Chapter 45: The Temple

Chapter 45:

A/N: Not much to say this time. Writing is going good. I think I will stick with just two chapters this week, but that's to start building up my backlog. Next week I should easily be able to put out three chapters again.

Edit Notes: Edited chapter 42 to say it took a bit longer to get to the temple, and they fought more spirit beasts along the way. And stated how many points they had before they encountered the Zhu clan. 21 and 18 between the two.

Pan Song and I approached the temple, stopping just short of its protective formations. In front of us was the gate that once opened into the temple grounds. Unlike the Amber Blossom Pagoda Ruins, which were either pristine or completely destroyed, the temple was a much more mixed bag.

There were damaged places, the most obvious being the broken and shattered gate. Another example was the craters in the ground here or there, a single small hole in the front walls of the main temple, and the rubble from the hole lying in front of it. But all of that damage was minor, not like whatever might have happened to destroy the ancient civilization.

Everything else around those bits of damage maintained the same ageless and preserved quality expected of Ancient Ruins, and the damage looked like it could have been done recently. 

It was a clear sign that someone had broken the formations preserving and protecting the place in the recent past. After getting ransacked, the temple's formations must’ve recovered enough to keep it in this state, despite likely years having passed.

“So, how much time do you need to get in?” I said, looking away from the temple to scan our surroundings. There were no more signs of the Zhu clan members or anyone else for the moment.

“Shouldn’t take too long,” Pan Song said, flicking his hands and sending formation flags into the ground around us. “But I’ll set up a formation just in case.”

Pan Song formed several hand signs with one hand while holding one more flag in his other hand. The flag started to glow, then another one of his fog obscuring formations formed around us. We could look out, but others couldn’t look in.

Covering such a small area, it didn’t seem like it would be that good at concealing our location. But according to Pan Song, last I asked, it wasn’t as obvious on the outside as it seemed. Only after walking into the fog does it start to obscure people’s vision. Before then, the fog itself was hard to notice.

“Alright then,” I said, once he was done. I walked over to the edge of the inner part of the formation and started pacing back and forth with my sword in hand. “So how did your fights go? I was kinda busy and didn’t get a chance to see what happened.”

“They were…” Pan Song said, trailing off as he took out the formation plate he looted from the other ruin. He seemed to be struggling with his words before he finally finished his answer. “They were easier than I’d thought they’d be.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Easier?”

Pan Song gave me a sheepish look. “Well, I’ve told you about where I come from. So far from such a big city like Everlake. I’ve always heard amazing stories about the great clans of the city. Their branch families ruled the lands I grew up in. And yet… they weren’t nearly as dangerous as I thought they’d be.“

I thought back to my own fight, and I couldn’t really agree with him. Sure, if I had gone all out, Zhu Ling wouldn’t have been any issue at all. Heck, even caught off guard by his technique, I’d still won rather easily. But Zhu Fu? If he hadn’t been holding back and kinda trying to teach me, there would be no way I could’ve beat him.

“Not Zhu Fu, of course,” Pan Song rushed to say, apparently noticing the look on my face. “Mid Qi-Gathering at his age, and able to use at least two of the Zhu clan’s famous techniques. The fact that you managed to beat him was quite impressive. Especially given the cultivation difference between you two. I wouldn't have been able to handle him.”

I frowned at that. “He was holding back quite a bit, I think. Given what I’ve seen you do in training, and what else you’ve told me, I think you underestimate your chances if our positions were swapped.”

“Perhaps,” Pan Song said, nodding. He turned towards the temple, and his formation plate started to glow. Symbols arose from it, and he manipulated them with his fingers. “But regardless, Zhu Fu was really the only one who matched the expectation I had for members of the great clans. The rest… while I couldn’t finish them quickly, I also didn’t feel any danger from them at all. At least, not when only fighting them one or two at a time.”

I shrugged, trying not to get lost in watching whatever he was doing and instead kept an eye on our surroundings. “It seems to me that just means you’ve been underestimating yourself. You are an Array Master, after all. Isn’t that supposed to be a big deal, even in Everlake?”

Pan Song laughed softly at that. At the same time, symbols from his plate started to fly towards the temple. The temple's formations responded with a light barrier extending up from the outer walls. Symbols appeared on that barrier as well, and the two groups of symbols started to interact, some flying into each other and changing while others disappeared.

“I suppose that’s one way of looking at it,” Pan Song said, sounding distracted. “But Array Masters are not fighters. We are craftsmen and artists, as my master says. Even as he forced me to hunt for my own materials. It still strikes me as odd that I can contend with members of the great clans in combat. Even if it's just those in our generation.”

“Guess you're just that talented,” I said, still watching the formation stuff out of the corner of my eye. It was really eye-catching and cool. I was going to need to take Pan Song up on his offer to teach me about that stuff one day. “And like I said before, your master is probably some kind of hidden super cultivator or something. Maybe an immortal slumming it and pretending to be normal.“

Pan Song laughed. He always did that when I mentioned my theory about his master. He didn’t think it was possible. At least not the immortal part. Though he did admit that his master was probably at one point more than a traveling old man.

“At the very least,” I said. “Maybe he was from a clan from another city or province, one just as important as the great clans of Everlake. So perhaps you had equal footing when it came to teachers with these guys.”

Pan Song hummed as the number of symbols interacting grew and grew. The brightness of the temple's formation started to brighten minutely, especially closest to the gate.

“That is possible,” he said after a long moment. “It just never seemed the case when I was with him. He told me just how important being an Array Master was. But he also said I was a meager talent at best. And a lot of the time given… well, certain things, I thought he was just boasting and—yes! I’ve done it.”

The temple's formations flickered for a moment, turning from a light shade of blue to an almost green blue. Several large symbols projected out of the formation and flew toward Pan Song. He reached out with a hand, grabbed them somehow, and rearranged them. Then he gestured to his plate, and the symbols shrank and seemed to get absorbed.

“That’s it?” I asked, walking over after taking one more look at the surrounding trees. “You have control?”

Pan Song answered by grinning at me and walking towards the temple gates. The glowing screen of light that blocked the way even without the gate opened up for him, and he walked right through. Turning around, he held out his arms as if to say, Tada. 

“Nice!” I said, moving to follow him in. “Do you need to recover your formation?”

“No, better to leave it there,” Pan Song said, shaking his head as he walked further into the temple. Although he moved a bit cautiously, causing me to slow down once I reached him. “Because of how they work, a hole has to be created in the formation to let us in and out. The obscuring formation will better hide us when leaving and entering, as well as confuse any pursuers so they can’t follow us in.”

“Alright,” I said, stopping as Pan Song stopped as well to examine the door to the main temple. “Any reason you’re being so cautious? Do you only have control of the outer formations or something?”

“I should have control of everything,” Pan Song said, still looking at something on the doorway that I couldn’t see. “The formations of these ruins are all linked as one. But I’m just being cautious of anything left behind by modern cultivators. Or just in case I am wrong and there are standalone formations too. Wouldn’t do for us to run into any trap formations.”

I tensed at that and moved a bit closer to Pan Song. “Okay. How long do you think that will take?”

“To do it safely? Several times more time than it took to get in here.”

I slumped a bit at that. So that meant more waiting. And now I didn’t even have to look out for any ambushers. I could only rely on Pan Song. Unless…

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

Pan Song paused, then shook his head. “Unless you want to test for traps by running into them, not really. Not unless you’ve been studying formations on your own?”

I sighed at that. For a moment, I was tempted to head out and go get the rest of the points I needed while he did this. But I decided against it in the end. Better not wander the trial ground alone, especially not with Mid Qi-Gatherers having been allowed in for a while now.

No, I would just have to wait.

—line break—

It ended up taking Pan Song close to half an hour to ensure that the temple was free from traps or other formations. After that, the two of us left the temple to get the remaining points we needed. I needed two more early Rank 1s killed, while he needed three.

I was tense the whole time we hunted, fully expecting another difficult encounter. It just felt that with my luck, there was no way we would get the points without any issues. After all, we already encountered a group of one of the three great clans.

Thankfully, all my worries turned out to be for nothing. After killing another pack of meat-eating deer—which were still creepy as all hell—and a group of monkeys that were not nearly as good at getting away as the first we’d encountered, we both managed to meet our minimum point quota. I also refilled my extra Qi reserve to half.

And just like that, we were done with what we had to do.

It was all surprisingly easy, but that was probably because we were both stronger than the average cultivator taking the trial for the first time. And that, unlike everyone else, we could now just hide in the temple and avoid any more conflict. We didn’t have to worry about fighting off people trying to take our points.

Of course, that was only the case if all we wanted to do was pass the trial with the minimum number of points. It would mean having to spend more time on missions in the future to raise our Starguard ranks, but it was a possibility. 

Had this been a normal Starguard Trial, I would have probably risked going out to try and get a higher score to avoid the hassle later. But given Qian Zhi and the grudge he had against us, that didn’t seem like a smart move, especially given the hints that he might be able to get away with killing us here.

Yet that smart move also didn’t feel right either. Not when it meant we would not do anything to help Xing Yaling, who might be the target of an assassination. I didn’t know her well, or really at all, but it still felt wrong not to even try to help her.

The problem, of course, was that even if we tried, we might not be able to do it. The third and final bell had rung out while we were out hunting, meaning Xing Yaling was already in the trial grounds. But we had no way of tracking her.

The best we could do was search around randomly, or try and ask other trial takers and risk getting taken out before we could even help.

I sighed at the thought, leaning back against a wall. I was in one of the back rooms of the temple, having followed Pan Song as he looked around for anything interesting. As much as both of us would have liked to do something, without a proper plan, it would have been pointless to go rushing out trying to help. So now we needed to find things to do to pass the time.

“It will just drive you mad if you keep thinking about it,” Pan Song called out, leaning over something on the floor.

“I know,” I said, sighing again. “But this still sucks. It feels like we should do something. Anything… It doesn’t feel right… And I know, we’ve already discussed this. Our chances of actually finding her and doing anything about it are slim to none… Doesn’t change how I feel.”

“I know…” Pan Song said, trailing off. He continued to poke and prod at something on the ground. He had the formation plate out, and there were symbols floating around it now.

I frowned at the sight and walked over. “What are you doing? I thought there weren’t any other formations.”

“There aren’t,” Pan Song said distractedly as his fingers danced across the symbols. “This is part of the temple's formations. But it's also… It’s also connected to something else.”

I crouched down to get a better look, realizing that Pan Song was working over some kind of hatch. Maybe it led down to a basement in the building or something? Though given that Pan Song seemed to have to work to get it opened, it didn’t seem like it was something so simple.

Pan Song continued to direct symbols that floated out of the plate in his hands. He moved them around with practice ease, but I couldn’t figure out at all what he was doing or how long it would take. It was cool looking, though, and something to distract myself. So I just watched him work.

“Yes!” Pan Song called out after a while, all the symbols flashing green for a moment. He gestured with his free hand, palm up and fingers splayed, causing all the symbols to float over it in two intricate shapes. Then, starting with the right shape, he pressed each symbol into the seemingly ordinary metal hatch in the floor.

The symbol shapes were absorbed into the metal, making intricate lines of light appear all over it. They ran from the center to the edges and flashed once. First blue, then a green color. Then, finally, there was the sound of escaping air and a click.

The hatch opened up, revealing a stone stairwell.

“Okay, that was cool,” I said as we both stared down into the dark stairwell. Or formerly dark stairwell as lines of light started to run through the brickwork, illuminating the way down. “But where does that lead?”

“I’m not sure,” Pan Song said, shaking his head. “But I think it might be some kind of underground structure. One that multiple buildings would have been connected to. It’s why I had to spend some time unlocking it. It was both a part of the temple's formations but also something else. Something larger.”

“Huh,” I said, looking down the stairs. “Is it safe to go down there then? Do you have control of this other formation now?”

“Not completely…” Pan Song said, frowning as he looked down at his formation plate. It was still glowing. “With the temple, I took control over the whole formation. But with this… It is as if I have minor control of some parts of it but not others. I can open my way in and possibly do other things. But I don’t control all that is available. At least not yet.”

“Then should we wait until you do that?” I asked, frowning. I was hoping for something to do.

“I would need to go down there to get more control,” Pan Song said after a moment of thought. “I need to examine more of it. What I can detect from up here is just a small fraction.”

“Do you think it’s worth the risk? What could be down there? It's not just the sewers, is it?”

“I’m not sure… But… if this underground complex did not just connect the temple and the surrounding buildings, but ran through the whole city like a sewer or something else… It might be a discreet way for us to traverse the trial ground.”

A discreet way to travel through the trial ground… One without any monster, possibly, if Pan Song could get control of the formations. With that, could we…

I sighed. No. Even if that was what this was, I doubted we’d be able to use it to get to Xing Yaling. It didn’t solve the issue of not knowing where she was. I was just going to have to accept that I can’t do anything about that.

“Do you think the people who looted this place before have been down there?” I asked, trying to focus on something else. “Could there be untouched treasures?”

“I don’t think so,” Pan Song said, shaking his head. “It wasn’t that hard for me to find this. If they broke into the temple or other buildings connected to this, then they would have been able to do the same as me.”

I sighed. “So, guess there’s no point in going down there.”

“Well… that’s not quite true,” Pan Song said, turning to me with a hopeful expression. “Studying these formations has taught me a lot. If I could examine more of these formations… It might lead me to some breakthroughs.”

I shrugged. “Alright, I guess we might as well check it out for you then.”

Pan Song smiled and nodded at that. “Thank you.”

Then the two of us descended into the unknown. I tried to stay alert and focused on the moment. Better to get my mind off of Xing Yaling and Qian Zhi. It wasn’t like we’d be running into either of them down here.