The moment Li Nanzhu stepped into the gate of light, her vision suddenly fell into chaos, and the faint scent of pills brushed against her nose.
"This is..."
Li Nanzhu was only dazed for a moment; by the time her mind cleared, the scene had completely changed.
Before her lay a deep, blue-stone corridor. That pill fragrance had been replaced by damp air smelling of mildew. The fluorescent stones embedded in the walls on either side emitted a ghastly green glow. Li Nanzhu instinctively reached for the storage bag at her waist, intending to pull out a talisman for protection.
This was nothing like the description of the alchemy inheritance in the original book!
However, the storage bag felt as if it were welded shut; no matter what she tried, it would not open. Li Nanzhu then attempted to summon the Wanxiang Brush, but the Wanxiang Brush nurtured within her dantian had also fallen into a dead silence, showing no reaction at all.
She clearly remembered stepping into the gate of Cosmic Orbit Circulation. According to common sense, behind such a gate of light should be a celestial illusion or a spiritual energy trial ground. It certainly should not be this gloomy, damp passage.
Li Nanzhu felt a brief flash of panic, but she immediately steadied her mind. There was nothing to fear; the master of this cave dwelling essentially wanted to select a successor, not to commit murder.
In the original text, all four members of the Sword Heart Sect safely obtained a portion of the opportunities, which proved that the master of the cave dwelling was quite generous in this regard.
Thus, she could not be impatient. Recalling the pill fragrance she had smelled the moment she entered the gate, Li Nanzhu guessed that she had most likely entered some special kind of illusion.
It was just that nothing could be used in this illusion... Li Nanzhu frowned and tried to cast the Cleansing Heart Sutra once more.
Unfortunately, the surrounding scene did not change in the slightest.
Her fingertips remained in the casting gesture as the moisture in the corridor condensed into droplets, sliding down her wrist and into her sleeve.
That cold sensation felt too real to be an illusion, but Li Nanzhu clearly realized that the true trial had only just begun.
"I can't give up."
Her voice produced a triple echo in the corridor.
Li Nanzhu took a deep breath and stepped forward, intending to observe this so-called illusion to see if there was any other way to break it.
When she counted to her three hundredth step, the view ahead remained unchanging—the same bronze lamps, the same stone walls, even the flickering frequency of the flames was identical.
Li Nanzhu pursed her lips and continued to move forward cautiously. When she had counted another three hundred steps, a change finally appeared ahead.
A three-way junction.
Three identical branching corridors presented themselves, even the distribution of moss on the walls was exactly the same.
"A loop?"
Li Nanzhu crouched down and used her fingernail to carve a mark into the blue-stone floor.
She chose the middle passage at random and continued forward. Sure enough, at the two hundredth step, she returned to the mark.
This situation was somewhat similar to a 'ghost wall' encounter; the key to breaking it did not lie in brute force.
She simply sat cross-legged. The chill from the stone floor seeped through her clothes and into her skin, causing her to shiver involuntarily. Was this illusion a bit too realistic?
She shook her head to toss away these meaningless thoughts and continued to observe her surroundings.
A faint sound of dripping water came from the end of the corridor, echoing once every three breaths, precise as if measuring time.
Li Nanzhu began to silently count her breaths. When she reached the one thousand and eightieth count, the brightness of the fluorescent stones on both sides suddenly increased by thirty percent.
This subtle change made her eyelashes tremble slightly.
As expected, the trial had begun. Was it actually asking her to wait? But what was the point of this kind of waiting?
It wasn't as if she were refining pills, keeping a constant eye on the fire in the furnace...
Wait!
Li Nanzhu was suddenly stunned. Right! Alchemy!
Although she hadn't entered the gate specifically for the alchemy inheritance, the master of the cave dwelling was essentially a pill cultivator. All trials would surely be related to alchemy.
Li Nanzhu quickly began searching through her memories. Fortunately, there were enough records in the Library Pavilion of the Five Elements Dao Sect, and she had looked at books on other subjects in her spare time. Finally, she found a relevant record in the depths of her memory!
—The Immovable Wisdom King Array.
Records stated that the first lesson for ancient pill cultivators was to face a wall for nine years, all for the sake of tempering the 'heart fire.'
After realizing this, the corners of Li Nanzhu's mouth could not help but twitch. Modern alchemists had long since abandoned these methods in pursuit of faster pill production. If she hadn't happened to enjoy reading miscellaneous books, especially those concerning legends and rumors, she really wouldn't have recognized what this was. She hadn't expected her hobby to come in handy at a time like this.
Upon realizing this, Li Nanzhu suddenly felt an urge to curse the cave dwelling master's entire family.
What kind of godforsaken illusion was this! He had clearly thrown her into an array!
If he wanted to temper heart fire, he should have given it to Cang Dongqing. It would be better to trap her for nine years so that by the time she came out, Li Nanzhu might have already reached the Golden Core stage.
Why was this broken array thrown her way? It wasn't even her receiving the inheritance!
Once this kind of thing started, there was likely no room for negotiation. Li Nanzhu took a deep breath. Don't be angry, don't be angry—like hell she shouldn't be angry!
If she were actually receiving the inheritance, it would be fine, but now not only was she not receiving any inheritance, she was trapped here for nine years!
Nine years! By the time she got out, everything would be over. Cang Dongqing would have leapt straight to Soul Transformation and started slaughtering everyone! Her senior brothers and sisters would all be dead! What was the point of playing anymore!
Li Nanzhu's nails dug deep into her palms, her knuckles turning white from the force.
She stared at her trembling hands. This was not fear of waiting, but anger at losing control. She had finally managed to turn the situation around just a little, finally seeing a hope for change. Was she really going to stop here? Why? Why should she be the cannon fodder?
The sound of water dripping sped up again; now it echoed once every breath.
Li Nanzhu suddenly froze.
She realized a terrifying fact—this array was reading her emotions. The more agitated she became, the faster time flowed.
If she continued like this, it might not take nine years; she might be consumed by the torment in just nine months.
"Good... very good..."
She slowly sat back down on the floor, forcing her muscles to relax inch by inch. After a long while, she suddenly stood up and slammed a fist into the damp stone wall—
Thud!
The dull pain from her knuckles cleared her mind slightly.
The stone wall remained motionless, not even a grain of dust falling. Instead, her knuckles bled slightly, leaving a few drops of striking red on the green moss.
"Calm down... I must calm down..."
She forced herself to take deep breaths. The smell of mildew mixed with the scent of blood filled her lungs.
She suddenly remembered a balcony in Kabul that always smelled of gunpowder smoke.
Back then, to capture a photo of government troops passing by refugees, she had waited for a full eight hours in forty-degree heat.
At this moment, the mildew in the corridor strangely overlapped with the smell of rotting fruit on that balcony years ago.
"Interesting," she chuckled at the void, her voice bouncing off the stone walls in echoes.
Her memories of being a war correspondent in her past life began to awaken. She was all too familiar with this kind of waiting.
It wasn't about passively enduring time, but like setting up a camera and hunting for the decisive moment.
When her breathing finally stabilized, the water drips returned to their original pace of one every three breaths. It still felt like it was grinding against her nerves, but Li Nanzhu's gaze became increasingly clear.
"Nine years..."
This number rolled off her tongue again, yet it no longer stirred even half a ripple of emotion.
On the war-torn streets of her past life, compared to those waits on the edge of life and death, this was merely a quieter battlefield.
It was a battlefield, and more so, a psychological war.
Just like the execution countdowns played on loops in those Taliban tapes, designed specifically to destroy a prisoner's will.
She had her persistence and her beliefs. Her will would not be destroyed. She... still had people to save. That was the goal she had set for herself.
Li Nanzhu closed her eyes and began to build a model in her mind. Since this was a pill cultivator's array, there must be a pattern, just like in alchemy where the heat, ingredients, and timing... every variable had its meaning.
"The water drips are the timer..."
"The disappearing blue stones are the progress bar..."
"Then the three-way junction is..."
She suddenly opened her eyes. Three identical forks exactly corresponded to the 'Samadhi True Fire' in alchemy: civil fire, martial fire, and balanced fire. They seemed the same but each had its own secret. The path she had chosen earlier should have been the path of balanced fire.
Her fingertips unconsciously traced along the blue stones, outlining the silhouette of a pill furnace. If this was a simulation of the interior of a cauldron, then...
Li Nanzhu suddenly looked up at the ceiling.
In her original world, changes in air pressure within a sealed container would produce condensation. At this moment, the distribution of water seeping through the wall cracks happened to form the 'cloud and thunder' patterns common on pill furnaces!
In that case, the breakthrough she was looking for was the furnace itself! The true furnace was very likely placed at the array eye. As long as she found that array eye, she could get out!
Li Nanzhu's heart suddenly hammered, but she still steadied her mind and began to re-examine the trajectory of the water droplets sliding down the walls. She had an intuition that these water droplets were likely the breakthrough point.
Just as she thought, the seventy-ninth water droplet suddenly changed direction mid-fall, flowing along an invisible groove into a crack in the stone.
Li Nanzhu's gaze followed this abnormal trajectory, finding that all the water droplets eventually converged at the same spot—an unremarkable blue stone in the center of the three-way junction.
She did not act immediately but continued to count the drips until she confirmed that an abnormality occurred every three hundred and sixty falls.
Just like the patterns she discovered in war zones—every Friday evening, the flow of people in the market would always suddenly turn toward the relief station in the west of the city.
When the one thousand eight hundredth water droplet deviated from its path, she finally stood up.
Walking straight to that specific blue stone, Li Nanzhu used her nails to gently scrape the surface. Once the moss was peeled away, several hairline-thin carvings were revealed—precisely the 'cloud and thunder' patterns she was looking for!
At that very moment, the sound of dripping water suddenly stopped.
The entire corridor fell into an eerie silence, where even her breathing sounded amplified. Li Nanzhu's fingertip hovered three inches above the carving, hesitating to press down.
She was waiting. Waiting for the one thousand eight hundred and first drip, waiting for the blue stone to absorb enough moisture, waiting for the perfect timing.
Click.
The subtle sound was exceptionally clear in the silence.
The blue stone automatically sank half an inch, revealing a palm-sized hidden compartment. There was no treasure inside, only three moldy lotus seeds arranged in an equilateral triangle.
Li Nanzhu casually picked one up. After the mold was rubbed off, it revealed the gilded character for "Timing."
She suddenly understood.
This was not a punishment, but a pill cultivator's most precious gift, teaching her how to turn waiting into a weapon. Since her transmigration, her heart had become increasingly restless. She was anxious and had lost the steady calmness she once possessed as a war correspondent. This array had given her a profound lesson.
It wasn't to trap her here, but to better purge her of distractions, just as a lotus seed remains dormant in the mud for a thousand years, waiting for that one perfect spring day.
The hidden compartment suddenly gushed with clear spring water, washing away all the lotus seeds. The water flow traced new patterns on the stone slabs, gradually condensing into a crystal-like passage.
That was the exit of the array.
Li Nanzhu smiled softly and performed a solemn salute to the void, the highest etiquette in the cultivation world for a highly respected senior.
Even if she didn't obtain an inheritance, this single opportunity was enough—enough to firm her direction.
She no longer hesitated and stepped directly onto the exit. The moment she stepped out, she heard a blurred voice in the void.
"Nine years of isolation cannot match three days of quiet observation."
Rate on N.U.
