Zhai Bairong did not press him further, waiting patiently by his side. Silence fell over the cavern for a time. Nie Shiyun hesitated for a moment, took a deep breath, and let it all out.
"Sinking into gloom here won't solve anything. Let me explain the general situation to you first." Nie Shiyun knew this was no time to lose his composure, so he calmed himself and informed Zhai Bairong and Meiqiu of the state of affairs.
"So, you're saying the master of this grotto had... the same constitution?" Zhai Bairong chose his words carefully. He had not forgotten the oath he made to his sect; even now, he could not speak aloud the fact that Duan Mingyu possessed the Heavenly Yin Physique.
"Not necessarily. Judging by the other magical treasures and records left behind, the master of this grotto should have been a man with an... Earth Spiritual Root," Nie Shiyun recalled, frowning. "The 'Heavenly Will' I am aware of is not all-encompassing."
Simply put, if the original novel hadn't mentioned it, he couldn't guess it even if he had read the text several times.
"It is already miraculous enough," Zhai Bairong said. Nie Shiyun’s ability was undeniably strange, but now was not the time for a thorough interrogation.
"However... the immortal artifact hidden in this grotto is indeed a feminine defensive garment. Perhaps another cultivator lived here with him previously," Nie Shiyun speculated.
Speculating at this point did nothing to help them move forward. He paced for a moment, his gaze leaving the stone door he couldn't open, and turned to observe the surrounding environment.
The two tried attacking the stone walls with spiritual power, but the walls naturally remained motionless. It made sense; if it could be collapsed so easily, this grotto within the cavern would have been buried underground long ago.
"Let us search more carefully. If it truly is impossible, we will make preparations and seize it later," Zhai Bairong said, patting Nie Shiyun’s arm.
"In that case, it really would become a forced robbery on our part." Hearing Zhai Bairong suggest this of his own accord, Nie Shiyun looked at him fixedly.
Zhai Bairong smiled and said, "Don't look at me like that. I am no saint... as long as one is human, one will always have selfish motives. I am no exception."
It was just that all his selfish motives were currently staked on Nie Shiyun alone.
Ceasing their discussion of the worst-case scenario, the two of them, along with Meiqiu, began a meticulous exploration. Their movements were not leisurely; after all, Duan Mingyu and his party would likely find their way here eventually through the guidance of fate. Whether they were to find another way or set an ambush, Nie Shiyun and Zhai Bairong had limited time.
"Ah, I don't get it at all..." Meiqiu had listened to Nie Shiyun and Zhai Bairong ramble on about "Heavenly Will" and "constitutions" and other such nonsense, understanding only half of it. Before he could make sense of it, he was ordered to help search for clues. He transformed into his original form and flew a circle around the cavern. Seeing nothing unusual, he lazily retreated to a corner and plopped down.
While Nie Shiyun and Zhai Bairong were fiddling with the stone table and stools in the front hall, they suddenly heard a startled cry from Meiqiu in the distance.
"Help! Help! Help! Where am I—?!"
Nie Shiyun and Zhai Bairong exchanged a glance and immediately stood up to run toward the sound.
"Meiqiu?"
"Are you guys still there? I can't see you!" Meiqiu’s panicked voice came from... inside the wall.
Following the voice, Nie Shiyun quickly pressed himself against the wall, slapping the stone to confirm Meiqiu’s position.
"What does it look like inside? How did you get in?" Nie Shiyun asked through the stone wall.
After his initial panic, Meiqiu recalled carefully, "I just sat down and leaned against the wall, and suddenly it felt like there was nothing behind my back. I fell right through. It looks like a passage in here..."
Nie Shiyun was overjoyed; there was indeed room for a turnaround. The grotto likely had more than one entrance. He immediately crouched down and carefully examined the wall's surface, discovering a very well-hidden restrictive formation.
"This array isn't difficult; it's just a basic restriction that requires spiritual power to open temporarily. But its location is indeed concealed. Meiqiu, you've done a great service!" Nie Shiyun said happily. Then again, what normal person would go crawling along the base of a wall to feel for such a thing?
A moment later, Nie Shiyun and Zhai Bairong also passed through the wall. Meiqiu had never been "lost" since birth, and the sudden scare had rattled him. He hurriedly scurried forward and perched firmly on Nie Shiyun’s shoulder.
Looking back, there was no formation on this side of the wall. It seemed this path was one-way. Nie Shiyun felt there was hope; a one-way formation couldn't be set through a wall, so there had to be a path leading elsewhere. It wouldn't be a dead end. As for whether it could reach the inner chamber they sought, they would only know by moving forward.
"By the way, how did I trigger the formation? I don't know anything about these things," Meiqiu whispered fearfully as they delved deeper.
"It can be activated with spirit stones. Think carefully about what you did."
Meiqiu pondered for a moment and then lifted a foot, letting out an "Ah." The storage bracelet he used when transformed had been hung around his ankle in bird form, but it was now gone.
That formation had swallowed his very first "spoils of war" from his birth!
Meiqiu was overcome with grief. Nie Shiyun gave him a rub, saying that thanks to his accidental sacrifice of the storage bracelet, they were able to find the way in so quickly. Meiqiu’s sadness came quickly and left just as fast. Once Nie Shiyun promised to make him a high-quality storage ring, Meiqiu forgot all about the incident.
"Another formation?" Zhai Bairong frowned, looking at the path ahead.
Nie Shiyun stepped forward and crouched to observe.
"It is indeed a small-scale killing array. I can break it." Nie Shiyun didn't waste words, burying his head as he began tracing patterns on the ground.
Zhai Bairong didn't dare disturb him and stood to the side. He felt a lingering fear. This place might not be a dead end, but if there wasn't a cultivator capable of breaking arrays present, entering would have been a death sentence. It seemed this was the only way; he only regretted that he had never studied arrays and could not help Nie Shiyun at all.
Nie Shiyun didn't take long to break the array. After a few more steps, they encountered a second one. He sighed; there was no other way but to observe carefully and dismantle them with patience. It seemed the road ahead was destined to be difficult. Sure enough, after advancing for a while, the two saw several sets of skeletal remains. They had likely been trapped and starved to death, a sight that couldn't help but send a chill down their spines.
At first, Nie Shiyun still had the mental energy to think of other things, but after five days of continuous array-breaking, he no longer had the strength to consider anything else.
"The master of this grotto was definitely a very obnoxious array master," Nie Shiyun said, his lips twitching into a rare, unfriendly smile.
"It is already quite a feat that you can break them." Zhai Bairong fed Nie Shiyun a Spirit Recovery Pill.
In truth, breaking the arrays didn't consume much spiritual power; it was mainly a drain on the mind and energy. However, Nie Shiyun naturally enjoyed being fed by his lover.
"I don't know when we'll reach the end. Fortunately, judging by the arrays from the start until now, this array master's level isn't too much higher than mine," Nie Shiyun speculated. If it truly became increasingly difficult, he could only give it his all.
Days ago, Meiqiu had felt the narrow passage was too oppressive and had returned to the jade pendant to rest. Nie Shiyun couldn't afford to be distracted while breaking arrays and remained silent, while Zhai Bairong stood by his side, never making a sound to disturb him. Nie Shiyun’s feelings were complicated. If he really thought about it, it was indeed his own desire to fight for that immortal artifact that led him to enter this secret passage without hesitation. He usually acted with preparation, but this time he had discovered a problem right at the doorstep and had become somewhat anxious. Although there was still hope, Zhai Bairong shouldn't have had to be trapped here with him.
"There is no rush. Take your time." Zhai Bairong smiled. This was the phrase he had said most often during this period. Although the situation wasn't truly without urgency, hearing him say it made Nie Shiyun feel at ease.
After several more days and nights of dismantling, Nie Shiyun began to lose his sense of time in the dim corridor, his vision filled with nothing but arrays. He was just about to start cursing this deceased senior in his heart when the two finally saw a change in scenery. As their field of vision widened, they reached a room connected to the end of the passage.
Nie Shiyun stopped Zhai Bairong. "Wait, let me check first."
It wasn't that he was being overly paranoid, but there was an incredibly conspicuous array right in the middle of the room, and there was a skeleton lying on top of it, which was very eerie.
He approached and studied it for a while, temporarily setting his mind at ease. Even Nie Shiyun couldn't immediately see through what kind of array this was, but it required a cultivator to actively trigger it; it wouldn't activate randomly. Thus, Nie Shiyun decided to leave it alone for now and split up with Zhai Bairong to investigate the rest of the room.
"Shiyun, there is a painting here. Come look."
Nie Shiyun went over immediately. On a low desk lay a rolled-up scroll. When unfurled, it revealed a woman of graceful beauty. In the painting, she held an umbrella under a snowy pine, her face the picture of serenity. Everything in this room was ancient; had it not been sealed off from the outside world, it would surely be covered in dust and cobwebs. Yet this painting was well-preserved, clearly held in high regard.
"The clothing on her..."
Nie Shiyun observed closely and found that the woman in the painting was wearing a purple immortal garment. The lapels featured exquisite gold embroidery that spread from the collar all the way to the hem. While appearing as auspicious clouds, the gold thread also traced out defensive formations. Beyond its beauty, it was indeed a top-tier defensive magical treasure.
If they hadn't happened upon this place, wouldn't that be the Purple Silk Immortal Garment sealed within the grotto?
"Alas, my solitary shadow is bound to the mortal realm; why could we share life, yet not death...?" Zhai Bairong murmured, reading the poem beneath the scroll.
Was the one left behind this woman, or the person who painted her?
The two had no way of knowing for now.
Finding no more information in the painting, they continued their separate searches.
Nie Shiyun walked straight toward the exit of the room. Aside from the secret passage they came from, this appeared to be the only exit. Naturally, this door was also locked.
He wasn't naive enough to think that after the arduous journey of breaking arrays, he could just give this door a light push and open it. Nie Shiyun felt the stone door with his hand and discovered it also bore an array similar to the one beneath the skeleton. He had never seen it before and couldn't help but lean in to study it closely.
Nie Shiyun looked at this small array, then walked back to the original spot. He whispered "Forgive the intrusion" to the skeleton and moved it aside. Comparing the two, he became somewhat lost in thought. The more he looked, the more he felt this array was ingenious; he had never seen anything like it in array manuals.
During this time, Zhai Bairong had meticulously searched every corner of the room. Unfortunately, he didn't have Meiqiu’s luck and didn't stumble upon a second secret passage. Later, he found several more scrolls on the old bookshelves. Every single one depicted the same woman, with nothing else in the paintings.
At some point, Zhai Bairong walked over to his side, and Nie Shiyun snapped out of his trance.
"Truly brilliant. This isn't some ancient array no one has seen before; it turns out it's just a modified illusion array. This is a Mother-Son Array; the primary eye is on the floor, and the other end is on the door. Drawing the array can be done by one person, but breaking the array and opening the door are linked, requiring two people to trigger the formation simultaneously. Neither can be missing. I've never seen such a method before."
Seeing that Nie Shiyun seemed to have gained some insight and was explaining incessantly, Zhai Bairong also vaguely understood the meaning. He thought for a moment and frowned. "This... according to what you said, if two people hadn't entered the secret passage together, wouldn't there be no way out?"
"Indeed."
Zhai Bairong looked at the skeleton on the floor. He had died alone in the center of the array, likely having tried to trigger it. However, such an act was destined to be in vain.
Nie Shiyun understood what he was thinking. He glanced at the bones and sighed. "Looking at it this way, we are quite lucky."
Reflecting on how the original novel never explained the origins of this grotto, yet he was now touching upon a secret that Duan Mingyu’s group had never discovered, Nie Shiyun couldn't help but feel curious despite the danger.
The main entrance to the inner chamber could only be opened by a special constitution, the beautiful woman wearing the immortal artifact, and this secret room... Although it was another way in, the master of the grotto had set up a rigorous trial, clearly intending to kill any cultivator who dared to enter. Yet, in the end, a path to life was left behind.
"You said earlier that it requires two people to trigger the array together, not to dismantle it?" Zhai Bairong quickly caught the nuance in Nie Shiyun’s words and pressed for clarification.
Nie Shiyun stared at the array silently for another moment and sighed. "The setup of this array is truly masterful. To break it, one must first trigger it. However, the path of arrays rarely uses such absolute methods. This is merely an illusion array; it won't take a person's life. It just depends on whether we can wake up when the time comes."
Zhai Bairong thought back to the illusion array he had been caught in before. It was the most vicious kind, where a cultivator would be trapped by their heart demons and unable to wake. If Nie Shiyun hadn't been by his side then, he certainly wouldn't have escaped the hallucination.
Later, after the two had opened their hearts to each other, they had discussed the matter of heart demons. Only then did Zhai Bairong learn that Nie Shiyun was naturally special and had no heart demons. Thus, the illusion array back then happened to be ineffective against him, which was a stroke of luck. This time, he didn't know what the situation in the illusion would be, or if the two of them would fall into an eternal sleep upon entering.
But either way, there was no second path.
"...What do you need me to do?" Zhai Bairong quickly steadied himself and turned to ask.
"The Son Array is not hard to solve. Follow me. It might take some time; you just need to remember what I say and follow my lead exactly."
Zhai Bairong responded decisively, "I understand."
How could the principles of arrays be understood by a beginner like Zhai Bairong? The secret realm could last for years; if Duan Mingyu’s group weren't behind them, perhaps Nie Shiyun would have spent a year or half a year giving Zhai Bairong a thorough explanation. But now, he could only tell the other the most rigid steps, relying entirely on Zhai Bairong’s rote memorization.
Fortunately, Zhai Bairong was brilliant and soon had it all committed to memory.
"Call Meiqiu out and have him stay outside the room's range. If he can wake us from the outside when the time comes, that would be for the best," Zhai Bairong said.
Nie Shiyun nodded. He wasn't sure if Meiqiu could still freely enter and exit the jade pendant after he lost consciousness, so he called him out and informed him of the situation. Suddenly burdened with such a heavy responsibility, Meiqiu was a bit panicked, but he still stood tremblingly outside the array's range, waiting nervously at the exit of the secret passage.
Nie Shiyun didn't hold much hope that Meiqiu could wake them. The master of this grotto had gone to great lengths to design this kind of array and secret door that "only two people can break." Would he really leave a flaw that allowed a third party to interfere?
"It'll be fine." Seeing the usually arrogant Meiqiu showing a look of fear and unease, Nie Shiyun smiled to comfort him.
He took a deep breath and walked to the center of the room, standing at the array. Nie Shiyun looked up at Zhai Bairong, who gave a slight nod, indicating he was ready.
"Then, I'm beginning."
Nie Shiyun crouched down and began to methodically trace spiritual power along the paths of the array according to the plan.
The Mother Array was much more complex than the small array on the door. This worked out well; Zhai Bairong repeatedly recited every step in his mind, his movements slow. Meanwhile, Nie Shiyun was intimately familiar with the operation of arrays. With the two sides coordinating, they happened to be at roughly the same progress.
When both sides simultaneously completed the final stroke, the Mother-Son Array burst into a blinding light.
Standing outside the range, Meiqiu’s heart tightened. He raised his wings to shield his eyes. As he lowered them, he heard only two dull thuds of bodies hitting the ground.
"Hey! Nie Shiyun! Zhai Bairong! Can you hear me? Hey!" Meiqiu shouted anxiously, rushing forward only to find to his despair that he was blocked by some restriction. He couldn't get close at all, and he couldn't even return to the jade pendant.
"Wuu..."
After a flurry of useless effort, realizing he couldn't help, Meiqiu stood helplessly on the spot. He comforted himself internally, telling himself this was just an illusion array. Nie Shiyun was so powerful; he would surely wake up soon.
He peered over nervously. He saw that the expressions of the two lying on the ground were not pained. On the contrary, they looked exceptionally peaceful.
As if they were having a beautiful dream.
***
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Transmigrated into a Total Shou Novel as a Cannon Fodder, but Ended Up 1v1-ing the Male Lead | Chapter 71 | The Twin Array's Illusion | Novela.app | Novela.app
