Chương 94: Searching for a friend

'Is there a way to avoid those experts once I get out of here?' Shu Yang thought to himself. Suddenly, he didn't feel quite as much of a rush to get out. If there were Golden Core cultivators waiting outside, he needed a plan on how to avoid them first.

'Even Xiaorong might not be able to escape their senses.'

'Well, I shouldn't get too worked up. None of us knows if there are actually any Golden Core cultivators waiting. They should be busy people with a lot of responsibilities, right? It's not certain they would have the time to travel all the way here and wait for who knows how long just because of the inheritance here. Maybe they just send some subordinates.'

'Peak Foundation cultivators would also be dangerous, but nowhere near Golden Core cultivators.'

'Either way, first I should look for Xiaorong. I don't think I can make much progress in this place until my Bloodline Ability recovers.'

"How did you find the right direction when you went looking for people?" Shu Yang asked, "There have to be thousands of these trials."

"Senior Ding Quang had some sort of treasure that made it easy to find anyone related by blood," Fan Shimo answered, "And my grandson was clever enough to set up a formation of his own in the trial that made it so I could find him once I set up the corresponding formation used to track him down."

'There are formations like that? That should definitely be something worth teaching my family members in the future.'

"Are you also looking for someone?" Fan Shimo asked.

"Yes," Shu Yang said, nodding, worried about how long it would take him to find Xiaorong.

"You don't need to worry too much if you don't have a way to track them," Fan Shimo said with a kind smile, "My grandson was right next to my trial, and Ding Yilang was very close to where Ding Quang had undergone his trial, too. If you were close to each other once the trial started, you shouldn't have been separated much."

"Really?" Shu Yang asked. He and Xiaorong had been right next to each other, so in that case, finding her should be easy.

"Yes," Fan Shimo said, nodding, "But it might be slightly separated, depending on how much your strength varies."

"Alright, thank you, Master Shimo," Shu Yang said, cupping his hands.

"I think I should look for my friend then. I will come back later."

"Very well, I understand the urgency," Fan Shimo said. Shu Yang took a glance at the people on the other side of the hall. Most of them were once again busy with their own things.

'Yeah, being around these people will feel a lot safer once I have Xiaorong to back me up.' Shu Yang reentered the doorway he had come from and started making his way back. This time, he looked a little more closely at the tunnel walls and discovered that there indeed were simple illusion formations set up. He could see through them even with his passive Piercing Gaze, but it required him to pay attention.

'This one is rather far ahead. I should go back as far as I can first.' But after just a few dozen feet, Shu Yang realized he didn't remember the exact path he took when getting here. And now, the illusions might be set up in a different way.

'Let's try and see.' Shu Yang started running, following the path without entering any of the branches covered by an illusion. After about an hour, Shu Yang slowly made his way down what should be the final set of stairs leading to his trial, if nothing had changed since he came up.

'It's… it's really my trial! Thank goodness.' The formation was still broken, and there was no illusion of an endless tunnel anymore. Shu Yang got a little curious and walked inside. The formation plates he had cut through were still broken, but he could see that the one whose pattern resembled a tree root, the one he presumed was responsible for repairing the other formations, was slowly healing. Shu Yang wasn't surprised, as it wasn't the first time he had cut it in two.

He first succeeded 20 days earlier, but couldn't break the other formation nodes in time. Then, ten days ago, the tree root plate was completely repaired once again.

'How is it still repairing itself, though? I don't see any other formation nodes that could be responsible.' Shu Yang walked up and down the tunnel but didn't see anything. Only the things he had left behind himself. The torn-off pages of his book looked strange, now all collected in a small space.

'It's insane that I actually spent so many months in this place.' He walked back to the formation plates on the ground and decided to try to take the wooden one with him. It had held from his sword intent when he hadn't advanced it yet, while unprotected from any other formation, and should be quite precious. The wooden plate was firmly embedded in the rock, but Shu Yang was a body cultivator and not afraid of hard work.

He punched the rock to the side of the wood, hoping to loosen up the rock so he could get a hold of the wooden plate. But as his fist struck the ground, no damage was made.

'What? It's still impossible?' Shu Yang tried again and again, but it was just like when he had been stuck in the tunnel. The walls and floor seemed to be indestructible.

'Fine. Whatever.' Shu Yang gave up, not that adamant about taking the wood with him. But he took out a pen and paper, and noted down the patterns engraved on the formation plates. He didn't think these were common knowledge, and if he didn't get the inheritance in the end, they might prove useful in the future. After a few hours of copying all the engravings in the tunnel to the best of his ability, Shu Yang walked back up the stairs and started looking for branching tunnels covered by illusion formations.

'Xiaorong should be counted as a Foundation cultivator too, though. If I stumble inside her illusion trial, will I be able to help her out without my Bloodline Ability?'

'I guess I'll just have to be stuck with her for another ten days if it comes to that.' Stolen novel; please report. Shu Yang quickly spotted an illusion on the tunnel wall and stepped through it. Just like his own path, it led down a set of stairs that Shu Yang walked down.

'Hm? It's not activated?' Shu Yang saw a similar gathering of formation plates on the ground as he had in his trial, but much simpler. There weren't any formation plates responsible for shielding the other formation plates, only a small wooden plate with a similar tree-root pattern. On the ceiling and walls, there were three similar engravings. But they were a lot less detailed than the ones in his tunnel.

'I guess this should be made for a Qi Refiner.' Shu Yang continued down the tunnel, and when he turned a corner to enter the second-to-last test, he spotted a man on the ground. He was dead, trying to solve the formation leading to a dead end, not seeing the path right next to him covered by an illusion.

'I guess people aren't sent away if they give up.'

'That's pretty messed up. Thousands of people will end up dying here.' The ground was too solid for Shu Yang to punch through, so burying the man was out of the question. But he closed the man's eyes and covered his face with a piece of fabric. He then grabbed the man's storage pouch and walked away. Looking through the storage pouch, there wasn't much. No spirit stones or cultivation techniques, at least. Shu Yang took out a few books and placed them in his storage ring before throwing the storage pouch away.

When Shu Yang entered the next tunnel over, he encountered pretty much the same situation. But the man inside had at least made it to the final illusion formation before dying. Shu Yang once again covered the man's face and took his storage pouch. He didn't feel guilty over stealing the dead's possessions. It had to be better than stealing from the living, and Shu Yang wasn't above that. But as he came across one dead body after another, Shu Yang did start to feel a bit weird about it.

There was a difference between stumbling across a dead man and systematically searching for them.

'I can't get caught up in those thoughts. I'm just looking for Xiaorong, and I need the money and knowledge these people have.' … Two days passed, and Shu Yang grew increasingly concerned. Xiaorong had been right next to him, but now he was approaching fifty of the nearby trials, and there was no sign of her.

'Maybe beasts don't get accepted?' Shu Yang realized that if this inheritance could tell his strength and place him in an appropriate trial, it should also be able to tell if you were a human or not.

'I guess it would make sense not to accept beasts into your inheritance.'

'So Xiaorong is still out there?' Shu Yang decided to look through the remaining trials that branched off closest to his trial before giving up. After that, it might be more useful to try to get his Piercing Gaze to see Xiaorong to determine if she was outside or not. Shu Yang believed it shouldn't be too difficult to get his Piercing Gaze to see her. It had worked on his wife Qianyue, so it wasn't strictly necessary for him to be related to the one he wanted to see.

If he could see Xiaorong, perhaps it wouldn't be that much more difficult to see Lady Jiangxi, and that might give him some clues about Tianyi.

'Well, first I should focus on the formation in the grand hall. But if it seems like it will take me months to solve, I'll spare some time to look for her.' Shu Yang continued working his way through the various paths and encountered more and more dead bodies.

'Huh? Why did the formation activate?' For the first time, an endless tunnel appeared in front of Shu Yang when he came down the stairs. But fortunately, even his passive Piercing Gaze could see through it. He walked up to the formation plates and casually destroyed them.

'Does that mean someone is alive?'

'I guess it's not that surprising. Going to an inheritance like this, some people would be cautious enough to prepare food and water for months just in case the worst happens.' Shu Yang suddenly stopped.

'Those people up in the grand hall who made it through…What are the odds they all came prepared?'

'Do they have a source of food?'

'Perhaps they…made sure to get some.' Shu Yang figured that if that Foundation expert, Ding Quang, realized he'd be stuck there, and also realized he could make his way back to other trial takers, he'd probably not be above killing these people and stealing their supplies before they could use them up. Shu Yang shook his head, focusing on the task at hand.

'Should I head inside and help whoever is inside?'

'Why not?' Shu Yang wouldn't take responsibility for whoever it was, but helping them was easy enough. It would ease his conscience over stealing so many dead people's possessions. He stepped through the illusion barrier and saw that no one was there.

'They haven't even made it to the second-to-last test?' Most people he encountered had at least made it to that stage, and this guy had been at it for several months. After walking down the tunnel a bit further, he finally saw the man behind a formation barrier. He was slumped on the floor with his eyes closed. And despite losing a lot of weight, Shu Yang recognized him.

'Chongzi?' Shu Yang cut down the low-grade formation blocking his path, and the sound made Chongzi snap his eyes open and look over.

"Zhangye? Am I seeing things?" Chongzi asked.

"It's me," Shu Yang said, looking Chongzi up and down. He had lost all his fat and was basically all skin and bone.

"How did you survive this long? I thought you didn't have food?"

"Zhangye. It's really you," Chongzi said, shakily getting to his feet and throwing himself in Shu Yang's arms.

"Do you have food? I'm starving."

"This time I guess it's a little more believable," Shu Yang said. Shu Yang still had quite a lot of food, so he wasn't stingy and brought some out for Chongzi.

"Thank you. Thank you," Chongzi said, tearing into the meat with tears running down his cheeks. Shu Yang also took a seat, scrutinizing the young man.

"How did you survive this long? Did you even have water?" Shu Yang asked.

"Water! Do you have any?" Chongzi asked, apparently only then realizing how thirsty he was. Shu Yang gave him some water, quite astounded that the man was alive.

'What's going on? Judging by the weight loss, I guess he wasn't lying about not having food. But surviving for seven months? That shouldn't be possible for a low-level Qi Refiner, right?'

"What's going on? How are you here?" Chongzi asked after eating his fill. Shu Yang explained how he spent months solving the formations, and then how he made it to the grand hall where there were other people already tackling what appeared to be the final formation.

"You came back to look for me?" Chongzi asked, mouth wide open.

"I had another friend I came looking for. Finding you was a coincidence. I never thought you'd still be alive," Shu Yang said.

"I see. That makes sense," Chongzi said.

"Still. You saved my life. I won't forget it."

"It's nothing," Shu Yang said.

"Anyway, can you walk?"

"We're going to the final test?" Chongzi asked.

"I'm just leading you out of these formations," Shu Yang said, "I think it's best if you don't show yourself over there. I don't know them, but not all of them seem so friendly. I can't really protect you."

"Okay. I'll listen to you," Chongzi said, nodding obediently. Shu Yang took him through the tunnels, almost all the way to the grand hall, before stopping.

"Alright, I'll leave you some food and water. Enough for ten days. If we're still not out of here by then, I'll come back," Shu Yang said.

"Zhangye…Thank you," Chongzi said, "I…thank you." Shu Yang just gave him a nod. While it was a huge deal for Chongzi, it didn't require much effort on Shu Yang's part. He left some food and walked away, back to the grand hall.

'Alright, time to see what this final hurdle is like.'