"Could he have run away?" Yu Ci scratched his head and stood up, Tie Lan's crimson eyes flickered beside him, then faded away.
At this point, the projection of the True Solar Fire had disappeared according to the pattern of sunrise and sunset, leaving the garden in darkness. Yu Ci strolled through the garden. The scenery of the garden had been completely destroyed by the Spear-throwing Device of the Heavy Weapon Sect, leaving it like a scorched earth. Moreover, on this scorched earth, the void twisted everywhere. The further out, the more severe the distortion, the larger the tear, shattering the space of the garden.
Those obvious places were one thing, but the truly deadly were those tiny cracks, hidden behind trees and rocks. In the night, they were inconspicuous, and if you accidentally bumped into them, you could be torn apart by the force of the twisted void, losing a piece of flesh, or even having your limbs crushed, risking your life.
After Yu Ci accidentally shredded his sleeve, he dared not be careless. He glanced further away, preparing to turn back. But by chance, he saw Incense Slave walking from the other side of the garden. Her dark robe almost completely blended into the night, almost causing him to miss her.
He thought about greeting her, but then thought it was pointless, so he simply let her go. However, he found it strange that at this time, what was the female cultivator's plan to come to this dangerous place?
From the first time he met her, Yu Ci had a strange feeling about this mysterious female cultivator. The more he interacted with her, the stronger the feeling. Although he had seen her face when the female cultivator was injured and unconscious, Rakshasa was known for her deceptions, so Yu Ci couldn't draw a final conclusion.
With these thoughts, Yu Ci unconsciously took a risk and walked in the direction where Incense Slave had been.
When he got there, there was nothing special, just that the void was more severely distorted. At a glance, there were dozens or even hundreds of rifts, hidden in the darkness, and if one was not careful, one could bump into them.
"What a hellish place..."
Yu Ci didn't have the leisure to look carefully, in case he bumped into a Void Rift and had nowhere to cry. After some thought, he used a lazy spell, secretly driving the Divine Bronze Mirror, releasing the Divine consciousness starlight, preparing to control it for a round.
To his surprise, as soon as the starlight flew out, it disappeared in a flash, leaving Yu Ci stunned.
His perception was clear, the Divine consciousness starlight had bumped into a Void Rift. In the garden, this was nothing, but this was not due to his operational error, but the Divine consciousness starlight's spontaneous action.
The Divine consciousness starlight only had such a high degree of self-awareness in one situation...
Yu Ci squinted his eyes, recalling the words of the Master of the Sunken Sword Cave. He wanted to trace the whereabouts of the Divine consciousness starlight again, but how could the twisted barrier of the void be so easily broken? It might be completely disconnected. He was not discouraged, but rather somewhat excited. If his speculation had a one percent chance of becoming reality, the situation he faced would be entirely different.
In the next moment, thousands of starlights spurted out from the Divine Bronze Mirror, scattering in all directions, and disappeared completely in the blink of an eye.
Just as he thought! Yu Ci almost wanted to laugh out loud, but at this moment, he felt a tightening around him, a massive pressure descended, filling the entire garden.
He looked up in surprise. This feeling, wasn't it the sign of the Talisman Seal being activated? It was still some time away from the fourth hour.
A voice came from afar, it was Tie Lan: "Is the guest there?"
Yu Ci responded, not caring to analyze the current state of the Divine consciousness starlight, and carefully left. In no time, he arrived at the Ruins of the Four Directions Pavilion. Incense Slave had already returned, and everyone had their eyes open, looking up at the sky.
Seeing him return, Wen Shifei and Di Tianluo both shifted their gaze, their eyes clearly showing some confusion. Yu Ci felt a slight tremor in his heart, suddenly realizing he might have been a bit careless. The Divine consciousness starlight was indeed secretive, but it was not without precedent for it to be detected. The one who had detected it before was a Demon Head from the Northern Demon Sects who turned Tu Du into a puppet. Half of the people present were from the Demonic Sect, could they have discovered him?
Fortunately, these two men clearly had no definite knowledge. At this time, the voice of the Master of the Sunken Sword Cave was already ringing in his ears: "Someone else, somewhere, has triggered the First Layer Talisman Seal."
"Is that even possible?"
"Why not? As long as you have the courage and the means, you can trigger it. It's not strange."
The Master of the Sunken Sword Cave spoke indifferently: "If someone else triggers it, it indeed makes the secrets of the core area less safe, but it also lets you understand more about the First Layer Talisman Seal, greatly increasing your chances of controlling the Talisman Seal. And no one knows the setup of this place better than me. Under the same conditions, our chances are still the greatest... You might as well take this opportunity to sense more."
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
Having said that, the man fell silent.
Yu Ci and the others exchanged glances, feeling that the situation was strange, and the reaction of the Master of the Sunken Sword Cave was even stranger. None of them were fools, and a similar thought suddenly rose in their hearts: "Could these messages have been deliberately released by the Master of the Sunken Sword Cave..."
One by one, the news was released. The hundred-odd cultivators in the Manifestation Hall formed one group, the four loose cultivators who had escaped from the Secret Domain formed another, and Xia Boyang, who had escaped from within the Secret Domain, formed yet another. When these pieces of news converged and intermingled, they would inevitably spread at a terrifying speed. Perhaps in less than two days, the entire Sword Garden would be in the know.
Harnessing the power of all the cultivators in the Sword Garden might greatly increase the chances of breaking the Three-layer Talisman Seal, but what made the Master of the Sunken Sword Cave so confident that he would be the ultimate victor?
Each of them had their own judgments in their hearts, but none voiced them. Instead, they sat down just like before, carefully sensing the power of the Talisman Seal as it manifested, and deducing ways to break it.
At this time, Yu Ci had other things to do. He didn't focus on the Talisman Seal, but instead sensed the Divine Consciousness Starlight he had just released.
The Divine Consciousness Starlight would only exhibit such self-tracking behavior when it found a suitable host. The garden was now deathly silent, with only foreign cultivators like Wen Shifei. But their cultivation level was profound, and the Divine Consciousness Starlight couldn't penetrate them. So, where was the target that could trigger the starlight's response?
It must have crashed into those densely packed Void Rifts! The Master of the Sunken Sword Cave had just mentioned that these Void Rifts were cut open by the Master of the Secret Domain, leading to many strange and ancient places, and possibly even to the Outer Realm of the Nine Heavens.
If so, the rift should also lead to other locations, such as a safer place.
Yu Ci had not expected that even through the Void Rift, the Divine Consciousness Starlight could still function. Such a method, he feared, could only be accomplished by Yu Ci, who possessed the Divine Bronze Mirror, or even Yu Ci who had condensed into the Seed True Talisman. People like Wen Shifei and Di Tianluo, although their cultivation level far surpassed his, probably did not possess a Divine Bronze Mirror that could transform Divine Soul Power into hundreds of Sensing Starlights to ascertain the spatial conditions behind countless rifts.
Thousands of divine consciousness starlights crashed into the Void Rift, instantly losing connection with more than half of them. The rest either collided into minute, impassable cracks, proving useless, or were eliminated by sensing certain peculiar environments that Yu Ci could not comprehend.
What was left was very little. Yu Ci sensed for a while, only to find three locations.
These three places were parasitic within the brain palaces of three living beings. One of them was a common bird, chirping and hopping on a tree branch. Perhaps due to the Void Rift, its surroundings were blurred. All that could be seen were shady green trees, clear springs flowing over rocks, a scene brimming with life. But at this moment, the Broken Realm Mountain Range was in the time of the Great Snow Sealing Mountain. Where did these shady trees come from? If you really go there, it might be billions of miles away...
Yu Ci shook his head and switched to another target, but immediately felt a chill on his back. This target was a demon, surrounded by darkness, and faintly visible were all sorts of strange creatures. The occasional splash of blood light was even more glaring... Forget it!
The last target was a cultivator, probably at the intermediate stage of nature-connecting cultivation. As for the location, Yu Ci couldn't really tell, only feeling it was a snowfall wilderness, probably somewhere in the north.
Yu Ci was more inclined to the last place, but unfortunately, the location of that rift in the garden was too remote. If there were any accidents, he might not be able to make it in time. Even if he did, the dense Void Rifts on the way might tear him apart.
Well, he needed to think carefully.
At this time, the pressure of the First Layer Talisman Seal was very obvious. The feeling of the Talisman Seal exerting force this time was actually different from the last time. When the Master of the Sunken Sword Cave exerted force, the power of the Talisman Seal was fully stimulated, very clear and definite. But this time, the person triggering the Talisman Seal was constantly probing, the power of the Talisman Seal varied, and when it was intense, the garden was not the core area of the activation, but it also stirred up a storm, blowing people's clothes and making a rustling sound. It was really unknown what the scene would be like there.
Yu Ci put his heart-mind back into the Inner Void of the Heart to sense the mystery of the Talisman Seal. Comparing the situations of the two times the Talisman Seal was activated, he preferred the current one. Precisely because of its variability, the information collected was more detailed and of more reference value.
His Heart-Mind wandered in the Inner Void of the Heart, after reconfirming the Talisman Pattern Fractal etched upon it, he finally made further progress.
Back in the Manifestation Hall, the Master of the Sunken Sword Cave had set a task on that jade tablet, asking the seated Cultivators to simplify the First Layer Talisman Pattern's Talisman Pattern Fractal as much as possible using the "Layered Orifice Combination" approach, to differentiate between those "destined" and those "not destined." Now it seemed that this was clearly a preparation for the current situation.
Perhaps, the key to breaking or controlling the First Layer Talisman Seal lay here.
Yu Ci first copied his previous "homework," but quickly realized its inadequacies. Because he was not clear about the function of the Talisman before, he simplified it purely from a structural point of view, missing the crucial focus. A slight deviation led to a great error. It was necessary to start all over again.
"The central Core Talisman Pattern remains unchanged, still an 'enclosure' character. As for the periphery, given the current situation, it only reacts to living beings, so there should be a Sensing Center in the fractal; Control of vital energy requires another center; Sword Immortal Sword Energy, this sword, needs to be reflected..."
Perhaps having found a way out, in high spirits, Yu Ci felt as if he had divine assistance. He unraveled the layers of complexity, quickly forming a general idea. The following work was to use the central "enclosure" character Rune Patterns as the core, connecting the found Key Fractal from the periphery to form a skeleton, then layering the outer fractal, and starting the simplification process through the basic principles of "Layered Orifice Combination."
The earlier work on the central Rune Patterns could be retained, and Yu Ci had just created the Upper Cave-True Starlight Sensing Divine Thunder, a thunder talisman that spontaneously sensed living beings and exerted power. Because of the "sensing" part, things went smoothly, and he quickly achieved results.
Afterward, Yu Ci pondered a bit on the simplification of the two key Talisman Forms of Control of vital energy and Evolving Sword Energy. The former was related to the Key Fractal of the Drive Talisman energy source, its importance was self-evident, but the latter was closely related to the user of the Talisman, and easier to grasp in terms of context.
In the end, Yu Ci chose the latter.
...