Mountain and sea lantern

Chapter 596 It’s all here
Feng Xi laughed heartily, "Those who play with fire end up getting burned. How interesting."

He was no big deal to talk about, so he laughed and immediately looked away, extending his hand to invite her, "Brother Situ, this isn't the place to talk. Please come inside."

The guests and hosts met, and the group entered the mountain gate, then flew straight to the divine palace at the top of the sacred mountain and took their seats.

As a disciple serving at the emperor's residence, Shi Chun had no seat and stood obediently to the side and behind Situ Gu.

At the same time, various spiritual fruits and tea were served, but Shi Chun could only watch.

After offering the guests food, Feng Xi formally asked, "Brother Situ, you are no idle person. You didn't come here just for sightseeing, did you?"

Situ Gu paused for a moment, then replied simply, "I have some thoughts and would like to observe the 'Big Dipper Spirit Repelling Array' a little longer. I wonder if the clan leader would grant my request?"

Upon hearing this, Shi Chun, who had been waiting with his ears perked up, finally breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn't received a definite answer from Situ Gu before, and he was worried that the old man wouldn't agree.

Originally, I wanted to ask the Golden Rat Clan for more information, but since I had the opportunity to do so, I naturally wanted to save myself some trouble.

Besides, the Golden-haired Rat Clan hasn't controlled the great formation for a very long time. Who knows how much they still know? It's better to follow Situ Gutang and learn about it openly.

Of course, it also depends on whether the owner will agree.

Then he stared at the reaction of the person in the main seat.

Feng Xi turned his head and exchanged a glance with Feng Qingping, who was sitting below, his eyes holding a half-smile.

Feng Qingping understood what he meant, as if to say, "See, I wasn't wrong."

"As expected, experts still care about experts' matters." Feng Xi laughed and then spread his hands, saying, "Since Brother Situ has come to us personally, if I refuse, wouldn't it make my Phoenix Clan seem petty? But then again, this matter still has the premise we mentioned before: if Brother Situ understands the intricacies of this 'Big Dipper Spirit Repelling Array,' he must also make my Phoenix Clan understand it clearly."

Situ Gu nodded, "Okay."

So Fengxi laughed and raised his cup in invitation, "Have some tea."

There wasn't much else to talk about, mainly due to Situ Gu's personality. He's a purely pragmatic person, and chatting with him would be undignified and would only cause internal turmoil. Feng Xi seemed to know Situ Gu's personality as well, and to avoid making things awkward for himself, seeing that Situ Gu wasn't interested in chatting, he immediately asked Feng Qingping to stay and entertain him, while he left first because he had other matters to attend to.

He does indeed have a lot of things to deal with right now, and if it weren't for the fact that Situ Gu still has some influence, he wouldn't have stepped forward to entertain him.

Situ Gu also got up and left his seat, walked to the center of the temple, and looked up at the high roof.

Shi Chun followed the gaze, his heart filled with curiosity. Could it be that the central hub of the formation was inside this hall?
Feng Qingping also left her seat and walked to his side, her attitude very polite, "Elder Situ, please let me know if you need any cooperation."

Situ Gu glanced at Shi Chun, wondering what he was planning to do.

The blame lies with the two of them for not discussing it beforehand.

It was mainly a spur-of-the-moment decision after we arrived, and there was no time to discuss it.

But Shi Chun's purpose wasn't really to find any demonic path, but rather to find the array's central hub. He immediately changed Situ Gu's questioning gaze into one of acceptance, and quickly stepped forward to bow to Feng Qingping, saying, "The elder's meaning is that irrelevant personnel should step back to avoid affecting the elder's concentration."

As he spoke, he glanced at the maids who were there to serve him.

Feng Qingping smiled and nodded, then waved to dismiss the maids. When she turned around, she found Shi Chun staring at her intently. She subconsciously pointed to herself, and when Shi Chun nodded slightly, she could only smile wryly and cup her hands to Situ Gu, saying, "Then please make yourself at home, senior. There are guards outside. If you need anything, just call out, and I won't disturb you."

After saying that, he took a step back, turned around and left, not even worried about losing his things.

At this point, the original owners of the hall had all left, which amused Shi Chun. He realized that Situ Gu had more influence; not only did he not have to sneak around, but he was also directly given the reins.

If it were him, he wouldn't even dare to imagine how he could get in here without anyone noticing.

Once no one else was around, he approached Situ Gu and whispered, "Senior, is the central hub of the formation located inside this hall?"

Situ Gu countered, "Weren't you going to take this opportunity to investigate the demonic path? Why didn't you take the opportunity to make your demands earlier?"

Shi Chun: "Isn't it inappropriate to be sneaking around looking around like this right away? I'm currently pretending to be a disciple of the Lian Tian Sect, so let's just deal with it here for now. Later, I'll make an excuse that something is missing and go out to look for it. Senior, I'm not trying to criticize you, but you're used to being upright and honest. You really don't have as much experience as me in sneaking around and investigating. You can trust me in this regard."

Well, Situ Gu completely agreed with this and calmly accepted the criticism.

Shi Chun then said, "Since we're already here, let me learn something from you. Senior, judging from your reaction, could it be that the central hub of the 'Big Dipper Spirit Repelling Array' is located in this hall?"

Forgive his poor eyesight, but even after looking through the hall several times, he couldn't discern any clues about the formation.

The key point is that the building is definitely not very old; it must have been renovated later. There's no way it could be related to any formation. Of course, he also admitted that he didn't understand these things.

Situ Gu nodded. "It's inside the hall. Since I'm here, I'd like to see if there have been any changes over the years." He wasn't one to just talk; he did more than he said. Now that he had spoken, his hands were busy. He flicked his fingers and made various hand gestures, stirring up gusts of wind in the hall and overturning several bowls and plates on the tables, knocking them to the ground.

Wine spilled on the ground, flowing in all directions; bowls and plates walked on the ground; and spiritual fruits rolled around.

Soon, a phantom image appeared in the main hall, instantly giving Shi Chun a huge visual impact.

It is a vast starry sky that suddenly appears as a backdrop, with nebulae moving slowly and shooting stars flying by; everything looks so real.

A floating object slowly rotates within, resembling the metal frame of an umbrella. The twelve open ribs are shaped like twelve lifelike dragons, their tails intertwined and their heads tilted as if spitting water. The black and gold colors blend together, while the main rib of the umbrella is gleaming gold.

Shi Chun was familiar with the golden patterns; they were exactly the same as the golden command arrow in his hand. He quickly recalled the words of Jin Fu, the chieftain of the Golden-haired Rat Clan: that golden command arrow could dispel the 'Big Dipper Spirit-Repelling Array,' and now it seemed to be confirmed.

How to close it? After looking up and down the umbrella frame, my gaze settled on the bottom of the main frame pole. There seemed to be a missing handle there, but there was a notch like a slot, as if something could be inserted from underneath.

Shi Chun's Adam's apple bobbed. Some things are just meant to be matched, and you can immediately tell where to start. Jin Fu's words suddenly seemed to echo in his ears. He really wanted to take out that golden command arrow and see if he could insert it.

Situ Gu obviously wanted to reach out and touch the metal umbrella ribs above his head. After stirring up the void waves, he had clearly entered the starry sky and touched the umbrella frame, but the umbrella frame was like an illusion. Even though he grabbed it, he still only grasped empty air.

That layer of illusory waves was clearly the culprit behind this situation. Situ Gu used various spells to try to break through the obscuration caused by the illusory waves, but he was unable to do so.

In the end, they had no choice but to give up, sighing as they looked on. "This umbrella rib should be the central structure of this 'Big Dipper Spirit-Repelling Array,' but unfortunately, this central structure is entangled with the power of the stars. It's so close yet so far away in the Milky Way, making it impossible to reach. Without obtaining the central structure of the array, it's impossible to comprehend the array and thus, to grasp its mysteries. It's truly unbelievable that this array could place its central structure so isolated in the distant starry sky. I really don't know how the person who set up the array did it."

Shi Chun also reached into the void wave to try it out. His hand entered the starry sky as if in a dream, and he couldn't touch anything. However, the image of the golden arrow blooming into a golden ball of light and breaking through the protective void wave of the great formation flashed through his mind. He roughly understood something and was somewhat eager to try it. However, he ultimately restrained himself and did not dare to expose himself easily.

He knew very well that it was impossible to take down the 'Big Dipper Spirit Repelling Array' now. If he did, not only would Situ Gu do something to him, but at the very least, neither he nor Situ Gu would be able to escape. No, that's not right; it's very likely that he alone would be unable to escape.

As the saying goes, since he was already here, Situ Gu didn't want to give up easily. After all, he was quite obsessed with this formation, so he took out various magical artifacts to try and break the illusion.

After watching for a while, Shi Chun couldn't understand it and naturally got bored. In addition, he had already discovered the situation of the array's central core and didn't want to delay Situ Gu's purpose, so he immediately said, "Senior, you can continue to stall for time here. I'll go out and investigate if there are any other demonic cultivators."

Situ Gu naturally nodded in agreement.

So Shi Chun left the main hall, attracting the attention of the guards nearby.

As he descended the steps and crossed the open space, just as he was about to head down the mountain, a maidservant who had been waiting hurriedly caught up with him and asked, "Is there anything you need? Just tell me."

Shi Chun: "The elder told me to walk around the foot of the mountain a few more times to see if there are any unusual locations drawn out by the great formation."

The maid immediately probed, "Sir, you may not be familiar with this mountain. How about I show you the way?"

Leading the way was a pretense; his real intention was to monitor them. Shi Chun fully understood this and readily agreed, "Then I'll trouble you."

The maidservant smiled and accompanied him down the mountain, while Shi Chun wandered around at the foot of the mountain, observing and taking out paper to record his observations.

The maid tried to peek to see what he was writing down. Fortunately, Shi Chun didn't shy away from her and let her see, even though he was just pretending she couldn't understand it.

He had activated his right eye's special ability, and since he was already here, he didn't want to leave empty-handed. He also marked the location of the Soul-Reversing Tree on the mountain, a spot he wouldn't have dared to reach before when sneaking up the mountain.

The maid genuinely couldn't understand it and couldn't help but ask, "What are you labeling, sir?"

Shi Chun said, "You don't understand. Elder Situ is activating the central core of the formation, and I am acting as his eyes to observe the possible locations where the formation's base might be affected."

The maid gave a vague "oh," then looked at the spot that had just been marked. It was empty; she couldn't see or understand anything there.

After circling the mountaintop, Shi Chun decided he didn't want to go any further. He found a shady spot under a tree and sat down next to his maid to chat.

Shi Chun told her the story of the Refining Heaven Sect, making up stories but telling them as if they were true.

The maid listened to her with a straight face, never expecting that someone would come all the way to her to make up stories about the Refining Heaven Sect. While chatting, she also revealed some stories about the Divine Mountain or the Phoenix Clan.

After waiting for the time to pass, Shi Chun got up and patted his butt.

After the maid accompanied him back to the mountaintop, she did not dare to enter the temple to disturb him, and watched Shi Chun enter.

Seeing that Situ Gu inside the hall was still busy around the illusory wave and seemed to be making no progress, Shi Chun immediately went over and reported: "Senior, as expected, another demonic cultivator has been discovered on the mountain."

Upon hearing this, Situ Gu paused his work, turned around, and asked, "Who?"

Shi Chun said, "It's the one with the stern beard who greeted you just before you entered the mountain gate, Huang Ye, the North Mountain Commander of the Divine Mountain. When he greeted you, he looked familiar, and I suspected he was one of the people from the Demonic Path who had participated in the hunt for me. After some investigation, I'm certain that he is indeed him, and he happens to be Jiang You'er's superior. Oh, Jiang You'er also appeared in front of the mountain gate before, the effeminate-looking man in the flowery clothes next to Huang Ye."

(End of this chapter)