Chapter 164- Eight Skeletal Corpses
"Are we ready to head out?"
Yoon-Jae asked as he approached Ji-Hoon and Heon-Tae along with Sol and Mar-Dule.
Ji-Hoon nodded.
"Fourth and Fifth Brother have already taken the Teleportation Array. They're waiting for us at Immortal Dai Shen's palace."
"I've already made preparations for when I leave. What about your Runes and Formation Pavilion?"
Yoon-Jae asked while turning to Mar-Dule.
"They won't even notice I'm gone, they're quite capable of handling things without me."
"Then let's go."
"Wait!"
Sol suddenly stopped everyone.
"I still have to set up an imprint of my Formation around the Alchemy Pavilion."
"Will it take long?"
Sol shook his head.
"It'll only take a second. Little Abdu, can you help?"
Little Abdu opened his eyes and looked down at Sol.
"How large do you want to make it?"
"About two hundred meters. I need your help since I can't make it past a hundred meters without tiring out."
"Okay."
Little Abdu said as he raised his head. At the same time, Sol began forming hand seals, a lot more than he usually would.
Yoon-Jae and the others faintly sense something sweep over them.
"What a powerful Divine Sense!"
Ji-Hoon said in shock as he looked at Little Abdu.
It was then that Mar-Dule and Heon-Tae realized this was Divine Sense. They didn't have much contact with Spiritual Realm cultivators' Divine Sense.
For Mar-Dule, the Barbarian Race was unlike the Arkadians that focused on Innate Dharmas and Divine Sense. But with that being said, even Mar-Dule could tell this level of Divine Sense was abnormally developed. How strong was this cat?
As for Heon-Tae, his only interaction with Spiritual Realm cultivators was his dying Master who couldn't even walk properly, and those he saw from afar in the Peng Clan.
And Yoon-Jae, he wasn't overly surprised by the level of Little Abdu's Divine Sense. Aside from knowing Little Abdu's true existence, he had experienced Divine Sense comparable to or even stronger than this in the past.
As Abdu's Soul Energy covered the palace and spread out to two hundred meters in the surroundings, Sol finished his hand seals. The black and blue tattoos on the back of his hand lit up before slowly turning golden.
On his back underneath his clothes, a golden light was faintly seen. Then, his golden Heavenly Samsara Formation appeared below him before disappearing into the ground. It went undetected as it followed Little Abdu's Soul Energy to imprint itself around the pavilion.
After that was finished, Sol dropped his clasped hands before saying a little out of breath.
"Alright, it's done. It will last about two to three weeks normally, but I added an Aether Gathering Formation so it will last longer, just in case we take more than a month to return."
"We have to rely on Second Brother in the outside world to stall the opening of the dimension."
Heon-Tae turned to Ji-Hoon and asked.
"Has there been any contact with him?"
Hearing Heon-Tae's question to Ji-Hoon, Sol looked at Ji-Hoon and interjected.
"I thought you said you weren't in contact with him?"
Ji-Hoon shook his head and clarified.
"Brother Sol, Second Brother has two Multidimensional communication jade slips. But they're hard to obtain so he can only use them in case of emergencies."
Heon-Tae frowned and said.
"I don't like Second Brother being on the outside, I already said there was no point in risking it. If a month and a half is not enough time and we fail to obtain the Inheritance this year, there is always next year."
Ji-Hoon shook his head.
"I will be a fourth-year disciple next year, so I won't be able to join the mission."
Yoon-Jae suddenly added.
"Not to mention the Academy would be on high alert, so the possibility of a plan like this succeeding a second time will be near impossible."
Heon-Tae was still frowning, but he knew those words were true.
Ji-Hoon patted his shoulder.
"Don't worry, Second Brother is in a league of his own when it comes to forging identities and hiding his presence. Even Spiritual Realm cultivators will be fooled by him. If anything happens at the very least, he'll be able to escape. Rather it's our Youngest Brother we should focus on."
Heon-Tae suddenly snorted.
"He always does things like this. It might have paid off in the past, but this is pushing it. Wait until I get hold of him. I'll finally be able to release all the pent-up frustration I had while talking to him over the years."
Fire seemed to be bellowing out of Heon-Tae's eyes as he said this.
Soon, the group made their way out of the pavilion and towards the hole.
The sun was still on the horizon so not a lot of disciples were up at this time.
Sol was the first to leap into it with Little Abdu on his head. Little Zeel was being carried by Yoon-Jae who leapt down right after.
Mar-Dule leaped down into the hole last, and approached the iron rod. With a glance, he could tell a part of it was destroyed, though it was on purpose. But rather than being 'destroyed' it was a method Rune Masters often did to protect the method of their rune creation by striping the Formation of an essential component without compromising its integrity.
In this instance, this method was used to prevent the Teleportation Array from working.
Mar-Dule tried to analyze the Teleportation Array from the ground up to see what was missing from it, but like the one he saw in the hall, he found it difficult.
Perhaps if he had more knowledge of runes, he would be able to construct a rune that could act as this missing piece, but that type of skill was far from him.
But with that said, why did this missing part seem familiar to him?
Sol glanced at Mar-Dule's puzzled expression, and thoughts of sharing Su Moon's linking and overlapping method came to mind.
'I'll think about it.'
Sol turned to the iron rod and after forming a hand seal with his right hand, the blue rune on the back lit up and the missing piece of the Teleportation Array was put back into place.
Mar-Dule's eyes were open wide to see what Sol did to fix it, but try as he might, he couldn't. That blue rune masked everything Sol did. Even Rune Masters who spent ages learning about Runes and Formations might not be able to see what he just did.
Mar-Dule wore a dejected expression as the dark ghostly light from the teleportation array enveloped his rotund figure and whisked him away with everyone else.
….
…
..
After the group was teleported into Su Moon's Palace, Little Abdu led them outside and past a few pavilions to a large clearing with a platform in the middle.
The clearing was located between the East Wing and West Wing, Sol remembered running past here, but he was so scared at the time he didn't stop to look.
But looking at it now during the day and when he was no longer scared, he was thankful he didn't.
If he had looked, he would have seen a rather bizarre sight that wouldn't bode well with his state of mind at the time.
Seated around this platform were a few skeletal figures.
"Were they trying to activate the Teleportation Array?"
Yoon-Jae said as he approached the skeletal figures.
Mar-Dule's eyes suddenly lit up and he rushed past him towards the figures. He stopped next to one and excitedly reached for the skeletal hand, but he abruptly stopped, and a confused expression appeared on his face. He then made his way to the others; there were eight in total.
After checking all of them Mar-Dule's expression was filled with extreme disappointment.
"What's with you?"
Yoon-Jae asked when he saw his reaction.
Mar-Dule released a long sigh and then asked.
"Don't you know who these people are?"
Everyone showed confused expressions.
They're all bones, how would they know who these people are? Were they even alive when their grandparents or great-grandparents were alive?
Even their clothes were gone so they didn't even know which Sect or Clan in Jianghu they came from.
Mar-Dule seeing their confused expressions explained.
"Look at how they're positioned. It's obviously an Eight Trigrams Decryption Array!"
Sol's eyes flashed and he spun around to look at the eight skeletal bodies.
"You're right Brother Mar-Dule."
Sol said with a look of surprise on his face.
"What's that?"
Heon-Tae asked.
"The Eight Trigrams Decryption Array is an array with multiple Formations packed into it that can deconstruct any Rune or Formation in existence! It was extremely revolutionary when those bastards from the Jeagal Clan created it back then."
"So, they're from the Jeagal Clan?"
"Yeah, but not just anyone from the Jeagal Clan. Only eight people knew how to use this Array, and it's always passed down from one person to the other. The last eight people to inherit this array are the seven of the twelve Grand Elders of the Jeagal Clan along with the current Patriarch. I read that it still haunts the Jeagal Clan that they lost seven of the only eight people who knew how to perform this Formation Array. What a pity, I thought perhaps they would have their storage rings so I could take those bastards' Formation Array, but they've been turned to dust."
As Mar-Dule said this, Sol, Yoon-Jae, and Ji-Hoon looked at each other before glancing at Little Abdu.
It looks like they need to keep searching through those storage rings.