Slowly coming to his senses from the jolt of the teleportation, Xu Yuan's gaze was met by a vermilion ceiling with upturned eaves.
He didn't immediately stand up, instead lying dazed as he pondered what he had just seen.
A Saint's remnant soul.
The Heaven-Deducing Art.
Cangyuan's description of Old Man Luo was rather sparse.
Following the classic tropes, whenever the protagonist asked about the Saint's past identity or his former cultivation realm, the old geezer would start talking in riddles.
"Merely a Third-rank Grandmaster."
"Knowing too much will do you no good right now."
"Ah, back in my day, the holy maidens of those great sects—now they were truly a sight for sore eyes..."
Not a single word explicitly bragged about how formidable he was, yet every single word screamed it.
Pavilion Master of the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion.
No wonder Old Man Luo had acted so intimately familiar with the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion.
Xu Yuan asked softly, "Old Man Luo, were you once the Pavilion Master of the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion?"
"Pavilion Master my ass. Merely a Holy Venerable."
Hearing this, Xu Yuan blanked for a moment.
A Holy Venerable of the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion?
That sounded even more terrifying than being the Pavilion Master.
Before he could dwell on it, the Saint's remnant soul spoke again:
"Brat Xu, how did you know the boundary of this secret realm was a teleportation formation?"
Xu Yuan thought for a moment and replied in a low voice, "I read about it in an ancient book once."
"..."
A few seconds of silence followed.
The Saint's remnant soul remarked faintly, "Brat Xu, do you take this old man for a fool?"
Xu Yuan smiled, slowly sitting up as he countered, "Old Man Luo, didn't you say earlier that not even a Holy Venerable is permitted to study the Heaven-Deducing Art? How did you learn it, then?"
The Saint's remnant soul chuckled. "A Holy Venerable is indeed forbidden from studying it, but why should I tell you the reason behind that?"
*The old man is talking in riddles again.*
Xu Yuan gave a soft laugh, completely unbothered. "In that case, why should I answer your question? Old Man Luo, knowing too much will do you no good."
"..." the Saint's remnant soul fell silent.
Xu Yuan did not stop. Sitting on the ground, propping his elbows on his knees with his hand against his forehead, he said, "I can pretty much guess why you know the Heaven-Deducing Art. Rules may forbid studying it, but rules are rigid while people are flexible. Not to mention, you were a Transcendent-grade Saint. You either stole it or took it by force—it's one of the two."
Pausing, Xu Yuan lifted his eyes and continued on his own, "If that's the case, we could actually form a partnership. As a Holy Venerable, you abused your trust to steal the Pavilion Master's inheritance. And since the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion hasn't been completely wiped out, that ought to be a capital offense, shouldn't it?"
The Saint's remnant soul listened attentively, then let out a dry laugh. "Heh... don't think you can coax anything out of me."
"..."
Seeing that the old man wouldn't take the bait, Xu Yuan sighed faintly, stood up from the floor, and dropped the subject.
He glanced around.
This was an immense lake crisscrossed by vermilion corridors built over the water, extending endlessly into the distance. Broad lotus leaves accompanied blooming pink lotuses across the surface. At the very center of this massive lake stood a colossal cherry blossom tree in magnificent bloom, its petals shimmering with an ethereal glow as they drifted down with the gentle breeze.
A tranquil, eternal beauty untouched by ten thousand years.
Taking in the surroundings, Xu Yuan roughly knew which map he had landed in.
Good luck.
He had been teleported straight to the central hub of Vault Palace. By following these intricate corridors built over the water, one could reach any location within this immortal palace.
Following Xu Yuan's gaze, the Saint's remnant soul drifted out directly from the soul realm and remarked softly, "There's a Luanyin Formation around here."
A Luanyin Formation disrupted the local intent-soul or Source Qi, thereby completely blocking all external perception.
In short, all-band jamming.
Xu Yuan glanced at him and chuckled quietly. "Vault Palace is still fairly intact, so naturally it has defensive formations."
"Vault Palace... this secret realm is the Dao palace of the Qionghua Sect from ten thousand years ago?" The Saint's remnant soul looked at Xu Yuan with a rather peculiar expression.
Xu Yuan shrugged with a grin. "Whatever it's called, Old Man Luo, even with your soul power you can't break the ward?"
The Saint's remnant soul gave a cold huff. "This place is rather bizarre. If I recklessly break the formation, who knows if it might trigger others?"
"Fair point." Xu Yuan nodded and began walking along the corridor.
With the gentle breeze wafting by, the lake was as serene and picturesque as a Jiangnan water town. The intricate vermilion corridors and the boundless expanse of lotus leaves and blossoms served as a backdrop to the giant cherry blossom tree at the center.
Autumn waters shared the same hue as the vast sky.
After walking some distance, the Saint's remnant soul spoke up again:
"Brat Xu, where are you heading?"
Xu Yuan pointed toward the hundred-meter-tall cherry blossom tree a kilometer away. "Over there, naturally."
"There? Do you need me to fly you across?" the Saint's remnant soul asked with a low, probing chuckle.
Xu Yuan smiled faintly without answering.
Reaching into his Sumeru ring, he pulled out the carcass of a wolf demon he had kept as reserve rations and casually tossed it far out over the placid water.
The Saint focused his attention.
While the wolf demon's carcass was still flying through the air, a second of silence passed.
Suddenly, several leech-like creatures shot out from beneath the lake surface, each a hundred times larger than an ordinary leech.
Extending their mouthparts in midair, they plunged them into the wolf carcass. Within seconds, the corpse shriveled into a dried husk before falling heavily back into the water, laden with the clinging leeches.
"What on earth is that?"
The Saint's remnant soul sounded somewhat perplexed. "It resembles a Huang River leech, yet also a Blood Spirit leech..."
He paused, then shook his head. "Still, these leeches are only roughly equivalent to the Eighth-rank..."
"What's the rush?" Xu Yuan cut in.
"Oh?"
Interrupted, the Saint's remnant soul took no offense, merely uttering a soft murmur of curiosity before quietly watching the water.
Silence fell over the corridor. The ripples kicked up by the wolf corpse gradually subsided, but just as the lake was about to return to complete stillness—
From far to near, the entire surface of the lake began to boil.
In an instant,
Innumerable giant leeches breached the surface, densely packed and piled in overlapping layers. As far as the eye could see, the entire lake was covered in their grotesque, massive mouthparts.
Yet after breaking the surface, none of the leeches made another move. From every direction, the eyeless mouthparts silently faced the two of them.
Eerie and dead silent.
Seeing this scene from Cangyuan re-created before his eyes in reality gave Xu Yuan genuine goosebumps.
There were two ways to reach that cherry blossom tree.
The first was to navigate the maze of corridors.
The second was to fly straight across.
However, flying straight across would trigger the monsters in the pool known simply as "leeches."
They had no flashy name; the creatures here were just called leeches.
Yet that wasn't the critical part.
The critical part was that these things didn't display a health bar.
If one wanted to fly across, they could only passively endure the beatings and tank the damage with their own health pool. Only when approaching the giant cherry blossom tree would a colossal leech occupying half the screen emerge for the actual boss fight.
That boss's name was just as casual: the Leech King.
Yet despite the lethal perils lurking beneath the lake, the corridors built above the water were entirely safe.
As long as a player retreated back onto the corridor, the leeches would automatically cease their attacks.
Now brought to life in reality, it was indeed no different from Cangyuan.
Chapter 104