Chapter 170

The two brothers were dazed for a long time, until the persistent heat brought pain to their flesh as if it was about to be roasted, and they came back to their senses.

Xie Bi An's eyes widened, "How did Jiang Qu Lian's Red Palace get an entrance that connects to hell?!"

Fan Wu She's face was expressionless as he stared at the burning hellfires. The warm orange light reflecting on his cold face, gradually taking on a blood-red gloom. He knew that one day he would definitely return here, but until that time, he must bring the Xuanyuan Heavenly Secret Talisman with him and order all the ghosts to let this purgatory, which once crushed him into mud, be something he can control in his palm, and not barging in like this without warning. He suppressed his fears, but he couldn't hide his pale face.

"He's mad, what does he want to do!?" A great uneasiness surged through Xie Bi An's heart, "As a warden, he has left such a dark path for himself. Anyone who is sent to hell will pay for the sins they committed in life. Punishing the evil, promoting the good, and the cycle of karma is the common understanding of both the human and ghost realm. It is also the way of heaven. What on earth does he want to do!?"

"The way of heaven." Fan Wu She laughed coldly and said scornfully, "Who made the way of heaven?"

Xie Bi An froze.

"The Way of Heaven is the path for celestial beings, so that celestial beings don't need to suffer from reincarnation nor be judged by Hell." Fan Wu She stared at the conical floating mountain and whispered, "What if the celestial beings have sinned? The way of the Great Dao will not be unjust; the other way for social ranking is not the way, but merely a means of self-interest."

"Wu She ..." Xie Bi An was momentarily stunned by these words and hesitated, "There is some truth in what you said. It's just that ever since the disconnection between heaven and earth, this is the rule that has allowed the three realms to be balanced."

Fan Wu She never accepted this Way of Heaven kind of bullshit. The celestial beings have cut off the connection between heaven and earth and have exclusive access to the vast spiritual energy, making it increasingly difficult for immortal cultivators on earth to become immortals. If it weren't for the lifelong pursuit of immortal cultivators to transcend the cycle of reincarnation, live forever, attain the Dao and ascend, how would Zong Zi Heng's golden core have attracted so much attention? He said coldly, "I know, I just feel it's unfair, that's all."

Xie Bi An sighed, "Wu She, there is no absolute justice in this world. No matter what the Way of Heaven is, if you do evil, you will be punished. It's unnecessary to doubt it. What other reason could there be for Jiang Qu Lian to set up this secret passage within hell other than to smuggle in sinful ghosts? I must report this to Official Lord Cui and investigate this matter thoroughly."

"Senior brother, calm down a little first." Fan Wu She said, "Not to mention that we haven't found a way out yet, even if we leave safely and you want to report to Official Lord Cui, how will you explain to him how we found this place?"

Xie Bi An choked suddenly. With Official Lord Cui's handling skills of being fair in handing out rewards and punishments, the two of them won't be better off. He hesitated for a moment, "This is a matter of great importance. Even if Official Lord Cui wants to punish us, we will accept it."

"That being said, now is not the right time. Have you forgotten that the most important thing we have to do now is to save our master?"

Xie Bi An frowned deeply. If they took the matter to Official Lord Cui now, they would certainly alert the Ten Yanluo Halls and the Five Ghost Emperors, and Jiang Qu Lian is not in the Underworld yet. They did not know when he would return, and they could not alert him. They would probably be trapped in the Underworld, and the thought of it made Xie Bi An feel disappointed: "That's right, now is not the time."

"Of course we can't leave this matter unattended, but it's best to discuss it with our master first and plan before we act. Right now, we must first find a way to leave." Fan Wu She looked up. The hovering mountain directly above them was just pitch black and nothing could be seen, "We are at the bottom of Mount Luofeng, can we just fly up directly?"

Xie Bi An shook his head, "It's impossible. Hell is the most heavily guarded place in the whole of Jiuyou with extremely strong boundaries. Without an authorization token from the Ten Yanluo Halls, no humans or ghosts can enter or leave. After the ghosts have been finished penalizing in Yanluo Hall, they will be brought to Hell by Yin servants to serve their sentence. Once they enter Hell, it is impossible to escape unless their sentence is completed, not to even mention living people like us. If we are found out for trespassing in Hell, even if Official Lord Cui has the intention of being bias, we will at least be punished with ten years of our life."

"Haven't you been here before?"

"That was when master brought me to patrol, but we were only on the upper levels. The lower we went the stricter the guarding became." Xie Bi An looked at the very bottom of the conical floating mountain. The infinitely narrowing pointed cone part of the mountain was like a stone mortar and pestle trying to plunge into the rolling lava. He pointed with his finger, "There are the eighteen levels of hell --- the Infernal Hell. Only those great evildoers who commit the crime of wreaking havoc on the world will be thrown in there."

Fan Wu She pursed his lips tightly, his gaze gloomy.

"We can’t go through here, we still have to go back."

The two of them turned back through the mountain path, only to find that the wall that had been destroyed before was gone, turning into a dead-end in front of them.

Xie Bi An was puzzled, "Could it be that the layout of this underground palace changes by the hour?"

"It's possible, we've been down here for an hour, right? It's changed twice already."

"I wonder which room we will return to when we break through this wall." As Xie Bi An spoke, he had already done his old trick and made a hole in the wall.

After the rumble, the familiar stone wall of the underground palace reappeared in front of them, and this time, they actually happened to be back in the stone room that was suspected to be the one where Jiang Qu Lian had kept the Southern Miao Jade Puppet.

"It's actually here." Xie Bi An walked over to the empty treasure chest again, looked at the outline of the blue and purple pouch inside, and thought for a moment, "I should take this chest with me, lest Jiang Qu Lian denies during the confrontation." With that, he picked up the treasure chest, intending to put it into his qiankun bag.

"Doing something silly again." Fan Wu She scolded gently, "Put it back."

Xie Bi An was a little ashamed for a moment, "What's wrong, what's with that tone? Am I senior brother or are you senior brother?"

"As long as we're not caught red-handed by Jiang Qu Lian, we won't admit what happened today, but if you confront him with this, are you trying to tell him that it was us who snuck into his treasure trove?"

Xie Bi An also reacted: "I forgot about that for a moment."

Fan Wu She's lips contained a smile as he stared straight at Xie Bi An, "Silly senior brother is so cute that I want to bite you." When he said "bite you", that aggressive look in his eyes was not a child's desire for a bite of candy, but a fierce beast's desire to taste its prey.

With a sudden pang of panic, Xie Bi An hurriedly put the treasure chest back on the stone platform, but due to his haste, he did not place it steadily, so the two of them watched as the treasure chest, which should have fallen to the ground due to an imbalance of weight, remained strangely on the stone platform.

Xie Bi An still remained in a position of wanting to hold it with one hand, which froze in mid-air.

Fan Wu She circled around the stone platform and suddenly pushed the treasure chest, pushing it far away from the platform. Something even more nerve-racking happened. The treasure chest levitated in mid-air for no apparent reason.

"What's going on?" Xie Bi An examined the chest carefully, but found nothing special --- except that it could "fly".

After pondering for a moment, Fan Wu She suddenly walked to the side and swept out a magical treasure from another stone platform.

Like the treasure chest, it was also suspended in mid-air.

This was the case with all the treasures in this stone room.

Xie Bi An felt a headache: "Could it be that Jiang Qu Lian had cast a special spell on these things because he was afraid of dropping them on the floor and breaking them?" This explanation sounded too far-fetched; there was nothing fragile in here.

"No." Fan Wu She pulled Xie Bi An with him and walked towards another stone room, throwing a few more magical treasures, and all of them would not fall to the ground.

Xie Bi An looked around again and again, feeling that he had caught some clues but couldn't put them together for a while: "Wait, let's sort this out. First of all, we're not hallucinating."

"Hmm."

"Nor was it a mechanism, at least not the kind we know of. All the changes were done in silence. There's no mechanism that can be done without sound or trace."

"Hm." Fan No She said, "Then it could only be some sort of formation."

"How exactly was this formation cast? How often did it change, and why did it leave these magical treasures suspended in mid-air?"

"Nothing is too bizarre in the vast state of Jiuzhou, but this formation has never even been seen in the Heavenly Secret Scripture. It is indeed very powerful."

Xie Bi An glanced at Fan Wu She, "Wu She, do you often study the Heavenly Secret Scripture? That master of yours from Mount Qingcheng taught you the proper way of swordplay, and still taught you such unorthodox ways?" Back then when they had found Zong Ming He and the Big Dipper Zhengji Binding Demon Formation in the cave at Diancang Peak, he felt that Fan Wu She knew that forbidden book far beyond his years. Cultivators of their age are a time of rapid progress and rapid change, so how could they have time to study nonsensical things? Only when they were close to their upper limit and had difficulty breaking through no matter what would they think of some evil ways.

"Yeah, he's into everything." Fan Wu She said frankly.

Xie Bi An felt something odd, but he didn't continue to ask: "You must have read a lot of tricky formations in the Heavenly Secret Scripture. Do you have any thoughts regarding the one in front of you?"

"I do have a suspicion." Fan Wu She said, "But it's a bit risky."

"We are already taking a risk."

Fan Wu She looked around, "It's not an illusion or a mechanism, then it must be a formation. There are non-living formations and living formations. Living formations are almost always done through living people. This formation we came across is probably a living formation made of non-living things."

"A living formation made of non-living things?" Xie Bi An contemplated on these words, "If it is true, it is indeed new and odd."

Non-living formations, as the name implies, are formations that do not change, such as the Protection Formation, the Soul Summoning Formation, and the Big Dipper Binding Demon Formation, while living formations are formations that change, usually controlled by one or many people, such as the Eight Trigrams Formation, the Rainfall Formation, and the Eighteen Luohan Formation. To be able to make a whole underground palace into a formation, arranging each of the twenty-four stone rooms in proper formation points, and even changing them at regular intervals, such wisdom and cultivation is rare in the world.

"I guess ..." Fan Wu She raised his head to look up for a moment, and then looked down at the bottom of his feet, "I guess, this is a formation that plays with space."

----

PS: getting all hyped, can't wait to be on par with SQC's latest chapters!!

 

Edited on 10 May 21 (Emzie)

 

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