Qin Yun followed beside Hong Lingtong who held his wooden stave and proceeded leisurely.
“Miss Yi is a few hundred feet ahead of us.” Hong Lingtong confidently pointed ahead.
“Oh?” Qin Yun immediately proceeded forward.
“Hey, wait for me.” Hong Lingtong immediately chased after him.
Qin Yun’s sword intent domain quickly sensed light green ripples before discovering Yi Xiao.
“Qin Yun?” Yi Xiao had a delighted look as she ran over. At the same time, she put away her life-preservation Dharma treasure. “What a coincidence that we managed to meet each other.”
Qin Yun nodded with a smile. “Yea, it’s such a coincidence.”
Standing behind him, Hong Lingtong rubbed his nose and thought to himself, “Coincidence my ass. It was all from my inference!”
“Of course, Brother Hong played an important role in us being able to reunite.” Qin Yun felt relieved when he was with Yi Xiao.
“Thank you, Brother Hong.” Yi Xiao looked at Hong Lingtong as well.
“It’s only right to do so,” said Hong Lingtong immediately.
“Brother Hong is skilled in array formations and he has already inferred the exit. Let’s go out.” Qin Yun said to Yi Xiao.
“Let’s leave quickly,” Yi Xiao said somewhat helplessly. “There’s white fog everywhere. Although I chanced upon a bottle of Spirit Pills, they were only at the fifth-grade. I can’t stand this place any longer. Let’s leave quickly.”
Hong Lingtong said confidently, “I’ll lead the way.”
The trio traversed another few thousand feet and did several turns. Unperceptibly, the fog ahead gradually lessened and eventually, completely disappeared.
“Phew.”
The trio walked out of the white fog, leaving the vast expanse of white fog behind them.
“We are out!” Yi Xiao looked delighted.
“And we should be the first ones out,” said Hong Lingtong with a smile. Qin Yun also observed the area up ahead carefully. There was a massive hall which was ancient and unadorned. Smooth boulders paved a way and the roof of the hall was dark. In the darkness, there was faint starlight twinkling.
The black roof dome with the twinkling starlight… made it resemble the starry night sky.
Shoo!
One of the starlights suddenly expanded and flew out from the deep depths of the black roof dome. Following that, it approached them. Qin Yun and company could tell at a glance that the starlight that flew toward them was a sledgehammer that effused a glow.
“Dharma treasure.” Qin Yun waved his hand and sent two sword beams out, wrapping the sledgehammer that was rather close to them. As he wrapped it, the glow on the sledgehammer’s surface constantly flashed in an alternating manner with the black roof’s starlights behind it.
“Oh? I can’t take it down?” Qin Yun was baffled.
“Go.”
The purple flying sword by his waist instantly unsheathed itself and slashed at the sledgehammer but it continued shimmering with the lustrous light across its surface. It was unperturbed at all.
“It’s an array formation,” Hong Lingtong’s eyes lit up. “Every speck of starlight on this dark roof dome should be a Dharma treasure! There are many Dharma treasures hidden in here but every one of them is being held back by an array formation. Furthermore, a large number of small arrays form a large array together. In order to retrieve the sledgehammer, the array formation has to be cracked first. Using force? It’s useless using force against an Essence Soul immortal’s array formations.”
Qin Yun nodded.
“Brother Qin Yun, use your sword beam to hold onto this sledgehammer and prevent it from flying away. I need time to crack this array formation,” said Hong Lingtong.
“Alright, I’ll be counting on you,” said Qin Yun.
“I only know a little about array formations. But this treasure-concealing array formation has large arrays interspersed with small arrays, and the different small arrays are fused together.” Yi Xiao could not help but knit her brows. When Qin Yun saw this, he laughed out loud. “Yi Xiao, at least you managed to have a read of it. All I see is twinkling on their surface. I do not understand anything beyond that.”
Hong Lingtong began his calculations with his fingers as he said with a smile, “Brother Qin Yun, everything follows rules, just like your flying sword arts has different strength depending on the different sword kinesis arts you use. This array formation’s setup uses the five elements as well as Yin and Yang as its basis. The more powerful an array formation, the more natural it is! For example, this array formation resembles the night sky. Thankfully, Immortal Scenic Yang is only testing us, allowing us to crack the array formation. Over time, it will become easier. If he was unwilling to leave his treasures to juniors, we would not be able to take them away.”
Qin Yun nodded. He had not been cultivating for long, so how could he have time to study array formations?
However, the older a cultivator was, the more knowledgeable they would typically be. Especially when one’s strength reached a bottleneck, they would begin studying other domains.
Essence Soul immortals with eternal life could study various domains. For example, Immortal Scenic Yang was best at the Tuṣita Divine Fire. His alchemical skills were ranked as one of the top few in all of history. As for the Capital Heaven Divine Lightning, he knew a thing or two. As for array formations, it needed no further elaboration. How many master experts in talisman amulets would not be well-versed in array formations?
“This sledgehammer’s array formation is relatively easy. I believe it’s not some powerful treasure either.” As Hong Lingtong spoke, he pointed at two spots. “Brother Qin Yun, strike these two spots and you will be able to obtain the sledgehammer.”
With that said, Hong Lingtong released two beams of Quintessential Essence Dharmic powers and pointed at two points of starlight.
“Alright.”
Qin Yun nodded and immediately released two flying swords. They flew to the two spots in the black roof dome, traversing a thousand feet in the darkness before striking the two blobs of starlight.
Boom! Boom!
Accompanied by two blasts, Qin Yun felt that the sledgehammer he enveloped with his sword beam lose its binding resistance instantly. The starlight on its surface also dissipated. Qin Yun immediately retrieved it by bringing it in front of him before extending his hand to grab it.
“Fourth-grade Dharma treasure,” said Qin Yun when he saw it. At this point, Qin Yun and Hong Lingtong were very calm when it came to fourth-grade Dharma treasures.
“Here comes another one.” Hong Lingtong looked up.
Qin Yun put away the fourth-grade Dharma treasure and looked at the black dome above him. Another beam of starlight fell and it turned increasingly clear. It was a tiny red flag. Qin Yun immediately released a sword beam to hold on to it.
The twinkling starlight on the tiny red flag was clearly complicated. Qin Yun found it somewhat uncomfortable just from looking at it.
“The array formation that seals this tiny red flag is a lot more powerful.” Hong Lingtong frowned and fell into deep thought after speaking.
“It’s too difficult.” Yi Xiao muttered after studying it for a while.
However, Qin Yun attempted with his Intrinsic Flying Sword to attempt cracking the array by force but he failed.
Despite there being many Dharma treasures in the black dome, one had to crack the arrays to obtain the treasure! This was Immortal Scenic Yang’s rule.
“Phew.”
Moments later, another beam of starlight fell, and as it came nearer, Qin Yun and Yi Xiao identified it.
“Oh?” Enveloped in the starlight was a flying sword. It was such a dark purple it looked nearly black. It also looked ordinary at a perfunctory glance. But on careful observation, there was an alluring luster on the flying sword’s surface. The more one looked at it, the more infatuated one became with it. Qin Yun immediately released a sword beam to hold onto the flying sword. The starlight on the flying sword flashed. Again, it could not be taken down.
“A flying sword,” Yi Xiao looked thrilled. “Qin Yun, you might be able to use it in the future.”
Hong Lingtong turned his head and had a slight change in expression. He said, “Brother Qin Yun, this flying sword and this red flag have similar array formations sealing them. Tell me, which one should I crack first?”
“Haven’t you been trying to figure out this red flag for a long time?” asked Qin Yun.
“Both the two array formations are very difficult. It will probably take me a long while to crack them,” said Hong Lingtong. “The amount of time I have taken is nothing.”
At the same time, Hong Lingtong sent Qin Yun a voice transmission. “Brother Qin Yun, you have the Golden Core Outer core and this flying sword appears extremely powerful. If you obtain it, you will be able to use it immediately.”
“Alright, then get the flying sword.” Qin Yun nodded.
“Okay.”
Hong Lingtong began to infer the array formation that sealed the flying sword.
With time, beams of starlight would plummet from the black roof in sporadic intervals. Treasures would drop but despite releasing his sword beams to envelop them in a bid to prevent them from flying away, Qin Yun was unable to retrieve them without the array formation cracked.
Phew! Phew!
The cold-looking Bai Junyue led her younger sister out of the white fog from afar. Walking beside her were Eighth Zhu and Lunatic Zhu who were conversing amid laughter.
“Haha, we are finally out of there,” said Eighth Zhu with a laugh.
“Sister,” Bai Junyu was looking far ahead. When she saw Qin Yun and company controlling thirteen Dharma treasures in midair, she could not help but laugh. “Look, that Qin Yun has released his sword beams to trap all those Dharma treasures but he can’t retrieve any one of them. Can’t he tell that there are array formations sealing every one of them?”
“Brother Qin Yun, strike these five points of starlight and you will be able to retrieve that flying sword.” Hong Lingtong wiped the sweat from his forehead and said with a voice transmission. At the same time, he released his Quintessential Essence Dharmic powers to point at five spots.
“Alright.”
Qin Yun instantly released five flying swords. There were fifth and eighth-grade flying swords among them.
After striking five spots, the twinkling starlight that lingered around the dark purple flying sword extinguished immediately. The binding strength vanished as well. Qin Yun immediately held it in his hand.
“Impressive.” Bai Junyu and Eighth Zhu looked at Hong Lingtong in astonishment. Both of them were skilled in array formations and naturally knew how difficult the array formation that bound the flying sword was.
Qin Yun held the palm-sized dark purple flying sword in his hand and felt a burning sensation coming from it. He could not help but be overjoyed.