Simple enough choice, it seems, evil as it is. Either we break the illusion straight out, reminding Renxiang of a harsh reality neither she nor we can escape, but forcing renxiang to relieve old trauma, which is bad for her already tired mental state from her character arc so far.
Or we roll the dice on a softer approach that that would let her recover herself without dredging up past trauma, reaffirm her beliefs and continue onward with a clearer head... But pay for it with the risk of failure, and having Renxiang be puppetted again in the real, relieving the nightmare. Which other than the trauma to her, and collateral damage (and likely souring of the LQ-Liming relation) to the local area, endangers the mission by both harming (maybe even killing) a spirit abiding by the compact of iron, and potentially inviting greater harm still from anyone attuned to the Cai brand of likely-Star based energies.
Success at option 2 is definitely the best outcome, but I feel it is weighed down by possibility for a much worse negative should we fail.
Still, the thing to keep in mind is that we are in a battle of understanding of desire, so it's not like the second option is doomed outright. A hard choice indeed.
