84 Teng Shinsu, array expert. (1/2)

Li Yang wasn't in a rush as he made his way over the frozen wasteland, his steps slow and careful. Teng Shinsu had been hiding out in this place for a while, so there was no telling what sort of traps she likely had put in place to deal with Li Yang. This was also a good chance for Li Yang to immerse himself more in the law of ice, taking advantage of the severe cold all around him.

But he didn't lose sight of his actual goal, taking out the half-circle stone and checking the light it released every hundred steps. This stone was something he had taken from Teng Hanying's corpse, and it was part of a whole. It was called a Twinlife Stone, and both parts attracted each other, allowing whoever held one part to always find the other part. Teng Hanying had carried one part, while Teng Shinsu was carrying the second piece, it was a symbol of the bond between the two of them.

Even with his slow steps, he still reached the base of the rightmost of the five finger-like mountains after walking for a little over a day. The mountain was thicker than the other four, representing the thumb of the hand, the top half of the mountain was tilted slightly forward, as if the finger was trying to bend itself. The mountain itself was made from a strange blue material that resembled ice but was far harder than any ice Li Yang had ever seen, it also released a pleasant heat, preventing the mountain from freezing over.

The stone pointed towards the midway point up the mountain, but Li Yang didn't immediately start to ascend it. His eyebrows furrowed slightly, his gaze sweeping over the area. After giving the entire area four very careful sweeps, his eyes lit up slightly. He walked over to an inconspicuous spot a few tens of meters away from him, crouching down and brushing away a layer of powdery snow.

With the snow gone, thin lines that were dark blue in color were revealed. Li Yang traced the lines, brushing away more and more snow, slowly revealing that the lines form the image of an eye, a cloud faintly visible in the pupil of the eye. With the full image revealed, Li Yang let out a sigh of admiration.

”How magnificent. It follows the normal pattern of a detection array, but it also mixes in parts of a concealment array and an illusion array, making it even harder to detect.”

This eye was an array that covered most of the lower part of the mountain, alerting whoever put it up whenever someone stepped onto the mountain. Li Yang would normally spot an array like this before he got within several hundred meters of the mountain, but this one expertly contained parts of a concealment array to hide all traces of energy that it leaked, as well as parts of an illusion array to trick the senses into thinking that the spot where the array was located was completely normal.

Luckily, he had felt that something was off when he got close to the mountain, so he hadn't immediately started to climb it. Had he done that, Teng Shinsu would have known that he had already arrived. Of course, since he was carrying Teng Hanying's part of the Twinlife Stone, she likely already knew that he had arrived, but he had already accounted for that. After discovering the array, Li Yang sat down next to it and started to study it, fondling his chin.

He had yet to read up on how much the art of arrays had improved over all these years, so now was a good a chance as any to study one up close. After studying the array for around half a day, he came to the conclusion that it would be possible for him to alter the array, preventing it from alerting Teng Shinsu when he stepped onto the mountain.

But despite coming to this conclusion, Li Yang didn't choose to alter the array. He simply stood up and started to ascend the mountain, allowing the array to warn Teng Shinsu of his arrival. Since there was a good chance she already knew that he had arrived, thanks to the Twinlife Stone, he figured that it was a better idea to pretend like he hadn't noticed anything, allowing Teng Shinsu to believe that she had the upper hand.

After stepping onto the mountain, which was wide enough to have a rather gentle incline, Li Yang's speed slowed down quite a bit. He sharpened his senses and constantly swept the surroundings with narrowed eyes, keeping a close eye out for any more arrays that might be hidden beneath the snow, just in case there was one that could harm him.

Teng Shinsu turned out to be far more careful and wary than he had originally given her credit for. The side of the mountain was littered with arrays of all kinds, some hidden and some that were more obvious, likely a ploy to attract his attention. The most common arrays were detection arrays or illusion arrays to confuse his senses and slow him down.

But there was one type of array in particular that caught Li Yang's attention, causing him to slow down so he could study it. And the more he studied the array, the more confused he got, a low mutter escaping his lips.

”How can it be this intricate, yet so weak? It contains part of the Mountain Shattering array as well as the Heavenly King array, but the attacking force is far lower than even the weakest level of either array.”