Chapter 192

Chapter 192: The Fusion of Dragon and Phoenix Technique

After confirming his target, Zhou Luo walked across the water toward the third island.

These three islands weren’t at the same elevation, and boarding them required a sequential order.

So he silently wondered what treasure might lie on the last island.

Moments later, he arrived before the third island.

Here too, a formation was concealed.

Zhou Luo, holding a formation plate, walked over.

Shangguan Qianxue had already left, and the others remained forever on this land, with no one left to watch this place.

Therefore, he no longer hid his strength and began breaking the formation with the aid of his first-level formation skill.

At the same time, he didn’t forget to call forth Little White and let it continue devouring the magical beasts possessing Illusionary Power.

Although Little White was still in its infancy, after careful cultivation, its strength was comparable to a cultivator at the sixth layer of Qi Refinement. Moreover, it was completely unaffected by illusions, so in the face of this group of magical beasts, it was utterly unmatched.

The formation on the third island wasn’t much different from the one on the second; the attack and defense methods were just altered.

Beyond that, the array maker had deliberately infused Illusionary Power into the formation, granting its attacks the ability to create illusions.

With his powerful mental strength and repeated tempering, Zhou Luo wasn’t greatly affected.

It had to be said that these three formations gave him new insights.

Although he had mastered all first-level formation knowledge and the Great Compendium of Formations, theory never matched practice.

Especially this concept of adding other powers into formations—it was a path he hadn’t considered before.

Now it seemed Shangguan Qianxue’s departure was wise.

Because the Illusionary Power of the third formation was far beyond what she could endure.

After one and a half shichen, Zhou Luo finally reached the island.

That it took so long this time was mainly due to handling the formation’s attacks while breaking it.

Unlike before, no one was there to help trigger the formation’s operational patterns for him.

In any case, he managed to board the island successfully.

The last island was no different from the first two. Zhou Luo, wearing cyan robes, let out a deep breath and swallowed a replenishing potion.

He set down Little White, letting it hunt magical beasts in the lake, while he walked alone toward the island’s center.

On the flowering, grassy ground scattered with rubble, lay a similar wooden box.

The wooden box was crafted from sandalwood, its surface covered in intricate patterns and markings.

What could the treasure in this third island be?

Zhou Luo silently pondered.

He bent down, grabbed the wooden box, and slowly opened it. Suddenly, a rush of dense Illusionary Power surged out.

Even with his powerful mental strength, he became distracted, and the scene before him twisted and warped.

He was trapped in an illusion.

At this very moment, the Spirit Xiyu jade on his chest abruptly erupted with blinding radiance. A cool, refreshing sensation poured into his consciousness sea, snapping him awake.

Zhou Luo let out a long breath.

The previous two islands hadn’t presented such a situation, making him complacent.

He hadn’t imagined the wooden box held so much Illusionary Power.

Clearly, the treasure within this box must be extraordinary.

Zhou Luo reined in his wandering thoughts, holding his breath and focusing intently on the center of the wooden box.

Inside the box lay not a top-grade magical artifact, but simply an ancient manual resting quietly.

It was an ancient manual with a pale blue cover. Two large characters were inscribed upon it in shimmering gold.

Hehuan!

Zhou Luo’s eyes widened in astonishment as he saw the characters, sheer disbelief flickering within their depths.

The next second, his body gave a jolt. An expression of elation spread across his face, and his heart surged with powerful emotion.

"It’s really a technique from the Hehuan path!" he exclaimed, his voice thick with shock.

Zhou Luo had never dreamed the dual cultivation technique he relentlessly sought would truly appear right before his eyes.

For the sake of this technique.

He had willingly forsaken the safety of the Lin Family, ventured into the chaotic Longfeng Mountain range, and faced unknown dangers countless times along the way.

Originally, he held little hope of actually obtaining the dual cultivation technique on this third island.

But seeing it manifest itself right here, an overwhelming wave of excitement and profound relief washed over him.

At this moment, it seemed all the difficulties he had endured before were mere fleeting clouds, utterly insignificant.

He no longer needed to fear matters between men and women damaging his cultivation.

For a moment, it was as if the path to becoming an immortal itself appeared visible to Zhou Luo, beckoning to him.

He calmed his emotions and retrieved the ancient manual.

The pale blue manual appeared simple and unadorned, showing no hint of anything unusual.

He turned to the first page, beginning to comprehend this technique.

"Absorb Yin and nourish Yang?"

Zhou Luo stared at the description there, freezing completely.

What was going on?

This Hehuan technique… was a form of dark arts?

It felt like a bucket of cold water had been dumped over his head. An expression of deep incredulity settled on his face.

Urgently, he continued flipping through the pages.

What he found described therein was vastly similar to the dark arts he’d learned previously from Liu Fu Chen.

Seeing this, Zhou Luo felt utterly, completely bewildered.

How could the Qinyuan Sect place a dark arts as a reward here?

This was harming people.

His chest heaved intensely, and he was genuinely quite angered.

Originally, he had been overjoyed, fantasizing about obtaining the dual cultivation technique to ascend to immortality.

But it was only this?

He couldn’t quite accept it.

Unwilling to give up, Zhou Luo looked it over again.

No.

There was something up his sleeve.

Suddenly, he sensed something off.

Since he had felt the presence of Illusionary Power on this ancient text.

Earlier, he had thought it was residue from the recent Illusionary Power attack, but now the Illusionary Power should have dissipated, so why was it still there?

He frowned slightly.

Why was there Illusionary Power on this ancient text?

Could this dark arts of absorbing yin to supplement yang possibly be just an illusion?

Zhou Luo wasn’t sure, but breaking the formations over the past few days had made him aware of a certain possibility.

That was that this Illusionary Power might be part of a formation.

Thinking of this, he immediately took out a formation board and released his mental strength to begin probing.

Soon, he detected the formation’s presence.

This was indeed a formation, specifically an illusion formation designed to trap adversaries.

If not for his study of the three formations over the past two days, he might not have even noticed this illusion formation.

Being able to set up a formation on an object was clearly a move of a Second Level Formation Master or higher.

Knowing it was an illusion formation, Zhou Luo attempted to decipher it.

But he was surprised to find that with his strength as a First Level Formation Master, he genuinely couldn’t crack this trick of a Second Level Formation Master.

Even when he tried applying principles from earlier breakdowns of formations, it was useless.

This put Zhou Luo in a difficult situation.

The true Hehuan path technique was obviously concealed behind this illusion formation, yet he felt like, "I’ve taken off my pants, and you show me this."

It was simply tormenting.

It looked like he’d have to advance to Second Level Formation Master later and see if he could crack it then.

Meow—

Just then, Little White had already returned; it leaped directly onto his left shoulder.

Although Little White had grown much larger now, its body was remarkably light.

At this moment, it stared at the ancient book before it, its crystalline blue pupils emitting a dim glow, and suddenly opened its mouth to release a surge of powerful force.

Before Zhou Luo could react, he felt the ancient book in his hand trembling violently.

He looked utterly dumbfounded, then saw the Illusionary Power on the ancient book being swallowed into Little White’s belly.

After a long while, a white light flashed on the ancient book, and the Illusionary Power vanished completely—the original text dissipated like a flickering candle in the wind, replaced only by a hazy glow.

Is this even possible?

Zhou Luo watched this scene in astonishment.

He hadn’t expected Little White to directly devour the power of the illusion formation like that.

It seemed that devouring Illusionary Power over the past days had helped Little White grow significantly.

Overjoyed, Zhou Luo exclaimed, "Little White, well done."

Meow——

Little White shook its head and lazily perched on his shoulder.

Having absorbed too much Illusionary Power, it needed time to digest it.

Zhou Luo placed it into his storage bag, then turned excitedly to look at the ancient book.

This should do it, right?

But when he looked, all that greeted his eyes was the hazy glow, and even his mental strength couldn’t probe it.

He was dumbfounded.

Another formation?

Zhou Luo was nearly collapsing on the spot.

Will this ever end?

He took a deep breath and pulled out a formation disc, planning to study if this was the formation.

When the light spot representing his mental strength dropped, Zhou Luo suddenly felt an immense force rushing towards him.

His mental strength felt as if it had fallen into a Vast Ocean, and what greeted him was only a boundless world.

This was something he had never encountered before.

Not even the previous illusion formation was anywhere near as horrifying.

What was even more terrifying was that this formation’s power source wasn’t attached like that of the illusion formation.

But it was inherently part of this ancient book.

That is to say, the ancient book itself was the formation, and its golden pages were all part of the formation.

This was far more frightening than carving formations onto artifacts.

Endless shock surged within Zhou Luo.

Forming objects through formations must be a technique only a Fourth Level or higher formation master could wield.

He felt immense dread inside.

How could such a terrifying formation even exist?

Is this also a tactic of the Qinyuan Sect?

Impossible!

A Fourth Level Formation Master is a Nascent Soul level existence!

Would the Qinyuan Sect set up such a formation just to train its disciples?!

Unless it was arranged by a formation grandmaster from the ancient Hehuan path…

The more Zhou Luo thought about it, the more possible it seemed.

Perhaps that facade of dark arts—absorbing yin to supplement yang—was actually the Qinyuan Sect’s reward; beneath this radiance lay the true Hehuan path technique.

But how to break this?

Zhou Luo, unwilling to accept defeat, probed again with his mental strength.

He found it truly was a seamlessly natural formation, yet something felt subtly… off.

He couldn’t quite articulate it, but instinctively, he kept probing.

Finally, he discovered why it felt wrong.

The ancient book seemed to be missing a page.

And this page was crucial, seeming… to be the core of the formation.

If this technique was a lock, then this core was the lock cylinder, waiting for a key.

The key was that missing page.

But where on earth was he supposed to find this key?

Zhou Luo scratched his head.

Why was finding a dual cultivation technique so difficult?

He stared at the shimmering light and suddenly felt it looked familiar.

Had he seen this kind of radiance before?

He sank into memory.

Suddenly, Zhou Luo jolted as he recalled the letter he had obtained from Liu Fu Chen’s storage ring.

It, too, seemed to emit that same type of glow.

Back then, he had also probed it with his mental strength, to no effect.

Could they be connected?

The more he pondered it, the more plausible it became. He immediately retrieved the letter from his storage ring.

The moment the letter appeared, the blue ancient book began to vibrate strangely. Then, the letter suddenly flew toward it of its own accord.

Zhou Luo’s pupils constricted.

The key… was found.

The letter landed on the blue ancient book. A flash of light flickered as the two merged into one.

Boom—

The Fourth Level formation began to tremble. Its light faded away, revealing shimmering, radiant golden characters:

"The Fusion of Dragon and Phoenix Technique!"