Surging waves beat against the reefs of Tigersand Island, filling the air with froth. Sunlight turned the waves silver while clouds of mist churned.
The sea waters flowed over the reefs and onto the sand, washing over a line of shallow footprints.
This line of footprints led straight to an eight-sided pavilion, where it was possible to see a pair of petite and bare feet waving around in the air.
Xu Miaoran was seated in the pavilion, a hairpin in the shape of a cloud thrust in her hair and her body garbed in a light gown colored vermillion. She sat on the bench within the pavilion, lost in thought. On the jadeite table in front of her was a letter.
She would occasionally grab the letter and look at it before putting it back down again.
She gazed into the distance, where the azure sea melded into the heavens, and the hazy splendor of the ocean appeared in her eyes.
She muttered, “Black hair, passionate eyes, and cherry-red lips surface in my mind. The path is unclear, the memory difficult to forget. The fear that we will not meet again makes my heart grow numb with panic…”
She grabbed the letter and looked at it again.
Not far behind her stood a maid in a green gown. Looking at how Xu Miaoran behaved, she couldn’t help but cover her mouth and chuckle. “Young Miss, you’ve already read this letter so many times. If you like him, just say it. What’s the point in thinking about it so much? The women of my Horizon Ocean Pavilion have never been so coy before.”
Xu Miaoran propped up her chin with a hand and said, “The problem is that I don’t know if I like him or not…”
She was still young and had little experience with romance, so she didn’t understand her own feelings.
She hadn’t spent many days with Tang Jie, and she felt that falling in love with him just because of that wasn’t taking the matter seriously enough. Yet after that chance encounter, his form kept appearing in her mind, and she couldn’t forget him.
If Tang Jie hadn’t written letters, then perhaps that impression would have faded with time, and she would gradually forget him and perhaps even cut off communications with him.
But it was exactly the opposite. He kept sending letters, and while they normally just asked if she was doing well and spoke about his life in the academy, she could tell that there was another emotion imbued in them.
Thus, Xu Miaoran’s mind was unsettled.
She pondered as she looked out at the sea, her expression slack. For a time, she was completely lost in her thoughts.
Suddenly a maid dressed in red came running over, shouting, “Young Miss! Young Miss!”
“What’s got you so excited?” Xu Miaoran asked as she lazily stretched.
The maid came up to the pavilion and said, “I just heard some news that Young Lady Xu might be interested in.”
Xu Miaoran frowned while the maid in green pushed the maid in red a little. “Hong Yuan, if you have something to say, don’t hem and haw. Just say it.”
The girl called Hong Yuan stuck out her tongue and said, “I just heard that the Basking Moon Sect will be renting Wind Devil Island.”
“The Basking Moon Sect is renting Wind Devil Island?” Xu Miaoran was startled. “Why?”
“Apparently, it’s to gather Azulwind Jade and temper the students.”
“‘Temper students’?” Xu Miaoran was confused. “Wind Devil Island is primarily known for its palace illusion formation, and the strength of its fiend beasts is limited, so what’s there to temper with… Wait. Could it be the True Inheritor mission?”
Xu Miaoran stood up.
Hong Yuan didn’t answer, instead placing a hand on her chest and groaning, “Oh my, I’m so tired after running. Young Miss, let me rest a bit before I go on.”
She glanced at Xu Miaoran, and Xu Miaoran understood what she wanted and snorted. “Stubborn girl, this again.”
She threw a pill into Hong Yuan’s hand, and Hong Yuan grinned as she took it. “Young Miss, thank you for the gift. This lowly one asked around, and Young Miss is correct. It really is about the True Inheritor mission. I don’t know how the Basking Moon Sect thought of it, renting our Wind Devil Island to test its students.”
“You need to ask?” the maid in green sneered. “Wei Tianchong has won twice, so that Nan Baicheng is probably getting nervous. It’s difficult to make tests for students. Wind Devil Island is mostly about illusions obscuring one’s path, so it’s difficult for others to help. This is presumably meant to target Wei Tianchong and Tang Jie. I would even wager that the objective of this test isn’t to gather the most Azulwind Jades.”
The maid in green had almost instantly conjectured most of the truth.
The two maids were Xu Miaoran’s close aides, and Xu Miaoran had never hidden anything from them. Thus, they knew all about her relationship with Tang Jie, and in Horizon Ocean Pavilion, they were the only two.
Hong Yuan clapped her hands and laughed. “Senior Sister Xian Tao is always so formidable. The victory condition this time is to be the first person to enter the Nine Palace Heart Ring and touch the Ocean Heart!”
Xu Miaoran grunted, “What a considerate plan. Hong Yuan, do you know when this trial will take place?”
“The tenth of the next month.”
“So soon…” Xu Miaoran thought it over and said, “Come on. We’re going to Wind Devil Island too!”
“Alright!” Hong Yuan clapped and jumped to her feet. “I can finally go out and play with the young miss!”
It appeared that this had been another motive for relaying the news so quickly to Xu Miaoran. Hong Yuan had a playful personality, and she had considered it a great pity that Xu Miaoran hadn’t brought her to play last time. Now, she finally had a chance.
“Wind Devil Island?”
“How could it be there? Isn’t that the territory of Horizon Ocean Pavilion?”
“It is! How can the True Inheritor mission be held in another sect? What are those above thinking?”
“Shush! Be quiet. Is it your place to question the will of the Esteemed Master?”
“Hey, hey, does anyone know what Wind Devil Island is like?”
“I’m not too sure either.”
On the Bounty Platform, numerous students were chattering. They had heard of Wind Devil Island before, but few of them knew what it was really like. After all, it was in another sect, so their studies weren’t focused on it. Even the teachers in class had only mentioned it in passing. While the conditions for success had been given, the vast majority of students were baffled as to what the Nine Palace Heart Ring and the Ocean Heart were.
Quite a few students had already run off to gather information. Tomorrow was the day of departure, so everyone had less than a day to prepare.
Tang Jie and Wei Tianchong were also at the Bounty Platform. Wei Tianchong was confused as he looked at the details of the mission. “How strange! Why are we going all the way to Wind Devil Island? Tang Jie, is that place even more dangerous than the Valley of No Return?”
Having learned from his mistakes, he was now extremely concerned over how safe Wind Devil Island was.
Tang Jie indifferently said, “Wind Devil Island is where Azulwind Jades are produced and is one of the mining regions under Horizon Ocean Pavilion. While the island is inhabited by fiends, ghosts, and monsters, there are few formidable existences, and probably not a single Mind Opening one.”
Because of Xu Miaoran, Tang Jie had a rather deep understanding of Horizon Ocean Pavilion and knew a great deal about its notable figures and locations. He was probably one of the few present who knew about Wind Devil Island without having to look it up.
“Whew, then it’s fine,” Wei Tianchong exhaled.
“That being the case, could there be some other motive for making Wind Devil Island the location of the third mission?”
Tang Jie didn’t answer, simply staring at a specific sentence on the board: “The first to enter the Nine Palace Heart Ring and touch the Ocean Heart will be the victor.” After a while, he coldly laughed. “Wind Devil Island isn’t very dangerous, but as one of Horizon Ocean Pavilion’s primary mining areas, it has a large formation called the Nine Palace Illusion Formation. The entirety of Wind Devil Island is under this formation.”
“So you’re saying that the third mission will test our ability to break through formations?” someone said from behind Tang Jie. It was none other than Cai Junyang.
Next to him were Shu, Liu, and Ping.
Liu Hongyan frowned. “If it’s testing our ability to break formations, wouldn’t that benefit the students of the Heaven Circuit Platform? It’s a little too unfair for students like us who have never studied formations.”
Tang Jie replied, “It’s not entirely testing the ability to break formations. The Nine Palace Illusion Formation primarily focuses on distracting and confusing illusions. Once you’re on the island and the formation activates, the island will become its own world, manifesting all kinds of illusions. While there are few monsters, it’s an extremely vast place, so the formation is all about buying time and hampering powerful foes…”
As Tang Jie went on, everyone gradually began to understand what was going on with the Nine Palace Illusion Formation.
While Wind Devil Island belonged to Horizon Ocean Pavilion, it was located rather close to Sageheart and rather far from Horizon Ocean Pavilion. The Basking Moon Sect would not permit Horizon Ocean Pavilion to establish a formation that was too strong close to Sageheart’s borders, so after several rounds of negotiations, the Nine Palace Illusion Formation had been chosen. While it lacked offensive and defensive capabilities, it was extremely effective at delaying enemies and buying time for reinforcements.
Once the Nine Palace Illusion Formation activated, intruders wouldn’t be able to tell north from south, and every place would be covered in illusions. It was basically impossible to run into anyone, and an intruder would have to rely on their own ability to get through.
As the Nine Palace Illusion Formation was meant to delay and hold enemies, there were many methods of breaking it. One could rely on one’s understanding of formations to find the correct path, or one could rely on brute strength to break through, and the fast ones could rely on their speed to make it through these trials.
Thus, overcoming the formation wasn’t difficult. So long as one was strong enough, even those who did not understand the Dao of Formations could defeat it. The only difference was the time used.
The test of Wind Devil Island was to see who could overcome the formation in the shortest time possible.
“In other words, what’s being tested is the ability to break through the formation?” Ping Jingyue asked, somewhat getting it.
Since it was testing one’s ability to break through, individual ability became extremely important. No matter how strong Tang Jie was, he wouldn’t be able to help Wei Tianchong.
This mission was clearly targeting Wei Tianchong.
Many people could already guess that those above didn’t exactly hope for Wei Tianchong to become a True Inheritor.
After all, one person monopolizing all three spots would make it seem like Basking Moon Academy didn’t have any talented individuals, and this wasn’t even considering the kind of person Wei Tianchong was.
“Correct,” Tang Jie replied. “In truth, when the Nine Palace Illusion Formation is operating at full power, students like us could probably spend a few years without seeing the end of it, perhaps even living out the rest of our lives in there. But since it’s a test, I’m sure only the first few layers will be activated, giving all of us a chance. The Nine Palace Illusion Formation has countless variations, and only some minor guidance is needed for it to produce countless images. Thus, Wind Devil Island has always been an important testing ground for the students of Horizon Ocean Pavilion. I didn’t think that we would get the chance to go there.”
“Since it has countless variations and can be controlled, doesn’t that mean that the difficulty of breaking through the various checkpoints of the formation can also change?” Liu Hongyan suddenly asked.
Tang Jie faintly smiled. “Naturally.”
Everyone looked sympathetically at Tang Jie.
Since the formation’s power could be adjusted, it went without saying that Nan Baicheng needed to only apply a little force to apply maximum pressure to Wei Tianchong and Tang Jie.
But Tang Jie wasn’t worried about this.
While the formation’s power could be altered, there was a limit to it.
The Nine Palace Illusion Formation had nine levels in all, with each level having its corresponding power. No matter how the formation was adjusted, it could not be adjusted past its current level.
It was impossible for Tang Jie to be fighting against the power of Level 9 while everyone else was only dealing with Level 3.
Thus, even if the formation controller harbored ill intentions, the most they could do was exert the maximum power of the formation’s current level on him.
Put simply, there was a localized upper bound.
Tang Jie was confident in his own strength, and a minor adjustment wouldn’t be able to stop him. But the same couldn’t be said for Cai Junyang and the others.
Cai Junyang heartily laughed. “Tang Jie, it seems to me that there’s no chance of you helping Wei Tianchong this time. In truth, as a servant student, you’ve already done a lot for your young master. Why not give up on that pursuit and help me instead?”
Tang Jie smiled. “The path of life has always been difficult. But that’s precisely why victory tastes so sweet. I’m still confident that I can help the young master take victory in this test!”