Light Fortress
Chapter 336 - 28 Inverted Formation (Request for Monthly Tickets)

Chapter 336: Chapter 28 Inverted Formation (Request for Monthly Tickets)

"Twenty years ago, because of a ’task’ from the Federation Council, Gu Changzhi traveled to the world outside the North Continent Fortress..."

After the task ended, upon returning to Changye, he fell into a deep sleep."

"As he slumbered, contradictions gradually emerged within the Gu family, becoming increasingly acute until, finally... the old faction spent a huge cost to construct this ’Qing Tomb,’ initially intended to gather the dispersed Extraordinary Essence and awaken the person in eternal slumber."

The Tomb Guardian said this, then laughed at himself, "Later... as you also know, the sleeper did not awaken, yet Changye gradually became peaceful."

Gu Shen listened quietly, contemplative.

After the [Qing Tomb] was constructed, both the old and new factions discovered the marvelous utility of this ’miraculous place,’ as a vast amount of disordered essence was absorbed, providing unprecedented stability to the whole Changye District... in other words, if truly one day chaos collapses, and doom descends, the powerful force emitted by Qing Tomb could also sufficiently provide sanctuary for the peace and tranquility of Changye."

"There is a thick fog enveloping the inner tomb, making it inaccessible to ordinary people." The Tomb Guardian slowly said: "Before [Qing Tomb] was erected, this was an ancient ruin with a long history, already abandoned for hundreds of years, but due to the reactivation of Array Patterns soaked in Extraordinary Essence... this ancient ruin underwent a marvelous transformation..."

A marvelous transformation?" Gu Shen recalled the giant statues he had seen earlier, as well as the stone seat he had touched.

"The world of the inner tomb... has become an uncertain state..."

The Tomb Guardian muttered, "If [Qing Tomb] stops functioning and the Extraordinary Essence dissipates, the fog recedes, then I do not know if these ancient statues and the entire ruins can remain above ground."

"What does this mean?" Gu Shen still didn’t understand.

"As you see, this is a spiritual world..." Master Qianye said significantly, "It represents the Four Seasons Wilderness."

Gu Shen slowly nodded.

He did not know since when, his spirit had been hypnotized.

"In fact... this is a ’material world’ that truly exists." The Tomb Guardian narrowed his eyes and said, "Getting hurt here will make you feel pain, and even if you leave the inner tomb, the wounds still exist. Moreover... you can die here."

"The reason the inner tomb is shrouded in fog is exactly because of this!"

"Spirit and material... have been pulled to the same plane, and no one can explain how this phenomenon occurs, but it did happen." The Tomb Guardian calmly said: "You could say this place is a false ’Spirit Realm,’ or you could say it is a true ’Material Realm.’ And Gu Changzhi... is right at the boundary between the false and the real."

"When the Qing Tomb Act was implemented, thousands of Extraordinary Array Patterns were carved on both the inner and outer tombs, to ensure that this ’miraculous place’ could function... The sleep pod containing Gu Changzhi was moved to the center of the ancient relic’s Giant Statue Array."

"And when the Array Patterns were activated, the power of the essence automatically ignited."

"A great amount of disordered Extraordinary Essence was absorbed, a phenomenon that was considered at the time to be a ’Divine Miracle,’ a response from the slumbering ’god’ to the call of the world... The fog appeared then, forming the so-called ’inner tomb’ boundary line, and the mirage of the ’Four Seasons Wilderness’ gradually emerged, with no one able to locate that ’sleep pod’ ever again, as the entire Giant Statue Array was obscured by the Extraordinary fog."

Gu Shen thought of a term and blurted out, "Is this... Wonderland?"

"Yes."

The Tomb Guardian nodded slowly, his voice hoarse, somewhat emotional, "If an object containing Extraordinary Essence counts as a sealed object... then what sealed object in this world could be more powerful than the power of the ’essence’?"

Indeed... Recalling the scene of the battle at Lion Alley, Gu Shen truly felt the terrifying power of the "god."

A single essence can endow a person with the formidable power to rise above all living beings!

This power can no longer be measured by the standards the council uses to evaluate sealed objects.

Now... The Divine Throne sleeps.

Only the lingering light emitted by the essence has also created a vast and boundless Four Seasons Wilderness Wonderland.

No wonder the Qing Tomb Inner Mausoleum was sealed.

"Back to your earlier question... where exactly is Gu Changzhi?"

The voice of the Tomb Guardian pulled Gu Shen back to reality.

She gazed at the distant, fluttering grass blades and softly said, "It’s right here, just that no one can see it."

Gu Shen ignited Chi Huo.

He had harbored a slim hope that perhaps his "flame" could enhance his vision and he might see a different scene... but unfortunately, he was no different from the others.

No matter how hard he tried to gaze into the distance, it still was an endlessly vast wilderness.

"There is nothing there, right..."

You could hear a tinge of slight loss in the voice beneath that flower-patterned cat mask.

The Tomb Guardian had also harbored a fleeting chance of hope.

However, over the years, she had experienced too many cycles of hope and disappointment.

She smiled and said, "The Extraordinary Essence of Qingzhong is mostly calm... but occasionally, it becomes chaotic. It’s like the tides, seemingly fluctuating rhythmically, but there are always those few days when it is unstable."

"This is why I have lived here for so long."

The Tomb Guardian slowly raised an arm, in an inverted posture, and extended two fingers to slowly trace in the air. A white fluorescent light swirled in the void, and exquisite Array Patterns unfolded before Gu Shen... spinning like gears.

Thousands of Extraordinary Array Patterns.

Among them... there were also obscure ancient texts!

"These must be the Array Patterns buried throughout the tomb when Qingzhong was designed..." Gu Shen felt his scalp tingle and incredulously muttered, "Could these have been designed by the Tomb Ghost?"

The Tomb Ghost... hearing this familiar term.

The tone of the Tomb Guardian grew deeper, "How could the Tomb Ghost have the ability to design these Array Patterns? These all originated from the ancient diagrams that Gu Changzhi brought back from Changye. That smart-aleck, barely understanding the diagrams’ functions, replicated these Array Patterns during the construction of Qingzhong and embedded them within this ancient relic..."

Was there anger in Master Qianye’s voice?

Gu Shen picked up on something unusual.

"Everything in this world has its dualities—light and dark, yin and yang, opposite sides... This grand Array of Qingzhong, constructed with immense resources, consists of 2,560 smaller Array Patterns. That fool, having deciphered the orientation of the Array Patterns from the diagrams, made a grave error in the final layout."

"The entire array is arranged in reverse."

The Tomb Guardian, sitting cross-legged on a tree, gnashed her teeth and coldly said, "To control the Array Patterns, one must... reverse one’s own world."

Gu Shen’s expression grew complex.

The first time he saw the Tomb Guardian... she was inverted and sitting cross-legged, which he thought was a specific posture of cultivation.

She had been sitting like this for over a decade!

No wonder, on the way here, the Tomb Ghost preferred to jump off the machine rather than meeting the Tomb Guardian face-to-face!

...

...

(Making up for yesterday’s additional update, asking for a monthly pass~~)