Chapter 5148: What a Powerful Enemy
There was a spirit formation gate at the other end of the corridor. Beyond the spirit formation gate was a hulking palace.
There was nothing in the palace at all other than Bai Yunqing, who was standing at the center of the room. He was scanning the room with a deep frown, but it didn’t seem like he was able to find what he was looking for. That put him in a frustrated mood.
A gate stood at the other end of the palace, but it was tightly shut. Clearly, Bai Yunqing had tried to open the gate but to no avail.
Chu Feng also tried to examine the gate as well, but he quickly realized that he wouldn’t be able to open it either.
Most ancient remnants would provide some clues to work with under such circ.u.mstances, but it didn’t seem like there was anything in this empty palace that would be of help.
Chu Feng found himself at a loss too. While he did derive a deciphering method from the paintings earlier on, the gate wasn’t sealed with a formation. In other words, the deciphering method wasn’t intended to be used here.
All of a sudden, the palace walls started glowing brightly. The light converged into the projection of an old man floating in mid-air.
The old man had white hair and a long beard that fluttered despite the absence of wind. His glowing profile made him look divine, reminiscent of an immortal descending from heaven.
“Junior Bai Yunqing pays respect to Lord Zhenlong!”
Bai Yunqing quickly got to his knees and kowtowed. He must have seen Lord Zhenlong’s portrait, or else he wouldn’t have been so certain that the old man before him was indeed Lord Zhenlong.
However, Lord Zhenlong didn’t respond to Bai Yunqing’s greeting. In fact, he didn’t even direct a glance in Bai Yunqing’s direction at all.
Seeing that, Bai Yunqing immediately got back up to his feet. The respect on his face also thinned considerably. He had realized that the projection was nothing more than a formation left behind by Lord Zhenlong.
That was only to be expected, considering how Lord Zhenlong was already dead.
“Three young friends, welcome to my ancient remnant,” Lord Zhenlong said in a monotonous voice.
It was a simple statement, but it showed how complex the formation was. It was actually capable of gauging how many people had entered the palace and responding accordingly.
Chu Feng finally understood why Lord Zhenlong’s formation was only activating now. The third person who had siphoned the energy must have just entered the palace, thus triggering the formation.
“Three young friends?”
Bai Yunqing’s eyebrows furrowed. He immediately scanned the palace with sharp eyes. Clearly, he hadn’t noticed the presence of Chu Feng or the third person, and the realization that he wasn’t the only one here unnerved him.
However, Chu Feng’s concealment means were too powerful for him to see through, and it seemed to be the same for the third person too.
Boom!
All of a sudden, Bai Yunqing exerted the oppressive might of a Half-G.o.d.
Chu Feng noticed that the oppressive might from Bai Yunqing wasn’t that of a rank two Half-G.o.d but a rank four Half-G.o.d. A Lightning Mark manifested on his forehead, and Lightning Armor formed around his body.
It turned out that he was an inheritor of the Heavenly Bloodline, just like Chu Feng, and he had practiced the Divine Punishment Mysterious Technique too. His ability to use both the Lightning Mark and Lightning Armor at Half-G.o.d level meant that he could raise his cultivation by two ranks, thus reaching rank four Half-G.o.d level.
He was planning to force the other two hiding in the palace to reveal himself through his oppressive themselves.
Uwa!
The next moment, his face warped in pain, and he fell to his knees. He was restrained by an even more powerful force.
“Fighting is not permitted in the trial,” Lord Zhenlong’s projection said.
It was Lord Zhenlong’s formation that had curbed Bai Yunqing.
Bai Yunqing quickly retracted his oppressive might, and the force that was crus.h.i.+ng down on him immediately dissipated. Displeased that he was unable to clear away the rats who had snuck in here, he directed a furious glare at his surroundings.
“Why don’t you show yourself if you’re already here?” Bai Yunqing bellowed.
There was no response.
Neither Chu Feng nor the third person was planning to reveal themself.
“Despicable rats. Continue hiding then! I’ll have you know that the legacy is mine. Try competing with me for it if you dare, but the only fate that awaits you is death. Even if I can’t kill you here, I’ll hunt you down once we’re out of here!” Bai Yunqing sneered.
Chu Feng thought that it was amusing how Bai Yunqing was raging at thin air.
The palace started filling up with spirit power, and three formations surfaced. A voice transmission was delivered into Chu Feng’s ears—it was from Lord Zhenlong.
“Young friend, may I know your family name?”
Despite being a formation, it was able to determine that Chu Feng was unwilling to show himself and instead chose to communicate via voice transmission as well. That made him cognizant of just how incredible this formation actually was.
“My family name is Chu,” Chu Feng replied.
By the time he answered the question, the three formations had already fully surfaced. There was a character written above each of the formations. Bai Yunqing’s formation contained the character ‘Bai’, and the other two contained the characters ‘Chu’ and ‘Tiger’.
“Tiger? There’s actually a person who goes by that surname?” Chu Feng murmured.
“Tiger? More like a rat! You better not show yourself, or else I’ll rip you into pieces!” Bai Yunqing sneered.
He was extremely displeased with how Chu Feng and the third person were hiding, especially since it put him in a disadvantageous position.
“I have a key here, and I’ll award it to the person who deciphers the formation the fastest. Remember, you aren’t allowed to attack one another in this palace, or else you’ll be punished. Prove your own worth and acquire this key with your own capability. You may start now!”
As soon as Lord Zhenlong finished his words, he darted across to the other end of the palace. Astonis.h.i.+ngly, the tightly-closed gate opened for him, allowing him to slip through.
Chu Feng had no idea why Lord Zhenlong would suddenly leave the room, but he didn’t have the spare attention to ponder about the significance of the action.
Bai Yunqing had already released his spirit power in an attempt to decipher the formation, and his spirit power wasn’t just at Dragon Transformation Sensation. He was a G.o.d-cloak World Spiritist comparable to a rank three Half-G.o.d level cultivator.
“That fellow is actually a Blue Dragon G.o.d-cloak?”
Chu Feng felt incredibly stressed. There was a huge gap between rank nine Dragon Transformation Sensation and G.o.d-cloak, not to mention that Bai Yunqing was actually a Blue Dragon G.o.d-cloak World Spiritist.
To his relief, he soon realized that there was only one method to decipher the formation, and that was using the deciphering method he had comprehended from the paintings along the earlier corridor.
This deciphering method was independent of the world spiritist’s spirit power, meaning that they were all on the same starting line.
In fact, if Bai Yunqing and the third person hadn’t comprehended the deciphering method from the painting, they would never be able to decipher the formation no matter how powerful their spirit power was.
But of course, Bai Yunqing was no pushover. He had also comprehended the deciphering method from the paintings and had started deciphering the formation.
Not daring to let his guard down, Chu Feng quickly started deciphering his formation too.
Soon, he deciphered one-tenth of the formation. It would only get harder from now onward, but as long as he had sufficient time, fully deciphering this formation shouldn’t pose a problem to him.
Curious, he glanced at the formations of the other two. After all, this was a compet.i.tion where only the first one to decipher the formation would obtain the key.
His heart immediately sank.
The ‘Tiger’ character formation was also around a tenth in, progressing at the same pace as him. However, Bai Yunqing had already deciphered two-tenth of the formation. Even though they had all started on the same starting point, Bai Yunqing was still able to gain a decisive advantage over the rest of them…
“Is this the skills of the disciple of a True Dragon World Spiritist?”
Chu Feng felt incredibly pressured.
Even when Lord Zhenlong had provided a fair platform for them to compete on, he realized that he still wasn’t a match for Bai Yunqing. It looked like he was going to lose this fight.