The newly arrived young man was, of course, none other than Zhang Xuan.
He was truly bewildered by the deeds of this bunch of master teachers.
Master teachers believed not in the supernatural, and they did not subscribe to the idea of karma either. Yet, this bunch of people were actually making offerings just like Otherworldly Demons. Furthermore, judging by their tone, it seemed like the exit was somehow related to what they were doing. Unable to hold back his curiosity any longer, he had flown out to ask them.
With the Infernal Blacksaber advancing into an Ancient Sage artifact, he would be able to protect himself even against the Otherworldly Demon Ancient Sages. Thus, there was no need for him to conceal his identity anymore, so he did not bother doing so this time around.
However, it seemed like the master teachers did not know him as they stared at him warily, seemingly trying to determine whether he was an enemy or not.
Zhang Xuan was perplexed for a moment before realization struck him. Most of the master teachers that had entered the Temple of Confucius were actually the grand elders of major powers who had gone into seclusion awaiting the opportunity to make a breakthrough to Ancient Sage.
Having abandoned the secular world for long periods of time, they were unaware of the huge fuss that Zhang Xuan had kicked up on the Master Teacher Continent in recent times. Going by this logic, it was not surprising that they had not heard of him.
Facing the wary master teachers before him, Zhang Xuan pinned his master teacher emblem on his robe before clasping his fist with a smile. “I’m actually a master teacher, too!”
Upon seeing the master teacher emblem, the group visibly heaved a sigh of relief.
“So, you’re a fellow ally. How did you end up alone here?” the triumphant master teacher asked.
“I was too engrossed in my cultivation, and I lost track of time. By the time I knew it, the group I was in had already gone on without me,” Zhang Xuan said.
“I see… This dimension contained many powerful secret arts, so it’s understandable that you lost track of time while trying to practice them. However, I must say that it’s truly a miracle that your cultivation hasn’t gone berserk while attempting to practice these techniques individually!” the triumphant master teacher remarked.
After chatting for a while, Zhang Xuan found out that the name of the triumphant master teacher was Mu Xu. He was from the Five Elements Mu Clan.
He had been in seclusion for three hundred years, and he had only left his seclusion recently due to the emergence of the Temple of Confucius. Thus, he was hardly aware of the current affairs of the world.
As a result, even when Zhang Xuan introduced himself with his real name, there was not much of a reaction from the other party.
“I apologize for peeking earlier, but I noticed that you practiced your moves before making an offering to the boulder. Following which, a silhouette appeared on the boulder. May I know what’s going on?
After chatting for a while to get familiar with one another, Zhang Xuan finally posed the doubt that had been plaguing his mind for quite a while.
“The boulders in this stone forest are profound artifacts harnessing incredible heritages. Formidable secret arts can be found on them. I believe that you should have noticed this too by now!” Mu Xu explained. “However, these secret arts are distributed across multiple boulders in random sequences. If one wants to grasp any of these secret arts, one must decipher the sequence and awaken the memories of the predecessors sealed in the boulders. As long as one’s form and internal breathing are aligned with one another, one will be able to leave this dimension and enter the corresponding Subordinate Hall!”
“Enter the corresponding Subordinate Hall?” Zhang Xuan was surprised to hear these two words coming from Mu Xu.
This was the first time that he had heard a master teacher trapped in one of the six dimensions saying such words.
“Indeed. Someone has already successfully cleared the dimension; we are already considered the slower bunch, having yet to succeed till now,” Mu Xu said with a bitter smile.
“You mean to say that… someone has already entered the Subordinate Hall? Then, do you know what the name of the corresponding Subordinate Hall is?” Zhang Xuan asked.
“It seems to be called the Hall of Divine Crusade. It contains the details of the crusade that Kong shi and seventy-two Sages went on to subdue the Otherworldly Demons. In fact, this stone forest contains the secret arts that they have left behind. Those who manage to enter the Subordinate Hall will probably be able to obtain their true heritage… As such, we have been trying our best to figure out the pattern to these boulders. Since you are here, why don’t you join us as well? If we can uncover the sequence of the movements from these boulders, we’ll be able to enter the Subordinate Hall just like the others!” Mu Xu said.
Those words gave Zhang Xuan a good idea of what was going on.
It seemed like the method to entering the Subordinate Hall in the stone forest dimension was vastly different from the other dimensions.
For the other dimensions, the Subordinate Halls were located directly above the exits. As long as one sliced open the space above the exit, one would be able to reach the exterior of the corresponding Subordinate Hall. However, the stone forest dimension actually necessitated one to find the sequence of the secret arts hidden amid the boulders.
“With so many boulders around here, how do you figure out which one you should examine?” Zhang Xuan asked on.
There had to be at least ten thousand boulders in the area. Wouldn’t he die of exhaustion before he could sequence all of the movements in these boulders?
“The boulders are divided into multiple regions too. Each secret art has its individual region. In each region, there are boulders with smooth surfaces like this one lying around in a circle, and they contain a silhouette of the predecessors. There are roughly ten thousand of them, but only a thousand of them contain traces of the secret art. What we have to do is figure out the sequence behind these one thousand boulders!” Mu Xu explained.
Zhang Xuan nodded in realization.
On his way there, he had also noticed that not every boulder within this dimension harnessed a portion of a secret art. However, he had been too focused on searching for the exit and did not pay too much attention to them.
With this, his search area was considerably decreased, and his workload diminished significantly as well.
“There’s no time to be wasted, so let’s start studying the boulders once more!”
After chatting for a while longer, Mu Xu prompted everyone to get back to work. He took out a sword himself and began carving on the ground, seemingly trying to make sense of the movements that he had seen from the boulders.
Seeing that the group had returned back to their intensive debate, Zhang Xuan leaped onto the highest boulder in the area and scanned his surroundings.
Due to the reminder from Mu Xu, he quickly realized that the boulders with a smooth surface were distributed orderly in a circular fashion around the area. Approaching them one by one swiftly, he found that exactly a thousand of them harnessed the silhouettes of the predecessors.
Flaws!
With a thought, the boulders were swiftly compiled into a book in the Library of Heaven’s Path. He glanced at the hundreds of sequences that the master teachers had come up with and inscribed on the ground.
Hula!
Putting all of this information together, Zhang Xuan finally opened the book carefully.
“There are still forty-seven flaws…”
Zhang Xuan quickly browsed through the forty-seven flaws before reorganizing the sequence of the movements to resolve some of these flaws. When he checked once again, the number of flaws reduced to forty-five. He had to continue this process roughly a dozen more times before there were finally no more flaws remaining.
“I guess this sequence should be the correct one!” Zhang Xuan heaved a sigh of relief before finally turning back to the crowd.
At this moment, Mu Xu and the others seemed to have deduced another ‘correct’ sequence, and a fervent debate broke out among them all.
“Stop spouting nonsense and settle it with a spar. The strongest among us is bound to have the most accurate sequence of us!” Mu Xu said with a wave of his hand.
“Alright!”
The crowd nodded in agreement.
They were just about to begin their duel when Zhang Xuan, who had been watching the situation all the while, suddenly flew over and said, “Hey, I have also found a sequence that I find logical. Can I join the duel?”
“Can’t you see that we’re in the middle of a serious debate? Stop troubling us and go away! You just arrived just a moment ago, so what can you have possibly found? We have already been here for roughly eighteen hours, but we still haven’t found the right one yet!” Mu Xu frowned in displeasure.
“Young man, learn some humility. Don’t set your eyes too high. Since you have just arrived, you should focus on watching and learning rather than trying to impress!”
“We are dueling in order to determine whose order is the most accurate. You should go to the side and rest. We can talk after you have made sense of what the boulders mean!”
“You do know that each of these boulders represent a different move, right? How many of them can you recognize and distinguish? If you haven’t done at least that much yet, it’s pointless to try sequencing them!”
…
The other master teachers waved Zhang Xuan away dismissively.
They had studied the boulders in the region for a very long time, but they were still unable to find the correct sequence. Given that, what could a fellow who had just arrived possibly know?
To even think that he could possibly come up with the correct sequence within this short period of time, that was a completely ridiculous notion!
“I…”
Not expecting to be spurned, Zhang Xuan shook his head and sighed.
That being said, it was not as if he could not understand the dismissive response from the others. In the five to six minutes since he had arrived there, it was impossible for an ordinary master teacher to memorize the forms on the thousand boulders in the area. Putting aside finding the correct sequence, they would not even have been able to put together a remotely logical battle technique!
“Ignore him! Let’s continue our discussion…”
Not wanting to waste any time on an attention seeker, Mu Xu gathered the crowd and carried out a duel using the sequences that they had just deduced. However, before there was a conclusion to their duel, they suddenly felt a burst of energy pulsating not too far away.
Unbeknownst to them, the young man had already activated the smooth boulder by the side, and a silhouette appeared on its face.
