Chapter 12: The Cost

  The monk in black robes suddenly sank into the sandy ground beneath his feet.

  Mo Qingchen's hands flew out extremely quickly, barely wrapping around his arm before the yellow sand engulfed him, and with a forceful pull, he was pulled out.

  "Thank you." Just as the black-robed monk who had just escaped from his fright finished speaking, he heard other monks' cries of surprise.

  The entire sandy ground shook violently, and in the midst of it, flight was impossible. Everyone could only use their own abilities to jump back and forth.

  "Ahh!" the woman in green screamed, her body slowly sinking down, and before she knew it, the yellow sand had reached her chest. It turned out that when she landed, she had stepped on a patch of sand that was just starting to sink.

  Duan Qingge, who was standing by, lashed out with her whip and wrapped it around her hair, pulling her out.

  Poor this beautiful female cultivator, her hair was pulled off more than half, and her scalp was exposed, but at this time she only cared about saving her life and didn't have the energy to care about these things.

  Everyone kept shifting their bodies, dodging the sudden attack of the quicksand.

  Mo Qingchen was able to deploy the Floating Light Flash, so she should have been more composed in her response. However, this couldn't go on forever, as there would eventually be a limit to her physical strength. Thinking of this, she hastily asked, "Sister Mo, is this an array? Is there a way to break it?"

  "There's gold hidden in the sand, if I'm not mistaken. This should be a variant of the Five Elements Formation." Mo Lian said hastily, his face turned pale as he shouted to everyone, "I'm afraid it's not just quicksand here!"

  As soon as the words fell, the flowing yellow sand suddenly rose without wind, turning into a constantly rotating sand heap. In the blink of an eye, the sand heap grew to be as tall as a person, and it became a human-shaped sand man.

  Right after that, the yellow sand rose again, and one by one, the sand people fell to the ground and took shape. Before everyone could catch their breath, those sand people began attacking with the sharp swords in their hands. A black-robed monk countered with a flying sword, but was struck by the sharp sword of one of the sand people and was knocked flying, which then plunged into his body.

  With a miserable cry, the black-robed monk's corpse fell to the ground and was soon swallowed up by the quicksand, leaving behind only a shocking patch of blood that made onlookers gasp in horror.

  "Don't use a magic tool, use magic spells, fire-elemental spells are also okay," said Mo Liao loudly.

  Under Mo Liao's reminder, everyone cast fire spells and started fighting with the sand people.

  Mo Qingchen didn't dare to use fire magic, so he used the vines to tie up the approaching sand people. When the vines had wrapped them up and they couldn't move, he took out a brick and slapped it down heavily.

  There was a loud rumbling sound, and yellow sand flew everywhere. The Sandman just shook his body, but he wasn't hurt at all.

  Mo Qingchen gritted his teeth and drew out the Qingmu sword, shaking out a few sword flowers in mid-air. Countless flowers made of spiritual energy flew towards Sha Ren.

  When flying in front of Sha Ren, these flowers suddenly scattered, and the petals brought green sword energy into Sha Ren's body.

  The sand man stopped struggling and then his entire body burst open, transforming back into grains of yellow sand that merged with the sandy ground.

  It's just that every time a sand person is eliminated, new sand people are born, as if they were endless.

  Mo Lian's eyes half-closed, his consciousness spread out in all directions. Then he shouted: "Quickly! Everyone go west, don't get entangled with these sand people."

  At this time, everyone was already busy, and after hearing Mo Liao's words, they retreated westward while fighting with the Sha people.

  After retreating a few miles to the west, Mo Lian suddenly saw a deep and bottomless sand cave. His face lit up with joy as he urged everyone to attack the sand cave quickly, saying "If my guess is correct, that must be the array eye."

  The black-clothed leader of the late-stage foundation-building period was originally a fire-attribute cultivator, and after hearing this, he didn't hesitate to launch a series of fireballs at Shadong.

  This variation of the Five Elements Formation is most difficult in finding the formation eye; once found, breaking it is not hard.

  The black-clothed leader had just fired a string of fireballs when a loud rumbling sound was heard, followed by the entire sandy ground shaking violently like an earthquake.

  Before everyone could react, the sandy ground suddenly cracked open a large hole and swallowed everyone in.

  "Ah, ah——" A female cultivator shrieked like a mad demon.

  "Shut up!" the black-clad leader rebuked.

  The woman in green was stunned and exclaimed with surprise: "We're still alive!"

  No one paid attention to her anymore, but instead cautiously looked around their surroundings.

  Mo Qingchen, they were actually on a small island-like platform, only the surrounding platform was not seawater, but flowing and rolling magma.

  Dozens of feet away from the platform, a circle of smooth red cliffs can be seen all around. The top cannot be seen upwards and the bottom cannot be seen downwards. There are blocks of floating red stones between the cliff and the platform, and nothing else.

  "Where is this place again?" The black-clothed leader's face turned even uglier.

  Moisture falls on our lips, we are still in the array, this is the fire array of the five-element array, the method of breaking the array is still to find the array eye.

  The woman in purple hurriedly asked, "Where is Zhen Yan?"

  "This array, which has already gone beyond the foundation-laying period of Mo Liao's control, can only be inferred by her understanding of the array method and its characteristics. The greatest possibility is that it is a certain part of the mountain wall."

  "But this mountain wall looks the same everywhere." The yellow-robed female cultivator looked anxious, so far two foundation-building cultivators had already died, who would be next?

  Mo Yu glanced at her and continued, "There must be a place that's different. Fellow Taoists, I suggest we all search together. If you find an unusual place, point it out to me and I'll make a judgment based on the situation."

  "Let's do it as Mo Dao friend said." The black-clothed leader said.

  Mo Qing frowned, this person relied on being in the late stage of foundation building and always had a commanding tone towards others. If he was stuck here forever, it would be fine, but if he went out, he would definitely be able to turn his face immediately. It seemed that they needed to make preparations ahead of time.

  Thinking of this, he quietly sent a message to Mo Li and Duan Qing Ge, saying two sentences.

  The two of them nodded slightly and began to examine the mountain wall.

  The master's eyesight far surpasses that of ordinary people, especially after building the foundation and shedding the mortal body, they can see many scenes that ordinary people cannot see.

  Mo Qingchen had practiced Lanhua Brushing Hole Hand since childhood and had specially trained his eyesight, making him slightly stronger than ordinary cultivators in this aspect.

  Since Mo Lian said that there must be something different about this mountain wall, it's better to search patiently than to stand stupidly.

  Mo Qingchen first closed his eyes, waiting for a sense of calm in his heart before slowly opening them, casting his gaze at the mountain wall. Unlike others who looked back and forth at the mountain wall with a level gaze, he focused on the top and bottom sections.

  More than half a time later, the two female cultivators, one in yellow and one in green, became impatient. After all, concentrating their energy to observe was very exhausting, especially when everything looked almost the same as far as the eye could see.

  Upon closer inspection, it can be seen that the mountain wall is covered with a crisscross pattern of lines, which appear to be chaotic and lawless. However, when Mo Qingchu looked towards the top of the southern mountain wall, his gaze suddenly paused, and he noticed that the lines converged in a radial pattern at a point about the size of a fist, and the color of that point was slightly deeper than the surrounding area.

  "Mo Shijie, look over there." Mo Qingchen pointed with his hand.

  "Where?" Mo Liao followed Mo Qingchen's pointing direction with his eyes, but couldn't see anything.

  "It's just that, the top square on the south side." Mo Qingchen said.

  "Ink ripples fall, shaking head I can't see, where is it different?"

  The crowd also gathered and looked over in a flurry.

  "The woman in yellow said with a hum, 'Can't see anything at all.' Her tone was much more subdued."

  Two black-robed monks also shook their heads.

  Ink falls but believes it's over, asks where is different?

  Mo Qingchen immediately recounted what he had just seen. Mo Lian fell into deep thought and said, "If Shifu's sister saw it that way, then it should be the Array Eye."

  The black-clothed leader suddenly spoke up and said, "What she said is true, it's indeed like that."

  But in his heart, he secretly suspected that after building the foundation and later specially cultivating the secret method, he was able to see that this seemingly unremarkable little girl could actually take the lead?

  Now that it's confirmed where it is, what remains is how to crack it.

  Mo Liao looked at the red stone floating in mid-air and found an additional chessboard-like device in his hand, with dense pieces on it.

  She was seen with her two hands flying, quickly moving the chess pieces. When the last clear sound of the piece stopping was heard, she smiled slightly and said to the crowd: "These floating stones appear to be without rules, but in fact they are set according to the nine palace positions. If someone follows my instructions and walks, they can reach there, but this person must be skilled in water system magic."

  As soon as the words fell, the purple-robed woman glanced at the green-robed woman, who turned pale and retreated a step back.

  The black-robed leader's face turned cold, and he ordered a black-robed monk from the early days of the sect, "Tang San, you go."

  "Yes," replied the black-robed monk.

  Mo Lian pointed to a place and said, "Look carefully, start walking from here. As long as you follow what I say, there shouldn't be any problem. But if you take one wrong step, this formation will be triggered."

  The black-robed monk nodded and stepped onto the starting point indicated by Mo Lian Luo, then heard Mo Lian Luo say: "At the third block of Kan position, turn right; at the second block of Kun position, turn left; at the fifth block of Zhen position, turn right..."

  Under Mo Lian's guidance, he watched as the black-robed cultivator walked further and further away.

  "Turn right at the seventh block of Duiwei..."

  Just then a rolling boulder burst forth with a flame that shot straight at the black-robed monk's landing place.

  This sudden change was too sudden, and the black-robed monk hastily jumped up to avoid it. In his haste, his body turned to the left.

  Mo Liao's face changed color, and before he could even warn him, the red stone that was quietly suspended in mid-air fell into the turbulent magma like a meteor.

  The black-robed monk only had time to let out a miserable cry before falling silent, the magma beneath the platform bubbled and churned, revealing glimpses of white bones amidst the turmoil, and then, there was nothing.

  The green-robed woman who was good at water-based magic instantly turned pale, and the others' faces were also extremely unsightly.

  In the usual Xiu Zhen world, it's extremely rare to see cultivators above the Dan-forming stage walking around. Even a Foundation Establishment cultivator is considered someone with status and reputation. But since arriving at this strange place, three Foundation Establishment cultivators have lost their lives in the blink of an eye, sending chills down one's spine.

  Seeing everyone's gaze coming over, the green-clothed woman shook her head desperately "I won't do it, I won't do it..."

  Just as the black-clothed leader of the late-stage Foundation Establishment was closing in, and all hope seemed lost, a woman's voice suddenly rang out, "I'll take care of this."

  Then someone came forward, and it was actually Duan Qingge. (If you like this work, welcome to subscribe, reward on Starting Point Website (), your support is my greatest motivation.)

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