Chapter 648: Key

He Pingsheng carried the aura of Nine Heaven Mystic Fire.

Or rather, he was very familiar with the aura of Nine Heaven Mystic Fire.

Yet, there was no trace of Nine Heaven Mystic Fire's aura or activity here.

"Hao Cang, come here…" He Pingsheng waved his hand, and a flame rose from his palm: "This is the aura of Nine Heaven Mystic Fire—try absorbing it into your body!"

Hao Cang was of the Treasure-Seeking Mouse clan.

His sense of smell was extraordinarily acute.

Placing this Nine Heaven Mystic Fire aura on Hao Cang was infinitely better than keeping it on He Pingsheng himself.

"Good!" Hao Cang, well aware of his value, needed no politeness—he immediately absorbed the flame into his body.

Within half a stick of incense, he fully integrated it.

"Release your spiritual sense!" He Pingsheng said. "Search—does any trace of Nine Heaven Mystic Fire linger nearby?"

Hao Cang shook his head in disappointment. "My lord, there is none."

"This treasure map must be fake!"

Around He Pingsheng stood Zhou Qingmei, Beichen, and Longyue.

All three had heard his conversation with Hao Cang.

"What can we do?" Zhou Qingmei pointed down at the gorge. "We've come this far—after six years of travel—we can't just turn back!"

"Exactly!" Beichen waved his hand, summoning a green longsword, and growled: "Even if someone set a trap for us, we must find them and learn their purpose!"

"If they meant to harm us, we'll tear them apart!"

"Then let's go!" Longyue said nothing more—she waved her hand, parting the mist below, and shot into the gorge first.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

The others followed one after another into the gorge below.

He Pingsheng walked last, Hao Cang beside him, the blood-red tortoise shell clutched in his hand.

Should any danger arise, he could react instantly.

Besides, he had nurtured the 【Death-Substitute Puppet】, so he felt no fear.

The gorge was not deep—soon, all arrived at the bottom.

From above, the gorge was encircled by waterfalls; once on the ground, they saw a roaring river below, flowing downward along the gorge's path, its sides lined with damp, water-slicked rocks.

Countless lush plants sprouted from the stone peaks, turning the entire gorge emerald green, sharply contrasting with the white waterfalls cascading above.

One green, one white—pleasing to the eye.

From a scenic standpoint, this was a beautiful place.

The landscape was exquisite.

All opened their spiritual senses, sweeping the surroundings!

"There's an entrance over there!"

Zhou Qingmei suddenly gazed toward a direction!

All spiritual senses turned there—He Pingsheng saw a cave entrance behind a massive waterfall on the left.

The marks around the entrance clearly showed it was man-made, not natural.

"Go…"

The group became streaks of light, piercing through the waterfall, arriving at the entrance.

It was a massive stone door.

Hummm… Hummm… Hummm…

As they neared, a golden energy membrane appeared, blocking further approach to the cave and door.

"This is…" someone said: "A defense array—and a sixth-rank one?"

A sixth-rank defense array could withstand a strike from a Void Refinement expert.

None here could break it.

"Who understands arrays?" They exchanged glances.

Zhou Qingmei asked: "Longyue, can you break this array?"

Longyue was a magic artifact crafter.

Every qualified magic artifact crafter was also a skilled array master—without array knowledge, one could never become a crafter.

For crafting required imprinting layer upon layer of restrictions onto the artifact.

Restrictions, in essence, were arrays.

They were connected.

"I can break it!" Longyue was confident: "Breaking a higher-rank array is possible—it just takes longer."

Normally, a fifth-rank array master could only create fifth-rank arrays.

But with an array disc, they could create a sixth-rank array.

Likewise, breaking a higher-rank array was possible—but it took more time.

Zhou Qingmei asked: "How long?"

Longyue replied: "Maybe two or three years. Or four or five."

The group: …

They'd already spent six and a half years getting here.

Now you tell me breaking the array will take two or three years?

Everyone's faces darkened—except He Pingsheng, who tilted his head, studying the golden array above with intense focus.

"Dragon Zhe, are you also an array master?" Zhou Qingmei asked.

He Pingsheng said: "I know a little."

"Then… what rank?"

He Pingsheng said: "I'd say fourth-rank."

"That won't help!" Zhou Qingmei said. "Longyue is fifth-rank and still needs years—your fourth-rank skill won't even crack it!"

"This is so frustrating—what do we do?"

Zhou Qingmei looked miserable.

He Pingsheng did not look at her—he kept staring upward at the golden energy membrane.

At one moment, he suddenly pulled out a token: the Mystic Fire Token.

"Fall…" He Pingsheng hurled the Mystic Fire Token sharply toward a specific point on the array's membrane.

Hummm… Hummm… Hummm…

The Mystic Fire Token fitted into the array like a key.

And the array simply opened—plainly, unremarkably.

"This…" Zhou Qingmei's mouth gaped open, speechless.

"You can do that?" Beichen bowed to He Pingsheng. "Dragon Daoist, truly extraordinary—I salute you!"

He Pingsheng was humble: "I only tried—it worked."

"Let's go!"

The group entered the array!

Then they faced a stone door.

"Open…"

With no array to guard it, the stone door meant nothing to them—they pushed gently, and it swung open.

A peculiar scent drifted from the dark passage within.

It was a fragrance.

A very unusual fragrance.

"So fragrant…" Longyue frowned: "Did you all smell it? A uniquely pure, sweet scent!"

"I've never smelled anything like it!"

"Don't inhale!" Zhou Qingmei warned. "Everyone, hold your breath—this may be toxic!"

He Pingsheng shook his head.

He knew toxins best—he could tell this scent was purely fragrant, with no poison.

The group walked along the ten-zhang-wide passage into the mountain, extending their spiritual senses ahead.

The path ahead was clearly revealed.

About a thousand zhang ahead lay another stone door!

And before that door stood another golden defense array.

In appearance and rank, it was nearly identical to the previous one.