Gate of God

“The third one?” Yun Qingwu paused her footsteps and looked surprised.

“Oh, I said it wrong. I mean the fourth one.” Fang Zhengzhi felt Yun Qingwu’s hesitation and changed his words immediately.

“Are you sure?” Yun Qingwu looked at Fang Zhengzhi with a strange glance without hesitation and allowed him to pull her towards the cave.

“Of course.” Fang Zhengzhi was happy.

His acting skill was so realistic!

Fang Zhengzhi managed to delve into a realistic acting skill from an exaggerated one.

That was what made him a master at acting.

I am coming for you, the sound of water flowing from the southeast.

“Splash…” The sound of water was heard once again when Fang Zhengzhi went through the dark cave with Yun Qingwu excitedly.

The sound was extremely clear.

However…

It seemed to come from the southwest.

Southwest?!

Hold on, why was it from the southwest?!

Fang Zhengzhi was completely stunned. What happened to the water flowing from the southeast? Why didn’t Yun Qingwu tell him that he was bringing her to the wrong cave?!

“Why did the water flow from the southwest again?” Yun Qingwu also heard the sound of the water and smiled.

“Exactly, why did the water flow from the southwest again?” asked Fang Zhengzhi too.

“Doesn’t this mean that we are back to the same place after one entire round?” Yun Qingwu looked at Fang Zhengzhi and smiled brightly.

“Exactly, this is ‘going around in circles’!” Fang Zhengzhi nodded.

“Going around in circles?”

“Yes; the 36 Heavenly Stars Formation used the chessboard to plot many mountains as pawns. Think about it, how would it possibly allow one to enter the ‘Heavenly Yuan’ in a straight path?”

“So?”

“So the correct path requires us to go in circles, southeast, then southwest, then southeast, and southwest… we can reach the ‘Heavenly Yuan’ through this repetition of directions.” Fang Zhengzhi did not panic at all.

“I see.” Yun Qingwu nodded.

She behaved as though she really believed Fang Zhengzhi and did not have the intent to expose him at all.

“Alright, let’s hurry up.” Fang Zhengzhi did not bother to explain too much as the saying went, an explanation was equivalent to covering up for one’s mistake.

After a short while, the two of them reached another pawn.

The water flowed rapidly from the Northwest.

“It’s coming from the northwest, what do you have to say about this?” Yun Qingwu covered her mouth and asked Fang Zhengzhi as she laughed.

“That’s right… it’s northwest…” Fang Zhengzhi could not take it anymore.

He could continue to explain if the sound of water came from the southeast or southwest, but why did it f*cking become the northwest?

Seriously?!

Was he so unlucky?!

“Yeah, why did the water end up at the northwest?” Yun Qingwu continued to ask while covering her mouth.

“Going around in circles. This is it. The so-called going around in circles is meant to confuse your sense of direction, or else, why was it named this way?” Fang Zhengzhi squeezed out an explanation.

“Do you think I will believe you?” Of course, Yun Qingwu did not believe him.

“This… I don’t care whether you believe me or not, the path I am taking is definitely correct.” Fang Zhengzhi insisted. In any case, they were alone and nobody was there to witness it.

Why should he be afraid?

He did not have to be afraid. As long as he felt that he was correct, he was indeed correct. No matter how Yun Qingwu questioned him, he would still be correct.

That was Fang Zhengzhi’s persistence.

“So you are trying to play cheat?” Yun Qingwu figured out what Fang Zhengzhi meant.

In fact, she had already guessed Fang Zhengzhi’s sneaky plans when he walked in the wrong direction for the third time. However, she did not expose him as she wanted to see what excuses he would come up with.

“Play cheat? I am an honest ¹ person, how would I possibly play cheat?” Fang Zhengzhi insisted without feeling ashamed at all.

“But you walked in the wrong direction.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Then explain to me, why is the water coming from the Northwest?”

“Going around in circles.”

“…” Yun Qingwu was speechless.

Talking about shamelessness, Yun Qingwu had to take her hats off to Fang Zhengzhi as he was the only person who could be so shameless.

Going around in circles?

Yun Qingwu definitely would not believe that.

However…

She could not do anything to Fang Zhengzhi now as he insisted that he was correct.

What could she do in this case?

“Let’s continue, just a while longer and we will reach our destination.” Fang Zhengzhi hurried Yun Qingwu.

“Hold on, did you say we are reaching our destination soon?”

“Yes.”

“How long do we need to take?”

“Hmm… At least three to five hours and at most three to five days? We have food and water in this mountain anyway, we won’t starve to death, right?” Fang Zhengzhi said nonchalantly.

“But you just said that Nangong Mu is looking for the ‘Heavenly Yuan’ too.” Yun Qingwu nodded and reminded Fang Zhengzhi.

“Uh…” Fang Zhengzhi was stunned before he said again, “Nangong Mu is not as intelligent as me, I don’t believe that he can find the Heavenly Yuan before I do.”

“Of course he is not as intelligent as you, but in terms of knowledge of formations… Based on my understanding, the Nangong Nobles are good at that,” said Yun Qingwu.

“So?” Fang Zhengzhi asked.

“Based on my judgment, he will be able to find the Heavenly Yuan in two hour, and we have already wasted an hour’s time already,” said Yun Qingwu.

“You mean we only have an hour’s time left?”

“Yes.”

“Rest assured, we can definitely reach the ‘Heavenly Yuan’ within an hour’s time.”

“What if we don’t?”

“If we don’t…”

“If you don’t reach the ‘Heavenly Yuan’ within an hour’s time, then I shall lead. That also means that you have lost to me and you have to give me the Black-Golden Wings.” Yun Qingwu raised her deal again as she broke off Fang Zhengzhi’s sentence.

“One hour?” Fang Zhengzhi stopped talking.

He understood what Yun Qingwu meant. If he was unable to reach the Heavenly Yuan in an hour, Nangong Mu would probably reach the Heavenly Yuan first.

He definitely could not allow that to happen.

However, after a few attempts, he had finally understood how terrifying and grand the 36 Heavenly Stars Formation was.

Every chess piece had nine caves.

Nine caves!

361 intersection points and nine different choices each. It gave him a headache just by thinking about the complexity.

Luck…

Fang Zhengzhi had hoped to land on the Heavenly Yuan based on luck but he was evidently not lucky.

Not anyone could break through the 36 Heavenly Stars Formation.

What should he do?

Was he really going to admit that he had lost?

Fang Zhengzhi felt that even if he had to admit defeat, he should not do it now as he still had an hour to try.

We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

We’ll cross the bridge…

Definitely!

As Fang Zhengzhi continuously comforted himself, he started to think about the attempts he had made in this journey.

First, he chose the second cave…

Then he reached the southwest?

Then he chose the third cave and reached the Southeast. Fourth cave, southwest; Ninth cave, northwest…

Then?

There was no ‘then’.

What could these clues do? Could he deduce the plot of the 36 Heavenly Stars Formation based on these clues?

Definitely not!

Fang Zhengzhi did not believe that one could deduce the correct path based on the direction of the flow of water.

After all, that was too exaggerated.

However, the direction of the flow of water was definitely one of the factors.

If not, Yun Qingwu would not pay attention to the flow of water. However, besides that, there must be other clues.

Clues…

Where were they?

Fang Zhengzhi felt like his brain was going to explode. He was definitely not good at deductions.

It was too difficult.

What should he do?

What should he do?

Forget it, if he could not think of an answer, he would just continue on. As the ancient saying went, ‘It is better to travel ten thousand miles than to read ten thousand books’, perhaps he would get new insights as he traveled on.

One must have aspirations as anyone without an aspiration would be useless.

Fang Zhengzhi had aspirations. Although he admitted that Yun Qingwu was much stronger in terms of deductions, he still had the aspiration to defeat her.

“I agree with your deal, let’s go.” Fang Zhengzhi dragged Yun Qingwu on and sped up towards the possible location of the caves.

“Don’t insist if you can’t.” Yun Qingwu smiled.

“Not at all. One hour is more than enough.” Fang Zhengzhi insisted as there was no harm doing it.

…

They continued on…

Fang Zhengzhi once again proceeded on with his path in circles. The both of them walked through mountains and rivers as they jumped from one chess piece to the next.

However, they were still going around in circles.

There was once when he realized that he went back to the same chess piece as there was a marking left by him at the entrance of that cave.

Of course, he did not take notice of that small marking.

He pretended not to see it.

Yun Qingwu also did not stop Fang Zhengzhi from going around in circles and followed closely behind him as they proceeded on in the 36 Heavenly Stars Formation.

Time past gradually.

After half an hour, Fang Zhengzhi finally stopped. He looked at the mountains, identical ponds and forest around him.

What should he do?

Was he really going to continue walking without any clue?

Then get humiliated by Yun Qingwu after time was up?

No!

Who can be killed cannot be humiliated!

Fang Zhengzhi felt that it was time for him to really think about the path seriously. He felt that he had accumulated sufficient experience from turning around in circles.

It was time for him to make use of these accumulated experience.

Yun Qingwu was able to deduce the path of the 36 Heavenly Stars Formation after three tries, why couldn’t he do it after 30 tries?

Perhaps…

He really could not.

No, he definitely could. 36 Heavenly Stars Formation, the chessboard was used to set the scene and the mountains were used as chess pieces. 361 intersection points in total.

361…

Wait a minute!

Apart from the 361 intersection points, there seemed to be another crucial information, nine stars.

Oh right!

The nine star positions on the chessboard.

The center of it was the Heavenly Yuan.

Therefore, could it be that he would be able to deduce the positions of the other stars once he found the position of one star, and successfully find the Heavenly Yuan from there on?

“Yes, this must be it. As long as I find the position of any star, I will be able to deduce the location of the Heavenly Yuan!” Fang Zhengzhi’s eyes lit up.

Deducing where the Heavenly Yuan was from scratch was extremely difficult.

However, it was possible for him to deduce the position of one of the stars. Moreover, he had already made so many attempts.

Although the attempts he had made caused him to continue going around in circles, he already had a rough idea of where he had stopped.

He had been to the southeast, southwest, northwest, west, east, south…

Fang Zhengzhi recalled where he had been and the directions of the mountains. Then, he started to deduce the nine star positions in his heart.

“Isn’t it too late for you to start your deduction now?” Yun Qingwu reminded Fang Zhengzhi as he stopped and started to think.

“Too late? Not at all,” replied Fang Zhengzhi.

“Haha… Do you need a hint?” Yun Qingwu laughed and sat calmly beside Fang Zhengzhi.

“No,” rejected Fang Zhengzhi.

He did not believe that Yun Qingwu would give him a hint at this point in time. The so-called hint would probably be a source of distraction.

Moreover, even if Yun Qingwu really gave him a hint out of goodwill, he probably would not understand it.

After all, there was some difference in the level of knowledge between them.

It could be likened to a primary school kid asking a professor about the path of the sun, even if the professor explained patiently, the primary school kid would not understand.

There were too many professional terms involved.

Wait a minute.

Speaking of the path of the sun…

36 Heavenly Stars Formation!

Heavenly Stars?!

The chessboard was used to set the scene and the mountains were used as chess pieces. In addition to that, the heavenly stars…

“I think… I figured it out!” Fang Zhengzhi’s lit up suddenly.