As Dog Two ran like crazy, w.a.n.g Ling and the others drew closer to the Altar of Water in the south. The set-up of the world of the Palace of Mirrors was in fact very simple, but the shadow army invaded and forced it to become more complicated. As they drew near to the Altar of Water, w.a.n.g Ling and the others stopped and approached in secret.
Wresting control of the altar now would mean regaining sovereignty over the world. Once the operation of the five element altars was restored, this swarm of shadow army invaders would be forcefully sent back by the nomological laws in the Palace of Mirrors to their original world. The departed spirits wandering around in this world would in turn return to their original worlds and rest in peace.
As for the innocent killed by the shadow army, they would become inhabitants of the Palace of Mirrors. The nomological laws of the world would create new bodies for them, and then strip them of their memories of this world before sending them back to their original world.
The nomological laws of the world were an order unto themselves.
When the order was disrupted, the world fell into chaos.
When order was rea.s.serted, everything would return to what it was.
In the real world, Gu Shunzhi"s role was to maintain the order of the universe.
But the Palace of Mirrors was obviously something Gu Shunzhi couldn"t predict.
This was an unusual world which existed in between the cracks.
And an extraordinary world would usually only open in extraordinary circ.u.mstances.
So here was a new question for w.a.n.g Ling.
If the key figure behind the shadow army invasion wasn"t the master of this world, then who on earth was the real master who created the Palace of Mirrors?
Each altar had its own characteristic.
The altar wasn"t simply an array: its structure was far more complex.
Each altar was composed of three key const.i.tuents.
One: A material object of a highly spiritual nature that aligned with the altar"s attribute.
Take the Altar of Water for example: its material object was very likely a river or a lake.
Two: Offerings had the same attribute as what was used to build the altar.
The offerings were usually magic artifacts with tremendous, ancient power. These sort of magic artifacts were mostly antiques that had already lost their original effects, but could still be used as sacrificial tributes. Dharmaraja"s Holy Thunder Pill, for example, was a holy relic pa.s.sed down in the Thunder clan for generations, and which was perfect as an altar offering.
Finally, the third and most inhumane key element: the altar envoy, who guarded the altar.
Altar envoys were like sacrificial offerings themselves: they were people offered up to the altar, who resonated with the altar"s attribute and were carefully selected.
After becoming the guardian envoy of the altar, they would receive the altar"s power and become immortal. On the other hand, they would lose their freedom forever.
The altar was like a prison for the guardian envoys; each one was imprisoned inside, where no light shone…
In the ancient cultivation world, various types of elemental altars were usually used to protect cities. Ancient cultivators used the power of the altars to defend their kingdoms.
However, with the onset of modern cultivation culture, the altar became an inhumane and forbidden technique.
Hundreds of years before the modern era, there were cultivators who had looked into upgrading the altars. After the upgrade, an alternative for the third key const.i.tuent was found: an "artificial puppet." However, these soulless puppets were, in the end, non-living things, and couldn"t exhibit even a tenth of the power of a living person. After the altars" power was drastically reduced, they naturally phased out.
Later, with the advent of modern cultivation, the sacrifice of living things was added to the list of forbidden techniques banned under the Cultivation Convention.
w.a.n.g Ling had heard Old Antique talk about this part of history in cla.s.s before, but it wasn"t a test point and was just a piece of additional trivia in the modern history of cultivation course.
Old Antique had vast experience far beyond what many people could imagine; he could be said to be erudite and well-informed, and could almost be described as omniscient. That particular lesson was still fresh in w.a.n.g Ling"s memory, because he had been eating a crispy noodle snack on the sly in that cla.s.s before Old Antique found and confiscated it!!!
As everyone expected, up ahead was a marsh surrounded by a sea of tall reeds, which made it hard to see and could completely swallow up an adult.
"There"s a very strong aura." Stopping in front of the sea of reeds, Dog Two frowned deeply and involuntarily bristled. This was a natural manifestation of its perception as a beast, which indicated that there was hidden danger inside the reeds.
"This is the Altar of Water. I explored it once before, and I got stuck and almost couldn"t get out of the sea of reeds." Mother Juan s.h.i.+vered as she said this.
"You weren"t caught?" Dog Two was surprised.
"The shadow army have never done anything to the original inhabitants of this world; our status gives us immunity. I pretended that I lost my memory and entered this area by accident; when they found me, they brought me out," Mother Juan said.
Mother Juan"s cooking skills were a little weaker in the Palace of Mirrors, but at the late Nascent Soul stage, her realm strength in fact wasn"t low. However, it was still very dangerous to approach the altar.
Perhaps the reason why the shadow army hadn"t silenced Mother Juan was because they knew that the original inhabitants of this world would gradually lose their sense of self.
"Don"t panic. Let me and Old Guo check it out first." As they hid behind a rock, w.a.n.g Ming held out his index finger, and the metal covering it slowly opened. Several mechanical flies flew out directly into the sea of reeds.
These were tiny reconnaissance drones in the shape of flies. Dog Two swallowed when it saw them.
It had been a very long time since it had eaten big meat flies… it really missed eating them.
While Guo Ping was a.n.a.lyzing the terrain from the scans the drones sent back, he and w.a.n.g Ming jolted at a sudden shrill sound from their headphones which made them dizzy and their ears ring.
"What"s the matter?" Dog Two asked.
"The drones were intercepted… None of the twenty-nine flies made it…" Guo Ping checked the image from the last fly drone before it disappeared: a small, muddy hand broke the surface of the marsh and directly dragged the drone down into the marsh and engulfed it.
"It seems that pa.s.sing through this sea of reeds won"t be as easy as we thought." Looking at this scene, Dog Two shuddered.
It seemed that the sea of reeds was already under the enemy"s complete control. This sort of wide-ranging magical ability was very tricky, as there was no way to immediately find the spellcaster, while the other party could instantly start monitoring your position. Once you were dragged into the marsh, you might not be able to break free with your own power.
The nature of a marsh was that the more you struggled, the deeper you sank.
"Let"s go." At that moment, w.a.n.g Ling stood up.
He walked toward the sea of reeds.
Then, an incredible miracle happened.
As w.a.n.g Ling advanced, the marsh parted to create a path…
The Great SeParting Spell… This was one of w.a.n.g Ling"s pa.s.sive Heavenly Dao.