RBCT Chapter 1002 Mr. Xun, what are you doing?
Chapter 1002 Mr. Xun, what are you doing?
The deafening roar of bones shattering against rock erupted simultaneously from all directions. The blue crystalline membrane on the dome of the palace vibrated violently under the impact of energy, and cracks appeared on the surface of the giant skeletal pillars supporting the dome. The light emanating from these cracks was no longer a fluorescent blue glow, but a deeper, more ominous dark red light.
Lin Qiye's reaction was almost simultaneous with the tremors. The instant his feet first trembled, he made a judgment—this hall couldn't hold on any longer—he grabbed Mr. Xun's shoulder, who was still trying to steady himself, and lifted him up. With his other hand, he grabbed Ajiu's wrist and shouted sharply in Mo Yuan's direction, "Go—!!"
The four figures blurred into four afterimages, sprinting outwards amidst the shattered bone pillars and collapsed dome fragments. Lin Qiye led the charge, his Blood Demon power erupting in full force. A cone-shaped shield of dark golden light formed around his body, shattering the falling bone fragments and crystal clusters into dust. His gaze swept across the path he had traversed at high speed, locking onto the winding, pipe-like passage at the entrance to the hall. If he could rush into that passage, traverse a section of underground cavern, and return the way he came, he should be able to escape the mountains before the entire underground space completely collapsed.
But he had only rushed to within ten feet of the entrance to the hall when he suddenly stopped.
The entrance was still there. But suddenly, a row of fluorescent blue runes lit up on the ground in front of the entrance—these runes, originally hidden beneath the stratum corneum and covered by dark red bodily fluids and layers of bone ash, were finally revealed after the energy release from the altar shattered the covering. The arrangement of the runes was completely different from that on the altar base—they were straight lines, rigid and regular, each stroke as sharp as a blade.
Mr. Xun was being held by the back of his collar by Lin Qiye, but his head was fixed on the newly appeared runes on the ground, his pupils contracting sharply: "The Seventh Array Eye—!"
"What?"
"This is the seventh sealing array eye! The grandmaster-level array master said in his notes that he was looking for the sixth and seventh array eyes—he couldn't find the sixth, and he had no idea where the seventh was because it was hidden by the Soul Summoner in the energy circuit beneath the altar! The self-destruction of the altar activated the energy circuit, which in turn pushed the array eye out from underground!"
Lin Qiye and the others stopped abruptly at the edge of the entrance. He looked down and could see the rune array spreading rapidly in all directions, sealing off the entire area in front of the entrance. The faint glow of the runes gradually changed from fluorescent blue to pale gold—a sign that the sealing array's core had been activated.
"Can we go around it?" Mo Yuan asked urgently.
"There's no way around it. The seventh array eye was forcibly activated by the energy from the altar's self-destruction, and now it's encompassing the entire hall within its sealing range—it's sealing this altar!" Mr. Xun spoke rapidly, almost shouting, "But it can't distinguish friend from foe; it will seal us all inside! Unless—unless we shut down the array eye!"
In the short span of those few words, the rune light at the array's core had changed from pale gold to a dazzling bright gold. Lin Qiye looked down at his feet and could see that his calves were already enveloped in a layer of golden light membrane. The membrane was still spreading upwards at a considerable speed, as if countless transparent hands were reaching out from the ground, grabbing his ankles and climbing him up.
"How do I shut it off?" Lin Qiye's voice remained frighteningly calm.
"The core of the array! It's right in the center of the rune array!" Mr. Xun pointed to the center of the densely packed runes ahead. "See that? The brightest part—that's the core of the array. As long as we use source energy of the same frequency to impact it, we can temporarily interrupt its operation, giving us a few breaths to break out! But none of us here have source energy attributes that are in sync with the sealing array. I specialize in array formations, Mo Yuan is a sword aura, A Jiu is dark source energy, and Lin Qiye, you—"
"I'll do it," Lin Qiye interrupted him.
"Your source energy attribute is also incorrect—"
"Who said we need to use source energy?"
Lin Qiye took a step forward.
His feet trod upon the gleaming golden runes as if stepping on a red-hot iron; a wisp of smoke instantly rose from the soles of his boots, but he didn't stop. He took a second step, a third, forcefully stepping into the core area of the rune array. The gleaming golden runes transformed into countless fine strands of light, spreading from his feet to his calves, and then from his calves to his thighs. Each strand of light burned his skin, yet it could not stop him from advancing.
His blood demon power resonated with the atmosphere here in some indescribable way, and when the bright golden sealing light strands moved over his body, they did not violently reject him as they would other intruders. Instead, they showed an extremely abnormal slowness and hesitation—they seemed unable to determine whether this person should be sealed or not.
That's why he's able to stand here.
Lin Qiye walked to the core of the array and lowered his head. The core was a fist-sized, rhomboid golden crystal, slowly rotating in a groove in the ground. With each rotation, the surrounding sealing runes strengthened. According to Mr. Xun, he only needed to use source energy of the same frequency to temporarily interrupt its operation—but his source energy was not of the same frequency as the sealing array.
However, he had another way.
Lin Qiye squatted down, stretched out his right hand, spread his five fingers, and pressed it directly onto the golden crystal.
The instant his palm touched the crystal, an extremely violent energy surged from it, rushing upwards along his arm. That energy carried an ancient and pure sealing power, enough to instantly seal any intruder whose cultivation was inferior to that of the array's creator. But at the same time, the Blood Demon power within him reacted—dark golden light erupted from his meridians, colliding head-on with that golden sealing power.
A muffled explosion came from beneath Lin Qiye's palm. The golden crystal trembled violently, its spinning speed suddenly slowing down, and the surrounding rune array dimmed for a moment—though only for a moment, it was enough.
"Go!" Lin Qiye shouted sharply.
Mo Yuan and A Jiu reacted extremely quickly, almost instantly passing by Lin Qiye and rushing out of the hall entrance the moment the rune light dimmed. But Mr. Xun reacted even faster—his figure transformed into a gray shadow in that instant, and the direction he rushed towards made Lin Qiye's brow twitch suddenly.
He wasn't rushing towards the exit.
He was facing the altar.
The altar was now completely engulfed by the self-destructing energy, leaving only a huge crater tens of feet in diameter in the center. At the bottom of the crater was boiling fluorescent blue magma—the remnants of unreleased dark energy, hot enough to melt steel. And at the very center of this magma, a fist-sized fluorescent blue crystal core floated.
That was the core of the altar. The core of the Heavenly Soul-Guiding Array, which was refined into an artificial core by the Soul Summoner, serving as the pivot for maintaining the operation of the Soul-Guiding Array.
Now it was blasted out from the depths of the altar by the energy of self-destruction, floating above the magma, emitting a chilling, fluorescent blue glow.
Mr. Xun's figure drew an arc in mid-air and landed on the edge of the pit. Then, without hesitation, he stretched out his short staff and used the remaining crystal fragments on the staff to hook the fluorescent blue crystal core.
"Mr. Xun—what are you doing?!" Ajiu cried out in alarm.
Mr. Xun did not answer. His short staff precisely hooked the edge of the fluorescent blue crystal core, pulling it out from above the radiant light. The moment the crystal core fell into his hand, his body jolted violently, as if something had pierced his soul. He held the crystal core and slowly turned around.
All eyes were on him.
His face was changing—not a sudden, dramatic change, but a slow, gradual transformation where every inch of his skin was being reshaped. His features were being subtly adjusted; the curve of his brow bone, the height of his cheekbones, the angles of his jaw were all transitioning towards the appearance of another person in his memory. That face was aged and gaunt, the skin clinging tightly to the bones, the expression calm and serene—it was the Grandmaster Array Master who had passed away in the secluded cave.