“Alright, for now, we’ll stay in the first layer to get past these runes. I know if we try we can bypass some of them using your ability to enter the layers of space since these runic formations seemed to only affect the 10th or 13 layers. But I don’t want to tire you guys since we might run into some difficulty later on.”
After saying that, Xi Shen walked towards the clearing, his eyes glowed with runes as he analyzed the correct path to choose to get past all these runes. Even though they seemed simple if he even triggered one of these multiple detection runes it would create a chain reaction and unleash countless deadly formations.
He might be safe since this if this puppet gets destroyed he would only lose a piece of his consciousness, but he had to think about Little Tai and Snow’s safety.
Xi Shen mapped out several paths that could lead him to the mountain, and others that would lead him into a cleverly laid trap.
He then narrowed it down to one path, and without hesitation, Xi Shen stepped forward.
He was calmly walking across the clearing towards the mountain, but his feet would move at strange angles as he walked.
His focus was high and before long he passed the hundred-meter mark, as well as the two hundred-meter mark.
When he was in the middle of crossing the final three hundred meter mark though, something unexpected happen.
Xi Shen’s step immediately paused before his eyes go wide in shock.
‘How’s this even possible?! Isn’t this a Four Seasons Multi-Directional Formation?! Why is a formation from the Four Seasons God Temple here in the Bai Clan?!!’
Xi Shen was so shocked he almost accidentally triggered one of the attacking Sword Formations next to him.
His puppet face looked solemn despite its stiff expression.
‘No! This isn’t a complete Four Seasons Multi-Directional Formation. It’s only a part of it, but still, from the way how some of it resembles the ones I saw in the God Archive, it means someone was going off a copy to create this Formation. How did the Bai Clan get their hands on such a runic Formation, I have never seen a Formation from the God Era until now.’
This revelation completely turned Xi Shen’s world upside down.
When thinking about how that pill furnace had Chaos Qi on it, as well as the presence of this runic formation from the God Era, he was starting to think that his knowledge about how much this Era knows about the God Era was limited.
Could it be that there were more things from the God Era that had survived to this era? If the Bai Clan could get their hands on such a formation then does that mean the other Major Clans had things from the god Era as well? What about his Li Clan? And more importantly, where the hell did they come from?!
Little Snow and Tai didn’t know anything about the God Era as they were still just kids when compared to how long they could live, so Xi Shen couldn’t discuss his findings with them. But he still told them where this rune was from.
Xi Shen looked at the formation again. He wasn’t exactly worried about this formation as it was a simple illusion formation that conjured the for seasons and rap someone inside.
They would be stuck in a world where there were four seasons in each direction, north, south, east, and west.
But Xi Shen suddenly felt disgusted as he saw the most blasphemous act he saw in his life up until now. The Four Seasons Multi-Directional Formation was pieced together with rune inscriptions from this Era. It looked so atrocious Xi Shen wanted to vomit.
Waving his finger in front of him, Xi Shen skillfully stripped away the layers of the formation, before piecing their runes together again.
‘There, that’s better.’
Xi Shen said marveling at his improvements.
Little Snow and Tai stared speechless at Xi Shen’s actions, but he ignored their looks as they wouldn’t understand the feeling of a perfectionist. He continued towards the mountain but the closer he got, the more he felt shocked beyond belief.
‘That’s the Eighteen Layers of Hell-Fire Formation from the Fire God Temple! It can manipulate the other Laws and transform them into Fire Laws. It’s powerful enough that it can make someone think they were burning in the Eighteen layers of the underworld.’
However, Xi Shen had to smack his head in frustration. He was screaming internally at the sight of the mix of random runes that were parasitically leaching on the original Eighteen Layers of Hell-Fire runes.
Xi Shen wanted to find the person who laid down this runic formation and strangle them for their incompetence. This rune now only had the simple function of creating fireballs. It seemed as if it was powerful to one-shot a Core Formation Realm cultivator, but Xi Shen was appalled at how much weaker it was.
So Xi Shen waved his fingers and corrected it by seamlessly combining the mix-match runes and making them more compatible with each other to draw out its true power. Something Xi Shen figured this runemaster had no idea how to do, and it seemed like he was just forcing them together.
Xi Shen once again continued, but he would pause and stare in horror at the atrocities of a runic formation before correcting them.
The Divine Tribulation Lightning Formation from the Lightning God Temple. The Ten Thousand Wood Transformation Formation from the Wood God Temple. The Shadow Binding Formation from the Shadow God Temple.
Within these last meters leading up to the mountain, Xi Shen saw multiple formations from the God Era.
While he was feeling shocked at the fact of seeing them, he would take his time to correct their structure.
But he was really starting to feel troubled at the fact that these formations were here in the Bai Clan. It was obvious the Bai Clan had put a lot of importance on these formations as these runic formations were extremely powerful by this Era standards. Xi Shen even saw a few that could possibly match a Nascent Soul cultivator in attack power, but since he hadn't actually reached that level fully, or had battled one to know how powerful they were and had only read books on their strength, he wasn’t sure how much damage these runes can cause a Nascent Soul cultivator.
As Xi Shen reached the last twenty meters to reach the mountain. He lifted his foot to take a step forward, but his eyes suddenly narrowed at the position he was about to place his foot.
He placed his foot back down and turn to look at the path he took to reach here. His eyes flashed with runes as he turn to the left and right of him to look at his surroundings.
‘This is wrong.’
Xi Shen’s instincts were screaming at him that something was terribly wrong, but he had no idea what it was.
Xi Shen’s eyes landed on the next step that he had deduced was the safe path through these runes.
After thinking for a moment he took a step forward.
As soon as he did, his environment changed and he was transported to a world that had seven red suns that bathe everything in a bloodred color.
Seeing these familiar scenes Xi Shen’s puppet body shook, and he softly mumbled, “As I thought. It seems this person is actually really clever. He place an illusion formation around the entire mountain and used the correct path leading to the mountain as an activation node so anyone who wanted to bypass all the formations would become trapped. From the look of things, this is the Six Demons Six Emotions Illusory Formation from the Six Human Sins God Temple. Well, this is very nostalgic to see a rune from my past home… haha.”
Xi Shen laughed a bit, but his eyes suddenly narrowed and he sneered mockingly before he said, “If I was someone else this formation would definitely be able to trap me, but no one understands emotions more than I do. After all, I spent an even longer time trying to understand their nature than Qi Cultivation. In fact, I was one of the people who helped create this Six Demons Six Emotion formation back then. Ahh, how nostalgic.”
Xi Shen smiled in his heart at the thought of seeing his past creation being used in this Era, but his surroundings suddenly shifted once again to a burning village, and standing in front of it was a small boy and girl.
The girl suddenly gripped the boy’s hand, and said in a strange archaic language through her tears, “Sulee, you're the only one I have left. Please don’t leave me too.”
Xi Shen’s smile fell, and his expression turned to indifference as he swiped his hand and destroyed the illusion at its weakest part, while saying, “I didn’t leave, you’re the one who abandon me in the end.”
Little Snow and Tai were silent on his back, not saying anything.
They knew that their master wasn’t simple from the beginning, but they didn’t know what about him was different.
Seeing this illusion created from his deepest emotions, they were wondering where this place was and who those people were. Their second question was answered by Xi Shen’s last words, but the thought of him having a past life hadn’t crossed their minds yet.
After Xi Shen broke the illusion he continue to the mountain.
Before Xi Shen could walk into it, Little Snow and Tai worked together to allow them to enter through the solid mountain structure.
As this was happening in the Bai Clan, Xi Shen’s original body and the group had reached Yang Su’s village.
Xi Shen’s expression had turned quite sour a moment ago since he could experience what his puppet felt no matter how far apart they were. Experiencing that moment again had irked him, to say the least.
*******
Word Count: 1685
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