"Girl, is this really the Art of Mechanisms?" Fu Yaozi was pleasantly surprised to hear what she said.
Mo Tiange pondered for a moment then answered, "Disciple isn't sure, but based on my understanding of formations and restrictions, this definitely isn't an ordinary restriction. I can only say that it's somewhat similar to the Art of Mechanisms."
"Then quickly give it a try," Fu Yaozi urged. "If we can get the Art of Mechanisms from this place, it'll be a pleasant surprise."
Back when she was in the Foundation Building realm, Mo Tiange once witnessed the wonders of the Art of Mechanisms in Wanderer Ziwei's Immortal's Cave. She also obtained two Foundation Building puppets from Wanderer Ziwei, so she knew the wonders of this ancient technique. Now, even without Fu Yaozi's instructions, she was already very excited.
After she finished testing the restriction's Yin, Yang, and Five Elements, Mo Tiange put away the compass, took out the Eight Trigrams Diagram from her sleeve, and threw it towards the entrance of the cave.
The Eight Trigrams Diagram stopped in the middle of the restriction then slowly unfolded, creating ripples of light that smoothed out the spiritual aura in the surroundings.
Once the spiritual aura calmed down, Mo Tiange stretched out her hand, and the Eight Trigrams Diagram flew back into her sleeve.
Now that she examined the restriction again, she could see it much more clearly than before. The Yin, Yang, and Five Elements were no longer fluctuating, so it was much easier to distinguish whether it was the Art of Mechanisms or not.
"It's strange. I feel like there's a spiritual aura fluctuation similar to that of a cultivator, but there's no puppets or anything else …"
The reason why the Art of Mechanisms was hard to distinguish was because it might only be a few simple mechanisms that weren't made to look like humans or beasts. In addition, Mo Tiange's knowledge of this technique was limited, so she couldn't tell whether this was a Art of Mechanisms or a restriction that far surpassed her realm.
Seeing her hesitate for a long time, Qin Xi said, "Let me try." Right after he finished speaking, he took a step forward, put his hand into his Qiankun Bag, and took out the Mountain-Determining Lantern.
The Mountain-Determining Lantern looked unremarkable. It had an old green color, a dark grey texture, and a simple design. It looked like a simple green lamp that had been burned in front of a Buddha statue in the secular world for dozens of years. It was grey, but if one looked carefully, one would notice that there were fine lines engraved inside the lantern, forming a wonderful formation that faintly emitted pure spiritual aura.
The Mountain-Determining Lantern flew up. As soon as it touched the restriction, it emitted light.
At first, it was just a small green lamp, but gradually, the Mountain-Determining Lantern became brighter and brighter.
Mo Tiange could see that these two forces were contending against each other.
Qin Xi's Peak Setting Lantern was also a rare magic weapon. Magic weapons that could break restrictions were rare to begin with. Besides, this was a spiritual treasure he found in a secret place, so it was a top-grade magic weapon. Therefore, although he wasn't proficient in formations, with this lantern, ordinary restrictions couldn't stop him at all.
The Peak Transcendent Lantern shone brightly. The Spiritual Qi in the seal began to tremble as if it would be repelled in the next moment. Suddenly, there was a buzzing sound. The Spiritual Qi surged and formed a light screen, blocking the Peak Transcendent Lantern.
Upon seeing this, Qin Xi formed an incantation gesture. The Peak-Determining Lantern suddenly spun, driving the spiritual aura in the surroundings to form a vortex that collided with the light screen.
"Chi …" A sharp tearing sound was heard. The light screen shook a little, and several ripples appeared on it.
Seeing this, the two of them looked delighted. Qin Xi directed the Mountain-Determining Lantern to crash into the light screen even more attentively.
After several collisions, a loud "boom" was heard. Under the impact of the Peak Transcendent Lantern, the light screen suddenly broke. The light screen flickered then disappeared in a flash.
"It's done!" Mo Tiange was about to step forward when she suddenly felt a spiritual aura fluctuation. She instinctively sensed danger, so she took a step back.
Muffled sounds of friction were heard at the same time. Two huge stone balls flew out from both sides of the Immortal's Cave and attacked the Peak Transcendent Lantern.
Qin Xi was startled. He formed an incantation gesture and the Peak Transcendent Lantern immediately flew back. It brushed past the two stone balls and fell into his hand.
With a loud "boom", the two stone balls collided. Stone fragments flew everywhere, causing the spiritual aura in the surroundings to fluctuate continuously. A wave of Qi rolled towards the two of them.
This wave of Qi was also a spiritual aura attack. Qin Xi waved his sleeve and the sword aura of the Three Yang Real Fire Sword formed a formation, repelling the wave of Qi.
When the wave of Qi dissipated, there was still a light screen in front of the Immortal's Cave. Mo Tiange and Qin Xi stood in front of the Immortal's Cave, looking at each other in dismay.
After a long time, Mo Tiange finally muttered to herself, "The Art of Mechanisms! It's really the Art of Mechanisms!"
The two stone balls weren't made of ordinary stones. They were a rare stone called broken jade stone, which was extremely hard. In today's world, even if it was only the size of a fist, it was still a refining material that cultivators would crazily fight over at trade fairs.
However, in this ancient cultivator's Immortal's Cave, this broken jade stone was actually made into such huge stone balls. It was really a waste of natural resources.
Qin Xi exhaled and put away the Peak Transcendent Lantern. He said, "This is the first time I've seen this kind of restriction. We've obviously succeeded in breaking the restriction, but there's still a backup plan."
Mo Tiange frowned and said, "This restriction has two layers. The outer layer is a formation restriction based on Yin, Yang, and Five Elements. Once this layer is broken, the Art of Mechanisms behind it will be activated and repel the enemy. After that, the restriction will repair itself."
At this point, she patted her head. "This is going to be difficult. I don't have the slightest clue as to how to break the restriction."
One day — they only had one day. If they couldn't get the storehouse command tablet in one day, the treasures in the storehouse would have nothing to do with them anymore.
If they didn't have the confidence to break the restriction in this period of time, they might as well go to the elder's Immortal's Cave and compete with others.
Mo Tiange turned to Qin Xi in distress. "What should we do?
Should we try our best here or give up and go to another Immortal's Cave? "
Qin Xi deliberated for a while. Just as he was about to speak, his eyes suddenly lit up. "Look, this restriction!"
Mo Tiange once again looked towards the entrance of the Immortal's Cave. She was pleasantly surprised. "This …" Just now, the restriction seemed to have been restored, but that wasn't the case. In just a short while, the light curtain had weakened a lot.
"Oh, right!"
Mo Tiange suddenly understood. "Self-restoring restrictions usually repair themselves slowly over a long period of time. It's impossible for them to restore all their power in an instant.
In fact, the outer layer of the restriction was already broken by the Peak Transcendent Lantern. The one that was restored later was just to fool us. "
As she spoke, she once again took out her compass. "Right now, this restriction hasn't recovered much of its power, so it won't be difficult to break it.
As for this Mechanism Technique, it doesn't seem to be very powerful … "
Seeing that she was once again focused on breaking the formation, Qin Xi smiled and sat cross-legged on the side, regulating his breath and keeping his guard up.
The Peak Transcendent Lantern had broken the first restriction, but its subsequent restoration couldn't be considered very powerful. At the very least, it hadn't broken through to the Nascent Soul realm.
Mo Tiange pondered for a long time then took out a bunch of formation-breaking tools from her bosom.
Several formation flags formed a formation diagram at the entrance of the Immortal's Cave. When the last formation flag was inserted, Mo Tiange made a hand seal. The formation flags suddenly lit up and eventually formed a light ball.
Soon after, she let out a soft shout. The light ball flew up and hit the light curtain.
"Swish!" This time, there wasn't even a stalemate. The light curtain was broken without a sound.
After waiting for a while, the subsequent Mechanism Technique didn't activate and the restriction wasn't restored immediately. Mo Tiange heaved a sigh of relief. "The first layer can be considered broken."
Qin Xi had already stopped regulating his breath when she started breaking the restriction. At this moment, he asked, "What about the next mechanism? Do you have any ideas?"
Mo Tiange pondered for a moment then said, "I don't know much about the Mechanism Technique, so I can only use the stupid method."
She took out the two stone sculpture dolls from her Qiankun Bag and used her divine sense to control them then walked towards the Immortal's Cave.
These two dolls were given to her by Wanderer Ziwei. They were also made using the Mechanism Technique, but their realms were a bit low. All these years, they'd been handling the miscellaneous matters in the Immortal's Cave for her.
The advantage of using these two dolls was that they were incomparably sturdy and had no consciousness. Even if they were broken, she could still repair them when she learned the Mechanism Technique in the future. If she used other living creatures to test them, for example, those three spiritual beasts … she reckoned they wouldn't be able to return.
The two dolls walked step by step into the restriction. When they touched the spot where the stone ball rolled out, a faint cracking sound was heard. Suddenly, two shiny wooden hands emerged from the stone walls on both sides of the Immortal's Cave and grabbed the two dolls.
Just as Mo Tiange was about to make the dolls dodge, she discovered that the two hands moved extremely fast and grabbed the dolls' necks in an instant.
The two dolls immediately brandished the stone swords in their hands, wanting to chop off the arms. However, with a clang, the stone swords chopped into the two arms and broke into two pieces.
This time, Qin Xi couldn't sit still anymore.
These two hands seemed to be made of wood, but they were actually even harder than the dolls' stone swords!
He knew that although these two dolls were only in the Foundation Building realm, the materials they were made of were extraordinary. Even ordinary magic weapons would have a hard time injuring them!
Mo Tiange was stunned for a moment. She watched as the two hands exerted force and the stone sculpture dolls broke into two pieces, separating their heads from their bodies.
After the two dolls were severed, the two hands retracted back into the stone walls and disappeared without a trace.
After a while, Mo Tiange finally regained her senses. She sighed and used her spiritual aura to roll the two "corpses" into her Qiankun Bag.
She didn't expect that these two dolls, who'd been with her for so long, would be so easily destroyed.
"Don't be stupid."
At that moment, Fu Yaozi's voice rang in her mind. "The so-called Mechanism Technique is used to make dolls and instruments that have the same cultivation level as cultivators. Furthermore, the higher the level, the rarer the materials used. Those two dolls of yours are only in the Foundation Building realm. Isn't it ridiculous to use them to test them?"
Mo Tiange was stunned for a moment before she started to understand.
In the past, she relied on the fact that the two dolls were made of special materials and were difficult to damage, so she often used them to test formations. However, she forgot that formations only had spiritual aura fluctuations caused by Yin, Yang, and Five Elements. Mechanisms, on the other hand, had physical bodies like dolls.
"Master …" She felt very ashamed. "Then in your opinion, how should I break these mechanisms?"
Fu Yaozi chuckled. "Have you forgotten that one strong man can defeat ten skillful men?"
Mo Tiange was stunned for a moment before she suddenly understood. "Thank you for your guidance, Master!"
In the past few days, she'd been either breaking restrictions or dealing with other people. She'd been using her brain too much!
In the cultivation world, what did they rely on to win?
Strength, of course!
In front of absolute strength, any kind of skill was useless.
Whether it was the stone balls at the beginning or the wooden hands later, their strength didn't surpass the Nascent Soul realm. That being the case, she could just directly break through them. Why would she need to use her brain?
Thinking up to this point, she turned to Qin Xi and said with a smile, "Senior Martial Brother, it's up to you!"