CHAPTER 53: TWIN SISTERS?

"You figured it out that quickly? As expected of you," she said.

She had expected Yu Tian to be able to decipher the puzzles, but he really was impressive. The number of people that had been able to decipher the first puzzle could be counted on one hand.

Yu Tian looked at her. He had expected her to be more depressed because of earlier, but it didn’t look like it. She was surprisingly strong. It seemed he had underestimated her, he thought with a smile.

"What? Regretting rejecting me already?" she asked.

"Maybe," Yu Tian said as he turned around.

"This is the heart of the formation. If you strike it precisely like this using little energy, it will cut off the flow of qi and disable the formation," he instructed.

She walked over and drew her sword. She then struck, following his instructions. The moment she struck, the qi flow in the area began shifting. Then suddenly, they found themselves in an entirely different location.

This new place was now filled with snow and ice. Yu Tian looked around him. He thought to himself that this place was different than the previous one. Although it was still an illusion formation, it was definitely much more real, and the snow and cold were genuine.

Xueling caught a snowflake on her hand. "It feels so familiar," she wondered if it was because of her yin spiritual root and her saint body. But this wasn’t the time to explore that.

"Can you break it?" she asked.

"Yeah, but this one will take a little longer," he said.

She looked at him. "I guess even a genius like Yu Tian has their limits," she thought.

"How much longer are we talking?" she asked.

"About a minute longer," he said, causing her to almost stumble.

He then walked past her, beginning to analyze the formation.

"Is this the world of geniuses?" she wondered.

"Well, I should use this chance to at least recover some energy," she thought, settling into a meditative posture and beginning to absorb energy.

Although the healing pill was great, it didn’t recover energy, so one still had to recover their energy manually. As she absorbed energy, her expression brightened. This place was surprisingly nice for cultivation, probably because of the yin energy concentration.

She decided to take full advantage of this.

A few minutes later, Yu Tian called for her and she opened her eyes. She thought to herself that she had recovered about half her energy. This was a great boon. It was a shame they couldn’t keep something like this - it would be really useful for her cultivation.

"Are you interested in it?" Yu Tian asked.

"That’s right, it’s good for my cultivation," she said.

"Well, since I’ve studied it, I should be able to remake it for you once we leave. As long as you have enough spirit stones to power it," he said.

"Really?" she asked in excitement, and Yu Tian nodded.

This was really impressive. He could understand a formation with just a glance and could even recreate it. This formation alone was already impressive. Even if they didn’t gain the inheritance, just him analyzing these formations should be enough.

"But there is something strange I found," Yu Tian said.

"Something strange?" she asked, walking over.

Yu Tian reached his hand seemingly into nothingness, then suddenly pulled something out.

"Is that the heart of the formation?" she asked.

"That’s right. Do you recognize these strange patterns on it?" he asked. He felt that these strange patterns were what seemed to create the realistic ice effects while the formation made the illusion.

"These... they’re runes," Xueling said in recognition.

...

"Runes?" Yu Tian asked.

"That’s right, I’ve seen them in a book before. It’s said to be an advanced form of talisman making," she explained.

"I see," Yu Tian nodded as he observed the rune. It was talismans now, and a formation too. This couldn’t simply be attributed to false labeling. Then did this mean that the twin tombs were just for show and the secret realm was actually one?

[100%]

I see, he thought. It didn’t really make much difference to him since both talismans and formation making would be there.

Are they really twin sisters?

[0%]

He wondered why the expert would pretend to be two people. Was it just a single expert?

[50%]

He looked at the number. He was even more confused. Was it two people?

[50%]

Huh? He was confused. "So they’re not twin sisters, but they’re also not one person either?" he asked.

[100%]

Then, what are they? Twin brothers?

[100%]

"-_-"

He was just asking in passing, but it turns out it was really true. How did twin brothers even get mistaken for twin sisters? He sighed. What was he doing - this wasn’t even all that important.

He injected his energy into the runes on the heart of the formation, easily disabling them, stopping the flow of extreme yin energy into the area. He then threw the heart of the formation and Xueling swung her sword, splitting it in two.

Just like before, the scene changed and they entered another illusion.

Yu Tian inspected it, recognizing it as more advanced than the previous one. It seemed the difficulty was going up. Still not much of a problem to him though.

A few minutes later, he was able to solve this puzzle too and moved on to another one. They continued like this until they solved ten puzzles. After the tenth one, the scene changed but they were no longer in a formation.

"Did we finally make it?" Xueling asked.

"Looks like it," Yu Tian said, looking around him. They were in some sort of huge library filled with books.

"So many books," Xueling exclaimed as she reached for one book.

"The Art of Love - by Sect Master Li." She felt as though this book was calling for her.

Yu Tian, on the other hand, also noticed something. "Cultivation 101 - By Grand Elder Xiang."

As the two reached for the books, a sharp voice cut through. "Stoooooooop! Don’t touch anything!"

They paused, turning around. Xueling instantly summoned her weapon.

That’s when they came face to face with the twins.

"I am Fu Yue, Yue as in the character for joy. I am the president of the School of Talismans," the first twin introduced himself.

"And I am Zhen Yue, Yue as in the character for ’to surpass.’ I am the president of the School of Formations."