Before their eyes, atop the once-bare mountain peak, countless stone pillars now stood tall.
Each pillar soared into the clouds, forming a vast stone forest.
No one knew the exact number, but there were certainly tens of thousands of them.
“Is this the entrance to the Tianmen Mountain ruins?” Chen Ping asked.
Liu Xue shook her head. “We have to pass through this stone forest and reach the very centre. I tried with my people before, but none of us could get anywhere near the middle.”
Chen Ping released his divine sense, trying to probe the layout of the stone forest.
Unfortunately, something blocked his perception. He could not see the full picture at all.
“It looks like this stone forest is itself a massive formation. We need to break it to reach the centre. Let us give it a try.”
With that, Chen Ping led Liu Xue into the stone forest.
The moment they stepped inside, the air grew heavy and oppressive, as though an invisible force was quietly pressing down on them.
The stone pillars came in all shapes and sizes. Some were thick as ancient trees, others slender as bamboo. Every surface was carved with mysterious, ancient runes that glowed with an eerie, cold light.
Chen Ping took a deep breath and began studying his surroundings carefully, relying on his sharp sensitivity to formations.
He quickly realised that the pillars were not placed randomly. They followed a precise, hidden pattern.
Closing his eyes, images of the Heavenly Stems, Earthly Branches, and the Eight Trigrams appeared in his mind, perfectly matching the layout before him.
“Leader Liu, this stone forest really is an enormous and extremely complicated formation, but I am confident I can crack it.”
Chen Ping opened his eyes and spoke with full assurance.
A flash of delight crossed Liu Xue’s face. She stayed close behind him, watching their surroundings warily in case she accidentally triggered some mechanism.
Chen Ping walked forward while silently calculating directions and the shifting runes in his head.
He discovered that every few steps, the runes on the pillars changed subtly, and those changes were the key to solving the formation.
“Following the order of the Heavenly Stems, we should first locate the pillar that corresponds to the ‘Jia’ position.”
As he spoke, Chen Ping searched through the forest.
At last he stopped in front of a thick pillar. The runes upon it flickered with strange light and faintly resonated with the energy of ‘Jia’.
Chen Ping reached out and touched the runes. Instantly, a powerful surge rushed into his body, and a series of images flashed through his mind, as if he were communing with the ancient formation itself.
Moments later he opened his eyes, joy written across his face.
“Found it. This pillar is the starting point for breaking the formation.”
Chen Ping rapidly formed hand seals while chanting under his breath.
As he moved, the runes on the pillar glowed brighter and brighter. Beams of light shot out, weaving together into a vast curtain of light.
Chen Ping grabbed Liu Xue’s hand and stepped straight into the curtain without hesitation.
In a flash of brilliance, the scene around them changed completely.
The formerly chaotic stone forest seemed to rearrange itself under an invisible hand. A clear passage appeared right in front of them.
“It looks like we chose the right direction. Keep moving forward.”
Chen Ping led Liu Xue along the newly revealed path.
Along the way they encountered many more pillars, each representing a different direction and rune variation.
Relying on his profound knowledge of formations, Chen Ping accurately solved every challenge and passed through layer after layer of tests with ease.
The deeper they went, the more mysterious and powerful the aura within the stone forest became.
“Young Master Chen, your mastery of formations is incredible. I never imagined you were so versatile,” Liu Xue said, gazing at him with open admiration.
“Just a small trick,” Chen Ping replied with a smile.
After all, he had received personal instruction from both Old Ancestor Divine Pattern and the Formation Demon.
