Chapter 326 - A Gourmet's Intuition
Chapter 326 - A Gourmet's Intuition
The trio traversed the deep dark waters conservatively, arriving at the edge of the desolate island.
The island was filled with craggy rocks, and no spiritual plants or magical beasts were in sight. Nonetheless, Lu Chen and his companions dared not let their guards down.
The outermost waters were teeming with countless Ice Mirage Toads, and the island, situated close to the palace, only promised an even more challenging passage.
Indeed, Lu Chen spotted a cultivator attempting to fly over the strange rocks. But as soon as he activated his flying sword, an immense force seemed to pull him down, causing him and his sword to crash to the ground.
"There's an anti-flight array here. We can only pass through on foot."
While keeping a close eye on the depths of the desolate island, the trio quickly reunited with the other Foundation Establishment cultivators.
Only after several unsuccessful attempts using various means did the group abandon the idea of flying across.
"These bizarre rocks are everywhere, and who knows what secrets they hold," remarked a beautiful woman, her eyes fixed on the oddly shaped piles of stones.
"We'll find out soon enough," replied a sinister-looking cultivator in black robes as he released a many-legged insect from a black pouch.
The insect scurried across the ground at great speed.
Just as it had traveled about ten feet, a thunderous rumble echoed, and two of the strange rocks on either side instantly transformed into a pair of stone palms, crushing the first-grade magical beast into a bloody mess.
Then, the stone palms disintegrated, returning to their original form as craggy rocks.
The insect's blood and flesh that remained on the surface of the rocks quickly dissolved without a trace.
Subsequently, several cultivators released seven or eight first-grade magical beasts, each charging toward the palace from different directions. However, they all met the same fate as the many-legged insect.
They had barely covered any distance when they were effortlessly taken out by the numerous rocks in various ways.
"These rocks seem to form a peculiar array. If something foreign intrudes into its territory, those ever-changing rocks will eliminate the intruder," theorized a Foundation Establishment cultivator who specialized in arrays.
"I don't care if it's an array or not. If it dares to stand between me and my opportunity, I'll smash it to smithereens!" declared the burly middle-aged cultivator they had encountered earlier. His body suddenly shot up in height, his muscles swelled, and his veins bulged as he transformed into a giant over ten feet tall.
With a ferocious aura, he charged into the midst of the rocks.
"These rocks are certainly odd, but based on what we've seen so far, Foundation Establishment cultivators should be able to pass through unscathed," said one cultivator.
"Moreover, there are almost twenty of us here at the Foundation Establishment stage. Even if this stone array is extraordinary, it can't possibly trap so many of us," added another.
"Let's all give it our best shot."
A cultivator at the mid-Foundation Establishment stage glowed with a dark yellow spiritual light under his feet, as if merging with the soil, and slid swiftly toward the opposite side.
Lu Chen and his two companions exchanged glances and then dashed into the maze of stones together.
"Hmm?"
As soon as Lu Chen entered the stone maze, he sensed something amiss.
Shi Zhong and the other cultivator who had rushed in with him had vanished without a trace. When he extended his spiritual sense to probe their surroundings, it was as if it had sunk into the abyss after only a few feet.
"We didn't notice anything unusual from the outside, but who would've thought there would be such arrangements inside," Lu Chen muttered.
"Oh well, it's a good opportunity to let loose a little," he thought to himself.
With that, he unleashed his spiritual power, and a delicate and exquisite jade seal leaped out of his Beast Taming Pouch.
The Seal of the Mountain Peak grew rapidly, turning into a massive jade mountain that slammed onto the strange rocks that had transformed into stone palms.
"You like smashing things so much? Let's see how you like being on the receiving end!"
The enormous stone palm, measuring over five feet in length and width, was completely crushed under the weight of the jade mountain, shattering into countless pieces.
Before Lu Chen could react, a gust of wind rushed past his ear, and a gigantic stone golem appeared, swinging its ashy-gray fist toward his head.
Lu Chen's palm turned crystalline, and he met the blow with his own fist, colliding directly with the golem's stony knuckles.
Having cultivated the Liuli Danggu Fa and the Tai Xu Hua Long Pian body-refining techniques, and ingested a large amount of Jin Sui Yu Liquid and Yu Lin Fruit, his physical strength was now comparable to that of many third-grade spiritual artifacts.
Despite the difference in their sizes, it was the giant stone golem that crumbled under the impact. Starting from the fist, the stone began to disintegrate, raining down in chunks like a downpour.
Just as the golem's body was about to dissipate, Lu Chen's Seal of the Mountain Peak instantly enlarged, turning into a jade mountain that smashed the golem into countless pieces.
Lu Chen's figure flashed, and he appeared three zhang to the left and behind, where he crushed a forming stone beast with a thunderous blow.
However, the tenacity of the strange stones exceeded his expectations. Time and again, he swiftly defeated the stone humanoids and beasts, shattering them beyond recognition, only for the rocks to quickly reform into new stone creatures, seemingly unaffected by his attacks.
"This is no good. I'm just wasting my spiritual energy this way," Lu Chen halted, a thought occurring to him.
"These bizarre stones keep changing into stone humanoids and beasts to block my path, and they possess an incredibly strange and powerful healing ability. Staying in this formation and dealing with them is pointless."
"Either I find the formation's eye or spiritual node and break the array, or I figure out a way to quickly pass through."
"To trap over twenty Foundation Establishment cultivators at the same time... an ordinary fourth-grade formation definitely couldn't do this. If it's a fifth-grade formation, then it shouldn't have this level of power. There must be a flaw somewhere."
Suddenly, a crack appeared on Lu Chen's palm, opening up to reveal a grayish-white eyeball.
Ten zhang above him, a grayish-white eyeball suddenly appeared out of thin air.
Affected by the restrictions, the eyeball plummeted the moment it appeared, nearly popping out of its socket.
However, the Void Nightmare Eye was, after all, a fifth-grade treasure. It quickly adapted to the restrictions influencing it, and the grayish-white eye began to scan the surroundings.
Within Lu Chen's palm, the tiny eyeball displayed the same scene that the main body of the Void Nightmare Eye was witnessing.
On the desolate island, the stones seemed to flow like a flood, automatically rushing towards the Foundation Establishment cultivators who had entered the island's realm.
In other areas where people rarely ventured, there were few traces of the strange stones.
"So they all rushed towards the cultivators," Lu Chen observed, choosing a direction where the number of strange stones seemed to be reduced, and sped off.
As his spiritual sense was of little use within the bizarre stone maze, he employed the Earth Guidance Technique, a fundamental skill at the Grand Master level, to sense the changes in the underground rock structures and react accordingly, avoiding direct collisions with the strange stones.
After more than a moment, Lu Chen felt his body suddenly lighten.
"I've finally gotten out of that stone formation," Lu Chen glanced at the distant palace and saw several fleeing lights speeding towards the mysterious palace.
From their silhouettes, they seemed to be the most powerful among the Foundation Establishment cultivators.
Just as Lu Chen was about to follow them, a gray vine suddenly poked out from his sleeve, its tip nodding in a different direction.
"Are you saying there's a high-grade spirit herb over there?" Lu Chen asked curiously.
The Yaogu Vine's tendril nodded, unknowingly secreting a grayish liquid.
"Alright, then I'll trust your gourmet intuition," Lu Chen decided.
(End of Chapter)
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