Chapter 575 - 241: Moon Wheel, Burial Abyss Fiend, Witchcraft Artifact (2)
Chapter 575: Chapter 241: Moon Wheel, Burial Abyss Fiend, Witchcraft Artifact (2)
There was the New Moon corresponding to the Waning Moon, the Waxing Crescent Moon to the Waning Crescent Moon, and so on.
Xiao Chen scanned his surroundings and saw that the palace hall was completely empty. There wasn’t a single pillar, cabinet, or even a stool in sight.
The most striking sight was an enormous Crystal Moon Wheel suspended upside down from the ceiling, measuring tens of feet across.
Like a true, bright moon, it cast down a brilliant, white fluorescent glow.
Along the edges of the ceiling were eight mirrors, polished to a perfect sheen.
The silvery-white light from the Moon Wheel was refracted by the mirrors at different angles, creating artificial phases of the moon on the empty floor below.
As the lights flickered, it was as if the moon’s entire cycle of waxing and waning had been compressed into this small space.
Since these were the phases of the moon, they were naturally not static.
With a soft rumble, the eight mirrors began to move slowly, causing the refracted light on the floor to shift in a dynamic display.
Xiao Chen immediately noticed that the eight positions corresponded to eight special stone slabs on the floor.
As the moon phases shifted, the eight stone slabs moved along with them.
This ensured that, when viewed as a whole, the different moon phases remained arranged in a neat sequence from left to right.
The little figure in the previous stone carving had fallen over, which meant there was danger here.
If he wasn’t mistaken, the danger had to be related to these stone slabs.
.
Normally, Xiao Chen would have observed the changing moon phases to find the hidden pattern.
However, after studying them for a Quarter Hour, he found nothing except for some fine stone dust scattered on a few of the slabs.
He therefore decisively abandoned this approach and decided to try another method.
Namely, he would summon his Defensive Spirit Shield for protection and simply charge straight across!
This wasn’t an impulsive decision from Xiao Chen, a reckless attempt to brute-force his way through the trouble.
Quite the opposite, in fact. He had made this decision after careful deliberation.
As the saying goes: pit your strengths against their weaknesses.
One should always play to one’s strengths.
And Xiao Chen’s strengths were, of course, his powerful Magic and the confidence his Blade of Night afforded him.
Trying to meticulously study some pattern would be a waste of time, and there was no guarantee it would even reveal a safe path.
CREAK!
He had just taken a single step when a strange sound came from beneath his foot.
The floor tile sank two inches, revealing a ring of small holes around its edges.
A jet of purple smoke shot out from each hole.
The smoke was bizarre. It completely ignored Xiao Chen’s protective Spirit Shield, passed right through his Jade Platform Fire Lotus, and seeped directly into his body.
’Good. A poison trap. That means this tile is safe.’
He took another step forward.
CREAK!
The tile sank slightly, and an earthy-yellow light flashed, but ultimately, nothing happened.
’Looks like some kind of Imprisonment Technique, but I don’t feel anything. That means it’s safe.’
In between his steps, Xiao Chen also tried stepping on one of the special moon-phase slabs.
CLICK-CLACK!
This time, the slab didn’t sink, and the sound was different.
The corresponding mirror instantly flared with brilliant light, drawing down a beam of silvery-white radiance from the Moon Wheel that shone directly onto Xiao Chen.
He had no idea what this trap was supposed to do.
’Fortunately, I still don’t feel anything strange. This one must be safe, too.’
...
After stepping on ten "wrong" tiles along the way and triggering every type of trap—from poisons to Illusions...
Xiao Chen finally made it to the other side, safe and sound.
After a short passageway, he came upon a screen wall for the third time, nearly identical in size to the others.
The upper half still bore the same warning as before.
The content on the lower half, however, had been replaced. Instead of a stone carving, there was now a series of distorted lines.
But it was hard to tell if this was due to the passage of time or if the drawing had been unclear from the start.
All Xiao Chen could make out was a strange pattern: the outline of what seemed to be a person, but with several completely asymmetrical arms sprouting from its torso, and a head swollen to a fifth of its body’s size.
"Hm?"
He was a bit puzzled. ’What’s this supposed to mean? Are they just trying to scare people now?’
He examined it more closely.
Xiao Chen noticed that the pattern seemed to be damaged in some way, as if the person carving it had used too much force and slightly marred the screen wall itself.
That wasn’t hard to understand.
Judging by the distorted image, he could guess that the Witch who had left this carving probably hadn’t been in a good state of mind. It was only natural they might have applied a little too much force.
He walked around the screen wall once more.
The passageway ahead began to widen.
After walking for a little under three-quarters of an hour, Xiao Chen arrived in a place that resembled a vast plaza.
The entire plaza was forty thousand feet from front to back and twenty thousand feet wide.
Aside from the numerous stone pillars that served as supports, the outer regions were completely empty.
This gave him a clear view of the very center, the heart of the plaza, where a tomb chamber four thousand feet long and four thousand feet wide had been constructed.
Xiao Chen had seen this very scene before, during the Lunar Eclipse.
The Witchcraft Artifact he had come for was enshrined within that tomb chamber.
This place was also the final seal of Wu Ling, saturated with Burial Abyss Fiend that had accumulated for a million years.
Under normal circumstances, a Cultivator couldn’t directly sense Evil Qi. Even Xiao Chen needed to use a Secret Technique to see it clearly.
But this place was different. He could feel it just by approaching.
It was a suffocating presence that permeated the entire space, oppressive as collapsing quicksand, as thick as accumulated sludge, as stifling as a clogged ditch.
Anyone familiar with Evil Qi would immediately recognize that the concentration of it here was overwhelming.