Of course, it would be perfect if things turned out well. But if things turned awry, he could easily end up in a bloody mess on this mountain that was rife with the aura of corruption. That was definitely not something he had on his bucket list.
But still, there was no reason not to test it out.
Zhao Yunxiao carefully took a step back while Zhao Yunxiao Two dashed past him from behind, leaping down without hesitation.
Go, me!
He watched as Zhao Yunxiao Two fell freely through the air with his hands and legs spread open like an eagle... eventually falling face first onto the ground below and shattering into pieces of earthen debris.
Zhao Yunxiao: "..."
That did not work, but was it because he had used a clone?
Had he jumped personally, would that trigger some sort of mechanism that the Untethered Sage had left behind?
After all, even Ke Huofen's summoning array was able to detect and exclude his clone, so there was no reason why the Untethered Sage could not incorporate a similar ability in his plans...
No, the chances were too low for this to be worth a try, especially after considering the potentially serious consequences.
But if that was not the way, then what was?
Zhao Yunxiao closed his eyes in concentration, thinking back to all the clues that he had gathered so far.
After a short period of contemplation, his eyes shot open and he punched forward. His fists spontaneously burst into flames, within which the shadow of a ferocious tiger could be seen.
[Searing Tiger Fire Fist]
This was one of the many techniques authored by the Untethered Sage Jiang Taiming. More importantly, within its manual was where Zhao Yunxiao had found the final word of the verse – 'Meet'.
He might not have practised this technique in the past, but he had read it thoroughly from start to finish. Thankfully, this was a foundational technique meant for the masses, so it was still not impossible for him to perform one or two basic moves from the fist technique with just that.
Of course, to use this technique efficiently in battle would be beyond him.
His punch stopped once his arm was fully extended, but the flames continued travelling forward. Zhao Yunxiao watched closely as these flames flew past the edge of the plateau, quickly reaching the exact coordinate where he believed the verse was actually referring to.
There had been nothing inhibiting Zhao Yunxiao Two when he leapt out previously, but things were different this time around.
Bang-!
It was as though the flames were colliding against an invisible wall, setting it aflame in an instant. The temperature in the surroundings rose quickly as the flames spread outward with rapid speed, eventually forming a circle of flames that was around three metres wide.
Encased within the circle of flames was nothing but darkness, as though the flames had burned away space itself, leaving an area of absolute nothingness.
Zhao Yunxiao swallowed a mouthful of saliva as he gazed excitedly at the pure black centre of the fire circle.
He was expecting to have to do a lot more than this, but who knew that his first guess would actually end up hitting the nail on the head?
The Searing Tiger Fist Art was truly the key!
But... what next?
Due to the lack of a better idea, he took another step back as Zhao Yunxiao Three dashed past him from behind, leaping towards the centre of the circle. And just like that, Zhao Yunxiao Three passed straight through the black surface, though he never appeared from the other side of the fire circle.
Zhao Yunxiao felt a chill run down his spine as he suddenly lost all connection with the earthen clone. It would be worrying if that was it, but he could feel that the earthen clone technique was actually still active.
This meant that the earthen clone was not destroyed, but had merely been moved somewhere that he was unable to reach.
There was no doubt about it – this circle of fire was an entrance to another space, and whatever the Untethered Sage Jiang Taiming left behind must be on the other side of this entrance.
It would be great if this entrance existed on both ends. But if there was no exit on the other side, or if the gate closed on him while he was still inside, then he could potentially be trapped for good!
Because of that, Zhao Yunxiao chose not to enter for now. Instead, he sat down and closed his eyes, turning his focus to the earthen clone that he had left back at Purple Plum Mountain to continue reading at the Sect Library.
His earthen clone got to work immediately, rushing back to his residence to leave a simple note detailing where he was and how to open the spatial gate.
Only when that was done did Zhao Yunxiao finally open his eyes and stand back up.
Nobody would investigate his residence if nothing went wrong. But if he were to disappear for too long, then Gu Qiansi would surely go check in on him. That would be when this note could very well save his life!
Zhao Yunxiao took a deep breath to calm himself, then lightly leapt off the ground... past the edge of the plateau, and right through the dark centre of the circle of flames.
It was a sensation similar to when he entered the heavenly palaces of the elders – the feeling of stepping through a spatial gate.
His vision turned dark as he neared the circle of flames, but the moment he passed through, his surroundings turned bright once again. His feet landed upon a stone surface as he found himself standing right outside a large stone cave, with the area illuminated by two burning torches at each side of the cave entrance.
However, the first thing that drew Zhao Yunxiao's attention was not the massive stone cave, but the extremely dense aura of corruption that swept over him like a tidal wave. The sheer density of this aura of corruption was immense to the point of being almost overwhelming – multiple times stronger than what he had felt while climbing Blueflag Mountain.
No, not just that.
It trumped even Ke Huofen's Essence Reaper that was supposed to be a sword of blood and corruption!
Faced with such an oppressive aura of corruption, Zhao Yunxiao felt as though he had been tossed into a sea of ominous gas – gas that was trying to invade his body through every orifice and pore of his body.
Shit!
Zhao Yunxiao quickly drove his dantian to the limit, channelling his essence energy to form a protective layer of energy that kept out the aura of corruption. Only then did he feel the pressure on him alleviate.
Alleviate, but not disappear entirely.
Aside from assaulting his senses directly, this aura of corruption was somehow reaching him through another channel!
Zhao Yunxiao identified the problem instantly – his earthen clone that had come through before him.
After passing through the spatial gate, Zhao Yunxiao had completely lost connection with Zhao Yunxiao Three. But now that he had come through the gate as well, this connection had been quickly re-established.
And along with that, the aura of corruption that had been assaulting Zhao Yunxiao Three in vain was now using this mental connection as a bridge to reach him!
Damn it!
Zhao Yunxiao dispelled the earthen clone without hesitation, effectively cutting off the loophole that was leaving him susceptible to the aura of corruption.
That was close!
Only then did he wipe away the cold sweat on his forehead and take a good look around him.
The first place he looked at was behind him, only letting out a sigh of relief after seeing that the circle of fire existed on this side as well.
At least it was not a one-way gate.
Now then, he had to get things done here as quickly as possible. At the very least, he had to get it done before someone else came along and noticed the extremely eye-catching circle of fire.
That would not usually be a problem as there was no real reason for anyone to scale the peak of Blueflag Mountain, but it was hard to be certain now that the factions of Thousand Autumn City were investigating the activity of the Scarlet Leaf Sect.
Turning away from the circle of fire, Zhao Yunxiao realised that he was surrounded by nothing but stone walls on all sides, leaving only the circle of fire behind and the stone cave entrance in front.
At first glance, one would not notice anything amiss about the massive stone cave entrance. But when he looked closer, he could see small archaic characters carved into the wall beneath the two burning torches, forming a verse under each torch.
He widened his eyes in surprise as he recognised these characters. They were the same characters that he had learnt by the Origin Lake – archaic characters used for ancient arrays!
And as he read the verse formed by the words, Zhao Yunxiao felt his heart beating faster and faster in excitement.
[Step through the mists with heart unchained, yet fear the bind of desire untrained. One thought astray and rivers of blood shall bloom from within.]
[Understand the limits of the chains undone, yet ensure that one is bound to none. Only the soul that gazes within may still the storm without.]
Perhaps it was cognitive bias at play, but the way in which the two verses seemed to focus on the topic of freedom was exactly how he imagined that the Untethered Sage Jiang Taiming would think!
That said, was this word of advice? Or was this a warning?
Zhao Yunxiao was more inclined to believe that it was the latter. That was especially since he could feel a stream of energy circulating through these verses in a profound manner, flowing through each and every one of these words.
There was no doubt about it – these two verses were part of some complex array.
That in itself was not too surprising. In fact, Zhao Yunxiao would be more surprised if there were no active arrays present.
After all, if this place was really left behind by the Untethered Sage Jiang Taiming, it would have already existed for thousands of years at the very least. Without an active array, there was simply no way that the torches could remain burning till this day.
The question was... what kind of array was it?
There was almost no chance that an ancient array would be set up here just to maintain two burning torches, so there must be more to it than met the eye.
And without fully understanding what it did, proceeding carelessly could yield disastrous results. That was especially the case when he thought about how both verses mentioned potentially negative consequences.
Because of that, Zhao Yunxiao dared not rush into the cave despite feeling that he was on a timer. He did not even dare to send in a clone, afraid that doing so might trigger some sort of defence mechanism.
After all, there was only so much space here in front of the stone cave, and that could be on purpose as well.
If some defence mechanism were to be activated, there would be nowhere for him to run or hide!
The stone cave entrance might look wide open right now, but if his conjecture was correct, then this was nothing but a farce. Instead, these two verses were like a lock that definitely had to be opened before attempting to step within!
He carefully observed the lines of archaic characters beneath the two torches and tried to figure out the intricacies within. Even though Zhao Yunxiao was not new to arrays and had already studied these archaic characters in the past, this was by no means an easy task.
From what he had seen in the past, these archaic characters had always been used individually to form runes that produced their own effect, with these effects coming together to form a complete array after.
However, the two verses before him seemed to be governed by a completely different concept.
These were not words that would have any effect on their own, so he could not deduce the effect of the array by studying the cumulation of individual effects.
Instead, this was perhaps more similar to the concept of contemporary arrays, where each archaic character was nothing but a part of the complete verse, which would then produce an effect of its own.
That way, the archaic characters would be acting like nodes of an array, while the complete verse would be the array itself.
No, that was not all.
The energy connection between the two verses suggested that it was only after the effects of the two verses came together that the array was finally complete.
So, there were effectively two layers to this puzzle.
Huu-!
Zhao Yunxiao let out a helpless sigh, understanding that he would be spending quite some time here.
But at the same time, he was also rather excited to see this.
He had his doubts even up until after entering this space. But after seeing the usage of such ancient methods right at the entrance, Zhao Yunxiao was finally convinced.
This had to be where the Untethered Sage Jiang Taiming had left his legacy!
And the more difficult it was to enter, the less likely it was that someone had already gone through in the past. In that case, as long as he was able to solve this puzzle, he would likely be able to gain access to the legacy of the Untethered Sage – a legacy that countless cultivators had sought after since ancient times!
Zhao Yunxiao clenched his fists as a resolute light flashed across his eyes.
Such a precious opportunity was now lying right in front of him. Now, it was just a matter of whether he had the ability to grasp it within his own two hands!