Chapter 501 - 472: Underwater Ruins (Part 2)

Chapter 501: Chapter 472: Underwater Ruins (Part 2)

But for the Array Net Overview, these nested layers were merely a delay of a few seconds.

Li Yuan tapped his right index finger on the stone door’s surface seven times in succession. Each tap landed precisely on a key node of the Array Pattern’s circuit. Spiritual Power flowed backward along the path he designated, unraveling the Restriction’s nested structure layer by layer from the inside.

CLICK.

The stone door slid open silently.

Mo Baichuan stepped forward and stared at the completely undamaged stone door, remaining silent for a moment.

"Your cultivation in the Array Dao is far superior to mine," he said sincerely, without a hint of false pleasantry.

The two of them stepped into the ruins.

The interior of the ruins was much larger than it appeared from the outside, clearly having been spatially expanded. The corridor walls were covered with numerous murals and inscriptions, recording the history of some ancient cultivator family.

At the end of the corridor, the path split into three, each leading to a different area of the ruins.

Li Yuan and Mo Baichuan chose the left passage, entering a spacious Side Palace.

Several stone pedestals were arranged in the Side Palace, on which were scattered the remains of various Magical Artifacts and Spiritual Materials. Most had lost their spirituality due to their great age, but a few better-preserved items still emitted a faint Spiritual Light.

The moment Li Yuan stepped into the Side Palace, his perception within a three-foot radius triggered.

Two glimmers of light. One blue, one green.

The blue light came from an old bronze chime in the corner of a stone pedestal deep within the Side Palace. The body of the chime was covered in verdigris, but its striking surface was still as smooth as a mirror.

The green light came from a shattered, bead-like object on another pedestal. An extremely faint Water Spiritual Power circulated on its surface.

Li Yuan didn’t immediately go to take them. Instead, his gaze fell upon the deepest part of the Side Palace.

Behind those two items, a stone humanoid puppet about ten feet tall stood silently in the shadows. The puppet was made entirely of some kind of extremely hard water stone. Its joints were embedded with blue Crystal Cores, and its surface was densely carved with Driving Array Patterns.

’A Tier Three Top Grade guardian puppet.’

Mo Baichuan also noticed the puppet, and his expression tensed. "Its grade is quite high. It won’t be easy to deal with if we fight it head-on."

Before the words had even left his mouth, the puppet’s eyes suddenly lit up with an eerie blue glow.

A heavy stone arm lifted, and the Spirit Patterns on its fist flared to their brightest. A blast of force, imbued with terrifying water pressure, shot out, aiming straight for the two men’s faces.

Mo Baichuan reacted instantly, forming hand seals. A thick water shield materialized before him. The blast of force slammed into the shield with a muffled explosion, and the impact sent Mo Baichuan staggering back three steps.

Li Yuan sidestepped the blast, his eyes scanning the puppet’s physical structure.

The Array Net Overview pinpointed the location of the puppet’s core. Right in the center of its chest, a fist-sized blue Crystal Core was spinning at high speed, driving all of the puppet’s movements.

"I’ll hold it from the front! You find a chance to break its drive circuit!" Mo Baichuan shouted. The Spell in his hands changed, and several water chains shot out from all directions to wrap around the puppet’s arms and legs.

Li Yuan nodded and flashed to the puppet’s flank.

Mo Baichuan’s water chains only lasted for a few seconds before the puppet snapped them, but new chains immediately replaced the broken ones, slowing the puppet’s movements by more than half.

Seeing his chance, Li Yuan shot his right hand out.

He didn’t use Spiritual Power.

Instead, a wisp of extremely pure Demonic Qi seeped silently from his fingertip, slipping quietly into the crevices of the Array Patterns on the puppet’s back.

The corrosion of the Demonic Qi was extremely subtle. It didn’t damage the Array Patterns themselves. Instead, it precisely infiltrated the Spiritual Power conduction nodes between the drive circuit and the Crystal Core, where it condensed into an incredibly thin film of Demonic Qi.

This film blocked the transmission of Spiritual Power between the Crystal Core and the Array Patterns.

The puppet’s movements abruptly froze.

Its arms fell to its sides. The eerie blue light in its eyes flickered rapidly a few times before fading completely. The entire puppet stood rigidly in place, like a soulless stone statue.

Mo Baichuan retracted his water chains and stared at the suddenly deactivated puppet, stunned for a moment. "You broke its drive circuit?"

"The Array Pattern has a backdoor. You just have to attack it from behind," Li Yuan said, his expression calm.

Mo Baichuan walked around to the puppet’s back and looked. Sure enough, he found a few unusual marks in the crevices of the Array Patterns. He nodded and didn’t ask any more questions.

With the Side Palace now secure, the two began to take stock of the items on the pedestals.

Li Yuan looked at the ancient chime and the water bead on the table.

One blue, one green.

After finishing their inventory, they began to divide the spoils.

Besides the ancient chime and the water bead, the Side Palace also contained several well-preserved fragments of Magical Artifacts and a batch of High Tier Spiritual Materials.

Mo Baichuan looked at the total haul and proposed, "You contributed the most, so you should pick two items first. I’ll take the rest."

Li Yuan didn’t stand on ceremony. He directly took the Tidal Sound Ancient Chime and the Water Spirit Bead.

[Equippable Item Detected: Tidal Sound Ancient Chime (Complete)]

[Equipment Affix Preview: Tidal Sound Penetration (Blue)]

[Effect: When using sound wave-type Magic, penetration and range are increased by 60%.]

[Permanence Condition: Injure a cultivator of the same tier with a sound wave in a deep-sea area.]

’A blue affix.’

Putting down the ancient chime, Li Yuan picked up the water bead.

[Equippable Item Detected: Water Spirit Bead (Complete)]

[Equipment Affix Preview: Water Spirit Affinity (Green)]

[Effect: Increases affinity for Water Spiritual Power by 50%.]

[Permanence Condition: In an environment rich with Water Spiritual Qi, cultivate a Water Element Cultivation Technique and break through one cultivation realm.]

Mo Baichuan collected the remaining Magical Artifact fragments and Spiritual Materials into his storage bag, nodding with a smile. "You have a good eye, my friend. Although these two items don’t look like much, I also felt there was something extraordinary about them."

After looting the Side Palace clean, the two returned along the corridor to the fork in the road.

Just as Li Yuan was about to step out of the ruins’ main gate, he suddenly paused.

At that moment, the passive perception of his Array Net Overview caught an extremely faint fluctuation.

The fluctuation came from the deepest part of the ruins, at the end of the third path. It was a frequency unique to an extremely ancient and damaged Spatial Array—faint and intermittent.

’A damaged Teleportation Array.’

Li Yuan’s gaze drifted toward the dark depths of the third path before he impassively looked away.

"Let’s go." Mo Baichuan was already standing at the entrance to the ruins.

Li Yuan nodded and followed him out the stone door.

The Restriction sealed itself again after they left.

Back on the surface of the sea, Mo Baichuan took out several jade slips from his storage bag and handed them to Li Yuan.

"These are the copies of the Coral Palace’s underwater Array layouts I mentioned, four in total." Mo Baichuan cupped his fists. "Your cultivation in the Array Dao has left me in awe, my friend. If there’s a chance in the future, I hope we can work together again."

Li Yuan accepted the jade slips and stored them in his personal space.

"Alright."

The two parted ways on the sea’s surface. Mo Baichuan piloted his boat toward the Coral Palace, while Li Yuan turned and sped off in the direction of the subsidiary islands.

Along the way, he mentally reviewed the location of the damaged Teleportation Array three times, marking it firmly in his mind.

’There’s still something in the deeper parts of the ruins, but it’s not a good idea to investigate with an outsider present. I’ll wait until the auction is over and find a time to come back alone.’