The second layer of the Abyss Labyrinth beneath the Immortal Fate Hall was the Wood Palace. At the last possible moment before being overtaken by the cultivator in the yellow robe, Ye Qin managed to slip through the teleportation array into the Wood Palace.
He was almost ready to curse out loud in sheer frustration, because as he glanced back while stepping into the array, he saw that his pursuer was a Foundation Establishment stage rank seven cultivator from the Rogue Cultivator Alliance, tasked with guiding the group of cultivators who were the first to enter the labyrinth. Before the labyrinth opened, while waiting in the side hall of the Immortal Fate section, Ye Qin had vaguely heard Han Xu casually mention that this yellow-robed cultivator, surnamed Wei, was a high-ranking member of the Rogue Cultivator Alliance, one of the Vice Hall Masters.
Every time the labyrinth opened, a Vice Hall Master would lead the crowd in, meaning this Wei was intimately familiar with the layout and contents of the maze. Ye Qin couldn't help but look down upon this Vice Hall Master Wei.
The rule established by the Rogue Cultivator Alliance was simple: anything found in the labyrinth belonged to the finder. Yet, this Vice Hall Master Wei was blatantly violating that rule by attempting to seize an item Ye Qin had found first.
In that case, they shouldn't open the labyrinth at all; the Rogue Cultivator Alliance members should just monopolize it themselves; no one would argue. What Ye Qin didn't know was that the opening of the palace to outsiders was actually an act of necessity for the Rogue Cultivator Alliance.
If they truly possessed the strength to dominate it internally, they wouldn't have opened it up at all. This ancient labyrinth within the Immortal Palace required colossal energy to sustain itself.
The restrictive formations inside the labyrinth, which automatically manifested various illusionary beasts of Foundation Establishment level and above, consumed immense energy, and this energy was supplied by spirit stones. It required as much as twelve hundred low-grade spirit stones just to barely keep the labyrinth's restrictive formations operational.
If such vast amounts of spirit stones were not expended to activate the formations, no one could even enter the labyrinth, let alone retrieve any items from within. The financial capacity of the Rogue Cultivator Alliance alone simply could not support such massive consumption.
Opening the Immortal Fate Palace to the public and auctioning off fifty Boundary Talismans each time—with each talisman fetching a price between five hundred and one thousand low-grade spirit stones—meant that the revenue from selling these talismans alone instantly brought in between twenty-five thousand and fifty thousand low-grade spirit stones. After deducting the spirit stones used to activate the restrictive formations, the surplus was deposited into the treasury of the Rogue Cultivator Alliance in Immortal Fate City.
These labyrinth formations brought the Alliance a minimum income of ten thousand low-grade spirit stones every month, making it one of the Alliance's crucial revenue streams. For ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators from various sects and families, this place was a sacred ground for adventure, where unexpected treasures could be found.
But for the Rogue Cultivator Alliance, it was a vital source of income. Naturally, the Alliance was loath to close it down.
If the Rogue Cultivator Alliance were to bear this expense themselves, with only their own members entering, they would quickly go bankrupt due to the excessive depletion of spirit stones. The Alliance had once attempted to stop opening it to the public, allowing only internal members into the labyrinth.
However, the results only yielded items of little practical use, and after more than ten such attempts, the Alliance suffered devastating financial losses, almost reaching a point where they couldn't even afford the internal stipends. They were forced to reopen the labyrinth.
Moreover, even with the labyrinth activated, entering did not guarantee finding valuable relics left by ancient cultivators. Whether it was the Rogue Cultivator Alliance or outside cultivators, success within the labyrinth relied entirely on luck.
Even after running the Immortal Fate Labyrinth a hundred times, an unlucky cultivator might still come away empty-handed. The random appearance of items was the capricious whim of some ancient Rogue Cultivator True Person, severely vexing the younger generations of Immortal Fate City.
Due to various constraints, the Rogue Cultivator Alliance, though extremely reluctant to let the legacies of ancient cultivators fall into the hands of outsiders, had no choice but to open the labyrinth to the public, thereby drawing in substantial wealth to maintain the labyrinth and the Alliance's normal operations. That very Vice Hall Master Wei was currently operating under such a mindset.
He had entered the labyrinth dozens of times, at least, yet had never encountered a single relic left by an ancient cultivator. This time, having finally found something, only to have a cultivator of unknown origin snatch it first, filled him with such fury that he nearly wanted to smash his head against a wall.
The saying that when one is unlucky, even drinking cold water will cause choking, was undeniably true. Ye Qin cursed the yellow-robed cultivator inwardly, primarily because he was unaware of the labyrinth's true function for the Rogue Cultivator Alliance.
He had already been teleported and was taking in the sight of the Wood Palace. The passages in the Wood Palace were slightly larger, about five zhang wide and leading straight ahead before branching off into increasingly numerous turns.
The terrain was similar to that of the Fire Palace; the sole difference was that the Wood Palace would presumably manifest wood-elemental illusionary beasts. Ye Qin sat cross-legged, drank a small gourd of spiritual wine, fully restored his mana, checked the low-grade magical artifacts he carried, and then rose to fly deeper into the Wood Palace.
After flying several li, he suddenly spotted a withered ancient tree. Its main trunk was nearly as thick as a man's waist, its dozens of branches twisted into bizarre shapes.
The root system nearly occupied more than half of the entire passage—it couldn't truly be called a tree; it should be considered a tree spirit. "Spirit!" Ye Qin exclaimed, nearly tumbling over in surprise.
Demonic beasts, rare birds, strange insects, and spirits—these were the four major categories of non-human sentient life in the cultivation world. Demonic beasts were those that walked the earth; rare birds were those that flew in the sky; strange insects could both fly and crawl.
Spirits referred to the lifeforms manifested by wood and stone; wood becoming a jing (spirit), and stone becoming a guai (monster). The first three categories were relatively common in the cultivation world, possessing the Five Elements attributes and the Three Oddities attributes.
However, spirits were extremely rare, appearing only in wood and earth attributes—they were sentient beings naturally nurtured by Heaven, things that one might encounter but could never seek out. At least, Ye Qin had only ever heard mentions of spirits existing in some anecdotal records from the Green Elixir Sect.
Ye Qin observed the ancient wood spirit with astonishment. It was different from what he had imagined.
He had expected the Wood Palace to house wood-elemental demonic beasts, but instead, a spirit had appeared. Furthermore, this was a spirit manifested from a willow tree, making it a Willow Spirit!
Ye Qin couldn't help but feel regret; items manifested this way could not be taken into the Purple Mansion. Otherwise, he would have had the impulse to dig up the entire wood spirit.
He summoned the Black Yin Sword and directed the flying sword to cleave towards the wood spirit. With a sharp "Clang!" sound, as if metal clashing against metal, the Black Yin Sword rebounded off the bark.
A shallow gash, about a chi long and several inches deep, was left on the willow spirit's bark. However, this attack barely affected the spirit; the willow spirit’s bark was thick and rough, harder than forged steel.
With a "Swish," the willow spirit wildly thrashed its dry branches, transforming them into countless sharp whips that lashed out at Ye Qin. Ye Qin rapidly flew backward, maneuvering out of the dense storm of tree whips.
The wood spirit possessed formidable defense but was extremely clumsy in its movements, lumbering slowly behind, unable to catch Ye Qin. He retracted the Yin Sword and switched to a fire-elemental Purple Saber to deal with this wood spirit monster, transforming it into a massive, ten-zhang-long blaze that slashed down.
The Purple Saber's power was clearly much greater; after a few strikes, it severed the willow wood spirit’s impossibly hard branches one by one. However, to Ye Qin's frustration, once the dozen or so branches were cut, the wood spirit's roots erupted from the ground with renewed vigor.
Slash away! There was no need to hold back against something manifested by a restrictive formation.
After hacking the willow wood spirit down, Ye Qin picked up a wooden gourd from the ground, tossed it directly into his storage bag without inspecting it. The Wood Palace did not contain treasure chests, but gourds.
He noted the time: destroying the wood spirit and cutting away all its roots had taken nearly half an hour. This was significantly longer than the time taken to deal with the third-tier fire beast in the Fire Palace, which had only taken a short while.
A flicker of anxiety touched him. The Wood Palace contained not just one or two wood spirits, but dozens.
If that were the case, just clearing out the wood spirits might take over a day. Each palace within the labyrinth only permitted a stay of one day; once the time was up, the passage would automatically close, and the cultivators inside would be automatically teleported out.
Many cultivators whose strength was insufficient ended up being delayed too long along the way and were eliminated. If he were to eliminate every wood spirit encountered along the passage, he would have no chance of reaching the end of the Wood Palace in time.
Ye Qin immediately abandoned the idea of clearing out every wood monster in the passage and focused on rushing towards the end of the Wood Palace by any means necessary. If there were any good items in the Wood Palace, they would surely be at the far end.
Furthermore, he wanted to reach the next palace, the Earth Palace, to see just how powerful the illusionary beasts manifested there would be. Naturally, he did not wish to be eliminated here in the Wood Palace.
After nearly a full day, Ye Qin consumed several medium gourds of spiritual wine, forcefully urging his mana, cutting through the spirits blocking the passage, and utilizing his full power with the Void-Shattering Flash, finally arriving just in time at the grand hall at the Wood Palace's terminus. At this moment, only half an hour remained before the Wood Palace was scheduled to close.
In the grand hall of the Wood Palace, in the center, stood a massive willow wood spirit. Around the hall, more than ten Foundation Establishment cultivators, dressed in various attire, were blocked from the path leading to the Earth Palace by this fifth-tier willow wood spirit.
Hanging from the spirit's massive trunk was a gleaming golden gourd. Only those who had arrived at the end of the Wood Palace by this time were either extremely powerful late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators or seasoned veterans who had entered the labyrinth multiple times.
They were all staring intently at the golden gourd, while cautiously watching the surrounding cultivators. Only these strongest individuals could arrive at the Wood Palace's end promptly.
Most other cultivators had been left behind somewhere along the path and couldn't reach the grand hall in time. Ye Qin swept a glance across the hall.
After a very brief moment of thought, he grasped the situation. If only one late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator were present, the five-tier spirit monster could probably be dealt with within the time it takes for one stick of incense to burn.
But the problem was that if anyone moved to eliminate the spirit and draw its attention, the other cultivators would likely take the opportunity to seize the treasure. Most of the cultivators present had concealed their identities and did not know one another.
No one was willing to break the deadlock and make the first move only to pave the way for someone else. Ye Qin coldly surveyed the situation in the hall and immediately positioned himself in an inconspicuous corner.
There were at least seven or eight late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators present; the golden gourd was certainly not for him. He decided to just watch the excitement and enter the Earth Palace later to see what the situation there was like.
The fact that Ye Qin, a mere first-layer Foundation Establishment cultivator, managed to arrive at the grand hall at the end of the Wood Palace in time surprised many of those present. However, everyone's attention was fixed on the gourd, leaving them little time to care how Ye Qin had reached this final destination of the Wood Palace.