Chapter 58 Enter

The first particle of light was dissolved into the air by the Qiming Player with a snap of his fingers. Everyone held their breath and waited, only to see a thin layer of mist slowly appearing on the second floor.

Luo Xuanyi, struck by inspiration, took out a candle and lit it. The mist distorted slightly, unexpectedly reflecting a faint glow. However, Luo Xuanyi, with her keen sense of spiritual power, didn't notice any change in the spiritual energy here. Simply relying on projection to achieve the connection between reality and illusion, such a method is worthy of the One Word Elder of the Zang Yao Sect.

Although the incense lamps reflected the complex spiritual energy of the environment, after all, without being there in person, it was impossible to distinguish the exact nature of the spiritual energy. Luo Xuanyi put away the incense lamps and focused completely on it.

A group of people, perhaps dozens, loomed dimly in the mist. A clearer view revealed them as if they were talking, but there was no sound. The mist seemed endless. Was there nothing here but fog? Just as Luo Xuanyi was beginning to wonder, a flash of red light passed by.

The people in the mist were also frightened. One of them took out a wine gourd small enough to fit in the palm of his hand, muttered something, and the gourd immediately began to absorb the mist. But the mist was endless.

It seemed that because the fog was disturbed, the golden light coming out of the thick fog became quite violent. This time it passed directly through the crowd, along with the wine gourd. All the people who were slightly touched by it immediately evaporated into mist and dissipated.

The picture flashed, and the light particles jumped back onto the cloth dimly. The Qi Ming people immediately used their spiritual energy to warm it.

The second bead of light lit up. Still, the fog was thicker than before. Red and golden lights flashed across the scene, and Luo Xuanyi took a moment to locate the remaining people in the image. There were less than ten of them left, and they looked incredibly miserable, as if they were about to perish here, their faces filled with despair.

But at this moment, a small vortex suddenly appeared in the sky, and disappeared in an instant. Someone among them noticed this vortex and rushed to the direction where the vortex had just appeared, and the scene disappeared again.

"They survived. This is the first difficulty we will face after entering. We must find the vortex. That is the exit."

Something flashed through Luo Xuanyi's mind very quickly, but she couldn't grasp anything.

The third light particle's scene was no longer a thick fog, but a crimson hue. The blurred crimson of the sky echoed with the black and white of the ground. A white figure, not seen before, pointed a sword at them. The scene faded again.

The scene grew increasingly blurry and shorter. Not wanting to miss a single bit of information, everyone stared intently at the fourth particle of light.

“Don’t stand on black!”

A deafening scream assaulted everyone's eardrums, and the screen went pitch black, with barely anything visible save for a few pairs of feet. So, you could actually hear something. The sound startled Luo Xuanyi's attention for a moment, and she noticed the screen wasn't entirely black. There was a distant white line on the ground, and where the group stood was black. They ran desperately towards the white line, and the screen cut off.

The fourth light particle did not continue this scene, but instead created a complete ancient battlefield scene. Countless people fought and fell, and the blood stained the earth red. The fifth and sixth light particles were the same, the only difference being the direction and the gradually increasing pile of corpses in the center.

"That's all the information we have. Although the higher-ups speculated that breaking the restriction might cause the amnesiac fog inside to disappear, Senior Sister Feng has determined that's impossible after observation. That means we won't be able to get any information even if we go in later, because they'll have amnesia the moment they emerge, and they might even stumble upon some treasure. If the first vanguard doesn't lose their amnesia after entering, that would be great, as we'd have more information to verify, but these are all we can rely on for the most part."

He carefully put away the light particles, looked around, and his expression suddenly became stern: "Everyone, we are a team. I trust you to entrust this valuable information to you. If any of you leak it, I will report it to the elders and punish you with sect discipline!"

Everyone agreed, and he said to Qiao Yangrun, "Junior Brother Run, you stay. The others go back and think of something that can be used. Junior Sister Yi, please refine enough medicine. Let's disperse first."

Luo Xuanyi glanced at Qi Mingzhe and Lu Kewei, who were huddled together, but returned to her room without saying anything. Xiang Xiaqi finally breathed a sigh of relief. Seeing Luo Xuanyi approach the desk, he quickly and swiftly spread out paper and ground ink. Luo Xuanyi wrote on the paper the ingredients for the incense and Mingtai wine, mixed with other miscellaneous herbs. When she put down her pen, Xiang Xiaqi produced a folding fan from nowhere and gently blew away the ink.

As Luo Xuanyi expected, Lu Kewei knocked on the door a short while later. Seeing that Luo Xuanyi hadn't said anything yet, Luo Xuanyi handed Xiang Xiaqi to him along with a list of herbs. "All the herbs you need are here. And, Junior Brother Xiang, remember to bring my alchemy furnace here."

Lu Kewei secretly glanced at the list of medicinal materials, and subconsciously twitched his mouth when he saw the long name and the huge demand behind it. He soon realized that Luo Xuanyi was looking at him with a smile, and he immediately burst into exaggerated compliments and acted like a chivalrous man.

For the next ten days, Luo Xuanyi didn't leave. Instead, she set up the alchemy furnace and let it refine Mingtai wine, while she immersed herself in recalling the details of the six scenes. Outside, the human sacrifice proceeded methodically. Shen Edai's team quickly located the key point of the formation. After the estimated three thousand people were sacrificed, the restriction was finally lifted.

Cai Miao's team suffered heavy casualties in the past forty days, and there was almost no new news. Apart from confirming Feng Wutong's guess that the amnesia fog would not disappear just because the ban disappeared, there was no other gain.

After Cai Miao smiled and signaled to everyone that the land reclamation had failed, everyone realized that the difficulty of this relic was definitely higher than expected. Sikong Qian and Du Hui, who were ranked third and fourth, also had uncertain expressions. Among the crowd, only Feng Wutong remained calm.

"That's enough. Junior Brother Cai, don't worry. Your contribution will be recorded truthfully."

Cai Miao's gentle smile seemed to never change, and his eyes were always full of affection whenever he looked at anyone, as if everything in his eyes was so shining, including Feng Wutong's sarcasm.

"Since there's no useful information, then it's my team's turn."

Luo Xuanyi followed behind Qi Mingzhe, observing the bizarre and grotesque wasteland before them. After the restriction was broken, the exotic flowers and plants withered in an instant, transforming into piles of bones that collapsed onto the ground. The shattered bone powder, mixed with the blood squeezed from the earth, formed a door that expanded and opened from the ground. This was the entrance to the ruins.

After Xiang Xiaqi finished distributing the incense, he scurried off to stand a little further away, feeling somewhat uneasy. He was the only surviving outer disciple who could move freely. Even though Luo Xuanyi had asked him to protect him, he still felt incredibly uneasy. Regardless of his previous thoughts, he simply hoped Luo Xuanyi would make it out alive, or else his privileges would be over.

"After you go in, remember to light the things in your hands one by one in groups of five!" Qi Mingzhe shouted at the end, and pushed a group of 100 living sacrifices into the door first according to the convention. After confirming that the opposite side was indeed the ruins, everyone took a deep breath and entered the door.

Amidst a dizzying visual illusion of red and black, they fell into a fog and fell deeply.