Chapter 430: Golden Hall

Li Huowang stood there, wide-eyed, looking at everything before him. He had always been indifferent to money, but when a palace forged entirely of gold appeared before him, he was utterly stunned. The golden palace before him appeared incredibly solemn and sacred; even the snowflakes falling from the sky seemed to vanish upon its surface.

"They all went in there..." Li Huowang looked at the bloodstained footprints on the golden bricks in the distance. Carefully maintaining his invisibility, he walked inside.

Walking alone through an area of pure gold, Li Huowang stepped on golden bricks and gazed at the golden halls. He felt as if he were dreaming, wondering how wealthy Great Liang must be to construct such an enormous golden city.

Following the bloodstains on the ground, Li Huowang soon approached the entrance of a golden hall. On the left couplet, it read: "The Emperor's mandate reaches the nine domains; it is arduous, why not be reverent?" And on the right couplet: "Heaven's heart protects virtue; forever preserved, seeking peace." Li Huowang looked up, and on the colossal plaque, three dazzling golden characters were emblazoned: "Jinluan Hall."

"Jinluan Hall, is it...?" Li Huowang frowned, stepping inside. He wasn't concerned with the name of the place; he was more focused on finding Beifeng, the Mind-Purity individual he was looking for.

The Jinluan Hall was incredibly vast and empty, with nothing inside except for colossal pillars adorned with six-clawed golden dragons. Li Huowang deliberately slowed his pace, yet he could still hear the faint echoes of his own footsteps.

"Why did these Sit-Forget Daoists run so fast? And what are they doing in Great Liang's imperial palace?" Suppressing his anxiety and unease, Li Huowang hurried towards the six-panel door at the back of the hall. However, when he reached it, he discovered there was no door there at all!

"Huh! A 'ghost-blocking wall' here in Great Liang's imperial palace?" Li Huowang's heart sank instantly.

"Father..." Li Sui suddenly spoke.

"What is it? This isn't the time to talk."

"Father, there are words on your arm."

Hearing Li Sui's words, Li Huowang instinctively raised his arms, and there, carved into the inner side of his left forearm, were indeed characters.

"This place is strange. Time and memory will be forgotten. Carve it down with a knife!"

Li Huowang knew full well that these were his own notes, yet no matter how hard he searched his memories, he couldn't recall when he had carved them.

"Wait! I've seen this kind of scenario once before!"

Just as Li Huowang was about to take out his knife to carve the words "Mind-Turbidity," he discovered that those two words were already written on his arm. Next to them, something else was written: "He's nearby, find him quickly! I've been trapped here for half an hour!" These words sent a chill down Li Huowang's spine. In his memory, he had only entered the Jinluan Hall a few minutes ago; how could so much time have passed?!

At that moment, Li Huowang also felt a bone-deep wound on his thigh. "When did I get hurt?!" Li Huowang gritted his teeth and pulled aside the flesh, only to find severe cracks on his thigh bone, as if from a divination. Clearly, he had performed a divination on himself to find Mind-Turbidity, without even knowing it.

Firmly memorizing the shape of the twisted bone cracks and carving them onto his hand, Li Huowang began searching the Jinluan Hall. During this time, the markings on his arm grew more numerous.

"Have you checked the southeast corner?"

"The area behind the coiled dragon pillars on the east side has already been searched; no need to look there."

After quickly searching a few rounds, Li Huowang stopped in front of the exact center of the Jinluan Hall, the only place without written reminders. Gazing at the familiar patterns on the golden bricks, Li Huowang, with a grim expression, gripped his sword hilt with both hands and thrust it forcefully into the spot.

Although gold is precious, it is relatively softer than other metals. Before the Purple Tassel Sword, which cut through iron like mud, it was truly no different from soft clay. Li Huowang easily pried open the golden bricks. When he looked inside again, he found that the compacted earth mound beneath had been pushed aside at some unknown point, revealing a building with a red-tiled roof. This buried building was very small, probably only slightly taller than a person, similar to some local earth god temples.

Without a word, Li Huowang raised the Copper Coin Sword in his hand and flicked it from a distance, chanting, "Fu Mingda Tuo Wa Ci, ji ji she!" The tiled roof of the small temple was instantly torn open, revealing a familiar face before him: Mind-Turbidity, the corpse of Mind-Turbidity that Jixiang had led them through countless hardships to capture!

At this moment, its limbs were bent and completely sewn onto its body with golden threads. Not just its limbs, but its eyes, its mouth, everything on its body was sewn together with golden threads, turning it into a "Mind-Turbidity human stick." In this state, except for its head and chest, it was covered in characters drawn with a golden pen. These characters were intertwined and linked, as if it were wearing a Buddhist cassock made of text. These characters were not only on its body but also spread from it into the surrounding earth.

Li Huowang sharply flicked the Copper Coin Sword in his hand again, directly hooking onto Mind-Turbidity and pulling it fiercely. Sitting upright in the small temple, it instantly shot into the air. As it separated from the golden characters, the entire golden hall seemed to dim slightly.

Only when Li Huowang saw that no new markings appeared on his body did he finally breathe a sigh of relief. The trouble was, at last, over. A lot of time had already been wasted; Li Huowang couldn't afford to waste any more. He first glanced at Mind-Turbidity's corpse, then swiftly walked towards the distant exit.

This time, without any further incident, Li Huowang successfully exited. But before he could even fully exhale, he froze, staring at the golden halls in the distance. "Wait a minute, is there a Mind-Turbidity under every one of these golden structures?"

"Yes, but not all of them," Hong Zhong, who had been silent by his side, spoke again. "These golden halls form a constellation array. I know very little about the specifics, so I can't tell you which one. Ah, it seems the Mind-Turbidity you went through so much trouble to find earlier has been taken by them to serve as an array eye here."

Hearing Hong Zhong's words, Li Huowang's expression turned grim. Such a dangerous Mind-Turbidity was only fit to be an array eye in this place; what exactly were they planning? Ignoring everything else, Li Huowang quickened his pace, pressing further inward. This was big trouble now; Beifeng must not be harmed, entangled in such a dangerous place!

Learning from his experience, Li Huowang subsequently avoided approaching the golden halls as much as possible, sticking only to the open corridors and squares. If there was no other way, he would forcibly dig a hole through a golden wall. Perhaps Li Huowang's method worked, or perhaps someone ahead of him had cleared the path, but in any case, everything remained normal for the next period.

Following the blood trail, Li Huowang continued northward. As he passed through a tall wall, his keen hearing picked up sounds of chanting and metallic clashes from beyond a few walls. "Found it!" Unable to contain his excitement, Li Huowang immediately moved towards the source of the sounds.

After Li Huowang laboriously passed through another golden wall, the scene before him suddenly opened up. What immediately caught his eye was a black and white vertical pupil hovering low in the dark clouds above, surrounded by sixty-four bronze trigrams.