Chapter 207

Zhao Ru Yu was gone for a whole day. Liu Liu Xiaolou really couldn't hold it anymore. Gritting his teeth and making up his mind, he walked out of this dilapidated main hall.

In any case, he remembered that Zhao Ru Yu said "don't run around everywhere," not "don't walk out of this main hall." Coming out to bask in the sun shouldn't count as running around, right?

Looking back at the main hall with several gaps in the walls, he couldn't help but sigh to himself. It was truly a great sect; the spirit was just different. Although this main hall was dilapidated, the main body was still solid and very magnificent. It could be used as long as it was repaired, but the Luo Fu Sect just abandoned it. It was truly a pity.

He strolled around the main hall, picked up a small piece of a broken plaque from the grass at the foot of the wall, shook off the thick mud and dust on it, and saw that it was written with the character "Xuan". He looked for the remaining large piece, but it was gone.

He went to other ruins nearby to rummage, but didn't find anything of value. He could only roughly judge the locations of the side halls, side rooms, pavilions, ponds, etc. Imagining the past, this should have been an exquisite manor. With the passage of time, only wild grass and vines growing everywhere remained, as well as a piece of abandoned rubble.

When he strolled to the intersection of the path down the mountain, he forcibly suppressed his urge to escape and returned to the hall to continue waiting.

At noon the next day, he came to that deep ravine again, looked at the huge ten-thousand-year-old pine on the main peak of Jade Goose Peak opposite, and looked down at the deep bottom of the ravine. No matter how he looked at it, he couldn't see why it was called "Huang Long Ravine".

Just as he was letting his imagination run wild, someone behind him asked: "What are you looking at?" It was Zhao Ru Yu who had returned.

Liu Liu Xiaolou hurriedly said: "I was just pondering, wondering why it's called Huang Long Ravine."

Zhao Ru Yu stood beside him and also craned his neck to look down: "According to the sect's records, thousands of years ago, a flood dragon appeared in this ravine water..."

Liu Liu Xiaolou yearned for it for a moment, but he didn't yearn for it for long. His inner thoughts were broken by Zhao Ru Yu: "Don't believe it? To tell you the truth, I don't believe it either, ha..."

Then he pointed to the opposite side of Huang Long Ravine and said: "If you don't enter the formation at dawn, for example, if you enter the formation now, can you walk out?"

Liu Liu Xiaolou thought for a while and said: "Difficult!"

Zhao Ru Yu asked: "That is to say, if the flaws of the formation are repaired, can this trap formation still be used?"

Liu Liu Xiaolou said: "It can be considered quite good. Below Foundation Establishment, as long as they are not in our array master profession, it is very difficult to come out. Foundation Establishment... if it's the early stage, it would take some effort to break the formation and come out. It should be possible to trap them for a day or two. With this time, your mountain-patrolling deacons would have arrived long ago. As for the mid or late stage of Foundation Establishment, perhaps it's possible to trap them for a few hours, but my cultivation is shallow, so I can't say what means these high-level cultivators have, and I dare not make a rash conclusion."

Zhao Ru Yu pondered for a moment and said: "You enter one more time." As he spoke, he untied the Eight-Prohibition Rope from his body, picked him up, and threw him to the opposite side of Huang Long Ravine.

This was not at dawn, and the Earth Gate Formation was operating well. As soon as Liu Liu Xiaolou entered, he felt great pressure, completely different from the night before. Waves of earth ridges surged over like waves, bringing impacts stronger than sea waves toward his body. Within this impact, there was also an indescribable sticky force, making people sink deep into it, unable to break free.

As soon as he entered the Earth Gate Formation, he felt a sense of terror. When he entered the formation the night before, he only felt that this formation was ordinary, but that was entering the formation at dawn, the weakest moment of the formation. Changing to this moment, the formation was operating smoothly, and he felt he couldn't bear it.

If Liu Liu Xiaolou were an ordinary Qi Refinement cultivator, perhaps he would have been unable to stand firm by now, wanting to escape but unable to, trapped in the formation, and could only wait for the Luo Fu Sect to come and catch him, or if his cultivation were two stages lower, perhaps he would have been pulled by the impact and sticky force and died on the spot.

Fortunately, he was an array master and had entered the Earth Gate Formation once before, mastering at least sixty percent of the operation methods within it. He immediately circled around with the Big Dipper Xuan Shu Gang, jumped over the surging earth waves under his feet, and at the same time pinched his fingers to calculate. His fingertips calculated a direction, and he stepped over with the Primordial Dipper Steps, stepping on the joints of certain earth waves.

Ever since he learned the array steps from Liu Daoran, he had thought more and practiced less. Even when practicing, he only practiced with his own Abyss-Facing Profound Stone Array, which had no challenge. His only actual combat experience was the night before, but that was entering the formation when the formation was not operating smoothly. Like this, forcing his way into the formation in a dignified manner, was truly the first time.

Although the Earth Gate Formation was not a great mountain-protecting formation, it was not comparable to an array formation like the Abyss-Facing Profound Stone Array that an individual carried with them. Liu Liu Xiaolou stepped on the steps in the formation, his energy highly concentrated, constantly stepping on the joints in the formation, but he felt he would never finish stepping on them. He stepped until he completely forgot about external objects, his whole mind entirely on pinching his fingers and calculating.

He didn't know how many times he jumped over earth waves or how many steps he took on earth ridges. His heart suddenly stirred, and he remembered a scripture from the "Five Talisman Scripture".

Water dies and wood is imprisoned.

The Earth Gate Formation follows the five-element path of Earth as King, but its being King is only a manifestation; the purpose is to imprison wood, and what is imprisoned is this ten-thousand-year-old pine. To break the imprisonment of wood, one must first enter the dead land, and the dead land is the water marsh.

Imprison death to replace, replace to be reborn—this was the guidance Diao Diao Daoyi gave him back then.

Although there is no water in the Earth Gate Formation, the earth ridges surge like waves; this is the nature of water!

His feet changed, stepping on the Northwest Dui, South to Li Zhen position, diagonally up to the Xun position on the right, and turning to step down to the Kan position.

With this, he finally stepped on the eye of the Earth Gate Formation. His palms reversed, squeezed inward, his toes lifted lightly, and then his heels pressed heavily backward.

A breeze blew by, rolling up yellow sand all over the sky. Liu Liu Xiaolou had already walked out of the Earth Gate Formation and arrived beneath the ten-thousand-year-old pine.

From entering the formation to breaking out, it took a full half-hour. During this half-hour, his mind and spirit were exhausted to the extreme, and his spiritual sense had never been so tired. He subconsciously leaned against the ancient pine and sat cross-legged to regulate his breath, unable to perceive anything outside.

When he opened his eyes again, it was full of stars. Before he knew it, he had been sitting cross-legged and regulating his breath for five hours.

The way of array formations is easy to distract people, but it is also one of the great paths of cultivation. The understanding of array formations is the understanding of the Heavenly Dao, which can also supplement cultivation. This time entering and breaking the formation, Liu Liu Xiaolou exhausted his heart and strength, finally opening the key acupoint that had been dragging him down for more than a month—the Head Tou Lin Qi, and then opened the Eye Window Acupoint while sitting cross-legged and regulating his breath, gaining quite a lot.

Zhao Ru Yu was also sitting cross-legged opposite, sizing up Liu Liu Xiaolou, and said: "Recovered?"

Liu Liu Xiaolou connected the two acupoints, his spirit full and his energy sufficient, and his heart was very happy: "Yes, this formation is much more difficult than I thought. If it weren't for the flaw of the thin mist at dawn, it would still be quite good."

Zhao Ru Yu shifted his buttocks, moved to sit beside him, and casually put the Eight-Prohibition Rope on him again, making Liu Liu Xiaolou's mood, which had just turned better, immediately very bad.

Zhao Ru Yu asked: "If I let you repair this formation, can you do it?"

Liu Liu Xiaolou was stunned and hesitated: "I am more proficient in illusion arrays, and I lack experience in such trap formations..."

Zhao Ru Yu patted his shoulder and said: "This is a great merit, ha. If this merit is performed, I can report it to the sect, count it as you atoning for your crimes, not only let you leave, but the pine resin essence you picked can also let you take away. You consider it."

Liu Liu Xiaolou's heart was moved: "Materials for refining array plates..."

Zhao Ru Yu said: "List a list for me, and I will find it."

Liu Liu Xiaolou said again: "When refining array plates, I need to replenish true qi at any time and anywhere..."

Zhao Ru Yu said: "It's not possible to take you into the Cave Heaven, but it's okay for me to take some spirit stones for you."

Liu Liu Xiaolou said again: "Earth fire, I need a place with earth fire."

Zhao Ru Yu got up and beckoned: "Follow me."

Carrying Liu Liu Xiaolou back to Huashou Terrace, walking through the ruins, entering a half-collapsed pavilion, his fingertips tapped lightly, and brilliance appeared, illuminating this place. He saw a dry well in the center, covered tightly by an iron well cover and locked with a large lock.

Zhao Ru Yu took out a key to open the lock, spent a lot of effort to extend the key into the lock hole, but after opening it for a long time, it still didn't open. He simply reached out and pulled, breaking the lock, and muttered: "What a piece of junk, ha!"

The iron well cover was intact, black and inconspicuous, but heavy to the touch. Zhao Ru Yu lifted the cover with effort, and a wave of heat suddenly surged up from the well.

Liu Liu Xiaolou leaned over to look down the well. Below, there was a faint scarlet color, and the scarlet color rose rapidly, stopping only when it reached three feet below the well.

Zhao Ru Yu said: "Zhu Ming Cave Fire, it hasn't been used for hundreds of years, ha. You see if it can be used?"