Searching for the Core

Zhang Xuezhou has a question.

If he really beat the emperor, would he stop or continue beating him?

Some things may seem insignificant at the time, but become easy to find fault with later on.

Having just entered this world, Zhang Xuezhou indeed found it difficult to distinguish between reality and illusion. He mustered all his strength and used his mental abilities to defend himself, which inevitably caused him to collide with his surroundings.

Zhang Xuezhou found it hard to believe that the new emperor and his entourage had entered, and that Jin Wanliang had failed to get him out successfully.

This run-down place wasn't a place to join in the fun; Zhang Xuezhou didn't want to stay there for even a quarter of an hour.

Huo Qubing was right. If there was something Zhang Xuezhou didn't know, but could quickly ascertain the truth afterward, the answer was undoubtedly 'getting beaten'.

From the moment the new emperor made his move unexpectedly, Zhang Xuezhou was able to discern the truth from the falsehood.

Physical techniques can reduce damage, but they cannot completely reduce pain and impact. Being knocked away or hurt is very common. Only a monk Rulai Brother Tathagata, who can endure pain, can remain unfazed.

Despite the pain, his body instinctively retaliated, directly causing the new emperor to bleed from the nose. He could only pretend that he had been affected by the illusion array and had lost control.

It wasn't until Wei Qing rallied his Qi and Blood, unleashing a barrage of elbow strikes and knee strikes that Zhang Xuezhou's condensed Law Power repeatedly dissipated and was repeatedly overwhelmed. Zhang Xuezhou finally couldn't win and couldn't help but admit defeat and complain.

"Stop hitting me! Stop drowning me! I'm not afraid of drowning. Holding me underwater won't help!"

"Hang him upside down and submerge him in the water!"

"Huo Qubing, shut up! You didn't die of thirst because of my help. You can't be so heartless!"

The sky and the earth seemed to merge into a single line, with Zhang Xuezhou and the others located in the center of this boundary.

The group was caught in the surging water of the Four Gates Encircling Array and also in the illusion array of the secret realm. The impact was strongest at the intersection of the arrays, but there seemed to be some kind of power cancellation here, which allowed the group to remain normal even if they were separated by a certain distance, and they didn't even need to use the tokens of the secret realm.

"Dongfang Shuo, do you believe we're not experiencing hallucinations?"

The new emperor touched his nose, and just as he was about to raise his head to stop the bleeding, he remembered the fiery cloud illusion in the sky and quickly buried his head back down, rinsing it back and forth in the water.

"How did you get in here? This is completely unexpected!" Zhang Xuezhou complained, then shouted, "Jin Wanliang, what kind of work are you doing? Why didn't you lead us out of this dangerous place!"

"I jumped! I jumped out with you, but we were knocked back, and then the path disappeared!" Jin Wanliang cried out, lying on the ground.

"It's normal to see a demon make a move, isn't it?" Wei Qing said awkwardly, "Besides, I saw you and Qu Bing being held hostage by a toad demon, so I acted in a moment of panic!"

"I'm not a toad, I'm a golden toad! And that wasn't kidnapping; I was just trying to help others. Otherwise, I would have jumped out long ago!"

Perhaps it was Zhang Xuezhou's clear-headedness that gave Jin Wanliang the courage to shout a few more words.

Zhang Xuezhou was too lazy to bother with this clueless idiot who knew the rules but was blind to reality. Through everyone's explanation, he finally understood why he was still trapped here and why he had run into the new emperor and Wei Qing again.

With Zhang Xuezhou's deliberate explanation in his reply, the relationship between Jin Wanliang and Zhang Xuezhou became easier to understand.

Let alone an alliance between humans and demons, even enemies facing certain death would temporarily set aside their grudges in order to escape the crisis first.

"There are fewer and fewer pieces of rotten wood that can float, we must find a way out as soon as possible," Wei Qing said in a deep voice.

Unlike solid wood, which has sufficient buoyancy to float when dry, damaged wood provides very limited buoyancy after absorbing water, and very little rotten wood can float on the surface of water.

When a person is awake, they can live without the buoyancy provided by the rotten wood. Even with Grain Avoidance Pill and water to support their vitality, people still need rest and sleep. This kind of place is not suitable for long-term living.

"How many days ago did you arrive?" Zhang Xuezhou asked.

"It's been two days," Wei Qing said.

"Based on this calculation, the white light took a rather long time to appear!"

If we go back in time, there was a ten-day interval between the last appearance of the white light and the time when the new emperor and others searched for the white light and entered.

Zhang Xuezhou was certain he could survive for ten days, even with Jin Wanliang. Huo Qubing had few external needs, so even if he were to cling to Zhang Xuezhou, he could hold on for a while. However, Wei Qing and the new emperor would face problems if they were submerged in water.

After spending two days in this secluded place, the two were in a generally unhealthy state.

"Qu Bing said a lot, but he didn't explain things very clearly," Wei Qing said. "It's good that you're back to your senses. Let's see how we get out!"

Wei Qing looked around at the vast expanse of water.

Huo Qubing said that there used to be a palace here, as well as a mountain, and trees and medicinal herbs covering the mountainside.

But nowadays, where can you still see any palaces or mountains?

Everywhere you look is water, and you can even feel the water level rising slightly.

A slight increase may seem insignificant, but the cumulative effect over time becomes alarming.

Every day and every night, the water level here rises by several meters or even more than ten meters. In Heaven Eight days, the water level may rise another hundred meters.

"I want to get out of here and see a doctor as soon as possible!"

Huo Qubing muttered something, and Jin Wanliang, who was lying down beside him, nodded repeatedly.

Zhang Xuezhou glanced around several times before finally spotting the human and demon lying on the stomach below.

Jin Wanliang's belly was swollen and distended like that of a pregnant woman, and Huo Qubing also had a swollen and distended belly.

Why are you drinking so much water?

Zhang Xuezhou grumbled, while Huo Qubing couldn't resist taking another sip of water.

"Godfather, after taking that pill, I can't help but drink water!" Jin Wanliang cried out. "I hate water so much, yet I've drunk so much of it! How am I going to get all this water out of my stomach?!"

"How do you get it out? Hit it! Hit it until it hurts so much it cries and then it comes out!"

Zhang Xuezhou replied in a curt tone, just like Huo Qubing, which immediately silenced Jin Wanliang.

As his gaze swept across the water, Zhang Xuezhou felt that his explanation was pointless.

Palaces, trees, and rocks are all gone; the only familiar sight is the fiery clouds in the sky above the secret realm.

He touched the token that Wei Qing had given him, and kept looking around.

This urn is the only thing Zhang Xuezhou can use right now. Zhang Xuezhou had previously speculated that his team was just a makeshift group that quickly built the Spirit Gathering Formation with an electric pickaxe. The array in this secret place originated a thousand years ago, and it may not have been that profound when it was built.

"In other words, the formation in this secret place might not be hidden that deeply, and might even be quite obvious; it's just that I imagined it to be too profound!"

Zhang Xuezhou was inside the secret area at the moment, unable to resolve the four-gate encirclement formation on the outside.

However, once this secret formation collapses, the four-gate bottom-protecting formation, which has the upper hand in erosion, may automatically dissipate, thus ending the formation.

"In other words, to break the entanglement between the two formations, one of them must be destroyed first," the new emperor concluded.

"This is the only option right now," Zhang Xuezhou said.

"How do I defeat them? What should I do?"

Wei Qing looked at the vast expanse of water and asked a question, while Zhang Xuezhou also strained his eyes, searching intently.

He held the wine cup, his eyes fixed on the source of the ever-surging power of the illusion array, trying to find its core.