Golden Page

Within the formation, Lin Ming felt something grab him somewhere, and something soft and warm touched his lips.

In an instant, his last shred of resistance was completely shattered.

In an instant, the surging desires within the formation, like a flood bursting its banks, completely engulfed his remaining reason.

His arm unconsciously rose and embraced the warm body in front of him.

The fabric of that Elegant Long Skirt was as thin and smooth as a cicada's wing under his palm, and he could clearly feel the curves and warmth of the body beneath the fabric.

Qing Yanjing trembled slightly in his arms, letting out a very soft moan, a sound like a feather tickling Lin Ming's heart.

Immediately afterward, Qing Yanjing's fingers tightened behind Lin Ming's back, creating several deep creases in Lin Ming's black robe.

Instantly, the place was filled with the boundless feeling of spring.

The Tai Chi diagram spun faster and faster beneath their feet, the outlines of the black and white fish, their heads and tails intertwined, completely blurring and transforming into a chaotic vortex that enveloped them.

Occasionally, a few streaks of light flashed within the vortex, like a swarm of startled fireflies swirling and dancing around the two, illuminating their violent collision, which resembled a raging storm.

A warm and ambiguous aura permeated the entire formation, which tinged the magical light orbs suspended in mid-air with a faint pink hue.

At this moment, the murmur of the Spirit of the Scripture Pavilion had dissipated, leaving only the rich aura still lingering in the air.

After a long time, the Chaos black and white vortex slowly dissolved like a thin mist blown away by the wind.

As the formation dissipated, the Tai Chi diagram reappeared beneath their feet, and the black and white fish resumed their original slow rotation, as if the frantic acceleration just moments before had been an illusion.

But the tattered robes and the lingering flush on their faces clearly reminded them that what had just happened was not a dream.

When Qing Yanjing woke up, her hazy eyes suddenly opened, still holding a few traces of lingering moisture, but beneath that moisture, a thin layer of chill had already risen.

She looked down at her fair body, then glanced at Lin Ming, who was so close to her, and his hand still resting on her waist. Her pupils shrank to their limit in an instant.

Almost instinctively, she sprang backward, her body like an arrow shot from a fully drawn bowstring, somersaulting in mid-air before landing steadily.

She staggered upon landing, the pain in her body nearly causing her to fall, but she gritted her teeth and steadied herself.

Immediately, she condensed her Spiritual Energy into a sword, then flipped her right hand, and the emerald green Spiritual Energy condensed into a jade sword as thin as a cicada's wing in her palm. The tip of the sword was aimed directly at Lin Ming's throat, and the runes on the sword were flowing wildly, radiating an extremely sharp cutting power.

She held nothing back with her sword strike; even before the sword arrived, the sharp sword energy had already cut a thin, hair-like black crack in the air in front of Lin Ming.

Lin Ming had also regained consciousness. Seeing the emerald green sword light piercing towards his face, he subconsciously raised his hand to block it. Five-Colored Brilliance condensed into a miniature light shield in his palm. The tip of the jade sword pierced the surface of the light shield, making a sharp "ding" sound, like two iron needles colliding.

A shallow dent was pierced on the surface of the light shield, and the crack spread a few inches outwards before he repaired it with the World Power.

With a flick of his wrist, he deflected the jade sword, then took a half-step back, widening the distance between them.

At this moment, Lin Ming looked at Qing Yanjing with a cold gaze and said, "Although you are the one who suffered a loss in this matter, I did not create this situation."

He then straightened his robes before continuing, "If you have someone to blame, blame the Scripture Repository. Besides, you came here on your own; otherwise, I wouldn't be in this mess."

When Lin Ming said this, there was no guilty expression on his face. His dark, unfathomable eyes looked calmly at Qing Yanjing, like a wronged passerby defending himself.

"You!" Qing Yanjing pointed at him, her hands trembling with anger.

The slender, pale finger trembled slightly in mid-air, like a jade hairpin bent by the wind.

Anger surged in Qing Yanjing's cold eyes, but beneath that anger lay a deeper layer of shame and resentment, like a layer of water floating on top of a pot of boiling oil.

She opened her mouth, wanting to say something harsh, but the words just wouldn't come out.

Because she was recalling those hazy memories, although most of them were blurry, those fragmented pieces were like puzzle pieces scattered by water, and by piecing them together, a rough outline could still be discerned.

It was indeed she who approached him. Under the influence of the formation, she was the one who walked up to Lin Ming first, and she was the one who reached out her hand first.

She even grabbed Lin Ming's genitals first. That sensation was brought back to her memory, like a hot coal pulled from an ashes, burning her entire face.

Instantly, a blush rose on Qing Yanjing's face again. The blush spread from her ears to her cheeks and then to her neck, turning her usually aloof and frosty face into a crimson hue, like a camellia that had been blown open by the spring breeze in the snow.

At that moment, she suddenly jerked her hand away, the movement quick and heavy, like a cat frantically shaking its paw after stepping in mud.

Then she turned around and strode out, her steps quick and hurried. The hem of her Elegant Long Skirt fluttered like a flag as she walked, and each step she took made a crisp "smack" sound on the ground, like a string of crushed beans.

"Hey!" Lin Ming said upon seeing this.

"What else do you want?" Qing Yanjing turned her head angrily.

Her brows furrowed, and her eyes, still flushed, glared at him like a cat that had been provoked and was baring its teeth.

But when she turned her head to look at them, she stopped speaking. Because a ball of light had appeared in front of her without her noticing.

The ball of light was about the size of a fist, and its entire body was a deep star blue. Countless fine Spiritual Runes were slowly flowing inside the ball of light. These Spiritual Runes were intertwined in a nest-like manner, forming an extremely precise miniature array diagram.

The complexity of that diagram far exceeded any array formation inheritance she had ever seen before. Each Spiritual Runes contained a unique understanding of the Dao of Array Formations, like an encyclopedia of array formations compressed into a star.

"This is the legacy of the Master of the Lin Residence," Lin Ming said calmly.

Staring at the ball of light before her, Qing Yanjing froze. Her furrowed brows relaxed slightly, and a complex emotion flickered in her still angry eyes.

Qing Yanjing looked up and gave Lin Ming a deep look. That look contained a hint of surprise, a hint of scrutiny, and a very faint emotion that even she herself might not have noticed.

She remained silent for a moment, her lips moved as if she wanted to say something, but in the end, she didn't utter a single word.

Finally, Qing Yanjing grabbed the ball of light, clenched her fingers, held it in her palm, and left without looking back.

Her Elegant Long Skirt silhouette receded further and further into the dark blue light, her steps still quick and hurried, but there seemed to be a hint of chaos in that haste that even she herself couldn't quite grasp.

After Qing Yanjing left, the Tai Chi diagram slowly rotated a few times, and the black and white fish lit up at the same time, each shooting out a beam of light from its eye.

A warm, milky-white light shone from the white fish's eyes, while a deep, dark black light shone from the black fish's eyes. The two beams of light converged in mid-air, blending black and white, like two Flood Dragons, one black and one white, fighting for a moment in the clouds, before finally merging into a golden light.

The golden light spread out above, like a piece of golden silk being unfurled, extending in all directions, and in just a few breaths it transformed into a golden plaza about a hundred feet in diameter.

The square was paved with some kind of dark golden spirit stone, with dense ancient patterns carved on its surface. These patterns resembled a compressed star map, each radiating a warm and profound light.

Lin Ming raised his head and looked at the golden square.

The entanglement with Qing Yanjing earlier had exhausted his mind, but now that the formation had dissipated, the heat that had surged from the depths of his dantian had completely subsided, and his mind had returned to its usual clarity.

The square was quiet and empty, with no walls or dome around it, like an isolated island suspended in the void, with only the dark golden stone surfaces underfoot emitting a faint light.

In the very center of the square stood an ancient Altar, about three zhang high, made entirely of some kind of dark gray Altar. The surface of the rock was covered with dense cracks and weathering marks, like a foundation stone dug out from ancient Ruins.

The Altar is square, with a stone staircase on each of the four sides leading to the top. Each staircase consists of nine steps, the edges of which are worn smooth and rounded, bearing the marks of countless years of footsteps.

At each of the four corners of the Altar stood a stone pillar, with a faint golden light slowly flowing from the top of each pillar, like lamps turned to their dimmest setting.

Lin Ming moved swiftly and appeared below the Altar.

As his feet landed on the dark gold stone surface, a warm, smooth sensation came from the soles of his feet.

Lin Ming's expression was solemn. He straightened his robes, then lifted his foot and stepped onto the first step.

He walked slowly. Before stepping down each step, he would lightly touch the stone surface with his toes to sense whether there were any mechanisms or Restriction in the steps.

But the steps were surprisingly quiet; when he stepped on them, they made only a slight thud, like a pebble being placed on a stone slab, and nothing else.

He climbed step by step until he reached the top of the Altar.

The top of the Altar was much wider than the bottom, about ten feet square, and the stone surface was polished to be extremely smooth, like a bronze mirror that had been polished a thousand times.

In the very center of the Altar stood a stone platform, about a foot high, carved from a single piece of stone. Its surface was engraved with a dense circle of ancient runes. He didn't recognize any of the runes, but just by looking at them, he could sense that the profound Law contained within them far surpassed any array he had ever seen before.

Above the stone platform floated a thin sheet of gold. The sheet was about the size of a palm and extremely thin, like a piece of gold foil hammered to its limit. It undulated slightly in the air, like a leaf about to fall in the wind.