The puppet, made of some unknown material, was not damaged after being stabbed by Shi Xuan. However, it seemed to understand that it had failed, so it stopped attacking and retreated with his sword in hand.
Shi Xuan sheathed his sword and continued to advance rapidly.
This maze is not only complex, but it is also constantly changing. Shi Xuan has no doubt that ordinary people would only get stuck here for a while and become headless flies.
The maze finally came to an end, revealing the large hall that Shi Xuan had imagined would be right at the entrance.
The extremely tall walls were all made of an unknown material resembling a labyrinth, and at the very top was a glowing dome, making the entire hall appear bright enough.
Shi Xuan stood in the middle of the hall, looking around. There were only ten doors in a row on the neat walls, and nothing else.
Of these ten doors, one is the entrance to the maze she just passed through; the other nine doors have different patterns painted on them, and their functions are unknown.
Just as Shi Xuan was about to ask a question, Lu Shenzhi gave the answer first: "These nine doors are opportunities for different cultivators. The Soul Gathering Stone is inside the third door on your left. There is a test for cultivators inside this door."
"After we come out, we'll go to the Pill Gate," Shi Xuan said as he walked towards the array gate.
Pushing open the gate, one finds an empty room with only a table and a half-finished chess game on it.
"Move the central piece five squares to the left," Lu Shenzhi said.
Shi Xuan moved the chess pieces as instructed.
The moment the chess piece was placed, the wall directly opposite split open to reveal a new door behind it. The door had several compartments, each containing a book.
It seems to be the reward for breaking the chess game.
Shi Xuan walked over and took out several books one by one to look at them. They were all ancient books related to formations, so they were obviously not ordinary items.
Lu Shenzhi said, "I have all of these books. These were the same ones I gave you last time."
Upon hearing this, Shi Xuan unhesitatingly put the books into his space: "Yours is yours, but this reward is for me."
After accepting the reward, he pushed open the door and found himself in the same room. This time, he saw the same table, but instead of a chessboard, it displayed a formation.
The array's lines were intricate, shimmering with a faint spiritual light; even such a small area was indeed an array.
“Don’t underestimate this area,” Lu Shenzhi said. “There are three sets of formations stacked here, which are more complex than some large formations. When I came here last time, I spent a long time figuring it out.”
Shi Xuan thought for a moment and said, "Maybe if we can learn how to read the books that were given in the last room, we can break this formation."
“Junior Sister is very intelligent,” Lu Shenzhi praised. “Indeed.”
He directed Shi Xuan to move the formation and break it without damaging it. He was very familiar with this kind of formation that he had already broken.
Before long, the wall in front of them moved to both sides again, revealing a new door.
As before, the reward for this event was placed on the door. Shi Xuan picked it up and saw that it was an ancient array plate.
"You got this reward last time too?"
"It's also an array plate, but not the same one. My array plate is called [Heavenly Fiend], and it's an eighth-order magic artifact."
"The rewards are quite consistent."
Shi Xuan glanced at her array plate, on which were written two small characters: [Lone Star]. She twitched her lips, held up the array plate, and said, "Which great being is so good at naming this?"
The two siblings together are a cursed pair; even calling them "Wishing you prosperity" would be better.
Lu Shenzhi paused for a moment, then said, "Perhaps we will encounter something extremely ominous, in which case we can take it out and use it."
Is it about who brings bad luck to whom?
Shi Xuan put away the array plate with its overwhelming power and pushed open the next door.
This time, the room was a bit larger, and there was no table. Instead, the walls on both sides were covered with intricate star maps. They were just like countless stars in the sky, densely packed and covering the entire wall.
At a glance, there are probably tens of thousands of them.
Lu Shenzhi said, "These two walls have mixed up the four seasonal star charts together. We just need to find the corresponding four calamity stars."
Finding four unlucky stars out of tens of thousands of stars—is that considered "good"? It's practically like finding a needle in a haystack!
However, Lu Shenzhi clearly didn't think that way. He easily found four stars and had Shi Xuan pick them off, thus passing the test smoothly.
Shi Xuan said listlessly, "I don't feel involved at all. I have to go to the Pill Gate later to experience the joy of passing the test."
"Yes, this is the final barrier of the formation."
With the stars removed, the last wall also split open to both sides, revealing the innermost room.
It couldn't really be called a room; it was a spherical space without any stairs or shelves. Instead, a round platform floated in mid-air, upon which rested a purplish-black stone—the very Soul Gathering Stone that Lu Shenzhi needed.
The spherical walls were exceptionally smooth, offering no footholds for climbing, and there was nowhere to secure the ropes.
Shi Xuan looked at the stone in mid-air, smiled, and tapped the Soul-Nourishing Wood tucked into his waistband. He said, "Senior Brother, tell me properly, is it that you don't want to take it, or that you can't take it?"
Lu Shenzhi: "Is there a difference? The result is the same anyway." Back then, he was only in the Qi Refining stage and couldn't control a sword yet, so it was normal that he couldn't get it, wasn't it?
"So what method did you originally want me to use to remove it?" Shi Xuan asked.
“Since it’s here, there must be a way to take it down,” Lu Shenzhi said matter-of-factly. “When I came here last time, the secret realm was about to close. This time, we have plenty of time to find a solution.”
He paused, then said, "But now that you have the Concealing Edge Sword, things become much simpler."
Shi Xuan chuckled smugly, "I can also have Zhao Cai take it down. There are plenty of ways."
This was clearly mocking Lu Shenzhi, implying that she couldn't even handle such small matters and had to come all the way here.
With the Soul Gathering Stone before him, Lu Shenzhi lay down and let himself be mocked.
Shi Xuan didn't linger. He stood on the Concealing Edge Sword and flew to the floating platform. He carefully took out the Soul Gathering Stone, put it in a box, and stored it in his storage bracelet.
When it was time to go back, after thinking about it, he also moved the round platform that held the Soul Gathering Stones, which was floating in the air, into his storage space. Shi Xuan's reason was: This is the original Soul Gathering Stone container.
Once the round platform entered the storage space, it could no longer float. So Shi Xuan symbolically placed the box containing the Soul Gathering Stone on the round platform, which was enough to convey the meaning.
With the Soul Gathering Stone successfully obtained, this mission to the Silver Frost Secret Realm was half successful. After all, it was entrusted to the eldest brother, and compared to other opportunities, the eldest brother's "resurrection" was obviously more important.
Even so, thinking of the bullying her senior brother usually inflicted on her, Shi Xuan, after landing from the sword, pretended to stroke her bracelet, as if talking to himself, "I've done such a difficult thing, if I don't add spirit stones, the person who asked me to do this is too unscrupulous."
Having handed over the spirit stone bag in advance, Lu Shenzhi could only pretend to be dead.
Had he known this would happen, he would have divided his spirit stones into fifty bags and stored them away.
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