Chapter 401

Chapter 401: Let Yu Zhao Do It
In the Cultivation World, there were four Formation Array Masters recognized by everyone. Two of them came from Wen Ding Pavilion. The other two were Sword Sovereign Jiu Hua of Heavenly Sword Sect and Elder Chi Yan of Tai Bai Academy.

Yu Zhao had only sent letters to those four, but before long, the sect masters of One Sect, Two Schools, Four Clans all personally led their teams to come. This gave Yu Zhao a huge surprise.

Half a month later, everyone who knew the inside story gathered at Clarity Sound Temple.

They would build the ancient spell formation on a stretch of open ground that had been cleared at Clarity Sound Temple.

Before starting, they even held a small ceremony, with Sect Master Ji Yuan taking the lead to boost everyone’s morale.

Thinking of all the possible outcomes, Sect Master Ji Yuan also laid some groundwork in advance. What he meant, in short, was that if the formation array arts failed, no one was allowed to blame Yu Zhao, because she had acted with a true and sincere heart.

His words were vague, but the seniors present were not fools. They could hear his deep concern and protectiveness.

Valley Master Flying Leaf of Hundred Flowers Valley felt he was being too wordy and cut in: “Alright, we’re not people who can’t tell right from wrong. Let’s just start already!”

Sect Master Chong Yang said through gritted teeth: “It’s only a few spirit cores. It’s not like we can’t afford to lose them.”

Sect Master Ji Yuan’s gaze swept once over his faintly green face, then quickly turned away. He laughed and said: “I was overthinking it. Let’s begin.”

Someone called out: “Yu Zhao!”

Yu Zhao answered and stepped forward. She took four jade slips out of her storage space and said loudly: “The Ancient Array Formation is extremely deep and hard to understand. With my mental strength, I couldn’t copy it all into one piece, so I divided it into four for the seniors to read.”

The four Formation Array Masters stepped up. After they each read through the jade slips and got a rough idea, they quietly discussed it, then each took one jade slip.

Sword Sovereign Jiu Hua spoke as their representative: “We have already read it. If we have enough materials to build the formation, then drawing the array patterns and setting the formation core will take at least one year.”

Someone exclaimed: “That long!”

Sword Sovereign Jiu Hua explained: “An ordinary formation array would never use spirit cores as the main eye. This one year estimate is based on the best possible situation. In reality, it may take even longer.”

When everyone thought about it, they found this very reasonable, and the strange looks on their faces slowly faded.

Sect Master Ji Yuan said solemnly: “Then we’ll have to trouble the four of you.”

Sword Sovereign Jiu Hua answered for them: “This is what we should do.”

After giving their solemn reply, Sword Sovereign Jiu Hua and the other three began planning the site and building the formation.

Besides them, several seniors who were also skilled in formations stepped up to help. Yu Zhao, Zhou Jin Yue, and the other younger disciples were responsible for helping at the side, running errands now and then and gathering some artifact forging materials.

Although Sect Master Ji Yuan and the others did not join in the work directly, they did not leave either. They simply moved part of the sect affairs into Clarity Sound Temple and handled them there.

Day after day passed.

In the blink of an eye, a year had gone by.

During this year, there was still no movement from beneath Chaozong Gorge.

More and more cultivators and demonic beasts gave up on waiting and left Chaozong Gorge.

The Clarity Sound Temple, which had been empty for a long time, finally began to feel lively again.

By staying at the side of the Formation Array Masters every day and learning from them, Yu Zhao went from knowing nothing about formations to finally understanding at least the basics.

Most importantly, with everyone’s efforts, the ancient spell formation had finally reached the last step, which was also the most critical one.

They had to place the formation core and activate the spell formation.

Who would carry out this last step?

Everyone looked at one another.

Sect Master Ji Yuan glanced left and right. Seeing that no one was volunteering, he rubbed his hands, straightened his back, and had just stepped one leg forward when Sword Sovereign Jiu Hua spoke up: “Let Yu Zhao do it. After all, she is the one who provided this Ancient Array Formation.”

Sect Master Ji Yuan quickly pulled his leg back. He pretended to be calm, nodded, and said: “Hahaha, Sword Sovereign Jiu Hua’s suggestion is very good.”

The other three formation masters also agreed, and of course no one else objected.

Sword Sovereign Jiu Hua nodded at Yu Zhao with a smile and called: “Yu Zhao, come here.”

Yu Zhao glanced at Zhou Jin Yue beside her.

Zhou Jin Yue smiled and gently squeezed her hand.

Yu Zhao curved her lips, kept her gaze steady, and strode forward.

Sword Sovereign Jiu Hua stuffed a storage pouch into her hand and carefully reminded her of the things she needed to pay attention to.

Even though Yu Zhao already knew all of this by heart, she still listened very seriously.

Sword Sovereign Jiu Hua finished by saying: “Go. Believe in yourself.”

Then she reached out and gave Yu Zhao’s shoulder a light pat.

Sword Sovereign Jiu Hua had held a sword for many years. Her fingers were long, and her joints were clear and strong. Yu Zhao could feel the power in her palm, and that strength poured courage into her heart.

Yu Zhao nodded hard, opened the storage pouch, and took out forty nine spirit cores.

The moment the spirit cores appeared, spiritual energy from all directions rushed over wildly and soon formed a faint veil of mist.

The spirit power inside Yu Zhao’s body sensed the spiritual energy outside and started to stir. She forced it down.

After the spirit cores floating in the air lined up in an orderly way, Yu Zhao raised her hand. With a light flick of her fingers, the spirit cores fell one after another, in a set order, into the formation core.

Each time a spirit core landed, it kicked up a small puff of dust and shone with a bright light.

Then the light spread along the array patterns, lighting up the area around the formation core.

When all the array patterns lit up one after another, Yu Zhao pressed down the last spirit core.

In an instant, a strong beam of light shot up from the ground into the sky. Wrapped inside the light were complex runes and mysterious ripples of power.

Everyone raised their heads and stared nervously at the shifting runes.

They watched as the runes pulled toward each other, then joined together, forming two ancient characters that were deep and hard to understand.

There were many learned people among the seniors present.

Dean Mo Xin of Tai Bai Academy, in particular, recognized the two characters almost at once. He cried out in shock: “Dao Arena!”

Someone echoed in surprise: “Dao arena? Could it be the Ancient Dao Arena?”

In the Cultivation World, when people talked about a Dao arena, their first thought was usually the Ancient Dao Arena that only appeared in legends from ancient times.

Back in those days, there had been no “Ancient” character in front of “Dao Arena”.

Yu Zhao was also shocked.

[Could it be that the formation array arts the Heaven Divining Shell passed to me were meant to open the Ancient Dao Arena?]

But what she had asked for was a way to continue the Heavenly Ladder, not a method to enter the Ancient Dao Arena.

Before Yu Zhao could figure out what was going on, a strange force suddenly opened her storage space. Two jade pendants floated out in front of her, and faint golden characters shimmered inside them.

The two jade pendants were the keys to opening the Ancient Dao Arena. Now that the Ancient Dao Arena had appeared, the keys also revealed themselves.

At this point, even if Yu Zhao did not want to believe it, she had no choice.

She tried to stuff the jade pendants back into her storage space, but each jade pendant was wrapped in a special power that pushed away the power of space, so she could not put them back at all.

She reached out again, wanting to grab both jade pendants.

The first jade pendant dropped smoothly into her palm, but no matter what she did, she could not touch the second.

Whenever her fingers got close, it moved aside on its own.

Yu Zhao faintly guessed what was happening.

Most likely, the master of the Ancient Dao Arena had planned ahead long ago to prevent anyone from doing evil and had set the rule that each person could only hold one key.

Just as this thought formed, a slight sting came from her fingertip.

In the next moment, she felt that a hidden connection had formed between her and the jade pendant.

The jade pendant had recognized her as its master, and she had gained the right to enter the Ancient Dao Arena.