Chapter 96: Breaking The Formation, How To Break It Again?
The youngsters once again stood before two other passages.
Now, Ming Zhaoshuang had a total of one hundred and two talismans drawn.
This time, it was all darkness, with no visible roads. They originally wanted to use spiritual power or something to illuminate the way, but everything became dim and lusterless the moment they entered the passages.
Ming Zhaoshuang realized that even though the first passage had almost become a world of light, the second passage seemed completely unaffected. The linear propagation of light appeared to be a joke in these two passages.
This is testing intelligence? It doesn’t follow any physics principles at all.
At this moment, the system reminded her, “Pure Yin Ground, only a Pure Yin Ground can be devoid of any light attribute.”
Ming Zhaoshuang, by analogy, asked, “Then the first passage is a Pure Yang Ground, right?”
The first road and the second road were clearly opposites.
As they spoke, the youngsters stepped into this passage. Because Ming Zhaoshuang had drawn defense talismans, they were not too afraid.
This road felt different underfoot than the first one; it was like muddy ground, whereas the first passage had a road of gold.
Moreover, the first passage gave a feeling of warmth, while the second passage gave a feeling of coolness.
A chilling cold that corroded the bones, a coolness that seeped into the marrow.
The mechanisms in this passage mostly involved the ground suddenly tearing open, from which many snakes and scorpions would emerge and bite.
And this tearing open would claim several people, causing Ming Zhaoshuang’s talismans to be consumed very quickly.
Most importantly, Qin Feilong’s luck was not as good this time; in complete darkness, after circling twice, they finally discovered the mechanism passage.
Two identical passages and one different one appeared before them again.
And at this moment, Ming Zhaoshuang had only forty-three talismans left.
Without hesitation, everyone chose the different road again.
It was another fork in the road. Ming Zhaoshuang frowned, as if she had thought of something, and said, “At the last fork, we went left.”
Qin Feilong said, “This time I also feel like we should go left.”
Since Ou Ziye had spoken, the group didn’t say any more and hurried forward again.
Before long, another fork appeared before them.
Shen Liqian looked up and said with certainty, “This is the first passage.”
Ming Zhaoshuang supported He Qingqing and continued forward, saying:
“It seems the bottoms of these passages are all the same, but we must go through each different circular passage to obtain the spirit tool for breaking the formation.”
Of the nine blueprints, only eight were pieced together; fragments of the last blueprint needed to be obtained from the formation.
It was obvious that the spirit tool from the last blueprint was the key to breaking the formation.
But what exactly was the use of this spirit tool?
Without time to think further, they hurried towards the left passage.
Amidst Ou Ziye’s voice, Ming Zhaoshuang and the others obtained the remaining spirit tool fragments. This time, Qin Feilong, without Ming Zhaoshuang needing to say anything, directly identified the matching pieces from the eight assembled spirit tools and put them together.
Ming Zhaoshuang was already weak after drawing talismans, and after traversing two passages, she was mentally and physically exhausted. Now that she could finally catch her breath, she immediately sat down to cultivate her soul power.
It was a pity that although the system was a cheat, it wasn’t so overpowered that it could only heal her physical body, and was helpless against mental soul power.
Ming Zhaoshuang slowly sketched the appearance of the passages they had just traversed in her mind, finding them strangely familiar.
How is intelligence being tested?
How should the formation be broken?
Why was Qin Feilong able to break this formation in the first place?
She slowly furrowed her brow, suddenly having no clues.
The youngsters naturally understood that Ming Zhaoshuang was having a difficult time, and they fell silent, creating a good environment for her.
They were also worried. Looking at the appearance of the circular passages, each assembled blueprint contained some fragments, meaning they still had at least eight more circular passages to traverse.
But given Ming Zhaoshuang’s state, if they continued to clear them so forcefully, her soul power replenishment would certainly not keep up.
After all, they couldn’t always rely on sheer luck like in the first trial.
However, if they delayed, He Qingqing might not only fail to break the formation but also fail to pass the trial.
While everyone else was resting, Qin Feilong also had the chance to draw the remaining defense talismans for the group.
He drew slower than Ming Zhaoshuang, but by the time Ming Zhaoshuang opened her eyes again, he had also drawn over thirty talismans. Together with the previous forty-three, they had a total of seventy-three, enough for everyone to pass through the next circular passage.
The group received the talismans, exchanged glances, and entered the passage again.
In the third circular passage, the ground vibrated, lightning flashed, and various words of negation swirled in their ears, while fierce spiritual beasts appeared before their eyes. Fortunately, everyone’s disposition was firm and they were not afraid. Although it took them two attempts to find the passage, the loss of talismans was only twenty.
In the fourth circular passage, strong winds raged, and the path was ever-changing. Especially when the group felt pain in their livers and bones and had no ability to resist the strong winds, they lost forty-two talismans during passage.
Now, only eleven talismans remained in their hands.
After a brief rest at the end of the trial, Ming Zhaoshuang drew thirty more talismans, and Qin Feilong drew seventeen.
Qin Feilong said, “Junior Sister Zhaoshuang, this is not sustainable. My soul power is already completely depleted.”
Although Ming Zhaoshuang’s soul power was constantly recovering, the intervals were too short. Currently, she could only draw thirty talismans.
She even wanted to continue drawing, but unfortunately, a dragon tightly coiled around her wrist, preventing her from continuing.
A day had already passed. If they wanted to continue breaking the formation, in the subsequent trials, they would likely need to stop and recover soul power to draw talismans, just like in this trial.
But unfortunately, the speed of soul power recovery was extremely slow.
This would lead to a situation where even if they cleared all the passages, they would run out of time to break the formation.
That is to say, He Qingqing might truly have to choose to pass the trial rather than break the formation.
The more they thought about it, the more grim everyone’s expressions became, especially Fei Changxiu, who had already become restless and started slashing his sword around.
In this trial, apart from Ming Zhaoshuang and Qin Feilong, they were almost useless.
Ming Zhaoshuang looked at Fei Changxiu violently hacking at the wall, and suddenly had a flash of inspiration, as if she knew something, her eyes filled with joy.
She looked at the dejected He Qingqing and smiled, comforting her, “Don’t worry, Senior Sister He, I still have a Nine-Orifice Lotus Platform Petal. I will definitely help you pass this trial.”
He Qingqing smiled back at her, “Yes, I believe you, Junior Sister Ming.”
She lowered her eyelashes, concealing the unease in her heart.
The preciousness of the Nine-Orifice Lotus Platform Petal went without saying; it was something Ming Zhaoshuang obtained at the cost of nearly breaking her leg. Moreover, the fact that Ming Zhaoshuang chose the Nine-Orifice Lotus Platform Petal, which could heal all things, instead of the Nine-Orifice Lotus Seed Heart for breaking through, was enough to prove how valuable the Platform Petal was to her.
He Qingqing thought that if it really came to that point, she would be unwilling to let Ming Zhaoshuang exchange her Platform Petal for one of her arms.
Ming Zhaoshuang stood up, her legs weakening from the immense consumption of soul power. Shen Liqian promptly supported her.
Ming Zhaoshuang threw her head back and laughed, “Let’s go, Senior Brother, Senior Sisters.”
Let’s continue breaking the formation!
