Chapter 104: The Reappearance of the Immortal Mansion

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Tian Rui flew with them for three days until they reached the end of the Severed Blood Space. During this time, Lei Xiang remained on the white jade bed, diligently meditating to heal his injuries by drawing on the overwhelming spiritual energy within the inner layer of the Severed Blood Space. Not only had his wounds fully healed, but his spiritual power was also completely replenished. Even the recently formed Golden Core had been firmly stabilized, marking a solid foundation for his cultivation at this early stage of core formation.

If he were not in such a hurry to leave and return to the Eastern Yue Kingdom to find Dugu Yixiao and Yang Jian, Lei Xiang would have been willing to cultivate here for a lifetime. After all, with Lan Xi by his side, life would be nothing less than a grand joy.

Looking again at where Tian Rui pointed, a patch of unknown wildflowers stretched out. Apart from their greater number, there was nothing particularly special about them; they were no different from other parts of the inner Severed Blood Space. Why had Tian Rui brought them here? Could this be the exit of the Severed Blood Space?

Tian Rui’s delicate finger pointed out, “Here, this is the place I’m talking about. Can you see anything unusual?”

Lan Xi’s beautiful blue eyes shifted, but she genuinely could not discern anything amiss. Lei Xiang summoned his Divine Thunder Slash, his eyes flickering with blue light. “This is an illusion array, but I can’t make out its specifics. Tian Rui, how did you discover this place?”

Tian Rui’s phoenix-like eyes swept over him, her respect for Lei Xiang rising. She never expected this seemingly ordinary young man to be able to detect an illusion array. “I don’t know what lies beyond the array either. Initially, I was searching for a way out and followed a little lizard spirit here. It suddenly slipped inside and never came out. I suspected it was an exit, but when I fell into the mortal realm, my strength was limited, and I couldn’t break through it. I’ve actually tried for decades without success. Lei Xiang, do you possess the power to break it?”

Lan Xi, who had remained silent until then, suddenly said, “An illusion array, and the little lizard spirit... Could it be that beyond this is the Immortal Realm? Isn’t it said that the innermost layer of the Severed Blood Space connects to the Immortal Realm?”

Lei Xiang spread his hands to indicate uncertainty, then closed his eyes and sat in meditation like an old master, ignoring the others. Minutes and hours passed; no one knew how long before Lei Xiang suddenly opened his eyes. Lan Xi looked at him expectantly—after all, all hopes of escape and transcendence rested on him.

“This array can’t be broken by brute force. I want to try a new method.”

With that, Lei Xiang stood up, flipped his palm, and produced a crystal-clear, smooth orb. Lan Xi recognized it as the Fantasy Eye she had given him. Could it be used to break the array?

Next, Lei Xiang performed a peculiar action: extending his left palm horizontally, holding the Fantasy Eye at a distance of half an arm’s length, closing his left eye as if aiming, while his right eye flickered wildly with blue light. Then he entered meditation once more.

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This time, it took only about ten minutes before Lei Xiang opened his right eye, flashing a smile that revealed his small tiger-like teeth. Without a word, he put away the Fantasy Eye, pulled out ten pieces of beast hide defense from his storage pouch, and laid them out over the wildflower patch. The ten pieces just covered the entire flower bed. Even Tian Rui looked puzzled—did he fear the flowers were cold and wanted to keep them warm with the hides?

Ignoring their questions, Lei Xiang then pulled out a stack of formation flags and a formation plate, tossing the flags randomly into the void. Following this, he produced some spirit stones and embedded them in midair. A strange spectacle appeared: the wildflowers were hidden beneath the beast hides, the flags were nowhere to be seen, and only a dozen or so spirit stones floated above, arranged without any apparent order.

Without explanation, Lei Xiang held the round formation plate with both hands, turning it three times to the left and half a turn to the right, as if steering a car. Chanting an incantation under his breath, he finally lifted the plate with one hand and rapidly tapped its center with two fingers of the other. A slender blue light ignited and shot into the gap between two pieces of beast hide. Neither the wildflowers nor the hides showed any change, but Lei Xiang smiled and nodded. Channeling his spiritual power into the plate, he triggered another blue beam, three times thicker than the first, about the thickness of an adult’s thumb, again aimed at the joint between hides.

“Click.”

A faint, almost imperceptible sound occurred. Under Lei Xiang’s spiritual energy, the formation plate continuously emitted these thumb-sized blue beams, all striking the same seam. Tian Rui suddenly slapped her thigh, exclaiming, “Brilliant! Lei Xiang, you truly are a prodigy.”

Lan Xi remained baffled and asked, “What’s so brilliant about it?” This was her first time speaking directly to Tian Rui.

“Lei Xiang must have penetrated some mystery of this array. Since brute force cannot break it, he’s using a method of one array to counter another. I don’t know what kind of formation emits these blue flames, but it’s working well. The illusion array at that specific point in the wildflower patch is nearly destroyed. The whole array being broken is only a matter of time.”

An hour later, Lei Xiang wiped the sweat from his temple, grinning with those small tiger teeth. He had broken through seven points of the array; only the central point remained. Holding the formation plate, he returned to the white jade bed. “Tian Rui, Lan Xi, this array will soon be shattered. What it conceals, we have no idea. To be safe, prepare your defenses.”

After speaking, he threw out a green gauze canopy, signaling Lan Xi to supply spiritual power. Then he handed a blue lotus-shaped dish to Tian Rui to manage. Lan Xi infused spiritual energy; the canopy materialized into a blue-tinged protective shield enveloping the three of them. Tian Rui did nothing, yet the blue lotus dish expanded on its own to cover an area of over ten zhang, shielding them from the front.

Once they were ready, Lei Xiang tapped the tip of his tongue against his upper teeth and slashed the formation plate of the Mysterious Heaven’s Severing Fire Array with his Divine Thunder Slash. The plate trembled violently, emitting a blue light shaped like a new moon that shot toward the center encircled by the seven broken points.

“Puff.”

A soft sound, followed by the wildflower patch crackling loudly as the entire array was completely shattered. The white jade bed shook violently and fell uncontrollably. Fortunately, the dual protection of the blue lotus dish and the green gauze canopy prevented injury. They only felt dizziness, and Lan Xi, with the weakest magic, fainted. After a brief moment, everything calmed, and the scene before Lei Xiang’s eyes changed, leaving him stunned.

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Before him stretched a hazy, gray void, similar to the outer layer of the Severed Blood Space. The only difference was a small pavilion floating half a li away in midair. The pavilion was mostly white, like a flawless piece of jade—exquisite, translucent, almost transparent—drifting among gentle clouds. Several long-legged birds circled gracefully. A true paradise beyond the world.

As Lei Xiang marveled at this twist of fate—the translucent pavilion starkly contrasting with the gray mist—Tian Rui on the white jade bed cried out in astonishment, “An Immortal Mansion!”

An Immortal Mansion?

If there was an Immortal Mansion, then there must be a path to ascension. Could this mansion itself be the gateway to immortality? With a heart full of trepidation, Lei Xiang drove the white jade bed forward, preparing to seek the traces of immortality and catch a glimpse of the immortal realm. For a cultivator, the path to immortality was the greatest allure of all.

What Lei Xiang did not expect was that the half-li distance suddenly transformed into a hundred thousand eight thousand li—perhaps even infinitely far. At his core-formation level, flying the white jade bed half a li would be almost instantaneous, yet after nearly half an hour of flight, the mansion remained half a li away. Frustrated, Lei Xiang stopped the bed and looked at Tian Rui with a questioning gaze.

At that moment, Tian Rui paid no attention to such details; all her eyes were fixed on the Immortal Mansion. Her gaze was like a mother wolf, starved for years, suddenly seeing a plump roasted chicken. Lei Xiang could only loudly remind her, “Hey, don’t just stare and hope for a mirage. We’ve flown for half an hour and are still half a li away from the mansion—it seems we may never reach it.”

Only then did Tian Rui come back to her senses, her phoenix eyes still burning with fervent desire. “You don’t understand. This mansion could be connected directly to the Immortal Realm, or it might be the residence of a great immortal before their ascension. Either way, the mansion itself is self-protective. If you keep chasing it like this, you’ll never catch it. We must think of a way.” As she spoke, the warmth in her eyes dimmed somewhat—after all, without a way to enter the mansion, everything was in vain.

Self-protection... think of a way... Lei Xiang muttered to himself.