"Could it be an illusion?" Ye Huai asked calmly.
After examining the sand beneath his feet, Jiang Chu spoke up, "This sand is real; it is indeed sand from the Red Desert."
“The sand is real, but the scene before us may not be real.” Chen Sanruo surveyed the surrounding desert. “The formation was originally set up in the desert, so those evil cultivators don’t need to deal with the sand problem.”
"Those heretical cultivators only need to manipulate the scene before them."
They should still be inside the formation, with the desert beneath their feet.
Lin Qianyin continued, "By creating an illusion that we are in the desert, and using real sand as the only means of judgment, it will be impossible for people to distinguish between the illusion and the real environment."
Lin Qianyin's cultivation path was related to the illusion.
With just a few words, the group uncovered the first layer of disguise carefully laid out by the evil cultivator.
"So, the most urgent task right now is to dispel the illusion?" Fang Yu's tone became lighter.
“We should break through this barrier as soon as possible,” Jiang Chu added. “The temperature here is higher than in the Red Desert, and it seems to be slowly rising.”
If they don't break the formation quickly, they'll probably be roasted to death before they even get a chance to touch it.
"Qianyin, can you do it?" Shen Sanruo's gaze fell on Lin Qianyin.
Lin Qianyin nodded, "I'll give it a try."
She summoned her magical artifact, a zither, which floated in front of her.
With a flick of the finger, two syllables are produced, and a clear sound wave can be seen spreading out in the air.
After a few more attempts, Lin Qianyin found the key.
Her eyes widened slightly, and a faint smile appeared on her lips.
"I found it!"
The heretical practitioners didn't seem to put much effort into this illusion, as it wasn't difficult to decipher.
Her fingers moved swiftly across the guzheng, so fast that they created afterimages, and the notes connected to form a mysterious melody.
Lin Qianyin was completely absorbed in the music, closing her eyes and playing with utmost concentration.
The sound waves produced by the guzheng grew stronger and stronger, rippled through space, and the scene before their eyes seemed to become distorted.
The illusion has found a breakthrough point and is now extremely unstable.
Lin Qianyin plucked the last syllable, her aura sharp and fierce, and let out a low shout:
"break!"
The illusion before everyone's eyes was completely shattered by the sound waves, finally revealing the true appearance beneath the illusion.
They looked ahead and saw a magnificent palace standing silently on the desert, shrouded in a barrier, just tens of meters away from them.
The palace, a yellowish-brown color, stood out against the light red desert. It wasn't particularly tall, but its solemnity still made everyone hold their breath.
The word "desert temple" involuntarily came to everyone's mind.
"Legend has it that many powerful beings once built palaces in the Red Desert to store the treasures they had acquired in their lifetime. For people of later generations, this is an invaluable treasure trove of opportunities."
Jiang Chu looked at the palace with envy in her eyes.
The people of the Red Desert's lifelong wish is to find a temple in their lifetime.
"But those powerful beings often set up countless traps in that palace. It is likely that those evil cultivators set up formations in the palace, hoping to use the traps in the palace to prevent others from destroying the formations."
"To break the formation, we must enter the palace and find out what's inside."
Luo Chu also said, "The key to this formation is most likely in that palace."
"So, should we just go in?" Shi Zhili looked at Chen Sangruo, flexing his wrists, eager to try.
After the two reconciled, Shi Zhili put aside his previous prejudices and now completely regards her as the core of his life.
It's as if he went from one extreme to the other, having to ask her about everything.
Everyone else turned to look at her.
Shen Sang is undoubtedly the core of the team.
“Go straight in,” she instructed. “Now that we know the palace is fraught with danger, there’s no need to hesitate or test it any further.”
That would only waste time; it would be better to try to break the formation directly.
The group prepared themselves and pushed open the palace gates without hesitation.
The ancient stone gate, having been inactive for a long time, made a loud noise, shaking off a cloud of dust.
Connecting to the stone gate is a passageway the same width as the stone gate.
The passageway was dimly lit, with only the wall lamps on the walls flickering an eerie red light, illuminating a limited area and making visibility extremely low.
Without making a sound, Shen Sanruo condensed a ball of flame in her hand and threw it forward, illuminating the passage.
As the passageway extends, its width gradually narrows, eventually reaching only about two meters in width, before turning a corner.
“You should be able to get inside the palace by going through this passage.” Jiang Chu lowered his voice. “Usually, powerful beings will set up the entrance to the palace as a maze. The maze is often combined with various illusions, making it very easy to lose your way and get separated.”
"Moreover, the maze is full of traps, so please be careful and do not act alone. Try to stay together to prevent getting separated."
In this situation, getting separated would lead to a very dangerous predicament.
Most of the cultivators who found the palace of the powerful beings perished in the maze at the entrance, never even making it inside.
Everyone held their respective magical artifacts in their hands, remained vigilant, and carefully stepped into the passage.
Shen Sangruo and Jiang Chu led the way, while Ye Huai and several other mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivators brought up the rear to ensure the group wouldn't get separated.
The space gradually became cramped, and the impenetrable high walls on both sides of the passage gave people a suffocating feeling.
When Chen Sangri reached the corner, after turning the corner, there was another passage several tens of meters long.
She exchanged a glance with Jiang Chu and took the first step.
The moment her foot landed on the passageway, it was as if she had stepped on the activation mechanism of some kind of device, as a rustling, slightly hurried sound echoed through the passageway.
Immediately afterwards, countless cold arrows appeared from the darkness ahead, their tips gleaming with a blinding cold light, shooting towards Shen Sangruo at lightning speed, as if they would pierce her into a sieve in the next moment!
Her expression remained unchanged, and she didn't seem to care about the arrows.
He raised his hand, and the closed feather fan in his hand collided with the arrow tip, producing a clanging sound of metal clashing. The arrow tip, upon touching the seemingly soft feather, twisted and deformed.
With just a fan, he faced numerous arrows with ease.
In just a few breaths, all the arrows were stopped.
This was the first trap they encountered after entering the palace; it was of moderate strength and was more of a test.
"There are no more traps, let's go," she said to the people behind her.
A new mechanism will appear at each subsequent corner.
The passage seemed to be divided into individual checkpoints by the corners.
Fortunately, those mechanisms weren't too difficult to deal with.
Shen Sangruo also noticed that the focus of this protective array did not seem to be on those mechanisms.
The group followed the passage, twisting and turning countless times, passing through numerous checkpoints.
Second update! Thank you all for your support! *tweets*
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
