Chapter 555 - Competing Arrays
When Mu Chen’s voice slowly rang within the region, it had expectedly filled the faces of quite a few people with shock. A few differing gazes locked on the slender figure of the youth. Only after quite a while did people start to secretly purse their lips as they muttered about the good show that they would truly be able to see today.
The groups that were able to be present here have all experienced many challenges and battles, and thus naturally possessed some schemes and plans of their own. From the looks of it, Xiao Huang had proclaimed about the traps that he had laid here, and was wanting to force Mu Chen into them. As long as the latter wasn’t an idiot, he should be extremely clearly about this. However, despite that, Mu Chen seemed to not give much hesitation before accepting the bet. There was likely two reasons that would lead him to do such a thing. One was that Mu Chen’s ego was so big that it had caused him to seemingly turn stupid, or that Mu Chen had similarly possessed some trump cards of his own…
One can very well eliminate the first reason. Being able to become the Captain of the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy meant that Mu Chen would absolutely not be an arrogant or haughty person. The upper echelons of the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy should not be stupid to the level of handing the position of Captain to Mu Chen if he was such a person. Therefore, the biggest reason why Mu Chen might dare to accept the bet would be that he wasn’t afraid of Xiao Huang.
From the looks of it, this youth, who’s cultivation was merely at the realm of Spiritual Energy Disaster, seemed to be not as simple as he appeared to be.
“That stupid idiot.” On the mountain peak in the distance, upon seeing that Mu Chen had actually chosen to accept the bet, Wu Yingying could not help clenching her teeth and curse out. Although she can be considered to have some level of understanding towards Mu Chen, from the looks of the current situation, as long as he entered that Spiritual Array, he might fall straight into the hands of Xiao Huang. After all, it was able to trap even Wen Qingxuan within. How much more would Mu Chen be able to accomplish?
“There’s no need to worry at such an early time of their bet,” said Wu Ling with a faint smile. Looking at the thin figure of the youth in the distance, he continued speaking. “Having crossed hands with him, I’ve a good understanding about Mu Chen. Regardless of what he wants to do, as long as he takes action, that would mean that he has some sort of plan within his heart. Although Xiao Huang had made an all-rounded preparation for this, wanting to devour Mu Chen might not be as easy as he think it would be.”
“He’s that formidable?” said Wu Yingying while pouting her lips. She knew how astute her brother’s eyesight was. Amongst their generation, there were truthfully not many that could be marked by him. In fact, he did not even see highly of those geniuses that the few Elders of their Martial Spiritual Academy have unending praise for.
“Haha. In actual fact, you should be extremely clear as to how Mu Chen’s exactly like. The only thing is that you’re not willing to accept it,” replied Wu Ling with a smile. Shooting a look at Wu Yingying, his his eyes faintly narrowed before asking, “However, why do you have so big of a resentment against him? Did he do something to you?”
Hearing her brother’s question, Wu Yingying’s lovable face instantly turned red before muttering in an unconfident manner. “Don’t say such stuff without having the proper understanding about the situation, okay?”
Hearing her reply, Wu Ling shrugged his shoulders why saying, “Although I hold that fellow in high regard, if he dares to bully my younger sister, you just have to tell me and I’ll make sure to tidy him up.”
“Who needs your help, hmph!” snapped Wu Yingying as she shot a glare at Wu Ling, before proceeding to shut her mouth. Staring at the thin figure in the far distance, she faintly clenched her teeth while thinking, That pervert!
While the Wu siblings were having their own private conversation, on the mountain peak that was radiating with spiritual light, upon hearing Mu Chen’s agreement for the bet, a faint smile instantly surfaced on the face of Xiao Huang. With a grin, he spoke with a sigh of admiration. “Captain Mu Chen is truly bold and courageous. I, Xiao Huang, admire you.”
Shooting a look at him, Mu Chen gave a faint laugh before replying, “Since Captain Xiao Huang’s intending to send me such a large present, how could I not accept it?”
“That would have to depend on your ability, Captain Mu Chen,” replied Xiao Huang with a smile, “You might not able to break this Spiritual Array just by using your mouth.”
Although the words coming from the two contain some friendly banter, one could clearly sense the extreme intent of confrontation present within.
Gently nodding his head, Mu Chen panned his head to shoot a look at Luo Li. Seeing this, the latter slightly nodded her head towards him while saying, “Be careful.”
Giving a smile, Mu Chen didn’t continue saying anymore words. With a move of his body, he transformed into a glowing shadow, shooting across the forest sea below, heading right towards the incomparably gigantic Spiritual Array present on the mountain peak.
As he neared the mountain peak, Mu Chen was able to sense the boundless Spiritual Energy fluctuations radiating from within the Spiritual Array. Instantly, he could not help slightly narrowing his eyes. The Spiritual Array before his eyes seemed to be even more tyrannical than the “Lesser Thousand Sword Spiritual Array” that he possessed. God-knows exactly how this Xiao Huang had managed to chance upon such an array formation.
Whoosh!
Although such thoughts appeared in his heart, Mu Chen didn’t show too much hesitation in his actions. Taking a step forward, he rushed straight towards the gigantic Spiritual Array under the attentive gazes of everyone present in the surroundings.
Upon rushing into the gigantic Spiritual Array, a billowing fog instantly appeared before Mu Chen’s eyes. This fog seemed to be formed by Spiritual Energy, making it impossible to be blown away. Furthermore, it had a strong effect of hampering one’s senses, causing people to be incapable of identifying the location and direction they were at.
As he entered the Spiritual Array, Mu Chen immediately came to a halt, not making any reckless or hot-headed rushes within here. Being a Spiritual Array Master, he knew that after entering a Spiritual Array, the ultimate taboo would be to become reckless and impulsive. Only by maintaining one’s composure would one be able to find the chance needed to break the array. Furthermore, this array seemed to not be a Spiritual Array that would launch a direct offensive, but more like a “Trapping Array.”
This so-called “Trapping Array” prioritized trapping and besiegement as its core. Naturally, this didn’t mean that it was easy to deal with an offensive Spiritual Array. On the contrary, it would cause an even bigger headache for people, as wanting to extricate oneself after being trapped in such a Spiritual Array would truly require one to expend an extremely gigantic amount of effort. Once one’s Spiritual Energy was consumed before one could break the Spiritual Array, one would truly become a fish on someone’s dinner plate.
From the outside of the gigantic Spiritual Array, everyone was able to see Mu Chen not moving an inch as he stood within, causing doubts to appear in quite a few people.
Nevertheless, while doubt and suspicion rose within the hearts of the onlookers, a faint wrinkle appeared on the forehead of Xiao Huang. This Mu Chen has indeed quite some attainments in the aspect of Spiritual Arrays. Nevertheless, he wasn’t worried about that, as he was extremely confident towards his own attainments in the aspect of Spiritual Arrays. He did not believe that Mu Chen would be able to exceed him in this aspect.
“Haha. This Spiritual Array of mine is called the Heaven Binding Spiritual Array, Captain Mu Chen. This array’s forte isn’t in its offensive capabilities. However, the people that have entered it would become trapped akin to sinking into a quagmire, forever being unable to extricate themselves, all till their Spiritual Energy is totally consumed. If Captain Mu Chen’s unable to break the array, you just have to say the word and hand the item to me, and I’ll release all of you.”
Xiao Huang’s voice reverberated across the entire region, ringing into the Spiritual Array and entering Mu Chen’s ears.
Giving no care towards Xiao Huang, Mu Chen raised his head to look towards the bright and resplendent Spiritual Array around him. Upon entering its interior, he could feel as if his body had become heavy, as if a mountain range was pressing down on his body. Furthermore, he could also sense an increase in loss of the Spiritual Energy present within his body.
“Heaven Binding Spiritual Array, huh… truly a bold claim.”
As Mu Chen muttered to himself, he proceeded to stride forward, taking step after step towards the depth of the Spiritual Array.
In the outside world, everyone’s gaze was tightly locked on the figure of Mu Chen.
Seeing this, a faint smile appeared on Xiao Huang’s face. The deeper Mu Chen moves within his Spiritual Array, the stronger the binding was on his body, while the loss of Spiritual Energy would become even greater. Furthermore, the Spiritual Array arranged by him wasn’t that simple as what Mu Chen had thought…
“Wanting to break my Spiritual Array… I’m afraid that you’re too naive,” muttered Xiao Huang. Tightly locking his eyes on Mu Chen as he strode forward, a chilling smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
Under the attentive gazes of everyone, Mu Chen took approximately a few hundred steps forward, before coming to an abrupt halt. Looking at the complicated Spiritual Array covered in glowing patterns all around him, his eyes slightly narrowed. Relying on his attainments in Spiritual Arrays, he could faintly discern that the array patterns present in this location of the Spiritual Array seemed to be somewhat different from the rest.
Having locked his gaze right onto Mu Chen, Xiao Huang’s gaze slightly contracted upon seeing Mu Chen take an abrupt halt in his stride.
Looking at the array patterns sparkling with radiance that were all around him, Mu Chen’s gaze slightly sparkled, before suddenly taking a seat down. Slowly closing his eyes, his mind started to slowly calm down, with any commotion in the outside world being isolated from him at this very moment.
Within the depths of his inner mind, a mysterious eye seemed to start to quietly open up.
This was his Heart’s Eye.
As his Heart's Eye sprung open, although Mu Chen had yet to open his fleshly eyes, the surrounding environment had already been imprinted in his heart. Furthermore, everything appeared even more transparent, with his gaze completely penetrating through the voluminous Spiritual Fog present around him. One after another, the complicated array patterns were absorbed by his Heart's Eye, before being slowly understood and deciphered by him.
Under the activation of his Heart's Eye, Mu Chen was finally able to discover the differences present at this place. So it turned out that there were two offensive Spiritual Arrays concealed right before him. Although these two Spiritual Arrays weren’t as strong as the “Heaven Binding Spiritual Array”, they would absolutely cause serious injuries to him if he was unable to put up his defenses in time.
This Xiao Huang’s truly crafty to actually hide Spiritual Arrays within a Spiritual Array!
“Spiritual Arrays within a Spiritual Array, huh…”
A sneer rang within Mu Chen heart before springing his eyes open. Standing up, he took a step forward.
Having turned cold due to Mu Chen’s sudden stop, upon seeing the former take a step forward, a shade of happiness filled with chilling intent instantly flashed across Xiao Huang’s face.
Bang!
Suddenly, spiritual light sparkled within the Spiritual Array, before two Spiritual Arrays surfaced quietly from within the Spiritual Fog.
Being concealed by the Spiritual Fog, those two Spiritual Arrays were impossible to be detected by Mu Chen, yet everyone present outside were able to clearly spot them, causing their faces to instantly change. Clearly, all of them understood how crafty and vicious this hidden move of Xiao Huang was…
Naturally, wanting to arrange such an array within an array would require an extremely strong level of control. This caused quite a few people to feel astonished by the attainments Xiao Huang had in the aspect of Spiritual Arrays.
Bang!
As the faces of the crowd outside slightly changed, the concealed Spiritual Arrays had already started to reveal themselves. As Spiritual Energy fluctuations converged together, in the next instant, two frightening attacks that were more than sufficient to cause serious injuries to Mu Chen had already howled.
Whoosh!
However, just as these two concealed Spiritual Arrays were about to become fully activated, suddenly, two incomparably fierce rays of Spiritual Energy had shot out. Like bolts of lightning, they heavily struck against the two Spiritual Arrays. The attack by these two rays of Spiritual Energy was extremely crafty, smashing right against the weakest and frailest point on the two Spiritual Arrays.
Bang!
Therefore, the two Spiritual Arrays instantly froze, before cracks started to rapidly spread and extend across them. In the end, they completely exploded apart, sending Spiritual Energy storms billowing out, scattering much of the Spiritual Fog present around them.
“Hua.”
Cries of astonishment and shock instantly rang from outside of the Spiritual Array, with the sneer present on Xiao Huang’s face starting to slowly freeze.
As they looked over, they noticed that Mu Chen had maintained a posture with his two fingers pointed out. As of now, the brilliance of Spiritual Energy was still sparkling fervent on his fingertips. Clearly, the incomparably fierce rays of Spiritual Energy was launched by him.
“Formidable. He had actually seen through Xiao Huang’s scheme.”
Shock filled the hearts of quite a few people. This move by Xiao Huang was obscure and vicious. If they were to be in the shoes of Mu Chen, all of them would admit that they would absolutely be unable to evade the attacks from the two Spiritual Arrays. However, as of now, Mu Chen had actually took decisive action at the most crucial instant and instantly destroyed them by snatching the advantage of time. Such acute senses and method used was more than sufficient to cause shock and astonishment to appear in their hearts.
From the looks of it, both Mu Chen and Xiao Huang were mutually planning against each other. However, it was clear that Mu Chen had won the earlier engagement.
Under the countless astonished gazes coming from the surrounding area, Mu Chen slowly raised his head and shot a faint smile towards the direction of Xiao Huang.
“Your array within an array’s still lacking in maturity.”
Hearing that, Xiao Huang’s face instantly turned chilly.