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Chapter 205: Breaking Through the Shell

"Looks like a projection of Mount Shu\'s Mountain God?"

"Could it be a clue for the Mountain God Memorial Ceremony?"

"Hurry. Let\'s go and take a look!"

This was how the first clue was designed to work. Even if no one managed to solve the first puzzle, they would still get to see this projection and find the location of the second puzzle.

Of course, those who managed to solve the first puzzle, the riddle, had the advantage and would take the lead.

Among the elite disciples on Red Cotton Peak, around half of them had realized that the next puzzle might be hidden in the direction that the Mountain God projection was pointing.

Several beams of swordlight immediately soared into the sky! Dozens more swords lit up in succession, streaking across the night sky. Three beams of swordlight swiftly pulled ahead of the rest.

Xu Ziyang, who was at the fifth realm, burst forth with full force, flying at a terrifying speed. The moment he put one foot onto his flying sword, he pretty much flew out of Red Cotton Peak.

Jiang Yuebai was proficient in the abilities that came with her Transcendent Spirit, so she would obviously execute the Sword Manipulation Technique, which was the most basic technique, much better than her peers. She pursued Xu Ziyang closely without even the slightest sign of falling behind.

Chu Liang\'s performance was the most astonishing. To everyone else, he had just advanced to the fourth realm. They knew he had an ultimate-tier Golden Core, but that didn\'t explain why there wasn\'t a gap between him and the other two people in the lead.

After all, Chu Liang was the only one who knew he had two ultimate-tier Golden Cores running inside him! And they were rotating wildly! The vortex in his Dantian was a Yin-Yang Dual Vortex!

As the dual vortex hit maximum speed, a boom reverberated from his Sea of Qi!

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—

The three swordlights in the lead drew long rainbow-like trails behind them and swiftly arrived overhead the Sword Sheath Peak.

This was where the Violet and Azure Twin Swords had been hidden. Sword qi often surged wildly at the top of this peak, so the Mount Shu Sect\'s disciples usually knew not to approach this place.

Nevertheless, Xu Ziyang, Jiang Yuebai, and Chu Liang weren\'t bothered by that. The three of them scanned the area with their divine sense and discovered there were some special spots on the peak. Four flags had been planted in the east, south, north, and west parts of the Sword Sheath Peak.

Xu Ziyang flew without hesitation toward the flag in the east, which was the closest to him. Seeing that, Jiang Yuebai flew in the opposite direction toward the flag in the west. Chu Liang didn\'t compete with either of them, flying straight toward the flag in the south.

He pulled the large flag out from the ground and realized there seemed to be a map painted on it, but the map was incomplete... It seemed that all four flags needed to be placed together to complete the map.

Chu Liang didn\'t have much time to think. He folded the flag and flew speedily toward the last flag in the north.

The three people had each obtained a flag without injury. However, now that they were all trying to acquire the last flag, it seemed inevitable that there would be a conflict.

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh—

The three of them flew forward simultaneously. They were all around the same distance away from the fourth flag, so it was very likely that they would reach it at the same time.

Yet, just when they were only tens of zhang away, Jiang Yuebai suddenly made a hand seal.

Whoosh, whoosh!

She left behind two consecutive afterimages, each one showing she had covered a distance of over ten zhang. Jiang Yuebai arrived in front of the flag in the blink of an eye; it was now within her reach.

She\'d used Dimension Compression!

Chu Liang exclaimed inwardly, she\'s so shameless to use immortal arts at this time!

Nevertheless, there was nothing he could do about it. Jiang Yuebai had told him about the seal for the Dimension Compression a few days ago, but he hadn\'t grasped the elusive Dao of Distancelessness yet.

Chu Liang wasn\'t the only one anxious; Xu Ziyang tense grew tense too.

Upon seeing that Jiang Yuebai had gained the advantage and was about the grab the second flag, Xu Ziyang raised his hand and released a beam of swordlight!

It was inevitable for the disciples to fight during the Mountain God Memorial Ceremony. The ceremony was part of the Mount Shu Summit after all. Nonetheless, Xu Ziyang didn\'t attack Jiang Yuebai to harm her; he just wanted to impede her momentum.

Things played out as expected... With swordlight surging toward her back, Jiang Yuebai had no choice but to turn around and draw her sword to defend herself. Her sword qi clashed with Xu Ziyang\'s, and their swordlights illuminated the area.

Jiang Yuebai was momentarily delayed from grabbing the flag. That was enough for Xu Ziyang to catch up and reach out from the side to grab the flag!

Still, how could Chu Liang let Xu Ziyang do as he pleased?

Chu Liang\'s Dustless Sword surged with the power of his two Golden Cores and unleashed the Cloud of Determination sword qi, accompanied by a deafening burst of wind!

Even Xu Ziyang did not dare to face Chu Liang\'s attack head-on. He swung his sword against Chu Liang\'s sword qi, intending to cut through it. Yet, he was instead forced to take two steps back.

Chu Liang was now the closest to the flag. Going by how the three people had clashed so far, with Xu Ziyang impeding Jiang Yuebai and then Chu Liang impeding Xu Ziyang, it should be Jiang Yuebai\'s turn to stop Chu Liang from grabbing the flag.

Yet, even after Chu Liang grabbed the flag, Jiang Yuebai didn\'t make a move against him.

It had all happened so quickly that Chu Liang didn\'t have the time to think about why that was the case. However, once he had succeeded in grabbing the flag, he looked at Jiang Yuebai and felt rather astonished.

"The map can only be complete if we place the four paintings together, so it doesn\'t matter if you get one or two doesn\'t matter," Jiang Yuebai said with a smile. "There\'s no need for us to fight each other so seriously over this."

"Senior Sister Jiang, thank you for letting me have it. This fourth map belongs to both of us; I definitely won\'t keep it to myself," Chu Liang replied immediately.

"That\'s good. In that case, we can make a trade to view the other parts of the map."

"Why don\'t our teams form an alliance?" Chu Liang asked, suggesting to take the cooperation with Jiang Yuebai one step further.

"Eh?" Xu Ziyang uttered.

Chu Liang and Jiang Yuebai\'s conversation was taking an odd turn.

Xu Ziyang thought, These two are just talking among themselves. How did the situation suddenly become so strange? I\'m still here, you know!

Are they forgetting I\'m a person too?

He stepped forward and looked at Jiang Yuebai.

Xu Ziyang asked, "Are you really going to form an alliance with him?"

Jiang Yuebai responded with a question. "Why are you asking?"

Xu Ziyang hesitated for a moment before saying, "Actually, I can form an alliance with you too. We have the two strongest teams, so we can work together to eliminate the other teams first and then compete against each other."

"Eh?" Chu Liang uttered.

It was his turn to feel something wasn\'t right.

There are only three of us here. Who are the "others" you\'re referring to?

All of a sudden, the two young men were now trying to win over Jiang Yuebai.

Jiang Yuebai couldn\'t help but smile and ask, "Why can\'t you two form an alliance?"

Chu Liang and Xu Ziyang glanced at each other and spoke simultaneously.

"That\'s true."

"That would be acceptable."

If all three teams contesting against each other were to form an alliance, then it would be like there was no alliance at all.

Jiang Yuebai continued, "Regardless of whoever wants to ally with me, I will only agree to make a trade when all four parts of the map are present."

Chu Liang and Xu Ziyang nodded in agreement.

Jiang Yuebai was very quick on her feet and had already analyzed the current situation.

Each party had a part of the map, so the information they possessed did not overlap. That meant each party needed the information the other parties possessed. However, if two parties were to exchange their parts of the map, then they would possess the same information.

After that, whichever of the two parties that made a trade with the last party first would acquire all of the information. In that case, the party who had yet to make an information exchange with the last party would be kicked out of the alliance, as they wouldn\'t be needed anymore.

To avoid being the party that would get kicked out, there were only two options. One was to fight to be the first of the two parties to exchange information with the last party, but the fight would cause the parties to end up in a mutually disadvantageous situation. The second option was to stand firm and be the last party. They would be able to completely avoid the risk of getting kicked out of the alliance before acquiring all of the information. Nevertheless, none of them were fools, so there would be no way for them to complete the information exchange this way.

To avoid being in a mutually disadvantageous situation, the best solution was to do a simultaneous three-party information exchange. That way all three parties would acquire all the information at the same time, and no one would be placed at a disadvantage.

While the three people were conversing, more beams of swordlight descended toward the ground.

Some of them were the teammates of the three people. They had flown over from Red Cotton Peak in pursuit of their leaders. There were also other disciples of Mount Shu who had rushed over from elsewhere.

Chu Liang said, "There are too many people around now who might listen in on our conversation. Let\'s just head back to our respective peaks and study the parts of the map that we have. We can arrange for a time tomorrow to discuss it further."

"Sure."

Jiang Yuebai and Xu Ziyang both agreed to Chu Liang\'s suggestion.

...

Upon returning to Silver Sword Peak, Chu Liang initially intended to study the two parts of the map first.

Yet, before he could even take them out, he suddenly felt a slight shift in the White Pagoda.

Is it that egg?

Once Chu Liang realized what it was, he took out the mysterious beast egg from the White Pagoda.

Recently, he had been diligently incubating the egg every day. Whenever he was free, he\'d hold it in his hands and infuse it with foundational qi. After doing that for many days, the egg finally showed some signs of change.

It seemed like something was about to hatch from it!

Chu Liang quickly activated his foundational qi and gently passed it through the eggshell. The response that he got from the creature inside the beast egg grew increasingly stronger, causing the egg to sway slightly. It was a clear sign of life; the creature in the egg was very eager to break out of its shell!

However, Chu Liang couldn\'t do much to help it. All he could do was stay by its side, guarding it silently. After waiting for an hour, the first crack finally appeared on the eggshell.

Crack.

It was a tiny crack that looked as if it had been created by a needle pricking the eggshell. That dot quickly extended into a line that then expanded into a split in the eggshell.

A green and white liquid flowed out. There was a lot of it, and it quickly made a little pool around the egg. Soon after, a very small creature appeared on the table.

Chu Liang gasped in surprise.

It was such a large egg, yet what hatched out of it was this little thing? And this thing...

The small creature on the table was about half as long as a phalange[1], slightly thicker than a needle, pure white in color, and slightly transparent. It was currently doing its best to wriggle about.

Isn\'t it clearly a... maggot?

1. A section of the finger. ☜