The distant ancient aura skyrocketed from the mountains, piercing the dark skydome. But it suddenly converged and went back when it was nearly about to touch the sky. Floating snow on the top of Snow-capped Peak gradually flew and the aura of the green valley came to chaos. Powerful winds danced in the air and annihilated all things in the twinkling of an eye.
Tao Addict’s numerous ice swords, Calligraphic Addict’s Half Divine Talisman, the Restriction Fu released from the embroidered purse by Ning Que and boiling water were all swallowed by the fog driven by the powerful winds and disappeared without a trace.
Ning Que and Mo Shanshan were tossed away by the soaring aura and woke up after a short moment of dizziness. He looked at the heavy fog encircling the heaven and earth and could not help but feel a little cold. Such a horrible aura was completely unlike a power a human being could exert. Even a powerhouse in the peak of Knowing Destiny State could not make it.
His quiver and luggage were still beside him. He was shocked as well as very puzzled. Because this wild aura directly devoured everything, including the aura of the Tao Addict. But why was he still intact, and not suffering any harm?
“What talisman… is this?”
Ning Que found it difficult to suppress the shock in his heart, so he looked at Mo Shanshan and asked.
Mo Shanshan lifted up her sleeves and wiped the fresh blood shedding from her lip corner and then shook her head.
Previously, she used her blood to write a Half Divine Talisman and threw it towards the Daming Lake, triggering a mutation in the valley. But she did not seem to have thought of such a consequence. When she found that she could no longer hear the waves of the Daming Lake in the silent surroundings, fear appeared in her black eyes and she said in a trembling voice, “It has nothing to do with me.”
The two supported each other by the arms and stood up with difficulty. All they could see was water mist and they did not know exactly where they were. Ning Que did not understand her words very well, so he looked at her confusedly.
Mo Shanshan coughed twice gently and felt the distant ancient aura still lingering in the heavy mist. She said in an awe-stricken and longing mood, “This aura is a vented power when the Front Gate tactical array of Devil’s Doctrine opens. Previously I only tried to open the tactical array. But I really didn’t expect the tactical power to be so powerful when it was opened.”
The Front Gate tactical array of Devil’s Doctrine opened?
Ning Que felt very surprised.
Prince Long Qing had said, a few days ago, on that snow cliff that it would take time to open the door of the Front Gate of Devil’s Doctrine. These days he had been in Tao enlightenment besides the Daming Lake and did not feel any sign of the opening of the Front Gate of Devil’s Doctrine. Unexpectedly, Mo Shanshan actually had the ability to see through the Front Gate big tactical array of Devil’s Doctrine and made it open in advance!
In view of this, he looked at Mo Shanshan with a bit more admiration in his eyes. He thought the three Addicts really deserved their well-known reputation. Mo Shanshan looked gentle and quiet usually and did not demonstrate any special abilities. But in a critical moment, she could always bring many surprises to others. The Calligraphic Addict girl was actually able to reach the utmost talisman tactical array state.
Under Ning Que’s fervent gaze, Mo Shanshan felt it uncomfortable to see the admiration and praise in his eyes. She bowed her head shyly and explained in a low voice, “These days you enlightened Tao and broke the realm beside the lake. I had nothing to do, so I looked at this big tactical array of the Front Gate for a long time and understood it a bit.”
She bowed her head and kept whispering. “And it’s not an original array tactical. It’s just a hidden one outside the Front Gate.”
Although Master Yan Se once said that the talisman was a tactical array. Ning Que had also been used by Seventh Sister as a coolie to repair the tactical array at the back of the mountain of the academy, but his knowledge of tactical arrays was still extremely poor and he could not fully understand what was an original tactical array or a cover one. However, he was well aware that the situation had already come to a dead end at the moment when Tao Addict, Ye Hongyu, launched an attack. Later, Mo Shanshan opened the Front Gate of Devil’s Doctrine, which directly broke the dead end. It was more important than anything else.
Ning Que lamented, “The Tao Addict is really strong. Both you and I cannot compete with her after she entered Knowing Destiny State. But unfortunately you’re here, then the Daming Lake is a wrong battlefield for her.”
Mo Shanshan looked up and showed joy in her eyes. From the frontier fortress of North of the Yan Kingdom to the depths of the Wilderness, she had always felt she did not deserve the title of Calligraphic Addict compared with Ning Que, for she could not help him too much. So she inevitably felt somewhat sad. But when Ning Que praised her usefulness at this time, she said softly, “I just gave it a try.”
Ning Que laughed and said, “Excessive modesty is considered prideful.”
Mo Shanshan nodded smilingly.
Ning Que looked at the heavy fog around them and frowned slightly. He asked, “What do we do next? If the Front Gate of Devil’s Doctrine has been opened, how can we enter?”
The fog was too thick, covering all that was before them. And the aura of heaven and earth was in a turmoil so that his sense of perception could only perceive something chaotic. It was hard to find the Front Gate of Devil’s doctrine in this environment. He did not even know where they were at this time. Were they still in the verdant valley or somewhere else after they were tossed away by that aura?
Mo Shanshan closed her eyes and stretched her slender fingers out of her cotton sleeves into the fog. She bent her fingers to count and perceive. A moment later she opened her eyes and said with knitted black brows, “Let’s wait for the fog to dissipate first.”
Fogs always converged and then dispersed. After a short time, the change in the Qi of Heaven and Earth caused by the opening of the big tactical array of the Front Gate of the Devil’s Doctrine was gradually appeased by the real world. The fog in mid air first dispersed and one could vaguely see the sky at a high altitude. For an unknown reason, the original gloomy snow cloud had already dispersed, exposing a corner of the blue sky.
The fog spread faster and faster. From the blue sky to Snow-capped Peak and green lush trees on the peak, all of them entered Ning Que’s vision. Because he had seen Snow-capped Peak for a few days, coupled with his relative position, he was stunned to find that they were in the heart of the Daming Lake at this time!
However, there was clearly real ground beneath their feet. How could they be in the lake? Where had the Daming Lake water gone? If the water had directly evaporated with the opening power of the Front Gate big tactical array of Devil’s Doctrine, there should be mud at their feet. But the ground felt hard and solid at his feet, which was obviously somewhat strange.
The fog continued to disperse from the sky to the ground. Ning Que was able to see the tip of green broad-leaved forest branches in the lakeside. Judging from the height of the tip of branches, he was more and more certain that they were at the bottom of the lake, and doubt grew in his heart.
But at this time he did not have time to think about the reason for the mysterious disappearance of the Daming Lake. He saw the fog gradually dispersing and green trees gradually emerged. So he got his bow and arrows ready again as fast as possible. He endured the great pain in his shoulder and ignored the fresh blood still flowing from his fingers, vigilantly searching the surroundings with his naked eyes and Psyche Power.
Their visions became clear again and the aura fluctuation of heaven and earth had become calm. But as the fog that had previously protected him like a trench disappeared, the Tao Addict might find them at any time and once again launch an attack.
When the Front Gate of Devil’s Doctrine opened, he and Mo Shanshan were not seriously injured. So he naturally did not believe that the crazy Tao Addict would suffer any serious damage.
The sharp, cold arrow bunch of his Talisman Arrow moved slowly and steadily, aiming at everything he could see in all directions. It was ready to leave the tightly twisted string any time, shooting at the red dress that might appear.
However, he still did not find Ye Hongyu when the fog cleared no matter whether with his naked eyes or Psyche Power. He did not even hear the slightest noises and the whole verdant valley became quiet.
It was not absolutely quiet, for there were gurgling sounds of springs and streams around.
Ning Que did not know where the Tao Addict was, but his intuition told him that it should be safe at this moment. So he slowly took back his bow and glanced at Mo Shanshan beside him. And then he walked a few steps around and stepped on the gravel with his shoes, emitting some rustling sounds.
They were indeed at the bottom of the Daming Lake at this time. But they were not stepping on black mud, nor silver sand, but angular stones.
A few days ago he had attained Tao enlightenment and had broken the realm beside the Daming Lake and felt that this piece of the quiet lake was not too large. But today, when he walked on the bottom of the dry lake, he found that it was really large, just like a huge hollow stone bowl.
It was still a winter lake a moment ago and had suddenly become a dry gravel land in the next moment. What an incredibly wonderful picture it was. But the Front Gate of Devil’s Doctrine, an Unknown Place, had been very magical for them. So they did not show too many emotions, although they found it difficult to suppress the shock in their hearts.
After a brief moment of observation, the two finally found where the lake water went. There was water in the rubble at their feet, but only a very thin and shallow layer that drifted in one direction along the crevices of the gravels and then converged into a flat stream. And then, the stream flowed down to the lower place and eventually disappeared in the center of the lake bottom.
There was nothing strange in the center of the lake. But it could devour so much lake water in such a short period of time, which naturally made it weird. It seemed that there was a huge ancient monster opening its greedy mouth there.
Ning Que and Mo Shanshan glanced at each other and walked to the lake center along the direction of the clear water flowing at their feet. However, before they took a few more steps, he suddenly furrowed his brows and felt it difficult to lift up his legs as if there was lead attached to them. Beside him, Mo Shanshan’s face became extremely pale and she herself also looked as if she was in agony.
“What’s wrong?”
Ning Que felt a dreadful aura. He frowned and looked around, but he did not see anything strange.
There were gravels at the bottom of the lake, nothing strange indeed. They were just stones.
Some stones were large and some were small. They had different shapes, including hollow-shaped stones like artworks, round stones like drums, slender stones, and strangely weird stones that were hard to describe.
Some were full of green mosses, while others were as smooth as jade. But no matter what kind of stones they were, there was no trace of the lake water on them, as if they had not been soaked in the water for tens of millions of years.
The stones in the mountain and the valleys appeared in their sights as if they occurred in their chests at the same time. Even the sleek stones were full of invisible sharp edges so that people who saw them felt clogged in their chests.
They felt so uncomfortable and were in pain. They were full of resentment, unwillingness, and stubbornness.
Ning Que looked at these stones in front and finally felt its strangeness.
Mo Shanshan stared at these stones at his side and suddenly flushed. Her eyes became extremely bright and her thin lips slightly quivered. And then she said incredulously, “Are they… Stone Array Tactics?”
Ning Que asked, “What are the Stone Array Tactics?”
Mo Shanshan said in a trembling voice, “The West-Hill book once recorded a kind of tactical array. It could go across the heaven and earth and was powerful to an unimaginable extent. Compared with it, Judicial Department’s Confinement tactical array was simply vulnerable.”
Her face was full of reverence and admiration. She looked at the stones that seemed to be lying around randomly and said, “I always thought that this tactical array only existed in legends. I didn’t expect… someone actually could arrange it.”
Ning Que asked curiously, “These stones are… the legendary powerful Stone Array Tactics across the heaven and earth?”
Mo Shanshan turned around to look into his eyes, saying seriously, “Stone Array Tactics… are stones.”