Chapter 1044: No Turning Back

"Time is of the essence, so let's enter the pagoda now!" Lei Yuce declared as he descended to the pagoda's stone gate, while everyone else gathered behind him.

With all of the True Immortals barred from entry, the crowd had been whittled down to no more than five hundred people, and Han Li was standing in a relatively discrete area of the crowd.

At this moment, he was scanning his gaze across the nearby crowd in a nonchalant manner, paying particular attention to the duo that he suspected to be the Lan siblings.

Even though he was still unable to confirm their true identities, in his eyes, even if they weren't the Lan siblings, they were still two people that he had to keep an eye on.

Even though the Golden Origin Immortal Palace had been left without a leader in the wake of Dongfang Bai's demise, it would be far too naive to believe that the Heavenly Court wouldn't have sent someone into this secret area, so the fact that he hadn't spotted any Heavenly Court cultivators up to this point was rather suspicious.

Lei Yuce stood at the foot of the pagoda, inspecting his surroundings, and only after ensuring that nothing was amiss did he press a hand against the stone gate.

However, before he even had a chance to exert any force into the gate, it slid away on its own amid a burst of dull rumbling, revealing a dark entrance with what appeared to be the light of a dim flame deep inside.

Lei Yuce was rather taken aback by this, and instead of immediately entering the pagoda, he began to examine its interior from the entrance.

Everyone else also peered into the pagoda while attempting to release their spiritual sense inside, only to discover that there was some type of restriction inside the pagoda designed to keep out spiritual sense.

"Make sure to be on your guard, everyone. If you want to back out now, it's still not too late," Wen Zhong said.

However, everyone had already come this far, and no one was willing to turn back now. All of them had their attention focused on Lei Yuce, waiting for his instructions.

"Let's go," Lei Yuce declared as he stepped into the pagoda, followed immediately by the other cultivators from the Almighty Sword Sect and the Heavenly Water Sect, after whom came everyone else.

Upon entering the pagoda, everyone discovered that there were braziers hanging from the walls with some type of fat burning inside. Whatever the fuel source was, it wasn't releasing any smoke, but it was giving off a faint rank odor.

Directly up ahead was a two-headed statue that was over a hundred feet tall.

The statue was very strange in appearance, with a benevolent, smiling head of a heavenly official, accompanied by a fearsome, monstrous-looking head. Its body was clad in a suit of golden chainmail armor, and there was a pair of golden wings on its back. In one hand, it held a golden scepter, while in its other hand was a mountain-splitting ax.

There was a dark passageway that led deeper into the pagoda beneath both the golden scepter and the mountain-splitting ax, and light could be seen at the ends of both passageways, but it was impossible to make out exactly what lied beyond them.

Right at this moment, someone suddenly yelled, "There's something written on the scepter and the ax!"

Han Li focused his gaze on the scepter and the ax to discover that there was a short line of text on each of them, collectively reading "No turning back once a path is chosen, both paths lead to the same destination."

After reading the displayed text, a contemplative look appeared on Jin Liu's face as he mused, "It looks like there will be different perils awaiting us on each path, but both will ultimately take us to the same place."

"Splitting up would be perfect. Our Heavenly Water Sect and your Almighty Sword Sect can each lead half of the fellow daoists present down one of the two paths," Su Anqian said.

"The interior of this immortal manor is sure to be fraught with peril, so I think it would be unwise for us to split up," Lei Yuce said.

A hesitant look also appeared on Jin Liu's face as he said through voice transmission, "I know that you don't want to take the same route as him, but he's right. If both paths lead to the same destination, then it makes no difference which one we take, and we should all stick together."

"Since when did you become so naive, Senior Martial Brother Jin? How do we know that this statue is telling the truth? How do we know that Immortal Lord Tai Sui hasn't set up a trap, and one of these two paths actually leads to certain death?" Su Anqian countered.

"You're right, that was an oversight on my part. In that case, do you have any idea of which path we should take?" Jin Liu asked with a wry smile。

"There are restrictions in both paths that keep out spiritual sense, so I'm afraid we'll only be able to find out once we're inside," Su Anqian replied.

"Celestial Maiden Su, what do you think of my proposal just now?" Lei Yuce asked.

"I disagree. Your Almighty Sword Sect and our Heavenly Water Sect are the leaders of this alliance. If we go down the same path together, what will all the other fellow daoists do? We can't get them to explore a path on their own," Su Anqian countered in a cold manner.

A hesitant look appeared on Lei Yuce's face upon hearing this.

"I appreciate that you're looking out for us, Fellow Daoist Lei, but Junior Martial Sister Su is right. We have been elected as the leaders of the alliance, so we have to fulfill our rightful duties," Jin Liu said with a smile.

"In that case, go ahead and choose a path, Celestial Maiden Su," Lei Yuce said.

"The heavenly official on the left, while the monster is on the right... I'll choose the right path," Su Anqian decided.

"Alright, in that case, our Almighty Sword Sect will choose the left path. Fellow daoists of the Spirit Heaven Sect, the Azure Lock Valley, Blazing Light City, the Ink Fragrance Pavilion, and the Worry Not Pavilion, please go with Celestial Maiden Su. Everyone else, come with me," Lei Yuce instructed.

Everyone else was rather hesitant about which path to take, but seeing as the alliance leader had spoken, the choice had been made for them.

Before long, everyone had been split up into two groups, and they made their way down the two paths.

Prior to parting ways, Lei Yuce cautioned Su Anqian to be careful, but the latter offered no response.

The Lan siblings were among the Worry Not Pavilion cultivators, and they were conversing with each other through voice transmission.

"Lei Yuce is quite a handsome man, and his cultivation base isn't inferior to Su Anqian's, so why is she so cold to him?" Lan Yuanzi mused in a perplexed manner.

"How is that strange? Men are all the same, regardless of whether they're mortal or immortal. The more something is out of reach, the more alluring it is to them. The more distant and unapproachable Celestial Maiden Su makes herself, the more alluring she'll be to Lei Yuce," Lan Yan replied with a smile.

"Is that right? I suppose this must be what it means to play hard to get," Lan Yuanzi mused.

"Why are you suddenly asking about something like this? Could it be that there's a woman who's recently caught your eye?" Lan Yan asked in a teasing tone.

A slightly embarrassed look appeared on Lan Yuanzi's face, following which he put on a stern expression as he said, "We need to focus on the task at hand. We don't know what perils lie up ahead, so make sure to stay close to me at all times."

Han Li was walking along near the rear of the group, and as he passed by the mountain-splitting ax, he looked up to discover a small line of text where the hand of the statue met the hilt of the ax, which read "an ax to severe the bridge of immortality".

At the same time, a black-robed young woman on the other path looked up at the golden scepter above her as she was passing by, and she also spotted a short line of text that read "fortune or misfortune".

By the time both groups had ventured several thousand feet down their respective paths, a resounding boom suddenly rang out from behind them as the ax and the scepter in the statue's hands came crashing down in unison, sealing the paths shut from behind.

Both groups immediately stopped in their tracks, and Wen Zhong and Jin Liu doubled back to examine the blockages momentarily then returned to their respective groups before declaring that there was no longer a path for retreat, so the only way to go was forward.

The text on the statue had already warned everyone that there would be no turning back once a path was chosen, so everyone quickly accepted this outcome and continued onward.

As the group led by the Heavenly Water Sect made its way down the passageway, Han Li noticed that the stone walls on either side were riddled with all types of patterns, but they were so chaotic and haphazard that even Han Li couldn't tell what purpose they were meant to serve.

The further they went, the narrower the passageway became, and after venturing close to ten kilometers down the passageway, it had narrowed from its initial width of several thousand feet to only several hundred feet.

Initially, everyone had been been feeling quite cautious and apprehensive, looking out for traps and restrictions, but aside from the narrowing of the passageway, nothing else of note was observed.

However, this only made everyone feel more uneasy, as if they were anticipating this being the calm before the inevitable storm.

Upon reaching the end of the passageway, a giant golden gate that was several hundred feet tall appeared up ahead. Engraved onto each half of the gate was a halberd-wielding deity, both of which were very powerful and imposing in appearance.

Everyone's attention was drawn to a pair of deities engraved onto the gate, but there were a small number of people who were looking at the doornails on the gate.

"This appears to be a Yin Yang Latch Array," Yin Liu mused as he observed the doornails, and Han Li couldn't help but be amused by his ignorance.

There was indeed a yin and yang distinction between the doornails in that some were protruding outward, while others were sunken inward, but they actually represented star palaces, with the ones protruding outward zenith yang palaces, and the ones sunken inward zenith yin palaces.

Hence, the true name for this restriction was actually the Star Palace Standoff Array. As for the so-called Yin Yang Latch Array, that was only a smokescreen to conceal the true nature of the array.

𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

"Do you know how to dispel this array, Senior Martial Brother Jin?" Su Anqian asked.

"I can give it a try," Jin Liu replied with a nod.

He then turned around to face everyone as he said, "Everyone, please listen to me. I have something to declare."

Everyone in the passageway immediately fell silent to listen to what he had to say.