"Little brother, have you seen these diagrams before?" Zi Dan asked.
Zhu Yao shook her head. These carvings were all over the place, it would be strange if she could recognize them.
"There seems to be a piece missing here." Xiao Yi walked to the right side of the nine diagrams, and as expected, there was a concave area, as though it was dug out by someone. Xiao Yi reached out his hand to touch it, and suddenly, the empty space emitted out a silver light. "It's actually glowing here!"
The three of them were dumbfounded.
Zhu Yao looked at the glowing square empty space, and then, she suddenly turned her head to look at the other nine diagrams at the side. Something that was cut off in her mind, suddenly connected with a ding.
The hell, this was actually a puzzle. No wonder she felt that the diagram was all over the place, it was actually messed up.
"Make way!" Zhu Yao pushed Xiao Yi who was next to the empty space. "This should be a game … mechanism."
Zhu Yao almost said that it was a game. She squatted down, pressed on the piece next to the empty space, and pulled it out. Without using much strength, that diagram automatically moved towards the empty space, and the place where the diagram was originally, once again lit up with a silver white light.
Zhu Yao looked at the other eight stone slabs, and then began to focus on the puzzle.
In less than ten minutes, a complete diagram was completed. Zhu Yao moved the last piece of the puzzle to its original position, and the light on the empty space finally stopped lighting up.
However, the ground began to shake, and the complete puzzle suddenly emitted out a red, formation-like radiance, and there were even characters that she did not recognize floating on it.
"It's done!" Zi Dan looked at Zhu Yao with a surprised look. "Little brother, I never expected that you're actually proficient in mechanisms and formations from the Ancient Era."
This retarded game, and you call it the Ancient Era?
Zhu Yao replied with a smile. "Hoho, I know a little, a little!"
Could she say that she had been playing this since she was three years old?
"This is a teleportation formation!" Xiao Yi took a step forward in shock. "Master must be on the other side of the formation."
After saying that, he was the first to walk in. Rui Yu pouted, a hint of dissatisfaction surfaced on her face, yet, she still followed him in.
Zi Dan nodded towards Zhu Yao, and then walked towards the center of the formation.
The red light instantly brightened, and the scenery in front of them was completely covered by the red light. A moment later, it slowly dimmed down.
Looking around, they had already arrived at an unfamiliar place. It was dark all around, and they could faintly see the broken rocks and broken walls in front of them. It was lonely and quiet all around, so quiet that it was a little strange.
Zhu Yao summoned a wisp of flame. The surroundings instantly became clear.
There was a city in front of them, but it was a deserted city of the dead. Looking at the style of the house, it should be very old. Moreover, there were all sorts of strange runes engraved on the walls, somewhat similar to the characters on the walls of Yue Cang.
"Could this be the underground city?" Rui Yu mumbled. "So there really is an underground city in Yucang City."
Hearing this, the other three were stunned. The Underground City was actually a legend. According to legend, Yucang City was the location of an ancient immortal cultivation sect. The sect was proficient in ancient secret arts, especially formations. Later on, the sect declined. At the moment of annihilation, the surviving disciples worked together to bury a portion of the sect into the ground to avoid being hunted down by their enemies.
But after so many years … Many people had dug deep into Yucang City, but no one had found this city. After a long time, they all thought that this legend was a lie.
This legend. Zi Dan had mentioned it to Zhu Yao as well. Thinking about it, it was understandable. How could a city hidden by an immortal cultivation sect that was famous for its secret arts and formations be found so easily?
However, the entrance to the underground city was actually a jigsaw puzzle. This was too casual, wasn't it!?
Zhu Yao gave a face.
"Little brother, can you sense the direction of the wood spiritual energy?" Zi Dan asked.
Zhu Yao closed her eyes. A moment later, she opened them and shook her head. The little Wood Spirit had waited for too long. It actually fell asleep. This was too unreliable.
"There's that black smoke here as well." Xiao Yi's expression suddenly turned cold. He pointed to the wisp of black smoke not far in front of them.
"It seems like that evil thief is indeed hiding here." Zi Dan shook the fats on his body. "Let's search for the source of the black smoke."
Zhu Yao increased her speed and chased after the crowd. The black smoke was getting thicker as well. She could even faintly smell an unpleasant stench, as though it was some sort of rotting problem.
The few of them walked further and further away from the underground city, arriving at a passageway.
The road was getting narrower as well. A few minutes later, the black smoke in front of them was so thick that they could no longer see the direction.
Practitioners had strong senses in the first place, so Zhu Yao could not help but feel disgusted. She hurriedly sealed off a portion of her sense of smell, and only then did she feel a little better.
"Little brother, be careful!" Zhu Yao was currently walking forward numbly, when suddenly, she was pulled two steps back by Zi Dan.
When she took a closer look, it was actually a gigantic pit in front of her. The size of the pit was simply more than four to five football fields. And within the pit, black smoke was endlessly emitting out, and below the thick smoke was a pool of black water. It was bubbling like lava from a volcano, and there were even blood clots of various sizes floating in the water. When she took a closer look, they were actually all rotting or half-rotting demonic beast corpses.
Zhu Yao was so frightened that she took two steps back. Fortunately, Zi Dan pulled her back.
Patting on her chest, she calmed herself down, and just happened to see Rui Yu's cold smile.
Zhu Yao's heart turned cold. Earlier, the one who was walking in front of her was coincidentally Rui Yu, yet, the one who pulled her back was Zi Dan. She clearly knew there was a pit here, yet, she did not warn her. She did it on purpose!
This queen was up to no good!
"This must be a place to refine demonic beast puppets." Zi Dan analyzed. Turning around, he brought the crowd into a small path. "Chen Zi isn't here. It seems like we can only split up and search."
The four of them discussed, and decided to split into two groups, and search separately. Xiao Yi and Rui Yu would return to the underground city to search, while Zhu Yao and Zi Dan would continue to head deeper into the cave.
Zhu Yao had no choice but to walk towards this narrow path. The path was still filled with black smoke, so Zhu Yao had no choice but to release her divine sense, and carefully explore the path. The strange thing was, this path was unexpectedly long. Even with her Nascent Soul-stage divine sense, she was not able to explore to the end, and the deeper she went, the darker it became.
Zhu Yao held onto a ball of fire, and walked for two hours in the path, yet, she still could not see the end. Finally, she realized something was wrong, and pulled the person in front of her.
"Senior-martial brother, do you feel … that we've been going in circles?"
Zi Dan was startled. "But earlier, I intentionally left a strand of spiritual energy at the places we walked past. I didn't sense any similar spiritual energy ripples. "
Although Zi Dan was fat, he was never muddle-headed when it came to official matters.
However, Zhu Yao was muddle-headed. This was already the third time she stepped on a piece of slippery rock, and she had almost sprained her ankle. And, every time she sprained her ankle, the feeling was the same. She could guarantee with her integrity that it was definitely the same piece.
"Senior-martial brother, try releasing a little more spiritual energy."
It was not a solution to continue walking like this. Zi Dan nodded, and released a strand of spiritual energy as he was told. The two of them did not continue to move, and simply stood on the spot.
A few minutes later, Zi Dan's eyes suddenly widened. An expression of disbelief appeared on his face. "The spiritual energy is gone?"
That strand of spiritual energy actually disappeared without a trace. The spiritual energy mark released by a mighty Nascent Soul-stage practitioner, actually disappeared so strangely.
As expected, they were walking in circles on the spot.
Zhu Yao enlarged the fireball in her hand a little, causing her surroundings to become even clearer. The first thing she did, was to kick away the rock beneath her feet. She then carefully inspected this strange path.
"There's a rune engraved on it!" Zi Dan pointed to the stone wall on the right side of the path. Zhu Yao took a closer look, and it was once again those strange words on the city walls. She was completely unable to understand them.
Zhu Yao reached out her hand to wipe away some of the dust, wanting to take a closer look. That rune suddenly let out a flash of light, and she instantly felt her hand turning numb. As though she had been electrocuted, the fireball on her other hand which was used to illuminate the path instantly extinguished as well.
"This stone wall can absorb spiritual energy!" Zhu Yao immediately retracted her hand.
Zi Dan cast a Clear Wind Art, and immediately headed towards the entire path. The path which was filled with dust earlier was instantly blown clean. On the stone walls on both sides, the same type of rune was actually engraved densely.
"It seems as long as one uses mystic arts and comes into contact with the rune, their spiritual energy will be sucked away." Zi Dan pointed to the front and said. "Let's walk again. Let's see if there's anything strange. "
Zhu Yao nodded. Being trapped here forever was not a solution either. She still had to find a way out.
As expected, after the two of them walked for a short while, they realized an anomaly. The paths were all built with identical rectangular yellowish-brown rocks, but the one on the stone wall in front of them was a cube, and it was even blue, making it especially eye-catching.
Wasn't this clearly telling others that the exit was here? For a moment, Zhu Yao was a little worried for the intelligence of the person who built the path. She couldn't be colorblind, right?
Zi Dan pressed on that blue rock, and circulated his spiritual energy. As expected, it was not absorbed. The blue rock suddenly trembled a few times, and the runes on the surrounding yellowish-brown rocks instantly began to move as though they were alive. They formed the pattern of a formation on the entire wall, and they emitted out a red glow.
"So there's another path here." Zi Dan glanced at Zhu Yao. "Little brother, you're more familiar with formations, why don't you walk in front?"
Zhu Yao gave a helpless look. How did you see that I'm familiar with it? However, walking in front was good as well. With such a huge lump of him walking in front, it would really block her line of sight.
Hence, without any objections, she immediately passed through the formation wall.
Behind the formation, was yet another path, and it was of the same type as before. Zhu Yao instantly felt very tired. Why did she feel as though she was walking in a maze?
Summoning a fireball to illuminate the path, Zhu Yao released her divine sense to its fullest. Resigned to her fate, she continued to explore the path, especially splitting her attention to observe the differences in the surrounding walls.
However, she no longer found those square-shaped rocks. The only change was, the path became narrower the further she walked. Walking towards the end, even she had to lower her head as she walked, let alone Zi Dan whose body was growing horizontally. He was about to curl himself up into a ball.
An hour later, she finally reached the end. It was a wall, and three patterns were carved on it. One was in the shape of a phoenix, one was in the shape of a dragon, and the last one was in the shape of a tortoise. The positions of these three patterns were very loose, as though they were randomly carved on it.
"Little brother, what kind of mechanism formation is this?" Zi Dan curiously asked.
"I don't know either." There were only three patterns, so how would she know which game it was?
"Eh, there's a stone box here!"
Zhu Yao turned around to take a look, and as expected, there was a rectangular stone box beneath her feet. Sweeping it with her divine sense, she did not find any traces of a formation.
When she opened it, she saw that the entire box was filled with carvings that looked like small tiles. Their sizes and appearances were the same as the ones on the stone wall, however, there was an additional tiger-shaped one.
The line in Zhu Yao's mind, once again connected with a 'ding' sound.
If I call you 'Gomoku', do you dare to accept? (To be continued)
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