Chapter 18: Ten-Mile Peach Grove

Chapter 18: Chapter 18: Ten-Mile Peach Grove

COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO.

The night passed into dawn as the rooster announced the morning.

Dao Yi Mountain welcomed the morning light of a new day.

EXHALE.

Chen Sha got out of bed, simply tidied his quilt, and stepped into the courtyard.

The Sect Leader’s room was located in a courtyard at the peak of the main mountain. Outside the courtyard, a dense, cloud-like mist enveloped everything. Around five in the morning, only the plains at the foot of the mountain could be faintly seen.

The houses and alleys below were the homes of the commoners and farmers living by the Canglang River.

As the Taiyang first rose, the smoke of cooking fires from the Mortal Realm on and below the mountain began to waft into the air, indicating that the Daoists of the Dao Yi Sect and the commoners at the mountain’s foot had started preparing their meals.

Chen Sha had an incredibly leisurely time as the Sect Leader. From dawn to dusk, he simply sat cross-legged in his room or wandered among the mountain’s scenic spots to meditate and practice his martial arts.

Before long, after finishing the breakfast delivered by a Daoist, Chen Sha lit a few sticks of incense and continued his trial behind the Southern Heavenly Gate.

"The first Chapter of Hong Qigong has already been cleared," Chen Sha muttered to himself. "The next Chapter is ’The Meeting of Three Extremes on Peach Blossom Island.’ I suppose this is the story where Guo Jing and Ouyang Ke bring their respective elders to Peach Blossom Island to propose marriage."

In truth, he could have tested the waters of this second Chapter last night. The only reason he waited until this morning was to ensure he was at his absolute peak.

After all, "The Meeting of Three Extremes on Peach Blossom Island" featured no fewer than four Grandmasters in this Cosmic Light Fragments scene. Anyone could figure out that this wouldn’t be an easy scenario to clear.

Chen Sha had thoroughly comprehended the Heart Method secrets of the Great Yellow Court, thereby taking a half-step further toward the Grandmaster Realm, and imbuing his attacks with a grand and majestic aura to defeat the Grandmaster Hong Qigong. However, in terms of pure Power, he had yet to set foot into the Second Grade Grandmaster Realm.

Therefore, to clear this upcoming Peach Blossom Island scene, he would need to possess at least the strength that Wang Chongyang had during the Hua Mountain Sword Discussion. Only then would he have a chance to defeat the East Evil, West Poison, and North Beggar on Peach Blossom Island one by one, along with an even stronger Old Mischievous Zhou Botong, who had been trapped on the island for fifteen years.

Thus, he needed this entire night to relax and fully restore his spirit before stepping into the second Chapter.

Behind the Southern Heavenly Gate, ethereal Immortal Qi continued to drift about, obscuring everything.

Looking at the solitary temple belonging to Hong Qigong in front of him, Chen Sha thought, "There’s definitely more than just Hong Qigong’s temple in this First Heaven, but they’re all shrouded in fog right now. Could it be that I need to completely clear all the fragments related to Hong Qigong before I can unlock the temple of the next figure?"

He felt that his guess was highly probable.

"The Sect Leader has cleared Hong Qigong’s first section, ’Teaching Martial Arts in the Lin, The Arrogant Dragon Has Regrets.’ The scene for the second section, ’The Meeting of Three Extremes on Peach Blossom Island,’ is now unlocked and can be entered at any time."

"Enter."

With a single word in his mind, the familiar pulling sensation of time and space reappeared.

The sight before his eyes was no longer the clay statue in Hong Qigong’s temple. Blue sky, ocean, island, peach Lin, and houses. These scenes rapidly zoomed in from the depths of his vision until they merged with his surroundings, and everything around him began to come alive.

In a daze, he noticed a floral fragrance wafting through the air around him.

"The Sect Leader has arrived at the second section of the Hong Qigong Chapter, ’The Meeting of Three Extremes on Peach Blossom Island.’ This section uses Hong Qigong from the end of the Ninth Tribulation as a space-time anchor to derive a Cosmic Light Fragments scene from a certain period in Hong Qigong’s life.

"The scene for this Chapter is—Peach Blossom Island.

"The important characters appearing in this Chapter are—Eastern Heretic Huang Yaoshi, North Beggar Hong Qigong, West Poison Ouyang Feng, Old Mischievous Zhou Botong, Guo Jing, Huang Rong, Ouyang Ke, and others.

"The Sect Leader must defeat all characters appearing in this Chapter to proceed to the third section, ’The Five Extremes of the Jianghu, Hua Mountain Sword Discussion’..."

A faint scent of Peach Blossoms drifted through the air, mixed with the briny smell of the sea breeze.

"I am now on Peach Blossom Island," Chen Sha thought.

Chen Sha set his feet on the black soil of the Land God on Peach Blossom Island. As far as the eye could see, peach branches swayed in the wind.

The planting of these peach trees seemed orderly, but hidden within were dense thickets of thorns.

Chen Sha looked out but couldn’t see the end. It was as if, by the will of Buddha, he was standing in the midst of dozens of miles of peach Lin.

A grim expression appeared on his face. "Could it be..."

That he had to find his own way out of Huang Yaoshi’s Qimen Array Peach Blossom Forest?

Although the Dao Yi Sect was a Daoist Sect, he had barely come into contact with Qimen Divination growing up.

"This section really gave me a rude awakening right from the start," Chen Sha muttered.

Looking at the peach Lin stretching in all directions, he found nothing to base his sense of direction on. This place was entirely a maze.

Chen Sha frowned. "Let’s first see if this Array is really that mysterious."

Thus, he picked a random direction and strode forward.

One hour later...

Three hours later...

Ten hours later...

A full day and night passed.

"I can’t get out at all."

Chen Sha looked up at the sky, standing still in place. Since his consciousness had entered the Cosmic Light Fragments, he didn’t feel the slightest bit of hunger. However, spinning around like a headless fly in the Peach Blossom Forest for a whole day had completely drained all his patience.

"As expected of Huang Yaoshi’s Array. No wonder Zhou Botong was trapped on the island for fifteen years, and Yinggu researched this divination Skill for over a decade, yet could never enter the island to rescue her beloved."

A thought crossed Chen Sha’s mind, and a ruthless glint flashed in his eyes. "Since I can’t walk out, I’ll just try setting it on fire."

He directly snapped off a large pile of peach branches. Channeling True Qi into his hands, he rubbed them together to instantly start a fire and proceeded to set fire to the Lin...

But half an hour later, Chen Sha fell silent.

He watched the few piles of fire he had lit, which simply couldn’t evolve into a wildfire to burn down the entire peach Lin.

This island already had extremely heavy moisture. Given Huang Yaoshi’s mastery of Qimen Divination, how could he not know the principles of mutual generation and restriction of the Five Elements? Since he used peach trees to lay the Array, how could he not expect an enemy to use fire to get the Array Broken? Naturally, these peach trees were deeply rooted in the ground, holding immense moisture.

Chen Sha also discovered that there was almost no wind around, so there was no chance of the wind fueling the flames either.

He mocked himself, "He is Lu Chengfeng’s master after all, the generation’s Eastern Heretic Huang Yaoshi. I’m impressed."

Chen Sha wanted to use a fire attack to get the Array Broken, simply because he remembered that in the original story, West Poison Ouyang Feng had used a massive fire to burn down the peach Lin Array outside Lu Chengfeng’s Guiyun Manor.

But applying this method to Peach Blossom Island now was completely useless.

First, there was a clear gap in the Qimen Array proficiency between Huang Yaoshi and Lu Chengfeng.

Second, when Ouyang Feng attacked Guiyun Manor, he brought a large force with him and undoubtedly prepared plenty of flammable materials like lamp oil.

If lighting a fire by himself could get Huang Yaoshi’s Island Protection Array Broken, then Old Mischievous Zhou Botong would have escaped long ago.

"...I can only study Qimen," he concluded.

He also faintly understood some of the underlying intentions.

"The Southern Heavenly Gate evolves the stories of these Grandmasters into Cosmic Light Fragments for me to test myself. Moreover, time within the Cosmic Light Fragments barely moves in reality. This essentially means I can absorb the wisdom and abilities of different people across different times and spaces as much as possible.

"It seems I must master a Qimen Divination...

"Besides, I have infinite time here."

Meanwhile, as Chen Sha mobilized the Daoists from within the sect to bring him numerous scrolls on Qimen Divination and began carefully studying the path of Qimen...

Inside a Daoist Temple on the mountain.

"These past few days, we have basically figured out the movement patterns of the Holy Son."

That Saintess of mysterious identity, Yao Qingru, hadn’t been idle either. She picked up a brush, wrote a few lines, and handed it to her old servant.

"Be careful. At the agreed time, we will strike together with them."