Her fresh bun flowed, her gown dragged along the floor, her supple butt shifted, and her delicate steps were graceful. The Noble Star Little Whirlwind Chai Ling was half-charming, half-grand. She walked into the "Purple Firmament Palace,"1 the palace that was the treasure house of the Noble Stars. Despite that the Little Whirlwind placed herself outside the Star Duels, it was just a pity that although these treasures were good, she nevertheless was unable to participate in the Star Duels. Every Star Maiden could only wear two Astral Treasures, otherwise, Chai Ling would be very willing to demonstrate the result of Maiden Mountain's Star Duels by using Astral Treasures.
The Purple Firmament Palace's purple clouds puffed, light rays blazed, and a ten-colored treasure qi flowed. The entire treasure house was more than mu,2 with glazed floors, a passage to the top, and large, magnificent crystal podiums lined the sides.
The crystal podiums were bright and limpid. Each had an Astral Treasure placed upon it, with some even having Prehistoric Spirit Treasures, magic weapons and such. These podiums altogether numbering more than one hundred had invaluable magic weapons in excess of one hundred. Their magnificence could be clearly seen, and these podiums had forbiddances protecting them. Other than Chai Ling's Star Crest of the Noble Star, no one could undo them.
Chai Ling gracefully stepped silently inside the Purple Firmament Palace. There was a slightly charming expression out of the corner of her eye, briefly glancing at each treasure on the podiums.
Gourds, paintings, blades, jade bottles, clubs, ancient texts, spirit trees, banners, bells and zithers, rings…there was nothing she did not have. Dazzling the eyes, Chai Ling slightly contemplated. Her gaze flit across them one by one, not at all stopping over for too long among these treasures.
"Aiya, I say, Chai Ling, sooner or later there will come a day when this Purple Firmament Palace of yours will become Liangshan's public enemy."
A lazy voice came from the Purple Firmament Palace's entrance.
Chai Ling did not stop wandering around. Her fingers played with her blue hair, and her gait was graceful, "Konghou, what nonsense do you speak of. Even This Palace can only use 'Help The Needy For Justice' take two things from this Purple Firmament Palace every phase. If they can do so, This Palace actually would be happy to see that."
"You used Help The Needy For Justice once during the Birth Outline to lend that man ten billion. You also want to obtain two Astral Treasures for the sake of that man for the current Evil Smiting Hall phase?" Konghou mockingly evaluated. "Little Whirlwind, are you moved?"
Chai Ling's Golden Thread Feather Fan covered her red lips, sneering: "Konghou, you truly are becoming more and more interesting."
"Tell the truth. You truly want to go to the Evil Smiting Hall?" Konghou showed a serious expression.
Chai Ling knew what she was worrying about. Because of the Red Ink Iron Certificate, the Noble Star was spared from the Star Duels, but if she were to enter the Evil Smiting Hall, then she could not use the Red Ink Iron Certificate. Otherwise, even if she participated in the Star Duels, rather, in the case that she did participate in the Star Duels, it seemed her immense wealth was not something Chai Ling could use. At that time, she inevitably would be all alone in the world. Besides, the Red Ink Iron Certificate definitely would become the Star Weapon that Star Masters wanted to seize. After all, for those that possessed the Red Ink Iron Certificate, although they could not prevent death, it could become a death avoidance gold plate to pass through a calamity.
With such an enticement, Konghou truly did not believe that in the "you die and I live" Star Duels, no one would not be moved.
"I heard you and that man ate the Together To Hell, but if it were me, I definitely would kill you and take your Red Ink Iron Certificate to avoid this disaster."
Chai Ling was pensive, seemingly smiling yet now: "Truly brilliant!"
The queen was silent. She turned around and looked through the magic weapons on the podiums as before.
"What sort of magic weapons should This Palace choose?"
"Seeing you throw yourself into a man's bosom like this truly makes Your Servant feel heartbroken, yaaaa." Konghou faced upwards and sighed.
Chai Ling did not mind her, she lightly stepped about, glancing at one podium's jewelry. This jewelry consisted of two wrist bracelets, a frontlet, and two leg bracelets. Their designs were inlaid with moons and embedded with stars, beautiful to the extreme. Due to being under a forbiddance, Chai Ling could not discern the full details, but that gorgeous appearance made Chai Ling quite stirred, seeing that it had stars and moons. Come to think of it, eighty percent of the things were Astral Treasures. Thinking more, Chai Ling activated her Star Crest and saw the Star Platform forbiddance release. A rich Star Spirit Qi soared.
Chai Ling gestured with her hands, and the five pieces of jewelry floated. She injected her Divine Intent, the Little Whirlwind's eyes glowing.
"Moon Seizing Star Taking.3 This Palace actually likes it."
The five decorations scattered, attaching onto Chai Ling's wrists, ankles and forehead. The jewelry's Starlight twinkled, flowing light like a river. It made the originally grand Noble Star appear even more too high to reach. Even Emperor Liang would be slightly inferior.
Chai Ling was satisfied, then again went searching for the last Astral Treasure. At this time, a half blue and half red gourd on one of the pedestals suddenly trembled in front of her, as if it was a child calling for Chai Ling. The Little Whirlwind fixed her eyes upon it for a moment, unable to discern the significance. Evil Smiting Hall was at hand, and Chai Ling did not wish to bring along a gourd of unknown origins to save her life. Besides, the appearance of the gourd in front her made the graceful Chai Ling truly unfond of it. Her heart vaguely was somewhat uneasy towards this gourd.
Glancing at it, Chai Ling then looked to the next podium.
"Milady, a woman outside the castle calling herself the Thousand Buddha Star Chao Gai is seeking an audience!!"
Yuye walked to the outside of the Purple Firmament Palace, deferentially speaking.
Chai Ling and Konghou both froze at the same time and looked at each other.
The elegant queen seemingly smiled yet did not: "Chao Gai. In the end, she still came."
Konghou was silent. Nevertheless, a slight desire to kill flit across her eyes.
…
The Four Styles Solitary Path's final path was the "Scolding Wind Path,"4 a devastating gale. Everything between Heaven and earth was ground to pieces by the astral winds, whooshing. Ordinary artifacts could hardly resist. Even if they could block these violent winds, this was not a path that Star Cultivators who had gone through three paths was capable of crossing.
Su Xing slowly stepped in the wind, a green treasure pearl floating high, scattering clear light in all directions. A path was open as if the squall was had been cut apart by the clear light, unable to bother Su Xing in the slightest. This Wind Settling Pearl was a pretty good treasure, as expected. The miserable winds could not approach at all. If this was like normal, even if he could walk out, he would suffer grave consequences.
Several hours later, Su Xing walked out of the Scolding Wind Path.
The Scolding Wind Path was the end, with an ordinary wilderness of deathly stillness. This wilderness had a spatial transfer array. As long as one stepped into the spatial transfer array, they could leave the Four Styles Solitary Path. Just as Su Xing was about to leave, Wu Xinjie suddenly called out at this time: "Young Lord, please wait a moment!"
The Su Xing with one foot in grunted: "What's the matter?"
"Young Lord, do you not feel this Four Styles Solitary Path is somewhat strange?" Wu Xinjie emerged from the Star Nest, sinking into contemplation as she gazed into the wilderness.
"You mean the extreme environments?"
"No. Young Lord must have forgotten, but although they call it Four Styles, there actually are Five Styles." Wu Xinjie muttered. The earnestly reflecting Knowledge Star clearly appeared very charming.
Su Xing nodded his head. Earth, Wind, Thunder, Water and Fire indeed were the Five Styles, but Earth was not within the mainstream.
"The Four Styles School has four peaks, but the main peak, Clear Heart Peak can be considered Earth Spirit. However, this Four Styles Solitary Path nevertheless lacks a Spirit. Does Young Lord not feel this is odd?" Wu Xinjie gazed at the wilderness before her.
"Xinjie, your meaning is that the Four Styles Solitary Path actually has five paths?" Su Xing was mute.
"Precisely."
Wu Xinjie originally did not think carefully, but seeing the wilderness in front of her, she had this sort of idea. How sharp the Knowledge Star's Seeing Clearly was, not at all confused by the Four Styles Solitary Path's outward appearance of Four Styles. Immediately, she felt there was also a fifth path.
"But there's nothing special about this wilderness." Su Xing slightly had the same feeling, but besides the being rustic and thick, the wilderness honestly was ordinary compared to the previous four paths, not challenging in the least.
"It is precisely this that it is worth a look." Wu Xinjie giggled: "There is something strange about this."
Su Xing immediately understood the girl's meaning, inwardly in admiration. "Then let's go take a look."
Su Xing flew. The wilderness completely lacked forbiddances, and the smell of dirt was dense. It was unknown how many years had passed since this place was cared for. This wilderness was not big. Flying several circles, he spotted a cliff face at the end. It did not have Spirit Stones like the Silent Path's Profound Silence Crystals, with even Demon Beasts absent from view, which was very strange.
At the end of the wilderness was an upright stele. This stele seemingly was man-made, and upon it were three bold ancient characters, "Earth Immortal Path."5 As expected, this place was the Fifth Path. Compared to the other steles he saw, this stele had an additional ring decorative design. The four sides had four grooves, each with symbol for Wind, Thunder, Water and Earth. There were also a scale and such, as if it could spin like a roulette.
"A mechanism!" Wu Xinjie could tell from a glance the use of this device, showing pleasant surprise.
Su Xing tried to spin the scale, as if he was unlocking it as he aligned the grooves.
After all four completely opened, he waited for a long time, yet there was not any sort of change.
"Many people must have seen this. If it was easily opened, it should already have been opened. It seems this has some other mechanisms." Wu Xinjie muttered.
"En. I think so, too." Su Xing did not feel the Four Styles School's other Elders and Headmasters would regard this stele as nothing. They must have spent much effort and could not release this mechanism, in the end no longer minding it.
"Young Lord, do you still remember the mutual engenderment and mutual restraint of the Four Styles Refining that Little Sister Lianxin mentioned?" Wu Xinjie suddenly said.
"Earth births Water, Water births Thunder, Thunder births Fire…" Su Xing understood Wu Xinjie's meaning.
Use the mutual engenderment and restraint of the Four Spirits to open the mechanism.
After waiting expectantly for a while, what made Su Xing very disappointed was that the mechanism was motionless as before.
"Could it be it actually doesn't have a use, that it's just a decoration?" Su Xing was helpless.
"This makes no sense." In Wu Xinjie's perspective, in the wilderness of deathly stillness, that the concentrated dirt qi also had this nearly neglected Earth Immortal Path Stele clearly was a very standard hidden ruin.
Su Xing once again tried mutual restraint, as well as other ways. In short, the roulette could spin, but was limited to these ways.
"Why does the mutual engenderment not have earth?" Gongsun Huang emerged from the Star Nest, suddenly coming to speak.
"This wilderness ought to be earth." Wu Xinjie creased her brow. Suddenly, she froze, clapped her hands and laughed: "Young Lord, try imbuing it with Purple Cloud and then using the mutual engenderment method."
"Alright." Su Xing gathered Purple Cloud in his palms and once again pushed the wheel. When he pushed to the first Water mark, all of a sudden, that nearly lifeless groove suddenly shot out a ray of blue light.
This surprise made Wu Xinjie happy.
Su Xing increased his speed, pushing the four grooves. The four grooves immediately glowed with four spirit lights. Immediately afterwards, with a boom, a vortex appeared in the middle. Shockingly, this was a spatial transfer array.
"It actually opened the mechanism." Su Xing said in admiration.
"Thanks to Little Huang reminding Xinjie." Wu Xinjie happily said: "We needed to use Earth Qi to act as the first condition's mutual engenderment. Truly a complicated mechanism. If it was not for Young Lord luckily having the Purple Star Transforming Qi there basically was no way to open it."
Su Xing deeply held the same feeling. No wonder this ruin could hide for so long and not be a concern to anyone. To use Earth-type "True Qi" as the way, the Four Styles that the Four Styles School practiced did not have Earth. How could they open it.
"Do you wish to go take a look?" Gongsun Huang asked.
Looking at that spatial transfer array, Su Xing and Wu Xinjie showed crafty smiles at the same time. The idea went without saying.
In the more than one thousand years of the Four Styles School, no one had entered the Earth Immortal Labyrinth. If they did not pay a visit, then how could she be worthy of the name, the Knowledge Star. 紫霄宮 ↩ 畝 ↩ 攬月摘星 ↩ 叱風道 ↩ 地仙道 ↩