Chapter 216: Chapter 8: The Second “Gui Xu
At the fork in the road, turn left.
At the crossroads, turn left.
If you encounter a dead end, turn back and go left.
Luo Yan finally couldn’t hold back and asked:
“Since a while ago, it seems we have always been turning left?”
“You don’t like turning left?” Shi Liuli glanced at him, “Then let’s go right from now on.”
“No,” Luo Yan simply didn’t know which words to use to describe his current feelings, “Are we just wandering around aimlessly? What happened to that great luck you mentioned?”
“You dare to question my luck?” Shi Liuli placed her hands on her hips.
“I wouldn’t dare,” Luo Yan immediately changed his expression, showing a flattering smile, “But… could Senior Sister please explain how exactly your great luck works? Cough, I’m not doubting Senior Sister, I’m just purely curious to broaden my horizons, that’s all.”
“It’s actually quite complex when you talk about it,” Shi Liuli said seriously, “This so-called great luck is the ability to make whatever you wish come true.”
“As long as I focus my mind on finding the Yuan Vital Energy vein as soon as possible, then even if I keep turning left, I will eventually arrive at the destination smoothly. Do you understand?”
Luo Yan suddenly felt bewildered. Isn’t this mysticism a bit too unreasonable? If you always turn left at the forks, you can still reach the end?
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Hey, wait, if there are no circular routes in the maze, then always turning left would mean traversing the entire maze, wouldn’t it? That seems to work out…
The two of them walked for several more hours, not knowing how deep into the undersea they had gone; the surrounding area was still the same unchanging gloomy rock walls.
Shi Liuli suddenly stopped and said:
“Let’s rest for a while and eat something.”
Seeing her somewhat boredly take out a cauldron, Luo Yan started to mutter to himself and asked the Kunlun Mirror:
“Ah Jing, are we currently on the right path?”
“I don’t know,” the Kunlun Mirror replied.
“You useless mirror, how come you don’t even know this? Then why did your fragment know?”
“Why would I know?” the Kunlun Mirror responded speechlessly, “It has been down here for hundreds of thousands of years, of course it has scanned every inch of the cavern. I am just as new to this place as you are, how could I possibly know? All I can do is use spells to interfere with its magic.”
“Then tell me, does Miss Shi really have some kind of great luck that can lead me out of this labyrinth, find your main body’s fragment, and locate the Yuan Vital Energy vein?” Luo Yan continued to ask skeptically.
“If you’re asking for my opinion, I think it’s preposterous,” the Kunlun Mirror honestly said, “Where in this world is there such a thing as great luck? Even the Heavenly Dao wouldn’t specially favor any one person.”
“If that’s the case, how do you explain the Three Isles Treasure Ship last time and the Five Qi Dynasty Yuan Cave this time?” Luo Yan was still very suspicious, “She said she wanted to speed up the Marrow Cleansing, and as a result, we found a Body Refining Secret Technique; she said she wanted to skip Marrow Cleansing, and then we encountered the Untainted Fish.”
“Think about it, skipping Marrow Cleansing just by going to the toilet; if that’s the case, then what was the point of me braving the dangers at Shushan Demon Locking Tower in search of the Blood Pool to undergo Marrow Cleansing?” His words grew more indignant as he spoke, “Even Senior Sister An broke her Life-bound Sword Artifact!”
“Calm down, don’t embarrass yourself,” the Kunlun Mirror hurriedly said, “A person’s luck can’t stay the same forever; just because it worked the last two times doesn’t mean it will work this time too.”
“I’m not jealous of her…” Luo Yan was about to continue defending himself when he saw Shi Liuli lifting the lid off the cauldron, the aroma of broth wafting through the space sealed by the Water-Sealing Charm. He swallowed a mouthful of saliva, “I better drink the soup first, to give some face to Senior Sister.”
Within the cramped and dark chamber, the two huddled around a cauldron, each taking turns sipping the soup until they felt a warm and cozy sensation throughout their bodies.
Shi Liuli packed up the cauldron and sighed:
“It’s really too boring to keep going like this, can’t we encounter something strange and unusual?”
“Senior Sister, isn’t it good to be safe and sound?” Luo Yan asked bewilderingly.
“What’s the fun in smooth sailing?” Shi Liuli said discontentedly, “Why not have a sudden encounter with danger, and then have us, master and disciple, support each other through thick and thin, finally reaching the position of the vital energy vein? Wouldn’t such a design be more interesting?”
“That’s such a clichéd plot from some old novel…” Luo Yan had just started to retort when suddenly the Kunlun Mirror exclaimed,
“Be careful! It realizes it can’t beat me and is going to make a desperate move!”
No sooner had the words left its mouth, the rocks beneath their feet began to tremble violently. Luo Yan had just enough time to wrap his arms around Shi Liuli’s waist before everything around them started to collapse.
………
At the top of a huge natural cavern, a massive collapse and cave-in took place all of a sudden, sending countless broken rocks scattering downwards.
Two figures burst out from the dust and smoke, drawing sword light in mid-air and swiftly circling down to land on the ground—it was Luo Yan, holding Shi Liuli.
In that instant, as they were plummeting down due to the split in the ground, Luo Yan had already assessed their surroundings.
The violent earthquake had not only destroyed the chamber they were in but the entire space around them.
If they were to stop abruptly in mid-air, they might have been hit directly by the large amount of falling debris from above.
So, Luo Yan calmly held onto Shi Liuli, falling along with the countless falling rocks while continually using the Peach Blossom Sword to fend off any stones that came too close.
Facing this sudden event, Miss Shi once again exposed her psychologically immature side. She could only cling to Luo Yan’s arm for dear life, eyes tightly shut, without the courage to look at what was happening around them.
It was not until they dropped into the great cavern that Luo Yan swiftly maneuvered his controlled sword mid-air, moving sideways with Shi Liuli and away from the range of the collapsing assault.
Their original location had been covered by a large amount of rocks and dust, even forming mounds of rubble below the cavern—if they had moved sideways even a little slower, they could have been buried alive by the debris, or they might have had to expose Qiu Changtian’s thunder method to protect themselves, neither of which would have been a good outcome.
“You can open your eyes now, Senior Sister,” said Luo Yan, “We’ve landed.”
Hearing the sporadic sounds of falling pebbles around her, Shi Liuli shivered violently and shook her head vigorously in fear.
“Open your eyes!” Luo Yan intentionally shouted at her in a stern voice.
“Why are you being so harsh!” Shi Liuli fell for it and immediately opened her eyes to retort.
“If it weren’t for your ill-omened remarks about a ‘sudden encounter with danger,’ would we have encountered this kind of situation?” Luo Yan said, touching his forehead in resignation, “If the exit has been blocked by the collapse, we might be trapped to death in the depths of this ocean!”
Of course, that was a false statement because the Kunlun Mirror could teleport through space, provided there were no interference from its physical fragments.
As long as they could find the fragments of the original body, they would be able to teleport away from this place at any time and place.
However, Shi Liuli was unaware of these facts and thought their current plight was caused by her careless words, which supposedly triggered the catastrophic collapse of the undersea cavern. Her eyes brimmed with tears as she said,
“I didn’t know I had such a powerful effect!”
“How can you not know your own luck?” Luo Yan sighed and said, “Well, never mind. Since your earlier prophecy came true, you had better make sure the part about us ‘finally finding the vital energy vein’ comes true too!”
“It will definitely come true, it will definitely come true,” Shi Liuli closed her eyes again, brought her hands together at her chest, and started shaking vigorously as if she was a rustic Daoist priest invoking deities.
Luo Yan stopped minding her and began carefully surveying their surroundings, only to discover that this cavern was much larger than any other chamber they had encountered before, almost as big as a modern soccer field.
Unlike the other chambers, this cavern wasn’t completely dark. Scattered throughout were coral trees, their jagged, antler-like surfaces spotted with starry points of light, which reminded Luo Yan of the floating Gui Xu in the deep Great Gorge of the Treasure Ship Secret Realm.
Around that Gui Xu Palace, similarly luminescent coral trees also grew, setting the entire palace aglow, as if it were a palace in an Immortal Realm.
Luo Yan’s gaze followed the faint light from these coral trees all the way to the end of the cavern, where he saw, about a mile ahead, a palace as ethereal and exquisite, encircled by dense forests of glowing coral.
It was reminiscent of the Gui Xu Palace from days gone by.