Volume 1, Chapter 183 – Ancient Teleportation Array

Dragon veins were the currents of qi hidden beneath mountains and earth. Their distribution and flow followed certain patterns, especially when many dragon veins coexisted in one place—their layout should have been all the more orderly.

Yet the cluster of ninety-nine dragon veins beneath Shi Lan and the others’ feet felt strangely awkward, as if these ninety-nine dragon veins did not originally belong here, but had been forcibly dragged together by someone.

Moreover, every dragon vein had a dragon cave. Under normal circumstances, the earth’s spiritual qi drawn in by the dragon veins would accumulate in the dragon caves and give rise to a spiritual land. But the dragon caves of these ninety-nine dragon veins were all dried up, not a trace of spiritual qi remaining.

With so many dragon veins gathered together, drawing in the earth’s spiritual qi from over a hundred thousand li around, this place should have been blessed and brimming with spiritual energy, a first-rate spiritual land capable of nurturing peerless treasure medicines and immortal roots. Yet now, not even the most ordinary first-grade spiritual material could grow here.

After roughly sweeping over the dragon veins, Shi Lan faintly felt that something was off, but for the moment she couldn’t put her finger on it.

After a moment of contemplation, Shi Lan descended from the sky, swept past the three demon kings, and entered the very center of the mountain range.

Cangyue and the other demon kings followed her earlier instructions, remaining in the air and quietly waiting.

The Heaven’s Eye at Shi Lan’s brow opened wide. Following along the mountains, she swept over the winding range inch by inch, trying to find some clue.

She moved extremely fast. With a single step she crossed nearly a hundred zhang, covering several li in just a few breaths.

Ninety-nine dragon veins converged here. This rare geomantic treasure land was so barren—when something so abnormal happened, there had to be something hidden behind it. There was definitely a great secret here.

Shi Lan’s curiosity was not particularly strong by nature, but this place where the dragon veins converged gave her a very peculiar feeling, as if a thin veil covered its true face.

In the blink of an eye, about three hours had passed. The blazing sun in the sky had sunk westward, and it was already dusk. The setting sun painted a blood-red afterglow across the sky, dyeing the land crimson.

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Shi Lan had already walked along more than a dozen dragon veins, traveling several thousand li.

Suddenly, Shi Lan lifted her head and swept her gaze across a few neighboring dragon veins. Her expression shifted slightly. She stamped her foot and shot straight toward the heavens.

When she reached an altitude of about a thousand zhang, Shi Lan stopped and once again swept her gaze over the entire cluster of dragon veins.

The ninety-nine dragon veins now looked a little different to her than before.

At first, when Shi Lan saw that all ninety-nine dragon veins faced outward, drawing in all the earth’s spiritual qi within a hundred thousand li, she had focused her search on the center of this cluster of dragon veins.

But after traversing more than a dozen dragon veins, Shi Lan suddenly realized that the distribution of these dragon veins seemed to share a certain similarity…

Looking at the mountain range, which appeared even more desolate under the setting sun, Shi Lan’s expression suddenly changed drastically, a surge of undisguisable shock flooding her eyes.

In Shi Lan’s eyes, the ninety-nine dragon veins seemed to come alive. Those hidden currents of qi beneath the earth began to struggle, as if trying to break free from this region.

Yet no matter how those currents struggled, they couldn’t move in the slightest, as though seized by an invisible giant hand.

In less than half a quarter of an hour, the fluctuations of the qi currents vanished without a trace and returned to calm.

The fluctuations of the dragon veins were buried deep beneath the earth, and the disturbance lasted for such a brief time that, if Shi Lan did not possess Heaven’s Eye, it would have been impossible to detect anything amiss.

Shi Lan turned into a streak of escape light, slicing through the sky as she followed the source that was holding these ninety-nine dragon veins in place.

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Moments later, Shi Lan arrived at a secluded valley. The valley was a few hundred zhang across, and a tributary of a great river, about ten zhang wide, cut straight through it.

The sky was growing dark. The bright moon slowly rose, and the night wind gently brushed past, stirring the leaves on the branches of the ancient trees all around.

Standing by the riverbank, listening to the rustling of leaves rubbing against each other by her ears, Shi Lan felt her mood inexplicably agitated. It was as if some special force within the valley prevented her from remaining calm.

“Samsara, have you found anything?” Shi Lan asked silently.

“There is a very strange energy field here. It greatly interferes with my probing.”

Shi Lan asked no further. After quietly sensing for a while, she lowered her head to look at the churning river surface in front of her, then, without the slightest hesitation, leaped in.

“Whoosh—”

Thick true qi spread out, opening a barrier about one zhang across and keeping the river water outside.

In the darkness of night, the riverbed below was pitch-black, not even fingers visible before one’s face. With Shi Lan’s eyesight, she could clearly see only within a few zhang around her. Beyond that was a haze of murk.

Shi Lan’s body sank tens of zhang before she finally reached the muddy riverbed. The surface of this tributary was not wide, but the channel itself was astonishingly deep.

Sweeping her gaze around, Shi Lan’s brows knitted tightly. Her true qi barrier pushed aside the thick layer of silt as she roamed across the riverbed.

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Aside from silt, there were only a few ordinary fish at the bottom, their spiritual qi extremely weak.

After about the time it took an incense stick to burn, Shi Lan discovered a crack about half a zhang wide on one side of the riverbed. After a brief hesitation, she shrank her true qi barrier a bit and slipped into the crack.

It was even darker within the crack. Shi Lan could barely see the area within a single zhang ahead of her.

As she continued to dive, the crack gradually widened, and the pressure around her grew heavier and heavier, making it feel as if she were bearing the weight of a mountain.

Because the spiritual qi was so thin, the rate at which Shi Lan’s true qi recovered gradually fell behind the massive consumption of maintaining the barrier.

Half an hour more at most, and if I still haven’t reached the bottom, I’ll go back.

After roughly estimating the rate of her true qi consumption, Shi Lan made her decision.

After less than half a quarter of an hour, Shi Lan finally reached the bottom of the crack. To reduce her expenditure, she had shrunk the true qi barrier so that it clung tightly to her body.

The bottom of the crack was, unusually, completely free of silt. Shi Lan glanced down, her expression shifting slightly, and she crouched.

“These are… array patterns?”

“This is a teleportation formation of extremely high grade, and it’s in an activated state. It can be triggered at any time,” Samsara said, its tone a little anxious. “The space here… has already been distorted…”

Before Samsara finished speaking, the teleportation formation beneath Shi Lan’s feet blazed with light, and a mighty wave of spatial power surged forth.

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The surroundings brightened as if it were day. Shi Lan hastily swept her gaze around and saw a few ancient buildings, like palaces, sunk at the bottom of the water, who knew how many years they had slept there.

Before she could look closely, the light of the teleportation array swallowed her up.

“Boom—”

Shi Lan’s figure vanished within the teleportation array. The river water within several thousand zhang around was also swept away by the spatial ripples. The riverbed was suddenly laid bare, but the water reversed its flow and quickly filled the void again.

…

This was not Shi Lan’s first time crossing space, but it was her first time using a teleportation array.

The feeling of riding a teleportation array was completely different from when she first came to the Boundless Demon Domain and passed through the dark layer of space. Now her whole body felt wrapped in cotton. The world spun around her, dizzying but not actually harmful.

Shi Lan didn’t know how long it lasted. When the vertigo finally faded, her feet were planted on solid ground.

“Splash—”

The river water that had been teleported along with her spread out, flowing across the ground.

Shi Lan quickly took stock of her surroundings and found that she was in a very spacious square clearing.