Chapter 243: Ancient Well and Vines

The courtyard was overgrown with weeds, and most of the houses and pavilions had collapsed. The old scenery was gone.

Qin Sang suppressed the joy in his heart, cautiously scanned his surroundings, concealed his aura, and moved stealthily, following the Fire Jade Centipede into the courtyard.

Finally, Qin Sang entered a desolate courtyard. Standing before a moon gate, he surveyed the area.

Even in ruin, the courtyard exuded a luxury unimaginable to mortals. Its floor was paved with precious jade slabs, each a foot square. In the mundane world, any single one of these jade pieces could be considered an heirloom treasure.

Some jade slabs were already shattered or incomplete, and clumps of weeds grew in the gaps between them. Combined with the houses behind, which were reduced to mere ruined walls, this made the entire courtyard appear incredibly desolate.

The courtyard was not large; everything was visible at a glance.

His eyes couldn't discern anything unusual in the courtyard.

Qin Sang swept his spiritual sense back and forth across the courtyard over a dozen times, leaving no corner unchecked. He found no spiritual artifacts, nor did he detect any hidden restrictions.

Strangely, the Fire Jade Centipede's target was clearly this small courtyard.

The Fire Jade Centipede struggled violently in Qin Sang's palm, frantically gnawing at the spiritual power binding it. Its perception certainly wasn't false; there had to be something hidden within the courtyard.

Qin Sang's brow furrowed slightly. He cautiously stepped inside, walking a circuit along the walls, then traversing every inch of the courtyard. Everything remained as usual; he even attempted to damage a jade slab but met no resistance.

This was not surprising; if the spiritual artifact were so easy to find, it would have been taken long ago.

Qin Sang returned to the moon gate, looked down at the Fire Jade Centipede, and released it.

The Fire Jade Centipede's slender body immediately arched and sprang, shooting out like a streak of fire. It landed at the edge of a white jade piece, and then a surprising scene unfolded before Qin Sang.

The Fire Jade Centipede began crawling rapidly across the ground, following a peculiar path. Its body twisted and swayed back and forth; the path it took was not a straight line, but incredibly complex and mysterious.

As the Fire Jade Centipede crawled faster and faster, Qin Sang suddenly felt a subtle fluctuation appearing within the courtyard.

Before this, Qin Sang had not detected the slightest anomaly.

Was this some kind of illusion formation?

As time passed, Qin Sang could even see ripples appearing in the air with his naked eye. Fortunately, this fluctuation was not obvious; otherwise, it might attract others.

Even at this moment, Qin Sang still couldn't perceive what kind of formation was laid out in the courtyard, let alone how to break it.

Just as Qin Sang was secretly wondering, the Fire Jade Centipede's front half suddenly vanished into thin air. Qin Sang's gaze sharpened instantly, and he quickly activated the restriction he had placed on the centipede, holding it in place.

Half of the Fire Jade Centipede's body had entered an unknown space, while the other half remained outside, as if it had been severed by the void. It was extremely bizarre.

Qin Sang darted to the Fire Jade Centipede's side but found that no matter how he moved, he couldn't enter that space. He couldn't help but feel surprised.

After a moment's thought, Qin Sang made the Fire Jade Centipede retreat to the moon gate. He then attached his spiritual sense to the centipede and followed it closely with his body, entering the courtyard.

Initially, there was nothing unusual, but after a while, Qin Sang found a thin mist suddenly forming around him. Then the mist grew thicker, and the surrounding scenery became dreamlike and indistinct, as if he were in a fairyland.

Suddenly, Qin Sang's heart stirred. He stopped, and a strange mirror appeared before him. Its surface rippled slightly, as if composed of flowing water.

This was the core of the formation, Qin Sang realized. The Fire Jade Centipede must have entered this water mirror earlier, which was why half of its body disappeared.

The Fire Jade Centipede was still intact, indicating there should be no danger inside. However, it was better to be cautious.

Qin Sang summoned his ebony sword for protection and stepped into the water mirror.

In an instant, the clouds and mist dissipated.

The courtyard was still the same courtyard.

The distant mountains were still there.

Red runes filled the air, like a sea of fire obscuring the sky.

Everything before seemed like a dream.

Aside from that, the only change was that a well had appeared out of nowhere in the center of the courtyard. Qin Sang stood at the well's edge, leaning slightly to look down.

The ancient well was deep and dark. His spiritual sense swept the bottom, and everything seemed normal; it was simply an ordinary well. His naked eye could barely make out the bottom, where the water had long dried up, revealing a deep black hue. A stone staircase, wide enough for only one person, extended down into the earth.

The courtyard's owner laid such a powerful and secret illusion formation precisely to hide this well!

Qin Sang was filled with anticipation. He touched his corpse puppet bag, and a zombie puppet leaped into the well, walking down the stone steps and eventually disappearing from sight.

Until it was almost beyond Qin Sang's perception, the zombie puppet still hadn't encountered any attacks.

Qin Sang quickly leaped into the well, trailing far behind the zombie puppet.

The stone steps were long, leading deep underground. As Qin Sang went deeper, he felt the surrounding air becoming increasingly hot. He secretly wondered, could these steps lead directly to a river of lava?

Just then, Qin Sang perceived that the zombie puppet had reached the end of the steps. He quickly made it return, then swiftly and silently darted downwards.

"Hiss!"

Qin Sang stood on the last step of the staircase, not daring to breathe. The anticipation and joy on his face vanished without a trace, replaced by an extremely solemn expression.

He had guessed correctly: this stone staircase indeed connected to a river of lava, though not directly linked to it, but rather leading into a massive underground cavern.

The cavern was nearly ten zhang high, very vast, and its boundaries couldn't be seen.

At the bottom of the cavern, it could no longer be called a river; a lake of lava would be a more accurate description.

Just like in the trial grounds, there was an identical circular restriction formation on the lava lake.

However, there was no obscuring mist in the cavern, and with the naked eye, one could clearly see countless flame flying monkeys playing and frolicking above the lava lake.

Most eye-catching was at the center of the lava lake, in the midst of the monkey group's encirclement: several fiery-red colossal vines grew out of the lava lake.

These vines intertwined, thick enough for several people to embrace, like an ancient tree with sparse branches and leaves. They stretched straight up to the cavern's dome, sprouting rootlets that firmly clutched the rock walls, then drooped back down.

At the tip of the thickest vine, a palm-sized, round fruit hung.

This fruit was entirely golden, appearing strikingly out of place.

The flying monkeys seemed to know the fruit's preciousness, as they would keep a safe distance even while playing. Perhaps they were more like guardian beasts of the vines and fruit.

There were far fewer flying monkeys here than in the trial grounds, but Qin Sang stood motionless, not daring to rush in and pluck the fruit.

This was because the flames on the flying monkeys were not scarlet red, but dark red!

Even while playing, every attack they made possessed power that shocked Qin Sang.