Stepping off the ship, Xu Miaoran waved her hand and said, “All of you, rise. I happened to be passing through and saw Wind Devil Island engulfed in fog, as if the Nine Palace Illusion Formation had been activated, so I came to see if some powerful enemy had attacked.”
Hong Yuan saw how serious her young lady was being, and thought, You’ve clearly come to see your boyfriend, but you say that you’re just passing through. Really, you might as well put up a sign. She almost wanted to laugh, but Xian Tao was tactful and pushed her, preventing her from doing so.
Someone replied, “County Lord, you misunderstand. The Basking Moon Sect has borrowed the Nine Palace Illusion Formation to test its students. The island master has already reported this matter to those above, and the formation was only activated after receiving permission.”
“Is that so?” Xu Miaoran seemed enlightened. “It sounds rather amusing. I’ve never tried the Nine Palace Illusion Formation before, so since I’m here…”
She dropped and seemed to think. “Xian Tao, Hong Yuan, let’s experience this Nine Palace Formation together. Let’s see if these Basking Moon Sect students are more formidable than Xu Miaoran.”
She stepped into the formation.
Three girls suddenly appeared on the six-edged crystal.
Ji Wujiu spotted these three and was taken aback at first. He took a careful look and then shot to his feet, losing all of his transcendent aura as he shouted in shock, “Why is she here?”
Nan Baicheng looked in confusion at Xu Miaoran’s image on the crystal. “Who is this girl?”
Ji Wujiu calmed himself down and answered, “This woman is Xu Miaoran, the daughter of Sorrowgone Xu.”
“That Pufeng County Lord?” Nan Baicheng couldn’t help but be shocked. “Why is she here?”
“How would I know?” Ji Wujiu shot back. “Maybe she got bored and came out to have some fun. This woman is a restless spirit. In fact, she just recently ran away to go traveling.”
“Will she affect us?”
“Hard to say. Since she’s here, it becomes inconvenient for me to do some things. If she finds out and reports it to her superiors…” Ji Wujiu shook his head.
Nan Baicheng’s heart sank. These were the words he feared the most.
Tang Jie was still charging through the formation, breaking through illusion zone after illusion zone. He was simply unstoppable, none of Ji Wujiu’s measures able to stop his advance, only slow him down. Wouldn’t restraining his hand now only allow Tang Jie to push straight through?
“Brother Ji, this matter is related to my master’s True Inheritor. Please, help me!” Nan Baicheng anxiously said.
Ji Wujiu sighed. “While the Nine Palace Illusion Formation has many illusion zones, there is a limit. If one place has many, the other places will have fewer. By laying down so many illusion zones in front of Tang Jie, I’ve had to shift around the formation and shuffle around its spiritual energy, leaving clues behind everywhere. The Basking Moon students don’t know the secrets of the Nine Palace Illusion Formation, so there’s no fear of them noticing. But Xu Miaoran is the daughter of a True Lord, and her family’s teachings contain some knowledge about the Nine Palace Illusion Formation. Look…”
He pointed at the image of Xu Miaoran on the crystal. Xu Miaoran was gracefully leading her two maids through Wind Devil Island, experiencing little danger.
Ji Wujiu continued, “Unless someone is presiding over it, the Nine Palace Formation operating on its own will not distinguish between friend and foe, imprisoning anyone that enters it. But look at her go. She’s essentially avoided every illusion zone, traversing the pivotal points. You can see that she has quite some understanding of the formation. If I continue to interfere, she will definitely notice. I still had some tricks to slow down Tang Jie, but it seems I won’t be able to use them.”
“If she notices, fine. My Basking Moon Sect has rented this island to test the students, and Brother Ji simply did as I instructed. While the Nine Palace Illusion Formation is an imprisoning formation, it is much weaker if no one is around to control it, becoming a lifeless formation. Since we came here to test students, I naturally requested Brother Ji to intervene and increase the difficulty,” Nan Baicheng immediately said.
Ji Wujiu chuckled. “That’s what you say, but things are different if all the shifts target only a single person. Isn’t Brother Nan worried about this getting out and being used against you?”
“For my master’s sake, some concerns have to be put aside.”
Ji Wujiu shook his head. “That won’t do at all. Brother Nan, I feel as if you’ve been enraged by Tang Jie, focusing all of your attention on him. But think about it from another angle. Since we can’t stop Tang Jie, why try? Isn’t your real goal to stop Wei Tianchong from becoming the True Inheritor?”
As Ji Wujiu spoke, he waved his horsetail whisk, and countless figures flashed on the crystal, as if he was flipping through countless cameras, until Wei Tianchong appeared.
He was currently in a narrow passage. Occasionally, some savage fiend beast would ambush him. Some were real and some were illusions, and sometimes, they came out together.
The left path had more fiend beasts than the middle path, and the path was also longer, but at least one could be sure that one was traveling in the right direction and wouldn’t be harried by illusion zones.
Wei Tianchong was fighting his way through, the puppet and fox guarding his left and right flanks. He held a small axe and was swinging it again and again, occasionally throwing out a fireball or shadow soldier to pester his enemies.
He wasn’t moving fast, but his pace was steady and resolved.
“Wei Tianchong?” Nan Baicheng froze for a moment. “Brother Ji, do you mean…”
“If you want to stop someone, let’s stop the main character. So long as the main character doesn’t arrive, what does it matter that Tang Jie enters the Devil Crushing Path?” Ji Wujiu sinisterly said. “If he wants to hold the Devil Crushing Path against other students, let him. He can hold them off for a moment, but how long can he hold out?”
Nan Baicheng hesitated. “I understand what Brother Ji is getting at. The problem is that Wei Tianchong chose the left path. While the left path isn’t as fast as the middle path, it doesn’t allow for befuddling of direction. So long as he presses forward, he’ll come out eventually. Stopping him…”
“Brother Nan, you’re looking down on my Nine Palace Illusion Formation a little too much. Just because the Nine Palace Formation focuses on illusions, that doesn’t mean the left path is so easily broken through. I only need to make a slight alteration to hold him down and guarantee that he won’t get out for a bit. Not even Xu Miaoran will be able to say anything about such a small shift.”
Ji Wujiu pointed at one of the 81 lanterns as he shouted, “Prison of Mortal Coil!”
As he spoke, the path in front of Wei Tianchong suddenly churned with fog. All of the fierce fiend beasts on the narrow path disappeared, replaced by a pitch-black space.
Countless lights lit up in this space, each of them actually a door.
“What is this?” Wei Tianchong was completely baffled by what he was seeing.
He didn’t understand what was going on, so he decided not to think about it. Since the path had changed into this dark space, he would find an exit.
He pushed open a door.
The door had just opened when numerous vines rushed out, wrapping around Wei Tianchong like tentacles and pulling him into the door.
Wei Tianchong was aghast. Although he didn’t know what was behind the door, he knew that it had to be exceptionally dangerous. He hurriedly ordered the puppet to hold him fast so that the vines couldn’t pull him into the door. The situation became a tug of war, both sides pulling against each other and neither making progress.
Ji Wujiu chuckled. “He managed to run into the Vampire Vine on his first door. This kid has some terrible luck.”
Nan Baicheng’s eyes constricted. “This is the Prison of Mortal Coil?”
The Prison of Mortal Coil was the most famous and most difficult of the Nine Palace Illusion Formation’s illusion zones. Entering this zone was like entering a maze. Behind its countless doors were various dangers, and only one path would lead to the Devil Crushing Path. If the Nine Palace Illusion Formation were operating at full power, the Prison of Mortal Coil could even simulate the mortal world. The fantasies that one would encounter there would make one forget one’s past and lose oneself in various different lives.
Even if one escaped, one would once again be confronted by countless doors, and if one chose the wrong door, one would have to face another illusory life.
Thus, it was known as the Prison of Mortal Coil.
Only two layers of the Nine Palace Illusion Formation had been activated, so there were no mental illusions, only various savage beasts lurking behind the doors. The Prison of Mortal Coil no longer matched its name, but it still served as a befuddling maze.
The only way to break through this zone was to understand the principles by which the formation operated and find the correct path. Of course, if one couldn’t do that, one could just try the doors one by one.
There were hundreds of doors, each one concealing a danger. The slightest lack of caution might cause one to lose their life in the formation.
Unlike the other illusion zones, the Prison of Mortal Coil wasn’t a stand-alone illusion zone. Rather, it was an illusion zone made by compacting together all of the zones behind it, like saving up energy so that it could all be unleashed at once. For example, Guan Yu had to pass through five passes one by one and kill six generals, but now, the soldiers from all five passes would be gathered at one spot to deal with Guan Yu. This was one of the normal methods the Nine Palace Illusion Formation used to deal with enemies, and nobody could object to it.
But this also meant that breaking through this zone would allow one to immediately reach the Devil Crushing Path.
Ji Wujiu hadn’t used this zone against Tang Jie precisely because Tang Jie was far too strong for any illusion zone of the Level 2 formation to do much to him. Using the Prison of Mortal Coil on him would just be saving him time.
That was why he had instead elected to slow Tang Jie down using numerous ordinary illusion zones.
But for Wei Tianchong, someone who would never be able to overcome a difficult trial, this was far more effective than letting him steadily advance. And it would be even better if he died in the formation.
Wei Tianchong was desperately struggling against the Vampire Vine. The vine’s sharp thorns had jabbed into his flesh and started to suck his blood, and a powerful force was attempting to drag him through the door.
“Aaah!” Wei Tianchong fearfully yelled.
He couldn’t understand how the Nine Palace Illusion Formation could have such a terrifying being. These vines were like venomous snakes, and even possessed toothy maws that crazily bit at him and tore off chunks of his body. Yet they were also incredibly strong and stood fast against any attempt to shake them off.
Although he had been through battles before and had even been forced by Tang Jie into killing someone, his life had never truly been in danger.
Tang Jie knew this, and he knew that it was hard to raise a true talent without making them taste a little of death, but a person had only one life, and who would dare to risk it?
Thus, no matter how much Tang Jie helped Wei Tianchong, he had never had him face a mortal battle alone.
While the trip to Tiger Roar Peak had been frightening, it had ultimately been a quick in-and-out, and Wei Tianchong could still run. And while the Valley of No Return had been dangerous, Yiyi and Cai Junyang had been there to help him.
Surprisingly, the deathly experience that Tiger Roar Peak and the Valley of No Return had not been able to provide had instead been provided by the relatively safe Nine Palace Illusion Formation.
Wei Tianchong felt like the shadow of death was getting larger and larger before his eyes as the savage Vampire Vine attacked him.
His physical strength was gradually being sucked away by the vines, and his body was being dragged into the door, not even the puppet able to anchor him down.
He thought to himself in fear, Am I going to die?