Chapter 84: Return to the academy and obtain treasures continuously!
Endless thick clouds covered the left, right and back; only the road ahead was visible.

There is a gate archway several dozen feet high with four characters carved in ancient Chinese characters on it: Dameng Academy
“This time I came in, it felt different.”

“It seems like I can see farther and perceive more clearly.”

"I think there should be something I can reach this time. It's better to just give me the treasure instead of using the inquiry platform..."

Thinking silently in his heart, Zhao Xing strolled in the clouds and passed the gate of the academy.

Just like the first time, many precious places flashed before my eyes.

[The Hall of Samsara], [The Platform of Questioning the Heart], [The Tower of the God of War], [The Secret Treasure of Magic], [The Pavilion of Heavenly Secrets], [The Palace of Sacred Beasts], [The Palace of Life]… pavilions, towers, palaces, corridors and overpasses are arranged in an orderly manner, with mountains upon mountains and clouds shrouded in mist, as if you are in a fairyland.

However, as we got closer, these places disappeared into the clouds one by one.

Wait, wait quietly.

In anticipation, a palace enlarged in his eyes, shining with golden light, and finally became completely stable.

"Hmm? It's not the Heart-Searching Platform, this is... the Heavenly Works Hall?"

Zhao Xing looked around the palace. He didn't expect that after entering, what appeared was not the Platform of Inquiry, but the Hall of Heavenly Crafts.

"There are many treasures in the Tiangong Hall, but they are not distributed in many places. It depends on which side hall I enter."

Zhao Xing said secretly, then stepped into the palace.

As soon as you enter, a cloud of mist gushes out from the surroundings, then disperses, slowly revealing the real scene.

"Student Zhao Xing, welcome to Xuanji Hall."

A low voice came from the clouds ahead, and then a strange beast slowly walked out.

It is as big as a bull and similar to a unicorn, with thick black hair all over its body, bright eyes, a silver horn on its forehead, and it speaks human language.

After Zhao Xing saw the appearance of the strange beast clearly, he was slightly stunned.

Mechanical beast Xiezhi? I actually came to Xuanji Pavilion?

"Greetings, Guardian." Zhao Xing bowed quickly.

He was no stranger to Xuanji Pavilion. This Xiezhi was its guardian, and it also had another nickname: the magic beast.

Xiezhi is very intelligent and understands human language and human nature. The national treasure of many dynasties has changed from Qilin to Xuanniao, from real dragon to phoenix. But the status of Xiezhi has never changed. It is a national treasure in every dynasty.

It is also the guardian of the country. Although the one in front of us is not a real magical beast Xiezhi, but just a mechanical beast, it contains the spirituality of the magical beast inside, and its body is made of ninth-level materials, which is no different from the real one.

The magic beast Xiezhi took a look at Zhao Xing and said: "You are only in the middle stage of Ju Yuan. The only place suitable for you to challenge is this Xuanji Pavilion."

Zhao Xing listened quietly.

"The way of heavenly craftsmanship, the explanation of multiplication and division, the pursuit of the source of creation, the mechanism array inside mainly tests the students' wisdom and ability of deduction and calculation, the mechanism array combines the five elements, the heavenly stems and the earthly branches."

"With each level, the difficulty will double, but the rewards will also double."

"If you can reach the end of Xuanji Pavilion, you can get a copy of 'Rare Treasure'."

The magical beast Xiezhi introduced it.

Zhao Xing couldn't help but feel his heart beating fast.

A rare treasure!
The grades of treasures range from level one to level nine, and there are also "rare treasures" and "unparalleled treasures" above them.

The so-called rare treasures are treasures that are very rare within a dynasty of one thousand years. There will not be too many of them, only a few digits at most.

As for the rare and precious treasures, they cannot be found in the world today and are passed down from ancient times.

Why was Zhao Xing so excited?
Because during this period, the Daming Academy had not yet been plundered by Emperor Wu, and these checkpoints had not changed much!

He had passed all these levels in his previous life!
"The first level is ahead, the Xuanji Gate."

Xiezhi breathed gently, and then the fog in front dissipated, revealing a peculiarly shaped wooden door.

"The Xuanji Gate has three locks on it. Open the locks and you'll pass the first level."

Zhao Xing suppressed his inner excitement, bowed, and walked over.

The wooden door is five meters high and eight meters wide. The reason why it is said to have a unique shape is that it is completely embedded in the wall with no gaps.

The rest of the place is extremely smooth, and there is no visible crack at all. There are three parts at a height of one meter.

Two of them stand out.

One is shaped like a bull's head, and the other is shaped like a snake.

One is embedded in the door, forming a plum blossom pattern.

"Zhaoyang Plum Blossom Lock, Chongguang Ox Head Lock, Huangluo Snake Lock." Zhao Xing couldn't help but smile when he looked at the three mechanism locks.

Although he was not well versed in the art of mechanisms, he knew the answer.

Even know more than one solution.

Keep this in mind when you were a player, but it works just as well now, because this type of mechanism lock does not involve the use of your own energy.

Xiezhi also said that what is tested is the students' wisdom and calculation ability, as well as their understanding of the knowledge of the Five Elements and Heavenly Stems.

"The Zhaoyang Plum Blossom Lock and the Chongguang Ox Head Lock are both Heavenly Stem Locks, while the Huangluo Snake Lock is an Earthly Branch Lock."

"These most basic parts are combined into a lock in a unique way. Each part needs to be moved to the corresponding position to unlock it."

Zhao Xing first untied the ox-head buckle.

He pushed with his left hand and adjusted the position of the bull head buckle so that one bull head moved downward and the other faced him.

The wall seemed to be soft, and the bull's head could move inside without any restriction, but it was impossible to pull it open with great force.

Zhao Xing kept his left hand still and operated with his right hand only, pulling the bull head held in his right hand back until it reached the 'upper chapter' position, which is one third of the Kun position.

Then make the bull head in the right hand turn upwards slightly, and the bull head below will rotate accordingly, forming an upper and lower layout.

At this time, the bull head in the lower Kun position has been detached, but it is still not released.

The bull head in the upper chapter position should also be moved to the 're-light' position, which is the 'shock position.'

Then rotate it down to two-thirds of the way to the shock point and try to pull it outward.

"Kakakaka~"

The two bull heads immediately shrank back into the door, and a faint blue light flashed, indicating that one of the locks had been unlocked.

"It's still the fastest to use the Ganzhi method. I've figured it out!"

Clapping his hands, Zhao Xing walked to the other side of the Huangluo Snake Lock.

The snake-shaped lock is placed horizontally on the door, is about three feet long, and is made up of secret round beads.

"The Huangluo Snake Lock has 146 active beads and nine fixed beads. There are not many ways to combine them. Half of them are hidden inside the door. This is where the difficulty lies." Zhao Xing began to grope for the location of the fixed beads.

The key to unlocking the snake-shaped lock is to find the nine beads and restore them to their original positions.

"Luckily, I'm the only one here and no one is bothering me." Zhao Xing recalled some interesting things while unlocking the door.

It is very interesting to pass this level. The snake lock will be restored at zero point, ensuring that four fixed beads are exposed outside.

This is the initial difficulty of the first level.

However, if the first person of the day deliberately makes trouble and hides the fixed bead, or if there is an idiot who gets angry at the snake-shaped lock and moves the live bead randomly, then it will be more difficult for the people who come after to unlock the lock, which will definitely cause trouble for others.

So every time it is 0 o'clock, there will be a queue here, trying to be the first to solve the problem, so as not to let others cause trouble for themselves, and then cause trouble for others.

"Done!" After fumbling for a while, Zhao Xing put the nine beads back into place.

Hiss~ The snake-shaped lock quickly retracted into the door, and a blue light appeared at its original position.

"Not bad, quite talented." Xiezhi looked at Zhao Xing's movements and nodded slightly. "It seems that the first level is not difficult for him."

The first two locks were unlocked so quickly, so the last one obviously wouldn't be a problem either.

There is only one left, the Zhaoyang Plum Blossom Lock.

It is also the most difficult of the three locks.

"The nine-petal plum blossom needs to be restored once. Fortunately, there is only the Zhaoyang position in the Heavenly Stems, so the difficulty is much smaller. If it were more difficult, it would have to correspond to the Heavenly Stems inside and the time outside, which would be troublesome." Zhao Xing thought for a moment, then lightly touched one of the petals of the plum blossom.

After pressing it, a sound came from inside. Zhao Xing listened carefully and then continued with the second one.

The first step is screening.

Among the nine petals of a plum blossom, there must be one petal that is in the Zhaoyang position.

Since each petal needs to be restored, you have to find the first petal and move it away, but you can't move it randomly. You must remember the direction of movement in order, otherwise you may only restore one petal.

After finding the location, Zhao Xing began to unlock it.

After ten breaths.

"Om~"

The plum blossoms light up blue one by one, then expand and bloom.

"Kakakaka~"

The gate began to shrink to the sides.

First level, passed!

"Student Zhao Xing, congratulations on passing the first level of Xuanji Hall." The magic beast Xiezhi came over, "You have been rewarded with the fourth-level 'Five Organs Eliminating Evil Pill'." "The Five Organs Eliminating Evil Pill can enhance your internal training skills, strengthen your organs, and recover faster, while also making it easier to cast spells."

"If you practice a technique that absorbs evil spirits, you can also enhance the resistance of your five internal organs to evil spirit fire."

After saying that, the Xiezhi opened its mouth and a five-colored pill flew out of its stomach.

Zhao Xing took it with both hands: "Thank you."

Looking at this Five Organs Pill, he couldn't help but sigh that the Dameng Academy was really high-end. Even for such a small first level, it actually directly awarded a fourth-level pill.

If it had become the 'Yunmeng Academy' during the Emperor Wu period, then at most the first or second tier treasures would have been given as rewards for this first level.

One is elitist, the other is civilian, so the rewards are naturally not comparable.

"Do we still want to continue to challenge the level?" asked Xiezhi.

"Yes, the student wants to continue." Zhao Xing nodded.

"Hu~" Xiezhi blew a breath forward, and it seemed as if a strong wind blew around, and clouds and mist rolled.

Zhao Xing was also blown by the wind and moved quickly. When he calmed down and looked, the scene had changed drastically.

"The second level, the secret box."

"There are four secret boxes in front of you, divided into four levels: A, B, C, and D. They contain treasures of different qualities."

"The Heavenly Secret Box has no lock or buckle. It is sealed with a formation. If you are a mechanism master, you can try to unlock it with the formation."

"If you want to break open the four Heavenly Secret Boxes by force, you will need your spells and martial arts to reach the initial stage of Spiritual Bridge, the middle stage of Spiritual Bridge, the late stage of Spiritual Bridge, and the perfect stage of Spiritual Bridge respectively."

The magic beast Xiezhi refers to the realm of cultivation of the Dali Dynasty, that is, the realm of ancient law.

The Juyuan Realm corresponds to the ninth grade, and the Lingqiao Realm corresponds to the eighth grade.

Ju Yuan is easy to understand. It means absorbing the vital energy of heaven and earth and condensing the vital energy to cultivate oneself.

In the Spirit Bridge Realm, a spiritual bridge between heaven and earth is built within the Dantian, connecting heaven and earth. This allows one to more clearly perceive the power of the five elements between heaven and earth, while also speeding up the absorption of vital energy, allowing it to circulate endlessly.

The characteristics of the realm are the same, but they are called differently in different dynasties.

"To brute force a Class A box, one needs to reach the perfect attack standard of the Spiritual Bridge Realm." Zhao Xing thought to himself, "It's a bit more difficult."

When he passed this level in his previous life, the first-class box only required the standard of the middle stage of the Lingqiao realm.

However, no matter whether it is the Dameng Academy or the Yunmeng Academy, the requirement is not combat power, as long as the single value of "attack power" meets the standard.

In other words, the lethality of a single spell only needs to be enough to break down the defense of the box, and it does not need to be comparable to the "Spirit Bridge Realm".

According to the standards of the Great Zhou cultivation system, reaching the ninth level in a single mid-level spell or martial art is a sign of the eighth level.

The eighth rank and above only expand the scope of intermediate spells.

A person of the eighth rank (Spirit Bridge Perfection) usually has multiple intermediate-level perfect spells or secret techniques, or even self-created spells, breaking through the limit of the Nine Revolutions. Moreover, they can be combined with each other to be more comprehensive, and their combat effectiveness is naturally higher.

At the lower eighth level (late stage of Lingqiao), one will know many intermediate-level nine-turn spells or secret techniques.

From the ninth rank to the eighth rank, their vitality has not changed qualitatively, but their physical body will be stronger. Of course, there is a big difference between the eighth and ninth ranks of warriors, but the difference is smaller for magic professions.

As for whether a single spell of nine transformations can be considered as an eighth-grade combat power, that depends on the specific circumstances.

For example, now, the four boxes A, B, C, and D are all made of special wood. If you only know the "earth magic", you can only watch helplessly.

Because among the Five Elements, wood overcomes earth, even if you know seven or eight kinds of earth techniques and all of them have reached the intermediate level of perfection, you still cannot break them with brute force.

"My thunder method has only nine turns, and it is not yet complete. I don't know if I can break it." Zhao Xing thought to himself. In terms of attack power, thunder method is of course the most powerful. Although ice rain is at the maximum level, in this situation, what is needed is an explosive attack, and ice rain probably cannot reach the critical value.

Moreover, the systems of Dali and Dazhou are different, and he doesn't know whether it will work.

The so-called array text is the code to unlock the box.

In the art of mechanism, formation texts are more advanced application techniques.

The secret boxes now were not the secret boxes from the Emperor Wu period that he was familiar with, so the "passwords" were naturally not the same.

"Moving clouds!" Zhao Xing stretched out his hand and pointed, and clouds suddenly appeared above his head.

Because the understanding of magic is rooted in the soul, magic can also be cast in the Daming Academy.

In the future, if your vitality undergoes a qualitative change, you can also use more advanced guiding talismans and soul-soothing talismans to bring in your own combat power to pass the levels.

"Draw thunder!"

A bolt of lightning fell from the clouds.

Knowing that his thunder magic had not yet reached perfection, Zhao Xing could only work on his control techniques.

“BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!”

Nine consecutive thunderbolts struck the same place on the mystery box, trying to break the box open.

"Is it broken?"

Zhao Xing took a closer look and found that the secret box was only charred a little and was still far from being broken.

"Forget it, no need to waste time on this level."

Zhao Xing quickly gave up on cracking the Class A box.

Even if you don’t get the highest reward in the second level now, you can try it again later.

"Boom!"

Two bolts of lightning easily broke open boxes C and D.

As for the B-grade mystery box, it took some more time.

"What's in the box?"

The secret box was not big, only half a meter long, and the ankle was thick, so it was naturally impossible to put anything big in it. The three items that came out of it were small.

However, the treasure is not judged by size, but by quality.

When Zhao Xing broke through, three balls of light immediately floated in front of him.

"Wind crystal earrings, third-grade top grade, made from wind crystal jade, a specialty of Fenghe Cave Heaven. Wearing them can enhance hearing."

"Earthly Evil Pill, third-grade superior grade, contains a wisp of Earthly Evil, which can be used to cleanse the internal organs."

"Giant Whale Pill, a fourth-level mid-grade product, is made from the flesh and blood of deep-sea giant whales combined with third-level herbs. After taking it, it can strengthen the body and make one's strength infinite. Especially the lungs. After taking the Giant Whale Pill at the Ju Yuan Realm, one can dive a thousand meters underwater with only the body."

The voice of Xiezhi sounded, introducing the three treasures one by one.

I don’t know if it’s because of the brute force cracking, but these three are basically things used by warriors.

Zhao Xing heard this and started to wonder in his heart: They are all practicing physical training, but is my good Si Nong going to take the route of physically conquering others?

But the things they give are really good. It’s just the second level, but they give such good things.

Zhao Xing couldn't help but sigh that the elites of Dali ate really well.

You have to know that these three things have relatively unique functions among the third and fourth levels, and they are not common stuff.

The Disha physical training and the giant whale strength-enhancing effects also come with an underwater effect. As for the wind crystal earrings, they can even enhance hearing, which can be said to be quite practical.

"Student Zhao Xing, do you want to continue to the third level?"

"Yes, the student wants to continue." Zhao Xing broke the box of Grade B and obtained the qualification to move on.

If you only break through levels C and D, you won't be able to proceed to the third level.

"Om~"

The clouds and mist rolled again, and Zhao Xing felt himself being blown away by the wind again. The next moment, he came between two walls.

"The third level is called the Mechanical Maze."

"The maze has many mechanisms, some visible and some hidden, and they are movable. You need to find the rules yourself to deal with those mechanisms and move around in the maze."

Xiezhi introduced: "If you walk into the maze entrance and come out within four hours, you will be rewarded with a fourth-level treasure."

"If you come out within two hours, you will be rewarded with a fifth-level treasure."

"If you come out within an hour, you will be rewarded with a sixth-level treasure."

"If you haven't come out in four hours, it will be considered a failure."

Zhao Xing blinked his eyes. A maze of mechanisms that could give out a sixth-tier treasure as a reward?!
This is much better than the Yunmeng Academy during the reign of Emperor Wu!

The highest reward during Emperor Wu's time was only a fourth-tier treasure!

I just don't know if the mechanism maze has been simplified. If it hasn't been simplified, it means the difficulty is the same, so I'll really make a fortune this time... Zhao Xing felt a little excited.

Xiezhi looked at Zhao Xing with some confusion in his eyes. He didn't know what he was so excited about. Was he scared?

Xiezhi even explained: "The maze is not dangerous. You can go in without worry. If you fail, you will just fall into a coma for three days at most. You don't have to worry about your safety."

Zhao Xing bowed and said, "Thank you for the reminder, Guardian."

"go in."

"Yes." Zhao Xing stepped into the maze.

Xiezhi blew a breath, and the maze of mechanisms suddenly started to move.

(End of this chapter)