Ground Fortune
Although Gui Ximing arrived beside Mu Yu, the drifting colourful mist and golden seal levitating above the palace that cast a golden veil over the majestic palace set hundreds of metres away from them or the white text, which was carved onto five thick pillars standing thirty metres tall, resonating with the golden seal didn’t even tickle his fancy. Not even aggressive, armed cultivator statues overwatching the space for Gui Ximing was focused on his own thoughts.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mu Yu,” emotionlessly expressed Gui Ximing.
“What is your group’s aim?” Mu Yu questioned whilst monitoring Gui Ximing because he couldn’t sense hostility, yet the oddity had him high strung.
“You know, His Lordship said the first order of things was for me to kill you upon arrival.”
“That mission will end in failure no matter how you try.”
“Unlike the fools you fought up until now, I never underestimated you and still am not. I have no intention of killing you. After all, there’s no bad blood between us, is there?”
“In that case, let destiny take its course.”
Gui Ximing didn’t stop Mu Yu strolling over to the intersecting stone bridges in between nephrite statues acting as boundaries that were situated above a bottomless chasm. As soon as two feet hit the bridge, Mu Yu was in the middle of the sky, while the stone bridges became drifting bridges on iron chains, connecting up the peak of a rocky mountain.
“I can’t see a damn thing through the white mist covering the chasm. Are the strange sounds also an illusion formation?”
Mu Yu implanted a formation into the iron chains, only for the pre-existing formation to drive his out; not even Primordial Yin Yang could defuse the formation.
“All formations must bend to his terms in his domain, huh? There’s no way I can tamper with the formations, then. Since Reverend Xuan Jizi is imparting his inheritance to someone fate chooses, whatever formations he has cast can’t be stopping outsiders entering. The bridge stretches beyond what I can even see. I need to find out what the crux of this test is and what he wants to test me on.”
Mu Yu crossed over to a narrow stony peak barely five square metres. The only thing in sight was more bridges leading to, presumably, different places.
“I wonder what the rules of this domain are,” Mu Yu muttered to himself.
“Probably the same ones as Fiend-Sealing Pagoda’s domain. Most only come up with one domain, after all,” Xiaoshuai said.
To test the theory out, Mu Yu kicked a stone flying, only for it to find its way back.
“I’m reminded of Vacant Spirit Grounds. I’m going with the hypothesis that this domain is similar to the Vacant Spirit Grounds’ inner workings, then. I wonder if I could assume control of this domain if I can figure out how the domain formation functions.”
Mu Yu sat down for eight hours as if he was seeking solace in the wonders of nature. Upon activating a formation in his eyes, he discovered that the natural habitat before his eyes was actually what a formation displayed.
“The white clouds in the southwest drift by every fifteen minutes. The chirps in the northwest are audible every three breaths. The chains to my bottom left drift on a thirty degree angle. Every hour, the breeze in the east changes to… I see. Reverend Xuan Jizi cast his domain formation on natural energy, turning natural energy into another form to create an illusion formation. Everything here actually exists, yet they are the product of an illusion formation. Is that the true structure of the domain formation?”
Mu Yu flicked the formation lines and noticed the lines drawing out the design of the items present, following it with his own finger. The sound of nature was something he could connect to at an intimate level. He felt he had figured out the entire design, yet he felt he was short of something.
***
While Mu Yu saw a world that humans would be inclined to describe as the celestial realm, Gui Ximing beheld what humans would call hell. The different view was a symbol that every man had a different destiny and a different fortune. Gui Ximing cast his gaze along the path littered with corpses, vengeful souls roaming and reeking of blood to the dune of corpses. “Are they all the people I’ve killed?”
Six black silhouettes ejected from Gui Ximing, each empowered with might comparable to his own. One of them asked, “Where are we?”
“Gui Ximing, where is Mu Yu?”
“You six are my twins. I know what I’m doing,” replied Gui Ximing, aloof. He kicked aside a corpse at his foot and added, “As for where this is, I presume this is Ground Fortune.”
“Why didn’t you kill Mu Yu? The seven of us can overwhelm him.”
“Because he’s a formation caster. He will open the path for us. There’s no need to rush,” explained Gui Ximing, flashing a corner of his pearly whites.
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