After exchanging ideas with the people outside the barrier, the senior array cultivator from the Myriad Spirits Palace gave the same advice they had:

The search for the array's core began in the room where the Qilin stone statue was enshrined.

Shen Sangruo and the snake woman unleashed their spiritual power, filling the entire room and meticulously searching every corner.

The spiritual energy stretched across the ground like veins, and the two lights belonging to the two individuals flickered.

Ultimately, it all comes down to one point: the Qilin stone statue at the center!

Almost instantly, she and the snake woman realized what was happening, their expressions changed, and they knew something was wrong.

He immediately shouted to the others, "That Qilin statue is the core of the formation! Get out of the room immediately!"

There are usually protective devices next to the core of the formation, which is now the most dangerous place.

Sure enough, as soon as everyone made a move, the eyes of the stone statue in the center suddenly lit up, emitting a blue-gold mixed light that was the same as Qiyan's eyes.

The stone statue suddenly grew several times larger, and its already enormous body now appeared even more colossal to everyone.

To make matters worse, not only did the statues grow larger, but the room where everyone was located also expanded several times over.

The distance between their location and the door suddenly increased, causing the door to close before they could escape the room.

Then the door suddenly disappeared, and the surrounding area became four solid walls, airtight, as if it had always been a closed space.

The entire room resembled a giant battleground, and the atmosphere instantly became tense and eerie.

Shen Sanruo's expression turned solemn. She had already guessed that only by destroying the array's core could they leave this space.

The others also realized this, and their expressions inevitably turned somewhat unpleasant.

A fierce battle is likely to follow.

Looking up at the enormous creature before them, the Qilin stone statue had already begun to move its limbs and head.

The entire stone statue emitted a teeth-grinding sound due to its movement, as if it had come to life.

A pair of extremely imposing eyes stared intently at the crowd, as if looking at intruders who had trespassed into its territory.

This stone statue is both the key point of the formation and its protective device.

The nine people present had all weathered many storms. Seeing that they could not escape, they immediately suppressed their panic, summoned their magical artifacts, gathered spiritual power, and prepared to fight.

Shi Zhili, gripping his red-tasseled spear, exuded a sharp aura and asked Chen Sangruo:

"How will this array's core be destroyed? Will it be destroyed by direct force, or will it be destroyed in a different way, like the array in Starry Plain?"

“Destroy it directly,” she said, glancing at the snake woman beside her.

After all, she had only started learning the art of formations in the last few months, and although there was a conclusion, it still needed to be verified by the snake woman.

The snake woman confirmed, "Yes, but this guy doesn't seem so easy to deal with."

The snake woman's pupils narrowed into a vertical line.

The focus of the Five Divine Beasts statues is not on the statues themselves, but on the Five Divine Beasts.

The power of the Five Divine Beasts is terrifying. Even if these are clones created by those evil cultivators using some unknown means, and even if they only possess one percent of the original power of the Five Divine Beasts, they are still not something that the nine of them can easily deal with.

The stone statue was still moving, its movements somewhat clumsy and slow, and the loud sound of stones colliding echoed in everyone's ears.

They all knew that the battle would begin once the stone statue was fully activated.

"What's wrong? What's the situation on your end?" Qi Yan's voice appeared in Shen Sangruo's mind, and he sensed her emotional change.

She calmly described the situation: "Your stone statue has come to life, trapping us all in the room. It's the key to the formation; we can only leave by destroying it."

"What?!" Qi Yan tensed up. "Can you handle this?"

“There hasn’t been a fight yet.” As if she had thought of something, Shen Sangruo raised an eyebrow.

"Since it's your statue, do you know what its weaknesses are, or what your weaknesses are?"

I almost forgot, they also have a Qilin on their side, so they know their enemy and themselves.

If Qiyan could provide them with crucial information, many dangers could be reduced, and they would be able to deal with the stone Qilin much more easily.

"By the way, could you also ask Lord Gu Ci what material this stone statue was carved from?" she added.

The goal is to shatter the stone statue, so the material of the statue is particularly important. Different materials require different methods of destruction, which can achieve twice the result with half the effort.

She only hoped that the material of the stone statue wouldn't be too difficult to damage.

On the other end of the contractual connection, Qi Yan seemed to be deep in thought.

"This young master's weakness..." Qi Yan stroked his chin, his voice extremely conflicted, "This young master doesn't seem to have any weaknesses."

After all, in his eyes, he was still perfect.

"Does being affected by demonic energy count? When the Hall of Ten Thousand Spirits built these stone statues, they probably didn't expect that the Qilin, one of the Five Divine Beasts, would be affected by demonic energy and lose almost all of its abilities."

His voice held a hint of self-mockery; in the past, this would have been a clear self-deprecating remark, but now it sounded more like a joke.

"In that case, is the weakness of demonic energy still useful?" Qi Yan asked seriously.

"Whether it works or not, just try it and you'll know."

Shen Sanru pondered, if it were any other cultivator, they would be in a terrible predicament by now. They were all proper cultivators who cultivated with spiritual power, so where would they get demonic energy from?

But she was different; she didn't seem so serious.

Little Black seemed to realize that it was about to be put to use, and stood proudly next to her nascent soul, ready to serve at any time.

However, Qi Yan's words reminded her that the Hall of Ten Thousand Spirits was established after the great chaos, and by then the evil cultivators had already set up their formations.

How could those evil cultivators have foreseen that the Hall of Ten Thousand Spirits would be built here, and that stone statues of the Five Divine Beasts would be erected as the core of the formation?

With this doubt in mind, she turned her attention back to the stone statue in front of her.

“Let’s try it first, and then you can think carefully about what your weaknesses are.”

If demonic energy proves ineffective, a change of strategy can be implemented immediately.

Qi Yan also learned about the material of the stone statue from Gu Ci Zhenjun: "The material of the stone statue is Tianyuan Stone."

Upon hearing this answer, Shen Sangruo's brows furrowed slightly.

Tianyuan Stone is a crystal formed from the essence of sunlight and moonlight, and it is extremely rare in the cultivation world.

Its texture is quite hard and its durability is extremely high.

In addition, it has the additional property of being immune to fire and ice. The spiritual power of various elements that ordinary crystals fear cannot harm it, making it extremely difficult to destroy.

However, there is a prerequisite for activating these additional properties: the Celestial Stone needs to be placed in a place where it receives sunlight and moonlight, allowing it to absorb the essence of the sun and moon for a period of time.

It can maintain its properties for an hour by absorbing the essence of the sun and moon for five minutes.

It is commonly known as charging for five minutes and operating for two hours.

Today's update is here! Thank you everyone for your monthly tickets, recommendations, reading, and favorites! Thank you so much!

(End of this chapter)