"According to the Five Elements Law," Chen Guanshui pondered, "Does it mean that I need to use the Earth Element Method to open this place?"
"It's very likely." Shi Liuli said with a chuckle, "How about taking out your Huangting Kunwu Sword and activating the Mountain Moving Technique on it to try?"
"I don't know the earth-walking method." Chen Guanshui sighed.
"So you don't deny that you have the Huangting Kunwu Sword, right?" Shi Liuli pressed on.
"Why do you insist that I am your husband?" Chen Guanshui pretended to be confused.
"Then why did my husband pretend to be just passing by?" Shi Liuli asked him back.
"Is there any evidence?" Chen Guanshui finally got angry.
"No need!" Shi Liuli stared at Chen Guanshui and said through gritted teeth, "Luo Yan, you bastard! How long do you want to keep pretending?"
This woman was adamant and Chen Guanshui had no way to deal with her. He could only lower his head and continue studying the ground.
He recalled the last time he and Senior Sister An were in the abyss of the Giant Tree Secret Realm. There was a mechanism that required one to use the Fenyun Bagua Steps to walk a corresponding trajectory on the ground in order to open the space under the ground.
But the design of the mechanism there was to try to pass down the Fenyun Bagua Steps; and the underground secret room here was to prevent snooping and intrusion by malicious outsiders, so it was almost impossible to intentionally leave any clues or reminders on the ground.
"Daoyou." Chen Guanshui suddenly asked, "Do you find it strange? If the shadowy man wants us to find his predecessor, and his predecessor is in this underground secret room, why didn't the shadowy man reveal the mechanism to open the secret room to us in advance?"
"What's wrong with that?" Shi Liuli snorted coldly, "It's obvious that I don't trust you."
"But if they don't tell us, then we will most likely not be able to open this underground secret room, and we won't be able to find the remains of their ancestors," said Chen Guanshui.
Shi Liuli was silent for a moment and said:
"What if that's what they want?"
"You mean..." After she reminded him, Chen Guanshui immediately changed his mind:
If the other party's purpose is not to find the so-called "remains of the predecessors", but to confirm whether the underground secret room here is open...
If I didn't find the remains of my predecessor and returned empty-handed, the other party would naturally know that the secret room could not be opened.
But if the secret room had been opened by someone, then there would be a huge hole on the ground in the backyard of the government office, which would definitely be visible during my search.
As long as you go in, you can find the remains of the predecessor, which proves that the secret room has been opened by someone.
As for the person who might open the secret room... it's not difficult to guess. The man in the shadow had said before that they were lucky enough to survive until now thanks to the light-proof space opened up by their predecessors.
But there is no way to rule out the possibility that other cultivators from Yuting Sect survived through some other means, came here early to open the secret room and take away the things inside.
"So, they are not interested in the remains of the predecessors, but what they really care about is the things in the secret room." Chen Guanshui concluded, "This thing must be very valuable, so much so that they have to use the 'remains of the predecessors' as a cover, fearing that I will secretly intend to force open the secret room!"
Shi Liuli was so smart that after hearing just a few words, he immediately agreed with him in his reasoning.
"What treasure is in the secret room..." She pondered for a moment, then suddenly reacted and sneered, "You have a sharp mind, why don't you pretend to be a fool?"
"Can a fool survive in the world of cultivation and reach the Nascent Soul stage?" Chen Guanshui looked at her speechlessly.
Shi Liuli was stunned for a moment before realizing that he was being despised. He immediately squeezed his hand bones until they cracked.
Otherwise... no matter if he is Luo Yan or not, find a chance to sneak attack and chop him up? It would not be wrong to kill such a despicable man...
Her eyes wandered over Chen Guanshui's back, and the latter felt goosebumps all over his body, and couldn't help but follow her gaze.
Then he suddenly noticed that the gaps between the stone slabs on the ground were too large and did not seem to be formed naturally.
Generally speaking, taking thermal expansion and contraction into consideration, most stonemasons who build the sect's ground will leave some gaps between the stone slabs to prevent them from expanding and cracking when exposed to high temperatures.
But the gap cannot be too big, otherwise, given the abundant spiritual energy in most sects’ headquarters, grass will soon grow inside it.
The saying that grass grows in a sect is not auspicious. Only those sects that have been destroyed will have grass growing in their bases. Therefore, the stonemasons will definitely not leave such a large gap. Even if someone fights and cracks the floor, it will have to be repaired in time.
Chen Guanshui squatted on the ground, took out a small dagger, and pried between the cracks in the floor, soon attracting Shi Liuli's attention.
After all, she majored in sword forging. She quickly glanced at the dagger and thought to herself:
Dagger? With this length, it must be a flying sword that is good at concealment and assassination.
With his vision, only the top-notch flying swords would be worthy of his attention, so what kind of flying sword is this?
Could it be the Flying Sword that Beheads Immortals?
Chen Guanshui fiddled with it for a long time, and suddenly he felt strength in his hands, and he was delighted.
Got it!
This stone slab can actually be pried up!
He was about to roll up his sleeves when he heard Shi Liuli say angrily:
"How many treasures do you have that you're hiding from me?"
"What?" Chen Guanshui asked puzzledly.
"Where did you get that flying sword?" Shi Liuli asked coldly, like a wife who had found out about her husband's private money.
"Oh." Chen Guanshui handed her the dagger, "This is what the herdsmen on the grassland use to cut meat."
Shi Liuli took the dagger, examined it carefully, looked left and right, but couldn't see any clue at all.
Is this really just an ordinary dagger?
No, since he could specially carry it with him, there must be something special about it!
She studied the dagger carefully, wishing she could bring a dragon-tiger tractor from Yuqing Penglai Temple to examine it from beginning to end. Chen Guanshui grabbed the edge of the stone slab with both hands and lifted it up.
Shi Liuli frowned and looked, then saw that there was solid ground below and there was no entrance at all.
"So we're wrong?" she asked in surprise, "There's no secret room down there?"
"No." Chen Guanshui turned the slate over. "It's on the back."
Shi Liuli took a closer look and was speechless.
It turned out that on the back of the stone slab, there were densely packed and complex circuits engraved, which were obviously part of a certain formation.
Since the formation was not complete, there was no energy flowing in it, and the cultivators would not deliberately scan the shape of the engravings on the back of the stone slab. In other words, if they wanted to notice the mark on the back of the stone slab, they could only turn it over to see it clearly.
But who would turn these slabs over for no reason? The cultivator who could think of such a hidden formation must have clearly understood the blind spots and loopholes in people's minds.
Chen Guanshui took more effort to pry up all the square stone slabs, then turned them over on the ground and began to carefully examine the patterns on them.
Shi Liuli stood by and watched, just as carefully examining Chen Guanshui's expression, trying to analyze his knowledge and attainments of the formation.
The formation...is not something that ordinary cultivators can learn easily.
Not only do you have to learn how to make array equipment, you also have to be familiar with the meaning of various runes and circuits. Finally, it requires a lot of hands-on practice and practice.
Even if a casual cultivator without the support of a sect was lucky enough to obtain some array book, it would be the limit for him to research a few simple arrays. Wanting to start from scratch and analyze and restore an ancient array that he had never seen before? Absolutely impossible!
Let's see how you deal with it... Shi Liuli thought coldly, staring at Chen Guanshui without blinking, and swore that he would not give him any advice from now on.
Chen Guanshui was seen looking at this stone slab, then turning around that stone slab, as if he was studying the runes and structures on them.
Next, he moved two of the slabs together and tried to put them together.
Shi Liuli took a closer look and almost fainted from anger.
Is this like playing a jigsaw puzzle? Even if you don't know the formation at all, you just need to find two edges of the circuit structure that can just fit together, and then splice the corresponding two stone slabs together... So even if you don't know the formation, you can still try to repair it, right?
Yes, he had anticipated this and had made adequate preparations. He was here just to laugh at my joke!
Chen Guanshui was concentrating on thinking. After all, it was relatively simple to repair it by looking at the formation structure, but it was a bit difficult to play a puzzle. A square stone brick that was about a foot long often had more than 20 to 30 intersections on one side. How difficult would it be to connect them together based on the distribution of these points on the side?
After working like this for a long time, Shi Liuli finally couldn't bear it anymore and went over to help him put the stone slabs together.
She finally understood that this bastard had thrown away even his basic dignity in order to pretend that he was not Luo Yan!
If I don't help, he will fight until the end of time!
Of course, if there was really enough time, Shi Liuli would find a place to sit nearby, get some food, and enjoy his performance.
But no one knows when Xu Yinglian and An Zhisu will find this place.
If she couldn't expose the true face of this bastard in time and force him to repent and go with her, when those two people arrived here, Shi Liuli would not have the confidence to compete with them for her husband...
Otherwise, after entering the secret room, we can find an opportunity to knock him out, then wrap him in star sand and take him away?
Such a sinister thought grew violently in my heart like a vine.
These stone slabs were pieced together, revealing the original appearance of the formation: it was indeed an obvious teleportation formation. Although it bore traces of ancient formations, many of its structures were still easily recognizable.
The only question now is whether to activate this teleportation formation.
After all, not all teleportation arrays lead to another safe place. Some arrays will deliberately make tricks, such as teleporting halfway and then letting you fail, or teleporting one way and not being able to return, and then the other side is a desperate situation, etc. Array masters can get a glimpse of clues from the structure, but ordinary cultivators can only choose whether to gamble their lives.
If Chen Guangua decisively chooses to teleport, it means that he can confirm that there is no problem with the formation, which means that he understands the formation!