Pei Mufeng and Meng Qi continued walking forward. The slope beneath the city wall was dotted with patches of Seven Emotions Flowers, some sparse and some dense. Meng Qi’s hand dangled at her side, her fingers gently moving as she mapped the entire distribution of the colorful flowers. Fortunately, after facing the sword array of the four swords, they encountered no further obstacles, and soon they had walked around most of the city wall.
As they neared the end of the city wall and were about to return to the temporary base, Pei Mufeng, who had been silent all the way, asked, “Have you figured out anything?”
Meng Qi lightly tapped her fingers against her side, uncertain. “It looks like a painting.”
“A painting?”
“Yes.” Meng Qi nodded. She had initially thought that the layout of this small city was related to an array, and perhaps the Seven Emotions Flowers were part of it. But after walking around, she hadn’t seen any signs of an array. Instead, the varied density of the flower patches looked like someone had used the mountain as a canvas to create an ink painting.
She quickly sketched the whole picture in her mind. If she connected them… Meng Qi shook her head, failing to discern what it was. It seemed like a random splash of ink.
“Why not draw it out and see?” Pei Mufeng suggested.
“Okay.” Meng Qi pulled out a bamboo slip from her storage pouch. Cultivators didn’t need paper and pen for drawing or writing. She held the bamboo slip, and with an injection of her spiritual sense, the image appeared on the surface.
Meng Qi handed the bamboo slip to Pei Mufeng. He took it and infused it with a bit of aura, then shook his head as well. “I can’t make it out.”
“I feel like…” Meng Qi looked down the slope and then at the cultivators still fighting fiercely in front, “…something’s missing.” The bamboo slip seemed to depict several ordinary mountain peaks, forming a continuous mountain range, but nothing else seemed unusual.
What did she miss? Meng Qi took back the bamboo slip and held it in her hand. While the painting depicted rolling green mountains, it was actually a bit of a stretch to call it that, as the painting looked more like varied shades of ink wash rather than actual mountains.
The two quickly returned to the corner of the city wall. In the half-hour they had been gone, Li Che and the others had rescued several more cultivators.
“Meng Qiqi.” Seeing her return, Sikong Xing hurried over. “You’re back?” She had already heard from Li Che what Meng Qi and the others had been up to, and quickly asked, “How did it go? Did you find anything?”
Meng Qi handed her the bamboo slip. “The slope is full of Seven Emotions Flowers. I drew a picture based on their distribution. Take a look.”
“Hmm.” Sikong Xing held the bamboo slip, infusing it with aura. “Ah!” she suddenly gasped softly, “Is this… isn’t this?”
“What is it?” Meng Qi’s spirit lifted, and she asked quickly.
“It looks a bit like the Starfallen Sea in our Demon Realm,” the red fox girl responded.
“Isn’t it supposed to be mountains?” Meng Qi asked, confused.
“It’s indeed mountains,” Sikong Xing nodded, “the Demon Realm’s Starfallen Sea is located in the valley surrounded by seven mountains.”
Looking at the bewildered Meng Qi, she chuckled, “The Starfallen Sea connects the three realms and looks different in each place. In the Demon Realm, it’s in a valley. But those mountains are very high and large; legend says no one can climb to the peak.”
“And the seven mountains form the Seven Kills Array. Look, the arrangement of the mountains in your drawing matches the Seven Kills Array.”
Meng Qi was stunned.
“In the middle of the seven mountains is the Starfallen Sea of the Demon Realm,” Sikong Xing continued. She lowered her voice, leaning close to Meng Qi’s ear, and whispered, “I heard from my father that the battle for the Demon Monarch Order happens in this Starfallen Sea. Normally, the Starfallen Sea in the Demon Realm is shrouded in clouds and mist. But every hundred years, the clouds disperse, and demon cultivators who can pass through the Seven Kills Mountains can enter the Starfallen Sea to compete for the Order.”
Meng Qi felt another jolt of realization. She held the bamboo slip, and the originally unremarkable seven mountains in the painting seemed to transform in her eyes, becoming clearer.
“I…” she opened her mouth, feeling a bit parched, “I think I…”
She felt uncertain, because she had never been to the Demon Realm.
Never!
In either her previous life or her present one, she had never been to the Demon Realm! She had even been to the Devil World, experiencing its hellish and terrifying darkness, but she had never been to the Demon Realm.
“I…” Meng Qi opened her mouth again, staring blankly at Sikong Xing.
“Meng Qiqi?” Sikong Xing waved a hand in front of her face. “You okay? What’s wrong?”
“I… no, nothing,” Meng Qi suddenly paused. Because at that moment, a voice suddenly echoed in her mind. It was a voice she should have been most familiar with, yet for some reason, Meng Qi felt she shouldn’t have heard him speak like this.
In her mind, Yun Qingyan’s voice seemed to come from a very distant place, deep and filled with an authority she had never heard before: “Seven Kills Array—forward, it is Seven Kills and reverse, it is Seven Emotions. The two sides complement each other, interlinked without end, never ceasing.”
Meng Qi heard herself asking Yun Qingyan, “Why are Seven Kills and Seven Emotions interlinked? Aren’t killings and emotions supposed to be opposite?”
“Because…” The Yun Qingyan in her mind seemed to be smiling, his voice becoming gentle, “Emotions—for example, love—are the deadliest killers. They cut into your heart and marrow, ripping you from the inside out. Nobody can escape them, and perhaps, there is no cure either.”
Meng Qi heard herself respond with a half-understood “Oh.”
When did this happen?
How could she not remember this ever happening?
When did it occur?
She had no memory of learning this Seven Kills Array—or rather, Seven Emotions Array. Because of her excellent memory and deep admiration of Yun Qingyan, she always committed every word he said to heart, especially what he taught her. So why didn’t she remember this Seven Kills Array?
“Meng Qiqi? Qiqi?” A white, slender hand waved in front of her eyes again, and Sikong Xing’s crisp voice brought Meng Qi back to her senses. “Meng Qiqi, are you okay?”
“Yes.” Meng Qi slowly nodded, temporarily setting aside her doubts. “This place…” She looked around, “could be a large array.”
“There is indeed a large array in the city,” Sikong Xing said, somewhat understanding. “And the big array contains smaller arrays, interlinked like chains.” She reminded Meng Qi, “Did you forget? Earlier, they asked me and Chu Tianfeng to guard a small array in the city.”
“No.” Meng Qi stomped her foot and pointed down. “The entire mountain is an array.”
“What?!” Sikong Xing was stunned, staring blankly at Meng Qi.
“Meng Qiqi, look!” Li Che, who had just approached them, suddenly shouted, “That’s Senior Ling Ji! Over there!” He pointed forward as he spoke.
Meng Qi and the others quickly turned their heads, following his finger.
Over the horizon, a tall and slender figure leaped high into the sky, then plummeted downward. Under the sunlight, a glint of cold light flashed, and Ling Ji’s long, thin natal sword followed its master, diving down with a deadly momentum.
At that moment, a rainbow-colored light rose from the ground, enveloping Ling Ji and his sword. Then, the light suddenly vanished into the air, as abruptly as it appeared, along with the figure inside.
“What happened?!” Sikong Xing rubbed her eyes in disbelief, staring at the scene before her. “Senior Ling Ji, he… was he swallowed by that light? What was that?”
Meng Qi’s face was a bit pale, but her gaze was firm. “I fear this is the true test of the Ten Absolutes Mountain.” Her tone was resolute. “We must break this array!”
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