Starting My Cultivation With Time Management

Chapter 1047: Chapter 35: Magical Competition with Liuli

“According to the Five Elements principle,” Chen Guanshui pondered and said, “Is it possible that we need to use the Earth Elements technique to open this place?”

“Quite likely,” Shi Liuli chuckled, “Why don’t you take out your Huangting Kunwu Sword and activate the Mountain-Lifting Method on it to try?”

“I don’t know the Earth Elements technique,” Chen Guanshui sighed.

“So you don’t deny you have the Huangting Kunwu Sword, right?” Shi Liuli pressed him step by step.

“Why does Fellow Daoist persist in believing I’m your husband?” Chen Guanshui feigned confusion.

“Then why does the husband pretend to be merely a passing fellow?” Shi Liuli retorted.

“Do you have evidence?” Chen Guanshui finally got angry.

“No need for evidence!” Shi Liuli stared at Chen Guanshui’s eyes, gritting her teeth, “Luo Yan, you scoundrel! How long do you want to keep pretending?”

This lady is impervious to reason, and Chen Guanshui couldn’t do anything about her, having to bow his head to continue studying the ground.

He recalled the time with Senior Sister An in the abyss of the Giant Wood Secret Realm, where there was a mechanism that required the Cloud-Parting Eight Trigrams Step to walk out the corresponding trajectory on the ground to open the space beneath.

But the design of that mechanism was meant to spread the Cloud-Parting Eight Trigrams Step; whereas this underground secret chamber was to prevent malicious outsiders from spying and invading, so it’s almost impossible there’s intentionally any clue or hint left on the ground.

“Fellow Daoist,” Chen Guanshui suddenly asked, “Don’t you think it’s strange? If that shadow figure wants us to find his predecessor, and his predecessor is in this underground chamber, why doesn’t the shadow figure also reveal to us the mechanism to open this chamber?”

“What’s the point?” Shi Liuli snorted coldly, “It’s clear he doesn’t trust you.”

“But if not spoken of, then we would most likely fail to open this underground chamber and not find their predecessor’s remains,” Chen Guanshui said.

Shi Liuli was silent for a moment, then said:

“What if this is exactly what they want?”

“You mean…” Chen Guanshui was prompted by her reminder and immediately thought in reverse:

If the other’s intent is not to find the so-called “predecessor’s remains,” but rather to confirm whether the underground chamber is opened…

If he didn’t find the predecessor’s remains, and returned empty-handed, the other party would naturally know the chamber wasn’t opened.

But if the chamber had been opened, then in the backyard of this official residence, a huge hole on the ground couldn’t possibly be overlooked during his search.

Once inside, one could find that predecessor’s remains, proving the chamber had been opened.

As for who might have opened the chamber… It’s not impossible to guess, the shadow figure had previously mentioned they relied on the shelter provided by this predecessor’s great power to survive until now.

But it’s certainly possible that other cultivators from Feather Courtyard survived by other means, came early, and opened the chamber to take what’s inside.

“So, they don’t really care about that predecessor’s remains; what truly matters is the stuff inside the chamber,” Chen Guanshui concluded, “That stuff must be incredibly valuable, they used ‘predecessor’s remains’ as a cover, fearing I might secretly try to forcibly open the chamber!”

Shi Liuli, being incredibly astute, immediately pieced together the reasoning with him after just a few words.

“What’s in the secret chamber…” She pondered for a moment, then abruptly reacted, chuckling coldly, “Your thinking is sharp, why not pretend to be a fool?”

“Can a fool survive in the Cultivation Realm and reach the Nascent Soul Realm?” Chen Guanshui looked at her helplessly.

Shi Liuli was stunned for a moment before realizing she was being mocked, she immediately cracked her knuckles.

Maybe… Whether he’s really Luo Yan or not, find an opportunity to ambush him with a dagger and chop him? Such a detestable man, killing him probably wouldn’t be a mistake…

Her gaze wandered over Chen Guanshui’s back, causing him discomfort, involuntarily following her gaze.

He then suddenly noticed that the gaps between the floor stones were too large, not naturally formed.

Generally speaking, considering temperature changes, stone masons mostly leave a bit of gap between floor stones to prevent them from expanding and cracking against each other during high temperatures.

But the gap shouldn’t be too large; otherwise, given the abundance of Spiritual Energy in most sects’ headquarters, grass would soon grow from inside.

The sect having grass, this saying is not lucky, only those sects that have been exterminated would have grass growing at their headquarters, so the masons definitely wouldn’t leave such a large gap, and even if someone crushed the floor during a magical competition, repairs would need to be made promptly.

Chen Guanshui squatted on the ground, took out a small dagger, and began to pry at the gaps between the floor stones, quickly attracting Shi Liuli’s attention.

She, being focused mainly on sword casting, immediately swept her gaze over the dagger, thinking to herself:

A short sword? At this length, it must excel in stealth and assassination, like a Flying Sword.

With his vision, only top-tier Flying Swords would catch his eye, so what kind of Flying Sword is this?

Could it be a Fairy Slaying Flying Dagger?

Chen Guanshui fiddled for a long time, then suddenly felt a force in his hand, and his heart was delighted.

Got it!

This stone slab can actually be pried up!

He was about to roll up his sleeves when Shi Liuli said indignantly:

“How many more treasures are you hiding from me?”

“What?” Chen Guanshui asked, puzzled.

“Where did you get that Flying Sword?” Shi Liuli asked coldly, as if she were a wife discovering her husband’s secret stash of money.

“Oh.” Chen Guanshui handed her the dagger, “This is used by herdsmen on the grasslands to cut meat.”

Shi Liuli took the dagger, examined it carefully, looking it over from left to right, yet she couldn’t see even a trace of Spiritual Light.

Could this really just be an ordinary dagger?

No, since he bothered to carry it with him, there must be something special about it!

While she was there carefully examining the dagger, eager to bring the Dragon-Tiger Appraisal Machine from the Yuqing Penglai Pavilion to do a full analysis on the spot, Chen Guanshui was prying the edge of the stone slab with both hands, exerting himself to lift it up.

Shi Liuli frowned and looked, seeing that below was solid ground, with no entrance at all.

“So it’s a mistake?” she asked in surprise, “There’s no secret chamber down there at all?”

“No.” Chen Guanshui flipped the stone slab over, “It’s on the reverse side.”

Shi Liuli looked closely and was speechless.

It turns out that on the reverse side of the stone slab, there were densely carved intricate circuits, clearly part of some Formation.

Since the Formation was not fully assembled, no energy was flowing through it, and cultivators wouldn’t deliberately scan the carvings on the back of the stone slab, which means to notice the markings on the back of this slab, you have to flip it over to see clearly.

But who in their right mind would go around flipping these stone slabs! Whoever conceives such a hidden Formation indeed understands human blind spots and loopholes in thought very well.

Chen Guanshui exerted more effort, prying all the square stone slabs and then flipping them over onto the ground, starting to carefully inspect the patterns above.

Shi Liuli observed from the side, also meticulously scrutinizing Chen Guanshui’s expression, trying to analyze his understanding and proficiency of Formations.

Formations… are not something the average cultivator can easily learn.

One must first learn to create Formation Devices, familiarize themselves with the meanings of various Runic Scripts and circuits, and finally require a large amount of hands-on practice and experience.

Loose Cultivators without Sect support, even if they luckily acquire some Formation texts, deciphering a few simple formations is the limit—starting from scratch to decipher and restore an ancient Formation never seen before? Absolutely impossible!

Let’s see how you handle this… Shi Liuli thought coldly, staring unblinkingly at Chen Guanshui, swearing that she would not offer him any more suggestions.

She saw Chen Guanshui examining one stone slab, then another, as if studying the scripts and structure on them.

He then moved two of the stone slabs together, attempting to piece them together.

Shi Liuli looked closely and almost fainted from anger.

Is this a puzzle game? Even if you don’t understand Formations, as long as you find the edges of the circuit that fit together and then piece the corresponding stone slabs together… so you can attempt a repair even if you don’t understand Formations?

Oh, he anticipated this and prepared accordingly, deliberately here to watch me make a fool of myself!

Chen Guanshui was concentrating hard, thinking that while restoring based on the Formation structure was simple, playing a puzzle was a bit difficult. With square bricks more than a foot long, an edge often had twenty to thirty junctions. How difficult it would be to piece them together based on the distribution of these points on the edges!

After bustling for a long time, Shi Liuli finally couldn’t stand it and stepped forward to help him piece the stone slabs together.

She had realized this scoundrel was pretending not to be Luo Yan, discarding even basic dignity!

If I didn’t help, he’d piece them together until the world ends!

Of course, if there really was ample time, Shi Liuli would find a place to sit nearby, grab some food, and enjoy his performance.

But Xu Yinglian and An Zhisu might find this place anytime.

If she couldn’t expose this scoundrel’s true identity in time and force him to repent and follow her, once those two arrived, Shi Liuli had no confidence in competing with them for her husband…

Perhaps, after entering the secret chamber, find an opportunity to knock him out and carry him away covered in Starlight Sand?

Such sinister thoughts grew wild in her heart like vines.

The stone slabs were pieced together, revealing the original Formation pattern: indeed, it was an obvious Teleportation Array, albeit with traces of ancient Formations, yet many structures remained easily recognizable.

The only question now was whether to activate this Teleportation Array.

After all, not every Teleportation Array leads to a safe place. Some Arrays deliberately tamper with, like failing halfway through a teleportation, or being one-way with a dead-end destination, etc… An Array Master could glimpse this from the structure, but ordinary cultivators could only choose whether to gamble their lives.

If Chen Guanshui decisively chose to teleport, it would indicate he could confirm there were no issues with this Array, meaning he understood Formations!

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