Chapter 188 Misty Rain Pavilion (Sixteen)

Inside the Floating Spring Temple.

With his spirit returning to its place, Jiang Gu slowly opened his eyes. Wei Feng, who was sitting next to him, leaned in and looked at him expectantly, "Master, you're awake."

Just moments before, they were in the same sea of ​​consciousness, yet he acted as if they had been separated for a long time. He completely ignored Jiang Gu's indifference, naturally taking his arm and lifting him up by his wrist, as if Jiang Gu was too badly injured to get up.

"No need." Jiang Gu was still not used to these overly intimate gestures.

Wei Feng wasn't ashamed or angry when Jiang Gu broke free. He intentionally or unintentionally pressed his arm against Jiang Gu's arm, and the warmth of their skin could be felt through the thin fabric. The cold, damp air around them made the warmth all the more noticeable. Jiang Gu didn't dodge, and Wei Feng quietly tickled his palm again.

Jiang Gu turned his head and gave him a warning look.

Wei Feng feigned innocence, pretending not to see anything. Instead, he looked up at Lu Liyu, who was squatting in the ruins not far away, and said in a harsh voice, "You filthy beggar, what are you up to now?"

His foul tone and arrogant expression were just like those unruly spoiled brats. If it weren't for the occasion, even Jiang Gu would have wanted to slap him.

"Stop calling me a beggar. Have you ever seen a beggar as powerful as me?" Lu Liyu turned her head and chuckled. "In terms of seniority, you should call me Auntie."

Wei Feng sneered, but before he could make a move, someone was faster. Lu Liyu seemingly blocked Jiang Xiangyun's attack in a panic, but in reality, she pulled the person directly in front of her and said with a grin, "I don't argue with children. Come and see what I found."

He was squatting on the broken head of the mermaid statue. Jiang Xiangyun followed his gaze and his expression immediately became serious. Jiang Gu and Wei Feng also stepped forward, only to find that there was a complex array hidden under the mermaid statue. This array was extremely mysterious and did not use the Bagua array popular in the cultivation world. In the array, two lake-like mirrors could be vaguely seen. These mirrors were extremely smooth and clear, completely different from the water mirrors they usually made that relied on magic power to maintain. However, even with such clear and smooth mirror surfaces, the people present could not be reflected. Instead, they reflected large, blurry patches of flowers and figures of people in various poses within the flowers.

Those people included men and women, young and old, some wielding swords, some playing the zither, some playing chess, and some bowing... It was as if a huge scroll had encompassed all their figures.

“This great formation connects two places with extremely strong water-based spiritual energy.” Lu Liyu tentatively injected some spiritual energy into it, and a compass-shaped magic weapon appeared in front of him, with layers of Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches emerging. “Water-based spiritual energy is strongest among the ancient dragon race. Now there are no more dragons in the world, only secret realms formed by the fall of divine dragons. The southern part of this formation should be connected to the Chaolong Secret Realm of Pingze Continent.”

He paused, then hastily withdrew his spiritual power, but still spat out a mouthful of foul blood. He wiped it away with his sleeve, seemingly unconcerned. "The area north of the magic array is probably a Dragonfall Land on the Chenyao Continent, where the water-based spiritual power is stronger... Why go to such lengths to connect the two Dragonfall Secret Realms with a magic array just to suppress a heart and a remnant spirit of a Celestial Rank?"

Lu Liyu felt that this was a bit of a waste of talent.

"Could it be because of this magic array that we were able to successfully kill that remnant spirit?" Jiang Xiangyun asked.

“This magic array is still intact,” Lu Liyu glanced at Wei Feng, “It was only because someone was too ruthless that they were able to kill that immortal-level remnant spirit.”

Wei Feng stared at him coldly and ground his back teeth.

"Alright, whatever the reason, that remnant spirit has been devoured. This godforsaken place has made such a big fuss but doesn't even have a single artifact. Let's go look somewhere else." Lu Liyu dusted off the dust on his sleeves and jumped down from the stone statue's head. "Take my advice, this formation is not something we small fry can touch. It's best to stay as far away as possible."

"Master?" Wei Feng called out softly when he saw Jiang Gu staring at the mirror without moving.

Jiang Gu narrowed his eyes, staring at a slender figure behind the flower bushes, and suddenly said, "Does this person look familiar?"

Wei Feng followed his gaze and saw what appeared to be a woman's figure. She did look familiar, but he couldn't quite place where he had seen her before.

Jiang Xiangyun squeezed in to join the fun, raising an eyebrow. "Isn't this Princess Lingjing?"

"Spirit Realm?" Jiang Gu turned to look at him.

“That’s right. I saw her in the Songsui Illusion before. She was graceful, and her waist was especially slender, unlike that of ordinary women.” Jiang Xiangyun said, “This is the Princess of the Spirit Realm.”

Lu Liyu chuckled: "Young Master Jiang seems to have quite a bit of knowledge about these things."

Jiang Xiangyun smiled and said, "Exceptionally talented. What, are you jealous, old man?"

The word "old man" left Lu Liyu speechless.

Wei Feng watched the spectacle with his arms crossed, his face full of schadenfreude. Jiang Gu, on the other hand, ignored him. His gaze swept over the figures in the mirror and he secretly memorized them. For some reason, this formation that connected Pingze and Chenyao and the two mirrors inside always made him feel uneasy.

Jiang Gu rarely had any so-called intuition, after all, he was always in danger, but this time was different. It was as if there was an instinctive force driving him to leave.

He sank a wisp of consciousness into the black jade bracelet. The goddess that had been nurtured in the space stood there quietly. After many twists and turns, the statue was actually already broken and the divine power inside was almost exhausted. It could no longer be connected to the temple in the Xiyuan Secret Realm, but Jiang Gu left it behind.

The statue was surrounded by a soft halo, which made her expression appear even more gentle and compassionate.

"Are you urging me to leave?" Jiang Gu frowned, speaking to the statue for the first time.

The statue remained silent, its eyes lowered as it gazed at him with gentle eyes, as if looking at its own child with a troubled fate. The light emanating from it silently grew even heavier.

Jiang Gu's heart sank slightly. He returned to his senses. Lu Liyu was still leading the way, while Yao Li was at the rear on guard. Wei Feng had turned into mist at some point, enveloping him like a light veil. Jiang Xiangyun walked alongside him and, noticing his unusual behavior, couldn't help but ask, "Seventh Brother, have you noticed anything strange?"

Jiang Gu's mind raced, recalling everything that had happened. The intricate connections in his mind formed a vast picture, but no matter how he looked at it, he couldn't see the way forward. Only a pair of calm eyes slowly emerged from behind the picture, looking at him with overwhelming pressure.

"We must find a way to leave here as soon as possible," Jiang Gu said.

Jiang Xiangyun's heart suddenly skipped a beat.

"What do you mean by 'find a way'? We can leave here anytime!" Lu Liyu shouted from the front. "With me here, getting out will be a breeze. It's not like you guys insist on staying to find the artifact—"

“Lu Liyu, listen to him,” Jiang Xiangyun interrupted him.

"Hey." Lu Liyu turned around unhappily, and started divination with her fingers as she walked towards them. "The bad luck is clearly over. If we don't take this opportunity to grab some benefits and go back, when will we?"

As the divination results were revealed, his voice grew softer and softer, his crimson eyes were filled with astonishment, and his face, hidden behind his disheveled hair, slowly turned deathly pale.

All dead.

Since he began studying divination, the worst possible hexagram he had ever seen was extremely ominous. He had only ever read about hexagrams of death and extinction in ancient books. There are 36,000 paths in the world, and the way of Heaven never cuts off the chance for life. Even the most ominous hexagram will leave a sliver of hope for survival. The so-called hexagram of death and extinction means that the way of Heaven rejects and does not tolerate it. There is no way to live and no way to die. No matter which way you go, it is a dead end. This is a hexagram that may not even exist in legends.

He looked up at the people in front of him, his ears ringing, and blood seeping from his seven orifices. He said incredulously, "Even the Heavenly Dao of Slaughter allows ascension, just how much evil have you people committed?"

Jiang Xiangyun grabbed him by the collar. "Stop talking nonsense and get out of here!"

Jiang Gu and Yao Li immediately turned back, only to find that the stone wall that had been shattered earlier was now perfectly intact, blocking their way, with not even the moss on it remaining unchanged.

Wei Feng was the first to rush forward, attempting to break through the stone wall again, but was bounced back by the powerful magic array above.

Seeing this, Jiang Gu, Jiang Xiangyun, and the others joined forces, but still couldn't find a solution.

“This must be a magic array passed down from ancient times. There’s no way we can handle it with just the few of us,” Lu Liyu said. “Let’s go and take a look elsewhere.”

They found two more stone walls, with the same result.

When they found the third wall, they encountered Lin Feibai and Hu Jingchen, who had been separated from them before. Later, they also found the Eight Pavilion cultivators who were also unable to get out and had come to explore the temple. Wu Ren, Wu Yi, and Lei Jiu San were among them. Obviously, they had also been tricked into coming in but could not find a way out.

Soon the four groups of people gathered together.

“There are no divine artifacts in this temple at all,” one of the cultivators said. “We explored all the nearby halls and only found a statue that had been shattered into pieces.”

“That’s right, so are we. All around us are empty halls, but the guardian spirit beasts inside are quite troublesome,” someone chimed in.

"Moreover, these stone walls are too strange. We have investigated them and found that they are from thousands of years ago, which does not match the temple from tens of thousands of years ago at all. Someone had already been here before we came in!" A clever cultivator discovered the same problem as Jiang Xiangyun and his group.

"What exactly happened? Why didn't anyone warn us when we set off?"

"Let's put all that aside for now. The most important problem right now is that we can't get out," Wu Ren said.

"Our four teams have four divine artifacts, and moreover, there are at least twenty survivors. If we work together, we will definitely be able to break through these formations and get out!" someone said confidently.

His words immediately gave everyone confidence. The four leaders unleashed their respective divine artifacts, while the others stood behind them, channeling their spiritual energy. One of them couldn't help but mutter, "Why are all these divine artifacts fire-attribute?"

No sooner had the words left his mouth than the four fire-elemental artifacts began to hum and clang. Those with sharp eyes had already noticed something amiss. "Stop! The water-elemental divine power here is too strong. The artifacts can't hold on!"

"Not good! The fire element is too strong, which has actually brought the range of this great formation even closer!"

Sure enough, the sound of stones scraping against the ground came from all directions. The stone walls were slowly approaching, forcing them to stop their artifacts. Everyone's faces turned very grim.

"What kind of formation is this? How can it be so strange!"

“This great formation should have these stone walls as its edges and the main hall where the merman statue is located as its core, allowing entry but not exit.” Lu Liyu was quite knowledgeable about formations and quickly figured it out. “Ancient temples from tens of thousands of years ago would not have such a formation. This must be a sacrificial formation created by those bastards from the Eight Pavilions and the Misty Rain Terrace.”

"A refining array?"

Before encountering these people, he deliberately concealed his appearance so that he was not recognized as a traitor of the Burning Platform Hall. However, his shout of "bastard" was so loud that many people couldn't help but look at him.

"What's so strange about sacrificing living people to form an array?" Lu Liyu chuckled, arms crossed. "Look, all the cultivators with the seven spiritual roots of metal, wood, water, fire, earth, wind, and thunder are here, along with four divine artifacts of the same attribute as catalysts, plus all the various magical treasures and spiritual artifacts you brought. Isn't that the most complete set of elements for refining a grand array?"

"No, impossible! The sect leader wouldn't do this to us! Stop spreading rumors!" someone shouted angrily.

Lu Liyu shrugged. "You can ignore me, but are we even going to get out of here now?"

Upon hearing this, everyone fell silent instantly.

Jiang Gu stood in the corner, the mist surrounding him silently swirling up the silver-blue shark scale ball on the ground and stuffing it into his storage bag. Wei Feng's voice rang softly in his ear: "Master, what should we do now?"

Jiang Gu gently rubbed his fingers together, carefully observing the expressions of everyone in the hall. He didn't believe that Xiao Dan wanted him dead right now—otherwise, Xiao Dan would have already made his move. There must be some necessary condition for Xiao Dan to keep him alive at this point.

Why were they drawn into the sacrificial array?

The heart hidden inside the black jade bracelet was beating dully, clinging tightly to his wrist through the bracelet, and eventually strangely began to beat in unison with his pulse. Wei Feng then vaguely revealed a human figure from the mist, gently enveloping him from behind and affectionately nuzzling his ear with his cheek.

Jiang Gu's pale ears were slightly reddened by the annoying mist, and his thoughts paused for a moment. For a moment, all the noisy voices around him disappeared, and he seemed to be in a silent space full of mist, with only Wei Feng's warm breath and the damp heartbeat in his ears.

But it was only for a fleeting moment.

Reason returned instantly like a receding tide. Before him were still those helpless cultivators, but Jiang Gu's heart sank to the bottom. The ceaseless gurgling of water in the Floating Spring Temple, the monster's heart sealed by the merman statue, the magic array connecting the two continents' powerful water-based secret realms beneath the statue, the stone wall built a thousand years ago, the eight pavilion cultivators arranged to bring fire-based artifacts into the temple, and even further back, his decision to find Wei Feng's heart and enter the Heaven and Earth Pavilion with Xiao Qingyan...

This temple was not used a thousand years ago to suppress the heart and remnant spirit of the undead monster. The heart was sealed in the merman statue by Wu Hezhi and Wei Mingzhou long ago. The remnant spirit of the immortal rank would willingly dissipate and return once it was devoured by Wei Feng's true form. Neither of them would require such a grand display.

The Floating Spring Temple and the sacrificial array within it, along with the cultivators and divine artifacts that entered the array, were all prepared by Xiao Dan from the very beginning to suppress the re-emerging Wei Feng.

After a thousand years, the Jade of Calamity finally brought back the real Jade Steps, and the Jade of Calamity's mission was thus completed.

But he just couldn't die, so naturally he had to be—Jiang Gu turned his head and met Wei Feng's bright, smiling eyes in the mist—and be suppressed again.