Chapter 309: A beacon in the void

Sun Liao was now in another test but he kept thinking about Meng Hanyi, who now seemed to call himself Mo Zi. Although Sun Liao had been able to run away, he wasn't certain that Mo Zi and his sister had been killed. And even then, he couldn't be certain that they were alone. In fact, he was quite certain of the opposite. That meant that several demonic cultivators had infiltrated this Palace of Supreme Wisdom and no one outside had noticed anything.

He was absolutely sure that his master would have been able to detect small variations within the array formations. Even if the Palace of Supreme Wisdom was extremely complex, his master had studied it for a very long time. If he had not noticed anything, there were not that many explanations. Maybe it was indeed a mistake. His master was still human after all... Maybe someone had waited for him to not pay attention. But worse possibilities came to mind. Sun Liao immediately got rid of the stupid idea that his own master might have been a traitor. But then, he realized that there was also another possibility. His master might be dead by now.

As he was trapped in this Palace of Supreme Wisdom, Sun Liao could not be sure of anything. And then it dawned on him. It was also possible that his other friends could be in danger. He had no idea how many demonic cultivators were present in the Palace of Supreme Wisdom. Thus, he had no way to be sure whether his friends would be fine or not. Cao Yun was not a problem considering his current strength and cultivation level. He had survived a world of death last year.

But Sun Liao was not so sure about Mei Hua and Ren Chao. Although they had both great achievements in specific domains, they were still Mortals. Even with his strength, Ren Chao would probably not be able to survive against several Mortal Warriors acting together. Mei Hua was also not specialized in fighting at all.

Sun Liao was soon submerged by this anxiety. But he wouldn't let it win. In order to navigate this perilous situation, he had to be clear-minded. Thankfully, Cao Yun's mind cultivation came in handy. Moreover, the various tests had given him a great gift that both his sister and brother had. Now he could enter his sea of consciousness.

In it, he could see the Five Agents floating above his ocean. And high in the sky, he had nine suns emitting a scorching heat. The first time he saw them, Sun Liao was terribly dissatisfied. Although his martial art was called 'Houyi's Nine Suns', it in fact consisted of ten suns. Once the tenth sun was formed, all the nine others would join with it. There would be a single sun containing nine others.

Right now, he was still only at the Small Success stage. Even though his martial art was inferior to Cao Yun's, it was still a 1-star Human art. But in the hands of an array formation master, it could be so much more. By combining array formations and arrows, Sun Liao was certain he could create powerful new techniques. In fact, he could imbue almost any array formation in his attacks if he was good enough.

There was something new in his sea of consciousness though, and he only realized that when he tried to calm himself to think more clearly. Hovering in the air, in the center of the nine suns, there was the bow he had used. The sculptures on this bow were now more obvious for him to see. They were showing the story of nine hellish birds who had covered the world in flames by shining as bright as the sun. But one archer had drawn his bow. Without even shooting a single arrow, he took down all the nine suns.

The story was rather peculiar both in its content and in its visualization. Many things were rather abstract and could not be understood. But now Sun Liao was able to get it as though it had literally been written with words. After the previous test, Sun Liao had been rewarded with this bow. And he could feel a powerful connection with it. However, since it was in his sea of consciousness, he had no way to take it out as a Mortal. Even a Mortal Warrior could not open his sea of consciousness to the outside world. Only advanced Spirit Warriors were able of such a feat.

But still, Sun Liao tried to touch the bow with his mind and soul. And suddenly, the bow materialized in his hand in the real world. Surprised, Sun Liao almost dropped it. But he understood. He had heard of such a weapon before. At least, he had heard what he thought were legends about such weapons. Since the Legendary Era, no one had been able to craft such an object.

This 'Heavenly Mirror Longbow' was a spiritual weapon. It wasn't a weapon that could be classified with the usual ranks. Indeed, such a weapon would bond with the soul of its owner for life. Then, it would evolve as the owner would. Not only that, but it would literally become a part of both the body and the soul of the owner. As such, it entailed many things. But one of them had to be tested right away. Sun Liao completely forgot his worry because he had to test it out.

If this weapon was truly part of his body and soul, that meant he could control Qi within it even without being a Mortal Warrior. What an 8th-grade Mortal like him could do was to send Qi in his weapon but he couldn't control it, it would just be raw power that would slowly disperse away.

Sun Liao focused and sent Qi in his weapon while visualizing the result he wanted. At first, it was very faint, but there was clearly something between the riser of the bow and the string. An ethereal arrow was nocked on the string. From now on, Sun Liao could create his own arrows. But more than that, he had full control over his Qi inside the arrow. This meant that he could create many more array formations with his arrows. He did not need to engrave anything in them anymore. That was something he would have been able to do as soon as he had reached Mortal Warrior. But he could now do it sooner. And the situation clearly called for it. This was a gift sent by the Heavens. Truly, the Palace of Supreme Wisdom knew what the cultivators within it needed.

-

In another realm, a burly woman had appeared on the surface of an asteroid lost in the void of space. The sky above her was pitch-black and many celestial bodies were flying all around. At first she was a bit disorientated and looked around her to find that none of what she was expecting was there.

"Who are you?"

The voice of a young man disturbed her thoughts. Turning around, she immediately recognized him, Zhao Qing, one of the top ten candidates who had enrolled with Cao Yun in the Wubei Sect.

"How did you...?!"

His words got stuck in his throat as a powerful pressure encased his body. From her spatial ring, the woman retrieved a curved knife and got closer to the paralyzed young man.

"Usually, I would really take my time with such a fine body. But we're in a hurry."

For several minutes, she engraved various runes in the young man's flesh. As much as he wanted to scream, he could not because of the pressure exerted on him by her Qi. Moreover, the knife was clearly laced with some poison. It was seeping through his flesh and even crawling up his spine. Before long, he could feel it in his very soul. That woman was a demonic cultivator and she wanted to use him as a reserve of Evil Qi. As soon as he understood that, he tried to detonate his Lower Dantian but it was too late.

The poison and the runes in his flesh were acting in harmony. He now had no more control over his Qi. It was literally turning into Evil Qi as he was still alive and kicking. His meridians were being corroded by the Evil Qi. Then, his flesh began to dissolve from within. The pain was absolutely unbearable and yet the poison prevented him from falling unconscious. Until the very end, she would squeeze every bit of pain and resentment from him to power up the Evil Qi. Although he knew her plan, how could he not be resentful? He wanted to thwart her plan by calming his soul in order to create less Evil Qi, but he simply couldn't under the pain he was in.

During his atrocious end, the burly woman licked her lips and enjoyed every instant of his agony. She did not try to understand the test they were in at all. That was of no importance to her. But she needed the Evil Qi. She was the only one in the group to not have her full blood runes. Because they had been pressed with time, she had been forced to embark on this mission without those and felt inferior and looked down upon by the others. But from now on, this would change.

Only after getting the full set would she try and find her brothers and sisters. Anyway, she had no way of doing so, hence she had no reason to really worry about that. She had not been brought for her array formation knowledge, this was Mo Tian's protégé's job. And if he were to fail at that job, she would enjoy watching what Mo Tian would do to him. But then, he would also do it to her and all the others who had failed as well. All of a sudden, the idea began to lose its charm.

Just as Zhao Qing was breathing his last, she took the Supreme emblem he had on him. She had been briefed on the rules of the Palace of Supreme Wisdom. And she didn't want it to teleport her victim away in order to save his life. Besides, maybe she could somehow use the emblem for something.

Zhao Qing's mutilated body fell to the ground and one last and perfect blood rune rose from his lifeless carcass. Slowly it flew toward the burly woman. Then, it penetrated her chest at the level of her heart. Controlling it, she pushed the blood rune extremely slowly so that she could feel every instant of it cutting through her flesh and closing the wound behind, kissing her flesh with Evil Qi. Finally, her last blood rune had been created. She now had a hundred and eight blood runes like everyone else.

Satisfied, she was on the verge of taking a break to feel all the new sensations of those blood runes when something happened. An incredibly weak force was trying to pull on her blood runes. At first, she believed that something had gone wrong or that someone was attacking her. But she was alone and there was no way she had carved this blood rune wrong. The force was very light and she could probably disregard it without any problem. However she was not stupid. There was clearly something at work here and she had to understand it.

The 'Blood Runes' cultivation method had been recently found by the demonic cultivators with many other archaic artifacts and manuscripts. If there was something new about those blood runes that she could discover, it would be a very impressive finding for her masters. Maybe she could even balance out the upcoming failure of this crucial mission. After all, she was not the one who had screwed up. The array formation meant to transport her had failed. So it was either Mo Tian or Mo Zi's fault. And most likely, the fault would fall on Mo Zi anyway.

Thinking about Mo Zi, the burly woman realized something. The pull on those blood runes felt familiar. They were resonating with the seal Mo Tian had placed on her to obey his disciple.

Then...?!

Yes, this sensation in her blood runes was from Mo Zi. Somehow he was trying to contact her. Maybe this mission was not a failure after all. And if she was the one who salvaged it by helping Mo Zi out, she would become a true hero!

As she didn't know what to do exactly, she decided to completely expel the blood runes from her body. The moment she did, the sensation became even stronger as her Wei Qi was not getting in the way.

-

Still inside the Absolute Haven Lotus, Mo Zi was using his blood runes and Wang Jinhua's blood runes to establish a connection with the blood runes of his brothers and sisters. But this connection had to literally cross over the void that was slowly swallowing everything. It wasn't the void of space, but the real void, the absence of all things. Even for Mo Zi, it was hard to wrap his head around the concept. But he decided not to think about it. His understanding of space was as empty as this void for now. But in the future, being witness to such an event would probably reap many benefits for him in understanding the Dao.

Finally, he felt something. At first there was some obstacle but it also began to disperse. Yes, one of his brethren had probably understood what was going on.

Using the array formation plate from his master, Mo Zi took full control of the Absolute Haven Lotus and tried to direct it toward the sensation.

It took a very long time. On the ground, Wang Jinhua was still in a terrible condition. But Mo Zi was helping her out so that the Evil Qi in her would not wreak havoc. Indeed, he needed her for this operation. Without her blood runes, he would never get enough pull on his comrades' runes. But Wang Jinhua was worried of what he would do with her once they would be safe. Hopefully, he would be in dire need of comrades. But she was deeply wounded...

Finally, their giant lotus reached some kind of membrane lost in the void. It was a strange object with very complicated geometrical topology. And it was floating in nothing. It wasn't the void of space, it was pure nothingness. Before going crazy, Mo Zi ignored it all. He didn't try to understand what was going on. Instead, he focused on the strange membrane. This was clearly the boundary of one of the realms. And one of his comrades was in there. Hopefully they had killed the Wubei disciple inside and they would all be safe.

But to open the boundary, Mo Zi knew of no other way than to pierce through it with the Absolute Haven Lotus. This was a 3-star Heaven array formation. As such, Mo Zi was certain it could damage the boundary. And he was hoping that it would be enough for him to get inside. Maybe Wang Jinhua could get inside as well...