Chapter 231 – Eight Paths
After he entered Qian Yuan’s Treasure vault, the first thing that entered his eyes was an exceedingly grand hall.
This hall seemed to have been constructed within space; above it was the sky with groups of flickering stars, below it was the ground that was paved with rare Azurelight Stones, and it was coiled with mist and smoke, causing it to seem like the surface of a mirror. In the surroundings of this hall stood numerous doors that were dense like a forest, and they were like a beehive that actually caused one to be unable to see how many doors there were.
These doors weren’t motionless, but instead ceaselessly changed their positions like stars. Moreover, amongst these doors were some that emitted an aura of slaughter, some that overflowed with the aura of treasures and auspiciousness, and there were some that instead emitted the sounds of war. It seemed that extraordinary treasures were concealed behind every single one of these doors.
Of course, this didn’t eliminate the possibility that they contained disaster and death.
“Chen Xi, look. These doors seem to be dense and complicated, yet eight form a group, eight groups form a body, and eight bodies form a being, and they revolve repeatedly and evolve endlessly. It’s as if they’re moving according to the arrangement of a formation.” Ling Bai stood on Chen Xi’s shoulder as he squinted to size up the surroundings for a moment before speaking suddenly.
Chen Xi had long since noticed a trace of its profundity as well, and he nodded and said, “These doors are a formation. If my deduction isn’t wrong, then it ought to be a large scale Eight Path Formation, and it’s divided into eight paths, namely the paths of fortune, life, harm, avoidance, scenic, death, terror, and beginning. These paths are divided into Yin and Yang, auspicious and ominous. If one enters an ominous path, it’s a path of no return and certain death; if one enters an auspicious path, one can assure the safety of one’s life and perhaps be able to obtain the numerous treasures within the treasure vault.”
“So that’s how it is. Perhaps this as a test set by the owner of the treasure vault.” Ling Bai came to an understanding as he said, “Then which path should we take to be on an auspicious path?”
“According to the requirements of the formation, entering the paths of life, scenic, and beginning is an auspicious path, entering the paths of harm, terror, and fortune will instead cause heavy injury, and entering the paths of avoidance and death would instead cause death.” Chen Xi frowned as he deeply pondered and spoke.
“Then what’re we hesitating for? Don’t we just have to enter the paths of life, scenic, or beginning?” Ling Bai couldn’t help but speak with bewilderment when he saw Chen Xi speaking yet not moving.
“Something’s off! I keep having the feeling that something is slightly unusual, let me deliberate for a while longer,” said Chen Xi with a frown. At the same time, the Talisman Dao knowledge that he’d learned from his cultivation until now circulated at full speed, and he swiftly deduced the Eight Path Formation around him that was formed from numerous doors.
Ling Bai didn’t disturb him and sized up the surroundings on his own.
After a short moment, Chen Xi’s eyes lit up as he let out a long sigh of relief and said with a smile, “How dangerous, we almost stepped into the trap of the treasure vault’s owner. This Eight Path Formation is unusual, as the eight doors and its Yin and Yang are inverted, so it ought to be called an Inverted Eight Path Formation. Amongst those eight doors, only two of them are auspicious paths, and all the rest are ominous paths!”
“Then where should we enter from?” Ling Bai asked hurriedly.
“The path of death!” Chen Xi stretched out his finger to point. The door he pointed at revealed an aura of slaughter as if it contained boundless danger concealed within. If it wasn’t for Chen Xi having seen through the true face of this formation, he would absolutely think that behind this door was a place of death, yet it was different now, and this was the true auspicious path.
On the other hand, the doors that overflowed with the aura of treasures and auspiciousness were the true ominous paths!
Rumble!
Right at this moment, loud rumbling sounded out from outside the treasure vault, and then the tightly shut entrance opened suddenly and a rainbow bridge surged out to connect the treasure vault with the heavens and the earth.
The entrance to the treasure vault has opened. We have to go quickly or we’ll be too late. Chen Xi felt apprehensive in his heart as he brought Ling Bai along to flash into the path of death and vanish.
“So many doors!”
“Could it be that various treasures are concealed and stored behind these doors?”
“My god! I can sense the aura of countless treasures just from those doors!”
Amidst a wave of the sounds of the sky being torn apart, Huangfu Chongming, Liu Fengchi, Man Hong, and the others flashed into the hall, and when they saw the dense doors that were like a beehive in the surroundings, all of them cried out in shock.
“When Qian Yuan’s Treasure Vault descended into the world this time, it made too much of a commotion. The experts of the younger generation from all over have come, and there are many wolves, yet little meat. Even though there are many doors, but it doesn’t seem like all the treasures within them can be obtained by all of us.” Lin Moxuan sighed lightly.
“There’s no need to worry. We’re large in number and from numerous powers, and all of us possess a treasure vault map in our possessions. Thus, there ought to be no one that is capable of surpassing us in the amount of treasure we obtain.” Huangfu Chongming lightly smiled and said, “We’re currently standing in the hall of Qian Yuan’s Treasure Vault, and according to the guidance of the map, how should we enter?”
“The map in my possession shows that this Qian Yuan’s Treasure Vault possesses a total of 4,096 doors, and every single door contains unfathomable profundity. When one enters into a door, it would be equivalent to entering another space, so everyone must be careful,” said Tantai Hong.
“Exactly. These doors have formed an Eight Path Formation. But the map in my possession has instead labeled that this formation is odd and isn’t the same from a normal Eight Path Formation. I wonder exactly what part of it is different?” Liu Fengchi spoke with a frown.
“Mine is the same as well. It says that the true treasure vault is concealed within the auspicious paths. We have to find the auspicious path amongst them before we’ll be able to safely enter into the treasure vault and obtain the treasures,” said Man Hong with a nod.
“Then let’s swiftly find the auspicious path, so as to avoid allowing others to gain the advantage.” Huangfu Chongming spoke resolutely. “Fellow Daoists Pei Zhong and Xue Chen, I heard that your Whitecrane Sect is proficient in the Dao of Talisman Formations, I’ll leave this up to the both of you.”
Pei Zhong and Xue Chen looked at each other before nodding in agreement. Qing Xiuyi wasn’t present, so the two of them had already become the weakest existences amongst this group, and if they wanted to obtain benefits from Qian Yuan’s Treasure Vault, then they naturally had to properly cooperate with the others.
This pair of senior brother and junior brother each withdrew a compass shaped Magic Treasure, and then they looked at the numerous doors that revolved ceaselessly as they started to deduce with concentration.
While they were deducing the formation, all the other cultivators had arrived as well. There was no lack of knowledgeable cultivators amongst them that discerned these doors contained numerous profundities concealed within them, and all of them started to deduce the formation themselves.
At this moment, none of them had seen the true treasure vault, so there was no competition for benefit amongst them, and they didn’t have to worry about disagreements breaking out with the others. Not to mention causing a disagreement to break out at a time like this was extremely unwise, and it would allow the others to watch the fight before reaping the advantages from their battle. In the end, it would only benefit others, and that wasn’t worth it.
Everyone was wracking their brains to deduce the true location of the door, and they seized every minute and second for fear of another seizing the lead, causing the hall to seem extremely quiet.
Chen Xi had just entered a door and saw at least an entire few tens of enormous formations circulating, and they were arranged in an interlocking pattern that was linked to each other, causing them to form a grand formation that possessed killing intent that shot into the sky and was sufficient to trap any expert below the Heavenly Immortal Realm within it.
Fortunately, this extremely large and complicated slaughter formation didn’t activate and was extremely quiet, and Chen Xi didn’t come to any harm after going deep into the formation.
“So many medicinal pills!”
Chen Xi had just passed through the slaughter formation when he saw that amidst a space that was coiled with smoke and mist was medicinal pills that were full of spirit energy floating everywhere. Every single medicinal pill seemed to possess intelligence as they danced about and fluttered in the sky, causing them to seem extremely magical.
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Authors Note: Depictions related to Talismans will appear after this arc.
