112: Chapter 112 The Gate of the Four Seasons

Chapter 113: Pass of the Four Seasons

The moment the gray fog rolled in, everything inside the stone hall faded away together.

When Jiang Yuhe opened her eyes again, her surroundings were completely empty.

There was only a hundred-step stone staircase extending all the way up from beneath her feet. At the end of the stone staircase hung a platform, and behind the platform stood four stone doors side by side, with four ancient seal scripts of Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter respectively engraved on them.

The four of them landed at the foot of the stone staircase.

The Spring Door was on the far left, the Summer Door came next, the Autumn Door after that, and the Winter Door was on the far right.

The place where Jiang Yuhe stood was directly facing the Spring Door.

Song Jingzhao stood to her right, Qu Shi further to the right, and Zhang Yanning at the very end.

The gray fog here was thick; although the four of them were not far apart, their voices sounded as if separated by a layer of water.

Song Jingzhao looked back at the three of them and said, "The Inquiry of Dao Steps asks each for their own method. After ascending the steps, do not forcibly assist others."

After he finished speaking, he took the lead and stepped forward.

The four of them stepped onto the first step almost simultaneously.

When Jiang Yuhe's toes fell, the stone staircase beneath her gently trembled, and an ordinary Qi rose from the steps, probing upward along the soles of her feet as if recognizing the method she cultivated.

At first, it was not heavy.

After ten steps, the mist submerged below her knees.

At more than thirty steps, her shoulders finally felt a slight pressure, as if an invisible Dao pressure was falling from all directions, pressing down on her spiritual platform, flesh and bones, and her understanding of the Grain Rain Dao. The Grain Rain Spiritual Qi within her body circulated automatically, and that pressure slowly dissolved away.

Further up, the mist became thicker.

Song Jingzhao's crimson robe shadow gradually blurred, and Qu Shi and Zhang Yanning could no longer be seen clearly. Only occasionally could an extremely faint sword hum be heard from the right, or a wisp of a cold spring-like aura flashed past, only to be quickly swallowed by the gray fog.

By the sixties of steps, the Dao pressure finally became heavy.

Every time Jiang Yuhe went up a step, she felt her figure pressed down by an inch. The magic power of the ninth layer of Qi Refining could not save much effort here; what this step asked about was ultimately the Foundation of Dao cultivation.

She paused for a breath and continued upward.

Sixty-seven.

Sixty-eight.

Sixty-nine.

Stepping onto the seventieth step, the pressure in the stone steps suddenly trembled gently.

That Dao pressure, which was originally about to continue pressing down, like encountering something familiar, slowly parted to both sides. Deep within Jiang Yuhe's spiritual platform, the Grain Rain Dao intent circulated on its own.

Duckweed begins to grow, turtledoves brush their feathers, and hoopoes descend upon the mulberry trees.

She seemed to hear a faint bird call coming from far away.

The next moment, the pressure on her body suddenly lightened.

The Dao pressure on the seventieth step was even lighter than when she was in the thirties of steps. The Grain Rain Spiritual Qi circulated more and more smoothly in her body, and even the sluggish Pin Water intent within her magical robe, like finding a water vein, slowly merged with the Grain Rain Spiritual Qi.

Jiang Yuhe quickly understood.

The hoopoe phenomenon on her body corresponded with the Grain Rain phenology, and was recognized to some extent by this Inquiry of Dao Steps.

This turned out to be like borrowing the coincidence of matching fates.

Her speed of ascending the steps couldn't help but become a bit faster.

But after walking out a few steps, she slowly suppressed her Grain Rain Spiritual Qi and slowed down her pace.

The auras of the three people on the right were no longer visible.

She didn't know where Song Jingzhao and the others had reached, nor did she know if they were similarly blocked. If she walked too fast at this moment, it would instead appear too conspicuous.

Eighty steps.

Ninety steps.

When the last step fell, the surrounding gray fog instantly dissipated.

The view before her suddenly cleared up.

Jiang Yuhe stepped onto the platform.

The platform hung in a vast gray sky, with no boundaries seen in all directions, and no stone staircase from which she came beneath her feet. The hundred-step Inquiry of Dao Steps just now seemed to have never existed, leaving only this dark gray platform hanging alone in the Void Realm.

Song Jingzhao, Qu Shi, and Zhang Yanning had already arrived.

Song Jingzhao stood before the Summer Door, the fire patterns on his robe even more intense than before, with a hint of irrepressible joy between his brows and eyes.

Qu Shi was still wearing a bamboo hat, standing before the Autumn Door, with his hand pressing on the hilt of his sword, staring straight at that stone door.

Zhang Yanning's face was slightly pale, and seeing Jiang Yuhe come up, he smiled gently at her.

Jiang Yuhe bowed to the three of them.

"I have kept you all waiting for a long time."

Song Jingzhao waved his hand and said, "Ascending the Inquiry of Dao Steps asks each for their own method. There is no need to rush for a moment."

Zhang Yanning also said softly, "My legs were almost turning to jelly from walking just now, Fellow Daoist Jiang has been very steady."

Qu Shi did not speak, only glanced at Jiang Yuhe, and quickly looked back at the Autumn Door.

Jiang Yuhe calmly withdrew her gaze and looked back. Where were there any hundred-step stone stairs behind her? There was only a vast expanse of gray fog.

Song Jingzhao raised his hand, and the Summer Solstice Spiritual Qi lit up in his palm.

The four stone doors vibrated simultaneously.

Tender branches unfolded on the Spring Door, red light fluctuated within the Summer Door, Sword Qi rang softly behind the Autumn Door, and a faint sound of water came from the Winter Door.

Song Jingzhao said in a deep voice, "Everyone, enter your respective doors."

"If we pass the trial, we shall meet again in the hall."

As his voice fell, he pushed open the Summer Door first and stepped into the red light.

Qu Shi did not hesitate in the least, pressing his sword as he entered the Autumn Door.

Zhang Yanning gave a gentle bow to Jiang Yuhe, and also turned and walked into the Winter Door.

Only Jiang Yuhe remained on the platform.

She looked at the Spring Door before her. Deep within her spiritual platform, the aura of the Inchoate Danger-Evading Talisman jumped slightly, as if a distant drop of rain had fallen into an invisible deep well.

Jiang Yuhe raised her hand and pushed the door open.

A damp and warm spring Qi rushed toward her face.

She stepped into it in one stride.

Within the Spring Door was a shallow pool of water.

The water was no deeper than her ankles, and tiny green duckweed floated on the water surface. Several old mulberry trees stood in the mist with verdant branches and leaves, and dozens of black-winged demonic insects lurked beneath the trees.

Those demonic insects had slender mouthparts, and seeing her enter the door, they fluttered their wings and rose, their buzzing sound dense like rain.

Jiang Yuhe originally thought the trial of the Spring Door would be more difficult.

But those demonic insects only had the Qi of the Early Stage of Qi Refining. Although their number was not small, there was nothing truly troublesome about them. The lotus Magical Artifact in her sleeve turned gently, and several water arrows silently sank into the rain mist, consecutively piercing through the front and back of the insect swarm.

A bird call came from above the mulberry forest.

The duckweed in the distance moved slightly, and an illusory projection of a demonic bird shaped like a hoopoe emerged in the center of the shallow pool. The demonic bird spread its wings, and the mulberry leaves fell one after another, transforming into fine spring needles that rolled toward Jiang Yuhe.

This should be the true enemy set by the Spring Door.

But that was all.

Jiang Yuhe raised her hand and pressed down, and the Grain Rain Spiritual Qi dispersed into the shallow water. The Rain Prohibition spread out accordingly, pressing those spring needles one by one into the water. The hoopoe demonic shadow seemed about to cry out, but was pierced through the throat by a water arrow flying out from the lotus Magical Artifact.

The demonic shadow shattered.

The spring Qi in the mulberry forest trembled, and all the black-winged demonic insects turned into gray fog along with it.

Jiang Yuhe stood in the shallow water, her sleeves not stained with a trace of water, feeling only a wisp of Grain Rain Dao intent flowing from the depths of the mulberry forest, wrapping around her palm, and quickly condensing into a cyan Spring Command Token.

This counts as passing the trial?

She frowned slightly.

The mist inside the Spring Door had already begun to recede, and the mulberry forest, shallow water, and duckweed slowly dispersed together like ink encountering water.

The gray fog rolled, and she returned to the platform once again.

Almost simultaneously, the other three doors opened one after another.

Song Jingzhao came out from the Summer Door, the red patterns on his robe blazing. Not only was his face not tired, but instead he appeared high-spirited.

Zhang Yanning and Qu Shi walked out from the Autumn and Winter doors at the same time, their expressions somewhat dazed.

The four command tokens lit up simultaneously.

The center of the platform vibrated.

The next moment, the gray fog under the feet of the four people churned, and the scenery before their eyes suddenly changed.

They returned to the stone chamber deep within the Song Clan residence.

That Mirror of the Four Seasons still stood upright in the hall. The gray fog on the mirror surface receded, but the ancient seal scripts at the four corners lit up sequentially, and the four characters for Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter all floated with faint brilliance.

Song Jingzhao stared at the bronze mirror and suddenly burst into laughter.

"It's done."

There was an undisguisable wild joy suppressed in his voice.

"It actually succeeded!"