Chapter 470: Shang Song's Imperial Retreat

Yuan Fang asked, "Master Dao, if you understand this art, why don't you lay out a formation like this around Maolu? Then wouldn't we be able to sleep soundly without fear from now on?"

Niu Youdao replied, "I don't know how to lay formations. I'm a complete outsider."

Yuan Fang stared in surprise. "How is that possible? Master Dao, you must be joking."

Niu Youdao said, "Knowing how to read something and knowing how to build it are two different things. Take a house. You know where the door is. Once you go inside and see the layout, you know how to move through it—where to pass through the halls and enter the rooms, where the stairs go up or down. But that doesn't mean anyone who can understand a house can build one as well as a craftsman."

"Knowing how to look and talk is easy. Actually building something is another matter entirely."

"Especially the person who laid this formation. He was capable of moving mountains, placing waters, and using them to create the pattern. That is far beyond what an ordinary person can accomplish. More than that, he could borrow the power of the stars for his own use."

"This person was no ordinary practitioner. He was a true master of formations. I cannot even see his back from where I stand, so I wouldn't dare boast."

"At least you know your own limitations," Guan Fangyi mocked.

Yet inwardly, she was secretly clicking her tongue in admiration. She had always thought Niu Youdao excelled mainly at schemes and maneuvering. She had not expected him to possess genuine knowledge of things like this as well.

The logic was simple.

If this place were so easy to see through, it would never have remained hidden until Niu Youdao arrived and strolled through it almost at leisure. This could not be explained by "luck" alone. An opportunity could fall into one's lap, but without the ability to grasp it, where would the luck come from?

Yun Ji, who had witnessed everything along the way, was secretly astonished too.

She asked, "Are we leaving, or are we going somewhere else?"

Yuan Fang looked back and chuckled. "We're looking for the Sun."

"The Sun?" Yun Ji stared, thinking she had misheard.

Guan Fangyi explained flatly, "The formation eye. We have to find the formation eye before we can open the Life Gate and leave."

"Oh." Yun Ji nodded in understanding.

The instant the group walked out of the canyon, the scene before them transformed once again. A magnificent palace complex appeared so abruptly that everyone was caught unprepared. It stood there directly before them. Behind them, the canyon had vanished without a trace. Looking back, they saw only mountain forest.

Most of the palace had been buried beneath the marks of passing ages. Luminous moss covered the surfaces, glowing vines wound across the structures, and only parts of the walls remained exposed. Yet the upturned eaves and sweeping outlines of the buildings were unmistakable. The entire complex was vast and imposing.

Silence covered everything.

Only luminous butterflies occasionally fluttered up and down. Not even a single Butterfly Rakshasa could be seen.

Everyone stood staring for a while before Yun Ji suddenly exclaimed, "Could this be the legendary imperial retreat of Shang Song, emperor of the Wu Dynasty?"

Guan Fangyi clicked her tongue. "I doubt there could be a second place like this."

Yuan Fang looked all around. "Where's the Sun?"

Yuan Gang turned toward Niu Youdao. "This palace complex is probably the Sun, isn't it?"

Niu Youdao nodded slightly.

Even he had not expected this. The hidden Jia of Dunjia, sovereign among the Ten Heavenly Stems; the concealed Sun among the Seven Luminaries—what had been hidden was actually this palace complex. But thinking about it, the arrangement made sense.

If this formation had truly been laid by Shang Song or Li Ge, then placing their own palace upon the sovereign position was perfectly natural. In other words, this palace complex was the location of the formation eye for the entire grand formation.

"What now?" Guan Fangyi turned and asked what came next.

Niu Youdao said nothing.

After carefully studying the surroundings, he flashed upward. In several rises and falls, he landed outside the towering palace gates.

The others followed.

They entered through the gates with him, glancing left and right as they went. Everything was silent except for their footsteps. The palace's former splendor had been buried by centuries of decay. Desolation and bleakness hung over the place, yet even now one could still sense its former grandeur.

"Didn't countless people want to find this imperial retreat? Now that we're here, none of you plan to take a proper look around?"

Seeing everyone following tightly behind him without daring to take a single step away, Niu Youdao could not resist teasing them.

Guan Fangyi spat, "Which matters more, staying alive or admiring the scenery? Stop messing around. We don't have much time left. Find the formation eye and open the Life Gate so we can get out of this damned place before the illusory realm closes."

Niu Youdao chuckled.

His gaze settled on the immense hall ahead. He led everyone to the main hall of the palace complex. Rather than climbing the steps, Niu Youdao launched himself upward and landed directly on the roof, the highest point in the entire palace.

He surveyed the surroundings.

After calculating on his fingers for a while, his gaze finally settled on the exact center of the palace city. There stood a circular, drum-shaped hall. Niu Youdao raised a hand and pointed.

"If I'm not mistaken, that should be where the formation eye lies."

He flew there first.

The others followed.

One after another, they landed outside the circular hall. Only then did they notice it had more than one entrance. Something about the place was clearly unusual, and no one dared rush inside on his own. The building was also visibly different from the surrounding brick-and-stone structures. It seemed to have been constructed almost entirely of metal. Niu Youdao led everyone around it once.

They discovered eight doors.

Even the stairways leading to the eight doors were arranged with obvious significance. Every door was tightly shut. There did not seem to be a single window.

"Eight Trigrams," Yuan Gang said, looking toward Niu Youdao.

Niu Youdao nodded faintly.

Then he flashed upward once more and landed atop the pointed center of the hall's umbrella-shaped roof. He slowly studied every direction while calculating the positions on his fingers. After a while, he dropped down on the opposite side. Everyone immediately hurried around after him. No one dared wander off. They still clearly remembered the earlier sight of people disappearing from view merely because their footsteps differed.

"Heaven and Earth reversed," Niu Youdao said, pointing toward the pattern on the lock above the steps.

Yuan Gang immediately jumped onto the stairs and approached the door. He stared at the pattern on the lock for a while, then pressed five fingers against it and tried turning it.

Click.

The lock moved.

Once he confirmed it could indeed rotate, Yuan Gang no longer hesitated.

Click, click, click.

He rotated the pattern pieces on the lock one after another. When the pattern had been rearranged into order, the entire doorframe suddenly jolted with a heavy clang. The whole door sank slightly inward. Yuan Gang put both hands against it and pushed. The heavy metal door released a deep groan and slowly swung open. Yuan Gang stepped inside first to inspect the place. Then he turned and nodded toward Niu Youdao, who was waiting below the steps. Niu Youdao climbed the stairs.

Everyone else followed closely and entered the hall with care. From the outside, the building appeared to have no windows. Yet the interior was not as dark as expected. Points of starlight seemed to seep inside. Many crystals were embedded in the ceiling, refracting the starlight onto eight bronze pillars standing within the hall. Intricate patterns covered all eight pillars, giving them a dark, mysterious air.

Clang!

When Niu Youdao planted the sword in his hand against the floor, it released a sharp metallic ring.

He looked down.

The floor itself was metal, covered in patterns as well. For an instant, his thoughts returned to the ancient tomb where disaster had struck them. Something about the scene before him felt vaguely familiar.

"What are you staring at?" Guan Fangyi called.

Niu Youdao came back to himself and surveyed the hall. It was almost completely empty. There was little inside except the eight bronze pillars and, between them, a sealed octagonal pavilion. No one knew what it contained. As Niu Youdao walked, the tip of the sword he used as a staff rang against the floor with each step. From the sound, he could judge the hollowness and solidity beneath the metal surface. He made one circuit around the eight bronze pillars.

Then he discovered that the octagonal pavilion in the middle also had eight patterned rotary locks, each facing one of the eight directions. On his second circuit, Niu Youdao began calculating the positions on his fingers once again. Finally he stopped at one side.

He studied the symbols on the patterned lock before him and slowly said, "Heaven and Earth return to their proper places."

Yuan Gang immediately approached that lock and began rotating its patterned disks. The instant the final turn restored Heaven and Earth to their proper positions, the entire octagonal pavilion suddenly began rotating with a grinding sound. Yuan Gang quickly stepped back.

Everyone stared.

The pavilion slowly completed one turn and stopped. Then several seams abruptly split across its surface. Like a lotus blooming, the entire octagonal structure slowly folded outward.

Whoosh!

A fierce wind burst from inside the opening pavilion. The entire hall filled with the howl of a gale.

Everyone retreated warily.

Boom!

The whole building sank and shuddered once. At the same instant, everyone felt an immense, unseen force surge outward in a violent pulse. Inside the hall, the effect was still limited. Outside, it was like a tsunami. A thunderous roar spread in ripples through every direction, giving the impression that Heaven and Earth themselves were overturning. Everyone rushed to the doorway to see what was happening outside. All kinds of luminous plants were being ripped to shreds.

Broken fragments spun through clouds of dust as the rolling shockwave raced outward in every direction. No one understood why such a phenomenon had suddenly appeared. Niu Youdao flashed out of the hall and rapidly crossed to the roof of a taller building. The others followed to gain a higher view. Only from above could they see the full scale of it. The place where they stood had become the center of an explosion. A circular wall of dust mixed with shredded luminous vegetation swept outward like a blast wave.

Wherever it passed, the glowing moss, vines, and other growths clinging to the palace city were stripped away in an instant. The entire palace complex seemed to undergo a complete cleansing. Everything attached to it vanished beneath the advancing shockwave, revealing the palace city in its original form. And it did not stop there. The shockwave swept beyond the palace and continued scouring the surrounding mountains, almost as though determined to tear away every disguise. Where the rolling dust passed, the terrain itself seemed to change.

Towering forests vanished from places where they had stood before. Mountain ridges suddenly appeared out of what had seemed to be flat ground. The dust rolled farther and farther away until it gradually disappeared. The thunderous roar slowly subsided as well.

Silence returned.

But the mountains and terrain around them had completely changed appearance. They looked nothing like the land everyone had seen before. The group stared at the palace city, now washed completely clean, then at the transformed landscape outside it. No one knew what to say.

After a long moment, Guan Fangyi finally asked blankly, "What happened?"

Niu Youdao frowned and slowly replied, "The formation broke."

"This should be the original terrain, restored after being altered by the grand formation. The Life Gate should have opened as well. We should be able to leave now."

Yun Ji released a breath she had been holding for a long time. "Then let's test whether we can get out."

Just then, a soft, languid moan drifted faintly through the silence. The sound was not loud. But the surroundings were so still that everyone heard it clearly.

They all turned.

Their gazes fell on the circular metal hall. The sound seemed to have come from inside. It sounded like a human voice. Yet everyone in their party appeared to be present.

No one was missing.

Yuan Gang suddenly asked Yuan Fang, "Where's Chao Shenghuai?"

Yuan Fang froze for a moment, then pointed toward the circular hall. "I put him down in there without thinking when things started happening."

Yuan Gang said, "Go bring him out."

Yuan Fang nodded.

He immediately jumped down from the roof and hurried straight toward the round hall. But the instant he reached the doorway, Yuan Fang abruptly stopped. A faint silver radiance was seeping out from within. He stared at something inside the hall and slowly began backing away. He did not seem to dare enter.

[End of Chapter 470]