Chapter 162: The Square
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
"As the Ecstasy Fog covers the lake, humans cannot enter, but the silver fishes can freely swim through it. This is obviously a dream master's Ecstasy Fog!"
As Old Yu and his granddaughter were deep in their thoughts, Fang Yuan sat on the Iron-tailed Black Eagle's back, full of anticipation.
With the treasure map, water map and the spiritual king fish's memories, there was no way he could not find it.
As the Iron-tailed Black Eagle flapped its wings, a large Ecstasy Fog appeared in front of Fang Yuan.
This was the Ecstasy Fog which the 'master' had placed once a year during the Drunken Moon Festival.
It was totally calm like a wall, which was rather weird for a fog.
"Chirp! Chirp!"
The Iron-tailed Black Eagle did not care one bit and dived straight into the fog.
"Sleep! Sleep!"
As he entered the Ecstasy Fog, Fang Yuan's consciousness began to waver. His eyelids became heavy, like a thousand tons of additional weight.
"It is indeed a dream master's Ecstasy Fog!"
This scene only reaffirmed his guess that the ancestor of the Five Ghosts Sect was a dream master who escaped from the Da Qian empire!
"Meditative Ceremony!"
Fang Yuan cleared his thoughts and recited Master Wenxin's Meditative Ceremony scripture. In his mind palace, dream elemental energy flowed throughout his entire body and momentarily took on a strange shape. This caused his consciousness to become extremely clear.
"A fog of such strength, I'm afraid that even Wu Zongs will not be able to awaken..."
Fang Yuan became serious. "If not for my Meditative Tea Ceremony, or my cultivation as a dream master, I might be trapped as well!"
At this point, he was fearless.
Following the strong winds, the Iron-tailed Black Eagle broke through the fog wall, and an island full of greenery appeared in front of him.
"This spiritual king fish's memories point to this place too!"
Fang Yuan squinted his eyes and arrived on the island. He jumped down from the eagle and leapt straight into the water.
"Splash!"
There was the sound of water splashing and there were bubbles all around him.
The world underneath the lake was weird. There was a weird glow, but Fang Yuan ignored it and followed the spiritual king fish's memories as he searched for the cavern.
Not long later, a pitch-black cavern appeared in his vision.
"This is where the Wine Spring Source is... The spiritual king fish was only lucky to have stumbled upon this to become what it is now!"
As a Wu Zong, he had unthinkable abilities.
Fang Yuan could cleverly use his elemental force to take a quick breath at the bottom of the lake.
He took out a Bright Moon Pearl, which illuminated the water beneath the surface. As there was nothing much, he continued swimming deeper.
The wine fragrance surrounding him became stronger and stronger. As he entered the cavern, the feeling of being intoxicated became increasingly stronger.
"With the spiritual king fish here, other animals would be chased away. After all, why would it let any other animal become like it?"
Fang Yuan entered the cavern and arrived at the bottommost part of it.
There was seaweed all over the rock walls, and the wine fragrance was getting stronger.
If a normal person were to enter this place, he would be intoxicated to death!
"There is indeed a Wine Spring Source!"
Fang Yuan turned his head and looked at a hole in the wall.
The immense wine fragrance originated from the hole, bringing with it a hint of spiritual energy.
"No wonder the spiritual king fish can grow to such a state!"
Fang Yuan was not shocked at all; instead, he was pleased. "Come... out!"
As he spoke, his elemental force was released like a web and it entered the hole.
"Rumble! Rumble!"
Large amounts of wine flowed out from the Spring Eye, as though it was free of charge.
Fang Yuan's expression remained, as he strengthened his elemental force.
From the spring, a burst of spiritual energy shot out. It was intense and was comparable to that at the Green Peak spiritual land.
At this moment, a grey stone rolled out of the hole. On the surface, it seemed to be covered in moss and algae, but it was still indeed the source of the spiritual energy.
This stone resembled the shape of a wine pot. It was round in the middle, and the spout was thin and long. There was an unending flow of wine coming from the spout.
"Wine Spring Source?"
As Fang Yuan observed, he was dumbfounded and had no other suspicions.
He stretched his right arm and picked up the stone wine pot. His expression changed. "This is really a wine pot... spiritual treasure?"
Rumour had it that among the spiritual knights, there was an equipment forging branch that could create unimaginable spiritual equipment.
However, as compared to normal equipment forging masters, the talismans and magical equipment that spiritual knights made after experimenting on their own were dispensable and trash.
"Bottomless wine pot? What a good spiritual treasure!"
Fang Yuan exclaimed and exerted a force from his hand. The rock shattered into pieces and fell to the ground, revealing the actual form of the spiritual pot.
The pot was neither made of gold nor jade. It had a black exterior, and there was a fine line at the mouth, with a pot cover next to it. When the pot was opened and tipped to one side, spiritual wine began to flow out of it.
"Good treasure, what a good treasure!"
Fang Yuan placed the cover on the mouth of the pot, and the wine stopped flowing out. The wine fragrance slowly dissipated.
"It seems like this wine pot was not deliberately placed here, but an abandoned spiritual treasure. Who would've thought that it could have such power..."
Fang Yuan's eyes grew, and his fear for that dream master grew as well.
Just by possessing this spiritual treasure, this mysterious 'master' might not be any less affluent than Master Wenxin.
Furthermore, his traces were mysterious and he was likely to be immoral.
If he wanted to forcefully take it, he could not know what would happen to him.
"Splash!"
In the fog, a splash appeared on the surface of the lake. Fang Yuan's silhouette appeared, and with one leap, he arrived at the shore of the island.
He circulated his elemental energy as the water on him started to evaporate.
In the smoke, his clothes began to dry up, as he started to feel comfortable.
Fang Yuan opened the pot cover and drank a mouthful of spiritual wine.
"Whoosh!"
A fiery stream of wine entered through his throat and swirled in his stomach. All his acupoints were relaxed and the pleasure could not be described with words.
"There is more that the wine can do!"
There was no need for any explanation. Its concentration was more than 10 times the normal water.
It only took a mouth for Fang Yuan to enter a trance. As his elemental force shook, he was awoken.
"Good wine, this is good stuff!"
As he praised the wine, he looked at the island.
The island was not a big one, but it was filled with greenery. He could feel a lot of energy signatures from the vegetation, which meant that there were not normal plants.
If not for the lack of spiritual energy, Fang Yuan would have guessed that this was another piece of spiritual land.
"The treasure map and the spiritual king fish's memories all point to this place!"
Fang Yuan sighed and walked into the dense vegetation with no regrets.
"Ssss!"
The forest was creepy as there were weird noises coming from everywhere.
Fang Yuan walked through the forest and suddenly, he saw a large green snake coiled up on the ground. It was breathing in the fog, as though it had the wisdom of a human!
"Get lost!"
This snake was comparable to a [Martial Artist (12th Gate)], but Fang Yuan squinted his eyes and exerted his energy from his body.
"Sssss!"
The green snake wanted to retaliate and adopted a defensive stance. However, as it detected a large amount of energy from its adversary, it retreated, turned around and fled, as though if it was one step slower it would have been killed by the force behind it.
"Mmm, you're quite smart!"
Fang Yuan did not hide anymore, as his energy level shot up!
Why was his cultivation level so high now?
He was not just a martial artist in the Elemental Gathering Realm, but a dream master as well!
By adding up both of these, it was not as simple as adding their cultivations.
In a moment, a fearsome energy field spread across the entire island. As the large spiritual beasts detected the energy spreading throughout the entire island, they could only scramble and look for a hiding spot.
Those weaker ones could only kneel down and surrender to the strong energy.
"Haha... I am the master!"
As he laughed, he trotted through the island.
With his threat, the other beasts would not there to do anything to him.
"This island..."
After close observation, Fang Yuan had a shocking discovery. "I'm afraid that someone had already done something to separate this place from the real world. Only during the Drunken Moon Festival would this place appear and be accessible. On other days, even if the whole world was searched thoroughly, this place could never be found!"
As he thought about it, the mysterious dream master became increasingly scary.
Fang Yuan bit his lips and arrived in the middle of the island.
There were obvious signs of human interference here.The mountainous ridges suddenly disappeared, as though someone had chopped it off.
On top of where the original mountain ridges should have been, there was a gigantic square laid out in white jade. It had an unimaginable width and there were many carved statues around. Every stroke of the statue was unbelievably real.
Among all these carvings were people, birds, and animals. Their eyeballs were made out of black precious gems, which made them look extremely real, as though they could come alive the next moment.
"Mmm?"
Arriving here, Fang Yuan felt that something in his robes felt extremely hot.
As he took it out, he realised that it was the treasure map of the Five Ghosts Sect!
As this point in time, the treasure map was smoking, and the red marking became a brilliant red with a mild glow.
"No risks, no rewards. Furthermore, it is just a piece of inheritance... Since he had already made up his mind to pass it to the future generations, he must have hoped that someone would inherit it, and therefore it should not be too dangerous!"
Fang Yuan calmed himself down and followed the instructions on the treasure map as he arrived in the middle of the square.
There were 49 statues carved in white jade, and on every one of them, there was some sort of energy holding them down. It was mysterious and seemed like a certain formation.
Fang Yuan based on the instructions on the treasure map, triggered the mechanism and went to the middle of the square.
"If there is a real treasure, it would be here!"
He opened up his treasure map and stared at the shining marks on it, speechless.
"Wuwu!"
Outside, the many statue carvings started to make a synchronised noise.
The treasure map in his hands burnt up, in what seemed to be a response to the noise.
Suddenly, a glow appeared in the middle of the square, straight into Fang Yuan's forehead.
He froze at his spot as his eyes were filled with colours, as he entered a weird dream.