can sense the spiritual resonance of my father even when he's hidden beyond the Nine Heavens… but this person?"

She bit her lip, trembling slightly.

"There's nothing. Not a single ripple. As if he doesn't exist at all."

Lin Hei frowned deeply. "Could it be… a clone? Some kind of Dao Illusion technique?"

Misty shook her head so fast her hair unraveled like loose smoke.

"No. No, that's not how it works. Clones have residue. There's always a spiritual anchor, always a point of origin. Even the divine avatars of Heaven Crossing Elders leave behind a thread of Qi that ties them to their true body."

Her words spilled faster, more urgent now.

"Even the Hidden Puppeteers of the Abyssal Jade Sect—when they used proxy souls to control their mirror-dolls—they left behind reflections in the spiritual flow. And I could always sense something. Anything."

She clenched her tiny fists, the tips of her fingers crackling with silver mist.

"But this… this is like staring into a void that was never meant to be seen. Like trying to listen to silence that's been edited out of existence."

Lin Hei's jaw tensed. His instincts told him to run. But his mind refused to accept it.

"How can he speak if he has no spiritual signature?"

Misty's voice was a whisper again. "Maybe… maybe he's not hiding. Maybe he's something that doesn't register on our senses because… it's outside of our system. Like a creature that doesn't breathe, yet lives."

They both froze.

A new voice had entered the cave—this time not from the shadows.

"You can look now."

Lin Hei spun around instinctively, his guard up.

And standing in the soft light filtering through the cracks in the cave ceiling was… a man.

Just a man.

Average height. Average build. Wearing a plain, faded black robe. His hands were at his sides, relaxed. His face was calm, eyes unremarkable. His entire presence radiated stillness—no killing intent, no pressure, no arrogance.

Just calm.

Quiet.

Lin Hei swallowed and lowered his head, bowing in reflex. "Senior…"

"You may call me Ju," the man said mildly. "Senior Ju."

Misty floated backward slightly, her expression frozen in something close to panic. She hovered near Lin Hei's ear and whispered frantically, "This is impossible."

Lin Hei's brows furrowed. "What now?"

"I still can't sense his cultivation. Not even a flicker."

Lin Hei inhaled. "Maybe… maybe this man in front is really is a clone."

But Misty shook her head violently.

"No, no. Listen carefully. Clones, illusions, spiritual projections, Dao phantoms—they all break at some level. Even illusion-type laws bend under a certain frequency of spiritual resonance. 

"My form is born from Celestial Mist Essence—I am the child of divine fog, tied to the Fifth Realm of Heaven. I can sense through things even Soul Inspectors cannot."

She moved closer, still whispering.

"I've scanned him with everything. Life Qi. Soul waves. Resonance pulses. Nothing. There's no resistance, no absorption, no echo. If he were a clone, there would be something reacting. But there's nothing. Even a corpse reacts more than him."

Her voice trembled. "It's like… his existence is raw energy stitched into the world without spiritual permission. Maybe he's one of them, the effect of that thing on Dao."

Lin Hei paled.

He remembered Misty telling him the change of the world, this could be it. One of them. She even said these beings are more terrifying than cultivators. 

Suddenly, "Senior Ju" stepped forward and spoke in a voice that made the cave itself still.

"Don't lie."

His tone hadn't changed.

Still mild. Still even.

But somehow, the words carried weight.

Not the weight of killing intent. Not spiritual pressure.

But certainty.

Like a knife already pressed to the throat—still, unmoving—but ready.

Jurra's gaze swept over them.

"Because if you do," he said calmly, "I would be threatened to kill you."

Silence.

Neither Lin Hei nor Misty moved. They didn't even breathe.

A single pulse of wind passed through the cave.

Then, Senior Ju stepped forward again, his gaze deeper now, eyes glimmering with unreadable understanding.

And then he asked—

Voice firm.

Direct.

Commanding.

"Tell me. What is really happening in this world?"

And neither of them could lie.