Against The Heavens 84 Teng Shinsu, Array Expert.

But he didn't lose sight of his actual goal, taking out the half-circle stone and checking the light it released every hundred steps. This stone was something he had taken from Teng Hanying's corpse, and it was part of a whole. It was called a Twinlife Stone, and both parts attracted each other, allowing whoever held one part to always find the other part. Teng Hanying had carried one part, while Teng s.h.i.+nsu was carrying the second piece, it was a symbol of the bond between the two of them.

Even with his slow steps, he still reached the base of the rightmost of the five finger-like mountains after walking for a little over a day. The mountain was thicker than the other four, representing the thumb of the hand, the top half of the mountain was tilted slightly forward, as if the finger was trying to bend itself. The mountain itself was made from a strange blue material that resembled ice but was far harder than any ice Li Yang had ever seen, it also released a pleasant heat, preventing the mountain from freezing over.

The stone pointed towards the midway point up the mountain, but Li Yang didn't immediately start to ascend it. His eyebrows furrowed slightly, his gaze sweeping over the area. After giving the entire area four very careful sweeps, his eyes lit up slightly. He walked over to an inconspicuous spot a few tens of meters away from him, crouching down and brus.h.i.+ng away a layer of powdery snow.

With the snow gone, thin lines that were dark blue in color were revealed. Li Yang traced the lines, brus.h.i.+ng away more and more snow, slowly revealing that the lines form the image of an eye, a cloud faintly visible in the pupil of the eye. With the full image revealed, Li Yang let out a sigh of admiration.

"How magnificent. It follows the normal pattern of a detection array, but it also mixes in parts of a concealment array and an illusion array, making it even harder to detect."

This eye was an array that covered most of the lower part of the mountain, alerting whoever put it up whenever someone stepped onto the mountain. Li Yang would normally spot an array like this before he got within several hundred meters of the mountain, but this one expertly contained parts of a concealment array to hide all traces of energy that it leaked, as well as parts of an illusion array to trick the senses into thinking that the spot where the array was located was completely normal.

Luckily, he had felt that something was off when he got close to the mountain, so he hadn't immediately started to climb it. Had he done that, Teng s.h.i.+nsu would have known that he had already arrived. Of course, since he was carrying Teng Hanying's part of the Twinlife Stone, she likely already knew that he had arrived, but he had already accounted for that. After discovering the array, Li Yang sat down next to it and started to study it, fondling his chin.

He had yet to read up on how much the art of arrays had improved over all these years, so now was a good a chance as any to study one up close. After studying the array for around half a day, he came to the conclusion that it would be possible for him to alter the array, preventing it from alerting Teng s.h.i.+nsu when he stepped onto the mountain.

But despite coming to this conclusion, Li Yang didn't choose to alter the array. He simply stood up and started to ascend the mountain, allowing the array to warn Teng s.h.i.+nsu of his arrival. Since there was a good chance she already knew that he had arrived, thanks to the Twinlife Stone, he figured that it was a better idea to pretend like he hadn't noticed anything, allowing Teng s.h.i.+nsu to believe that she had the upper hand.

After stepping onto the mountain, which was wide enough to have a rather gentle incline, Li Yang's speed slowed down quite a bit. He sharpened his senses and constantly swept the surroundings with narrowed eyes, keeping a close eye out for any more arrays that might be hidden beneath the snow, just in case there was one that could harm him.

Teng s.h.i.+nsu turned out to be far more careful and wary than he had originally given her credit for. The side of the mountain was littered with arrays of all kinds, some hidden and some that were more obvious, likely a ploy to attract his attention. The most common arrays were detection arrays or illusion arrays to confuse his senses and slow him down.

But there was one type of array in particular that caught Li Yang's attention, causing him to slow down so he could study it. And the more he studied the array, the more confused he got, a low mutter escaping his lips.

"How can it be this intricate, yet so weak? It contains part of the Mountain Shattering array as well as the Heavenly King array, but the attacking force is far lower than even the weakest level of either array."

The array he was studying was in the shape of a dragon coiling around a mountain, roaring at the heavens. The reason this array attracted his attention was just as he stated, how strangely weak it was. He had checked over the array again and again to see if he was wrong, but it was far weaker in attacking force than any of his own arrays, yet it was far more intricate and profound than the ones he could produce.

He couldn't wrap his head around it, did it sacrifice power in favor of being more intricate? But that made no sense, as the array was perfectly able to contain both. The Mountain Shattering array and the Heavenly King array were both arrays that could be considered to be at the upper ranks of the middle grade, on their own, they were able to produce enough strength to kill people at the late stage of the Immortal Rebirth realm.

To fuse both into this one array, it should create enough power to kill people at the middle stage of the Primordial Rune realm. Yet the array he was looking at couldn't even kill people at the middle stage of the Ascending Heaven realm, the parts it was made up of were better than the entire array.

In the end, Li Yang couldn't figure out why the array had ended up so weak, despite being made up of such excellent parts, so he could only shake his head and keep moving. He was very interested in arrays, so seeing such an intricate one be practically useless was something he found to be a shame.

As he got closer to the midway point of the mountain, he once again pulled out the Twinlife Stone, checking that he was on the right course. The small light that pointed him towards the other piece of the Twinlife Stone stretched out, moving into the distance, a sign that he was getting close to the other piece.

Li Yang followed the beam of light, slowly moving around to the other side of the mountain. Once he reached the other side of the mountain, he spotted a cave entrance that was a few meters wide and tall, surprising him quite a bit. This mountain was made of a material so hard that not even Jinwu's golden flames were capable of harming it. This was mostly because Jinwu was still just a child, but it still showed just how hard this mountain was. So just how had a cave been dug into the mountain?

The Twinlife Stone pointed right at the cave, so Li Yang started to move towards it, his gaze constantly sweeping over the surroundings. He spotted a few arrays outside the cave entrance, but his expression didn't change, as if he hadn't noticed them. He stopped outside the cave, peering into it and trying to see just how deep it was.

The cave was almost pitch black, so it was impossible to see just how deep it really was. Li Yang raised his arm, a small orb of ice quickly forming in his palm. He threw the orb into the cave and listened to the echo it made once it hit the ground and shattered. The sound echoed several times, growing fainter and fainter, so it was clear that the cave was very deep, possibly going to the very center of the mountain.

Li Yang casually placed his hand on the mountain wall next to the cave entrance, as if he was leaning against it as he continued to peer into the cave. A faint golden light flashed underneath his palm, leaving behind a nearly invisible mark on the mountain wall, a tiny spark of golden flames.

After leaving the mark, Li Yang acted as if he had seen enough, taking out the Twinlife Stone once again, checking the light. After making sure that the stone actually pointed inside the cave, Li Yang took out some pills from his ring and swallowed them, he then entered the cave and started to carefully make his way deeper, following the guidance of the stone.

He slowly made his way deeper, the cave growing darker after only a few meters. After reaching a spot about 100 meters into the cave, the light of the Twinlife stone grew so bright it was almost blinding, pointing at the ground right in front of Li Yang.

Li Yang looked at the ground and crouched down, picking up the other half of the Twinlife Stone, which was simply lying on the ground, Teng s.h.i.+nsu nowhere to be seen. The two halves of the Twinlife Stone gathered together after Li Yang picked up the other half, forming a complete circle again, awaiting the next pair of people that would split them up.

Right after Li Yang picked up the Twinlife Stone, the walls of the cave around him started to light up, intricate runes and lines starting to appear and connect together. The lines quickly formed the image of a roaring white bull, four such bulls appearing in the cave, two in front of Li Yang, and two behind Li Yang. The bulls grew in size until they completely blocked the cave, forming an inescapable prison.

But before the prison was fully formed, Li Yang was able to spot the head of a female dwarf peek into the cave entrance, snickering coldly. The female dwarf, Teng s.h.i.+nsu, snickered coldly, but was unable to see Li Yang's lips curl into a faint mocking smile after the prison was fully formed.