The Peculiar Pattern

The red light beneath everyone's feet suddenly exploded. Countless runes surged from the ground, instantly weaving into an airtight killing array. Li Nanzhu felt her spiritual energy stall; even the circulation of the Greenwood Longevity Sutra was forcibly suppressed by thirty percent!

"Careful!" Rong Yuying shouted. The Illusionary Passion Gauze instantly unfurled into a barrier just as the first wave of blood-colored arrows whistled through the air. They struck the pink barrier with a tooth-grinding sound of corrosion.

Qinghe’s spirit needles were crushed by the power of the array the moment they were summoned. She groaned and stumbled back two steps. "My spiritual energy is being suppressed!"

"Get behind me!" Jingyi also summoned her magic tool, but a stray burst of spiritual energy still pierced through the gap, grazing her cheek and leaving a bloody gash.

Li Nanzhu's expression grew solemn as she frantically circulated the Kalpa Fire Dance Sutra. A fire lotus bloomed in her palm. "Suisui!"

Suisui's soul fire also surged instantly, its eerie blue curtain of light clashing violently with the array. During this brief window, Li Nanzhu finally saw the full extent of the array—the runes on the ground were slowly rotating. With every revolution, the array's suppressing power grew stronger.

"We can't delay!" she shouted urgently. "This array gets stronger over time!"

Cracks had already appeared on Rong Yuying's round fan. This was one of her commonly used magic tools, yet it was being damaged so easily. Fine beads of sweat began to form on her forehead. "I'm going to force a breakout..."

Before she could finish, the array suddenly shook violently! The runes began to peel away piece by piece. Rapid footsteps echoed from a distance as a lotus-pink figure came sprinting from the end of the corridor.

"Wait! Don't panic!" Feng Qingping’s voice rang out. Rays of spiritual energy burst from her fingertips, accurately piercing the connection points of each rune—the very rotation nodes Li Nanzhu had just noticed.

"Dispel!"

In the next instant, the array surrounding them shattered silently. Feng Qingping rushed to Li Nanzhu's side, grabbing her wrist to check her meridians. "Little Junior Sister! Are you hurt?"

Li Nanzhu shook her head. Only then did she notice that her usually composed senior sister's forehead was drenched in cold sweat. Clearly, the preceding moments had terrified her as well. "Fifth Senior Sister... was this array yours?"

"I set it to kill evil cultivators," Feng Qingping said with some frustration. "I didn't expect you to..."

Li Nanzhu couldn't help but give a bitter smile. Her Fifth Senior Sister had indeed left that piece of cloth to set a trap, and they had walked right into it. Truly...

Rong Yuying put away her damaged round fan and looked thoughtfully at the runes that hadn't yet dissipated on the floor. "Daoist Friend Feng's technique of breaking an array with an array is truly exquisite."

Only then did Feng Qingping notice the others. She froze for a moment upon seeing Rong Yuying. Li Nanzhu quickly introduced her. "This is Senior Sister Rong Yuying of the Hehuan Sect. She has been helping us all the way."

"Thank you, Daoist Friend. I'm sorry my mistake caused you injuries," Feng Qingping said, taking out a medicine bottle and distributing it to everyone. "Tend to your wounds first." As she applied medicine to Li Nanzhu, her fingertips were trembling slightly. "How did you end up on this path?"

Li Nanzhu nodded. "Sixth Senior Brother is trapped in a cave behind a stone wall ahead. We were just about to—"

"Weilan...?!" Feng Qingping's pupils shrank. "Weilan... is he still alive?" Her voice trembled. "We were ambushed by seven black-clad men. Originally, the highest cultivation among them was only at the mid-stage Golden Core..."

She suddenly choked up, her fingers unconsciously stroking the array disk at her waist. Li Nanzhu gently took her cold hand. "Take your time, Senior Sister."

"After we were separated, I followed the sounds of fighting and found Weilan." Feng Qingping took a deep breath and recounted the events. "With my arrays and his cooperation, breaking out shouldn't have been a problem. But then, a late-stage Golden Core cultivator appeared..."

Feng Qingping's throat moved. "They had too many arrays. Even for me, breaking them takes time. Weilan took three palm strikes to the chest, forcing a path for me with his blade qi..."

As she finished, a faint glimmer of tears flickered in her eyes. Li Nanzhu silently tightened her grip on her senior sister's cold hand. This was likely the first time the Fifth Senior Sister and Sixth Senior Brother had faced such a forced separation, unable to even know if the other was alive.

Feng Qingping calmed her emotions and looked at Li Nanzhu again. "And then? Didn't you find traces of Little Junior Brother? Why did you come here?"

"We followed the drag marks to find you." Li Nanzhu briefly explained the situation. When Feng Qingping heard 'dual concealment array nested with a warning talisman,' a light flashed in her eyes. "That technique... I might be able to break it."

Rong Yuying, who had stood aside without interrupting the sisters' conversation, watched Feng Qingping with a subtle shift in her gaze.

Although this female cultivator from the Five Elements Dao Sect looked pale, the composure and grace she displayed in her speech and mannerisms were impossible to ignore.

"A dual concealment array nested with a warning talisman..." Rong Yuying thought to herself, a hint of surprise in her eyes.

Such complex array nesting techniques were rarely recorded even in the archives of the Hehuan Sect. Li Nanzhu hadn't mentioned it before, and it was unexpected that she recognized it, let alone her senior sister. Rong Yuying had initially thought the array Feng Qingping set earlier was her limit, never imagining her understanding of arrays was so profound.

"The Five Elements Dao Sect..." Rong Yuying mused silently. "Indeed, it truly was worthy of being the former number one sect. Even if it has declined now, its foundations remain deep."

She remembered what her grandmother—the current Sect Leader of the Hehuan Sect—had told her after the Forest of Demonic Beasts incident: "The Five Elements Dao Sect has reappeared. Even if they are still weak, based on their performance, their inheritance has never been broken. When they were at their peak, they were proficient in all Daos and produced countless geniuses."

At the time, she had thought it was mere hyperbole. Seeing it now with her own eyes, she knew those words were true.

Sensing Rong Yuying's gaze, Feng Qingping turned to her with a slight smile and thanked her again. "Daoist Friend Rong, thank you for protecting my junior sister just now."

Rong Yuying pulled herself from her thoughts and lightly swayed her round fan. "Daoist Friend Feng is too polite. Little Zhu'er and I are fated. Besides, my Hehuan Sect would never sit idly by when a lone female cultivator is in trouble."

Gratitude flashed in Feng Qingping's eyes. She was about to speak when she noticed Li Nanzhu inspecting the corpse of a black-robed man. Li Nanzhu pulled a token from his waist, her fingertips tracing the pattern repeatedly.

"Fifth Senior Sister... everyone," Li Nanzhu said, her voice tight, as she held the token up for them to see. "Look at this."

The token gleamed coldly in the dim light. On it was a strange horned pattern, identical to the design on the robes of the black-robed men who had been dragging the iron cage.

Feng Qingping's pupils constricted. "They really are all part of the same group."

Rong Yuying frowned as well. "It looks more like the emblem of an organization..."

Qinghe and the other two leaned in to inspect the token closely, but they remained clueless, their faces full of confusion.

Li Nanzhu stared at the familiar lines, her brow furrowing unconsciously. She felt like she had seen this horned pattern somewhere before...