Inside the Burial Martial Cavern, everyone entered a strange region. The environment here was complex, with layer upon layer of maze formations—thirty percent manmade, seventy percent natural.
Duan Xingyong, stubborn as ever, broke free from He Qiliao’s grip and stormed back into the maze. But in no time at all, he came running out again, exactly as before. When he saw He Qiliao’s half-smile, his expression was beyond words. He Qiliao didn’t bother to lay a hand on him, just crossed his arms and said coolly, “Five breaths—you really know how to put on a show.”
“No way, this can’t be happening!” Duan Xingyong shouted as he turned and dashed right back in. This time, Sanmiao listened intently. At first, she could track Duan Xingyong’s position by sound, but after a few twists and turns, everything turned chaotic—she couldn’t tell where he was anymore.
“This place is really bizarre...” Sanmiao stared ahead, her expression as serious as it gets. Such strange happenings put her on high alert. But before she could figure out how to break the formation, Duan Xingyong popped out again, circling back from inside.
“Three breaths this time,” He Qiliao seized the chance to rub salt in the wound: “Just a little maze, and you’re really improving, huh?”
“You—You—!” Duan Xingyong was so roasted his face turned red, almost out of breath. After a long struggle, all he managed to spit out was, “If you’re so good, why don’t you try? If not, quit yapping!”
“Fine, I’ll go!” He Qiliao flicked his sleeve and strolled into the doorway. Though he talked big, when it came to action, He Qiliao was actually super careful. He calmed his breath, focused his gaze, and stepped into the maze one foot at a time. With his flowing sleeves and long hair, his back looked like he was saying, “Watch and learn!”
But who could’ve guessed—just twenty breaths later, He Qiliao’s face popped back into view. When he rounded the corner and showed himself, he wore an expression like, “Piece of cake! That bald guy’s just an idiot!” But when he saw Duan Xingyong’s half-smile, his confidence crumbled in an instant. The shock, disbelief, and humiliation were beyond words.
“How... How could this...” He Qiliao was still in a daze, his expression like he was stuck in a dream. But a moment later, he turned beet red with embarrassment—losing face in front of his goddess made him want to bang his head against the wall.
“Everyone tie yourselves together with rope—we move as one in here. If anyone gets lost, they’ll be impossible to find.” As usual, Jiao Niang took charge, issuing orders with the poise of a true leader. “It looks safe enough, but don’t get careless. The strongest fighters cover the front and rear, everyone else stays in the middle. Guo Xiang, you look like you’ve got something to say?”
See? That's why you always let the pros handle the tricky stuff.
"I've cracked it! It's just ahead!" Grace Kwok was practically bouncing like a straight-A student who just solved the bonus question. She hurried ahead, turned a corner—and ran smack into Jill Young, who was standing there with a not-quite-smile. And of course, the spot Jill was standing in was... yep, the very same starting point.
The whole group, in perfect unison, somehow managed to circle right back to where they started.
"How did this happen!" Grace blurted out, genuinely baffled. She retraced every step in her mind—it all seemed right, but thinking harder, every step felt wrong. She was sweating buckets, lips pale, nearly losing her mind from the stress.
"Okay, okay, you're clearly not the type to ace a pop quiz. The Eight Trigrams Maze is high-level stuff—how much did you really pick up from your grandpa? Probably not even the basics. Whoever set this up is probably even better than him." Jill, who also magically ended up back at the start, was totally unfazed: "Legend says Zhuge Liang trapped tens of thousands of soldiers with a maze like this. I always thought that was just a tall tale, but now? If ol’ Wolong had these skills, maybe it was real!"
"Guess those fringe skills aren’t totally useless after all," Maggie Monroe nodded in appreciation. "I never believed it before, but now I see the magic for myself. This Eight Trigrams Maze is something else. We’ll have to rethink our approach if we want to break it."
"Why bother with all this nonsense!" Duke Simon Duan, clearly the most impatient, untied his belt, stormed over to the formation, and roared, "Watch me tear this thing down myself!"
Boom! Duke Simon Duan slammed his palms against the wall of the formation. Sixty years of cultivation, all unleashed in a fit of rage—no fancy technique, but enough brute force to snap a tree in half. Even if the stone wall didn’t go down in one hit, a couple more and it’d be done for.
But the moment Duke Simon’s palms hit the stone, Maggie, Jill, and Simone all froze, their faces changing. Before anyone could ask what was up, Jill darted over and grabbed Duke Simon by the collar, yanking him back. Well, ‘yanking’ isn’t quite right—more like popping a cork. His arms seemed glued to the wall, and when she pulled him free, it made a little ‘pop!’ sound, like uncorking a bottle.
Duke Simon stumbled back a few steps, then plopped down on the ground like he’d lost his balance. The others stared—his face, usually dark, had gone ghostly pale. He stared at his hands, then at the wall, looking like he’d seen a ghost. "This… this formation is weird! It—it actually sucks away your cultivation!"
In a single palm strike, Duke Simon had lost half a year’s worth of inner strength. And not just any half-year—the kind you get when you’re right on the edge of a breakthrough. That’s a serious loss.
"It sucks away your cultivation?!" The whole crew freaked out. Losing your hard-earned inner strength just like that? That’s every martial artist’s worst nightmare. Suddenly, everyone looked at the formation like it was a hungry tiger.
"Don’t listen to his nonsense—he basically handed over his power on a silver platter. Who’s he got to blame but himself?" Jill shrugged, totally unconcerned.
Maggie and Simone both pressed their hands to the wall to test it out. After a moment, they nodded. "Yep, as long as you keep your mind steady and your foundation solid, even if your cultivation’s weak, you won’t lose your energy," Simone said, shooting Duke Simon a look of pure disdain. "The wall’s barely got any suction. He just flung his power at it like he was stuffing food into someone else’s mouth—no wonder he got drained."
Everyone took turns testing it and found the three were right.
Duke Simon sat in a daze for a moment, then suddenly leapt to his feet, panic gone and replaced by wild excitement: "That means the legend of the Beiming Divine Skill is real?! Ha! The heavens have eyes! With Beiming, I’ll be unstoppable in no time. I’ll wipe out those priests from the Eternal Heaven Sect—drain them dry!"
With a whoosh, Duke Simon dashed back into the maze and vanished. Howard Hopeless was about to draw his sword—no way was he letting someone else snatch the goddess’s divine skill first—but Maggie stopped him: "Let him go. This first trial is called ‘Retreat Wisdom Formation,’ and he’s charging in like a bull in a china shop. No matter how long he runs, he’ll just end up back at square one."
"So what about us?" The treasury door was open, the treasure chest was probably nearby, but no one could get their hands on the goods. Talk about frustrating.
"Everyone, go explore however you like," Jill said, totally carefree. "I wandered around in there and didn’t find anything dangerous. Team up or go solo, just have fun—consider it a learning experience. Plus, the sign at the entrance says ‘Fortune favors the bold,’ so go test your luck. If you get lost, just keep bumping into things and you’ll end up back here—I tried it a bunch of times, it works like a charm."
"Got it!" everyone replied, then split into groups and dove into the maze. With over twenty people inside, they covered way more ground. Ice and Little Lotus paired up, Treasure Boy stuck with Grace, Howard Hopeless wanted to team up with Lady Simone but chickened out, so he ended up babysitting the little brat.
Honestly, when it came to mysterious stuff like this, the little brat was way calmer than Howard Hopeless. Fun fact: this kid was the total opposite of Golden Wheel. No progress with Dragon Elephant Skill, but crazy talented with Prajna Skill. Suspected to be a ‘second playthrough’ gamer, the kid’s instincts were eerily sharp—might even end up looking after Howard in this maze.
As for the boss squad, they were the classic three-person team, already locked in.
As they ventured deeper, Lady Simone played her zither, listening intently. She seemed determined to crack the maze with her music. Her Sound Skill was her own invention, a unique path with little precedent—she’d hit a wall at the third level. Her underground sound battle with Dumb Egg had been a thrill, and she’d been chasing new concepts ever since. Getting Dumb Egg on her team was part of her quest for inspiration.
Today, she felt a mysterious sense of destiny. If she could break this maze with her Sound Skill, she’d be just a step away from the King’s Realm.
Maggie and Jill, meanwhile, were just straight-up maze crawling, with Simone’s music as their background track. Aside from the weird scenery, it almost felt like a chill field trip.
"Duke Simon’s energy isn’t stable, so he gets drained, but you don’t have to worry about that," Maggie said with a sly grin. "I’m surprised you didn’t just chop your way through with that iron sword."
"Hey, I’m not just some musclehead who solves everything with brute force! Sure, flipping the mahjong table is one way to win when you’re losing, but that’s just bad manners." Jill didn’t even bother watching where she was going, just led the way around a bend. "Since Treasure Boy set up this puzzle, we might as well play by the rules. Besides, this formation feels both familiar and strange—can’t put my finger on it."
"I don’t get that feeling, but I agree this formation is no joke. But…" Maggie’s voice dropped, her expression turning serious. "No matter what, the stone wall itself can’t use the Beiming Divine Skill. Even if the suction’s weak, dead objects can’t just suck up inner strength on their own."
"Mm." Jill nodded. As a descendant of the Tang Family’s internal martial arts, she didn’t actually practice it herself, but she knew the basics of how 'Qi' flows. According to Grandpa Tang, energy that moves with intention is Qi. But these rocks and pillars—they don’t have intention.
So, where’s the Qi coming from? Who’s using the Beiming Divine Skill?
Could there be a master of Beiming hidden at the center, controlling things from afar? But their earlier tests didn’t feel like that. Besides, if someone could suck away Duke Simon’s power through all that stone and wood, that’d be practically godlike.
"Whatever the case, this formation doesn’t seem to mean us any harm." Treasure Boy’s here to pay his debts, not kill anyone, so no need for a death trap. "Let the kids wander around—maybe they’ll each find their own lucky break."
"I think I’m starting to get it. The Beiming Divine Skill is just too tempting. If it falls into the hands of someone greedy or lacking self-control, it’ll only hurt them and everyone else. This maze’s first trial is called ‘Retreat Wisdom Formation’—it’s probably a test to see if you know when to advance or retreat, if you’ve got good judgment. It’s less about eyesight and martial arts, more about your character. If you don’t have the right mindset, you’ll never gain the legacy," Maggie said, sighing. "I used to think Treasure Boy was just lucky, but seeing how the Burial Martial Cavern is set up, I realize I underestimated him."
"That’s why I think this place is kinda cool—hey, do you feel that breeze?" Jill asked. Only then did the two realize they’d been walking for ages without looping back to the entrance. The wind whistled through the corridors, making their torches flicker.
They were underground—where was the wind coming from? The entrance had been totally still. Turns out, the three had unknowingly passed the ‘Retreat Wisdom’ trial and entered a new zone.
Maggie perked up, curious: "You just wandered around and actually got us through? How’d you pull that off?"
"I told you—this place just feels weirdly familiar, so I followed my gut. Guess it worked!" As they moved forward, the wind picked up. With a puff, their torches went out, plunging them into total darkness. The wind howled from every direction. Simone stopped playing and listened, then said gravely, "The sounds here are deceiving—there’s illusion magic at work."
With their sight blocked by darkness, their hearing naturally sharpened. And the sharper your hearing, the easier it is to get tricked. This part was definitely tougher than the last.
"No worries! Check out my black-tech lighting gadget." Jill pulled out two strange stones from her storage space, gave them a squeeze, and bam—brilliant light lit up the place. Way brighter than last time, basically a portable lantern. She handed one to Maggie, and as soon as Maggie held it, the stone dimmed and changed color.
"This thing lights up differently for different people. Pretty wild," Jill said, inspecting the stone. It was almost as mysterious as the maze itself.
Seriously, what even is this thing?
"Look over there—a statue!" With the magic stone in hand, Maggie’s luck seemed to turn around. She spotted something that got everyone excited.
"Oh, hurry up! My gut says there’s treasure over there!"
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, on Jingshan in Yanjing City...
The place looked totally different now.
At the peak of Jingshan, someone had built a massive platform, over thirty feet high. Nothing on it but an armillary sphere—but this one was huge and way more complex than anything the usual astrologers used. Even a tall guy would look like an ant next to it. The whole thing just radiated grandeur.
To finish something like this so fast, they must’ve worked around the clock and spared no expense. Rumor had it that Master Guo Shoujing himself petitioned the Khan to build it, and the Khan ordered that even if it delayed the city’s canal project, the armillary sphere had to be finished, no matter what.
The new armillary sphere wasn’t just called that anymore—Master Guo named it the "Perfect Celestial Instrument." It was his pride and joy, a symbol of his ambition to master the heavens and leave nothing to chance.
Standing alone before the massive sphere, Guo Shoujing gazed up at the swirling, galaxy-like gears with the look of a proud parent.
"Once I get the Twelve Qi Calendar, I’ll finally be able to unravel the mysteries of fate. Then, no one on earth will be able to rival me in destiny. But who—or what—is that mysterious White Tiger Star? No matter how I calculate, I just can’t pin it down." Guo Shoujing was young, but he carried himself with gravity.
Suddenly, he frowned, as if he’d just witnessed something completely unexpected.
"The White Tiger Star has appeared!" He took a couple of steps closer, calculating on his fingers as he scrutinized the Celestial Instrument. After a while, his face changed: "White Tiger—the harbinger of chaos, clashing with the year’s luck? Why has its path suddenly become so clear, and why does it look like its fortune is skyrocketing? Just what kind of crazy luck did that White Tiger get?"