Chapter 179 – Learning the Restrictions
It wasn’t that Wang Lin hadn’t thought about returning to the same path as before after obtaining the high-quality spirit stone, but the situation was too dangerous in the first trial, and without Hunchback Meng paving the way for him, he didn’t even know if he could return. Even if he used all his strength to get through, the vortex wouldn’t bring him back. The only path left for him was death, as it was impossible for him to be lucky enough to pass the first trial again.
Wang Lin’s personality didn’t allow him to gamble easily, especially when it was something he couldn’t afford to risk.
However, according to Wang Lin’s analysis, if Hunchback Meng and the others were able to leave this place 1,000 years ago, it meant that there was a teleportation array here. Otherwise, there was no way those four would dare to come here again.
Unfortunately, Hunchback Meng didn’t have anything in his bag containing information about this place. The inheritance they had was not in Hunchback Meng’s possession.
Wang Lin’s eyes lit up. He was certain that if he could obtain this relic, he would be able to find a way out of this.
After looking around carefully, Wang Lin stepped forward. Not long after, he suddenly stopped as he saw a large rock in the distance. This rock emitted waves of spiritual energy. Wang Lin took a few steps to the side and walked around.
The sky was dark. The sky gave off a feeling of oppression like a giant boulder weighing on one’s heart. Wang Lin carefully walked through the gap between the two boundaries before letting out a sigh of relief.
He looked around. Just 300 feet would take him several hours to cover. He had to make sure there were no problems with each step before he took it.
He stared up at the seemingly endless mountain. He wondered how many more years it would take him to reach the summit if he continued at this pace.
He let out a heavy sigh. He had made it through the first attempt by luck, but it seemed he would have to rely on himself for this second attempt. After Wang Lin pondered for a while, his face darkened. With his Core Formation cultivation, it was already too dangerous here, but if he went back, it would be even more dangerous.
If he wanted to live, he had to force his way forward. Wang Lin pondered for a moment, then his eyes lit up. He didn’t continue forward, but instead turned around and carefully passed through the gap between the two barriers. He continued backward until he was at the foot of the mountain again.
At the foot of the mountain, where the prohibition first appeared, he knelt down and studied the prohibition carefully.
This was a patch of grass about twelve feet wide. There were many patches of grass like this at the foot of the mountain, but there were fewer at the top of the mountain. At first glance, there was nothing special about it, but when Wang Lin looked closer, he could see that the grass here contained a mysterious order.
Wang Lin carefully examined each blade of grass. Once finished, he recorded his thoughts on a jade slip.
With three days to spare, he recorded the details of every blade of grass. He wanted to use this time to find a way to break through that limitation.
Wang Lin knew that if he tried to force his way through, there would be no hope of him reaching the top. It would be an impossible task for him.
Moreover, the higher one climbs, the stronger the limitations become. There will come a point where there will be no way to escape those limitations. If one doesn’t prepare beforehand, one will surely die.
If he wanted to pass this test, he had to learn to control the limits of this mountain. The more he understood the limits, the better his chances of survival. There was no other way.
This is why Wang Lin went back down and began to study the first boundary in detail.
Restrictions are very different from formations. Formations use very specific methods to create very specific effects. The components used in formations are extremely complex. If someone tries to learn them by force, they will only gain a basic understanding.
Restrictions are considered a type of formation, only much more flexible. They can change based on the user’s wishes. Restrictions are very similar to divine sense.
Powerful cultivators can set up restrictions with just their divine sense. Even after hundreds of thousands of years, as long as the divine sense isn’t destroyed, the restrictions will remain active.
Sometimes even if the user has died, the divine sense within a boundary will form its own consciousness and continue to maintain the boundary.
The restrictions are constantly changing. Almost no one but the user can fully see them. There are two ways to bypass the restrictions. The first is to force your way through, but that’s not something ordinary people can do.
The second way is to research it. Once you understand the principles and rules of the restriction to a certain degree, you will naturally be able to unlock it.
Wang Lin used the second method.
After noting down the first prohibition on the jade, he carefully studied what he had written down. Fortunately, he had learned the basics of formations during his time as a soul eater, so he wasn’t completely lost in his studies.
Time passed slowly. Ten days later, as Wang Lin was staring at this area, his right hand suddenly grabbed a blade of grass. The grass then began to move. However, Wang Lin seemed to have seen this and moved along with the grass.
Her right hand moved left, then right, and the other hand followed suit. At first glance, it seemed to move without a pattern, but upon closer inspection, it was moving in rhythm with the grass.
In just a few moments, the speed of his right hand’s movements had reached a certain limit and it began to create afterimages. Often, when one afterimage appeared, the previous one had already disappeared.
Ten breaths later, sweat broke out on his forehead and he became completely focused. He immediately pulled back his right hand, and a red beam of light appeared. The light chased after his right hand.
As Wang Lin withdrew his hand, he suddenly began to move it once more. The red light grew weaker and weaker until it finally disappeared.
When he withdrew his right hand, it was completely numb. Wang Lin looked at the grass. The grass had returned to normal, nothing unusual.
The restriction here is to kill anyone who tries to enter. If someone has a high enough cultivation level to force their way in, the red light will appear and chase that person until they are killed.
After studying the restrictions for several days, Wang Lin had gained a basic understanding of them. This time, it was just an experiment. He had conducted experiments like this more than ten times in the past few days.
He could only last three breaths the first time, and he would be injured by the red light while doing so. Now he could last ten breaths and was able to stop the red light. Wang Lin believed that if he had a little more time, he would be able to break through.
This means that if he truly enters the boundary, he can survive for ten breaths of time, and if he leaves it within those ten breaths, even the red light cannot stop him.
Wang Lin became excited. Although this prohibition was the simplest on this mountain, he was certain he had found the right path. As long as he continued down this path, it wasn’t impossible to leave this place.
If Wang Lin’s initial goal in studying restrictions was to leave this place, now he had another goal. The more he studied, the more intrigued he became about restrictions. He had never considered how powerful restrictions were.
For example, the restriction on the grass here; although Wang Lin could safely pass through it, he couldn’t lay it down himself because he hadn’t fully grasped it yet. Once he truly mastered the restriction and could make it his own, then he could lay it down himself.
Although not as strong, the strange nature of this restriction would not be any weaker.
Wang Lin took a deep breath. His face showed a hint of excitement as he engrossed himself in his research. A month later, Wang Lin put away the jade and walked into the grass.
As he entered, the grass suddenly began to move and a red mist appeared. Each blade of grass began to twitch violently before flying like a sharp weapon and disappearing into the red mist.
At the same time, howls came from all directions as sharp weapons rained down on Wang Lin.
Wang Lin remained calm and paid no attention to the weapons. He continued walking as if the backyard were his own as the weapons approached.
Wang Lin waved his right hand casually. Although it seemed extremely slow, his hand had already mysteriously arrived in front of the weapon. If anyone else were watching from the outside, they would be shocked. This was only possible if one had fully grasped the limits.
Wang Lin didn’t know any special techniques, but he knew that his hands would be faster than weapons, and he became faster by thinking he was faster.
Waving his hand, he drew a circle. This simple action was the result of Wang Lin’s research. Although it looked like a simple circle, his hand formed thousands of different seals simultaneously without pausing while drawing them.
After this circle was completed, all the weapons slowed down, turned back into grass, and flew around Wang Lin.
Wang Lin’s expression remained calm. Since he entered, he had been walking at the same calm pace, and it was no different now.
As he stepped forward, the grass parted in the middle as if it didn’t dare to block him. Just as he was about to leave the area, a red light appeared in the red fog around him. Wang Lin suddenly reached out his right hand and grabbed it.
All the red lights stopped as if they were all caught by a giant hand and shattered into pieces. The red lights quickly gathered again, but this time they formed a path under Wang Lin’s feet that led beyond the boundary.
Wang Lin’s expression remained normal as he walked on the red path and out of the restriction.
He laughed heartily as he emerged from the barrier. After all this time, he had finally truly understood this barrier and made it his own. His fascination with the barrier had reached its peak. He looked back at the barrier with a mocking expression and moved his hand within it.
The barrier suddenly shook, and the grass’s movements changed. A closer look revealed that its movements were more complex than before.
Wang Lin muttered to himself, “If someone appears behind me, they have to be careful!” With his understanding of the restrictions, he added another layer to it.
From now on, whenever someone enters that boundary, no matter what they do, they will trigger the second boundary. With the addition of that second boundary, there’s a chance someone will die in that patch of grass.
Of course, if they used the same method as Wang Lin, then the difficulty of researching the limits would also increase.
Wang Lin looked around with a cold smile on his face. He suddenly moved to another patch of grass and increased the difficulty of the restrictions on that patch. He continued this until every patch of grass had been destroyed.
After doing all this, Wang Lin pondered for a moment. He felt that this wasn’t enough, and he closed all the gaps between the barriers. This meant that if someone wanted to enter, they would have to pass through those barriers.
After finishing all this, Wang Lin started walking up the mountain.
At this moment, the Six Desire Devil Lord was staring at the thick clouds in front of him. These clouds had been there for three days. No matter what the Six Desire Devil Lord did, he couldn’t make them disappear.
His expression was grim. Beside him stood the young man who had come with him. He stood there, dazed, just staring into the mist.
The Six Desires Demon Lord stared at the young man, then back at him before smiling coldly. The first trial he had taken was the ice trial, which he was very familiar with. Although he didn’t possess the Ancient Emperor’s treasure, how could he not be prepared after 1,000 years?
At the time, he said he was capable of carrying everyone through the second round of the ice trials. If he said it, then he was 100% sure he could do it.
What actually happened was that 500 years ago, he obtained a treasure that allowed him to use the water escape technique, which had the same effect as Wang Qingyue’s earth boat.
As a result, with his cultivation and understanding of the ice test, he easily passed it with the young man.
As for the Path of No Return between the first and second trials, it wasn’t a problem for him either. Although he nearly died when he first arrived here, he had now mastered the Six Desires Demon Cultivation Method. The thing he feared least now were things that messed with his emotions. He had researched emotions extensively.
The Path Without Return was like child’s play to him. If it weren’t for the young man he had to protect, it wouldn’t have taken so long.
Even though protecting one person makes it a little slower, the result is still the same.
One thing that worried him was this second test, called the Mountain of Restrictions. The reason it was called the Mountain of Restrictions was because the entire mountain was covered in restrictions, and the higher one climbed, the stronger the restrictions became.
Back then, the four of them arrived here with other powerful cultivators and successfully passed through. However, many died because they were forced by the powerful cultivators to test the strength of the barrier.
If only Six Desire Devil Lord had not come with his master, it would probably have been difficult for him to escape death in this place.
However, his master was the main force in breaking the barrier. His master was a master of barriers and formations who had studied and broken the barrier up to 1,000 feet before the exit. However, he couldn’t go any further. In the end, he placed a barrier above it. Then, he teamed up with other Soul Formation cultivators to kill a mid-stage Soul Formation cultivator. Only by using that cultivator’s body could they open a 1,000-foot-long tunnel through it.
The tunnel only lasted for three breaths. All the lucky survivors rushed into the tunnel. In the end, only a small percentage made it out. Everyone else perished.
Every time Six Desire Devil Lord thought about this, he would feel how dangerous it was. Only now that he had finally reached the middle stage of Soul Formation himself did he dare to come here again.
The good fortune he obtained in the first trial gave the Six Desire Devil Lord his confidence back. He considered himself fortunate because the key to passing the third trial was in his hands. Based on his years of observation, the Six Desire Devil Lord was confident that this person could help him pass the third trial, but the price would be the young man’s life.
However, Six Desire Devil Lord did not care about this person’s life at all.
What worried him was how he would make it over the final 1,000 feet to the top of the mountain. Despite 1,000 years of preparation, he only had 50% confidence.
He had spent the better part of the past thousand years studying restrictions, and with his extraordinary memory, he was able to memorize most of the restrictions here. Only after another thousand years did he feel confident in coming here. Along the way, he easily broke through all the restrictions, but right after he broke through them, they returned to their normal state.
He also added more restrictions on top of it. His goal was the same as Wang Lin’s.
However, the restrictions on Restriction Mountain became increasingly complex as he climbed higher, causing Six Desire Devil Lord’s steps to become increasingly slow. At this point, he had to study the restrictions for a long time before moving forward.
For example, this cloud wasn’t here 1000 years ago, but it’s here now, which surprised him.
Meanwhile, after 1,000 feet, the grass had dwindled. All he saw were black rocks. Wang Lin took out the jade slip and began recording again.
The obstacles on the rock are completely different from those on the grass. The obstacles on the grass are formed by the grass’s movement patterns.
However, this stone was different. Apart from a few patterns on it, there was nothing special about it. If it weren’t for the faint spiritual energy it radiated, it would be impossible to tell that it was a restriction.
Wang Lin looked around and found many similar restrictions nearby. If he wanted, he could pass through them by walking through the gaps between each restriction. However, compared to leaving, Wang Lin preferred to gain a complete understanding of these restrictions.
He knew that getting through this area was easy, but he also knew he would have to spend a lot of time and effort here if he wanted to reach the top of the mountain.
Wang Lin began to examine the boundaries carefully.
There was no sense of time on the mountain, so in the blink of an eye, seven years had passed. On this day, Wang Lin drank the spirit liquid while standing on a rock on the side of the mountain. In the past seven years, half of Wang Lin’s hair had turned white.
He has devoted himself to studying boundaries, which has caused him constant mental stress. Four years ago, his hair began to turn white at the roots.
However, his divine sense also grew stronger under this pressure, and he unknowingly entered the middle stage of Core Formation. He was now one step closer to the Nascent Soul stage.
His gaze grew sharper, and his temperament had also changed drastically. If seven years ago, Wang Lin had been like unmelting ice, now he was as invisible as ever.
This feeling came from his eyes. They seemed to be able to see through everything, and there were stars in them that occasionally twinkled. If Duanmu Ji saw Wang Lin now, he probably wouldn’t believe it. This was a divine sense eye that could only be obtained after one had reached a certain level of mastery in restrictions.
Wang spent the last seven years perfecting his eyes. During these seven years, he had encountered many limitations. All of which required him to study and examine them closely. He had almost been killed by those limitations many times.
This was especially true for some of the restrictions that clearly had other restrictions added to them. Fortunately, Wang Lin had always been cautious, so he noticed that these restrictions were different from the ones on the mountain. After studying them carefully, he realized that the person above them was also skilled in restrictions.
Just by looking at the boundaries, Wang Lin could see that this person’s understanding of boundaries was much deeper than his.
However, Wang Lin wasn’t afraid at all. His interest in leaving the second trial had diminished drastically. From his perspective, this was a dreamland for studying restrictions. The way restrictions became increasingly complex meant one could start from the basics and improve.
A place like this is almost impossible to find. The restrictions range from simple to difficult. It’s a truly precious place.