Chapter 300: Forced entry

The Palace of Supreme Wisdom was being guarded by several elders and instructors. And at all times, a chief elder was also present. They were the most powerful cultivators within the Wubei Sect. But because they were essential to the inner workings of the sect, they couldn't stand guard all year long. Thus, it had been decided by a rock paper scissors game who would guard it at a given time. That way, all the chief elders would cycle through.

At the moment, Chief Elder Suxian was in charge of guarding what the other disciples referred to as the Ancient Ruins. Only those who were given entry knew the real name of the place. And since they were forbidden from talking about anything related to this great place, no one else was supposed to know the name.

It had been almost twenty days since Chief Elder Suxian had been guarding the place and his shift was soon to be ended.

Finally, his replacement arrived more than thirty hours late. He was Chief Elder Luoming, the new chief elder of the disciplinary pavilion. He and Chief Elder Suxian were close friends, but they also loved to tease one another and to argue, or even fight.

"Brother, you're late!"

"Sorry, sorry. But my pavilion is always hard at work, you know how... Well, I guess you don't."

With a smirk on his face, Chief Elder Luoming jested a bit. And as he did, his friend's face became red.

"What?! Are you saying I do nothing?!"

Before smoke could arise from Chief Elder Suxian's head, his friend calmed him down.

"Sorry, Brother. This wasn't my intent to belittle what you do. I know that you're always working on new studies. In fact, I've had time to read your latest document on the array formations of the Palace of Supreme Wisdom. Truly inspiring. I wish I had a better understanding of array formations. But with all the work my pavilion has to do just to make sure the Wubei Sect doesn't collapse... I mean, no chief elder has any idea how much work this is. Although I've simplified the procedures as much as I could, that inept Bian Gui really did a number on this poor pavilion. It's a wonder our sect didn't crumble beforehand. This disciplinary pavilion was a temple of foolish administration and stupid rulings."

As he spoke, Chief Elder Luoming's face became a bit more dark. Immediately, Chief Elder Suxian changed his attitude and got closer to him. The two of them were hovering over the Palace of Supreme Wisdom where the elders and instructors were keeping watch.

"Brother, you should get out more often. You would see that everyone is incredibly grateful to your recent reforms. Not only do we have way less paperwork to do, but everything is much more efficient and fast. To get an emblem for a new disciple, sometimes it had taken me weeks. Now in less than a day, I literally have it between my fingers."

"I'm glad that everything is going smoothly. But you all have no idea how much pressure this is. If I was in charge of the arts pavilion, this was for the peace and tranquility. I have none of those now. And to be honest, I don't know how long it will be before I can finally take some rest. Hundreds of years of boorish procedures won't be solved in a matter of a few years..."

"Well... I know that this isn't my domain of expertise, but if you ever need some help, I'm here." Chief Elder Suxian paused for an instant. "What about this? When your shift is over, we'll take a single day off. We'll drink some wine and I'll set up an array formation for you to be able to relax. I'm sure we can also ask the Coiling Silk Faction to bring us some entertainment. I hear that their new faction leader, Wang Mei, excels in painting, calligraphy, dance, music. Name an art, she's probably very proficient in it. In fact, she got even better thanks to her stay in the Palace of Supreme Wisdom last year. I'm sure she would be delighted to show her prowess to the former chief elder of the arts pavilion. And this would be a great change of pace for you. What say you?"

Chief Elder Luoming was a bit hesitant to take even one day off, especially after twenty days standing guard over the Palace of Supreme Wisdom. But his friend's face was hard to say no to.

"Come on. At some point, you also have to trust in the work you've done. You've rearranged the personnel within your pavilion. I'm sure you didn't choose them at random. Trust them to take care of things. What's one more day away? Besides, you're almost two days late, so you owe me at least one day, even more!"

"Fine, fine. I'll go with you when my shift is done."

"Great! I swear you won't regret anything!"

Finally, Chief Elder Suxian left as his friend was now focusing his spiritual senses all over the Ancient Ruins. Not a single detail was able to escape his senses.

-

Within the Palace of Supreme Wisdom itself, many disciples had already crossed at least two tests. Some were still stuck at the second one, either because they had not fully understood what it entailed or because they wanted to get a perfect reward. Others had failed several tests and were sent into easier realms, but with way fewer rewards.

Among those disciples, Sun Liao had crossed over six tests until now. The first one had not been to his liking at all, but the other ones had done everything he had hoped for. From a 6th-grade Mortal, Sun Liao had risen all the way to the 8th-grade Mortal stage. If he had used the pill from Mei Hua, he would be able to become a 9th-grade Mortal. But his pride simply couldn't allow him to accept that kind of gift. But considering his current cultivation speed, he was fairly certain that he could reach his goal. He would not let his brother and sister leave him in the dirt.

As an array formation master, opening his acupoints was not a difficult task. First of all, his mind cultivation had progressed far as well. Not only had he finished the first layer, he had also energized the first chamber of his Upper Dantian. Although he had not talked with him, he had chosen the same one as Cao Yun, the Chamber of Jade, to increase his intuition and wisdom. Unlike him though, he was unable to enter his own sea of consciousness so producing the Five Echoes Pearl had taken him almost a year. And the next ones would probably be even harder to produce. Even Mei Hua who was able to enter her sea of consciousness was taking way more time than Cao Yun.

Most likely, his great speed had been thanks to the Drop of Wrath within him.

Anyway, combining his new intuition with his knowledge of array formations, Sun Liao knew the perfect order for him to temper his own acupoints. With a bit of help from this Palace of Supreme Wisdom, he would maybe even reach the Mortal Warrior realm.

Once again, Sun Liao appeared in a completely different environment. By habit, the first thing he did was to make a mental Bamboo Map of the place. As an array formation master, this was done in a matter of seconds and this could be extremely useful. At first, it was just a way to train himself. Each time he went to a new place, he created a Bamboo Map to force himself to think like that and see every possibility in a given location. Now it was instinctive in him and that had helped him a lot in some of the previous tests.

This place seemed to be a giant temple without a roof. Everything was made of splendid rocks with some constructs made out of gold here and there, similar to altars. But none of the architecture was familiar to Sun Liao. Right in front of him though was something very familiar. There was a huge well with a narrow platform leading to its center. On that platform, in the exact center of the well's surface, there was a bow that looked like it was made of rock.

First, Sun Liao kept on analyzing the place. The well was full of a water so crystalline it almost looked like a mirror. Seeing that, it made him change his view of the place. Suddenly, he looked up and realized that what he had thought was a sky was not. This was this same water. In fact, right in the middle of this overhead lake, there was also some kind of mirror reflecting the surface of the well. Once he had noticed that, Sun Liao realized that there was a tiny shadow swimming in that celestial mirror. It was impossible to really make out because it was even smaller than a grain of salt. Without his trained eyes, Sun Liao would have missed it completely. And even with his eyes, he had almost missed it anyway.

But one thing was not reflected in the mirror, the bow and the platform themselves. Thus, Sun Liao became doubtful but he soon concluded that they were real. Those were not illusions. The most likely hypothesis was that the mirror in the sky and the surface of the well were connected somehow. Maybe the mirror was able to show things in the well that were not visible, or the other way around. With his knowledge, Sun Liao was well armed to decipher the tests he was put into. And this one revolved around this bow.

Walking up to it, Sun Liao was now in the middle of the well, at the center of the mirror and his image was not reflected in the mirror above.

The bow in front of him was incredible. This was certainly one of the most detailed sculptures he had ever seen. It was covered with engravings of birds and celestial bodies. Although he didn't know the name of the bow, he was certain that it was made for him. The only problem was that there was no arrow. Because he was not a Mortal Warrior, Sun Liao could not create arrows from his Qi. And he had only taken a few with him. Right now, he had eleven arrows left. Without a spatial ring, he couldn't take too many items with him.

Before worrying about the arrows though, he took the bow in hand. When he tried to draw the bow, he realized that it required an incredible strength. Using all of his physique, he was only able to draw it halfway. It was simply impossible to do more than that, no matter how much he tried, no matter how much Qi he was pouring in his muscles. And the answer was obvious for him, without the ability to send Qi within the bow itself, he would be unable to completely draw it. Thus, he would be unable to use it.

But if he could open certain of his acupoints, he could imitate what he had seen Zhi Yin do. Like his brother Cao Yun, Sun Liao had seen Zhi Yin pour Qi in her attacks and it had worked. Even though he couldn't control his Qi outside of his body yet, if Sun Liao was able to let some of his Qi out, some of it may naturally flow through the bow and the string. Maybe it would loosen it enough for him to finally draw it.

He had already understood most of the test. He had to shoot down the fish that was in the well. But the fish only appeared as a shadow in the mirror above. So he had to understand exactly what the mirror was showing and shoot without looking at his target directly. Maybe the mirror was inverted in many ways and he had to figure out how it really worked.

-

For several days, Sun Liao had worked on his acupoints and had opened some of them, just enough to be able to send a few surges of Qi outside. Then, he took the bow again and was able to draw it by using all of his strength and infusing some Qi in it. Just drawing it took almost all of his stamina. He would probably be able to only shoot once a day. So he had to make that shot count.

After many tries, Sun Liao had mostly understood how it all worked. The mirror was not only warping space, it was also messing with time. To reach his target, Sun Liao had to plan his shot in advance and try to convert the shadow he was seeing with what was really going on in the well. He was so close to finally touching his target but he had only three arrows left.

As he was about to try another shot, Sun Liao sensed a disturbance around him. Although he could not really sense Qi in his distant environment, Sun Liao had very acute senses as an array formation master. And Cao Yun's mind cultivation had pushed those senses even further.

Behind him, in the distance, Sun Liao saw traces of an array formation being activated. But there was nothing in this world. Many possibilities went through his mind, but the most likely was that someone from the outside was activating an array formation to get inside. But for that, they would have had to place some artifact in this place, something to act as a tether. That meant that this was an act of the demonic cultivators who had infiltrated the Wubei Sect. However, that meant that they had a great understanding of the Palace of Supreme Wisdom.

For Sun Liao, it was clear that this was the work of the Spirit Warrior demonic cultivator hiding within the sect. Somehow he had discovered a way to at least interfere with the array formations of the Palace of Supreme Wisdom. He was unable to say clearly what this array formation was, but he could make guesses. And none of them were good for him.

He had absolutely no time to analyze the array formation. And even if he could, it didn't mean he knew how to stop it since it had been activated from somewhere else. He would have to create another array formation around this disturbance in a matter of minutes or seconds. If a Spirit Warrior was really behind this, none of what Sun Liao could do would be enough anyway. He was extremely good, but there was still a limit to his talent.

Thankfully, he had the Bamboo Map in head. Thus Sun Liao decided on another plan. Instead of trying to stop the activation, he focused on protecting himself. In a record time, he set up two array formations. One to conceal his presence and the other one to create a protection around him. Against a Spirit Warrior, it would do nothing. But against a Mortal Warrior, it would last long enough for what he had in mind.

-

In the jungle where Cao Yun was, he felt a disturbance in the Qi around him too. Something had trespassed into this realm.