278: Chapter 278: It's all a scam

On the other side.

Xiao Ran was still one step ahead.

In front of the stone tablet of the third stage, he leaned against it and regulated his breathing for a full hour.

The medicinal power of the Soul-Nourishing Pill dissolved within his body, and his parched Divine Soul, like fields after a long drought receiving sweet rain, began to recover bit by bit.

Xiao Ran opened his eyes and stretched his stiff neck.

He stood up and looked towards the massive stone Formation.

The stone Formation was even more complex than he had imagined.

This was not an ordinary Formation, but a Heavenly Secret Array set up by an ancient mighty figure.

With heaven and earth as the chessboard and runes as the chess pieces, it had infinite variations.

He had learned about such Formations from the Legacy of Venerable Huangquan and knew how terrifying they were.

Take one wrong step, and at best you would be trapped, at worst, your body and soul would be destroyed.

"This Heavenly Secret Array does not look like something one person can break."

"But since I'm already here."

Xiao Ran thought to himself.

He possessed the Legacy of Venerable Powang, and his understanding of Formations far exceeded that of others.

That was why he felt even more strongly how terrifying the Formation before him was.

But he had to go in, because Xiao Ran had a feeling that the things inside would be of great benefit to him.

"Just do it."

Xiao Ran did not hesitate any longer and stepped into the stone Formation.

A flash of grey-black light flickered and vanished among the giant stones.

Inside the stone Formation, it was much larger than he had imagined.

The giant stones towered into the clouds, each one a hundred feet high, covered in dense, intricate runes.

The runes flowed, emitting a faint light, like countless eyes staring at him.

The path under his feet was narrow, only wide enough for one person to pass.

On both sides were bottomless abysses, where ghost fires faintly flickered, and gusts of chilling wind blew.

Xiao Ran slowed his pace, fully unfurling his Divine Sense, with the Legacy of Venerable Powang racing through his mind.

He carefully observed the runes on each giant stone, looking for patterns.

"The Heavenly Secret Array is based on the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams, with the sixty-four hexagrams as its variations."

"The hexagram changes with every step; one must calculate the correct hexagram to find the path of life."

Xiao Ran muttered to himself.

He closed his eyes and performed calculations in his mind.

After calculating for about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, he suddenly opened his eyes and walked towards the fork on the left.

Turn left, turn right, go straight, then turn left... Every step landed on the correct spot.

He did not trigger any traps.

But his speed was slow, and he had to stop to calculate every few steps.

After walking for an hour, he arrived at a fork in the road.

There were three paths, all identical.

The runes on the stone pillars were also identical, with no differences.

"This is the Three Talents Bureau of the Heavenly Secret Array."

Xiao Ran frowned.

"Of the three paths, only one is the path of life, while the other two are paths of death."

He did not make a rash choice, but instead took several dummy figures from his bosom and threw them towards the three paths.

The dummy landed on the first path and was instantly shattered by a bolt of lightning.

The dummy landed on the second path and was burned to ashes by a ball of fire.

The dummy landed on the third path and passed through safely.

Xiao Ran stepped onto the third path.

After walking for another half an hour, a light gate appeared ahead.

Behind the gate was a massive stone chamber.

In the center of the stone chamber was a stone platform.

On the stone platform lay a Jade Slip.

The Jade Slip was entirely golden, emitting a soft light.

Within the light, there was a faint line of text.

"The Restriction center; control this object to open the great gate."

Xiao Ran felt a surge of joy and walked quickly towards the stone platform.

But his intuition told him something was wrong.

It was too easy.

The first three sections of the Heavenly Secret Array were indeed difficult, but after reaching the Three Talents Bureau, it had become increasingly simple.

Although those paths of death were dangerous, they could be avoided as long as one tested them with something.

This did not look like a trial set up by an ancient mighty figure; it looked more like... someone was deliberately going easy.

He stopped and did not pick up the Jade Slip.

Instead, he closed his eyes, fully unfurled his Divine Sense, and carefully scanned every inch of space in the stone chamber.

The stone chamber was very empty; apart from the stone platform and the Jade Slip, there was nothing.

There were no runes on the walls, and no traps on the ground.

Everything seemed too calm.

"Something is wrong."

Xiao Ran opened his eyes and stared at the Jade Slip. He used the Qi-Observation Technique from the Legacy of Venerable Powang to look at the Jade Slip.

He discovered that the Jade Slip was covered by a layer of faint black mist.

The black mist was very faint, so faint it was almost invisible, but Xiao Ran's Guixu Body was extremely sensitive to all negative energy.

"This is not the Restriction center."

Xiao Ran slowly retreated.

"This is a trap."

Just then.

The space in the stone chamber suddenly twisted.

The stone platform vanished, the Jade Slip vanished, and in their place was a massive black vortex.

From the vortex, countless black tentacles surged out and lunged at Xiao Ran.

The tentacles were covered in barbs, and black liquid dripped from the barbs.

The liquid fell to the ground, corroding deep pits.

Xiao Ran did not hesitate; he fully activated the Guixu Vortex and struck the tentacles with his palm.

The grey-black vortex collided with the black tentacles, and the tentacles were swallowed.

But more tentacles surged from the vortex, endless and continuous.

Xiao Ran felt his spiritual power depleting rapidly, like a breached flood.

"I cannot fight this head-on."

Xiao Ran gritted his teeth, took out the human emperor banner from his bosom, and released the Yellow Spring Army.

Thirty corpses of the Void Refinement Stage appeared simultaneously, raised their Long Halberds, and stabbed at the tentacles.

The tentacles were pierced by the Long Halberds, black liquid sprayed, and the corpses were corroded.

But the corpses were not afraid of corrosion and continued to attack.

More than six hundred corpses of the Soul Transformation Stage also surged from the banner, rushing towards the vortex like a tide.

The tentacles and the corpses entangled, and the stone chamber was in chaos.

Xiao Ran took the Opportunity to retreat, exiting the stone chamber and returning to the stone Formation.

He leaned against a giant stone, gasping for air.

That last maneuver had consumed thirty percent of his spiritual power.

If not for the Yellow Spring Army, he might have already been dragged into the vortex.

"The Heavenly Secret Array is not a trial; it is a trap."

Xiao Ran said in a low voice.

"Someone... or rather, something, is deliberately luring us in."

The more he thought about it, the more wrong it felt.

From the Sword Intent path of the first stage, there had been a strange feeling.

Although the Sword Intent of those stone Sword Cultivator statues was strong, as long as one was not a Sword Cultivator, they would be suppressed and unable to move.

But the Sword Intent that would truly kill a person had never appeared.

The Illusion Demon Realm of the second stage also attacked the Divine Soul, but there was never a truly fatal situation.

For a Secret Realm that possessed an Opportunity of the Mahayana Stage, this trial was clearly substandard.

"It is raising Gu."

A terrifying thought emerged in Xiao Ran's heart.

"It does not want to kill us, but wants us to kill each other, or... wait until everyone has arrived, and then harvest us all together."

He thought of that existence sealed within the Moon Secret Realm.

That crimson sun, that terrifying aura.

Perhaps, that existence was not dead, but had been sleeping all along.

For ten thousand years, it had been waiting.

Waiting for enough Cultivators to enter the ruins, and then swallowing them in one go to recover its strength.

"The Opportunity of the Mahayana Stage is simply a scam."

Xiao Ran gritted his teeth.

He did not continue to walk deeper.

He retreated to the edge of the stone Formation and contacted Li Changsheng via the Soul Link.