I don't know how long it took. In the illusion, I couldn't even notice the change of day and night in the outside world. The entire area was shrouded in a heavy mist in the dim light. Without sunlight as a reference, Tian Jihong was not sure how long he had been trapped. The only thing he could do was to run the skills in his body again and again.
In the end, Tianjihong's movements were close to numbness. After experiencing countless positioning failures and disorientation, he finally managed to determine the direction of the spiritual energy flow in the entire area. He silently drew the general pattern of this place in his mind, and then continued He was groping towards the central area he judged.
This time luck was finally on his side. The hard work paid off, Tianjihong's method of using spiritual energy flow and positioning worked. After more than an hour of exploration, he finally found the core area of the formation in the fog. What made him feel horrified was that as he gradually approached the central area, corpses began to appear in the knee-high puddles beside him. Without guessing, he knew that these were all people trapped in the illusion by the formation and starving to death. The unlucky guy.
In addition to all kinds of birds and beasts, Tianjihong also found two human bones along the road, but it seemed that they were buried in this area a long time ago. Not to mention the clothes on the two men, even the weapons they held had turned into rusty iron under the erosion of time, making it impossible to tell their origins. After some searching, Tianjihong didn't find anything valuable on them, so he didn't stay too long.
The closer to the central area, the denser the corpses around him. At this moment, Tianjihong did not need to search deliberately. He could find the location of the magic circle by just following the direction of the corpse display. When Tian Jihong finally stepped into a decaying land covered with white bones, he finally saw the wooden token on the central stone pillar that maintained the entire formation.
The stone pillar in the center seemed to be less than a foot high, not even as huge as the bones surrounding it. The wooden sign inlaid at the top was even more inconspicuous. When Tian Jihong opened up the skeletons and came to the foot of the stone pillar, he noticed that the simple wooden sign was only as big as his own palm. There are no other lines on the whole body of the wooden sign except for signs of mold. It looks like it has been through the vicissitudes of time. I don’t know how many years it has been standing here. There seems to be some traces of moth infestation in its corners, and it feels like it has been touched even a little bit. It will look like it will break apart.
But such a small token is the source of the magic circle that constitutes this entire illusion. The fluctuations of spiritual power emitted from it are in sharp contrast to its inconspicuous appearance. When Tianjihong reached the bottom of the stone pillar, he could clearly feel the powerful pressure released by the inlay of the wooden sign. The ripples of spiritual power intertwined on its surface were like silk threads, which were the same as those on the magic circle vaguely emerging in mid-air. Every corner is closely connected.
But these spiritual power threads, which are less than as thin as hair, are incredibly tough. When Tian Jihong, who kept an eye out, discovered that among the several corpses around him, there were clear cuts that looked like they had been sawed through by iron wires, he immediately understood that they were all killed by the ripples of spiritual power above their heads. .
Therefore, he decisively gave up the idea of reaching out to touch it, and instead chose to take out the dagger directly and tried to cut off the thread that connected the wooden sign and the illusory magic circle. The result was exactly the opposite of what he expected. The moment the dagger in his hand, which was made of far superior material than fine iron in the world, touched the silk thread, it was cut open by the ripples of spiritual power at waist level like tofu, and the front end fell to the ground. Everything is as neat as a mirror.
Without enough time to feel sorry for the weapon with only the wooden handle left in his hand, Tian Jihong immediately realized the seriousness of the problem. First of all, what I can be sure of is that the appearance of this illusion must be caused by man. Judging from the degree of decay of the bones beside him and the moldy appearance of the wooden sign, a powerful formation master appeared here a long time ago. For unknown reasons Why did you use this token to set up a magic circle here. After that, the magic circle here was preserved, and the illusion in the nearby area was derived; except for a very small number of experts who relied on their understanding of the formation to find a way to directly break the illusion and escape, the rest were trapped in the illusion. None of the people or spiritual beasts could completely destroy the core of the formation in front of them, and they were all trapped and died in the end.
And now you don’t need to identify them one by one to know that the strength of the surrounding spirit beasts during their lifetimes is all far greater than Tianjihong’s own. Among them, there are even a few white bones that look like they have been dried for decades, and they still appear after death. The bright jade-like color and the fluctuations of spiritual power that remain between the bones made Tianjihong feel palpitated. But even such a powerful existence failed to destroy the core of the formation in front of him in the end, and he still died in the illusion.
Only then did Tianjihong realize that even a young monk like him, who had just entered the practice, could rely on the flow of spiritual power to find this place. Of course, these powerful spiritual beasts in front of him could also do it, but the latter fell to the ground without exception. This is the step to destroy the core of the magic circle. Thinking of this, Tian Jihong couldn't help but began to question whether he could find a way out, and a sense of helplessness arose in his heart: Could it be that with his low strength, he would eventually have to follow in the footsteps of these spiritual beasts and be trapped in the illusion to die? ?
"No, we can't give up so easily!" Tianjihong muttered to himself, it was not the moment of despair yet. Even with the lessons learned, he decided that he couldn't just sit back and wait for death. Regardless of whether he succeeded or not, he still had to try every means to give it a try.
The top priority was that he had to figure out how this wooden token worked and see what the problem was that made it impossible for the spiritual beasts and monks lying at his feet to shake it. While Tianjihong surrounded the stone pillar, carefully observing the movement of the wooden sign and the formation above his head, he was also very careful to avoid the spiritual power ripples released on the surface of the wooden sign to avoid being accidentally injured by it.
At this time, he discovered that the wooden sign between the stone walls did not seem to be as magical as he had imagined at first. At that time, when he saw strong spiritual power fluctuations coming from the surface of the wooden sign, he mistakenly thought that it was released by the wooden sign itself. energy of. But now after careful observation, Houtian Jihong is convinced that this wooden sign is actually more similar to a medium that guides and connects the formation with the outside world. Its function is to maintain the illusory formation above the stone pillar and amplify its effectiveness. This makes The illusion can cover the entire pool area.
The formation that is slowly operating above the head is roughly one meter in diameter. After countless years of erosion, it has now become almost transparent, and it takes a while to see its outline with the naked eye. After observation, Tianjihong came to the conclusion that although the formation itself was arranged by a master, in terms of actual power, it is absolutely impossible to cover such a vast area, let alone maintain it for tens or hundreds of years out of thin air. Still running.
After so many years, it can still exert such a powerful effect and trap many spiritual beasts to death. In the final analysis, it is because the core of this formation is engraved on the inside of the wooden tablet, so it can be preserved intact. Once the wooden sign that maintains its existence is destroyed or separated from the stone pillar, the magic circle in the void will naturally disappear.
What really made Tianjihong and even the previously trapped spirit beasts feel unable to do anything was that the previous formation master left other means while setting up the illusion formation. As just mentioned, the wooden tablet itself has no effect of storing spiritual power. It only serves as a carrier to imprint the above magic array into the body. What really causes the spiritual power pressure to be released from its surface is the formation master's order. Another layer of protection is arranged on the outside of the card. This protective shield-like diaphragm not only continues to replenish the spiritual power of the token and the magic circle continuously after so many years, it is also the source of the spiritual power ripples that spread in all directions.
From the bottom of the stone pillar, Tianjihong thought he could find loopholes in the dense spiritual power ripples, and then successfully contact the position where the wooden plaque was embedded on the stone pillar. This is mainly because the magic circle maintained by the wooden sign is located at the top of its head, and the spiritual power ripples it releases to the ground are relatively sparse, which gives Tianjihong an opportunity to take advantage of. Even though the magic circle above is driving the silk thread to continue to operate, as long as you are cautious enough, observe the direction of the magic circle's movement in advance and grasp the trajectory of the silk thread's fluctuation, it is definitely feasible to successfully reach the top of the stone pillar.
However, Tianjihong would not be blindly optimistic like this. He knew very well that even he could find loopholes. It was impossible that these spiritual beasts and monks had not noticed it before. Judging from the positions of the several bones placed at his feet, its previous owner must have had the same idea as himself, and most likely successfully reached the location of the wooden sign.
But judging from their endings, the corpses of these spiritual beasts and monks were inexplicably cut into several pieces by spiritual power ripples. It must have been that something went wrong when implementing this most critical step. This also made Tianjihong, who was almost ready to take action, immediately become vigilant.
Therefore, for the sake of safety, Tianjihong did not choose to go into danger alone like them. His own strength was not as good as the owners of these bones at his feet. If he accidentally touched even a trace of ripples, he might end up with his body and head missing. Next, Tian Jihong deliberately spent a lot of time, focusing on observing the operation rules of the magic circle above his head. It was not until he mastered the rotation path of each spiritual power ripple that he tried to move from the side. He picked up a broken leg bone from the corpse of the spirit beast, and threw it accurately in the direction of the token when the ripples crisscrossed to expose the gap.
