Ancient Pagoda Maze Formation!

[You replaced "Effort Will Be Rewarded" with "The Toughest Father of Foreign Races".]

[Before leaving White Cloud County, you visited Yuelai Inn and gave the proprietress a sum of money, asking her to look after Dachun.]

[With Shen Qingshan's recommendation, you joined the Chixin Sect.]

[Your Root Bone was not high, which meant your potential was limited.]

[However, your cultivation was unexpectedly decent. Joining the Chixin Sect would also add a measure of strength to the sect.]

[Thus, your current status was not that of a Chixin Sect disciple, but a sect member.]

[The former would take a master within the sect, a Martial Artist of high cultivation, and devote most of his energy to cultivation.]

[The latter did not need to take a master, but could still learn the sect's Cultivation Methods and receive cultivation resources. At the same time, he had to take on certain duties and contribute to the sect's development, management, and the like.]

[For the Shen Family's sake, the Chixin Sect assigned you as a gate patroller. Every day, you only needed to follow the patrol squad around the sect once.]

[You could use all your remaining time to cultivate on your own or do other things.]

[The Chixin Sect issued you one Spirit Guiding Pill and ten low-grade crystal stones every month as cultivation resources.]

[You could freely learn the sect's low-level Cultivation Methods. Mid-level methods and above required contribution points to exchange for.]

[Contribution points were not hard to obtain. Duty-performing sect members like you would automatically have a small amount of contribution recorded each day as long as you reported for duty on time and completed your tasks.]

[Third year, age twenty.]

[Beginning Entry draw...]

[Draw successful!]

["Foreign Languages Must Be Learned" (Green): Your language talent is maxed out. You can master other languages at an extremely fast speed. If you study in bed, your learning efficiency doubles.]

[Adjust Entries?]

[Yes/No]

[You chose No.]

[Having been at the Chixin Sect for a year, you had become familiar with everything about the sect.]

[Sure enough, just as that bandit had said before, because most Chixin Sect members practiced the External Cultivation Heart Fire Technique, the Cultivation Method's side effect meant that the more proficient they became, the more red hair they had.]

[Within the Chixin Sect, people were basically identified by their hair.]

["Heng, a bug with a single strand of red hair!"]

["Oh! A senior with half a head of red hair! This junior greets you!"]

["Is this an Elder with a full head of red hair? Elegant!"]

[Those were the common sentence patterns of Chixin Sect members.]

[Over the past year, your cultivation had improved far more efficiently than it had in the county town.]

[On one hand, regularly taking Spirit Guiding Pills each month accelerated the gathering of Spiritual Qi.]

[On the other hand, it was because of the environment.]

[The places where Martial Dao sects were located were all places where Heaven and Earth Essence gathered, allowing Internal Cultivation to progress more efficiently.]

[Furthermore, Martial Artists of the Spirit Gathering Realm still needed to practice External Cultivation to increase their Blood Qi. If their Blood Qi could not keep up, their Spiritual Qi could not rise either.]

[Your main purpose in coming to the Chixin Sect was not cultivation, but investigating what the massacre at Luoding Village had to do with the Chixin Sect.]

[So far, you had not found any useful intelligence.]

[There was only one strange matter.]

[There was an Ancient Pagoda within the sect. Every time you passed by it while patrolling with the squad, your "Spider Senses" would trigger, raising goosebumps all over your body.]

["Senior Brother Lin, what is inside this pagoda?"]

[You asked the captain of the patrol squad.]

["This is where our Chixin Sect Ancestor cultivates in seclusion. Do not enter and disturb him without cause. If you barge in without notice, the consequences will be severe! There was once a rash fool who barged in and was mercilessly killed by the Ancestor!"]

[The Chixin Sect was a young sect, so the ancestor who had founded it was still alive.]

[Was it because people were forbidden from barging in that "Spider Senses" was sounding?]

[Fourth year, age twenty-one.]

[Beginning Entry draw...]

[Draw successful!]

["Silent Step" (Green): When you deliberately control your footsteps, you can move without making a sound. When you remain perfectly still, Spiritual Sense cannot detect your existence.]

[Adjust Entries?]

[Yes/No]

[You replaced "Has Demonic Aura" with "Silent Step".]

[That day, when you passed the Ancient Pagoda during patrol, you discovered that "Spider Senses" did not react.]

["Right, Qingzhou recently held some sort of sect exchange convention. The Ancestor took a group of outstanding disciples and went out."]

[You felt that this was an opportunity.]

[You had searched most places within the sect. Only this Ancient Pagoda had never been entered.]

[Since "Spider Senses" did not react, it meant there was no danger inside.]

[After dark, you quietly arrived near the Ancient Pagoda. "Spider Senses" still did not react, proving that entering this place was safe.]

[You gathered your courage, climbed to the third floor, and slipped in through a window that had not been shut tightly.]

["There's nothing in here. Is this really a place for secluded cultivation?"]

[This pagoda had seven floors in total. You wandered from the first floor to the seventh and found every floor empty, without a single furnishing.]

[But the floor was strange.]

[The ground on every floor was carved with intricate patterns that followed a certain order.]

["A formation?"]

[After staying at the Chixin Sect for several years, though you had never specifically studied formations, you had occasionally sat in on lectures from senior Formation Masters and gained a basic understanding.]

[The formation patterns on every floor of this pagoda differed greatly in style from the formation patterns you usually saw.]

["A person really does need to learn more. When books are needed, one only then regrets having read too few..."]

[Just as you carefully observed the details of the formation, intending to use "Eidetic Memory" to memorize it all before studying what these formations did later.]

[The formation beneath your feet lit up!]

[At the same time, "Spider Senses" began reacting madly!]

["Not good!"]

[At the critical moment, you flashed aside, leaped out through the window, then stood motionless on the pagoda eaves.]

[Because out of the corner of your eye, you clearly saw two figures emerge atop the formation!]

[Running now would be worse than hiding outside with "Silent Step." That might be safer.]