Chapter 1418: The Array's Patterns

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Within the fissure of the Thousand Buddha Wall, a lone figure fled as though for his life, and behind him the crimson and golden flames born of Buddha light and crimson fire surged like a tide, refusing to fall back.

Qin Sang drove the Golden Sinking Sword to clear his path and did not dare pause for an instant.

He had sent the devilish flames back at the Chaotic Devil Elder as a parting blow and then turned and run, with no way of knowing how effective it had been or whether it had bought Valley Master Mu and the others time to escape.

Bang! Bang! The sword light hammered onward without pause as Qin Sang pressed deeper. His field of vision held nothing but crimson and gold.

It was hard to fathom how much crimson flame qi had accumulated here across untold ages, that after venting for so long this much should still remain.

He suspected the original array had not been nearly so formidable. Warped by the crimson flame qi's influence, it had mutated, and only then had its power risen to such a staggering degree.

The light before him abruptly dimmed. Alarm rose in him at once, and he swung a hard slash forward.

Boom! The sword light parted the Buddha light and crimson flames, and Qin Sang burst through.

In the next instant the pressure on him fell away sharply. The light around him was no longer so harsh, no longer the monotonous crimson and gold, replaced instead by rosy radiance in a riot of colors.

Stranger still, the violent turbulence behind him vanished into nothing at that very same moment.

Puzzled, Qin Sang turned to survey his surroundings. As before, he hung with neither sky above nor ground below, no footing anywhere.

Multicolored radiance lay everywhere, some of it stretched into sheets, some gathered into clumps. Glows of every hue filled the whole of the void, a beautiful sight. Yet within every last one of them drifted that familiar crimson flame qi, present without exception.

It was illusory and ethereal, with not a single solid object in sight.

Clearly his earlier conjecture had been correct. Crossing the Thousand Buddha Wall had merely carried him from one variation of the array into another. He remained inside it still.

What surprised him was that the Thousand Buddha Wall no longer stood behind him! He had burst out of it only moments ago, yet it had vanished into thin air, leaving nothing behind him but boundless radiance without a single familiar landmark.

So... I've fallen into another of the array's variations? Qin Sang thought.

Qin Sang held his position and made no rash movements, watching intently alongside the Sky-Eyed Butterfly.

However powerful an array might be, it would surely leave traces to follow, all the more so when this one had no master and its variations were therefore finite.

Whoosh! A shrill tearing of air came from within the radiance.

Qin Sang frowned. His skin prickled as a sharp, cutting intent locked onto him, and alarm flared. He immediately turned the Golden Sinking Sword hovering above his head to face it, braced as though against a formidable enemy.

Hum... The spiritual sword gave a long ringing cry.

The sound of parting air closed from a distance at frightening speed. Then Qin Sang saw the radiance in that direction wink out of existence, leaving a black void, and out of it came a dazzling shaft of golden light bearing an aura fit to annihilate everything, hurtling straight at him!

That golden light was utterly pure. Since entering the array, every sight Qin Sang had encountered had carried crimson flame qi within it. This light alone was the exception. Which suggested it might be one of the array's original means of attack.

His eyes narrowed. He dared not treat it lightly and drove the Golden Sinking Sword with everything he had, ready to meet the golden light head-on with a slash.

Then his gaze flickered as though something had occurred to him. He hesitated, and did something strange; he withdrew the sword and shifted his body dozens of zhang to the side.

Swish! The golden light swept in, and he could faintly make out that its true form was a monk's staff conjured by the array itself.

His evasion caused the staff to shift. Its shaft slid sideways, but only by a few zhang, too little to catch him. It brushed past him and disappeared into the depths of the radiance.

The staff's shockwave washed over his protective divine aura, rippling it slightly. That was all. He himself was entirely unharmed.

Qin Sang looked toward where the staff had vanished and let out a breath. Just as I thought! In the array's original state, dodging that staff would have been far from easy, and with someone directing it from outside it would have been harder still to contend with. Now, warped by the crimson flame qi, the array has power to spare but too little variation. It looks dangerous, yet it's actually quite manageable...

That first experiment had proved his guess right.

Of course, it did not mean he could grow careless. There would always be places like the Thousand Buddha Wall, where evasion was impossible and the danger ran higher than before.

So it seems like I've passed from the array's first variation into the second. It's like clearing levels in sequence. The question is how many levels there are in total.

The Chaotic Devil Elder certainly didn't follow us in from the very beginning, or the Sky-Eyed Butterfly would have detected him long ago. Which suggests every intruder's experience must be similar.

If Valley Master Mu survives and crosses the Thousand Buddha Wall, he'll certainly arrive in this same space, though not necessarily anywhere near me. And where has the wall gone?

The Thousand Buddha Wall must be the manifestation of the protective screen between two of the array's variations. Since I came out through it, I could certainly find it again if I went looking, though what one sees from inside and outside differs. It may no longer be a wall of Buddhas at all.

Qin Sang settled his mind, analyzing everything he had seen and heard, feeling out the array's patterns.

While he was deep in thought, the Sky-Eyed Butterfly sent him a thought. It seemed to have found something.

He raised his head toward the depths of the radiance and flashed forward in a series of movements.

Crimson flames drifted within the glow, and touching off a single strand might well set off a vast swath of turbulence. Had the array's attacks not been evadeable, it would have been a genuine problem.

The radiance here stretched on without end, crimson flames blotting out the sky like a fire-red evening glow.

Qin Sang advanced in fits and starts, at times drawing close to examine the light intently, at times frowning in thought. Gradually a look of resignation came over his face.

The patterns here are nothing like those of the Thousand Buddha Wall. The crimson flame qi and the radiance are inseparable from each other. By the time I've worked them out and opened a path back, everything will be long over...

Going back to help was not viable. Should he return at the precise moment the Chaotic Devil Elder cut Valley Master Mu down, he would only be delivering himself into danger.

Waiting here to rescue them offers little hope either. The variation is this intricate because whoever laid the array clearly wanted to scatter intruders to different locations and destroy them one by one. And there's no guarantee Valley Master Mu can even escape here...

With thoughts flashing one after another, Qin Sang decided to wait a while longer.

The outcome was as he expected.

"May the three of you fend for yourselves." He shook his head slightly and turned away.

No better option came to him. For now he could only press on alone and explore Pure Sea Sect. If Valley Master Mu managed to break free of the Chaotic Devil Elder, they would meet again somewhere inside.

Fortunately the Fire Jade Centipede was his own spiritual insect and could point the way. Obtaining the Myriad Spirit Fruit alone would make the trip worthwhile. As for any other treasures, he would have to play it as it came.

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