Chapter 32 Single
The true entrance to the Divine Pivot Heavenly Mystery Gate actually requires crossing a deep gorge, standing shoulder to shoulder with the clouds. A few iron chains have been laid out as a bridge, which trembles when a gust of wind blows by.
In Guan Xiaoxian's words, if the disciples inside the sect can't even get past this mountain gate, they shouldn't go out and tarnish the reputation of the Divine Pivot Heavenly Mystery Sect. If they can't get past it in their entire lives, they might as well die on the mountaintop.
On one side of the inner gate, beside a cliff, at the railing of a circular viewing platform, stood a woman with a posture as upright as a vigorous pine tree, showing no signs of the stooping that comes with over fifty years of life. Her hair was piled on top of her head, secured by a silver hairpin inlaid with gold and jade, its mechanism subtly rotating. She wore a dark blue brocade robe, and at her waist, she wore two long swords inlaid with gold and jade, a rare sight indeed—she wielded weapons with both hands.
The woman simply stood there, her eyes lowered as she looked down at the two people trapped in the formation below, saying nothing. She merely stood there, the observation deck beneath her feet emitting soft, clicking sounds as the mechanisms meshed and turned.
The two are combined into one, like an exquisitely crafted mechanical tower. No one knows its depth, and no one dares to presumptuously ask for its guidance.
"Mother...Mother, you don't need to be so...so serious, do you?"
Standing beside the woman at the Guan Vietnam station, he bowed and scraped, watching the two figures in the distance, secretly wiping the cold sweat from his forehead.
Fang Yanzhou stood beside him, her blue hair ribbon fluttering in the wind, her face stern, her lips pursed, but her eyes couldn't hide her worry.
"...You even used mirage sand?"
Fang Yanzhou watched as the two people who had broken through the formation suddenly spun around in place, their expressions also strange. He suddenly frowned and asked.
"This nine-fold formation is being activated for the first time. The ancestor only left behind the incantation to tell how to operate the formation, but did not reveal its secrets. How would I know that it actually uses mirage sand as an auxiliary material?"
Guan Xiaoxian narrowed her eyes, waved her hand, and pinched her chin with interest, a longing gleaming in her eyes. She watched the changes in the Heavenly Mystery Array greedily, wishing that the two would trigger something else sooner. Her eyes would light up from time to time, and she would mutter to herself.
"So that's how it is...so that's how it is..."
Suddenly, Fang Yanzhou reached out and gently tugged at Guan Yuenan's sleeve, giving him a wink.
Although Guan Yuehan was slow-witted, he at least understood his mother. Guan Yuehan secretly rubbed his hands together, his expression tense, and he paced back and forth behind Guan Xiaoxian from time to time, letting out a few long sighs.
"Are you nervous? If you're so bored, go and wipe the stone lions at the entrance. You don't even know how to study when you have such a rare opportunity."
Guan Xiaoxian glanced at Guan Yuenan, as if she knew what he was worried about, and then said.
"Don't worry, this nine-layered formation is neither human nor demonic, so ingenious that it's almost intelligent. If I don't give the order to kill, it will adjust the difficulty according to the ability of the person attempting to break through it."
His words were exactly the same as Lin Chengye's.
Guan Yue's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly said.
“Mother, but how do we account for the fact that there are two people who tried to break through the formation? My old friend is indeed very strong, but the young friend next to her is the one whose meridians were severed and who came seeking medicine…”
"Why are you talking so much nonsense? Is your mother some kind of demonic cult?"
Guan Xiaoxian reached out and twisted Guan Yuenan's ear half a turn, making the man scream in pain.
She has doubted more than once whether the person who crossed the border into Vietnam was switched at birth, because her brain and personality are not like hers.
Guan Xiaoxian was genuinely puzzled, but she still squatted down, fiddling with a disc-shaped mechanism with her fingers, and muttering something under her breath.
The two figures below the mountain stopped at the same time, and the bluestone path and corridor that should have been the same under their feet suddenly split in two, with each going in one direction.
Bian Yi was clearly flustered and rushed forward like a headless fly, shouting Lin Chengye's name. Liao Chenjian didn't care whether there were rocks, forests, or rivers in front of him, and he cut them all down with a single sword.
But at a certain moment, she suddenly stopped in her tracks, staring blankly ahead, the sword in her hand suddenly disintegrating into a thousand powerless threads.
Lin Chengye, however, remained calm. He stood there for a while before stepping forward, showing no sign of panic.
Guan Xiaoxian, who had been focusing her attention on Bian Yi, let out a surprised "Eh," shifted her gaze slightly, and said with interest.
"Looks young, but quite mature... Guan from Vietnam! Can't you learn from that little black guy!"
"What does this have to do with me, Mother!"
Guan Yue collapsed and screamed.
"And someone's name is Lin Chengye! Don't give him random nicknames!"
Guan Xiaoxian ignored it, but suddenly her expression hardened, and she whispered.
"That man in white has already triggered the killing formation of the Nine Heavenly Mysteries Formation. It seems the Nine Heavenly Mysteries Formation considers him extremely dangerous..."
"Please don't actually hurt them," Fang Yanzhou warned.
My dear friend Chengye, this is all I can do to help.
Guan Yue rubbed his reddened ears, but his heart was still pounding. He looked at Fang Yanzhou and found that his wife's brows were furrowed even more tightly than his own.
...
"What kind of clever method is this? It's clearly a lack of martial ethics."
Bian Yi was somewhat confused by the scene before him. It looked like a prestigious manor, but he didn't know if it was real or not. He even felt a chill run down his spine when he looked at the white geese in the lake.
"No, even mirage sand can't create interconnected illusions. But the scenery before us is the same..."
"It's likely a combination of illusionary mechanisms and mirage sand, and these scenes probably aren't all illusions; the real and the unreal are mixed together, making it even harder to distinguish. If anything happens in a moment, remember not to panic..."
Before Lin Chengye could finish speaking, the scenery in front of him suddenly swayed. For just a moment, Lin Chengye almost thought it was his hallucination.
The clicking sound of the mechanism turning followed immediately, and everything fell silent, yet she could clearly see the flowing water and the rustling leaves in the trees. She couldn't even hear Bian Yi's breathing.
Before he could finish speaking, it was unclear whether Bian Yi could hold back.
Lin Chengye breathed a sigh of relief, observed the subtle changes in the surrounding scenery, and finally lowered his head, walking forward along the bluestone path and embarking on the long mountain road.
A few days ago, during a period of continuous rain, Bian Yi happened to be out buying medicine when a carrier pigeon from Vietnam flew in through the window and landed on her pillow, shaking off the cool rain from its wings.
Lin Chengye struggled to sit up, barely able to read the words on the letter.
As expected, they arrived. These two clearly cared deeply for Bian Yi; they certainly wouldn't remain silent. Lin Chengye coughed twice, picked up his pen, and wrote down everything he had been thinking about on his bed these past few days.
After all, there is a slight difference between being completely passive and doing one's best and leaving the rest to fate.
"Firstly, it provides me with the general principles and theories of mechanical arts, without delving into the mysteries."
"Secondly, I need to go into battle alone."
...
"That won't do! You're kidding, nobody knows what the Ninefold Array looks like yet! No way, no way."
Guan Yuenan looked at the reply in his hand and shouted. Fang Yanzhou, standing beside him, frowned worriedly and pulled out a second one with his fingers.
"Don't say no. Sister Fang, Master Guan, please let me explain."
"After all, what I've always wanted is the two-headed serpent with bones, not to get through this formation."
"So I came up with a clever, opportunistic plan, but it's too embarrassing to talk about, so I won't go into details. But I have to act alone."
"The Divine Pivot Heavenly Mystery Sect is the number one sect in the martial arts world. Its sect leader is a righteous person and would never come after us to take our lives."
"Therefore, it is speculated that this nine-layered formation is not entirely a killing formation. Moreover, if the formation is so profound, almost like a person, it may be able to adapt its techniques to the enemy, making the difficult easy for the enemy."
"So if you have the chance, please mention this to Master Guan. If I'm wrong, you don't need to bring it up again."
"Bian Yi will definitely be forcing his way through the formation and will suffer a lot. You two should plead for him. I don't need to worry too much about him."
"What if..."
Guan Vietnam muttered to himself and turned to the next page.
The letter contained only a few large, flamboyant characters, revealing that the sender's patience had run out.
"There's no chance of anything going wrong."
"Pfft." Fang Yanzhou couldn't help but cover his face and laugh when he saw Guan Nan's pale face.
...
In his later reply to Vietnam, Guan mentioned two most important points:
The key to the formation. The key to its operation. The former is the crucial element of the formation, while the latter is the method of manipulation.
Lin Chengye slowly walked up the stone steps, gradually understanding how this place operated.
She had never understood how nine intertwined arrays could be achieved. After all, even a single large-scale mechanical array required an enormous amount of land, let alone nine.
Originally, the Heavenly Mystery Illusion Array was used as the first layer, and the other arrays were all completed within the illusion.
There are advantages and disadvantages, Lin Chengye thought to himself.
The upper eight layers of the Heavenly Secret Array are intertwined. The most important part of the array is the array eye; if the eye is broken, the array will break. However, in this illusion array, the real and the fake are mixed together, and the array eye is hidden extremely cleverly, making it extremely difficult to break through one by one.
However, if the core of the illusion array at the bottom is broken, the other eight layers will all collapse into nothingness.
Before Lin Chengye could continue thinking, he suddenly felt a pain in his shoulder.
She looked up, but before she could utter an apology, all her thoughts and composure were shattered by the image of that person reflected in her eyes.
She wanted to figure out why this illusion felt so real. Was it because she longed for the person before her to be real and warm, or was it a magic array...?
never mind.
Lin Chengye suddenly resigned himself to his fate and closed his eyes, no longer forcing himself to calm down or think rationally.
She couldn't deceive herself about how shocked she was when she saw that person, and how overjoyed she was afterwards.
"...That's really true, to win someone's heart, you must first win their heart."
She did her best to walk forward and patted the man on the shoulder.
The body beneath her palm was warm, its flesh rising and falling with each breath, as if brimming with boundless life. The saliva rolling down her throat hurt more than a sharp blade, yet she still couldn't bear to pull her trembling hand away.
Those poisoned will see celestial palaces and jade towers, and be reunited with their loved ones.
She could regard celestial palaces and jade towers as dust, but... but... Lin Chengye lowered his head and laughed, drops of water falling onto the bluestone slab, forming damp shadows. Yet her hand never left that person's shoulder.
She heard her own voice tremble and hoarsely call out.
"……mother."
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