Breaking Through

Jin Wanliang fled into a cave far from Zhongnan Mountain.

Normally, it takes a whole day to walk into the mountains, but if there are underground tunnels or secret passages, and you don't need to walk along rugged mountain paths, the distance is not so long.

Moved by Jin Wanliang's cries for help, Zhang Xuezhou finally understood why he couldn't find the array's core inside or outside the secret place even when he used the Acupoint-Fixing Technique.

Besides the fact that the formation was set up deep underground, there was also the factor of distance, far beyond the few hundred meters he could probe with his Acupoint-Fixing Technique.

If there's a mountain in between, no matter how Zhang Xuezhou investigates the burial site on the other side, he won't be able to determine its location.

"Godfather, help! I have so much water here, enough to drink for a lifetime!"

There was no water inside the secret place, but the Jin Wanliang outside had been soaked in water for a month.

If it weren't for the special nature of the Jin Wanliang Taels Demon Body, any other species would have rotted and died long ago from being soaked.

"Shanglin Garden is surrounded by eight rivers, yet there isn't a drop of water in the secret area. It seems the water here has been drained away by the Four Gates Encirclement Formation!"

Zhang Xuezhou finally understood what the Four Gates Encirclement Formation was protecting.

Water is continuously pumped from the bottom of the four cardinal directions, trapping the secret realm from the outside and causing it to collapse without being attacked. All living beings within the secret realm will die from the desiccation.

In the secret place, only the old trees can survive by relying on the heavens. The purple Ganoderma and Solomon's Seal, which are buried deep under withered branches and fallen leaves and avoid the sunlight, survive. The fleshy Ganoderma exposed on the ground has dried up and become as hard as iron.

As for the plants and medicinal herbs, they may have died due to the continuous effects of this formation over the years, resulting in the monotony of plant species in this secret place.

"Godfather, I want to come to your place!"

Jin Wanliang gulped down a mouthful of water and then shouted from underground.

Trapped in the dark cave for a long time, Zhang Xuezhou, who had dug a pit more than a hundred meters deep, was the only external sound that Jin Wanliang could hear at that moment.

He kept muttering in the water, urging Zhang Xuezhou to dig faster.

"Don't worry, you're suppressed by the Four Gates Encirclement Formation, making it difficult to escape the heavy water formation right now. I'll try my best!"

The secret realm and the outside world are not the same space, but there is contact between the secret realm and the human world.

The four-gate bottom-encircling formation further fixes this contact, thereby continuously drawing water resources from the secret location.

If Zhang Xuezhou's guess is correct, Jin Wanliang's location should be in various underground channels.

These channels utilize naturally formed caves to draw water from secret locations, and there may be hundreds or even thousands of them.

Like a plastic bag with countless tiny holes, all the rainwater accumulated in the secret place through rainfall was extracted and turned into groundwater in Zhongnan Mountain.

Their collision was not by chance. Zhang Xuezhou chose the lowest point to dig a pit and a well, while Jin Wanliang was also suppressed at the bottom of the Four Gates Encirclement Formation. This caused them to be relatively close to each other, and also guided Jin Wanliang to grope his way to the dark channel by following the sound to seek help.

"Dig in my direction," Zhang Xuezhou shouted.

"The rocks here are as hard as iron, and the space is so cramped that my demonic body has been compressed to only three inches; I can't dig anymore!"

Jin Wanliang yelled at the top of his lungs and then scratched at the spot with his claws.

The sizzling sound reached Zhang Xuezhou's ears, and he knew very well that he couldn't rely on Jin Wanliang to work in sync with him.

He could only dig as much as possible to see if he could create a connection between the secret place and the outside world.

Zhang Xuezhou was somewhat confident in digging the tunnel through, but he wasn't sure he could handle the pressure from the four-gate encirclement formation at the bottom, which prompted him to take out the Azure Rock Staff.

"Then you'd better stay away, I'm going to use magic to collapse these stubborn rocks!"

Zhang Xuezhou touched the stone layer, gave Jin Wanliang some instructions, and then leaped up.

Having braved the waves to escape the deep pit, Zhang Xuezhou looked down at the dark abyss and then gestured to confirm his location.

He muttered incantations, unusually using his full power of petrification magic, and even borrowed the power of the blue stone staff.

If the area below is deep rock, Zhang Xuezhou's fossils would be useless and would still need to be dug up into gravel and soil. However, if the area below is a culvert filled with water, the gravel and debris from the damaged rock layer would be washed away by the water, and the space of the culvert would inevitably lead to a collapse.

"Go!"

Purple qi rose from his hands, and the translucent blue stone staff transformed into a hazy gray light.

Zhang Xuezhou pointed his staff at the dark, deep pit, and a hazy light fell down, penetrating into the depths a hundred meters away.

The sound of stone crumbling into dust followed by a crashing sound and then a dull thud.

Standing above the deep pit, Zhang Xuezhou saw that after the collapse, instead of countless dust particles being kicked up, a wave of wind swept up and rushed into the bottom of the pit.

Leaves, dust, and pebbles piled up at the edge of the pit were constantly being swept into it.

Like the turbulent waves created when a waterspout sucks water, only this time the waves were directed underground and enveloped by Zhang Xuezhou's hundred-meter-deep pit, making the turbulent waves seem less frightening.

However, being in a deep pit is definitely not a comfortable situation; it's highly likely that you'll be swept into the hidden channel of the Four Gates Encirclement Formation.

"Wait patiently below. After the powerful extraction by the Four Gates Covering the Bottom Formation, a reversal of fortune is inevitable. At that time, you may be swept up by the waves!"

Zhang Xuezhou shouted downwards.

He strained his ears, but found it difficult to hear Jin Wanliang's voice again, and for a moment he didn't know whether the other party had been swept away or buried.

The wind and waves in the deep pit kept surging, drawing in everything that could be swept away.

Zhang Xuezhou could only wait nearby.

Nearly a quarter of an hour passed, and he saw that the waves churning in the deep pit were gradually subsiding, clearly indicating that the power being drawn from outside the secret realm was decreasing.

Normally, the four-gate containment system here should be used to pump out water, but this time it pumped out an unknown amount of air, and after such a long time, it must have been blocked to its limit by air.

"Jin Wanliang?"

Zhang Xuezhou exclaimed.

There was no sound of Jin Wanliang coming from the deep pit, but Zhang Xuezhou did hear the gurgling sound of water.

After things turned around, the water in the culvert began to rise along the deep pit, which was then used as the culvert's drainage outlet.

The Jin Wanliang was unknown, but Huo Qubing, who was half-dead from thirst, finally had some water to drink.

Zhang Xuezhou reached into his Lesser Heaven and Earth Bag and pulled out an empty bottle containing pills.

He jumped downwards, landing less than sixty meters high, and Zhang Xuezhou had already touched the water's surface, which was still slowly rising.

If the soil around the pit hadn't continuously absorbed and spread water, Zhang Xuezhou felt that the water in the culvert would have been enough to gush out to the surface.

"As long as it's drinkable!"

The water was a bit murky, but thirsty people had no choice but to dip their toes in the water to revitalize themselves. Once the water cleared up, they could drink their fill.

Zhang Xuezhou picked up the water-filled bottle, rolled it up, and leaped upwards.

He glanced at the sky, then at Huo Qubing, who was holding the Arrow Grass Spirit and had fallen into a deep sleep.

Zhang Xuezhou parted his dry, chapped lips and poured water down his throat.

"It's raining! The rice seedlings can drink some water!"

Huo Qubing mumbled a few words in a hoarse voice. It was unclear whether he had fallen into a coma, was dreaming, or was affected by the painting demon. He smacked his lips as he drank the murky water, as if he had drunk some kind of nectar. His face was all smiles like a fool.

As long as he can laugh, he won't die; Zhang Xuezhou breathed a sigh of relief.

He glanced at Huo Qubing, whose strength training was unreliable, and then looked into the distance.

Jin Wanliang's strength was clearly far superior to Huo Qubing's. If Jin Wanliang could sneak in and cooperate with him, Zhang Xuezhou felt that the chances of entering and leaving the secret place normally would greatly increase.

As he pondered the Jin Wanliang, a loud rumble came from the deep pit, and muffled thunder echoed in the clear daylight above the secret place, causing Zhang Xuezhou's expression to change.