After learning about the existence of an ancient secret storehouse in Fengsha City and seeing such a brilliant formation here, Mo Tiange was almost certain this was the place where Xiao Zilan died.
Xiao Zilan was a disciple of Xuanji School, and Xuanji School was a major formation sect. The Xuanji Formation Book they passed down was exquisite and could be regarded as the best formation technique in the world.
Wanderer Ziwei, who had been Xiao Zilan's husband for 200 years, had such attainments in formations, so Xiao Zilan, as his legitimate successor, must be a great formation master.
In a place like Fengsha City, cultivators who came to explore together would definitely invite a formation master. Xiao Zilan was undoubtedly a good choice.
If this was really the case, this Fengsha City was a dragon's pool and tiger's den. Even a formation master like Xiao Zilan died here.
Mo Tiange played with the Jinwu Slip in her hand and thought for a while. She said, "I'm not sure about breaking this Fengsha City's formation."
Not to mention things that were far away, just this obvious big formation and the countless small formations within it were things that she couldn't understand.
Qin Xi nodded to show his understanding.
In the past few days, they had been trying to figure out this big formation. Although he wasn't good at formations, he knew this formation was far beyond the level of formations in the cultivation world. Even if they brought all the formation masters in the Celestial Pole here, they couldn't guarantee they could break it.
However, the possibility of Xiao Zilan dying here was very high. This was related to Mo Tiange's life, so they had to try even if they weren't sure.
"Let's take one step at a time," he said. "We have to try."
Mo Tiange also sighed and nodded.
Qin Xi turned around and walked around. Finally, he stopped in front of the sandpit. "Look here."
Mo Tiange looked in the direction he was pointing and was stunned.
She saw several mid-grade spirit stones scattered around the sandpit. They seemed to be arranged randomly, but if she looked carefully, she would find some kind of pattern. Around the spirit stones, there were also intersecting lines drawn with beast blood.
"Breaking a formation with a formation?" she muttered to herself then crouched down to demonstrate it.
A moment later, she patted the dust on her hands and stood up. "Fellow Daoist Zong is quite unique in formations. He actually came up with this method."
Seeing her relaxed expression, Qin Xi asked, "Do you have a solution?"
"I can try to complete this formation," Mo Tiange said, "It's hard to say whether I can break it or not, but I have a good chance."
"That would be the best solution.
Since Huo Ziqi set up this incomplete formation here, the entrance is most likely here. "
Mo Tiange hesitated for a moment. "Do you think those two devil cultivators will come again?"
Qin Xi said, "Probably not in the short term. Otherwise, they wouldn't have to leave."
"Yes."
Mo Tiange crouched down and started to mend the formation. Qin Xi, on the other hand, took the piece of black gold and examined it carefully.
This black gold piece should be the clue Lord Daoist Xuanyin and the others obtained from the beast cultivators.
The Black Gold Plate was black and glossy. There were fine scratches on both sides. If one didn't touch it carefully, it would be hard to notice.
He imprinted the engravings on both sides of the paper and studied them carefully.
The engravings on both sides were two maps.
One of them had the outline of a mountain range, and one could barely tell that it was the terrain of the extreme west. The other should be a map of a maze.
The strange thing was that the two maps were not complete. According to the map, there were at least two fragments — could it be that the two demonic cultivators had obtained one of the fragments?
These two maps could only confirm that it was the extreme west. No wonder the Immortal Alliance didn't have too much hope. The extreme west was so vast that the possibility of finding it wasn't high.
But how did they know that this map showed the secret storehouse of a big ancient cultivation group?
Qin Xi held the item and walked around the sandpit while pondering.
It wasn't until he accidentally used his divine sense to explore the inside of the black gold piece that he suddenly understood.
This piece of black gold was not only used to engrave a map, but there was also an enchantment sealed inside. It seemed that this item was also the key to the place where the treasure was hidden. According to the records left behind from ancient times, some sects would seal enchantments inside certain objects and use them as keys.
However, based on this item alone, it was impossible to confirm that the secret storehouse was in the Sandstorm City. Huo Ziqi and Zong Si must have found other clues. Unfortunately, their things were taken away by the two Devil Cultivators.
* * *
Time passed by. Mo Tiange had been calculating the incomplete formation left by Zong Si. At first, Qin Xi studied the two maps, but later, he simply sat on the side and meditated.
Those two devil cultivators didn't come again. They didn't know whether it was because they had other goals or because they didn't want to fight with them.
Two days later, Mo Tiange finally clapped her hands and said happily, "It's done!"
Qin Xi opened his eyes and stood up. "There's a result?"
"En, the formation left by Zong Si can be considered repaired. Next, we can try to see if we can crack this small formation."
Mo Tiange laid a formation flag in the center of the formation and put down the last spirit stone.
"Buzz!" With a soft sound, hundreds of spirit stones lit up at the same time, forming a light shield.
A bright white light appeared in the center of the light shield and shot into the sandpit.
"Boom!"
After the loud noise, there was a rustling sound. All the sand in the sandpit leaked out. A moment later, the sandpit was empty, replaced by a big black hole.
Both Mo Tiange and Qin Xi were happy. They didn't expect things to go so smoothly.
They came here without knowing there was a secret storehouse here. Huo Ziqi and Zong Si's accidental death benefited them.
The spiritual aura of the spirit stones on the ground was completely absorbed and turned into powder. Mo Tiange erased the traces of the formation and asked Qin Xi, "Do we go down?"
Qin Xi thought for a moment and said, "Put your puppet down first. Maybe there are some traps inside."
"En." She took out the Jade Bone Puppet from her Qiankun Ring, put the crystal jade in it, and ordered it to jump into the hole.
"Boom, boom, boom, boom!"
As soon as the puppet jumped in, several explosions rang out. Mo Tiange felt the puppet was hit by something and almost fell down. Fortunately, this puppet was made of incomparably solid Nephrite Holy Spiritual Jade, so it only swayed a bit before it steadily descended.
When it safely fell to the bottom, it flew up again.
The traps inside the hole were activated again. The puppet flew up wobbly and was hit countless times.
When the puppet flew out, Mo Tiange touched the tiny wounds on its body with distress.
Fortunately, the white robe it wore was a defensive magic weapon, so these were just scratches and wouldn't affect its strength.
She replaced the crystal jade that had used up all its spiritual power and ordered the puppet to jump down again. She repeated this several times until the traps inside no longer activated.
"Okay, let's go down."
"En."
Qin Xi waved his arm. The Three Yang Real Fire Sword appeared and turned into several sword lights, surrounding the two of them. "Let's go."
* * *
"Young Master." In another corner of Fengsha City, the maid named Hong Xiao asked, "Why don't we kill those two Dao cultivators?"
She had been holding back this question for two days.
With Young Master's personality, he should've killed anyone who got in his way, but this time, he chose to avoid them.
She knew Young Master's personality, so she didn't dare to ask him. Now, seeing that he was still cultivating unhurriedly, she couldn't help asking.
"What's the hurry?" The male cultivator sat cross-legged to adjust his breath, not even opening his eyes.
Hong Xiao bit her lip and said, "I'm afraid Castellan will think I'm incompetent."
Upon hearing this, the male cultivator opened his eyes and raised his eyebrows. "You're quite frank."
Hong Xiao lowered her head. "It's useless to lie in front of Young Master. I'd better be frank."
"Heh …" The male cultivator laughed. "No wonder you could follow Shuang 'er for so long and even made her break the rules to help you advance to the Nascent Soul realm. You're indeed a smart person."
This "smart" wasn't a praise of her intelligence, but that she knew how to adapt to the situation.
Hong Xiao lowered her eyes and felt a bit sad in her heart, but she didn't dare to show any expression and let him see it.
She silently thought, although the Castellan's personality was cold, he was a straightforward person. Why was Young Master so gloomy?
This male cultivator seemed to be in a good mood and explained, "The two dao cultivators we killed had average strength, so it's fine if we killed them. The other two aren't easy to deal with."
Hong Xiao wasn't sure if he was saying that she wasn't strong enough, so she carefully said, "It's all because I'm a burden to Young Master."
"It's not your fault. Even if you can win against that female cultivator, I'm not sure I can win against the other person."
These words surprised Hong Xiao. "Young Master's supernatural power is amazing. If it wasn't a late Nascent Soul cultivator, who could make Young Master feel troubled?"
"There are many geniuses, but I'm not the only one."
The male cultivator had an emotional expression. "I thought that besides the great cultivators, no one in this world could be my opponent. It turns out that I underestimated others."
Hong Xiao didn't speak. Now wasn't the time for her to speak.
As he sighed, the male cultivator suddenly frowned and sneered. "Hmph, it's another two juniors in the early stage of Nascent Soul. They're really daring!"
Hong Xiao also sensed that two people were flying over. The strange thing was that one was a devil cultivator and the other was a dao cultivator.
It was said that devil cultivators and dao cultivators in the Celestial Pole were sworn enemies, so why would a devil and a dao pair travel together?
As she thought about this, the two people got closer and closer and appeared in their field of vision.
Hong Xiao put her hands together and held her dagger together to guard against other people's attacks.
One of the two people was relatively young and expressionless. He wore a green robe and carried a sword on his back. The other looked like a small old man with thin skin and black clothes.
The former was a sword cultivator, while the latter was a devil cultivator.
The two people landed in front of them, and the four of them sized each other up warily.
A moment later, the black-robed old man seemed to notice something and was the first to step forward. "Are the two of you from Yunzhong?"
The male cultivator raised his eyebrows, and his hostility faded slightly. He looked at them. "You are …"
The old man grinned, and his face wrinkled. He pointed at the male cultivator's waist. "This fellow daoist's belt has the symbol of Night Owl City embroidered on it."
The male cultivator lowered his head and saw that his outer robe had been slightly blown open by the wind, revealing half a black mark.
He couldn't help but look at this old man in a different light. The mark on his belt was very small, and under normal circumstances, he wouldn't notice it at all. This old man was really attentive.
He softened his tone and said, "Yes, we're indeed from Night Owl City. Who are you?
What are you doing here? "
The old man said, "This fellow daoist and I are individual cultivators from Yunzhong. We came here to look for treasures. Are you here to look for treasures?"
Although Yunzhong and the Celestial Pole now had connections, this place was thousands of miles away from Yunzhong, and it was also incomparably desolate. Apart from looking for treasures, they didn't know what else they could do.
The male cultivator didn't hide anything. "Yes."
As he said that, he sized up the two people with his vigilance. "I wonder where you got the news that there's treasure here?"
The next moment, his eyes widened in surprise because the old man took out something.
It was a piece of black gold that was as big as a palm.