277: Chapter 277 All Eight Gates Lead to Death, the Heavenly Palace is the Nine Palaces

The Chaos mist rolled frantically. In the deathly silent world of the Formation, Chang Xiyue's cold voice boomed in everyone's ears like thunder from the Nine Heavens.

“The prototype of this Formation came from the hand of the Ancient Empress?”

Gu Hongchen gripped the biluo emperor sword tightly, her beautiful face instantly filled with extreme disbelief. Her beautiful eyes widened, and her voice trembled violently from the extreme shock, completely losing the composure of a True Immortal Realm Expert.

“How is this possible!”

Gu Hongchen roared frantically in her heart, feeling as if her common sense of cultivation from the past tens of thousands of years was being ruthlessly trampled upon.

“The ancient records state clearly that the Ancient Empress Yun Lingxiao was peerless and brilliant, sweeping through the myriad worlds in just a few hundred years to achieve the supreme Emperor Realm! This is already a Heaven-Defying cultivation talent unprecedented in the All Heavens and Myriad Realms!”

Gu Hongchen swallowed hard, staring fixedly at the surrounding Chaos mist that could completely isolate even Divine Sense, her scalp tingling.

“A person's energy is ultimately limited! For her to achieve the Emperor Realm in just a few hundred years, she must have exhausted all her efforts. How could she still have time to study the complex and obscure Dao of Formations to such a pinnacle level, where she could easily trap and kill even a True Immortal?”

Gu Hongchen could hardly believe her ears.

This was no longer something that could be explained by being gifted; this was simply a Heaven-Defying Prodigy who broke the rules of the Great Dao!

Not only Gu Hongchen, but even the Ice Spirit Snow Ape King, lying at the bottom of the myriad things mother qi cauldron, was now so scared that its white fur stood on end.

Its mountain-like body trembled violently, its huge claws clutching its head, as its coarse, broken-gong voice emitted extremely terrified whimpers.

“Arranged by the Ancient Empress... It's over, it's all over! When the little monkey was guarding the gate at the South Heaven Gate back then, I heard that the Ancient Empress's attainments in Formations were unrivaled in the world! Against such a world-shaking murderous Formation, even a Grand Unity Golden Immortal would lose a layer of skin!”

The Snow Ape King was terrified out of its wits, kowtowing repeatedly on the ground, fearing that some killing method would suddenly emerge from the Formation and grind it into meat paste.

Listening to Gu Hongchen's shock and the Snow Ape King's wails, Chang Xiyue did not speak.

She just stood there quietly, her cold eyes filled with intense sorrow and nostalgia. Looking at the rolling mist around her, she seemed to see that peerless figure in snow-white clothes from years ago, deducing this eternal Formation in this Void Realm.

Su Xuanchen stood to the side, keenly perceiving Chang Xiyue's low spirits.

He had always been unable to bear seeing his woman show such a dejected and aggrieved expression.

“Tsk.”

Su Xuanchen clicked his tongue in extreme displeasure, directly casting aside his lazy and playful mood.

His usually casual face was instantly covered with a layer of extremely cold and domineering frost.

“I don't care who arranged it. Since it's blocking my path and making my Xiyue unhappy, there's only one way out—death!”

Su Xuanchen strode forward and pulled Chang Xiyue behind him.

The power of the Myriad Tribulations Indestructible Primordial Demon Body and the Chaos sacrum within his body erupted without reservation! The brilliant Immortal-Demon Aurora was like two Primordial suns rising in the mist, forcibly pushing back the surrounding Chaos haze by hundreds of feet!

“Break for me!”

Su Xuanchen clenched his right fist tightly, as a terrifying power of destruction capable of shattering eternal stars gathered frantically on his knuckles. His eyes were cold to the extreme, as he prepared to use the most brutal and domineering method to forcibly smash this trapping Formation to pieces!

Just at the critical moment when that world-destroying punch was about to be unleashed.

“Husband, wait.”

A soft and smooth jade hand gently rested on Su Xuanchen's vein-bulging arm.

Su Xuanchen's violent aura suddenly paused, and he turned his head, looking at Chang Xiyue in extreme confusion.

A very gentle smile appeared on Chang Xiyue's cold face. She shook her head slightly and softly stopped Su Xuanchen.

“Husband, please do not be angry. Forcibly breaking this Formation is extremely taxing on the mind and might even trigger the Formation's self-destruction. When I was by the Ancient Empress's side, I was fortunate enough to see the deduction of this Formation's prototype and know the method to break it.”

Hearing Chang Xiyue say this, Su Xuanchen then casually dissipated the Immortal-Demon power on his fist.

“Fine, since my wife knows the password, I'll save some energy.” Su Xuanchen shrugged like a rogue, returning to his lazy appearance.

Chang Xiyue took light lotus steps and walked to the front of the group.

Her expression instantly became extremely solemn, and her hands moved like butterflies flitting through flowers, quickly forming ancient and mysterious hand Seals before her chest.

“Heaven and Earth Reversal, Nine Palaces Return to Position! Open!”

With a crisp shout from Chang Xiyue, she flicked a drop of extremely pure True Immortal Origin essence blood from her fingertip, sending it into the Chaos mist ahead!

“Buzz—!!!”

The entire world within the Formation emitted a dull rumble!

Immediately after, the thick Chaos mist that could swallow even Divine Sense receded frantically to both sides, like boiling water poured on snow!

As the mist dissipated.

“Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!”

Eight terrifying gateways, tens of thousands of feet high and made of unknown ancient divine gold, rose abruptly from the Void Realm like eight Primordial Divine Mountains, standing before everyone's eyes!

These eight gateways were arranged according to the Eight Trigrams positions, and each one emitted a heart-palpitating aura of death.

On the huge plaque above each gateway, eight bloody characters were ferociously carved in Ancient Dao Script—

Rest! Life! Harm! Limit! View! Death! Fear! Open!

These eight characters seemed to be cast from the blood of billions of living beings. Just a single glance made one's Divine Soul sting, as if countless malevolent ghosts were screaming frantically in one's ears!

“This... what kind of hellish gates are these!”

Lianxi's face turned pale with fear, and she instinctively hid behind Su Xuanchen, gripping his sleeve tightly.

Gu Hongchen was also full of horror, her hands holding the biluo emperor sword shaking uncontrollably.

“The Eight Gates Hidden Armor?!” Gu Hongchen exclaimed in shock, “This Formation has actually evolved into the ultimate killing Formation of the ancient Qimen Dunjia!”

Chang Xiyue looked at the eight gateways emitting terrifying auras and explained to the group with a heavy expression.

“Correct. These eight gates correspond to the eight palaces within the Formation.”

She took a deep breath, her voice filled with intense wariness.

“According to common sense, among the eight gates, Open, Rest, and Life are auspicious gates; Death, Fear, and Harm are ominous gates; while Limit and View are neutral. A person breaking the Formation only needs to find the Life Gate to pass through safely.”

At this point, Chang Xiyue's tone suddenly shifted, becoming extremely cold.

“But! The Formation the Ancient Empress deduced back then completely overturned common sense! These eight gates before us have no distinction between auspicious and ominous!”

Chang Xiyue spoke each word deliberately, revealing the most terrifying truth of this Formation.

“All eight of these gates are dead ends!”

Boom!

These words were like a heavy hammer, smashing into the hearts of Gu Hongchen and the Snow Ape King.

“They are all dead ends?!” Gu Hongchen's eyes nearly bulged out in disbelief.

Chang Xiyue nodded with absolute certainty.

“No matter which of these eight gates you step into, you will instantly fall into the infinite folded spaces and killing illusions within the Formation! Once you enter, you will be trapped in an absolute infinite loop, never finding an end!”

Chang Xiyue looked at Gu Hongchen and warned her solemnly.

“In this infinite loop of a dead end, the Formation will continuously drain your spiritual power. Let alone the Great Emperor Realm, even a True Immortal Realm Expert like you, if trapped inside, would be absolutely unable to break out by force and would eventually be drained of immortal power, dying like a lamp running out of oil!”

Total silence fell.

Gu Hongchen stood frozen like a stiff statue, her back already drenched in cold sweat.

“Even a True Immortal would be drained to death...”

Gu Hongchen muttered to herself, as an unquenchable storm of shock rose in her heart.

Looking at this intact, world-shaking murderous Formation emitting endless killing intent, a sharp flash of insight suddenly crossed her mind.

A massive doubt rose from her heart like a venomous snake.

“No!”

Gu Hongchen suddenly looked up and shouted urgently.

“This makes no sense at all!”

She stared at Chang Xiyue, her beautiful face filled with extreme confusion and horror.

“Miss Xiyue, you just said this Formation is enough to trap and kill a True Immortal, and can even withstand the combined attack of tens of thousands of high-level Cultivators! Moreover, we have seen that the outer sealing Formations and the internal killing Formations are all intact, with no signs of being forcibly breached!”

The more Gu Hongchen spoke, the more hair-raising it felt, and her voice trembled violently.

“Since the Heavenly Court was protected by such a Heaven-Defying and invincible world-shaking Formation, why did the Ancient Heavenly Court collapse completely in just a few days back then?! How did those traitors and foreign enemies manage to fight their way in?!”

As soon as this question was raised, the atmosphere within the Formation became extremely eerie.

Indeed!

With such a terrifying Formation standing here intact, without even the gate being broken, how was the Heavenly Court destroyed? This simply contradicted basic logic!

Chang Xiyue was also stunned, her cold face showing extreme bewilderment.

She was only a maidservant back then, and the collapse of the Heavenly Court was extremely chaotic; she had no knowledge of these secrets.

Just as everyone was stumped and trapped in extreme confusion.

“Clap! Clap! Clap!”

A series of crisp and sudden claps abruptly rang out in the silent mist.

Everyone turned their heads sharply.

They saw Su Xuanchen leaning lazily against the edge of the myriad things mother qi cauldron, lightly clapping his hands. His usually casual face now wore a deep smile, as if he had seen through the eternal mystery.

“Great Elder Gu, your brain has finally worked for once and asked the right question.”

Su Xuanchen stroked his chin, his eyes flashing with a terrifying light of wisdom.

He strode into the middle of the group, his sharp gaze sweeping over the eight dead gates, as he confidently threw out an earth-shattering deduction.

“The reason you think the logic is flawed is because from the very beginning, you got a fatal point in time wrong!”

Su Xuanchen spoke each word clearly, his voice like a resonant great bell booming in everyone's ears.

“This world-shaking Formation, capable of trapping and killing a True Immortal, was not arranged during the heyday of the Ancient Heavenly Court at all!”

“It was secretly laid down after the Heavenly Court was destroyed and the ancient war had completely ended!”

Boom!

Su Xuanchen's words were like a nuclear bomb exploding in everyone's minds!

Gu Hongchen and the Ice Spirit Snow Ape King's scalps tingled on the spot, their eyes nearly flying out of their sockets.

“Arranged after the war?!” Gu Hongchen shrieked, completely losing her composure as a True Immortal, “The Heavenly Court was already shattered; who could have such heaven-reaching methods to lay down such a Heaven-Defying Formation upon these ruins?!”

An arrogant sneer curled at the corner of Su Xuanchen's mouth.

He instantly thought of that peerless figure crossing the long river of time and space in the Primordial Immortal Realm, and that world-shaking message left behind.

At this moment, all the clues were perfectly connected by him!

“Who arranged it?”

Su Xuanchen looked up, his gaze deep as he looked at the eight dead gates, his tone carrying intense admiration and disbelief.

“Who else could it be? Naturally, it was the creator of this Formation's prototype!”

Su Xuanchen turned his head sharply, staring at Gu Hongchen as he revealed the world-shaking truth word by word.

“The one who laid this Formation is the very person who survived that world-ending war and heaven-defyingly stepped into the Immortal King Realm afterward—the Ancient Empress, Yun Lingxiao!”

Silence!

Absolute silence!

Gu Hongchen was like she had been struck by lightning, her entire body freezing in place. Her red lips were wide open, but she couldn't make a sound; her brain had completely lost the ability to think.

The Immortal King Realm?!

That Empress, who was rumored to have been cast into the depths of the Boundary Sea with her life or death unknown, actually didn't die! Not only did she survive, but she also broke through to the legendary, unspeakable Immortal King Realm after the war, and even returned to the ruins of the Heavenly Court to lay this Heaven-Defying Formation?!

This news was too shocking, enough to completely overturn the history of the Xuanhuang Great World!

Even Chang Xiyue's delicate body trembled violently, her cold face instantly covered in tears of joy.

“The Ancient Empress didn't die... She really broke through to become an Immortal King!”

Looking at the eight dead gates, Su Xuanchen couldn't help but feel intense curiosity and admiration for this Ancient Empress he had never met.

“To achieve Nirvana in a desperate situation, step into the Immortal King Realm, and lay down such an eternal scheme to deceive the heavens. This woman is indeed ruthless and strong enough!”

Just as everyone was beyond shocked by this staggering secret.

Ji Luanxi, who had been hiding behind Su Xuanchen, poked her small head out at a very inappropriate time.

“Oh! Stop worrying about who arranged it!”

Ji Luanxi stamped her feet in anxiety, her face full of urgency.

“All eight of these gates are dead ends; entering means being drained to death! Then how are we going to get in to find the treasures? Husband, hurry up and find a way to break the Formation!”

Interrupted by Ji Luanxi, Gu Hongchen also snapped back from her shock.

She keenly perceived a massive loophole in the Formation.

“Wait!”

Gu Hongchen stared at the eight gateways and quickly counted them, her beautiful face once again filled with doubt.

“Miss Xiyue said earlier that this Formation is called the Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams Formation. But...”

Gu Hongchen pointed ahead, her face full of confusion.

“There are clearly only eight gateways here, corresponding to the eight palaces. Where is the missing core and most critical last palace—the Ninth Palace?!”

If the Ninth Palace could not be found, this Formation would be an absolutely unsolvable dead end!

Facing Gu Hongchen's doubt and Ji Luanxi's urging.

Su Xuanchen was not flustered at all; instead, he threw his head back and laughed arrogantly.

“Hahaha!”

Su Xuanchen's laughter echoed wildly within the Formation world.

He casually raised his right hand, his slender finger pointing directly past those eight gateways emitting the aura of death, toward the empty void ahead.

“Where is the Ninth Palace?”

A playful, all-seeing smile curled at the corner of Su Xuanchen's mouth. He spoke each word clearly, nonchalantly pointing out the core mystery of this eternal Formation.

“Have you forgotten the magnificent ruins of the Ancient Heavenly Palace we saw through the barrier from outside the Formation just now?”

Su Xuanchen's eyes were like torches, his voice carrying intense arrogance.

“That magnificent Heavenly Palace, which is not inside the Formation at all and was ingeniously stripped away by the Empress, is precisely the missing Ninth Palace of this Formation!”

The moment his voice fell.

Ji Luanxi and the three Ice Spirit Snow Apes lying at the bottom of the cauldron were completely shocked, their faces full of disbelief.