CHAPTER 352: CHAPTER 306 TIME STOP

"HISSS... Ouch, ouch, ouch!"

After circling to the back of the main hall and confirming that Shangguan Yangyao and the others had not pursued them, Sui Yi hurriedly clutched her shoulder, grimacing and stamping her foot repeatedly.

"Senior Sister, please sit down."

Li Ang swept away the dust on the ground with his Telekinesis and helped Sui Yi sit down against a large, withered tree before reaching out to her shoulder.

"What are you trying to do, Junior Brother?"

Sui Yi leaned back slightly, her expression somewhat wary, her speech even taking on a hint of her hometown accent. "Though I, your Senior Sister, am quite charming, there’s no chance for us. I was not yet born when you came into this world; by the time I was born, you were already old. I resent that you were born so late; you resent that I was born so early..."

"I resent that you’re spouting weeds. Let me fix your dislocated shoulder, shall I?"

Li Ang rolled his eyes, pressed down on Sui Yi’s shoulder, used his Telekinesis to brace her armpit, grasped her right arm with both hands, pulled, extended, and simultaneously rotated it.

With a distinct CRACK, Li Ang pushed and then lifted, setting Sui Yi’s dislocated shoulder back into place.

"There, all done."

Li Ang massaged Sui Yi’s shoulder joint. After confirming it was properly reset, he tore a strip of cloth from his robes to make a sling for her arm. Then, from the Brocade Bag at his waist, he took out a small bottle of iodine, a needle and thread, and clean cotton cloth, quickly suturing the wound on her palm.

"Ouch... Thank you."

Sui Yi stood up, rubbing her shoulder, her gaze drawn to the brown glass bottle in Li Ang’s hand. "Junior Brother, is that iodine in your hand? Give me a swig."

"What are you thinking? Iodine isn’t alcohol."

"Huh? It’s not alcohol?"

Sui Yi said indignantly, "Then isn’t the name false advertising?"

"There’s no Kongming in a Kongming Lantern," Li Ang shrugged, "and there are no dragons or phoenixes at the Dragon and Phoenix Inn either."

"Hehe, that might not be true."

Sui Yi grinned, shaking her head. "Back when I was on a business trip in the Zhou Kingdom, staying at the Dragon and Phoenix Inn, I heard the sounds of ’toppling the phoenix and inverting the dragon’ from the poorly soundproofed room next door..."

"Stop, stop."

Li Ang hastily gestured with his hands, cutting off his roguish Senior Sister’s lewd talk, and massaged his temples, a headache forming.

Although Sui Yi had numerous flaws—she was scatterbrained, glib-tongued, greedy, lecherous, and content to drift through life waiting for death—she was still his Senior Sister and Instructor. Moreover, she had previously served as his guard, ensuring Li Ang’s safety.

He couldn’t just abandon her.

"The good news is that Shangguan Yangyao and his group haven’t followed us..."

Li Ang glanced at the faint mist surrounding them. Shangguan Yangyao and the others were aiming for the top ten in the trials; until they were sure they had enough points, they wouldn’t risk entering the Jialan Sect ruins.

He pondered for a moment and checked his own condition. His Qi Sea Spiritual Power was about three-tenths remaining, most of his talismans were used up, and many of his Mind Needles were damaged. And...

His gaze paused briefly on his chest. Beneath his clothes, the pitch-black Bitter Realm Lotus was slowly withering, its petals vanishing one by one.

"We’re indeed in danger here; we need to find a way out."

Li Ang thought for a moment and then tied himself and Sui Yi together with a Mind Thread to prevent them from getting separated.

They circled around the Buddhist temple’s main hall, trying to leave the ruins from the east.

Due to the pervasive mist, they kept close to the wall, continuously leaving marks on it. They also held a Mind Thread, its other end tied to their initial position—the tree in the middle of the ruins—to prevent them from getting lost and being unable to return to their starting point.

Soon, the stone pillar exit to the east drew near.

Li Ang waited a moment to ensure there was no movement inside or outside before he and Sui Yi stepped through.

The next instant, without any warning, the surroundings transformed.

Li Ang and Sui Yi found themselves back in the clearing in the middle of the ruins, standing beside the withered tree, facing the dim, unlit Buddhist hall.

What happened?

"Did we return to the starting point?"

Sui Yi looked around, somewhat bewildered. "A ’ghost wall’?"

"...No,"

Li Ang took a deep breath. "It’s worse than a ’ghost wall’."

He held up the Mind Thread in his hand, showing it to Sui Yi.

Originally, one end of the Mind Thread was tied to the trunk of the tree, and the other end to Li Ang’s finger. As he walked, Li Ang would release a segment of the Mind Thread, letting it fall to the ground.

But now, a large coil of Mind Thread rested securely in Li Ang’s palm, showing no sign of ever having been unspooled.

"Let’s go."

Li Ang, leading Sui Yi, ran towards the east side of the hall. They had initially carved arrow marks on the outer walls of the hall using a Mind Needle, but these marks had also completely vanished.

An eerie feeling brewed in their hearts. As they ran, they continued to lay down the Mind Thread and carve more arrow marks on both sides of the path with a Mind Needle.

This time, they also carved marks with the Mind Needle on the exit pillars. They waited for several dozen breaths before taking a step out.

WHOOSH—

The night wind blew, and in an instant, they found themselves back in the clearing in the middle of the ruins, the Mind Thread still coiled in Li Ang’s hand.

Sui Yi cursed loudly, her face extremely grim.

If it were a ’ghost wall,’ they should have been walking in circles, constantly seeing the Mind Thread and marks they had previously left. But now, the moment they stepped out of the exit, they were back at the starting point. All traces of the Mind Thread and marks had also disappeared, reset as if new.

A time rewind? A status reset? Or had some powerful being with a twisted sense of humor, in the split second they were about to step out of the ruins, transported them back to the clearing before the hall at an unimaginable speed?

Li Ang and Sui Yi exchanged a glance. Silently, they changed direction and headed towards the western exit.

The same result... they couldn’t get out.

They tried the south and north gates; they tried toppling the pillars, chopping down the tree, and overturning the flagstones; they tried flying low and flying high.

Nothing worked.

Once they exceeded a certain boundary of the ruins, an unknown force would pull them back to the clearing in front of the Jialan Sect’s main hall.

"The moon,"

Li Ang slowly exhaled, reeling in the Mind Thread as he spoke. "According to my silent count of my heartbeats and pulse, we’ve been here for one and a half hours, but the moon’s elevation and brightness haven’t changed."

It was now high summer; in an hour and a half, the moon’s position should have definitely changed, but it stubbornly hadn’t. It remained high in the night sky.

"Apart from our own conditions, any damage to the ruins repairs itself."

Li Ang asked softly, "Senior Sister, does our Academic Palace have this kind of Prohibition Magic?"

"...No."

Sui Yi shook her head very slowly. "Pulling someone back to a specific location isn’t unusual, but restoring terrain, even altering celestial phenomena... This isn’t something an ordinary Cultivator or standard Magic can achieve."

She paused for a moment, then said slowly, "It might be a Prohibition inherent to the Jialan Sect ruins themselves. The Hidden Sects of the Former Sui all had various types of Mountain Guarding Arrays with different effects. Perhaps this is the effect of such an array."