Chapter 047

Chapter 47: Array Dao Genius Ji Chang Huai

Fang He An and the others heard the jab and glanced over. Li Wan Zhi spat back as he said: “You want to be her senior brother? You do not even have the right.”

He curled his lip and added: “Even if all of you add up together, you still are not worth one strand of junior sister’s hair.”

Li Yun’s face darkened. That was not what they meant. They were saying Ye Wan Wan did not know her limits. Who wanted to be her senior brother? Still, because he feared their realms, Li Yun only said coldly: “Talking nonsense.”

Li Wan Zhi looked ready to fight, but when he saw Bai Jian and Fang He An standing still, he forced himself to step back, then asked through gritted teeth: “You can stand this?”

Fang He An kept his voice low and said: “Even if we cannot, we must. Do not ruin junior sister’s plan.”

Li Wan Zhi followed his gaze to Ye Wan Wan at the door. It was true. If they started a fight now and both sides clashed, they would slow everything down. They knew Ye Wan Wan was racing to gather treasures in this secret realm. If they could not get the ones in Cloud Mountain Cave, they had to rush to the next place. There was no time to waste on these people. They had to endure.

Li Wan Zhi snorted hard. He held his hands back, but not his mouth, as he said: “I get it. You are jealous.”

The other side snapped: “Do not take kindness for weakness.”

Li Wan Zhi shot back: “We refuse your ‘kindness.’ Come on then.”

Someone cursed: “You brat.”

Li Yun raised his hand to stop them and said: “Do not ruin the main task. She is right here. We will know soon if the restriction can be broken. Some people are about to watch themselves become a joke.”

His group echoed loudly: “Yes. We want to see how a mere Qi Refining Stage breaks a high level restriction. She might get hurt by backlash, or even lose her life.”

Li Wan Zhi laughed back and said: “Flapping your lips does nothing. Show real skill if you dare.”

He pointed at them and added: “A bunch who can only hire outside help still dare to mock us. Cowards. You do not even know whether the restriction sits on the left or the right. What right do you have to sneer?”

He finished with a flat, final line: “Losers,” then made a waste sign with his hand.

The two sides broke into a full shouting match. Li Wan Zhi alone argued against the crowd and did not fall behind at all. Fang He An and Bai Jian stared, then lifted their hands to clap.

They grinned and said together: “Good.”

Not for nothing was he Junior Brother Li.

While both sides yelled until their faces turned red, Ji Chang Huai did not look at them at all. His attention stayed on Ye Wan Wan. The girl stood before the cave door and had not moved for a while.

Ji Chang Huai’s voice was cold as he said: “If you cannot undo it, you can give up.”

Ye Wan Wan glanced at him, then raised her palm and pressed it to the cave door.

Li Yun shouted in alarm as he yelled: “Stop. That is a Killing Array.”

Others screamed: “Back away.”

All six of Li Yun’s people took Sword Flight to flee. Ji Chang Huai and Li Wan Zhi’s group, however, stood in place.

In front of Ye Wan Wan, a red array flared into view. It was a third level Execution Array. Yet it did not fully spread open. Instead, it curled into a smooth, round sphere caught between the girl’s hands.

Countless moving sigils swam like little fish in a lake. Under the girl’s fingertips they split and shifted, and then they melted away. The third level Execution Array that had trapped Li Yun’s group quietly unraveled between her hands.

When the last strand of light faded, no one reacted for a breath.

Someone stammered: “It is… already… undone?”

It had been so fast. People looked at each other in disbelief.

One person said: “No way. I will test it.”

He stepped forward, first probing with his sword. The cave stayed silent. Then they walked back and forth before the door. Even when they struck the door with force, they met only a rebound barrier. There was no killing intent anymore.

Li Yun’s eyes went blank as he asked: “What kind of method was that?”

Another muttered: “Is array arts solved like this?”

In the past, breaking an array meant letting it open, entering it, running around inside, and then hunting for a way to break it. Pulling the array out into your hands like a ball and fiddling with it looked like child’s play.

Someone tried to save face and said: “I remember Senior Brother Ji said there are three layers. This first layer must be the easiest. He was letting her have it.”

Another chimed in: “Right. A small restriction like that is nothing to her.”

A third added fast: “Exactly.”

Li Wan Zhi was still shocked too, but when he heard that, he shot back at once as he said: “Touch your own face and say that again. Do you feel no shame?”

He pointed and added: “You wandered here for days and could not open this restriction. My junior sister, a Qi Refining Stage, opened it. You refuse to admit you are weak. Fine. But at least admit she is strong.”

Li Yun’s people still refused. One insisted: “Maybe we already attacked it with brute force, so the array got weak. Your junior sister just picked up a free win. What is there to brag about?”

Heads nodded all around.

Li Wan Zhi fell silent for a beat.

Ye Wan Wan did not bother with them. She looked at Ji Chang Huai and asked softly: “Well?”

Ji Chang Huai answered in a level voice: “I underestimated you.”

Ye Wan Wan curved her lips and said: “You are indeed arrogant.”

Li Yun’s group snapped in anger: “What are you so proud of?”

Ji Chang Huai lifted a hand to stop them and stepped forward. He struck the cave door. The second layer of restriction sprang out and shoved his force back. Ji Chang Huai pushed again, and a thin thread of spiritual power slipped into the restriction and stirred it to life.

With a soft rush, pale blue lines appeared in the air.

Every gaze locked onto them.

Ji Chang Huai stood calm and steady.

Li Wan Zhi watched his confident posture and whispered to Fang He An: “Does this look easier than the one junior sister faced?”

He wanted to prove those people wrong. He wanted to say Ji Chang Huai was not giving her the easy one. In fact, he had saved the easiest for himself. Look at how sure he seemed. Tricky man.

Fang He An shook his head and said: “No.”

Li Wan Zhi widened his eyes and said: “Do not raise others and lower our side. But fine, if it is harder, he is sure to lose.” He comforted himself quickly and gave a silly grin.

Fang He An’s mouth twitched as he began to explain: “Three layer cave restrictions are usually stacked at third, third, and fourth level difficulty. Because restrictions are special, they can last longer than arrays. For someone who tries to break them, the test is those sigils.”

He pointed at the blue lines before Ji Chang Huai and said: “Those are the key. Rumor says these are a simplified form of the rules of heaven and earth. It is only a rumor, but still.”

He went on: “Only by grasping these restriction sigils can you break them. The one in front of him is the same difficulty as the killing restriction junior sister faced. Both are third level.”

He drew a breath and added: “But his is a guard type. In general, guard types are more complex than kill types and take longer to crack. So even if the level is the same, his will need more time than junior sister’s.”

Fang He An paused, then said with a huff: “Maybe he let her go first because her realm is low. Or maybe he thought she could not break anything and wanted her to fail. He did not expect to smash his own foot with the stone he lifted.”

The three looked at one another and nodded together as they said: “Right.”

No matter what, they all agreed on one thing in silence: the people from Supreme Sect were not good.

Li Yun’s group sounded anxious now as one of them said: “Senior Brother Ji is not really going to lose, is he?”

They stared at the blue patterns. This one looked more complex than the last.