Absolute Destiny Game
Chapter 306 - 104 Immortal Prohibition - Pine Forest Maze_3

Chapter 306: Chapter 104 Immortal Prohibition - Pine Forest Maze_3

After twenty more steps, he took another chop.

Hehe, with these marks, I don’t believe you can keep me going in circles.

He dared not leave things around as markers, because things left on the ground would refresh after a while.

Tree chopping didn’t have this problem. If he remembered correctly, environmental resources only refreshed every 24 hours, and branches counted as such resources.

Thud! After finishing the chop, Xiao Jie continued forward. Darn it, how come I’m back here again? Staring at the village in front of him, Xiao Jie was stunned.

Turning back, Xiao Jie checked the mark on the tree behind him and suddenly realized he had made a mistake.

What he was facing now was not a maze, but some kind of illusion array, which shouldn’t be rationalized with common sense.

Xiao Jie highly doubted that even if he chopped his way through, he would still end up back at the starting point, because there was no way to observe the marks he left from a macro perspective.

These marks might form a circle or they might just disappear somewhere; he couldn’t verify it at all.

That meant they were meaningless.

Alright, time to change tactics.

Plan 2: Fire attack!

Pine trees are highly flammable. If I just set the trees on fire, I could burn a path right through, couldn’t I?

Checking his backpack, although Plan 1 failed, it left resources for Plan 2 to continue — three bundles of firewood, all of which he had chopped down along the way.

Finding a relatively tall pine tree, Xiao Jie placed the bundles of dry firewood underneath it. The pine forest was very dense. Just igniting this pine tree and causing a major fire would trigger a chain reaction. No matter how many trees there were, they could be completely burned down. If not, just set a few more fires.

Moreover, the pillar of smoke from the flames could serve as a reference point. All he had to do was run in the opposite direction of the smoke.

Xiao Jie pulled out a torch and lit the firewood. The flames blazed up in the blink of an eye.

Haha, let’s see how you trap me now. The branches and leaves of the pine tree formed a perfect pyramidal shape, ideal for burning, and in the blink of an eye, a great fire was roaring.

However, just then, it suddenly darkened overhead.

Xiao Jie abruptly looked up and saw dark clouds gathering above — boom! There was even a clap of thunder.

What the heck is this?

Above the flames, dark clouds gathered, forming a patch of black rainclouds only a few dozen meters in diameter, and it began pouring rain.

The strangeness was that this cloud was not only just a few dozen meters in diameter but also just a few dozen meters above the ground, not resembling a natural phenomenon at all. It seemed more like a magic effect, truly marvelous.

With the torrential downpour, the flames were extinguished in the blink of an eye, and the cloud of its own accord dispersed once the fire was out.

Looking up at the clear sky above, Xiao Jie was momentarily speechless. An old man, however, came over, leaning on a cane, and sighed, "It’s no use. This pine forest has an Immortal’s magic. If you start a fire, it will bring forth rain, and the trees you chop down today will grow back tomorrow."

You think all of us brothers are fools? Haven’t we tried using fire before?

Let me tell you, we’ve tried everything possible, and nothing works.

This pine forest is clearly under the influence of Immortal Techniques. I reckon unless we get guidance from a superior, there’s simply no way out."

However, Xiao Jie just chuckled, "A superior, huh, haha, that’s fortunate because I actually know one."

"Knowing one won’t help. You’re trapped here, so where will you go to summon help?"

"That, well, I can’t really say. Old man, you keep at it. I didn’t sleep well last night, I’m going to head back and catch up on some sleep."

Xiao Jie no longer intended to keep trying. If it was just a physical puzzle, he could still try to solve it, but now that even the effects of magical refining were involved, it certainly couldn’t be judged by common sense anymore.

It was very likely some kind of array. The present scene reminded Xiao Jie of the illusion array he had encountered back at Chen Tianwen’s mansion. He was amazed then at how the mist within the array even had the effect of moisture. The rain clouds now were obviously of a higher level and could even extinguish a large fire.

This was definitely a matter requiring consultation with a professional.

Exiting the game, Xiao Jie logged into QQ.

Hidden Moon Following Wind: Chen, you there?

Wentian Wuji: Are you there? What do you need me for?

Hidden Moon Following Wind: I need your help to break a formation.

Wentian Wuji: Again? Alright, show me the layout of that array, and I’ll break it for you.

Hidden Moon Following Wind: um, this one might be a bit different.

While talking, Xiao Jie had sent several photos over.

Wentian Wuji: What’s this? A pine forest? Where’s the formation?

Hidden Moon Following Wind: This forest should be the formation itself.

He then sent a photo of dark clouds raining.

Wentian Wuji: Is this... Rain Summoning Technique? An Immortal Master’s skill, are you encountering enemies?

Hidden Moon Following Wind: No, this is an effect of the formation.

Wentian Wuji: Impossible, the weather effects in a formation are illusions, and this clearly looks like ordinary magic, plus it seems to be of a high level.

Hidden Moon Following Wind: It is indeed a formation, but it was left behind by an immortal.

Wentian Wuji: What! A formation left by an immortal? How did you run into something like this?

Xiao Jie briefly narrated the incident, omitting the part about the Ancient Qi Refiner.

Chen Tianwen could only sigh in resignation.

Wentian Wuji: If this is a formation left by an immortal, then I’m afraid it won’t be so easy to crack, I might not be able to do anything about it.

Hidden Moon Following Wind: Chen, you really mustn’t be so modest. You are a great expert, after all, it’s just a formation, not an immortal in person. Besides, there must be a way to break this formation, since the game set it up, there must be a method to break it nearby. Help me figure it out.

Wentian Wuji: You do have some point there, but since I can’t see it in person, I inevitably can’t offer effective advice. I can only explain the principles of the formation to you and the normal approach to breaking it.

Hidden Moon Following Wind: Sure, then tell me about it.

Wentian Wuji: There are usually only two methods to break a formation, Intellectual Break and Breakthrough. Intellectual Break is more complex but relatively safer. A formation needs array talismans and a focal point to construct, so destroying enough array talismans can ruin the formation.

An Intellectual Break involves understanding and observing the formation to find the locations of the array talismans and focal points.

Moreover, formations usually have a life gate, akin to a backdoor in system programming; if you can see through the formation, you can directly exit through this life gate.

Xiao Jie thought that would be difficult. He looked at the forest on his screen, with such a vast range of pine trees, finding the array talismans was impossible.

He surely couldn’t chop down each tree one by one.

This wasn’t as simple as moving a few boxes or pushing a few statues inside an Ancient Tomb.

Hidden Moon Following Wind: What about Breakthrough?

Wentian Wuji: A Breakthrough is just forcefully breaking through. In the end, the effect of a formation has its limits; if it throws lightning, you just endure the lightning, if it rains, you clear the clouds to see the sun, if it uses the terrain to confuse you, you just slash a path with a Sword Qi or fly directly out; naturally, that would break it.

Xiao Jie thought to himself, no kidding, if I had that ability, would I need your help?

Hidden Moon Following Wind: That Breakthrough might be a bit difficult; I’ll consider the Intellectual Break instead. Tell me more about the operation logic of this formation.

Wentian Wuji: Formations are endlessly variable, each formation has different effects, broadly speaking, you can think of it as a computer program, each program has its own function, and Array Masters are just like programmers, with some combining different functions into one formation... Ordinary formations are just illusion effects, but an immortal’s formation is different, it truly can change the weather environment. This is akin to a more advanced program, and I, as a basic level programmer, am not capable of that...

As Xiao Jie was listening, a hint of inspiration suddenly flashed through his mind.

Hidden Moon Following Wind: Wait a minute, did you say the various effects in the formation are like a program?

Wentian Wuji: Right.

Hidden Moon Following Wind: So, when the formation is running, can it also, like computer programs, experience bugs, freeze, drop frames, or crash?

Wentian Wuji: er... In theory, yes.

Hidden Moon Following Wind: Haha, then that’s no problem.