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 arrangement of the surrounding reefs.
The reason Shui Die Lan had agreed to recuperate here was because this place had no unusual qi mechanism connections. It was naturally formed, untouched by anyone’s interference.
But in Li Xun’s eyes, although there were indeed no artificial qi mechanism connections, the seemingly scattered reefs and the gullies carved out by the lake’s erosion all fell into a rhythm. Their placement, the way they covered and revealed one another, clearly formed 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 same cloth.
That confirmed 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 moment he arrived here ahead of everyone else, he was confident he would come out as the greatest winner in the struggle for Mist-Hidden Pavilion.
Now all it required was a few subtle adjustments…
Everything was carried out in utter silence.
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 means 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 meticulous 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 moment to breathe. Sitting cross-legged at once, his focus sank into the faint, circulating NetherYin Fire within his body.
Time was precious, but he didn’t immediately 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 method. Though it was only a shift in thought, the qi system that had to be rebalanced and reordered was something he needed to carefully reacquaint himself with.
Even with his current cultivation, Li Xun dared not act rashly. He calmed his heart, stilled his mind, and immersed 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 extremely pure Nine Netherworld Earth Qi was drawn out. It swiftly merged with the qi of the outside world, and by its very nature, it naturally became the core that governed and commanded all the other qi mechanisms.
With its powerful gravitational pull, the Nethermysts Puppets, existing in another indescribable space, reacted to it. Instantly, the void trembled, and a resonance was formed.
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 time, 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 same time, 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, something in his heart aperture seemed 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 met 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 time?”
The Fire Nexus had opened!
Li Xun was the first to make that judgment, 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 came the violent scattering of thousands of qi mechanisms, shooting in every direction. Even underwater, Li Xun heard the crackling hiss of something 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 come alive.
After only a flicker of surprise, Shui Die Lan immediately made her decision.
With her discerning eye, she could see clearly that the shifts in the qi mechanisms 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 time 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 moment. Now that she had calmed down, she immediately understood what was on Li Xun’s mind.
Raising her brows, she said, “Who’s impatient? This damned stone is useless to me 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 times 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 me tell you, Fairy. This time, we’ve hit the jackpot. If I’m not mistaken, this place might just be the true gateway to Mist-Hidden Pavilion.”
“What?”
This time 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?”
“Time is precious. Fairy Shui, I need you to give me some 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 some “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 same moment, 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!”