Jing Kuang jolted, as if unable to believe that Zhi Xuan was giving him a chance to speak. He took a deep breath, trying to clear the remnants of anxiety clouding his mory. He moved his fingers and began to pull threads of energy that ford a six-directional pattern according to his remaining recollection.
"Six points, or what was carved in faint script on that stone tablet as the Big Dipper stars," Jing Kuang said. "I once suspected this was left by the gods of the past, but at the ti, I was in too much of a hurry to follow ng Zhan. Later, I crossed a divine palace ruin and saw this Big Dipper pattern on the ruins' walls."
"I touched that pattern and received a vision of six places where mountains and rivers enveloped them," Jing Kuang continued. "Each had footprints, which I thought of as the footprints of Great Emperor Chen in this underworld. Not only that, but I also saw the pattern of the Golden Seal of the Emperor that seals the underworld there."
Jing Kuang lowered his hands and looked up at the sky. "If Senior Gu does not believe ," Jing Kuang’s voice sounded piteous and full of surrender, "then... this Jing is willing to be subjected to a soul search."
A haunting silence followed Jing Kuang’s final offer. An offer to undergo a forced soul search was the most absolute form of surrender for a practitioner, as the process not only stripped away the deepest secrets but also carried a high risk of damaging the Sea of Consciousness, potentially turning a person into an idiot or causing instant death.
Wu Xinghan was stunned; his previously overflowing anger seed to freeze in the air. He had not expected Jing Kuang to go to such lengths to prove his honesty. On the other side, Wu Xingyan covered her mouth with her palm, her clear eyes now filled with genuine horror.
"You... you are willing to let your soul be stripped bare?" Lu Qingyan whispered, her fan nearly slipping from her grasp. "Jing Kuang, do you realize what you are offering? If Senior touches your Sea of Consciousness, you could lose everything. You could end up worse than ng Zhan!"
Zhi Xuan looked at Jing Kuang with a gaze that was difficult to read. In a cruel world, the Dao Heart is everything, and offering oneself to be searched at the soul level is an act beyond the boundaries of sanity for most practitioners. However, in Zhi Xuan’s eyes, he saw not madness, but a pure desperation to atone for past sins.
"I do not require a soul search," Zhi Xuan said coldly, turning his gaze back to the formation stones. "You are the one who saw the formation pattern, so you must be the one to activate it."
Jing Kuang was dazed, as if the weight of thousands of mountains had just been lifted from his shoulders. He stared at his trembling palms, then at Zhi Xuan’s cold face, which showed no ripple of emotion. The trust Zhi Xuan granted—even if wrapped in an indifferent tone—felt more precious than his own life at a mont like this.
He imdiately stepped forward, standing in the center of the circular formation ford by the five hovering stones. His face tensed as he began to channel his pure but thin spiritual essence into the stones. The ancient runes on the stones' surfaces began to react, glowing with a golden light that slowly enveloped the corridor, dispelling the darkness that had been their constant companion.
"Great Emperor Chen... one step across the stars... six directions becoming the place for beings to dwell," Jing Kuang murmured, chanting the faint mantra he rembered from the stone tablet in the ruins.
Wu Xinghan could only snort, though his hands were no longer clenched with killing intent. He stood with arms crossed, his sharp eyes monitoring every movent of energy exiting Jing Kuang’s body. "If we end up in the belly of an ancient beast, you will be the first one I behead, Jing Kuang," he muttered softly, a threat that now sounded more like a form of restlessness than pure hatred.
Wei Tianfeng stood beside Ji Haoxuan, his eyes observing the energy vortex starting to form a vibrating gate of light. "This pattern... this is truly high-level teleportation technique, sothing perhaps only the Nine Ancient Clans possess. This Kuang boy, did he obtain the Great Emperor’s legacy?"
"The Great Emperor’s legacy?" Ji Yuanyi asked, her wide eyes blinking at Wei Tianfeng. "Brother Tianfeng, if the envoys of the Ancient Chen Clan heard you say that, they would chase you to the ends of the Nine Plains!"
"More than just chase, Yuanyi," Wei Tianfeng replied seriously, his eyes never leaving the roaring golden vortex. "If it is true that this boy actually touched the traces of Great Emperor Chen, then he is no longer just an ordinary practitioner from a branch family. If he can truly activate this formation, then he surely didn't just happen to do it because he saw the pattern; he has permission for it."
"Wow, so Jing Kuang really touched the Great Emperor’s legacy?" Ji Yuanyi asked, her eyes showing full interest. "Brother Tianfeng, did you see it yourself? What was the Great Emperor's legacy like? Is it so powerful that it made you guess like that?"
Wei Tianfeng rolled his eyes lazily, turning toward Ji Yuanyi with a face that looked as if he regretted his guess because it made Ji Yuanyi ask non-stop.
"Be quiet for a mont, Yuanyi. Are you in the Underworld or in your family pavilion?" Wei Tianfeng sighed, his fingers massaging his temples. "Good grief, Haoxuan, hold your sister. My ears are burning if Yuanyi starts asking questions continuously."
"I won't stop her, Tianfeng," Ji Haoxuan replied with a thin smile that looked cold under the formation's light. "Let her ask. Besides, isn't her curiosity better than a paralyzing fear?"
"Brother is right!" Ji Yuanyi stuck her tongue out at Wei Tianfeng, then returned to staring at the light vortex. "So, Jing Kuang? How does it feel to touch the traces of the Emperor? Do you feel like your body will explode from heavenly power? Or do you hear ancient whispers speaking of the secrets of immortality? Is it—hey!"
"That's enough, be quiet Yuanyi!" Wei Tianfeng pulled Ji Yuanyi aside. "Let Jing Kuang activate his formation."
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The golden light vortex roared louder, creating an energy storm that swept the dust around their feet. Jing Kuang appeared to focus his consciousness, his face turning pale as his essence was drained. The five formation stones were now spinning at an incredible speed, forming a miniature horizon circle reflecting the images of mountains and rivers ntioned earlier.
"Open!" Jing Kuang roared with a voice that was almost gone.
Instantly, a pillar of golden light carrying the majesty of the Great Emperor exploded from the center of the formation, striking the cave ceiling until it created a violently fluctuating spatial ripple. In the middle of that light, a giant gate that appeared to be made of a weave of faint stars began to manifest.
Zhi Xuan, who had been standing still like a marble statue, stepped forward. His sapphire blue eyes showed no hesitation, but his divine sense caught a pure aura behind the energy radiated from the gate, indicating that this formation led to another place in the underworld that seed pure.
"Enter," Zhi Xuan said briefly. Without waiting for a reply, his body shot forward like a streak of black shadow and was swallowed by the golden light.
Ji Haoxuan wasted no ti; he pulled the arm of Ji Yuanyi, who was still about to ask a question, and leaped in. Wu Xinghan snorted, casting a sharp glance at Jing Kuang, who was still kneeling to maintain the formation's stability, before he and Wu Xingyan followed into the vortex.
"Quickly, Kuang! The formation is starting to beco unstable!" Wei Tianfeng shouted as he grabbed Jing Kuang’s shoulder and dragged the youth in just before the star gate shrunk and disappeared, leaving the cave tunnel in a darkness thicker than before.
The sensation they felt as they passed through the gate was not the rough spatial pull of an ordinary teleportation formation, but a calm dissolution of the body, as if their souls were being washed by a warm heavenly river. The golden light enveloping their vision slowly faded, replaced by air that was fresh and rich in spiritual energy.
As their feet touched a solid surface, a gust of wind carrying the scent of pine and damp earth greeted their senses. Zhi Xuan was the first to open his eyes, standing tall on an ancient stone altar overlooking a view that could stop the heart of anyone who saw it.
"This... have we left the Underworld?" Lu Qingyan whispered, staring at the expanse before her with trembling hands.
"No, this is just another region of the underworld," Ji Haoxuan said, his voice awestruck. "This... is truly unexpected."
Before them stretched a hidden valley shrouded in thin silver mist. Instead of eternal darkness, the sky above this place was a deep, dark blue, decorated by thousands of stars shining so brightly as if they were very close to the horizon. Enam mountain peaks soared high in the distance, surrounding the valley like giant fingers supporting the do of the sky.
"The footprints of the Emperor..." Jing Kuang murmured, falling to his knees, staring at the expanse of green grass glowing beneath his feet. "I truly found it. This Big Dipper pattern... those mountains are the six points guarding the purity of this place."
Zhi Xuan stepped down from the formation altar, followed by the others who imdiately spread out in admiration of this different realm within the underworld. In his sea of consciousness, Ruo Xianxue opened her eyes again and seed to sense the pure aura from the footprints of a Great Emperor who had once stood in the Nine Heavens.
"Oh? The traces of a Great Emperor... that cowardly boy is unusual, Zhi Xuan." Ruo Xianxue spoke with a serious tone. "He did not lie; in this region, there truly is the Big Dipper. I do not know if that Great Emperor held the dipper and made it his personal ditation spot when suppressing the underworld's aura. But this aura... I recognize it as truly the traces of a Great Emperor."
"You know of it?" Zhi Xuan asked inwardly. "I rember the footprints of a Great Emperor might store an infinite Dao of the Great Emperor. So... this is one of the places where Great Emperor Chen once set foot?"
"So it is. Even thousands of years after his figure vanished from the world's sight, the remnants of his will are still capable of suppressing the foul aura of Huang Tu," Ruo Xianxue replied. "For an ordinary practitioner, this is holy land. But for you, this is an opportunity to see how a Great Emperor arranged the laws of the universe with just his footsteps."
"That cowardly boy nad Jing Kuang—I wonder if the Ancient Chen Clan would kill him if they found out about this," Ruo Xianxue continued. "However, the Sun and the Moon can see an unimaginable future; even that Wu will prostrate to him one day if the cowardly boy is given a path. That coward indeed does not possess the blood of an Ancient Clan, but you, just observe him; he will beco a towering figure in the future."
Zhi Xuan froze for a mont, letting the valley wind carrying the pure aura brush against his robe. Ruo Xianxue’s words within his heart were not sothing to be taken lightly. An arrogant Ancient Sacred Devil like Ruo Xianxue rarely gave recognition to mortal practitioners, especially to soone like Jing Kuang who had nearly lost his Dao Heart.
"Oh? This is unlike your usual attitude," Zhi Xuan thought. "He doesn't originate from an Ancient Clan, or anything interesting based on Wu Xinghan's words. But you indeed wouldn't acknowledge it if it weren't true; if the origin of all Devils acknowledges him, then I will also just observe."
On the other side, Wei Tianfeng helped Jing Kuang to rise again. Jing Kuang exhaled softly; his essence appeared drained after exerting great effort to activate the teleportation formation.
"Senior Gu," Jing Kuang said, his voice hoarse as he pointed toward a valley alcove near them. "Over there... this place might be unknown, but there is a safe place to take shelter."
Zhi Xuan shifted his gaze toward the valley alcove pointed out by Jing Kuang. There, behind a curtain of climbing plants whose leaves glowed like liquid jade, appeared a simple stone pavilion rged with the mountain wall.
They walked much more casually than before. The oppressive pressure of the underworld that had been crushing their chests seed to have been filtered by the natural formation of those six mountain peaks. Ji Yuanyi, who usually couldn't stay quiet, now walked with sparkling eyes, occasionally touching flower petals that emitted a calming aroma.
"Brother, look! The spiritual energy here feels so pure and these flowers are very fragrant," Ji Yuanyi whispered in awe.
Ji Haoxuan nodded slowly, his eyes remaining alert but showing a sense of relief. "This place is likely a pocket world created by Great Emperor Chen himself."
As they reached the front of the pavilion, they each took a spot atop flat stones that felt strangely warm when sat upon. Jing Kuang chose a spot quite far away, but was imdiately pulled back by Wei Tianfeng, who would not let Jing Kuang isolate himself.
Zhi Xuan chose to stand at the edge of the pavilion, leaning his back against a stone pillar that was cold yet radiated a stable warmth of essence. His eyes gazed at the valley with a distant look, transcending the beauty presented before him.
Jing Kuang cald himself, his body trembling from essence exhaustion as the flat stone beneath him seed to pull the heaven and earth essence from the surrounding realm to restore him. After feeling himself calm down, he raised his gaze and looked around.
"The thing I wanted to say earlier after bringing you here is about the Sacred Bell of Heaven’s Creation," Jing Kuang said, his voice clear though vibrating. "That bell... I have found a few clues regarding its location. If it truly is one of the Ten Mysterious Treasures of the ancient races, then I hope I haven't found the wrong clues."
Jing Kuang waved his hand, bringing out a blackened scroll before him. "Here, I haven't opened it yet. But I took it from the hands of practitioners who were fighting each other to the death. They... were shouting that here is depicted the face of the ancient king's corpse holding that bell."
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