Uninterrupted Observation

The moment Li Nanzhu stepped out of the passage, the scenery before her eyes shifted abruptly.

That final, meaningful evaluation still echoed in her ears, and she blinked her eyes.

"Nine years of being sealed in dust, yet no match for three days of quiet observation?" How did that sound so...

Li Nanzhu rubbed her chin and fell into thought. If she wasn't misinterpreting things, didn't that sound like a mockery of the array? Or perhaps a jab at those honest people who came before? Was that for real?

Or had she been trapped for so long that her brain was starting to malfunction?

No! How could there be something wrong with her brain? But that sentence really felt off!

According to the book, the array itself was meant to temper one's character. How could it be that, in the eyes of that person, it couldn't even compare to three days of quiet observation?

There was quite a bit of rebellion in that statement.

Could it be... A ridiculous thought suddenly flashed through her mind. Could the senior who set up the array have been an impatient person as well?

The more Li Nanzhu thought about it, the more likely it seemed. It had to be so. Although she knew that ancient pill cultivators surely had their reasons for tempering themselves for nine years, who wouldn't go mad being locked up for nine years without any spiritual energy or the ability to cultivate?

Li Nanzhu truly suspected that anyone who stayed in that array for nine years would come out either crazy or stupid; at any rate, they wouldn't be a normal person.

She shook her head, tossing the messy thoughts to the back of her mind, and began to survey her surroundings. The white mist from just a moment ago had suddenly dispersed, and a piercing cold wind carrying grit lashed against her face.

Li Nanzhu subconsciously squinted. Only after adjusting to the light did she realize she was standing on a circular platform suspended in mid-air.

Surrounding the platform was an endless starry sky, but the arrangement of those stars felt strangely uncanny—they weren't naturally formed constellations, but rather seemed to have been deliberately arranged into certain rhythmic patterns.

"This is..."

She looked up at the stars, which were flickering in a rhythmic pattern.

"Find three anomalous star patterns."

She softly repeated the requirement of the trial, her gaze slowly wandering through the sea of stars.

The Jiao mansion of the Seven Mansions of the Eastern Azure Dragon glowed faintly; the Jing mansion of the Seven Mansions of the Southern Vermilion Bird flickered unsteadily; and the Kui mansion of the Seven Mansions of the Western White Tiger shifted between light and dark. Each group of mansions followed its own rhythm of flickering.

Li Nanzhu couldn't help but feel a headache coming on. She really felt that the things inside this light gate were targeting her sometimes. Why did it have to be such obscure knowledge? Weren't they afraid she would have absolutely no knowledge of star patterns?

But... she actually did!

However, this time it wasn't knowledge gained from the Library Pavilion. It still relied on her past life as a war correspondent. Back then, when she was lost on a battlefield or in completely unfamiliar territory, she had to rely on the stars to determine her direction. To that end, she had specifically studied these constellations.

She hadn't expected that something she rarely used in her previous life would come in handy in this one.

Fortunately, the star patterns here were the same as those she had learned in modern times; otherwise, she would truly be trapped here with no way out.

Li Nanzhu let out a helpless sigh and began to observe carefully.

"Jiao, Kang, Di..." she muttered softly, her gaze wandering through the Seven Mansions of the Eastern Azure Dragon. The seven main stars, which should have been arranged in an arc, were now distorted into a strange hook shape. This degree of deviation...

But she had no paper or pen to fully reconstruct the contents from her memory. Just as she was worrying, a clumsy method occurred to her. She untied the silk ribbon from her waist and used her fingers to measure the distances between the stars.

Using the brightest North Star as a reference, she aligned her left thumb with where the Kang mansion should have been and used her right pinky to compare it with the actual position. With that comparison, the anomaly was immediately highlighted—the Kang mansion had deviated from the baseline by a full fifteen degrees!

"The first one." A smile played at the corners of Li Nanzhu's lips.

She turned to the Seven Mansions of the Southern Vermilion Bird, but her smile vanished instantly, replaced by a deep frown. She recalled the Kaiyuan Treatise on Astrology she had once studied. That star-pattern classic clearly recorded: "The eight stars of the Jing mansion govern the water balance; their shape is like a well..."

This time, she simply used her finger as a brush, drawing a standard diagram of the Jing mansion in the air—three horizontal stars for the top mouth of the well, three horizontal for the bottom, and one star on each side for the walls.

"The battle-axe star of the Jing mansion should be positioned one and a half degrees in front of the well..." She suddenly squinted. Right now, two dark stars had appeared out of nowhere beside the Jing mansion—one stuck at the well's mouth and another hanging at the bottom, completely violating the record of "eight stars for the measure, with the battle-axe star as an auxiliary."

"Then this is the second one." Li Nanzhu wiped the sweat from her forehead and suddenly found it amusing—how was this some solemn star pattern? It was clearly a game of 'Spot the Difference' left behind by the array master.

However, finding these contents in her memory and comparing them with the star patterns was truly making things difficult for her. This tested not only her memory but also her understanding of the stars.

The more she thought about it, the more depressed she felt. Why was it so easy for Cang Dongqing to obtain the inheritance in the original book, while her inheritance trials were this difficult?

She was definitely being targeted!

Heaven knew how much she wanted to transform into one of those monkeys from Mount Emei and knock the owner of this cave dwelling away the moment she realized this.

As for why Mount Emei?

Because the monkeys there were the most arrogant!

Of course, those from Flower-Fruit Mountain were the exception.

After grumbling in her heart for a while, Li Nanzhu began to observe the next star pattern. Fortunately, she was very familiar with this last one; it was the Big Dipper, which she had memorized countless times.

She still remembered that Arithmetical Classic of the Gnomon, which had tormented her for a long time back then.

After all... was it her fault she couldn't tell north, south, east, and west apart?

Definitely not!

So there was no problem with her taking a little longer to study it, right?

"Aligning the seven governors with the Xuanji and Yuheng..." Li Nanzhu murmured. "Megrez and Phecda should be three degrees apart, but now they are pressed right against Alkaid, completely violating the 'Dipper as the Emperor's Carriage' star pattern. This is the third one."

As soon as she spoke, the starry sky shook violently.

All the marked stars simultaneously burst into light, weaving into a brilliant net in the sky that slowly formed a line of shimmering text.

—Many see the attire; few discern the bones.

Li Nanzhu: ?

Before she could ponder the deeper meaning of this sentence, the stone slab beneath her feet suddenly flipped. The moment the feeling of weightlessness hit her, she caught a glimpse of those golden lines frantically reorganizing, eventually weaving into a massive star net that caught her.

When her vision cleared again, she found herself inside an octagonal Library Pavilion. On the eight walls of bookshelves, the jade slips were not stationary but flowed slowly between the shelves, emitting a soft, lustrous glow.

"Find three completely identical jade slips."

She arched an eyebrow. This seemed like exactly the kind of question that prank-loving array master would come up with.

With a sigh, she finally resigned herself to the search.

She first observed the flow of the jade slips and discovered they weren't moving randomly but followed a specific route.

Every seven breaths, a batch of jade slips would pass the bookshelf in the true east and pause there briefly.

She walked to that shelf and waited patiently. As the first batch flowed past, she keenly noticed that the edge of one jade slip emitted an extremely faint blue light. This light vanished in an instant; if she hadn't been fully concentrated, she wouldn't have noticed it at all.

"The first one."

Li Nanzhu didn't act rashly but continued to observe.

Sure enough, every forty-nine breaths, a similar jade slip would pass by.

When the third one appeared, she finally made a move with lightning speed, catching all three jade slips in her palm simultaneously.

Upon closer inspection, the surfaces of these three jade slips were as smooth as mirrors, but at a certain angle, one could see a heart-shaped pattern hidden within.

However, no matter how she looked at it, the pattern seemed like it had been carved on later. Li Nanzhu seriously suspected this was some sort of bad taste from the owner... because the heart shape was simply too ugly.

Just as she was internally complaining, all the bookshelves suddenly stopped, and the jade slips flew into the air, forming new text.

—Acute observation of details is not as good as pointing directly to the original heart.

Before Li Nanzhu could say anything, the jade slips reorganized into the star patterns from before—specifically, the three anomalous mansions she had pointed out.

"Even this can be connected?" She couldn't help but facepalm, only to see the star map formed by the jade slips suddenly collapse, turning into countless specks of light that merged into the depths of the bookshelves.

The spaces between the eight bookshelves began to warp and distort, eventually reorganizing into a deep, dark tunnel.

Li Nanzhu's heart was starting to feel a bit frazzled. Why was there more! Just because she was a cannon fodder side character, did she have to go through so many trials?

But the current situation didn't allow for questioning. She could only sigh and step forward. She wanted to see what other tricks could be pulled out ahead.

At the end of the tunnel, an ancient stone chamber was revealed.

Eighty-one life-sized stone statues were arranged in a circle, each carved with lifelike detail. There were swordsmen standing with their blades, scholars reciting from scrolls, and hermits looking at the sky with their hands behind their backs. Even the folds of their clothes were meticulously rendered.

A brief observation revealed there were nine types of figures in total, with nine statues for each figure.

"In groups of three, find three sets of stone statues with identical markings."

As expected, she had to find similarities again.

Li Nanzhu walked slowly around the circle, her fingertips lightly brushing the textures of the statues. During her first rough pass, the nine statues seemed unique. The scholar on the left had a jade pendant at his waist, the swordsman in the middle had cloud patterns on his scabbard, and the old man on the right leaned on a staff topped with a crane's head.

Even with Li Nanzhu's modern perspective, she was astonished by the exquisite craftsmanship.

But now was not the time for admiration. Li Nanzhu began to memorize each statue.

With eighty-one statues in total, finding identical ones was much more complex than before. It took her nearly two hours to observe every single one. Li Nanzhu couldn't help but frown; her observation hadn't revealed any special markings.

This trial was far more complicated than the previous ones, but she didn't intend to give up. Frowning, she continued her search.

Another hour passed before she finally found a faint scratch on the boot of the third swordsman statue, looking like a fresh mark from a sharp weapon.

She immediately followed this clue. Sure enough, on the soles of the sixth and ninth identical swordsman statues, she found perfectly matching scratches, with even the direction of the cracks being identical.

"The first set is identical." She gathered spiritual energy at her fingertip and left a mark on the scratches.

Thanks to the patience trial in the Immovable Wisdom King Array, Li Nanzhu didn't grow anxious with the passing of time. Instead, she became even calmer in her observation of the statues.

It was then that she finally noticed the pinky finger of the second scholar statue was slightly curled, with an almost invisible indentation at the knuckle.

This subtle feature was perfectly replicated on the fifth and eighth scholar statues, and even the depth of the indentation was exactly the same.

"Second set." Li Nanzhu's fingernail lightly tapped the indentation on the statue's pinky, producing a crisp sound.

The discovery of the second set boosted her confidence.

However, after another two hours, she still hadn't found the third set.

Li Nanzhu couldn't help but frown. The trial likely wouldn't be flawed. Since she had found two, she must have overlooked something. If her eyes couldn't see it... then she would close them!

This time, she only used her hands to feel her way through, touching the statues one by one without relying on her vision.

Finally, after another two hours, Li Nanzhu snapped her eyes open. Behind the ear of the fourth old man statue, there was a very inconspicuous protrusion. If she hadn't felt it with her hands, she would never have noticed it with her naked eye.

Li Nanzhu began to examine it closely, only to realize that the protrusion was actually an exquisite rune!

The same rune appeared in the same position on the first and seventh old man statues, with even the pressure and turn of the strokes being identical.

"The third set is identical!"

The eighty-one stone statues suddenly vibrated simultaneously, and the marked areas glowed with a green light.

Stone dust fell away, revealing shimmering jade cores within. On the jade cores of the nine identified statues, identical star patterns emerged—the very same anomalous mansions she had identified on the platform earlier.

The ceiling of the stone chamber slowly opened, and heavenly light poured down, illuminating a new statue that had suddenly appeared in the center.

The face of this statue was blurred, but its right hand was raised high, holding an uncarved raw stone in its palm. Carved onto the base of the statue was the long-awaited verdict.

—He who sees the subtle to understand the significant truly knows the myriad faces of existence.