darknovel Chapter 54 The Great Five-Line Maze
Chapter 54 The Great Five-Line Maze
Zhou Li was able to discern the location of Fang Yu's blazing blood energy, which was not far ahead, but several huge rocks suddenly appeared in front of him, blocking his way.
He knew it was an illusion, so he suppressed his body's instinctive reaction and, following his intuition about Fang Yu's location, crashed straight into the rock!
As if passing through a curtain of icy water, the rocks in front of him disappeared, but then, suddenly, his feet lost their footing, and a strong sense of weightlessness washed over him, as if he had stepped into an abyss.
Fortunately, Zhou Li had been on guard and was familiar with the terrain around the cave, so he knew that it was all an illusion.
Following Fang Yu's aura, Zhou Li cautiously navigated through the maze. After passing through a seemingly impenetrable thicket of thorns, the scene before him suddenly changed, and Fang Yu appeared not far ahead.
Fang Yu was like an ant on a hot pan, sweating profusely, frantically pounding on a "blue stone" a few steps away, but to no avail.
"Although this illusion array is crude, it is quite effective in disorienting and confusing those who are unfamiliar with arrays," a thought came to Zhou Li's mind. "If this illusion array were set up in the sword corridor at the back gate, it would surely have a miraculous effect."
"Junior Brother Fang," Zhou Li's gentle voice rang out.
Fang Yu turned his head sharply and saw Zhou Li. He was overjoyed and said, "Senior Brother Zhou, you've finally arrived! I sent you a message a few days ago, but you didn't reply, so I came to visit you. I didn't expect to be stuck here for most of the day."
"Messages? I just came out of seclusion, so I haven't checked them yet." Zhou Li touched his disciple token and saw messages from Fang Yu, Xia Mingduo, and others. He thought to himself, "It's been several months since I've seen the Xia siblings. I should invite them out for a get-together when I have the chance."
While briefly responding to the message, Zhou Li explained to Fang Yu, "This is a maze, probably set up by Senior Sister Qingqing in her spare time. It's just a rudimentary illusion and there's no danger here."
"Purple Cloud Peak is truly a place where dragons and tigers hide," Fang Yu said, shaking his sore and numb arms. "Senior Brother, this Senior Sister Qingqing must have quite a talent for array formations."
Zhou Li's gaze swept across the surroundings. The insight granted by his Heavenly Thunder Eyes pierced through the illusions and revealed the crudely constructed maze before him.
The crooked array flags, the spirit stones used as makeshift array bases, and the tangled spiritual energy hubs connecting them were all clearly visible.
Looking at the simple frame, Zhou Li suddenly felt a playful urge.
This maze was more than enough to trap Fang Yu, who was unfamiliar with array formations, but in his eyes, it was full of flaws. He had a natural affinity for the Five Elements theory, and now he was eager to try his luck.
"Take it easy," Zhou Li said with a faint smile. "This formation is crude. Let me make some adjustments, and it may look quite impressive."
Fang Yu's eyes widened: "Senior brother also understands formations?"
"I haven't studied it, I'm just... a little curious." Zhou Li spoke modestly, but his movements carried a hint of certainty as he strolled over to a yellow array flag deeply embedded in the soil.
He was not familiar with the principles of formations, but with his keen perception of the five elements' spiritual energy through the "Five Elements Painting Technique" and his ability to see through illusions with his Heavenly Thunder Eye, he could clearly feel that the spiritual energy of this formation flag was blocked, which directly led to the stagnation of the earth element's spiritual energy.
He reached out, but instead of pulling up the array flag, he gathered a wisp of pure earth elemental spiritual power at his fingertips and gently touched a node on the array flag where spiritual energy was intertwined.
After entering the Tide-Watching Realm, the Five Elements Painting Technique can only utilize water-elemental spiritual power, but it can already easily draw upon the other four elements of spiritual power.
The spiritual energy seeped in like a clear spring, skillfully smoothing out the blockage and straightening the array flags, making their connection with the earth's energy smoother and more natural.
Then, Zhou Li walked to the other side, where there were two array flags, one as red as fire and the other as clear as jade. However, they were planted too close together, causing their spiritual energy to interfere with each other, forming a chaotic vortex.
Zhou Liping pointed his finger, and faint fire and wood elemental spiritual power flowed from his fingertip, probing into the center of the chaotic vortex. The two strands of spiritual power skillfully guided and pushed at the node, straightening out the tangled spiritual energy.
Finally, his gaze fell on a spirit stone that served as the base of a water-based array, its spiritual energy dissipating due to its off-center position.
He flicked his finger, and a gentle stream of water-based spiritual energy struck the edge of the spirit stone precisely. The spirit stone trembled slightly and returned to its original position. As the spirit stone returned to its place, a smooth stream of water-based spiritual energy spread out.
Zhou Li's three changes, seemingly casual, were nothing more than straightening the array flags, regulating the spiritual energy, and moving the spirit stones. His movements were as smooth as flowing water, carrying an almost instinctive intuition.
However, right after he made his last move, the spiritual energy in the maze surged, and the originally thin mist suddenly became thick and viscous, almost like a substance!
Zhou Li muttered to himself, "The flow of spiritual energy is no longer sluggish, but the connection at this node is still very stiff, causing much of the spiritual energy in the array to dissipate. All I need to do is reverse this pivot point..."
As he spoke, Zhou Li precisely pinched his five fingers on the spiritual energy hub connected by the five array flags, which was the very eye of the array.
Although Qingqing did not deliberately hide the array's core, she could see its location at a glance and accurately control the power of the five elements. Neither of the two people present knew how astonishing this was. Only Zhou Li, who had been tempered by heavenly lightning and cultivated the five elements simultaneously, could do it.
At this moment, Fang Yu said with some concern, "Senior Brother Zhou, if you don't understand formations, it's best not to try changing the formation lightly. We're still inside the formation; if..."
Before Fang Yu could finish speaking, Zhou Li had already formed a hand seal, connecting another identical pivot point to the original Qingqing array eye, perfectly complementing Qingqing's positive and negative aspects.
The moment the spiritual energy was withdrawn from the fingertips, the entire maze space trembled violently!
The surrounding scenery was no longer simply distorted and displaced, but began to change irregularly. The bluestone ground underfoot sometimes turned into a cold and icy water prison, and sometimes into a raging sea of fire.
Space seemed to be folded and stretched, bizarre and unpredictable, making it hard to distinguish between reality and illusion! A far larger and more sophisticated, cyclical force of the Five Elements spread out, locking the entire area firmly in place.
This formation was originally the "Minor Five Elements Maze Formation". Zhou Li did not know Qingqing's formation hand seals. If he rashly destroyed the formation's core, the formation would only collapse and disappear without any changes.
However, Zhou Li did not destroy the original array eye. Instead, based on his own understanding of the power of the five elements, he built a new hub on top of it, which together with the original hub formed a new array eye.
With Zhou Li's stroke of genius, the formation was as if it had been infused with a new soul, and the originally rigid connections between them were replaced by a mysterious flow of the five elements.
The "Small Five Elements Maze" instantly transformed into the "Large Five Elements Maze," whose power was incomparable to that of the previous one!
"What's going on?!" Fang Yu was horrified. He felt dizzy and unsteady on his feet. The oppressive feeling brought by the violent and ever-changing scene was far greater than before.
Zhou Li's expression also changed slightly. He hadn't expected that his casual fiddling would cause such a big mess.
His ant-like body flashed with silver light in his pupils as he tried to pierce through the illusion once more. However, at this moment, the Great Five Elements Illusion Array was in perfect harmony with the five elements, creating layers upon layers of illusions, both real and false.
Zhou Li was unfamiliar with array formations; he could only see the spiritual energy surging like rivers, the nodes as solid as rocks, and the entire array forming a unified whole, like a constantly rotating Five Elements compass, trapping them firmly at its core, leaving them helpless for the time being.
"Senior Brother Zhou! This... this is your doing?!" Fang Yu jumped up and down in a disheveled state amidst the ever-changing sea of fire.
Zhou Li smiled wryly: "Junior Brother Fang, please wait a moment. Senior Brother... has lost his grip on it, and this formation... has changed somewhat, seemingly becoming much more sophisticated."