Chapter 299: The Grand Concealment Array That Never Formed
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
Mo Wuji was quickly consumed by intense training to absorb spiritual energy. Training in this place was a thousand times better than training between those two boulders back when he was promoted to True Lake Stage.
Not only did he no longer have to worry that a typhoon would suddenly sweep away his boulders, the spiritual energy here was purer and richer. Obviously, the Howling Wind Beast was very good at spotting training grounds – he found such an excellent one.
His training speed now was clearly much higher since all his 103 meridians were absorbing spiritual energy at the same time. He was sure that the reverse circulation technique was not only adding one meridian at a time to his body now.
After a short period of ten days, Mo Wuji’s violet elemental lake was nearly overflowing. After half a month, he entered Level 2 of True Lake Stage without difficulty. The violet elemental lake in Mind Palace once again expanded.
The bigger the elemental lake, the more difficult it was to level up. Normally, people in True Lake Stage would take years to fill up the elemental lake, no matter how quickly they trained. Yet, Mo Wuji’s pace of training was so intense that his violet elemental lake was filled to the brim in merely 3 months. Violet energy surged in the lake, as if it contained an infinite amount of power. After a few months, Cen Shuyin’s elemental lake had already reverted to its ordinary state. In fact, her elemental lake was filled, and her skills had improved. Yet, in that moment, she was no longer training. Instead, she was staring dumbfounded at Mo Wuji.
She thought she was fast. So did all the cultivators from the Lost Continent, who trained at the speed of light initially.
This wasn’t about how much better the cultivators from the Lost Continent were compared to those from the Zhen Mo Continent. However, the Lost Continent cultivators’ training grounds had been so bad that when they came to Zhen Mo Continent – this training haven – their progress was incredible. It was this change in training environment that helped her to advance from Level 3 of Yuan Dan Stage to Level 1 of True Lake Stage in a few years.
Yet, in this moment, looking at Mo Wuji’s training speed, she knew that she was a snail compared to him. She couldn’t figure it out. How could Mo Wuji, who looked like he lacked spiritual flow, actually be so divine in skill?
“Boom!” The surging violet energy burst out of the lake. Mo Wuji once again broke boundaries – he had reached Level 3 of True Lake Stage.
Mo Wuji was overwhelmed with one feeling. The powerful violet energy penetrated every single cell in his body. If someone early in Nihility God Stage were to challenge him at this moment, he would confidently rise to the challenge.
“Senior Cen, you have recovered?” Mo Wuji questioned, surprised. He saw Cen Shuyin staring at him intently when he had opened his eyes.
Cen Shuyin rose to her feet. She noticed that Mo Wuji’s clothes looked slightly big for him. Her looks were once again perfect. Her eyes were clear as crystal – Mo Wuji could see his own reflection in them. Yet, her perfect features shaped a look of pure shock.
Mo Wuji’s heart jumped. It certainly was not his first time looking at her beautiful face. Yet, each time he laid his eyes on her, he felt the same amazement. It didn’t help that he had seen her body before, and knew that it was every bit as beautiful as her face.
It was no wonder that Xia Mu could not get over her.
“I’m much better…” Cen Shuyin replied, not knowing what else to say.
Mo Wuji dreaded leaving. Although he felt a decline in the surrounding spiritual energy after training for a few months, he still wanted to continue training there for some time.
“Senior Cen, the Xia Clan from Star King Mountain is out to kill me, and vice versa. Therefore, I plan to remain here to train for a while longer. I will only have hope of surviving if I become stronger.” Mo Wuji made his situation clear for fear that Cen Shuyin would want to leave immediately.
He continued, “Senior Cen, I’d advise you to remain here to train for a while too. And… the next time you try to escape, avoid isolated grounds. We’re lucky that we managed to find this place. Otherwise, who knows if we would have survived? This time, we lucked out to find the Howling Wind Beast’s Cave, hehe…”
To say, “who knows if we would have survived?” was incredibly tactful on Mo Wuji’s part. In his heart, he was well aware that if they had not found the Howling Wind Beast’s Cave, he would not be here cultivating his skills. He would be running for his life from the fierce wind. And Cen Shuyin would probably be six feet under.
Cen Shuyin was confused on hearing his words. She questioned, “You think this is the Howling Wind Beast’s Cave?”
Mo Wuji started, and replied, “You mean it isn’t?”
She shook her head, “No. You saw the Howling Wind Beast outside the opening, only because I had found this place. It wanted to take over this place. That’s why we ended up in a battle outside the opening. I was no match for the Howling Wind Beast. I had to resort to the forbidden technique – only then was I able to defeat it. Then, I pulled myself back in here. If not for your Immeasurable Soul-prolonging Flower, I would have died in a matter of months.”
“You found this place?” Mo Wuji looked at Cen Shuyin in utter surprise. Even with his skill, he would survive for only a short while at best in this Thorny Wind Gate. If he was lucky, he may have chanced upon the opening. However, he would never have found the cave behind the
opening.
Cen Shuyin nodded, “I was chased by Xia Mu all the way to space. At space, my cultivation progress sped up. By chance, I hid atop a meteor. Among some bones on the meteor, I picked up a ring. The ring contained a lot of cultivation resources and a map. It was a map of Thorny Wind Gate.”
Thoughtlessly, Cen Shuyin moved to retrieve the map from her ring. Then, she realised that the ring in her hands was no longer the same ring she had picked up from the meteor. Instead, it was the ring that Mo Wuji had given her.
“At first, I had no intention of coming over. I wanted to remain on that meteor to train…”
Mo Wuji immediately understood. If it were him, he wouldn’t have come to Thorny Wind Gate – one of the Nine Extreme Realms – just because of one map.
“Thanks to the resources from that ring, I progressed to True Lake Stage. But when I did, people from the Xia Clan discovered my whereabouts. I had no choice, I had to keep running, so I came to Thorny Wind Gate.”
Cen Shuyin’s tone remained steady. However, at the mention of “Thorny Wind Gate”, Mo Wuji noticed that her eyes were filled with fear and terror.
“If not for my progress to True Lake Stage, and my body-protection suit, I would have died here a long time ago.”
Mo Wuji had seen Cen Shuyin’s pitiful state with his own eyes. Of course, he believed every word that Cen Shuyin had said.
“I consider myself lucky. When I arrived here, I was immediately brought to a temporary col that the fierce winds had cleared out. In the col, I memorised every last line of the map as fast as I could. I knew that the col which the fierce winds had cleared out would not last very long.”
Cen Shuyin’s eyes were filled with fear once again. “Indeed, in just a day, the fierce winds swallowed the col, taking me along with it. If not for the fact that I was in True Lake Stage, I would have died. But even so, I was severely injured. Just when I was about to give up, I noticed that the map was marked at a certain spot.”
“This is the spot?” Mo Wuji curiously asked.
Cen Shuyin shook her head. “No, that spot is about 5760m away. The spot marked on the map was the place where 5 flag arrays were hidden. If you follow the directions on the map and obtain those 5 flag arrays, an opening would appear. I obtained those flag arrays, and an opening indeed appeared before my eyes.”
It was then that Mo Wuji understood. The opening that he had entered earlier was only there because Cen Shuyin had obtained those flag arrays.
“If not for this opening, I’m afraid I would not have found this place. I followed in the direction of the opening, and quickly made my way here. However, not far from here, a Howling Wind Beast spotted me. You know what happened after that…”
Mo Wuji once again questioned, “Senior Cen, you retrieved a map earlier. Could it be that the map was made to locate this training cave?”
Although this place was not bad, people wouldn’t go so far as to create a map for it, right?
Cen Shuyin shook her head, “No, this place is just outside of where I am headed. Inside here, there are concealment arrays.”
Concealment arrays? Mo Wuji immediately began to search. However, he did so in vain. Although he could not formulate any high grade arrays, he was relatively well-versed in the array dao. He could obtain clues from the high grade arrays.
“This concealment array will only appear after I place the five flag arrays in their designated
positions. But I have lost all of my flag arrays…” Cen Shuyin sounded dejected. She had already done so well in finding this place, yet she had lost the five flag arrays.
“Tell me where the flag arrays should be,” Mo Wuji said. He suspected that he could not see the arrays because the concealment array was missing. Once the five flag arrays were in the right positions, the array would appear.
Cen Shuyin remembered clearly that she had walked around this cave and marked out 5 spots.
Mo Wuji immediately retrieved five flag arrays, and headed down toward the five spots that Cen Shuyin had marked out. However, when he had placed the five flag arrays in their positions, there was no change.
He frowned slightly. Although he wasn’t the best at the array dao, he wasn’t considered poor either. Moreover, he had placed the flag arrays at their designated locations – this had nothing to do with his standard of array dao.
“Could this have something to do with the five elements? My master told me that a lot of array circles are formed according to the elements of heaven and earth…” Cen Shuyin hesitated to suggest this. She saw that Mo Wuji was getting frustrated.
Mo Wuji’s heart skipped a beat. How could he not have thought of this? He immediately took out five flag arrays that had attributes of the five elements. Then, he placed them in the positions that Cen Shuyin had marked out.
Just as Mo Wuji placed the last flag in its place, there came thundering roars from every direction. There were sounds of rocks falling onto the ground. Cen Shuyin was rooted to the ground. After Mo Wuji had let go of the flag, the concealment array did not appear. Instead, their only escape route was blocked.