Chapter Forty-Three: More Prestigious Than the Pavilion of Myriad Phenomena? [Please Add to Favorites]

Liu Junhuai searched several times around the cave entrance, but he still could not find the location of the formation’s core or base. Helpless, he entered the Pavilion of Ten Thousand Phenomena, reasoning that studying a few books on formations was better than wasting time here.

As soon as he stepped inside, he saw the old steward smiling at him. Embarrassed, Liu Junhuai scratched his head—he truly felt the sting of “regret for not reading enough when knowledge is needed.”

The old steward said, “Do not belittle yourself. In just a few short months, you have mastered the third level of formation mastery. How many in the cultivation world can achieve this? It is natural to fail when confronted with more advanced formations. You need not rummage through books; time is of the essence.

Formations set at hidden entrances are mostly small-scale, like illusionary restrictions, confusion arrays, or adamantine formations. Their common feature is the base, usually set outside the formation itself, with formation stones or spirit stones placed according to specific directions. Only when the base and core are destroyed will the formation reveal itself.”

“My level of formation mastery seems insufficient to break the core even if I find it. I would have to resort to brute force, but time is too short for deeper research,” Liu Junhuai replied.

“That’s the way it is. In the end, the principles are always connected. If you combine the foundational theories, you will eventually find understanding. Go now—there must be something hidden inside that cave entrance,” the old steward urged.

Liu Junhuai nodded and swiftly returned to the underground river.

Applying the fundamental theories of formations, he spent more than an hour before finally discovering piles of rubble arranged according to the positions of the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams.

Wherever Liu Junhuai’s true energy touched, the rubble exploded and scattered. With a thunderous crash, the dust cleared, revealing four blocks of ice rock arranged in the pattern of the Four Symbols.

These ice rocks were shrouded in gray mist. Upon entering the dense fog, Liu Junhuai sensed more than a dozen sharp silver beams shooting toward his position from all sides.

He wielded the Chaotic Five Elements Blade, blocking the attacks with crisp metallic clashes. One glance told him that these silver beams were sword energy—concentrated spiritual power formed by the Four Symbols Array. Their attacks had no direction or discrimination; as long as he did not attack the ice rocks, he would not face intense assault.

Not daring to be careless, Liu Junhuai tried extending his divine sense. But the moment his divine sense reached out, it was severed by the relentless silver beams.

At this moment, Liu Junhuai felt quite helpless. In such a situation, he would not last long before being pierced by thousands of swords.

After much agonizing thought, a flash of inspiration gleamed in Liu Junhuai’s eyes.

He remembered the blade energy of the Chaotic Five Elements Blade—it was designed to seek out the weakest point in a defensive barrier. If he could find the weakest spot in the Four Symbols Array and concentrate his attack there, it would be much easier.

He dared not use the “Primordial Shield Cauldron” for protection, since that would only waste his true energy. Instead, he stepped back, filling his body with true energy.

He swung the Chaotic Five Elements Blade, carefully tracing the path of the blade’s energy with his divine sense. With a boom, the blade’s energy was destroyed and his divine sense severed—the first target’s spiritual energy was flowing abnormally, but he failed.

He shifted his aim, swung again, and failed once more.

After attacking more than ten points, Liu Junhuai finally found a spot where the spiritual energy seemed to loosen slightly after his strike.

At the moment of this looseness, the sword energy rampaging through the formation paused—a brief interruption, lasting less than two breaths.

This fleeting pause was enough for Liu Junhuai; this was the flaw in the Four Symbols Array!

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If he could force an attack during the loosened flow of spiritual energy, he might be able to disrupt the array’s circulation.

He swung the Chaotic Five Elements Blade, the blade’s energy drilling into the loosened spot. Again, the blade’s energy was shattered, the formation paused briefly. Liu Junhuai poured his true energy into his palm, wrapped it in golden energy, and struck with a thunderous blow.

With a rumble, the Four Symbols Array trembled, raising clouds of dust.

Seeing the effect, Liu Junhuai was delighted and struck twice more, making the tremors even stronger.

Before he could deliver a fourth blow, the flow of spiritual energy at the attack site recovered, and the array emitted a shrill cry, returning to normal.

Liu Junhuai swung the Chaotic Five Elements Blade again, repeating his previous attacks.

After several rounds, a large crack opened at the attack site.

When the Four Symbols Array resumed after the brief pause, it trembled more violently, emitting sharp cries as spiritual energy ran wild throughout, disrupting the air currents.

With a final screech, the Four Symbols Array stopped functioning—the formation was broken.

Without pausing to restore his true energy, Liu Junhuai passed through the formation, crouched into the cave entrance, and immersed himself in the stream.

When his head emerged from the water, he found himself inside the cave.

He calmed his mind and sent out his divine sense to investigate.

Liu Junhuai now found himself in a magnificent hall. What surprised him even more was that this was a Six Ding Mountain-Opening Array, powered by the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, sustaining its own operation.

This grand array could automatically adjust the direction of spiritual energy collection according to cardinal points and seasonal changes, maintaining its continuous operation and guarding the central core.

He recognized this formation from the “Compendium of Ten Thousand Phenomena” when he had not yet refined the Pavilion. The first page of the formation chapter introduced a ninth-level formation—the legendary formation of the cultivation world.

The Six Ding Mountain-Opening Array was derived from the Immortal Three-Phase Transformation Array, specifically a variant of the Transmutation Array, which no longer had offensive capabilities.

The main function, besides defense, was to control seasonal transitions within the array, adjust the direction of spiritual energy collection, and repair the central hub of the array’s restrictions.

Liu Junhuai was secretly astonished: this was the control hub of the Taifeng Residence, which meant this was the true abode of the Nascent Soul stage cultivator.

It followed that the nine-layered space outside was similar to the training space in the Pavilion of Ten Thousand Phenomena, except that everything within each layer could be taken away.

But then Liu Junhuai reconsidered; this could not be true, for his Pavilion was unique. If his earlier guess was correct, then Taifeng Residence would be of a higher level than the Pavilion. Could there really be someone greater than the Pavilion’s creator?

His heart raced at the thought, and he was torn—did he truly want a more advanced Pavilion to exist?

After pondering for a long time, Liu Junhuai decided to set aside his anxiety and focus on exploring the control center of the residence.

The grand hall was empty, containing only the Six Ding Mountain-Opening Array, with a pitch-black cave entrance on its side.

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Entering the vast cave, he indeed found three entrances—these must be the secret chambers!

He entered the leftmost entrance. Before him, beneath the stone wall, was a mountain of materials for artifact forging: ink silver, secret silver, white silver, black iron, profound iron, black gold, fire copper, fluorite, magnesite, corundum, dolomite, barite, mica, Iceland stone, moon wax stone, black polished stone, and so forth.

Beside the mountain of forging materials were five small jade boxes. Liu Junhuai opened the lids and found more forging materials—exceedingly rare ones: thousand-year warm jade, Xuanhai Icy Soul, Three-Star Stone, Heavenly Star Black Jade, Nine-Heaven Silkworm Silk—five types of materials rarely seen even in the immortal realm.

Liu Junhuai was so shocked his jaw nearly dropped—he had truly struck it rich! This was the most genuine thought in his heart at that moment.

He chuckled foolishly by the stone boxes for quite a while, not even noticing the drool slipping from the corner of his mouth.

When he finally came to his senses, he left the materials behind and hurried toward the center entrance.

In the middle of this secret chamber stood a jade desk, and on it lay a jade slip and a jade box.

On either side of the desk were massive stone cabinets, each divided into ten layers.

The left cabinet held numerous jade slips, the right cabinet held jade bottles of various styles.

Suppressing his eager curiosity, Liu Junhuai feigned composure and walked to the desk, picking up the jade slip.

He probed it with his divine sense, and countless characters appeared before him.

The message was indeed left by the Nascent Soul stage cultivator.

This cultivator was named Miao Taifeng, originally from the Yunluo Mountains. After forming his Golden Core, the spiritual energy of the Star Heaven Continent could no longer sustain him, so he wandered other continents seeking resources for cultivation.

This residence, named after him, was a treasure he discovered before reaching the Golden Core stage. Every time he advanced, he returned here and deposited resources he no longer needed, accumulating over time to this scale.

The formation was a gift from an immortal. It was placed here so the nine-layered space could serve as a training ground for later generations. The world outside was vast, the cultivation environment of Star Heaven Continent was poor, and Miao Taifeng hoped this training ground would aid his fellow countrymen. He also hoped to meet cultivators from the Yunluo Mountains in the wider world.

Beneath the residence might lie a supreme spiritual vein; he hoped those with great fortune who arrived here would not destroy anything, but leave room for future development.

Miao Taifeng’s last return was not at the legendary Nascent Soul stage—for by then, he had already reached the peak of the Grand Ascension stage, about to face tribulation. This message was his final visit, for he had only two outcomes ahead: either perish in tribulation or ascend to immortality.

Therefore, anyone who saw this jade slip must swear a heavenly oath not to damage anything here; only the resources in the three secret chambers could be taken.

Inside the jade box was a jade token. Crushing it would permanently seal the control center.