Mysterious mirror hanging high

Chapter 699 Hengshi Lake

Song Qingya said, "Fortunately, the speed at which the edge of the cave is collapsing isn't too fast. Weiyang Heaven is vast and boundless. I estimate it will take at least a few years for it to completely collapse. We should still have enough time."

The three of them discussed it and decided to move forward secretly and move towards the central area of ​​Weiyang Heaven. Jing Yu and most of the Nascent Soul cultivators in the cave heaven are connected by fate. They only need to adjust the causal line to know the vague position where the causal line connects to the other party, which will be of great use to them in avoiding Ying Shigui.

As for how to avoid it? It's actually quite simple.

If at some point the causal line between a Nascent Soul cultivator and Jing Yu were suddenly broken, then the other party would most likely die. No matter what the reason for the other party's death was, Jing Yu would always determine that he was killed by Ying Shigui!

Just avoid the location of the Fallen True Lord.

As expected, as time slowly passed, Jing Yu discovered that the cause and effect lines were breaking one after another, which was obviously caused by the death of the True Lords one by one.

In contrast, the causal line connecting him and Han Ping is very strong, and there is almost no possibility of breaking.

What's interesting is that wherever there are a large number of broken causal lines, they are almost always near Han Ping. From this, it can be inferred that Ying Shigui seems to have not given up on hunting Han Ping, and has eliminated many Yuanying Zhenjun on the way.

Not to mention Jing Yu and the other two moving towards the center of the cave heaven, someone had already set foot near the center of Weiyang Heaven...

----

"Look, that must be the trial ground of Weiyangtian."

A young man with a black mask and a sword on his back and a stunning woman in an ice-blue robe were staring at a palace in the sky from afar, lost in thought.

Above the sky, a palace carved from white jade was suspended among the clouds. The corners and eaves of the palace were all flowing with cold fairy light, as if it was being held up by an invisible force.

Thousands of silk ribbons hang from the bottom of the palace, connecting with the vast and misty lake below, like a stairway descending from heaven.

The lake was like a mirror, reflecting the outline of the palace. A hazy halo appeared at the junction of water and sky, and it was impossible to tell whether it was a palace in the clouds or a reflection in the water.

The lake surface is occasionally blown by the wind, rippling out tiny ripples like golden scales, shattering the reflection into stardust, and then slowly healing as before.

The pressure of the no-fly zone prohibition meant that no bird dared to fly over the lake. Only the clouds around the palace danced lightly like a veil, making it seem even more detached from the world.

"We were lucky. As soon as we entered Weiyang Heaven, we were teleported to the central area of ​​the cave. We gained many opportunities and found the trial ground. It should have been a place that no one had ever set foot in before."

The young man carrying a sword is Guan Lingxiao, and the stunning woman next to him is the Holy Maiden of Penglai Holy Land [Xiao Yinghan].

"Many fellow Daoists have reported that a pseudo-God-transforming cultivator suspected to be from the Divine Cauldron Immortal Dynasty is now killing people in the cave heaven. The entire cave heaven is beginning to collapse. I'm afraid the only way to survive this disaster is to enter the trial ground."

Xiao Yinghan said softly, "Although this palace is above the sky, it's surrounded by no-fly zones. There's also a large lake in front of it. It seems we'll have to cross the lake to reach the palace."

Guan Lingxiao frowned upon hearing this and said coldly, "I'm afraid that the Divine Transformation cultivator is also planning to catch us all in one fell swoop."

"This is an unavoidable conspiracy... and it applies to us as well," Xiao Yinghan said. "The surviving Yuanying True Lords in the cave heaven will eventually gather here. I'm afraid a battle will inevitably ensue between them and that Divine Transformation cultivator."

"If we had passed the trials before, we might have gotten some opportunities. If we could have made further progress in our cultivation, it would have given us more chances to fight in the subsequent war."

Xiao Yinghan blushed: "I...I will definitely protect you."

Guan Lingxiao laughed and said, "You are an early Nascent Soul cultivator, while I am a mid-Nascent Soul sword cultivator. Isn't it obvious who is protecting whom?"

Xiao Yinghan said, "Although my cultivation level is not as high as yours, several elders in the late Nascent Soul stage have come to Penglai Mountain this time, so naturally I want them to protect you and me."

As the two were talking, a bamboo raft suddenly appeared in the lake in front of them. On the raft, an old man in a straw raincoat was paddling slowly towards the shore with a bamboo pole. When he saw the two people on the shore, the old man shouted:

"Are you two going to cross the lake?"

Guan Lingxiao and Xiao Yinghan exchanged a glance, both with alert expressions. The blind boy's fingers touched the hilt of the wooden sword, and his magic power surged, obviously ready to attack at any time.

"Who are you?"

The old man in the straw raincoat parked the bamboo raft on the shore, looked up at Guan Lingxiao and the others, and said:

"I am a boatman here, specializing in ferrying foreign monks across the lake to enter the Weiyang Palace to undergo trials."

"No cultivator has set foot here for tens of thousands of years, yet you two have taken the lead."

"Tens of thousands of years? You are not human?" Xiao Yinghan's face changed.

"I am a puppet servant in the Weiyang Palace." The old man said with a smile, "Are you two crossing the lake?"

"What's the secret of this lake?" Guan Lingxiao asked.

"There's a no-fly zone here, so flying is prohibited... You can only take a bamboo raft to the center of the lake." The old man said, "The water in the lake is strange. A Nascent Soul cultivator will die if they fall into it."

"This lake is divided into the [Outer Lake] and the [Inner Lake]. The [Outer Lake] is called the [Hengshi Lake] and is not very dangerous. The [Inner Lake] is called the [Inner Demon Lake], but it can stir up the inner demons in the hearts of cultivators. It is extremely dangerous and is the last test before entering the [Weiyang Palace]."

The old man said calmly, "Only after passing the test of the [Heart Demon Lake] can you be qualified to accept the trial of the [Weiyang Palace]."

"What if I don't pass?"

"If you can't pass through the [Inner Demon Lake], I can send you back the way you came, so you don't fall into the lake and lose your life in vain."

The old man said, "Of course, if you fall into the water before leaving the Heart Demon Lake, you can't blame others. It's just your fate."

Guan Lingxiao activated his [Mind's Eye] ability, but there was no reflection of any thought fluctuations. He then used his mind to carefully examine the old man, and found that he was indeed just a puppet. He could not help but marvel at it and said:

"In that case, please, old man, take us across the lake."

The two men got on the bamboo raft, and the old man held up the bamboo pole and rowed towards the center of the lake.

"Do you two know why the outer lake is called [Hengshi Lake]?"

"The images reflected on the lake are not of this life, but of another trajectory of your lives."

"Perhaps at some point in the past, you met different people, made different choices, and now you will become a different person."

Guan Lingxiao was slightly startled when he heard this, and looked down at the lake. Sure enough, he saw a strange image on the lake surface -

He was a blind boy who looked similar to him, and in his hand he was still holding the iron-backed pine-grained wooden sword that his parents had left him.

But at this moment, the rough wood grain had already been soaked and filled with layers of dark brown and almost black dirty blood, and the sword spine even looked dark and sticky due to absorbing enough blood plasma.

Under the boy's messy hair, his eyes were gray and unfocused.

He was not standing on flat ground, but on a suffocating mountain of corpses piled up by the remains of thousands of monks!

Broken limbs, shattered armor, heads with eyes open... piled up layer upon layer like a mountain.

The attire of various sects and schools—whether it was the ethereal robes of the righteous sect or the bizarre and hideous attire of the demonic sect... at this moment, they had all become rags to wrap around corpses, stained beyond recognition by the sticky blood plasma and filth of internal organs.

The young man walked slowly, one step deep and one step shallow, on the sticky blood plasma and broken bones, among the sea of ​​blood and corpses that he had created with his own hands.

The corners of his mouth were stretched into an arc that was almost torn and filled with cruel pleasure.