Sun Lingtong spoke excitedly, "The tremor of the mountain, stirring the lake waves, revealed a glimpse of the true appearance of the corridor formation."
"Hahaha, we’re in luck, Niu Cheng indirectly did us a huge favor!"
Ning Zhuo connected with Sun Lingtong through the Life Hanging Thread, as if he were there in person.
He also noticed the clues and said excitedly, "I discovered it too. The formation inside the corridor is actually greatly linked to the outside world."
"My mother did not make this place transparent just for the sake of the scenery."
"The formation here is meant to harness the light from outside, causing instantaneous changes. No wonder our previous studies found it obscure and difficult to understand, not fitting any known formation, very bizarre."
Some formations have fixed changes, while others are more complex.
Previously, during discussions, Shen Xi had always elevated the status of the Nine Palace Formation among the top ten formations, for one major reason, its array heart possesses immense calculation reasoning ability.
This makes the changes of the Nine Palace Formation far exceed the other nine formations.
The formation within the Shuyu Pavilion corridor doesn’t have the calculation ability of the Nine Palace Formation, but cleverly borrows from the outside, using external variables as its variables, which is a clever trick.
Ning Zhuo sighed, "If it weren’t for the commotion caused by Niu Cheng, letting the Jade Lake produce huge waves, we wouldn’t have noticed such an oddity."
The Jade Lake usually is as smooth as a mirror, without a ripple on the surface.
Sun Lingtong looked up at the sky, gazing intently for a long while, "No, it’s not the sky light, but the changes in the clouds."
Ning Zhuo was slightly taken aback, observing carefully, yet still didn’t discover this layer. It wasn’t until Sun Lingtong had passed halfway through the corridor that he suddenly realized and knew that Sun Lingtong was right.
The gap in their Array Dao skills became utterly clear at this moment.
After figuring out the formation’s details, Sun Lingtong passed through easily.
He pushed open the door in front of him, entering a courtyard.
In the courtyard paved with green jade, there was an artificial hill.
The hill embraced a living spring. In the spring, red-scaled goldfish twirl like elegant dancers.
Atop the hill, there is a pavilion.
Inside the pavilion is a desk, with simple and elegant furnishings.
On the pavilion, there is a plaque with three characters — Fish Dance Pavilion.
Sun Lingtong, probing as he walked up the hill.
When he stepped inside the pavilion, suddenly the wind chimes rang without wind, their sound clear and pleasing.
Soon after, twelve papermen drifted down from the ceiling of the pavilion.
The papermen radiated brilliance in mid-air and, upon landing, transformed into eight dancers and four tea-making masters, all seemingly lifelike.
The tea masters held furnaces to brew tea, while the eight dancers gracefully performed.
For a moment, the spring water tinkled, the wind chimes rang, and soft singing drifted through the pavilion, making one feel relaxed and pleasant.
Sun Lingtong wandered around inside the pavilion, confirming it was safe, then boldly sat down to sip some tea, chuckling lightly.
He transmitted thoughts to Ning Zhuo, "It seems this place was where Aunt entertained guests."
As Sun Lingtong left the pavilion, a series of crisp bell sounds were triggered again.
The papermen returned to their original form, floating on the tea steam, drifting back up to the ceiling, merging into the mural.
Sun Lingtong came to the artificial hill, glanced at the living spring several times, "These red-scaled goldfish are nice, they’re all Foundation Establishment Level demon beasts, truly beautiful to see."
Ning Zhuo took a glance, "Just ornamental creatures, boss, this place isn’t worth staying."
Sun Lingtong hummed in agreement and returned the way he came.
He passed through the corridor easily this time, returning to the Array Core Room.
Stepping into this Central Region was much more arduous and difficult.
But overall, it didn’t stump Sun Lingtong, who still managed to open another door.
Outside, there was still a corridor, but Sun Lingtong and Sun Ning immediately noticed this was a new corridor, different from the one before.
After passing through the corridor, Sun Lingtong entered a workshop.
The room was filled with the strong scent of bamboo pulp.
The room was simply furnished, with a long table and chairs in the middle. Low cabinets lined the lower portions of the walls, containing many drawers, all closed.
Above the cabinets, twelve shadow puppets appeared on what were once blank walls. Upon closer inspection, Sun Lingtong recognized them as the twelve zodiac signs.
He stood at the doorway, not stepping in rashly, continuously activating his Spiritual Eyes to probe carefully.
Under the Spiritual Eyes, the shadow puppets transitioned from solid to illusory, revealing their true form. The pointy ears of the Dog showed broken golden strands, the Tiger’s claws were chipped, and the Dragon was based on silk spun from water silkworm, its bamboo structure poised for flight...
This was the guardian here.
If Sun Lingtong entered recklessly, he might activate these twelve zodiac shadow puppets and face an attack.
"The key to unlocking the puzzle is on the long table." Sun Lingtong finally focused his gaze on the seal platform on the table.
He used stealing techniques, tried several times, and finally managed to steal the seal platform.
He activated the seal platform, extinguishing hidden traps and killing mechanisms, thus able to move freely here.
Sun Lingtong opened each drawer in the cabinets, finding they were categorized with treasure materials for crafting paper puppets.
Sun Lingtong moved to the center table and chairs, checked them, and found they were all tools for crafting paper puppets. There were cold jade paper-cut knives, Yin Yang Eye Pointing Pens, of not high grade, all Magic Artifacts.
"This should be the place where my mother made paper puppets during her life," thought Ning Zhuo.
Before his eyes appeared a scene: Meng Yaoyin sitting in the chair, bending over to cut paper and make paper puppets. Whenever she needed a certain treasure material, she would move her fingers, remotely opening a drawer, letting the treasure material fly out and land on the table.
Sun Lingtong took one look at the twelve zodiac shadow puppets and left the paper puppet workshop.