Chapter 253: Chapter 45 Mirror Lake Divine Palace, Their Own Schemes
The group walked through the forest.
This mountain had long been untraversed, the original stone steps had decayed and weathered, covered by countless vines and wild grasses.
Wei Dongliu held the Menghuan Sword in the palm of his hand, guiding everyone in the direction the sword tip pointed, sometimes climbing upwards, sometimes moving sideways, and at times even turning around to walk downwards.
“Wei Daoist friend, are you sure?” Long Xiaoqi suddenly said, “If my memory serves me right, it seems we have turned back.”
“Long Daoist friend,” Wei Dongliu spoke gently, “the magnetic field here is chaotic, what you think is a straight path is actually circling back and forth.”
“Instead of trusting your own sense of direction, why not trust my Palm Sword, how about it?”
“Um,” Long Xiaoqi said no more, as if he had just asked casually.
The group had started ascending the mountain from noon, and it wasn’t until the evening twilight that they finally arrived at the lake by the mountain top.
Atop the mountain, there lay a huge lake. From a distance, it looked like a bright blue mirror, its shine so clear that it could reflect images; up close, the water was crystal clear, with the lakebed pebbles visible in fine detail.
Alongside the lake, there was a dense growth of lush and erect forests.
However, there was no sign of any Divine Palace.
Jiang Liyan gathered up his robe and squatted by the lake to examine the surface of the water, saying:
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“There are fish in the lake, it should be fine.”
“There are deer, goats, and monkeys moving around in the forest on the opposite side.” Wen Yang’s Nether Ghost returned from its scouting and reported to the group.
The group fell silent together. With such a rich ecological environment around, it didn’t seem like the place would harbor any kind of ruins!
Wei Dongliu glanced at the golden little sword, only to see its tip pointing directly towards the center of the lake.
“We need to go into the lake,” he said.
“Cut down trees to make a boat?” Jiang Liyan asked.
“No, Sword Control,” Wei Dongliu said.
Jiang Liyan looked hesitantly, only to see that there was no miasma over the surface of the lake…he couldn’t help but feel a bit embarrassed.
The five of them each pulled out their Flying Swords and used Sword Control to move straight ahead.
When they arrived at the center of the lake, the golden little sword suddenly began to spin erratically.
The group: ………
“Has it malfunctioned?” Gu Lie asked with a twitch in his eye.
“No,” Wei Dongliu turned his hand over.
The golden little sword that was still rotating abruptly stopped as if guided by some invisible hand, quickly aligning itself straight downwards, motionless.
“Is it under the lake?” Wen Yang looked down, “There’s nothing at the bottom of the lake.”
Everyone followed his gaze downward, only to see that although the water was deeper here, its clarity allowed them to see the sandy bottom, aquatic plants, and schools of swimming fish…there was no shadow of a palace to be found.
“It must be opened with that little sword,” Long Xiaoqi, who had been quiet, suddenly said.
“Exactly,” Wei Dongliu flung the sword, and the golden little sword swiftly transformed into a beam of light that vanished into the lake.
Then, the entire lake changed color…to be more precise, in the reflection cast upon the lake’s surface, a palace appeared.
Seeing this, Jiang Liyan’s mind flickered with thoughts, and she immediately released a Demon Head from her sleeve into the lake.
“Beneath the surface of the water lies another world,” she said quickly.
“Then let’s go,” Wei Dongliu suggested.
Everyone agreed, and they followed using Sword Control to descend.
The moment they plunged into the lake water, the world seemed to turn upside down, and they emerged from the water once again.
This place appeared to still be atop Ailao Mountain, but there were no mountain ranges in the distance, only a blanket of grey fog.
The forest by the lake was devoid of animals, with only leaves rustling, swaying in the breeze.
In the midst of the lake stood a huge palace, constructed with jade bricks and liuli tiles, its reflection shimmering on the glistening water, looking incomparably majestic in the sunlight.
Looking at this palace, a term suddenly sprang to Wei Dongliu’s mind:
What a “Crystal Palace”!
Of course, the Crystal Palace here is not the one filled with an assortment of main female characters wielding cleavers… it is purely the literal meaning.
Facing the Mirror Lake Divine Palace, everyone had different expressions on their faces.
Wen Yang and Gu Lie were extremely delighted, obviously seeing by the style of this palace that it was some kind of ancient ruin that had not been explored before, which significantly increased the likelihood of encountering magical opportunities inside.
Jiang Liyan and Long Xiaoqi, on the other hand, had eyes filled with fascination, as the grandiose yet exquisite palace perfectly hit these two female cultivators’ aesthetic spot.
“Let’s find an entrance first and talk about it after we get in,” Wei Dongliu reminded them.
The group then flew around the Divine Palace on their swords and saw that the lower half of the palace had a large number of steps and foundations immersed in the lake.
The upper half was pavilions and buildings, closely spaced and highly structured, the design also radiant with gold, full of all sorts of splendid grandeur.
But no matter what, all the doors and windows were firmly closed, with no entrance to go through.
“Shall we try breaking in?” Gu Lie said with a fierce look in his eyes.
“Good, Brother Gu should go first,” Wen Yang said with a smile, “If anything goes wrong, I’ll collect your corpse.”
Gu Lie chuckled and said,
“I was just saying it off the cuff.”
If it were an ordinary building, let alone tightly closed doors and windows, even blue brick walls would just be a one-sword affair for a cultivator.
But in these mystic realms, the doors and windows that are tightly shut from the inside often cannot be forcefully broken from the outside. Unless your rank is much higher than the realm, where you could crush everything by force, but then the realm would no longer have any value to explore.
The group, still refusing to give up, circled around a few more times, still failing to find an entrance.
All doors and windows were completely shut, with no space to open at all.
“Brother Wei,” Jiang Liyan couldn’t help asking, “has the Qilin Lord ever mentioned how to handle this situation?”
“It hasn’t,” Wei Dongliu shook his head, “it only said to go seek the Mirror Lake Divine Palace where there is a Taiwei Hall; within are ‘Vermilion Grass’ and ‘Golden Nectar and Jade Liquid’.”
“Among them, the Vermilion Grass looks like a small mulberry with stem resembling coral, and its juice flows like blood.”
“The Golden Nectar and Jade Liquid are useless to the human race, it commanded me to harvest one for it; as for the Vermilion Grass, if you take it and put it in a basin, then cast gold and jade upon it, it will turn into ‘Golden Nectar and Jade Liquid’. If people of the human race drink it, they will gain seventy years of cultivation in one go, but one must not drink it twice.”
Everyone listened until their mouths went dry, but inside, they were secretly calculating.
From ancient times to now, through the changes of the sea into mulberry fields and shifts of the mortal coil, no one knew how the Mirror Lake Divine Palace had changed.
If the group found the Taiwei Hall and it only contained Vermilion Grass without any Golden Nectar and Jade Liquid, what would they do?
If there was none, it was not a big deal; they would just have to accept their bad luck. But if there was some and it wasn’t enough for everyone, how would they divide it? Were they to settle it by playing rock-paper-scissors?
Demon Path Cultivators, of course, have characteristic ways of the Demonic Path to resolve such issues.
Now that they haven’t found the Vermilion Grass yet, there’s no need to turn against each other. Once it’s found, that would be the start of another war.
After circling the Divine Palace again, Long Xiaoqi suddenly said,
“Could the entrance be at the bottom of the lake?”
As this was said, everyone had a flash of insight, as if enlightened.
It wasn’t convenient for the human race to have an entrance built at the lake bottom given the daily ins and outs, but who knew what the ancient Demon Race was thinking?
Therefore, everyone once again flew into the lake with their swords, but this time there was no little golden sword to lead the way. Instead of returning to the real world, they went directly underwater.
…That little golden sword was the key to traveling back and forth from the mystic realm.
If there was an internal fight among the team later, the key must be taken; otherwise, they would have to die trapped here…
Everyone noted this in their hearts and saw ahead that amongst the underwater grass and corals, the walls of the underwater section of the Divine Palace emerged.
In the middle, there was a huge opening, with no door and wide open, through which they could see the Everbright Lamps embedded in the walls.
“The entrance really is at the bottom of the lake!” Upon seeing this, Jiang Liyan was overjoyed and looked around to see if anyone was willing to go first.
But she only saw Wen Yang, Gu Lie, and the others were looking at each other… Everyone was an old hand at the Demonic Path, and no one wanted to take the risk of entering the Divine Palace first. They were all waiting for someone to test the waters first, then competing for the chance to be the second one to go.
This way, if there were any mechanisms by the door, such as traps specifically targeting the human race, they would be able to withdraw in time.
“I’ll go first,” Wei Dongliu said, patting his palm, and without waiting for anybody’s response, he led the way with his sword toward the entrance.
As he approached the entrance, he suddenly stopped abruptly, and in his mind, he shouted,
“Ah Jing, scan!”