Martial Arts Crossover: The Sweeping Monk of Wudang? That's our patriarch!

"Qingluan! You wicked woman! I trusted you to some extent, and you turn around and use me to feed the ghosts!"

Qingluan ignored her, grabbed the strand of hair that had been pulled back with her hand, and spoke slowly and deliberately, her voice as cold as ice falling to the ground:

"Now, tell me—where exactly is the Haotian Mirror sealed?"

The head, suspended in mid-air, trembled violently. Its tongue, sharp as a knife, swiftly traced a faint, glowing array pattern on the bluestone ground. In an instant, the array pattern burst into brilliant light, three ancient bronze coins hummed and rose into the air, and two clusters of bluish-gray flames suddenly ignited in the head's eyes. A powerful, deep voice boomed in the ears of the two:

"Where Heaven's will leads, that is what is known; every word I speak is absolutely certain—a secret path lies hidden atop Kunlun Mountain, leading straight to its base, beneath which lies the Mirror of Heaven!"

Upon hearing this, Qingluan flipped her wrist with a cold blade, cleanly severing the strands of hair wrapped around Lin Daochen's head, and then threw him outwards.

The head suddenly flew into a rage, its throat trembling as it let out a tearing roar:

"Breach of faith and broken promises! Karma will backfire, and sooner or later your soul will be consumed! You think I want a sacrifice? No—it's a final bow to the Heavenly Dao! Karma is like a chain; for every inch gained, a foot will break; if the burden isn't paid, you will ultimately pay a hundredfold in blood!"

Qingluan stood in the shadows of the prison gate, her fingertips twirling a strand of broken hair. Her voice was low, yet every word was barbed:

"The Heavenly Dao is almost reduced to ashes, how could it possibly care about you and me? Besides, your Heavenly Mystery Pavilion's acts of spying on destiny and tampering with star charts, weren't they all walking right on the edge of the Heavenly Rules? Now that your head is nailed here, isn't that the strongest ironclad proof of the collapse of the Heavenly Dao?"

Even after stepping out of the dungeon, Lin Daochen's mind was still replaying the scene from earlier: just how many inches of Qingluan's life force would be cut off by that slash?

Who exactly was that prisoner? In just a moment of eye contact, he felt as if his skin had been stripped away, his bones emptied, and even his heartbeat laid bare before the other's eyes—that chilling feeling of being completely pierced still lingers on the back of his neck.

"His name is Tian Suanzi, the former leader of the Tianji Pavilion. He was imprisoned here after suffering a backlash for seeing the crack in the sky. It is said that anyone who seeks divination will die within three days. I would never have opened this coffin if I hadn't been driven to the brink."

Before she finished speaking, Qingluan grabbed Lin Daochen's sleeve, touched the ground with her toes, and soared up the wind, heading straight for the summit of Kunlun.

Looking up, all I could see was a surging sea of ​​clouds, white waves crashing to the sky, with nothing else to climb or lean on. The surrounding mountains were all shrouded in gloom, with Kunlun Mountain standing alone in the vast expanse, its summit flat and empty, so vast it was unsettling—where was the entrance to any secret passage? If there had been, it should have been right there in front of me long ago.

Just as he was feeling lost and helpless, Lin Daochen suddenly noticed that the arrangement of the pebbles on the ground was strange and unusual. He bent down and picked up a few bluish-gray pebbles, and embedded them into the cracks in the rock in sequence—in an instant, a magnificent palace rose from the ground! But the palace was covered with ripples like water, and its outline was elusive, as if it would be blown away by the wind at any moment.

The two stared intently at each other. Qingluan's throat bobbed slightly, her voice so soft it was as if she were afraid of disturbing the illusion:

"The Queen Mother of the West's 'Tragedy of Kunlun'... The True Temple?"

"But isn't it just a legend that lives only in fragments of scrolls?"

She tentatively reached out—her fingertips passed through the palace wall without any obstruction, only stirring a slight ripple.

It's all an illusion. A complete and utter phantom.

Lin Daochen frowned, his palms sweating. He was certain: this palace was not an illusion, but a real object, just deliberately separated by a different dimension and trapped in another spatial fold.

The thought had barely formed in his mind when he swiftly set up seven spirit-guiding array eyes, his fingertips forming hand seals, using spirit stones as a guide to begin prying open the spatial barrier.

Space itself is mysterious—it can be folded like a thousand layers of paper, hidden like ten thousand boxes. Theoretically, one layer nested within another, without end. No one can say for sure which layer of emptiness this palace is nestled in.

Seeing the sweat beading on his forehead and his knuckles turning white, Qingluan asked in a low voice, "Do you have a plan? Or should I call a few old guys to lend a hand?"

"No need. I'm just short of some materials—how many spirit stones do you have? Give them all to me, I need them immediately."

It has to be said, this woman was carrying some serious stuff.

With the spirit stone in hand, Lin Daochen immediately buried himself in his work.

For three whole days, the air on the mountaintop gradually became heavy, as if it had solidified into a gel. He was dragging and calibrating that otherworldly space inch by inch into reality—once the two worlds were joined, he could reach out and touch the bricks and tiles inside the hall.

They were able to act so recklessly because the Azure Phoenix had already cleared the entire mountaintop clean, leaving not even a single sparrow behind.

As the distance between the two realms shrank to a fraction of a millimeter, the world suddenly fell silent. Countless streams of light, like silver snakes dancing wildly, swirled and surged around the two, turning the entire summit of Kunlun into a boiling galaxy.

Alright, the entrance is open, we can go in now. But remember, never use too much spiritual power, otherwise the spatial barrier will collapse—once a crack appears, we will be immediately swept into the spatial turbulence.

The spatial turbulence was extremely dangerous; even a cultivator in the Tribulation Transcending stage would not survive more than half an incense stick's time if trapped inside. Every step they took at this moment was equivalent to walking on a knife's edge.

Lin Daochen embedded the last spirit stone into the array eye, and his figure shot into the hall like lightning. Qingluan followed closely behind, her clothes fluttering as she swept across the threshold.

Upon entering the main hall, the two were immediately struck by a solemn and overwhelming atmosphere. Yet beneath this solemnity lay a chilling emptiness: the walls were bare, devoid of any furnishings, with only colossal statues standing along the corridors, like celestial soldiers descending to earth and divine generals guarding the place, silently standing for countless millennia.

Lin Daochen looked around, his brows furrowed, and remained silent for a long time.

"Have you noticed... that these statues seem to be breathing?"

Qingluan was taken aback upon hearing this. She focused her attention and examined the area for a moment, but only sensed a deathly silence. She shook her head and said, "There's no life force. It's purely a stone body and wooden bones. You're probably being hallucinated because the formation has made you delirious."

"Impossible." Her tone was firm. "If there were any signs of life, I would have sensed it long ago. The most important thing right now is to find 'Good Tranquility' as soon as possible—only with it can I…"

Her words came to an abrupt halt. The next step would reveal her deepest, most hidden secret.

Lin Daochen didn't press further, but instead bent down to examine the white jade statues closely. Their surfaces were smooth as mirrors, without any abnormalities. He drew his sword and scraped them with all his might—the blade rang out, but no stone chips fell, not even a white mark was left.

Logically speaking, this sword should be able to cut through iron like mud and sever jade like paper, yet it couldn't even scratch the surface of the statue, which is quite abnormal.

He wasn't anxious; instead, he slowed his pace, carefully watching the cracks in the bricks, the gaps in the beams, and the shadows of the dome, fearing that a silent danger might be lurking somewhere. Qingluan, on the other hand, moved swiftly, her toes barely touching the ground, her eyes like hooks, scanning repeatedly between the column bases, reliefs, and floor tiles, eagerly searching for the hidden passage leading to the mountain's interior.

"Hurry and help me find it! Once you open that door, the reward I promise you will be far more than a tenth of what you can imagine!"

Upon hearing this, Lin Daochen merely raised his eyes indifferently—he himself had lost count of how many times this woman had tricked him.

He continued to study the cloud patterns on the base of the statue; seeing that he was unmoved, Qingluan simply turned around and flicked her sleeves, brushing her fingertips across a coiled dragon pillar, and began to tap on the hidden compartment and manipulate the joints of the relief.

Just then, someone bumped into a protrusion, and the entire hall suddenly shook!

Those colossal statues that had stood still for millennia suddenly opened their eyes, raised their arms, and took steps—golden armor clanging, long halberds cutting through the wind, they surrounded us like living beings, their attacks fierce and their steps forming a battle formation.

They didn't just swing randomly; each strike was timed precisely to the rhythm of the formation, with offense and defense seamlessly integrated.

The two were immediately pinned down and unable to break free. What was even more deadly was that these puppets were nearly at the peak of the Integration Realm, and every move they made carried the force of collapsing mountains. Even with his profound skills protecting him, Lin Daochen was almost severed from his arm bones several times.

"Is there any way to break this deadlock? If we keep dragging this out, we're really going to die here!" Qingluan shouted sharply.

Lin Daochen was still panting, but his gaze was fixed on the array patterns flowing around the puppet. He wanted to find a flaw, but those patterns were all wrapped in a shell that was neither gold nor jade, as hard as the rock at the beginning of chaos, and he could not see through it at all.

He abruptly dodged a sweeping attack, growling at the Azure Phoenix, "Smash their outer shell! Only by breaking through that barrier can I see the core structure and possibly dismantle it!"

Qingluan's pupils contracted, and she instantly understood. Her fists clenched suddenly, and golden light surged from her blood vessels. Layers of dark gold patterns rose from beneath her skin, like living snakes writhing, becoming increasingly intricate and profound.

Lin Daochen's heart trembled slightly—it turned out that this woman's mastery of array formations was far more profound, deeper, and more unpredictable than he had anticipated. But if that was truly the case, why hadn't he been able to see those sealed array eyes earlier?

The thought flashed through his mind, but he had no time to dwell on it. Just as the Azure Phoenix Fist blasted open the first puppet's shoulder armor, Lin Daochen finally glimpsed the true form of the array lurking beneath: the entire formation was clearly composed of two interlocking structures—

One layer is indestructible, the other...

This thing looks impervious to blades and spears, but in reality it can't withstand all heavy blows—it will still crack and shatter when it encounters a tougher opponent.

For example, the force of Qingluan's attack was close to its critical pressure limit, and it instantly exploded into dust.

Lin Daochen bent down to examine the array patterns flowing on the puppet's surface, his brow furrowing slightly, unable to find any flaws for the time being.

He wanted Qingluan to sweep across the entire area and crush all these iron lumps into scrap metal, but the reality was that with Qingluan's current level of power, even with immense strength, it would be difficult to clear the entire array of mechanisms in the blink of an eye.

"You keep them occupied for now, and I'll break the deadlock. If there's really no solution, we'll withdraw immediately."

The Azure Phoenix nodded, its wings flapping, unleashing a howling gale that instantly locked down the movements of all the puppets. Lin Daochen lay prone at the edge of the array, his fingertips tracing the carvings on the stone wall, repeatedly deducing the formation, but after half a day, he still had no clue. Their eyes met, and they tacitly withdrew.

For the next two weeks, whenever they had free time, the two would return to this place to disassemble, compare, and experiment, thoroughly examining almost every single talisman line three times.

Inside the library, Lin Daochen leaned against an old wooden chair, flipping through books, the pages rustling softly. He hoped to find a clue to breaking the formation in the ancient texts, but each page he turned was a dead end.

The old man guarding the pavilion had long since recognized him. He strolled over slowly, carrying a bamboo broom, and stood beside the table, his voice as soft as withered leaves brushing against blue bricks.

"Starting next year, this place will likely be under a different administration. Would you... be willing to accept the seal of office as the Elder of the Scripture Pavilion?"

Lin Daochen paused, looking up—this was the first time the old man had spoken since he entered the cabinet.

"Hmm? What makes you say that? Cultivators are rooted in their sects; where else can they go?"

The elders of the Scripture Pavilion are at least at the Nascent Soul stage. They have devoted half their lives to Kunlun. How could they easily give up?

The old man sat down next to him, his sleeves frayed and worn, but his eyes were like a dusty bronze mirror, dim and heavy.

"I started cultivating Qi at the age of three, and it's been almost two thousand years since then. In these two thousand years, I haven't slept in once, nor have I missed a single breathing exercise, but in the end, I'm just an old skeleton stuck in the Nascent Soul stage. My lifespan is coming to an end, and I'm almost ready to turn to my grave."

He paused, his Adam's apple bobbing slightly: "It was only a few days ago that I finally realized—I've lived so long, yet I haven't lived like a human being."

After he finished speaking, he fell silent, remaining quiet for a long time before whispering again:

"I dedicated my whole life to spiritual practice, and what did I get in return? Being sidelined, counting down the years, and a bellyful of unbearable anger!"

Lin Daochen's brows furrowed more and more. At first, he was puzzled, but then he was suddenly struck by a realization and understood.

"So... what are you trying to tell me?"