Chapter 160: Couldn't Find a Way Out

The two female cultivators weren’t heavily injured. Although Mo Tiange and Daoist Fangzheng were blunt towards them, and they also saw the completely unconcealed contempt Mo Tiange and Daoist Fangzheng showed towards them, they didn’t dare to say anything. After all, it was a fact that those two had higher cultivation levels than them. In addition, they experienced the two people’s fighting strength first hand. They, on the other hand, were just female cultivators who were weak in fights of magical powers. If they really came to blows, either one of those two was powerful enough to kill them.

Right after they obediently dressed their wounds, they followed Mo Tiange and Daoist Fangzheng without daring to say anything.

Even though Mo Tiange did intend to give them a lesson, she hadn’t injured the vital parts of their bodies. After using simple healing spells, the two women’s wounds became less severe.

After enduring such a farce, the group of four continued looking until the end of their designated search route silently. As they expected, they found nothing, so they hurried back towards the stone statue.

They walked to the bottom of the valley then turned into a corner, bringing the stone statue into their line of sight. However, Mo Tiange was dumbstruck.

The stone altar was empty. There wasn’t anyone around, including Yan Ruoshu.

Mo Tiange felt exhausted. Although she admitted that female cultivators’ fighting strength was generally far lower than male cultivators’, she’d encountered quite a few female cultivators since she started cultivating, and most of them didn’t lose out to men. Aside from the maids by Lord Daoist Jinghe’s side, whose egos were so high that they were over the top, Yunwu Sect’s Wang Qianyi and Murong Yan; Xuanqing School’s Luo Fengxue, Han Qingyu and the others all had methods of doing things and temperaments that were comparable to those of male cultivators; they would never drag other people down.

These three Bixuan Court female cultivators truly infuriated Mo Tiange. One was a coward, and the other two were jealous love rivals—could it be that there were only women inside their cultivation group and no male cultivators as a comparison, so they became so indulgent towards themselves and didn’t have the ambition to progress?

Mo Tiange composed herself and said, “I told Fellow Daoist Yan that we’d meet here before. I don’t know where she went.”

Daoist Fangzheng’s expression sank after he heard what Mo Tiange said. He was an individual cultivator, so when he saw these women from a cultivation group being so useless, he was even more enraged. How much effort did individual cultivators like him have to exert just to build their foundation? How many dangers and challenges did they have to endure? These disciples from a cultivation group had the guidance of their group and masters to worship, yet they still ended up such a disappointment.

“Let’s wait here. It certainly would be troublesome if we split up again,” Daoist Fangzheng said, “And continuing to search like this isn’t a solution either. If we lose anyone else…”

Daoist Fangzheng didn’t finish his sentence, but Mo Tiange already understood what he meant. They weren’t related to these women in any way. Since they could barely take care of themselves right now, they better let these women fend for themselves for the time being.

This might be cruel, but it was also realistic. If Mo Tiange’s strength was abundant, she wouldn’t mind lending them a hand, but since she was also completely at a loss about the Illusory Formation, she thought she better avoid getting mortally implicated by them.

Daoist Fangzheng was only an individual cultivator, but he was able to live until the middle stage of the Foundation Building realm because he was capable of being ruthless when needed. It was actually Mo Tiange whom he was afraid of being soft-hearted. But since Mo Tiange remained silent, he knew that could be considered tacit acceptance of his idea, so he finally felt a bit more relieved. During the fight a moment ago, he saw Mo Tiange’s strength. In order to leave this place alive, he naturally wanted to cooperate with her.

At that moment, the two women surnamed Yun and Liu didn’t understand the meaning behind their words. Seeing their confused, clueless looks, Mo Tiange felt both pity and hatred towards them. In the end, she hardened her resolve and pretended she hadn’t noticed anything. Although she possessed the Virtual Sky World, she was now inside someone else’s Illusory Formation. Even if she entered the Virtual Sky World, nothing would change if she couldn’t leave this formation. Because of that, the most important thing now was leaving this Illusory Formation safely; she didn’t need to be responsible for other people’s life and death.

The four people waited on the altar around the stone statue for a while before the two cultivators surnamed Lu and Wang finally returned.

When Mo Tiange’s divine sense perceived their arrival, she deliberately paid more attention to them then discovered that there were really just the two of them; Yao Zixiu and Shang Ruwan were nowhere to be seen. She felt both glad and disappointed at the same time. She was glad because those two men came back without a problem, but she was disappointed because she had a good impression of Shang Ruwan. She couldn’t help but feel a bit sad if Shang Ruwan just disappeared like that.

Once the two men surnamed Lu and Wang arrived, they looked at everyone briefly then asked, “What about the Yao couple and Miss Yan?”

Since Daoist Fangzheng fought these two earlier, he couldn’t care less about them at the moment. Mo Tiange was the one who answered. “We didn’t find the Yao couple either. Fellow Daoist Yan was originally here; we don’t know where she went, but she was missing when we came back.”

The two men surnamed Lu and Wang glanced at each other; both felt a bit anxious. “Then what should we do? If something happens to them, would we be affected?”

“I don’t know,” Mo Tiange said faintly, “We’ve searched the entire valley for them. If Fellow Daoists have any ideas, you can tell us so we can try them out.”

When they stood on the five-colored Five Elements Platforms, the two cultivators surnamed Lu and Wang showed they were proficient in formations. In fact, Mo Tiange came from a clan proficient in formations, and she also had the books from the Distant Past Era in the Virtual Sky World, so her knowledge in formations was naturally richer than theirs. However, she didn’t plan on revealing much; she deliberately didn’t want to show the extent of her knowledge to avoid exposing her weaknesses.

Lu and Wang looked startled to hear what Mo Tiange said, but a moment later, the two of them moved to the side and began discussing with each other.

Mo Tiange listened to them briefly. Their skills in formations were pretty good. However, this Illusory Formation was too realistic, so their solution most likely wouldn’t be very useful. Hence, she silently moved to the side, sat down, and began pondering by herself.

Every formation needed spiritual aura from external objects to support it. The formation on the altar of the real valley was broken so easily by Mo Tiange only because it was already very old, so its spiritual aura had declined. As for this Illusory Formation, since it was able to create a second rank demonic beast, a Foundation Building cultivator and even a thousand-year-old spiritual plant brimming with spiritual aura, it certainly expended a tremendous amount of spiritual aura. This was what baffled her. Why was this formation able to display such power even though it had existed for such a long time? To trap them in this place and create the illusion of those things full of spiritual aura, the amount of spiritual required was indeed incredible—it certainly wasn’t something achievable by several hundred to thousand-year-old spirit stones. The spirit stones used in this kind of refined formation had to be of a higher grade.

Spirit stones were also classified into a few different grades. Every ordinary spirit stone whose quality wasn’t mentioned was of a low grade. Aside from that, there were also middle grade and high grade spirit stones. Middle grade and high grade spirit stones were very uncommon in the cultivation world; even Core Formation cultivators had a very hard time obtaining them. Nevertheless, since Mo Tiange was a disciple of Lord Daoist Jinghe, the disciple rations she received included some middle grade and high grade spirit stones. But even though she had them, she still used low grade spirit stones normally and only used the middle grade and high grade spirit stones if she wanted to lay high level formations.

The higher the level of a formation, the denser the spiritual aura required to lay it. After reaching a certain degree, the density of spiritual aura could no longer be increased just by adding more spirit stones; middle grade or high grade spirit stones had to be used for the formation to work. Since this formation required such a terrifying amount of spiritual aura, Mo Tiange guessed that the high grade spirit stones it required must be more than several thousand or even over ten thousand.

More than ten thousand high grade spirit stones! Mo Tiange just thought it over briefly, but she already thought it was terrifying. Because she was Lord Daoist Jinghe’s advanced inner disciple, her disciple rations were only a bit less than those allocated to Core Formation cultivators and several times more than those allocated to Foundation Building cultivators or elite disciples. Despite that, she only got around ten middle grade and high grade spirit stones each year. If she didn’t advance to the next realm, it would take over a thousand years to accumulate ten thousand high grade spirit stones!

She’d been in charge of every affair in Shangqing Palace for the past few years, so she knew that among the annual offerings given to Lord Daoist Jinghe, he only got a hundred some high grade spirit stones. That being the case, he’d also need several dozen years to a hundred years to gather ten thousand of them. If he had to spend some in cultivating, laying formations and so on, there mustn’t be much left of her cheap master’s fortune, right?

What kind of person was the master of this place? That master of hers was a Nascent Soul cultivator from one of the very best cultivation groups in the Celestial Pole; although he could be considered rich in wealth and spirit stones even among other Nascent Soul cultivators, he most likely would never use over ten thousand high grade spirit stones just to lay a formation. Could it be that the master of this place was a cultivator in the realm above the Nascent Soul realm? Right after this thought flitted by, Mo Tiange shook her head.

She met Zhong Muling and Yuan Bao. Based on their Illusory Formations, this formation was far inferior to Zhong Muling’s and didn’t seem like the creation of Deification cultivators. Besides, were Deification cultivators so easy to find? According to Yuan Bao, the world was vast and the Celestial Pole was only one of its corners. There were more than a dozen places like the Celestial Pole; moreover, only one new Deification cultivator appeared every several thousand of years—how could she possibly have the luck of stumbling upon a Deification cultivator’s Immortal’s Cave?

Mo Tiange shook her head then continued pondering how to break this formation. Spiritual aura… Right! Such a gigantic formation certainly wouldn’t be able to be active for long. Even if they couldn’t break the formation, it’d be pretty good if they could hang on for several months!

A happy expression appeared on Mo Tiange’s face. A second later, however, her smile faded. She was wrong; she only considered how an Illusory Formation would certainly consume a lot of spiritual aura, but she forgot that Illusory Formations could cause shifts in people’s perception; one day might actually feel like one year! If that really happened, then being trapped here for several months might be more like several hundred years. They might feel like they couldn’t escape for several hundred years, but their progress in cultivation wouldn’t be representative of several hundred years—wouldn’t everybody go mad in the end?

Thinking up to this point without a solution, Mo Tiange finally heaved a sigh.

Daoist Fangzheng noticed her expression, so he came over and asked, “Fellow Daoist Ye, what’s wrong?”

Mo Tiange shook her head. “It’s nothing. I just can’t think of a way to break this formation.” She then turned to look at the two cultivators surnamed Lu and Wang. They also shook their heads and sighed; obviously, they also couldn’t find a way to break the formation.

As for the two female Bixuan Court disciples, upon seeing how cautious the rest of them looked, they finally realized how dangerous their situation was now, so they finally lost their desire to quarrel with each other.

The six of them were at their wit’s end. They sat on the altar for an entire day until the sky darkened, but they still couldn’t think of a solution. The Yao couple and Yan Ruoshu also remained nowhere to be seen.

When she saw the sky darkening, Mo Tiange casually found a spot on the altar, sat down, and began meditating. She didn’t know whether this place was safe or not, so she naturally didn’t dare to cultivate; she was merely adjusting her breath now.

The surroundings were completely quiet, but they suddenly heard sobbing noises.

Mo Tiange opened her eyes and turned to look at the two women surnamed Yun and Liu.

The one sobbing was Yun Hanyan. With a face gleaming with tears, she sat hugging her knees, looking as if she wanted to cry but didn’t dare to.

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“Miss Yun.” The cultivator surnamed Lu walked towards the two women and asked softly, “What happened to you?”

Yun Hanyan raised her head; her eyes were brimming with tears. She looked both lovely and pitiful at the same time. With a trembling voice, she answered, “I… I…” She wanted to talk but didn’t dare to.

The cultivator surnamed Wang also came towards them. Seeing how Yun Hanyan looked, the two male cultivators both had sympathetic expressions on their faces. The cultivator surnamed Lu started to say soothingly, “Miss Yun, don’t worry, I’m here! I… We will protect you.”

After hearing that, Yun Hanyan finally blinked, causing a tear to drop from her eye. “Really?”

The two male cultivators nodded vigorously.

Mo Tiange originally thought “Senior Martial Sister Liu” would say something to mock Yun Hanyan, but she surprisingly didn’t. When Mo Tiange cast a glance at her, she realized “Senior Martial Sister Liu” was sitting in a daze. Her eyes were empty, and she looked like she’d lost her soul. From time to time, a happy smile appeared on her face, but her expression was always filled with endless sorrow in the end.

Mo Tiange remembered that during the day, this “Senior Martial Sister Liu” and Yun Hanyan fought for a man’s affection… She was probably thinking about her Big Brother Tang now. But looking at her expression then recalling their dialogue during the day, Mo Tiange thought she was most likely thinking about something sad.

Compared to how Yun Hanyan looked like a little white rabbit as she talked to the two male cultivators, this “Senior Martial Sister Liu” was filled with loneliness, so Mo Tiange couldn’t help but feel sympathetic for her.

No matter who was wrong between the two women, it was very obvious whose feelings were deeper. While Yun Hanyan was probably used to seeking favor from men, the female cultivator surnamed Liu was only thinking about her Big Brother Tang now.

In fact, it wouldn’t be strange at all if that Big Brother Tang liked Yun Hanyan more. Whether it was men or women, both felt the other was very strange. Women who were well liked by men usually weren’t acknowledged by other women, and men who were liked by women were also normally considered “attractive on the outside, worthless on the inside” by other men. Whether Yun Hanyan pretended to be weak or pitiful, men would believe and like her. But… that person wasn’t like this, right? In his eyes, men and women seemed to be the same. Aside from cultivating, he didn’t care about anything else…

She didn’t know how long she was lost in her own thoughts, but in the darkness of the night, Daoist Fangzheng suddenly shouted, “Who’s there?!”

Mo Tiange was startled. She immediately stood up and prepared to fight. She spread her divine sense, but in the next second, she was completely stunned.

From the darkness, a man with a tall stature slowly walked towards them. He was dressed like a scholar but gave off a very valiant vibe. The aura emanating from his whole body was terrifying.

At that moment, everyone’s expression already changed. This kind of aura… A Core Formation senior!

Out of habit, after Daoist Fangzheng got a clear look at that person, he immediately looked at Mo Tiange’s reaction. However, Mo Tiange was surprisingly engrossed in watching that person and looked as if she was thinking about something. With no the time to think deeper, he cupped his hands as a greeting and said very respectfully, “Senior, Junior is Fangzheng. Pardon me for asking, but may I know how you came here, Senior?”

That person didn’t pay him any attention. Instead, he walked straight towards Mo Tiange.

Daoist Fangzheng and the others were completely terrified. Although they had a lot of people on their side, the person on the other side was a Core Formation cultivator! The gap between the Core Formation realm and the Foundation Building realm was huge! They didn’t know where this person came from, but if he had evil intentions towards them, he’d only need to wave and they’d already…

Under their anxious, fear-filled gazes, that person finally stopped a few dozen feet away from Mo Tiange.

Mo Tiange heaved a deep sigh, cast a glance at that person and said, “This is a phantom.”

“A phantom?” Daoist Fangzheng and the others were dumbfounded. Nevertheless, they still watched cautiously in fear that the phantom would have the fighting power of the real person, just like the phantom they ran into before.

“Tiange,” the phantom suddenly spoke.

Daoist Fangzheng and the others were shocked. It was expected for the cultivators surnamed Lu and Wang to be shocked as they hadn’t come across human phantoms after all. As for the two female cultivators as well as Liu and Daoist Fangzheng, they might’ve seen the phantom of “Big Brother Tang,” but the phantom didn’t speak then.

Step by step, the phantom walked towards Mo Tiange again. It said softly, “Tiange, why didn’t you say goodbye to me when you left?”

Mo Tiange closed her eyes for a while. But when she opened her eyes and realized the phantom was still there, she laughed bitterly. “Why did I have to say goodbye to you?”

The phantom took some time to answer: “En, you shouldn’t say goodbye to me. I don’t want to see you.”

Even though she was well aware that what stood in front of her now was fake, Mo Tiange still felt her heart tightening. After a long time, she finally sighed then said softly, “Yes. Although I don’t know why, your actions told me you didn’t want to see me. I… I don’t want to see you either. You should go—don’t ever show your face in front of me again.” After she said that, she looked away then closed her eyes.

The phantom stood still for quite a while after it heard what Mo Tiange said. All of sudden, it stepped forward until it was just a very short distance away from Mo Tiange.

It softened its voice and said, “In fact, I want to see you. I just… just…”

As it stretched its hands to hug her, Mo Tiange suddenly took a step back. She said that because she wanted the phantom to disappear on its own, but… but she couldn’t control her own thoughts. She took a deep breath then raised her head to look at the phantom straight in the eyes. It was almost identical to the real person it was imitating. She said word by word, “You’re a fake. I don’t want a fake.”

The phantom unexpectedly revealed a smile, a smile which very rarely appeared on the real person. “I’m real. You’re wishing I was real.”

“I…” Mo Tiange could sense that her current mental state was extremely chaotic. She knew this kind of phantom wouldn’t disappear, but she was practically unable to control herself right now.

“Fellow Daoist Ye!” At that moment, Daoist Fangzheng suddenly shouted and threw her a talisman. “This is a Heart-Calming Talisman.”

Mo Tiange accepted it then pasted it onto her body without any hesitation. Although her mental state couldn’t calm down straightaway, at least it was no longer chaotic. She gradually slowed down her breathing before she earnestly stared at the phantom before her.

“I admit… I do love you. However, I want to walk on the path towards immortality; if you love me, I’m happy; if you loathe me, I’m not sad—”

Eventually, the man in light blue robes slowly faded along with Mo Tiange’s voice.

When the phantom faded away completely, Daoist Fangzheng and the others finally heaved a sigh. A Core Formation cultivator… The phantoms here had the power of the real people they impersonated; if they really ended up fighting that phantom, they wouldn’t need to think of a way out because they would certainly die there.

“Fellow Daoist Ye.” Right now, there was something different in Daoist Fangzheng’s gaze. When he heard the phantom calling her by another name, he knew the name Ye Xiaotian was most likely fake. But it didn’t matter; they were strangers who chanced upon each other, so they might not see each other again after they separated—whatever name she went by didn’t have anything to do with him.

The main point was that the phantom a moment ago was the phantom of a Core Formation cultivator! This woman had an uncommon relationship with a Core Formation cultivator, so this revealed that this woman’s identity was much more remarkable than he previously thought—he must never offend her by any means.

In addition, Daoist Fangzheng also noticed something else. He’d roamed around the cultivation world for several hundred years and seen countless cultivators, so he could recognize that the phantom was wearing the Daoist robes of Xuanqing School, the second greatest cultivation group in the Celestial Pole. There were high chances that this woman was also related to Xuanqing School.

Drawing on his rich experience, Daoist Fangzheng already analyzed these points within a short time and already had some preemptive measures he wanted to enact. No matter whether it was because of her hidden identity or the skills she’d shown up till now, he must never offend this woman.

As Mo Tiange wiped the sweat on her forehead, she displayed a slight smile at Daoist Fangzheng. “Fellow Daoist Fangzheng, thank you for the Heart-Calming Talisman. The price for a Heart-Calming Talisman is quite high; it’s not cheap. I shouldn’t let Fellow Daoist suffer a loss for no reason, so I might as well give this talisman to Fellow Daoist in exchange.”

Daoist Fangzheng accepted what she offered him. The moment he saw what it was, he was completely ecstatic. This was actually a Foundation Building realm Body-Concealing Talisman! He originally felt quite torn when he offered her that Heart-Calming Talisman, which was worth more than a hundred spirit stones. Now, however, he made a huge profit! A Foundation Building realm Body-Concealing Talisman had no market price. Even if he could buy it, it would cost him at least several hundred spirit stones.

“Thank you Fellow Daoist. I’m not going to be polite.”