It was finally time for the general assault!
Upon hearing the news, Tang Jie immediately mounted the tiger and set off for the Floral Forest.
Tang Jie quickly spotted a forest of profuse colors in the distance. Countless flowers bloomed within it, turning the forest into a rainbow ocean, a gorgeous sight beyond words.
But Tang Jie knew that innumerable dangers were hidden beneath all the splendor.
The Floral Forest was the Ice Cave’s defense line. As it was located in the central zone of the Valley of No Return, it was a land abundant with spiritual energy and hosted many spiritual plants. But it was also a place that was crawling with fiend beasts.
The Floral Forest was also a giant formation. While it was just a small forest, there was a vast space contained within it. A student had left behind records about it, and it was said that it was the work of True Lord Tianshu of the Basking Moon Sect. He had set up a formation in line with the local terrain—one with numerous secrets and countless variations. Thus, it could be considered a semi-artificial formation.
Zhao Xiliang was the disciple of True Lord Tianshu’s disciple, Lu Yuanzhen, so he could be considered a granddisciple of True Lord Tianshu.
Seeing that no one was around, Tang Jie presumed that the students had already entered the forest, so he went in as well.
The moment he entered the Floral Forest, his surroundings suddenly shifted.
The rows of trees, flowers, and shrubs suddenly became sparse.
The forest was still the forest, and the flowers were still flowers, as bright and multicolored as ever, but the distance between them had increased. What was once a space of three steps between trees was now thirty steps. The space had opened up, and the place had also become much brighter. It was as if the Floral Forest had been expanded by a factor of ten. Even the distant trees now seemed to tower into the heavens, the crowns of the flowers growing as large as human heads.
Harmless plants now became bizarrely terrifying, and what had been a beautiful world instantly became one crawling with danger.
“A Meru Space?” Tang Jie muttered.
A Meru Space was a method of exploiting space.
In his past world, Tang Jie knew that space was a real thing that manifested as the void.
In the Rosecloud Domain, cultivators had also confirmed this fact through Immortal spells, and they had developed countless powerful spatial spells. This Meru Space was a practical example, as was the Mustard Seed Bag.
From a certain perspective, the Floral Formation was just a larger Mustard Seed Bag, able to hold so much that it could be considered a miniature world. Probably only Titans like True Lord Tianshu were capable of such a feat.
Tang Jie had only taken a few steps when a vine as thick as a python swept toward him. As Tang Jie raised his head, the vine brushed past his face and then suddenly curled back around. Tang Jie grabbed the vine and pulled, and a giant flower stem was pulled out of the ground, the flower corolla biting at Tang Jie like a giant maw.
Just when Tang Jie was about to attack, the little tiger spat out a ball of lightning that obliterated the corolla. The vine twitched like a dead snake a few times before falling quiet.
Tang Jie looked at the flower on the ground and shook his head. “It’s not some monstrous plant that became a sprite, only an ordinary flower. It seems that the formation has infused all objects with a fiendish nature.”
The Floral Formation had made everything in the forest aggressive. Tang Jie cautiously advanced, and even the little tiger grew more vigilant.
At certain intervals, they would see the bodies of students.
They were laid out on the sides of the path, together with the bodies of various fiend beasts and the remains of fiend plants. Some of them had died while still holding their weapons, their eyes wide open in fear. It was clear that they had not imagined that they would end up dying in this place. All sorts of heroic ambitions and grand ideals had vanished together with the ends of their lives.
Tang Jie couldn’t help but sigh.
These students had once been full of hope, carrying the expectations of countless people, but now, they had all died while out on campaign.
The Immortal path was callous, and to step on that path was to step on the path of no return.
Tang Jie continued to cautiously advance. Occasionally, some dangerous existence would charge at him. Monsterized plants and savage fiend beasts had made the Floral Forest a deadly land with thorns and brambles wherever one walked.
Yiyi’s voice occasionally rang out in his mind, telling him how the students were progressing, and Tang Jie followed at a pace that was neither too fast nor too slow.
“Oh no!” Yiyi suddenly shouted.
“What happened?”
“There’s an illusion formation up ahead. Everyone has been separated. Big Brother, you need to be careful!”
“An illusion formation? What kind?”
“I’m not sure. There’s fog everywhere, and I can hardly see anyone. Ugh, I hate it!”
“Even you can’t see through it?”
“I can’t!” Yiyi cried out in frustration.
Tang Jie frowned.
Yiyi had been born in an illusion formation, and she had the natural ability to see through illusions. Normal illusion formations had no effect on her, and if she couldn’t see through this one, it meant that it was of an extremely high level.
Although it was True Lord Tianshu who had set down the formation, the Floral Forest was meant to test students, so it shouldn’t have been too high of a level.
There had been so many casualties before this because the past tests had been for the Mortal Shedding Realm. The students this time still weren’t strong enough, leading many of them to lose their lives.
Even so, it shouldn’t have become any more difficult. It had to be understood that if they were no longer able to communicate with each other, the students would lose much of their advantage. Unable to pass the trial, they would die, and they would die in large numbers, which carried a completely different significance. Unless…
“Unless it wasn’t True Lord Tianshu who set down this illusion formation!” Tang Jie realized with a start. He yelled, “Yiyi, is there anything else unusual around you?”
“Nothing. It’s just a little cold,” Yiyi replied.
“‘Cold’?” Tang Jie was aghast, blurting out, “Not good! It’s the Frost Fairy! Be careful! She might be in the Floral Forest right now! She was the one who laid down this illusion formation!”
“What?” Yiyi was alarmed. “Wasn’t she in the Ice Cave?”
“That doesn’t mean she can’t come out! Don’t forget that this is a Mind Opening sprite!” Tang Jie grimly said.
Whether fiend or sprite, once they entered Mind Opening, they would no longer be ignorant and unaware, nor could they be compared to ordinary fiends. Not only would they grow much stronger, even their judgment and fighting styles would change. Existences like this would not sit around in one place to wait for death. For them to move around was completely normal.
As Tang Jie called out, there was a sharp scream in the distance.
This scream was miserable and filled with pain. It was clearly the cry of despair of someone dying. And what followed was a cold and icy laughter that echoed through the forest.
It was bizarre laughter, so cold that it chilled everyone’s hearts.
“Yiyi, watch out! She’s nearby and using the illusion formation to split us apart and hunt us down one by one!” Tang Jie called out as he rushed forward.
With intelligence, sprites and fiends could hunt down targets just like cultivators!
As the cruel laughter rang out, the fearful cries of students began to rise from the Floral Forest, and the light of spells began to flash. Screams could be heard near and far, fading in and out, as the terrifying sprite began to hunt down the students.
The hundreds of students had been split up by the formation into countless small chunks, and the mist prevented them from seeing anyone. The unknown enemy had become their worst nightmare, and worst of all was that they couldn’t even retreat.
The illusion formation had thrown their surroundings into chaos and cut off the way back!
At this moment, a sword light flashed, and a student ascended upon a flying sword. As he emerged above the trees, he looked around and said in delight, “This illusion formation has no effect in the air!”
“No! Hurry and get down!” Tang Jie called out.
A stream of ice shot out of the formation, striking the student and turning him into an ice statue. The student dropped to the ground and shattered into pieces.
Tang Jie closed his eyes, unable to watch.
The Frost Fairy had clearly intentionally left the skies free of illusions to bait students into flying.
These students, even if they could fly, wouldn’t be able to fight as agilely as they did on the ground. Taking flight would just make them living targets.
Fortunately, most of the students were on their guard, and when they saw what happened, none of them dared to try and fly.
Tang Jie rushed out and finally saw the foggy area in front of him. To be more precise, it wasn’t fog, but turbulent water vapor infused with chill and ice.
Stopping in front of the fog, Tang Jie shouted, “Yiyi, do you know where you are right now?”
“I’m not sure! Oh no, oh no! Big Sister Hongyan and the others are gone! Two monsters charged out and attacked us, and once we finished fighting them, the others were gone. Now it’s just the stupid pig, the stupid monkey, and the dumb ox!”
Tang Jie was startled. “Who’s the dumb ox?”
“That Cai fellow!”
Upon hearing that Cai Junyang was still at Wei Tianchong’s side, Tang Jie relaxed a little. He knew that Cai Junyang was holding up his end of the deal and had not abandoned Wei Tianchong.
But so long as the illusion formation was present, the students would not hold the initiative in this battle.
He needed to find a way to destroy this illusion formation.
Tang Jie thrust out his palm, and as icy winds howled, a small area was cleared in front of him.
But Tang Jie didn’t go in. He fired off some spiritual energy into the ground in front of him, followed by several bolts fired from his fingers. As the fog roiled and the chilly air seethed, a small chunk of the fog was pushed back.
But the icy mist quickly gathered back, impossible to completely disperse.
Tang Jie didn’t try to force it. He continued to fire off bolts of energy at certain points, at the same time grabbing a handful of dirt and tossing it at the formation. “Rich earth and scattered soil, return to your positions!”
As he threw out the dirt, Tang Jie focused his eyes. He saw the dirt spinning around in the air and then sprinkling down in little balls of dirt that were evenly distributed across the surroundings, and he felt his heart sink.
This illusion formation used the mist created by frost and water energy to obscure vision and confuse one’s sense of direction, and there was also some spatial disruption added in.
As Water was in the Kan position (North), the critical point of this illusion formation was probably the Rest Gate. To break the formation, one needed to find the Rest Gate first.
Earth countered water, so Tang Jie had thrown in dirt to see how the formation would react. The slightest abnormality from the formation would give him a clue that he could use to find the formation’s weakness and break it.
But the illusion formation had been entirely unaffected, and he hadn’t been able to notice a thing.
Of course, this was because he was using ordinary soil. If he had used spirit soil like Fragrant Pond Mud, things might have turned out differently, but where would he find such things on short notice?
High-level formations required the corresponding materials to lay down, and breaking them had the same requirements.
Even the cleverest housewife couldn’t cook without rice. As he was frantically wondering what to do, Yiyi shouted, “She’s here!”
“Yiyi!” Tang Jie anxiously cried out.
But there was no reply.
Tang Jie’s heart went cold.
Fortunately, a few moments later, Yiyi finally said, “That was close, but we managed to escape. But Big Brother Cai isn’t here! Big Brother, you have to hurry and help us!”
Tang Jie breathed. He was truly beginning to somewhat regret his greed, which had prevented him from joining up with Yiyi and the others earlier.
It was impossible for everything to go according to plan, and the more intricate the plan, the more liable it was to be upset by even the smallest mishap.
But there was no point in regret. Breathing in, Tang Jie took out a chunk of wood.
Clearroot Wood.
This was a material that Tang Jie had found while looking around. It wasn’t too valuable, but it was still a spirit plant that could be used in a formation. Its attribute was Wood.
Tang Jie threw the Clearroot Wood into the formation and shouted, “Powerful Water generates Wood, thus discharging its power! Zhen position (east), manifest!”
The Five Elements had their complements and opposites. Since he had no soil to counter the element, he decided to use the generative method.
Water generated wood, and Tang Jie had thrown out the piece of wood to determine his location in the formation. Since he couldn’t find the Rest Gate, he would first seek the Zhen position in order to find the Injury Gate.
In any case, a formation had eight gates, and if he found one position, the other seven would become obvious.
But the moment he threw out the Clearroot Wood, the formation shifted again, and the piece of wood floated in the air, unable to land.
An icy gust of wind howled out of the distance, striking the Clearroot Wood. Boom! The piece of wood exploded, and as its debris flew through the air, it budded with jade leaves. Once they landed on the ground, they quickly grew into numerous small trees, sprouting vines that waved around like dangerous snakes.
Tang Jie was alarmed by this sight. He knew that the Frost Fairy had gone with the flow and taken possession of the Clearroot Wood. Not only had he failed to find any one of the eight gates, he had helped the illusion formation plant a monsterized plant.
In Tang Jie’s first exchange with his unseen opponent, he had been utterly defeated.