Chapter 623: Turning the Enemy’s Trick Against Them

A cautious navigator ensures a boat’s longevity.

After learning about the many mysterious arrays in the celestial realm, Shui Miao became especially cautious.

Influenced by Shui Miao, Holy Mother Shui Tianyi also quickly focused her attention and carefully examined Da Da and Xiao Xiao.

She had great confidence in this secret chamber.

Fortunately, there was nothing suspicious about Da Da and Xiao Xiao.

“Brother, what should we do now?”

After the previous incident, Shui Miao easily uncovered a grand conspiracy, and Holy Mother Shui Tianyi had come to admire and respect him.

Shui Miao thought for a moment and replied, “Let Da Da and Xiao Xiao act naturally. If an opportunity arises, seize it; if not, don’t force it. Be as cautious as possible. If this chance doesn’t work out, he will definitely offer many more opportunities. We can use his plan against him and lead him by the nose.”

“Excellent! That’s a great plan!”

Holy Mother Shui Tianyi’s mind suddenly opened up, and she quickly thought of many strategies.

“Oh!”

Shui Miao suddenly sighed and lightly shook his head, saying, “I never expected the celestial realm to have so many miraculous arrays. We are trailing behind others, and even if we keep the Hongyu Chessboard, we may not be their match. If we want to win, we must comprehend even more extraordinary and powerful arrays, so I must conduct an extensive study.”

“Alright, brother, I still have some crystals here. You can take them to activate the Tower of Time first.”

Holy Mother Shui Tianyi extended her hand and gave Shui Miao a storage sack.

“No need. I still have plenty of crystals. If you have more Emperor Qi, sister, please give me some. I also need it to enhance my cultivation and forge some essential magical treasures.” Shui Miao now had more than enough crystals and didn’t really value them anymore. However, he still greatly desired Emperor Qi.

“Alright!”

Since Shui Miao had asked, Holy Mother Shui Tianyi naturally couldn’t be too stingy and immediately handed him two storage sacks. With a quick scan of his divine consciousness, Shui Miao discovered that the sacks were filled with Emperor Qi, and in sufficient quantity—enough to forge two divine artifacts comfortably, though slightly tight for three.

After thanking Holy Mother Shui Tianyi, Shui Miao directly entered the Tower of Time and began cultivating while contemplating the combination of Yin-Yang and the Five Elements, as well as other information related to arrays.

Such a situation required a significant amount of time for simulation experiments.

Fortunately, Shui Miao had the Yi Jing Planet, a vast testing ground.

Within the Yi Jing Planet, the immortal mountain of the Tianji Sect was suddenly infused with a massive amount of Emperor Qi by Shui Miao, causing the cultivation of all his loved ones and friends to skyrocket and improve dramatically.

Shui Miao then injected some Emperor Qi into other areas of the Yi Jing Planet, allowing everyone else to benefit as well.

“If a man does not act for himself, heaven and earth will condemn him.”

To protect the safety of his loved ones and friends, Shui Miao decided to borrow the general idea of the Hongyu Chessboard array, and based on it, create a new, perfect array, then forge a divine artifact that would not consume many materials but would possess immense power.

This divine artifact must have super strong defensive capabilities.

This divine artifact must be able to withstand attacks from the Void Annihilation Array.

This divine artifact must possess strong concealment and unique offensive abilities.

Thinking of attacks, Shui Miao naturally thought of the netherworld treasures in the hands of the Black and White Impermanents. Those treasures were very mysterious, capable of generating different counteractive energies, truly wondrous.

After a moment’s thought, Shui Miao decided that the newly forged array must also possess this function.

In fact, Shui Miao’s ideas had already been greatly influenced by the Hongyu Chessboard. The layout of the Hongyu Chessboard was more exquisite and powerful than the cities in the first heaven, with countless wondrous aspects beyond words.

After making his decision, Shui Miao began to develop the array, trying to find the best modification approach.

When considering offensive and defensive arrays, Shui Miao suddenly recalled the white-robed scholar he had encountered before, as well as the five stone tablets in his previous realm of consciousness…

The ways of Feng Shui, natural Dao, concealment, survival, and killing.

Shui Miao had only learned two of these five ways.

The remaining three were exactly what Shui Miao was now desperately trying to research.

Suddenly, Shui Miao thought, that memory shouldn’t have been just a virtual illusion. If it were an illusion, how could he explain the Feng Shui and natural Dao he had learned?

If it were real, then who exactly was that white-robed scholar who had taught him?

To this day, Shui Miao had come to believe he was just a pawn being used by others, only managing to disrupt some people’s schemes due to his resistance.

But thinking now, Shui Miao felt he might still be someone else’s pawn.

To solve this mystery, he had to find that white-robed scholar.

But time flies, and amidst the real and the illusory, where should he go searching?

“Right!”

“I can first forge a supreme mirror capable of reversing time and tracking its flow, find that white-robed scholar, locate his true existence, and then go visit him…”

With his thoughts clear, Shui Miao immediately began forging two divine artifacts.

One was the Star Ball, which incorporated the essence of the Hongyu Chessboard array and many other arrays, used for self-defense, and also had the functions of reversing time and expanding spatial domains—at least enough to move the Tianji Sect’s immortal mountain inside.

The other was the Light-Chasing Mirror, to unravel the mysteries surrounding himself.

※※※

Outside, the female immortal officers Da Da and Xiao Xiao, following the instructions of Holy Mother Shui Tianyi and Shui Miao, acted deliberately cautious and intentionally displayed a disinterest in forcefully seizing anything. However, their opponents became even more relaxed, making the acquisition of materials effortless, as if simply taking something from their own home…

Thus, Holy Mother Shui Tianyi easily seized a large amount of materials.

After returning and inspecting the materials, Holy Mother Shui Tianyi was astonished to discover that although these materials were seized, they were actually the ones she had previously lost, as many of them still bore her hidden marks!

These marks were made extremely secretly.

Therefore, Holy Mother Shui Tianyi concluded that the true mastermind behind everything was indeed the Tianji Patriarch.

Knowing she had always been manipulated, Holy Mother Shui Tianyi felt depressed and couldn’t relax her mood.

Legend had it that the Tianji Patriarch possessed a very special divine artifact capable of reading the minds of all beings. As the person most trusted by the Celestial Emperor, the Tianji Patriarch would formulate specific plans based on the thoughts of others to achieve their long-term goal of ruling the immortal realm.

The secrets of fate must not be revealed—what truly lay behind the mysteries of fate?

After learning the truth, Holy Mother Shui Tianyi suddenly realized how weak she truly was.

She had never felt so helpless before. Forced to guard against the Tianji Patriarch’s probing, she could only hide in the secret chamber all day, afraid to act rashly.

Now, she had placed all her hopes on Shui Miao.

Due to her suspicions about the Hongyu Chessboard, Holy Mother Shui Tianyi now had no idea how to counterattack the Tianji Patriarch, pinning all her hopes on Shui Miao forging new super divine artifacts to turn the tide.

Time passed day by day…

Except for the sixth heaven, all other heavens of the Nine Heavens had returned to normal order.

The Five Punishment Deities were still patrolling the sixth heaven, firmly believing that the villain who forged the destructive immortal artifact had not left the sixth heaven.

“Hu!”

Suddenly, Shui Miao emerged from the Tower of Time, holding two newly forged magical treasures.

With the two desired treasures now forged, it was time to awaken their spirits…

Seeing a “ball” and a “mirror,” Holy Mother Shui Tianyi was momentarily stunned. “Brother, what exactly did you forge?”

“Sister, you’ll know in a moment. First, please help me generate some Emperor Qi to awaken these two treasures.” Shui Miao was slightly embarrassed, as the Emperor Qi previously given by Holy Mother Shui Tianyi had already been completely used up in forging these two treasures.

Forging divine artifacts consumed an enormous amount of Emperor Qi.

“Alright…”

Holy Mother Shui Tianyi hesitated slightly but, although reluctant, still generated a large amount of Emperor Qi to awaken the treasures.

The spirit within the treasures, having received the Emperor Qi, rapidly increased in cultivation… Gradually, the Star Ball emitted a purple glow, while the Light-Chasing Mirror emitted a dazzling white light… Before long, two yellow beams of light suddenly descended from above the secret chamber, pouring down a massive amount of Emperor Qi!

However, unlike previous times, this Emperor Qi did not stop flowing this time!

Seeing this scene, Shui Miao’s heart suddenly stirred, and he secretly mused, “Just as I suspected, the Tianji Patriarch previously created obstacles on purpose. Now that he knows I am forging the Hongyu Chessboard, he has stopped restricting the flow of Emperor Qi. This guy is truly sinister. How should I deal with him? Right, how about this…”