Chapter 36 (Part 2)

In his previous life, Song Yuanxi had played a very aggravating game where every time you were out, you had to start from the beginning. Back then, in order to clear it, he had forced himself to stay up for two days and two nights.

He absolutely did not want to experience that terrifying ordeal again!

Ji Wuxing was pestered until he had no choice but to recount every challenge attempt he had experienced. This recounting lasted seven days and seven nights. By the end, his throat was smoking, and his vocal cords had nearly suffered damage.

“Cough, cough… That’s about it.”

After listening, Song Yuanxi was simply stunned. What he had described was the first-floor challenge of the Trial Tower, right? Just how long had this kid stubbornly bashed his head against this one floor?

Ji Wuxing was embarrassed. He scratched his head in shame. “I only spent just a tiny bit more time than other people, that’s all.”

Song Yuanxi: “…”

Although he was speechless, Ji Wuxing’s countless real experiences did indeed provide him with a great deal of information. The two huddled together and studied it from every angle, finally finding the pattern within.

“So this is testing our five elements?” Ji Wuxing found it hard to believe. “Why the five elements? If someone has Dual Spiritual Roots or Triple Spiritual Roots… the five elements would be useless to them!”

“The five elements represent the five kinds of spiritual roots. Having several kinds of spiritual roots should trigger several elements. They have fewer spiritual roots, so naturally, they trigger fewer elements. So… their chances of clearing the challenge are higher?”

As Song Yuanxi spoke, he paused, then added, “This is only my own understanding. After all, this is my first time entering the Trial Tower, and the Ji family…”

“You’re right.” Ji Wuxing suddenly interrupted, his expression indignant. “I finally know why they cleared the challenge faster than I did. No wonder! No wonder every time I talked to them about the first-floor challenge, their expressions were so strange… They’re all liars!”

Ji Wuxing was so angry his teeth ground audibly. He pounded hard against the water-repelling Pearl.

Song Yuanxi’s heart leaped into his throat. Looking at the not-very-sturdy protective membrane, he could not help exclaiming, “Don’t! Hit it two more times and it’ll crack.”

“What’s there to be afraid of? We’ll just put on another one.” As Ji Wuxing spoke, he took out a brand-new water-repelling Pearl and directly covered the two of them with it. At the same time, the irregular, damaged water-repelling Pearl layered on the outside shattered outright.

Their safety level rose in a straight line. Ji Wuxing patted his storage pouch and smiled smugly. “I still have plenty. Enough to get through the first floor.”

Song Yuanxi: “…”

A pay-to-win player!

After the two found the mechanism behind the first floor’s changes, they quickly formulated an implementation plan. That was to drift along with the water-repelling Pearl and find the place where the five elements were strongest, solving the problem from the root.

“The five elements counter and generate one another. We triggered the five elements with our Five Spiritual Roots. As one rises and another falls, we’ll strangle it at the source.”

Ji Wuxing very much agreed with this method, but in order to control the water-repelling Pearl, they would have to put in some effort. Simply relying on spiritual energy to operate it would not work. They had not even learned the operating technique. Thus, their abundant external resources provided more than enough support.

Song Yuanxi dug and dug, pulling out a whole storage pouch of talismans. Teleportation talismans, balance talismans, tracking talismans… Layer upon layer were stacked together, and the two directly treated the water-repelling Pearl as a movable vehicle.

“Ji Wuxing, careful. Vines are attacking.”

“I have explosive talismans.”

“Ji Wuxing, careful. There are tentacles crawling up from the mud.”

“I have Bone-Melting Powder.”

“Ji Wuxing…”

“I have…”

After more than ten days, the two finally found the center of the five elements. It was a brilliantly multicolored sea of flowers. An island rose from the sea, and mist rose from the island. The curling mist scattered in all directions, forming an endless stream of five elements.

The closer they got to the sea of flowers, the stronger the power of the five elements became.

Song Yuanxi could clearly feel the spiritual energy in his body rioting. The five spiritual roots hidden in his dantian seemed to have developed intelligence, clamoring to crawl out.

That was the fatal attraction the five elements held for them. It was also a kind of longing and summons.

“Ji Wuxing, you take generation, I’ll take countering. We’ll go straight to the island.” Song Yuanxi’s tone was excited. It was his first time using his spiritual roots this way. If the five elements operated properly, perhaps it could even raise his spiritual root talent value.

If they failed, at worst they would only be gravely disabled.

Ji Wuxing was also excited. This was a fortuitous opportunity. The five elements—if they generated endlessly, he might even advance!

“Brother Xi, you’re really letting me take generation?” Only generation allowed one to continuously absorb the five elements. He was clearly on the advantageous side, so Ji Wuxing felt somewhat guilty.

Song Yuanxi directly dragged him onto the island. “Why waste words? Hurry. Who knows if this place will teleport away?”

Ji Wuyi was in seclusion researching the art of talismans. By the time he emerged, three years had already passed. Remembering his junior brother who was cultivating in the Ji family’s Trial Tower, he leisurely headed over, only to be told that the person had not left the tower.

“In that case, inform me when Junior Brother Song exits the tower.” After Ji Wuyi finished speaking, he turned to leave.

The steward of the Guardian Hall stepped forward and stopped him, shaking his head as he explained, “First Young Master, that is not the case.”

Ji Wuyi turned around. The steward wiped his cold sweat and explained, “That Fellow Daoist Song from Xuantian Sect has not come out again since entering the tower for the trial three years ago.”

“He has not left the tower this entire time?” Ji Wuyi immediately became interested. “I hadn’t expected Junior Brother Song to have such ability. Which floor has he reached?”

The steward’s expression turned subtly strange for an instant. After a brief pause, he said, “He is still on the first floor.”

Ji Wuyi: “…”

The steward then added, “Seventh Young Master, Ji Wuxing, the son of the First Elder, also entered the tower three years ago and has remained on the first floor the entire time.”

The Trial Tower was an ancient treasure. Although it had not produced an artifact spirit, it had long since developed a spirituality of its own. The overwhelming majority of the trial challenges inside the tower were controlled by its own transformations. Aside from the Ji family’s ancestor, the others only relied on their bloodline to temporarily make it recognize them as master through blood, thereby obtaining a small amount of control.

The appearance of the jade tokens had come about precisely because of this. As for more complex operations, they were truly willing but unable.

The steward said, “There are too many folded layers of space inside the Trial Tower. Each batch of disciples who enter is located in a different space. The Ji family disciples who entered together with the two of them three years ago have now all exited and entered again, so no one knows the situation of those two inside the tower.”

If not for the fact that their jade tokens were intact, the Ji family’s Guardian Hall probably would have been unable to sit still long ago.

“How is Cousin Ji Wuxing’s cultivation now?” Ji Wuyi asked casually.

The steward answered bluntly, “Only at the first level of Qi Refining.”

Ji Wuyi immediately laughed. “The first level of Qi Refining and the third level of Qi Refining… Very good!”

Ji Wuyi instructed them to keep an eye on the jade tokens at all times. As long as the jade tokens were undamaged, they were not to disturb Song Yuanxi and Ji Wuxing’s attempt to clear the challenge, nor were they to use the forced exit mechanism.

Song Yuanxi and Ji Wuxing spent three years inside the Trial Tower. Using the principle of the five elements generating and countering one another, they successfully broke through the obstacles and solved the first floor’s trial problem from the source.

From there, they were smoothly teleported to the first floor.

Yet in their awareness, time had passed as swiftly as a white colt flashing past a crack in the wall. It felt like no more than the time it took to close their eyes and open them again.

The first-floor challenge of the Trial Tower was a ten-thousand-person array.

The array was like a chessboard. On the board were squares arranged in horizontal and vertical rows, and at intervals, a stone statue as tall as a person stood inside a square. Challengers had to walk through this ten-thousand-person array and successfully reach the end of the chessboard to pass.

Ji Wuxing had suffered plenty on the first floor. Seeing the stone statues again made his head feel huge.

“These stone statues are very strange. If you don’t crack the mechanism and force your way through, they’ll come alive and chase you to the ends of the earth, never stopping until one of you dies.”

Ji Wuxing pointed at the first stone statue before them and added, “There’s no pattern to them at all. Last time I encountered it, this thing was three squares ahead and to my left. Now that I’m seeing it again, it’s one square ahead and to my right.”

Song Yuanxi stared at the stone statue in front of him. He felt that these stone statues were somewhat like terracotta warriors, but the carving was quite crude. The entire face was almost blurry. Presumably, the array master who made this chessboard grand array was not very skilled.

He turned with a beaming smile and looked at the little companion beside him. “Xingxing, you’ve also challenged the first stage countless times, right? Why not tell me those challenge experiences and share them one by one?”

The first time, Ji Wuxing had still felt awkward, but Song Yuanxi had actually found the first floor’s stage-setting mechanism through his experience. That made him feel that his challenge experiences were extremely useful.

His desire to talk instantly reached its peak. Ji Wuxing pulled Song Yuanxi down to sit cross-legged and began a sharing session on his challenge experiences that lasted ten days and ten nights.

Song Yuanxi kept smiling the entire time, recording as he thought. When the other spoke until his mouth and tongue were dry, Song Yuanxi handed him a pot of Evergreen and nodded in agreement from time to time.

This greatly filled Ji Wuxing’s heart. Once excited, he went on talking for another half a month.

One month later, Song Yuanxi held a talisman brush and simulated all sorts of sketches, trying to find a pattern.

Ji Wuxing looked at the various scribbles on the talisman paper before him that resembled ghost drawings and was greatly shaken. “Song Yuanxi, you’re so amazing. You even know arrays!”

Song Yuanxi’s talisman brush paused. He looked up and smiled. “I don’t. These patterns have nothing to do with arrays. I’m studying the mechanism issue.”

“You know the art of mechanisms?” Ji Wuxing was even more pleasantly surprised. Mechanism arts were an obscure branch within arrays. Even among array masters, not everyone knew them. “Xuantian Sect truly has deep foundations. Even a Five Spiritual Roots disciple like you is so learned. If my father hadn’t kept me under control, I would want to go to your sect too!”

Song Yuanxi silently swallowed the explanation he had originally wanted to give. Ji Wuxing praising the sect’s deep foundations—there was nothing wrong with that!

After a round of meticulous study, Ji Wuxing received the talisman paper the other handed over, full of expectation.

“Based on all the challenge experience you’ve accumulated over the years, the first hundred steps are roughly like this. If you follow your experience, you won’t go wrong.”

Ji Wuxing nodded, then asked, “What about after the first hundred steps? Every time I finish a hundred steps, I definitely make a mistake, get attacked by the stone statues until I can’t fight back, and in the end I’m forced to crush my jade token and exit.”

Song Yuanxi only smiled without speaking, his gaze encouraging the other. “Go.”

Ji Wuxing felt settled in his heart. He felt that Song Yuanxi must have everything firmly under control. Then…

After Ji Wuxing finished the hundred steps, when he took the one hundred and first step, the mechanism gave an error warning. The stone statue revived and chased him down, attacking him.

It was Song Yuanxi’s first time seeing what the stone statue looked like after reviving. Its originally blurry face instantly became lifelike, its features turning clear. Aside from the material of its body being different, it was almost no different from a living person.

Its flexibility was comparable to a monkey’s. Ji Wuxing was chased until he screamed and howled.

“Song Yuanxi! Song Yuanxi! How could you trick me? You were wrong on the very first try!” Ji Wuxing was especially familiar with the one hundred and first stone statue. It was the chief culprit that had chased him and caused him just a tiny bit of harm.

He had tried and failed repeatedly, failed and tried again, yet he still could not beat it!

Song Yuanxi quietly placed an array disk in one of the empty squares on the chessboard. It was one He Man had given him.

“Ji Wuxing, lure the stone statue over,” Song Yuanxi shouted to the person not far away.

Hearing this, Ji Wuxing turned and changed direction. He stuck a Swift Thunder Talisman on his foot, and his running speed increased. The stone statue likewise sped up and chased after the person in front of it.

“Run through here and loop the stone statue inside,” Song Yuanxi reminded him.

Ji Wuxing was full of doubt. Was Song Yuanxi tricking him again? But there was no time to think. He gritted his teeth and did as told.

The instant the stone statue entered the empty square on the chessboard, beams of light rose from the four corners. The stone statue was firmly locked inside and could no longer come out.

“It worked!” Song Yuanxi shouted in delighted surprise.

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