Dragon's Bane

The role of the geomancer in breaking the formation is to locate the acupoint.

Once the core of the grand formation was established, preventing the formation from functioning smoothly, Zhang Xuezhou's role became largely diminished.

The Venerable One had previously led him inside hand in hand, fearing he might encounter an accident. However, once the formation was dispelled and passage was safe, Zhang Xuezhou's role was undoubtedly greatly diminished, and he was no longer taken by the Venerable One to explore.

He stayed at the acupoint for a while to investigate and confirmed that there was an extremely close connection between the Venerable One's body and the candle.

But Zhang Xuezhou gained nothing else from this.

This is an underground space, lacking sunlight; the only light for what is visible comes from the broken, slowly burning white hair of the Venerable One.

Zhang Xuezhou was limited, making it difficult for him to see his surroundings clearly. He didn't dare to run around recklessly, lest he encounter a powerful terracotta warrior.

After making wild guesses for a while, he carefully cleaned up the fragments of his shattered Yuan Dan.

Combining the process of soaking and kneading the candle clay, collecting them wasn't difficult for him, and it added some things to his otherwise tedious wait.

Zhang Xuezhou was feeling utterly bored; the time he had been waiting was indeed quite long.

It might be an hour, or two hours, or even longer.

The departing Venerable One did not return. The spirit jade in Zhang Xuezhou's hand, which had restored his Law Power, had faded in color, indicating that it had been nearly half depleted.

"Is this place really that big? Has Your Majesty not finished inspecting it after all this time?"

Zhang Xuezhou picked up the Yuan Dan fragment that he had rolled into a ball, and then looked at the center of the fence where the Acupoint-Fixing Technique was being released.

He pondered for a few seconds, then looked at the altar where the earth's vein circulation array had been temporarily severed.

"If I don't continue to cast spells to suppress it, once the Law Power layer of magic from the Acupoint-Fixing Technique is removed, the formation will inevitably resume operation, bringing a high risk that is difficult to resist. But without Your Excellency's guidance, I have no way to get out of this place!"

Zhang Xuezhou tiptoed to look into the dark distance, then listened carefully for a while, but found he hadn't obtained any useful information to make a judgment.

"Your Excellency?"

He mustered his courage and called out; the sound echoed far away, but then quickly disappeared.

"The sound seems to have vanished like a fault line; could there be another formation?"

Zhang Xuezhou recalled the Venerable One's rapidly disappearing figure and traces, and then shouted out again, before another judgment emerged in his mind.

Zhang Xuezhou had never seen a formation that was superimposed twice, but that didn't mean that a smaller formation couldn't be nested within a larger one.

For example, if the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains are affected by the Hunyuan Wuji Array, it is possible to find a suitable area within the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains to construct a small array.

However, this kind of formation needs to avoid the influence of the large formation and also reduce the conflict between its own formation and the large formation, so the conditions for its construction are extremely high.

It is difficult for an ordinary array master to set up a single array, and setting up a large array is something that only a few array masters can do. As for arrays within arrays, only top array masters have the ability to do so.

If such a feat were accomplished by one of the Qin Dynasty's top array masters, Zhang Xuezhou felt it was highly likely.

His Majesty believed the great formation was already set, but after misjudging the situation, he may have already fallen into another formation.

"The Golden Crow Great Emperor is my good friend!"

He reached into his pouch and felt around. A long black feather was ignited by a spell, and the flames shone brightly, illuminating the surroundings.

The familiar underground palace layout came into view. Zhang Xuezhou glanced at Yang Duanhe's shattered body, then looked at a bronze chariot hidden in the darkness.

Like the bronze chariot in the Wudang Holy Mother's underground palace, Yang Duanhe may have been sitting in the bronze chariot before entering and then dismounting to launch his attack.

"In this underground palace, only those who ride bronze chariots will not be judged as enemies!"

Zhang Xuezhou's body swayed, and then he floated towards the bronze chariot.

He sat in the driver's seat with great skill and quickly explored all parts of the carriage.

"Even if the Holy Mother of Wudang has a high level of cultivation, it's impossible for her to Law Power to wrap around a bronze chariot and ride it. Such a large chariot is impossible to refine; at most, one could extract its core energy!"

Zhang Xuezhou had limited knowledge of mechanical Law Treasure, and after fiddling with them for a while, the bronze chariot did not budge.

"If only I had been shameless enough to ask the Holy Mother for advice back then, even if I had been laughed at, it would have been better than me just guessing now!"

Having searched the carriage thoroughly without finding the core control mechanism, Zhang Xuezhou could only turn his attention to the terracotta horses pulling the carriage.

He tapped the terracotta warrior, and a deep, metallic sound came back.

If he didn't have some knowledge, he would almost doubt that the terracotta warriors were purely sculptures.

"The Qin Dynasty's terracotta figurine-making techniques transcended the boundaries of life and death, allowing people to remain on the verge of survival—a truly unique approach!"

His Excellency only made a few casual remarks, but these words were almost Zhang Xuezhou's lifeline.

After some trial and error and based on his observations, he began to chant the incantation.

"Heaven and Earth Reversal Beast Control Technique!"

As an intruder, Zhang Xuezhou was not only killed by Yang Duanhe once, but also beaten by him once. Zhang Xuezhou believed that both people and horses harbored hostility towards intruders.

His beast-taming technique, which reverses the Heaven and Earth of things, is suitable for taming animals in situations of hostility. Whenever the terracotta warriors are on the verge of life and death, his beast-taming technique can be effective.

A purple light descended, then turned into a gray ray and entered the horse terracotta warrior's ear. Zhang Xuezhou saw the previously motionless terracotta warrior twitch its neck, phosphorescent light appear in its eyes, and its legs slowly lift up.

"It really worked!"

Zhang Xuezhou was overjoyed, realizing that the Beast Taming Sect's beast control techniques were indeed quite impressive.

He boarded the bronze chariot, holding the feather of the Golden Crow Great Emperor, and drove the terracotta horse pulling the chariot slowly forward.

After traveling no more than ten meters, a chilling aura emanated from the carriage, and Zhang Xuezhou felt a coldness run through his body, followed by a faint, pleasant fragrance.

"This Spiritual Qi carries an extreme chill and coldness, somewhat like the Spiritual Qi on the Reincarnation Stone!"

For Zhang Xuezhou, who had mastered the art of physical combat, this coldness did not bring harm; on the contrary, it also brought him benefits.

He felt his body being restored by Law Power in the icy cold, which allowed him to quickly assess the situation.

"Roar!"

Before Zhang Xuezhou could even use the Golden Crow Feather to survey the distance, he heard a roar, and the sounds of swords and spears clashing rang out amidst the roar.

In the darkness, concentric circles of dark red appeared, and several phosphorescent lights drifted around like fireflies.

"Your Majesty, are you alright?"

Zhang Xuezhou shouted from the bronze chariot, and the distant roars abruptly ceased.

"I'm... I'm not feeling well!"

Upon hearing a weak and feeble response, Zhang Xuezhou couldn't help but urge the carriage closer.

The light from the Golden Crow feathers dispelled the darkness, allowing Zhang Xuezhou to see a three-legged cauldron over ten zhang tall.

The giant tripod is decorated with mountains and rivers, as well as patterns of insects, birds, flowers, dragons, phoenixes, and taotie.

Wisps of gray mist rose continuously from the cauldron, sometimes transforming into dragon scale patterns, and sometimes condensing into tortoise shell hexagrams.

Outside the cauldron, a dark red dragon with scales coiled around the three-legged giant cauldron, its head drooping towards the ground, as if trying to pull itself away.

"This is the Qingzhou Cauldron. The Emperor Qin borrowed this High Antiquity cauldron to suppress the nine provinces. He set a trap for me here. He knew all along that I would come to search for his tomb, and he also knew that I would inevitably come here!"

The dragon's head, covered in sparse white hair, emitted a chanting sound like grinding teeth, seemingly filled with resentment.

They've always considered Emperor Qin's tomb a treasure trove, but His Majesty never imagined he would be the one trapped.

An opening was created, and he recklessly plunged into this perilous place that could very well lead to his demise.