Chapter 171

"Space?"

"Yes, we have checked all the stone rooms here, even the secret passage to Hell that Jiang Qu Lian wanted to hide most was found by us. There is no reason why two exits could not be found. The exits would not disappear out of thin air, so the only possibility is that they are hidden somewhere we did not expect." Fan Wu She glanced at the suspended treasure chest, "We presumed according to common sense that the exit was hidden behind one of the walls. Even the most powerful mechanism or formation, we wouldn't have found anything by tearing down the wall. Plus, the stone room hasn't changed in the meantime, so there's no such thing as moving suddenly, but instead of finding the exit, we found an unexpected secret passage. This means that our method is working, but we're looking in the wrong place."

"But we’ve checked every single wall." Xie Bi An looked at the sword marks all over the wall. The gullies were left by sword Qi almost every three feet. Although this sword Qi did not penetrate the stone wall, but through the depth, vibration and perception of the returning force, he could immediately tell whether the wall was solid or hollow.

"Really?" Fan Wu She held out his hand, his long slender fingers facing upwards.

Xie Bi An was startled, "You mean, the wall above our heads and below our feet?"

"Yes, this is what I've guessed; a spell formation that changes space." Fan Wu She analyzed, "When we entered this underground palace, we had already entered this tricky formation without knowing it. In fact, the twenty-four stone rooms had never changed before. It was the formation that changed about once an hour, and the reason why this formation could fool us was because the whole underground palace was not built on a flat surface."

It was a sudden realization for Xie Bi An. He was shocked with goosebumps: "The 24 stone rooms of this treasure trove were built from different planes. The roof of one room could be the floor or sidewall of another room. People could only walk on the flat floor and objects would only fall down. The function of this spell was to make us not know even if we walked onto the wall!"

Fan Wu She nodded his head.

Xie Bi An remembered those stone rooms; dug in a mess, one piece from the east and one from the west, some big and some small, some slanted and some upright, not tidy at all. Some places would have a slight slope, so these were all to confuse the intruders. But there was still a question in his mind, "But if that's the case, why didn't we dig and pass through the other stone rooms when we examined those walls?"

"Because the wall between the two stone rooms are five or six feet thick, which is as thick as solid, but the wall that leads to the secret passage to Hell cannot be built that thick; there must be a mechanism there. If it is too heavy for the mechanism to carry, the vibrations caused can probably be felt even on the ground."

"That makes sense. What, what about the treasure chest?"

"I think all the magical treasures here were individually enchanted, because they are active in relation to the fixed stone room. Adding a few pieces today, missing a few tomorrow, and changing locations the day after. A spell formation that is not controlled by anyone cannot make predictions about future variables as well, so it had to re-enchant the variables themselves. Many of the magical treasures in here would have fallen to the ground, and all the furnishings in the underground palace were perfectly symmetrical, and the caster of the formation managed to fool us by disguising the stone rooms and them."

Xie Bi An let out a long breath, "There is such a strange formation in this world. It is truly unheard of." He looked at Fan Wu She with glowing eyes, not hiding the admiration in his eyes, "Wu She, how could you be so clever? This is not something ordinary people would normally think of.”

Fan Wu She smiled, "Your junior brother is this clever. Do you think you've followed the right person?" Although he smiled, there was some bitterness in his heart. Back then, in order to take revenge and to quickly gain great power, he did not hesitate to go on a different path to study the Yellow Emperor's Yin Fu Heavenly Secret Scripture, a forbidden book that made people shy away from talking about it. In order to find the legendary Xuanyuan Heavenly Secret Talisman, he had wandered for ten years, leaving his footprints all over countless ancient tombs, graveyards and mysterious realms. It can be said that no one under the sky knows more about strange techniques and unorthodox ways than he does. More than a hundred years have passed and he can no longer remember where he has heard or seen space manipulation formations, but all those experiences have been turned into his flesh and blood.

"I'm your senior brother. No manners." Xie Bi An scolded jokingly, "If you want to follow, you should follow me."

Fan Wu She said flirtatiously, "You follow me, I follow you, it's all the same."

Xie Bi An held back his laughter, "Alright, now that we have guessed the trickery of the underground palace, let's hurry up and find the exit."

"The exit is clearly still in the first stone room we entered, only we thought it wasn't in its original location anymore." Fan Wu She snorted coldly, "That would be much simpler."

The two of them returned to the first stone room and found the hidden entrance and exit in the lower-left corner. When the steps appeared, they were hanging upside down at their feet. In fact this was clearly the ceiling from the beginning, but the spell formation had changed their sense of space and made them guess in many complicated ways, instead of carefully examining the stone room where the entrance and exit were located. This was a brilliant trick.

The two of them had just stepped up the steps when the steps that were still under their feet appeared in front of them and everything was back to its original state. Xie Bi An held Fan Wu She's hand and looked deeply at him. That glance was heartwarming and joyful. Indeed, just like countless times before, as long as Wu She walks, no matter what dangers they encountered, they could turn peril into safety. As long as Wu She was around, there was nothing to worry about. So this time, when the two of them joined hands to save their master, a miracle would definitely happen too!

Fan Wu She was moved by the look of trust and affection in his eyes. It is so beautiful to be in love with each other. He was even willing to suppress his raging desire and enjoy the tenderness that comes from just a little intimacy.

With the snake pearl in hand, the two of them quickly left the Red Palace and headed for the Naihe Bridge.

Meng Po could not hide her surprise when she saw them, especially when they took out the snake pearl.

Fan Wu She waited for her. His gaze grim: "What, are you surprised that we could come back so quickly? You already knew that Jiang Qu Lian's treasure trove was very weird, and you sent us to die, right?"

Meng Po hummed lightly, "There are indeed legends about the Red Palace’s underground, but anyone who trespasses there will never return. But you guys came back. The younger generations are really formidable ah.”

Thinking of what they had experienced in the underground palace, if Fan Wu She had not been smart enough, they might have been trapped to death, Xie Bi An looked at her angrily, "If we really couldn't get out, the consequences may not be what you want." If they couldn't leave, then they would have to go out and break through the gates of Hell, and when things got too big, Meng Po, Jiang Qu Lian, no one would be able to clear themselves. Now, even if they left the underground palace, they accidentally discovered Jiang Qu Lian's secret, and still have a headache on how to deal with it. In the final analysis, it's all the fault of this old witch.

"What I want is just this snake pearl." Meng Po looked at the golden core in Xie Bi An's hand, and her pale gaze seemed to glow.

"If you want the snake pearl, fulfill your promise."

Meng Po waved her snake's tail and chuckled, "Okay, I will tell you what Zong Zi Heng said when he stood in front of me and was about to drink Meng Po soup."

Fan Wu She held his breath immediately.

"I asked him what his greatest regret in this life was. He was silent for a long time and said, 'My brother has been wandering around for ten years, and when he finally returned home, I didn't cook a good meal for him'."

Fan Wu She only felt like thunder went through his body, and his heart hurt as if it had been dug out raw, dripping with blood. He thought that his big brother would say that he hadn't disciplined him well, that he hadn't got rid of him sooner, or that he had secretly hoped that his big brother might repent of having turned his back on him, but he had never imagined that it would be something like this.

How many torrential hatreds in the previous life have been swayed by this one sentence. If his big brother had said these words to him personally and cooked him a meal personally, he might have been able to let go of everything.

Xie Bi An was also stunned. The words surprised him and did not surprise him either.

He was surprised because in his past understanding, the two Zong Clan’s brothers had irreconcilable grudges that must end with only one person standing while the other one dies. The whole immortal cultivation world thought this way. And he was not surprised about because he possessed some of Zong Zi Heng's memories, and in those memories, he saw the love-hate obsession of the two brothers, and he clearly felt that Zong Zi Heng resented Zong Zi Xiao, yet he could not let go of his ninth brother until his death. How can one understand such a paradox unless one has experienced it firsthand?

So at the end of the day, the Human Emperor of the generation, Emperor Kong Hua, who had once called the wind and summoned the rain* and rewritten the history of the immortal cultivation world, regretted that he had not cooked a meal for his brother who had returned home from years of absence.

Xie Bi An felt inexplicably sad, and the sorrow in his chest could not be suppressed. He could no longer tell whether this emotion belonged to him or...

Fan Wu She said in a trembling voice, "What else… did he say?" He only hated that he had lost all his efforts back then and had not been able to snatch back his big brother's soul from Hell. Otherwise everything would have been different.

"Just this one sentence." Meng Po's eerie gaze stared unblinkingly at Fan Wu She, "This statement was rather new. It has been a long time since I have heard a story that can interest me."

Xie Bi An looked at the snake pearl in his hand and thought to himself: Was it worth the risk they took for this one statement? It should be worth it, because he seemed to understand Zong Zi Heng better, to be closer to that man's heart. Even though it was dangerous, it had its own power to draw him forward.

"Alright, bring over the snake pearl." Meng Po held out her hand.

"We haven't finished asking our questions." With the snake pearl in hand, their position as host and guest immediately flipped*, and Fan Wu She looked grimly at Meng Po, "I'll ask you, how many years did Zong Zi Heng serve in Hell?"

Meng Po raised an eyebrow.

"The things he did are bound to be punished by karma as well." Fan Wu She secretly gritted his teeth. He wanted to know which level of Hell his big brother was in and how many years he had suffered.

Meng Po narrowed her eyes, "I don't know."

"You’re lying!"

"I’m only responsible for serving soup, how can I care about the punishment in Hell?" Meng Po laughed coldly, "Ask your senior brother if you don't believe me."

Xie Bi An came back to his senses and explained, "When a person dies, it doesn’t mean he needs to reincarnate immediately, nor immediately reincarnate after serving his sentence, most of them choose themselves, so when he crosses the Naihe Bridge is not enough to judge how many years he has served."

Fan Wu She went silent.

"Quickly give me the snake pearl." Meng Po's snake tail swayed impatiently.

Xie Bi An glanced at Fan Wu She and, after receiving a hint from his eyes, he tossed the snake pearl to Meng Po.

Meng Po grabbed the snake pearl and in the blink of an eye, she put it into her qiankun bag.

Xie Bi An said, "Wu She, let's go."

Fan Wu She glared at Meng Po with knives in his eye. He knew that Meng Po was still hiding something from them, but there was nothing they could do if she spoke up. Those things he wanted to know, he will investigate them sooner or later.

 

 ----

called the wind and summoned the rain*[呼风唤雨]--- a metaphor for dominating nature or influencing a situation as one pleases.

position as host and guest immediately flipped*[主客之位立时翻转]---I can't find the proper definition of this. What it means is: initially, person A has power over person B, now the situation flips, where person B has power over person A.

 

Edited on 10 May 21 (Emzie)

 

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