Condemning the Heavens

When they returned to the foot of the Goat Mountain, the impregnable mountain wall from before had completely changed in appearance.

It had become a doorway leading into the mountain itself.

"Oh, wow... you’ve been busy," Xue Wei said with a smile. The sight of the open gate into the mountain made him feel great excitement.

"I’m not the only one. If I am not mistaken, you’re the source of that roar earlier, right? That was a magnificent dragon roar. It has been a long time since I’ve last encountered a Sovereign Beast’s roar." he said with praise.

"It is not the roar of an actual Sovereign Beast, though," Xue Wei said, shaking his head. Bai Tianyi just looked at him and snickered. "Well, enough about that. Let us get inside."

Xue Wei was puzzled as to why he would say that, but he nodded his head and inspected the entrance. He found nothing but complete darkness beyond it, but it did not frighten him. He had acquired some light orbs from the ring of the Crimson Sunshine Sect’s member, which he took out before stepping into the gloomy tunnel through the gate.

Hei Gou and Bai Tianyi followed him in without hesitation, but Wang Xiaoyun hesitated while glancing at these companions of hers with an uncomfortable look on her face.

Xue Wei stopped in his tracks and turned around. "Xiaoyun, are you coming?" he asked. She flinched, appearing to have woken up from a stupor, before frantically nodding her head and hurrying after them.

Xue Wei watched Wang Xiaoyun for some time. It was clear that something was wrong, but as to what it was, he could not put his finger on it.

Shaking his head, he turned around and continued deeper into the tunnel. The tunnel was made out of stone and was clearly carved into the mountain itself, and it seemed to continue into its depths indefinitely.

The tunnel seemed to be a long incline towards the underground, and the environment which had been humid and hot was turning cold and moist. The walls were wet with droplets of water that ran down their surface as if they were tears.

The further down they went, the steeper the pathway became. Soon, they had to hold onto the wall to ensure that they did not trip and roll all the way down the slope.

They were walking rather quickly, but it still took them a full seven hours before they reached the end of the slope.

When the slope evened out and became a straight path once more, Xue Wei sighed in relief. He had not thought about giving up, but the trip down had taken so long. To excavate such a long tunnel must have taken a really long time, and it must have required quite some effort.

The expert that had created this place was evidently far from simple, and the trio’s expectations of what could be found inside the cave grew increasingly larger the more they tried to imagine it.

They continued into the depths of the passageway. There was only this one path, but they never let down their guard. There were no signs of traps, but there were no signs of treasures either.

There were old light orbs embedded in the walls, but all of them had long since lost their energy. Now, this entire area was damp and buried in darkness. The only light illuminating their path came from the light orb in Xue Wei’s hands.

Although they had more than one light orb, Xue Wei would not squander them for mere convenience.

Xue Wei was unaware of how much time they would spend in the belly of the mountain, but he could guess that it would be a long trip this time.

So far, the things that had been sat up to keep people out were rather extensive. An age-restricting formation and then the formation at the mountain wall were not simple mechanisms.

But they still did not know what exactly they had entered. Was this a grave? An inheritance site? A supreme expert’s old abode? Or was it perhaps a treasury?

No one could know for sure. Bai Tianyi surmised it to be some supreme expert’s grave, but he had no proof, and half of his expectation came from his desire to gobble up the soul energy left behind by said supreme expert.

The group continued unerringly into the path for a few more hours when the tunnel started to suddenly widen.

The tunnel opened up into a big round room with four different doors. Xue Wei frowned when he saw this. Was this not too much of a coincidence? They were four people, counting Bai Tainyi, and there were precisely four doors.

"Welcome to the final resting place of I, the Moon Prince." A voice slowly drifted out from the middle of the room where a small fluctuation of Qi seemed present.

"It is a formation that keeps someone’s voice recorded with Qi. When the Qi is activated, the words that have been recorded will be released from the formation itself," Bai Tianyi muttered in a low voice. Xue Wei heard it, and his curiosity was somewhat sated.

"I, the Moon Prince, was an expert standing at the apex of this world. Only the White Sword has ever been closer to immortality than I have," it continued.

"I searched for years on end to find leads that could take me to the White Sword’s immortality. Unfortunately, I failed... and after living for a few thousand years, I was incapable of holding on any longer."

"My second passion in life was the art of formations. I was a master at it, and everyone knew me as the best in the field."

"When I was about to die, I decided to make the continent that belonged to the White Sword my resting ground. It was the Chang’an Continent, the continent where I was born. It was a continent filled with chaos."

"When I was born, humans and beasts lived side by side. Although they killed each other from time to time, they were evened out. However, when I returned to the continent with the desire to build my tomb, the beasts had taken over the continent, and the humans were nothing more than livestock and slaves to them."

"I spent the rest of my life helping the humans rise against the beasts, but I never got to see the end of the war. I was up against a Sovereign Beast, but I could not gain the upper hand despite standing at the apex."

"In the end, our fight ended up in mutual destruction. Before my body crumbled, I managed somehow to get back to this tomb... And so I planted my will and soul here in the hopes of one day meeting my successor before I enter the circle of reincarnation."

"I have left trials all over this grave, and handsome rewards await you at the end of each one. I have medicinal plants, herbs, pills and spiritual fruits. I have ranked treasures, martial art techniques, and formations."

"I have put up an illusion formation in this room. There are the same amount of doors as the number of experts entering this room. One has to choose a door; two cannot go through the same. Every door will have ten, individual trials. If you manage to get through all ten trials, then you will be guided towards my corpse where the rest of my treasury is located, alongside my inheritance."

"I wish the best of luck to the younger generation!"

The voice died out shortly after, and the fluctuations of energy also ceased. Xue Wei and company were silent for some time before they looked at one another and nodded their heads.

"This depends on our luck then," Xue Wei said after a bit of consideration. "The Moon Prince is not a simple individual, and he has left a lot of treasure behind. Take what you can, but never become greedy. Always remember that life is the most important! I would rather have you alive than getting a thousand treasures."

The others nodded their heads with grave expressions before picking a door each.

Xue Wei slowly pushed open the door in front of him. After a final glance and nod to his friends, he stepped inside.

Xue Wei had stepped into a square room, whose walls he examined. There was nothing inside it, however. The entire room was made from stone. Clearly, it had been carved out from the mountain like the other places they had passed by so far.

"So what is the big deal about this room?" Xue Wei muttered as he looked around. There was nothing to be seen at first glance. However, a fluctuation appeared in the heaven and earth essence after a second. Xue Wei calmly kept his eyes on it, or rather in the general direction of it.

"Welcome challenger. This first trial is simple. Your heart will be tested. Go stand in the very center of the room; there, I have placed a Thousand Illusion Formation that will judge you!"

Xue Wei was very curious about these formations. He came from a backwater kingdom that severely lacked knowledge in that topic, but his curiosity had been stirred ever since he had entered the age-restricting formation and become exposed to the abstrusity of formations.

Xue Wei waited for a few moments to hear whether or not the voice would say more, but it vanished alongside the fluctuations. He slowly stepped towards the middle of the room.

Something had been engraved on the floor, he noticed. It was a circle, and there were strange runes inside the ring, intertwined with each other and looked like a revolving swirl of tiny dragons.

Although it was merely an engravement on the ground, Xue Wei could swear it was moving.

"So this is what a formation looks like before it is activated," Xue Wei muttered to himself while greedily trying to glean the secrets of the formation. He tried to memorize everything he saw, but he soon found that it was impossible because the runes constantly changed their positions.

"Well, let us see what this trial of the heart is like!" Xue Wei muttered and stepped into the circle.

The moment he stepped into it, he sensed how the heaven-and-earth essence in his surroundings turned chaotic. Qi sprang up from the ground and shrouded him in a small bubble before he could even react.

Afterwards, when his vision regained focus, he could see only white fog in every direction.

Xue Wei was bewildered. What was he supposed to do? He looked around, but he found nothing that gave him any ideas. Then he tried moving around.

As he moved, the fog seemed to dwindle over time. At some point, he made it into a village. It was a village he had seen before. It was Lingyun Town, where he had grown up. It was the last place he and Hei Gou had gone to before fleeing from the Heping Kingdom.

Although he instantly recognized Lingyun Town, it looked very different from when he had last been there. Now it was in its prime, and people were hurrying back and forth.

Xue Wei saw a group of children running to the outskirts of the village to be taught about cultivation by the overseers. At this point, Xue Wei recognized one of the children as himself. He was amused.

Was this a memory or something created by the Thousand Illusion Formation? He did not know, but he was calm as examined his new environment.