Sensing that Shui Die Lan in the distance had already settled down to heal her wounds, Li Xun let out a quiet breath of relief. His eyes pierced through the layers of darkness as he studied the arrangent of the surrounding reefs.
The reason Shui Die Lan had agreed to recuperate here was because this place had no unusual qi chanism connections. It was naturally ford, untouched by anyone’s interference.
But in Li Xun’s eyes, although there were indeed no artificial qi chanism connections, the seemingly scattered reefs and the gullies carved out by the lake’s erosion all fell into a rhythm. Their placent, the way they covered and revealed one another, clearly ford a remarkable restrictive formation.
With his past experience breaking the formations at the ancient temple, he was almost certain that this was a restriction technique different from the one at the Demon Thunder Temple, yet still cut from the sa cloth.
That confird it. His careful deductions over the past few days had not been mistaken.
This was the true key to entering Mist-Hidden Pavilion.
To connect inside and out with a single thread; this is the true face of the ancient temple’s restrictions. Li Xun smiled soundlessly, his expression full of unshakable confidence.
The ancient temple's fire nexus was sealed, and so, correspondingly, the passage here was also shut. Once that fire nexus is opened, and the forces of water and fire find their balance, the true nature of this seal will be revealed. Heh, the one who set this formation up was truly remarkable. Using the lay of the land and the flow of energy across hundreds of li, yet keeping it so well hidden. This is Grandmaster-level work, without a doubt.
Breaking this restriction wouldn’t be easy. Especially with the fire nexus at the ancient temple still closed, it was as if the keyhole here had been sealed shut with a heavy lock. There was no place to even begin.
Li Xun had no intention of wasting effort, nor was he in any rush. From the mont he arrived here ahead of everyone else, he was confident he would co out as the greatest winner in the struggle for Mist-Hidden Pavilion.
Now all it required was a few subtle adjustnts…
Everything was carried out in utter silence. Newest update provided by NovєlFіre
Because the restriction bound the flow of qi, nothing could be sensed or corrected.
Because of the sealing lock, the qi flow was suppressed, and any changes here have no trace or ans to be sensed or corrected.
Even so, Li Xun’s hands never hesitated. Sixty years had honed his mastery of restrictive techniques to perfection, and the ticulous confidence born from that training was even rarer and more valuable than the skill itself.
In less than a quarter of an hour, it was done.
Though it was only a minor task, deceiving Shui Die Lan had taken no small amount of effort. Yet once it was finished, he didn’t give himself even a mont to breathe. Sitting cross-legged at once, his focus sank into the faint, circulating NetherYin Fire within his body.
Ti was precious, but he didn’t imdiately tend to his injuries. Instead, he poured his energy into the Nethemyst Puppets.
At this point, the Heaven's Nether Yin Pearl had been severely damaged. Summoning the puppets through that artifact was no longer possible, so he had to find another way. His only choice was to shift the puppets’ core control from the pearl to the standard “Bottomless Nether Ring.”
The Bottomless Nether Ring was the very foundation of every disciple of the Shadow-Devouring Soul Sect. Its role was much like the Golden Core or Nascent Soul cultivated by orthodox disciples: the central hub for drawing energy across the void and channeling the power of the Nine Netherworlds. Every technique, every spell, had to flow from it.
For Li Xun to use the Heaven's Nether Yin Pearl as his control center, saving energy in the process, was flattering if you called it clever. But to speak plainly, it was nothing more than a crooked shortcut.
Now, forced by circumstance, Li Xun returned to the orthodox thod. Though it was only a shift in thought, the qi system that had to be rebalanced and reordered was sothing he needed to carefully reacquaint himself with.
Even with his current cultivation, Li Xun dared not act rashly. He cald his heart, stilled his mind, and imrsed himself in the delicate process.
The Bottomless Nether Ring first moved in reverse for several cycles, winding together the currents of qi. Then it reversed once more, drawing in the Yin Fire and opening the gateway to the mysterious domain of the Nine Netherworlds.
From within, a thread of the extrely pure Nine Netherworld Earth Qi was drawn out. It swiftly rged with the qi of the outside world, and by its very nature, it naturally beca the core that governed and commanded all the other qi chanisms.
With its powerful gravitational pull, the Nethermysts Puppets, existing in another indescribable space, reacted to it. Instantly, the void trembled, and a resonance was ford.
That single thread of Nine Netherworld Earth Qi then flowed through a strange conduit and was planted into the puppets’ body, becoming the point of control.
The puppets weren't actually summoned, but that was only a matter of form. For the first ti, Li Xun was controlling the Nethermyst Puppets entirely on his own. The success of this attempt was like placing a heavy weight on the scale in favor of his victory.
At the sa ti, the experience was new to him. From it, he gained insights he had never possessed before.
What was strange was that as the Bottomless Nether Ring revolved, sothing in his heart aperture seed to respond as well. Almost as if the Yinfire Pearl hidden there had begun to resonate.
He was just about to examine it more closely when a ripple in the surrounding qi startled him awake. Opening his eyes, he t Shui Die Lan’s gaze, her expression layered with complexity.
She was no more than ten feet away now, having slipped so close without a sound. Who knew what she intended?
Li Xun’s heart tensed, and his hand unconsciously went to his chest.
There, faint tremors pulsed one after another.
The Cloudmist Stone was reacting!
It wasn’t only the Cloudmist Stone that stirred. All around them, the stretch of reefs began to tremble ever so slightly, subtle but undeniable. The obscure currents of qi that had been hidden within now started to surface, impossible to conceal any longer.
Shui Die Lan arched her delicate brows and let out a sharp laugh. “Well, well, Hundred Ghosts.... what trick are you playing this ti?”
The Fire Nexus had opened!
Li Xun was the first to make that judgnt, though his face showed nothing but natural surprise. Pressing at the front of his robes with a slight frown, he finally reached into his chest and drew out the Cloudmist Stone.
Just as Shui Die Lan’s eyes flickered with suspicion, Li Xun suddenly shouted, “The ancient temple’s restriction has been broken!”
Even before his words had finished, light burst from the Cloudmist Stone. A surge of earthen-yellow brilliance flared, refracted through the water into a kaleidoscope of eerie colors across the reef.
More importantly, with that light ca the violent scattering of thousands of qi chanisms, shooting in every direction. Even underwater, Li Xun heard the crackling hiss of sothing unnatural.
In the next instant, the entire reef cluster roared with vibration. The waters around them shook as if struck by the lash of a flood dragon’s tail. Currents spun into a furious whirl, and the shockwave pounded outward with overwhelming force.
Even Li Xun hadn’t expected the changes in the restriction to be this violent once the Fire Nexus opened. Fortunately, the upheaval lasted only a short while before the reef cluster settled again.
Although “settled” wasn’t quite right. On a deeper, subtler level, thousands upon thousands of qi currents were now intertwining, weaving together into a vast net that spread across the entire lakebed and revealed a strange new vitality.
It was as if the reef itself had co alive.
After only a flicker of surprise, Shui Die Lan imdiately made her decision.
With her discerning eye, she could see clearly that the shifts in the qi chanisms all centered on the Cloudmist Stone in Li Xun’s hand.
She wasted no words. Her hand shot out like lightning, reaching straight for the stone.
There were more than ten feet between them. No matter how fast she was, Li Xun should have had ti to react.
But oddly, he made no move at all. He simply let Shui Die Lan’s fingers pinch the stone from his grasp. In the end, he only smiled and said, “Fairy Shui, don’t be so impatient. In a place teeming with restrictions like this, keeping a calm heart is the surest way to protect yourself.”
There was not a trace of anger in his tone. With that one gesture, he eased the tension in the air at once.
Shui Die Lan shot him a glance, lifted the Cloudmist Stone to her eyes, and studied it for a while. All it did was blur her vision with the swirling energies inside. She couldn’t make out a trace of its secrets.
She was sharp after all. Earlier she had only been rash in the heat of the mont. Now that she had cald down, she imdiately understood what was on Li Xun’s mind.
Raising her brows, she said, “Who’s impatient? This damned stone is useless to anyway. I was just curious to take a look, nothing more. But you’re the one with damned tricks on your mind. I want to know, what kind of damned place is this?”
She had said the word “damned” three tis in one breath, a clear sign of her deep frustration with the situation.
Li Xun, however, looked completely confident. He didn’t rush to answer. Instead, he simply stretched out his hand, palm open.
The gesture couldn’t be clearer. Shui Die Lan caught on right away. Her eyes flicked, and with a playful smile, she placed the Cloudmist Stone onto his palm.
Only after taking the stone back did Li Xun nod and say, “Let tell you, Fairy. This ti, we’ve hit the jackpot. If I’m not mistaken, this place might just be the true gateway to Mist-Hidden Pavilion.”
“What?”
This ti Shui Die Lan really was taken aback. But Li Xun gave her no chance to react. He quickly blurred a few details of his earlier deductions, reshaped them, and presented them as if they had just occurred to him, speaking with utter seriousness, as though he had no hidden agenda at all.
Of course, Shui Die Lan didn’t fully believe his explanation. But with such an enormous prize within easy reach, what Li Xun might have been thinking before was no longer the point.
While she was secretly weighing her options, she heard Li Xun say, “Heaven truly favors us. With the Cloudmist Stone in hand, breaking this formation will be as natural as water flowing downhill. Only…”
Shui Die Lan cut him off without the slightest courtesy. “What are you really trying to say?”
“Ti is precious. Fairy Shui, I need you to give so room to work.” Li Xun’s gaze swept over the cluster of reefs, and the trace of triumph in his eyes sank even deeper out of sight.
By now, he had already slipped so “extras” into the original formation. On top of that, he could now summon his puppets to join the fray. All he needed was three steps of space, and he was confident he could shake Shui Die Lan off and enter Mist-Hidden Pavilion alone.
Shui Die Lan fixed her eyes on his face. She hadn’t spoken yet, but her heart stirred.
At that sa mont, Li Xun’s eyes widened. He looked up at the surface of the lake, and once he saw clearly what was happening, he forced a single word through clenched teeth: “Damn!”
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