Where emptiness had stood, stone pillars now pierced the clouds. Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, rose straight as lances, forming a silent forest of gray monoliths that glimmered with age and unseen purpose.
“So this is the entrance to the Heaven Gate Sect’s ruins?” Jared asked, his voice low, reverent. Sylvia shook her head. “We must cross the stone forest and reach its heart. I have led teams before. None of us could advance that far.”
Jared released a wave of spiritual sense, trying to map the forest. An invisible wall smothered his perception, blocking any view beyond a few pillars. He tasted frustration; whatever lay ahead would not yield easily.
“I suppose this stone forest forms a grand arcane array,” he murmured. “Break the array, reach the center. Let‘s try…”
With that, he stepped between the towering columns.
The moment they entered, the air thickened, pressing on skin and bone like deep water.
No two pillars were alike. Some were as broad as ancient oaks, others as thin as reeds. Every shaft bore runes, archaic runes that pulsed with an icy glow, casting shifting shadows across Sylvia’s determined face.
Jared drew a slow breath. Years of studying formations sharpened his instincts. Almost at once, he sensed a pattern. The pillars were not random. They obeyed a hidden rhythm.
He closed his eyes. In his mind, diagrams of the eight trigrams unfolded, overlaying perfectly onto the forest’s layout.
“Ms. Vale, this is indeed a colossal formation, complex, but solvable. I can break it…” He opened his eyes, confidence blazing brighter than the runes.
Hope flickered in Sylvia’s gaze. She stayed close, every step measured, as though one careless breath might awaken sleeping traps.
Moving deeper, Jared counted paces, recalculating with every subtle shift of light.
After each segment, the runes changed, tiny strokes twisting, dots sliding, clues in an otherworldly script to decipher the arcane array.
“Following the sequence, we first locate the pillar.”
As Jared spoke, he searched among the stone forest for his target.
Finally, he stopped short before a thick stone pillar. Stopping, he laid a palm against the stone. Strange power surged into him, images, voices, memories older than dynasties, an unspoken dialogue between mortal and array.
His eyes snapped open. Delight curved his lips. The formation had revealed its starting key.
“Found it. This pillar is the beginning.”
Hands blurred, he formed seals, chanting in a steady cadence. Runes across the pillar flared, answering his call, and the entire stone forest seemed to inhale, waiting for whatever he would do next.
At the faintest sweep of Jared’s hands, every rune carved into the neighboring stone pillars flared alive. Beams of white-gold light sprang from the etched symbols, crossed in midair, and stretched outward until they wove themselves into a towering luminous curtain that hummed with restrained power.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Jared caught Sylvia by the wrist and stepped straight through the glowing veil, as casually as though they were walking beneath a waterfall of sunlight instead of raw arcane energy.
A lightning flash blinded them for a heartbeat.
When their vision cleared, the labyrinthine stone forest no longer twisted around them. It was as if an invisible hand had lifted every monolith, shuffled the entire maze, and then set the pieces down again—this time leaving a single, arrow-straight corridor stretching into the unknown.
“Looks like we guessed right. Keep moving,” Jared said.
He pressed onward at an unhurried pace, Sylvia matching his step for step as the newly formed passage beckoned them deeper.
They passed pillar after pillar, each one etched with a unique compass of shifting runes.
Drawing on his command of arcane arrays, Jared paused, traced the air, and unraveled every trap before it could even tighten, clearing obstacle after obstacle with unsettling ease.
The farther they advanced, the thicker the air became, saturated with a hush so ancient and potent it felt almost sacred.
“Mr. Chance, your mastery of formations is unbelievable. Is there anything you can’t do?” Sylvia’s eyes shone with unabashed admiration.
“That was nothing,” he answered with an easy grin. After all, both Divinus and Hellion had once guided his hands. Compared with their lessons, these puzzles were children’s games.
