Chapter 52: Wangmu Poolside Enlightenment of Heavenly Dao

  It was not just Liu Yi who discovered the anomaly of the Stone Forest, but everyone was stunned by its arrangement.

  Due to their geographical location being higher than the lowlands, they can roughly see the vague overall appearance of the Stone Forest. The strange rocks in the Stone Forest are black on the left and white on the right, densely arranged in a pattern resembling two fish. It is similar to the strange Taiji yin-yang fish pattern that Liu Yi and others saw on the gate before entering the Shibei Temple. In the center of the Stone Forest, there is a tall stone pillar with a plate-like pool on top, somewhat like the Chonglu Plate built by Emperor Wu of Han.

  Wasn't Hanwu Dadi imitating this thing when he built the Chenglu Plate?

  Only ghosts know!

  Shilin and the central altar, if drawn as a plane graph, would look like a giant eye, standing quietly there, as if watching the sky and observing the heavenly way.

  "Ah, this is the legendary Taiji Yin Yang Fish Formation!" Keksi nodded and continued: "Legend has it that the Western Queen Mother raised two strange fish before she attained enlightenment, one black and one white. One day, she sat by the pond, watching the fish chase each other's tails in the water. They swam very fast, but could never catch each other's tails. In her eyes, although the fish were moving, the scene seemed to be static. This dynamic yet static movement made the Holy Mother feel that it contained the ultimate truth of heaven and earth. She hypothesized that if the two fish moved in a straight line, then in her mind, the scene would be dynamic; but if they rotated in a circular motion and bit each other's tails, then the scene would be static, and this dynamic yet static feeling could not be formed. Suddenly, she had an epiphany: just because you can't see the movement of a volcano before it erupts doesn't mean it's not moving; what you see as a still flower bud is actually secretly moving and brewing to open. She discovered that everything in the world is both static and dynamic, changing and moving in silence. Based on this theory, she came to understand the movements of the sun and moon, the changes of all things, and thus formed her own Daoist theory, known as Yin Yang. At that time, there was no word for 'Dao', but when she thought about this problem while walking, she created the character for 'Dao' by adding a big head to the character for 'walk'. In fact, it can be said that the theory created by the Western Queen Mother is Daoist theory, and the Erlang Shengjiao sect founded by her twelve disciples should be considered the ancestor of Daoism, also known as Ancient Daoism."

  As soon as this was said, everyone was shocked. However, Professor Zhou Tao nodded thoughtfully and analyzed: "No matter how many branches of Taoism there are today, their theoretical foundation is the Huang-Lao academic theory. But who did the Yellow Emperor learn from? There have been many people suspicious of this in history, and there should be a source before him. For example, Guo Moruo was one of those who held a skeptical view. Folk myths passed down that Xi Wangmu sent the Nine Heavens Xuan Nü to help the Yellow Emperor, and also brought some scriptures with her. It seems that part of the Yellow Emperor's ideas are also related to Xi Wangmu. Moreover, Xi Wangmu's country is located in the Western Regions, which has less communication with the Central Plains people, so this secret is rarely known, and it is also very likely. Regardless of whether what Kekexi said is true or false, this legend still makes sense!"

  Everyone listened to Professor Zhou Tao's analysis, nodding their heads in admiration. At this time, Liu Yi asked Ke Kexi: "What is the Taiji Yin Yang Fish Array Method?"

  Korksi smiled: "This is not very clear, but the formation guards a place called the Altar of Resurrection. Have you seen that tall jade stone pillar? I suppose the huge plate-like pool on top is the Pool of Resurrection!"

  Liu Yi's heart skipped a beat when he heard this, and he said: "If it is the Resurrection Altar, then Wang Mang's men came to attack the 12 Guqiang tribes in order to come to this place. If that's really the case, then those legends might actually be true!"

  Keke gave him a sideways glance and said irritably, "It's true anyway!"

  Malacca said: "How did another resurrection pool come out? Aren't we looking for the Queen Mother's Longevity Pool?"

  Professor Zhou repeated thoughtfully what Kexi had said when they first entered the underground palace of Xiangyang Jade: "Under the guidance of a Tongtian tree, the living and dead Shibishi finally saw the light and came before the Holy Mother. They knelt devoutly by the pool, watching as the Sun Mother 'resurrected' their deceased companions and receiving the holy water bestowed by the Holy Mother..."

  Malacca heard the professor say this, and suddenly stopped speaking. Everyone also remembered at once, it seems that the legendary Black Widow Spider guarding the road to the Longevity Pool is actually referring to the Resurrection Pool.

  But these are their own speculations about their inner selves, and as for the truth or falsehood of this, it remains to be investigated.

  As they spoke, they had already walked down the mountain slope and into a dense thicket of grass. The path they were taking was one that had been opened up by the group of foreign wizards, so it was extremely easy to walk on.

  After more than ten minutes, they successfully crossed the grass thicket and arrived in front of the stone forest.

  When they arrived at the Stone Forest, they finally discovered that the strange rocks that made up the entire Stone Forest were actually all sheep-headed human statues of varying sizes. They looked similar to the stone-like ones they saw when they first entered the sacrificial island of Lake Heart Island, but the statues here were several times larger than those on Lake Heart Island.

  The "black fish pattern" in the entire Tai Chi yin-yang fish array is composed of black-bodied and white-eyed sheep-headed human carvings, while the composition of the "white fish pattern" is a carving with a white body and black eyes.

  But viewed from a distance, these statues don't seem to produce the same illusion as when Liu Yi and others first entered Lake Heart Island, nor do they exude that ancient religious aura.

  Malacca looked at the carvings, a look of sudden realization on his face. "Ah oh... I know! These aren't the black and white incarnations of the Qixing Yangyangshen that Kexi was talking about?"

  Professor Zhou nodded and said, "It seems that the key part of this so-called Taiji Yin Yang Fish Formation is this statue. There's no need to worry, it's just a dead formation!"

  "What is Shizhen?" Malacca scratched his head and asked strangely.

  Professor Zhou stroked his beard and chuckled, "In ancient times, there were many formations, but they can be summarized into two categories: dead formations and live formations. Live formations are named as such because they use living people or animals to form the array. They can be further divided into two types: human arrays and beast arrays. Human arrays refer to the tactics used on the battlefield where soldiers are deployed using command flags to fight against the enemy, suitable for large-scale battles. The goose formation and cone-shaped formation often seen in ancient battlefields belong to this type of array. Beast arrays, on the other hand, involve deploying animals to kill enemies, which is relatively rare. Legend has it that during the Warring States period, there was a 'fire cow array' that was extremely powerful. However, the person who deploys such an array must be proficient in animal language, so it's rarely seen in history!"

  Malacca asked again: "Then what is a dead array?"

  "The formation of the 'dead array' is relatively simple, generally using geographical features such as mountains, rivers, strange rocks and forests, and employing methods like the Five Elements, Yin-Yang, Nine Palaces numerology, Plum Blossom divination, etc. to lay down a bewildering formation. It's usually used to defend against enemies, but if someone is hiding in ambush or manipulating certain mechanisms within the array, it can also be called a 'dead man's array'. This type of formation is even more frightening than a simple dead array, not only can it block the enemy, but also take advantage of their unpreparedness to launch a sneak attack and kill them!"

  Malacca suddenly asked: "What about the Exterminating Immortal Sword Formation that appeared on the Divine List?"

  Professor Zhou looked at him and then raised his head to glance at the sky: "Can the immortal family's formation be something that we ordinary people can comprehend?"

  Malacca against the law, one does not understand, he still thinks that these things in front of him are just stones, after entering, along a straight road, it is definitely possible to reach the center, listening to Professor Zhou Tao's words is quite complicated, but I don't know what situation will arise when entering.

  Professor Zhou smiled and said, "The formation in front of us has been here for thousands of years. Even if there are mechanisms inside, they should be mostly damaged by now. At most, it's just a maze to block our progress, no need to worry so much!"

  Is it really like this?

  Unknown quantity!

  Suddenly, Liu Yi furrowed his brow in the darkness and looked around, saying: "Where are Lu Zonghan and Men Hulu?"

  It was only then that everyone realized that the two of them had disappeared at some point, probably when they were attracted by these statues and slipped away.

  Professor Zhou Tao thought: "It's understandable that Meng Hu Lu is anxious to avenge, but how did Lu Zonghan also leave the team?"

  Malacca shouted loudly: "Don't care about them, let's enter this so-called formation! I want to see how powerful this formation is!"

  His words had just fallen when a mournful cry was heard from the depths of the stone forest, and the sound wave of the cry was echoed and cut by the stone statues in the forest, transmitted to Liu Yi's ears, becoming extremely weak and fragmented, like the trembling sound emitted by a tape recorder when it is about to run out of power, making everyone's hair stand on end.

  Then they heard intense gunfire, which should be the foreign wizard team encountering something and breaking out in fierce battle. However, the gunfire only lasted for a few seconds before being suddenly cut off, stopping abruptly, and then falling into silence.

  Liu Yi and others looked at each other, with a serious expression on their faces, they walked into the strange stone forest from an entrance.

  ……

  Entering the Stone Forest Array, along a small path, walking for about five minutes, nothing unusual appeared, only that the statues here are densely arranged, without any gaps, and the statues are extremely tall, walking inside really feels like entering a maze.

  They walked for another distance and then they entered a dead end!

  Professor Zhou looked at the statue blocking the road in front of him and said, "Before entering the formation, I took a look at the sky. The center of this formation is exactly under the Tianquan star, which is the middle one of the seven stars of the Big Dipper. Let's move forward with the stars as our reference!"

  "Ah!" Malacca heard him say that, naturally raised his head to look at the sky, unfortunately, it was already overcast with dark clouds, and even the initial twinkling stars were no longer visible.

  "Damn it!" Malacca cursed the heavens, then said: "What ji ba maze, we directly climb up these statues, and advance on them, isn't that enough!"

  He said, biting his flashlight in his mouth, and quickly climbed up a nearby black stone statue.

  "Preposterous!" Professor Zhou shouted.

  But what he said was not as fast as the Malacca's crawling. At this time, Malacca had already proudly stood on the head of a statue, and then heard his mother yelling, and directly jumped down.

  As soon as he landed, he shouted: "Run quickly!"

  The crowd didn't go to ask him what he had seen, and they ran wildly along the road they came from. As they were running, they heard a continuous "heh-heh" sound coming from behind, followed by a series of "thud-thud" sounds, as if something had jumped down from the statue.

  When they entered the small path, they kept moving forward along a road. When they ran back and forth, however, they found that the road they had taken was winding and twisted, with no sense of direction. They were like headless flies crashing around in the stone forest, often encountering dead ends and having to retreat and find another opening to crawl through. The cackling sound behind them, although distant, never stopped calling out, and seemed to be following them all along.

  At this time they drilled into a small path again, Liu Yi asked Ma Liuka: "What did you see!"

  "Human skull!" Malacca yelled as he ran.

  Liu Yi shouted: "What's so scary about a skull? Didn't you claim to have crawled out of a pile of dead people?"

  "This is true, but have you ever seen a dead person move? That man's head not only moved, but his eyes were also bright red, it was terrifying! We didn't see any of these ghostly things on the mountain slope, and we don't know where they came from!"

  Malacca shouted loudly as he turned a corner, suddenly slammed on the brakes and stopped running. There were too many dead ends here, they were lucky enough to enter another one again.

  And at this time, those chuckles were getting closer and closer...

  Liu Yi drew out the obsidian sword, slowly turning his head back, under the light of the lamp, white human skulls could be seen in the distance, one by one jumping and skipping around the bend, jumping towards them.

  That person's skull, with eerie red glows flickering within his eyes!

  Everyone retreated to the corner, watching the approaching skull getting closer and closer, feeling a chill in their hearts.

  Moreover, it seemed as if they heard a chuckling sound coming from the statue standing at their current location.