From a loser to an immortal sage

Chapter 173 The Dilemma of the Spirit Array

The world is spinning!

I felt as if I had been thrown into a giant vortex, the scenery around me spinning wildly, and those strange spiritual patterns turning into streaks of light that stung my eyes.

I reached out, trying to grab something to steady myself, but all I touched was a cold patch of air.

I lost all sense of reality beneath my feet, as if I were floating in the void.

"Junior Sister Xiao!" I vaguely heard the anxious voice of the array master, but I couldn't tell the direction.

What kind of maze is this?

My heart was filled with fear.

A thick fog had spread out of nowhere, making it impossible to see one's hand in front of one's face.

I tentatively walked forward, taking each step cautiously.

Suddenly, something got tangled around my ankle. I looked down but couldn't see anything.

An inexplicable force pulled me down. I cried out and struggled desperately, but I couldn't break free.

"Haha, Xiao Yao, let's see how you escape this time!" Li Yunfei's mocking voice came from the mist, piercing my eardrums like sharp needles.

I gritted my teeth, gathered my spiritual power, and tried to break free from the invisible shackles.

Just then, several blurry figures suddenly appeared in the mist, brandishing weapons and attacking me.

I swung my sword to block, but it felt like I was hitting cotton; there was no point of contact whatsoever.

"Illusions!" I was startled. These figures were not physical entities, but illusions created by the maze.

Even though I knew it was an illusion, the pain from the attack was real.

My arms and thighs were hit one after another, and the burning pain made it almost impossible for me to breathe.

I staggered backward, several bloody marks already appearing on my body.

"Ah!" Su Yao's scream suddenly rang out, tinged with a hint of schadenfreude. "Xiao Yao, you've finally met your match! You deserve it!"

My anger surged, but I was powerless to refute it.

Everything before my eyes blurred, and I felt my consciousness fading away... A cold voice rang in my ear, "Give up... You can't escape..."

Li Yunfei's sharp and sarcastic voice was like a viper's hiss, every word carrying a thorn.

"Xiao Yao, let's see how you escape this time! With your meager array skills, you dare to challenge the spirit array maze? You're overestimating yourself!" Several of his followers echoed, their words full of disdain and mockery.

"That's right, don't they even know their own status? A piece of trash without spiritual roots, how dare they compare to Senior Brother Li? It's just wishful thinking!" They were dressed in fine clothes, their magical artifacts gleaming, and each of them looked more "destined for immortality" than I did.

I gritted my teeth, enduring the physical pain and the humiliation in my heart.

Li Yunfei is a prodigy, a genius in formations, while I am just a struggling "good-for-nothing".

He has the best resources and the best mentor, while I can only figure things out on my own.

This enormous gap felt like a mountain pressing down on me, making it hard to breathe.

Su Yao's shrill laughter added fuel to the fire. She covered her mouth and feigned surprise, saying, "Oh dear, Senior Sister Xiao, how could you be so careless? This maze is no joke. What if you lose your life..." Her words were laced with malice, and her feigned concern felt more like an insult.

I felt the pressure in the mist suddenly increase, and the phantoms' attacks became more ferocious, as if an invisible force was controlling everything, making it even harder for me to defend myself.

I know this must be Su Yao's doing behind the scenes.

She was always jealous of me and constantly went against me.

I stumbled forward, everything in front of me became distorted, and waves of pain washed over me.

I felt like a trapped beast, struggling in despair.

The voice of the array master grew fainter and fainter, as if it came from the distant horizon.

Am I really going to die here?

No, I can't give up!

I still have things to get done; I can't fall here!

I forced myself to stand firm, gathered the last bit of spiritual power, and suddenly swung my sword.

The sword light pierced through the mist, but only left a brief glimmer.

Just then, a cold voice rang in my ear: "Time is almost up..."

Sweat soaked through my clothes, my spiritual energy was almost exhausted, and the fog still loomed over my eyes.

Elder Murong's stern voice echoed through the mist: "Xiao Yao, you have half an hour left. If you still cannot break the formation, leave the Spirit Array Valley!" His words were like a bucket of ice water, extinguishing my last glimmer of hope.

Leave the valley?

I've put in so much effort and finally gotten this far, how can I just give up like this!

Li Yunfei's voice carried a hint of smugness: "Elder Murong, I think she's just wasting her time. Why give her another chance? The Spirit Array Valley isn't a place anyone can just enter." The people around him immediately echoed, "That's right, a good-for-nothing without spiritual roots dares to dream of breaking the spirit array puzzle. It's laughable!" I clenched my fists so tightly that my nails almost dug into my flesh, and humiliation and anger surged in my chest.

Su Yao's voice was even more sarcastic: "Senior Sister Xiao, it seems your luck isn't so good either. I advise you to give up sooner rather than later, so you don't embarrass yourself here."

I was on the verge of collapse. The pressure around me was increasing, and the attacks from the phantoms were becoming more and more intense. I felt like a butterfly caught in a spider web, unable to move.

Am I really going to fail?

Just then, I suddenly remembered a saying that a master of array formations once said: "The essence of an array lies in confusing people's minds and disturbing their spirits. To break an array, one must first calm one's mind and find the pattern of the array." Pattern... I tried to calm myself down and carefully observed the surrounding mist and illusions.

The master of array formations also mentioned a method of using stillness to control movement, and deducing array formations in reverse...

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and concentrated the last bit of spiritual energy in my body at my fingertips. Following the ideas of the array master, I began to try to reverse-engineer the trajectory of the array.

The fog seemed to have changed slightly... I suddenly opened my eyes, and a faint light shone from my fingertips, illuminating a small area in front of me.

"It works!" I was overjoyed and continued to follow this line of reasoning... Suddenly, a cold voice rang in my ear: "Time is running out..."

The faint light, like a firefly, dispelled a small patch of fog, but was quickly swallowed up by the denser fog.

The spiritual energy within me flickered like a candle in the wind.

The reverse reasoning approach was indeed effective, but it was only a drop in the ocean; the maze was far more complex than I had imagined.

"Time is running out..." The cold voice rang out again, carrying a hint of warning.

I'm almost certain that the voice came from the ghostly figure, that mysterious array master.

He was both interfering with me and observing me.

Li Yunfei's mocking laughter faintly drifted over: "Looks like she can't hold on any longer." Su Yao chimed in, "She's really overestimating herself." Their voices were like sharp thorns, piercing my eardrums and stirring up the resentment in my heart.

I gritted my teeth and tried again to deduce the formation's trajectory.

The spiritual energy at his fingertips flickered erratically, almost dissipating.

The fog swirled, and phantoms appeared one after another. I felt as if I were in a giant vortex, about to be swallowed up at any moment.

Are we really going to give up?

No, I can't give up!

I desperately tried to recall the teachings of the array master, repeatedly deducing the changes in the array.

Suddenly, I sensed that the fluctuations of spiritual energy around me seemed to follow a certain pattern, a peculiar rhythm appearing and disappearing in the mist.

I reached out, trying to grasp this pattern, but felt my fingertips touch something... cold and hard...