The game starts with escaping from the famine and flipping the table

The mountains and rivers are exhausted and there is no way out.

Su Xiaoya, Yu Shuheng and their group finally found a hidden tunnel to leave the strange cave - the "Demon God's Green Coffin Secret Realm", but ended up falling into another mysterious secret realm.

Oh! This feels like a nesting doll.

This is a body of water, but it is not Tanggu, nor Wenyuan Minghai. It is an unfamiliar sea area. To be precise, it is an ancient city in the sea.

Su Xiaoya knew that it would be very difficult for her group to return to Tanggu safely.

At this moment, Su Xiaoya's fingertips were clasping half of a bronze talisman on her waist. The cool touch came through her dark tights, and she barely suppressed the anxiety surging in her heart.

She looked back and saw twelve figures leaving shallow traces in the dark blue water. Mu Yu's white shirt was rustling in the current. Mu Mianmian clutched her brother Mu Yu's sleeves, her almond-shaped eyes looking around curiously.

Gui Qiangye carried a giant black iron axe on his shoulder, and a faint layer of spiritual power condensed on the axe blade, forcing the giant lantern fish that swam close to him back three feet;

Lin Yanyan's skirt was decorated with tiny silver bells, but it made no sound in the water. Only the wood-type spiritual power flowing through her fingertips quietly wove a layer of transparent protective shield around everyone.

"Master Yu, we have been surrounding this ancient city for three hours." Feng Jingyan's voice came through the spiritual barrier.

Feng Yuzheng, who was standing next to Feng Jingyan, was tiptoeing and reaching out to touch the glowing jellyfish floating not far away. He gently pulled back his sleeve and said, "If we can't find the direction, I'm afraid our spiritual power will not be able to hold on."

Yu Shuheng did not look back. He held a tortoise shell compass in his hand. The compass needle was spinning abnormally fast underwater, and only stopped slightly when it approached the ancient city wall.

He formed a golden array pattern at his fingertips and tapped it lightly on the mottled wooden wall. Suddenly, light green lines appeared on the dark brown wood, swimming away quickly like fish, but suddenly disappeared when they touched the corner of the wall.

"The formation of this ancient city is more complicated than I imagined." Yu Shuheng's voice was a little solemn.

He leaned over to take a closer look at the carvings on the wall. Among those blurred patterns, there were totems used in witch tribe sacrifices, animal patterns commonly seen in the monster tribe, and even the mortise and tenon structure used by humans to build cities.

"Look here—" He pointed at a coral-covered relief. After brushing away the calcium on the surface, he revealed half of a statue holding a jade sceptre. A diamond-shaped crystal was embedded in the statue's forehead. Although it had lost its luster, it still showed its former brilliance. "Perhaps the owners of this ancient city were not a single ethnic group."

Wu Yefeng suddenly took a step forward, and the witch clan's curse pattern embroidered on his sleeve glowed red in the water, faintly echoing the totem on the relief.

"This is the Wu Clan's 'Water-Suppressing Spell,' but the patterns are even older than those recorded in the clan's ancient texts." Wu Yefeng's fingertips traced the sleeves of the statue. "Also, the pattern of this jade scepter resembles the ritual vessels used by the gods in sacrifices. I've seen similar patterns on the murals in the Wu Clan's holy land."

Bai Luoluo squatted down and touched the bluestone slabs on the ground of the ancient city with her fingertips. Tiny white mosses were growing in the cracks of the slabs. Under the nourishment of her spiritual power, the leaves slowly stretched out, revealing a faint fluorescence.

"These mosses can only survive in pure spiritual veins, which means there must be a spiritual vein converging beneath the ancient city." She looked up at Su Xiaoya, "Perhaps the exit is related to the direction of the spiritual vein?"

"Have you brothers and sisters discovered anything?" Su Xiaoya turned to Hui Zhijia.

I don't know when Hui Zhijia, wearing a bamboo hat, was squatting beside a stone bridge, gesturing in the water with a dry branch in his hand. Hui Mengmeng was lying on the shoulder of her brother Hui Xionger, staring at the silver fish swimming under the bridge with her round eyes.

These three people acted like hermit masters, which made Su Xiaoya's eyes twitch.

However, I always feel that although the behavior of the three people seems unreliable, their eyes seem to have discovered something.

Hui Zhijia stood up straight, water dripping from the edge of his bamboo hat creating ripples in the water. "There's something wrong with the structure of this bridge. Look at the stone piers beneath the bridge arch. Each one has a different constellation engraved on it, but they're arranged according to the directions, completely opposite to how the starry sky looks today."

Seeing everyone gathered, Hui Zhijia pointed to the stone pillar in the middle. "The groove on this stone pillar is just big enough to hold a jade slip. It might be the key to activating the mechanism."

Mu Mianmian suddenly cried out softly. She had just been attracted by a towering pagoda deep in the ancient city. She quietly floated forward several feet and pointed at the top of the pagoda: "Look at the top of the pagoda! It seems there is a light flashing!"

Everyone looked in the direction she pointed, and saw the wooden pagoda piercing the upper layer of the dark sea water. A fist-sized green crystal was suspended at the top of the pagoda. A faint halo was flowing on the surface of the crystal, dyeing the surrounding sea water a green-blue color.

Yu Shuheng's compass suddenly stopped rotating, and the needle pointed steadily in the direction of the pagoda.

"Finally, we have a clue." Su Xiaoya breathed a sigh of relief and was about to lead everyone towards the pagoda, but she saw Gui Qiangye suddenly raised a huge axe and chopped it down towards the sea on the left side of everyone!

A silver-white axe energy exploded in the water, forcing out a dark shadow hidden behind the coral reef - it was an octopus-like monster, pitch black all over, with glowing eyes on the top of its tentacles, and at this moment it was making a shrill hissing at everyone.

"It's the 'Ink Bearded Seal'—a third-tier demonic beast, skilled in stealth and poison." Lin Yanyan quickly mobilized her wood-element spiritual energy, and several spiky algae sprouted from the seabed, entwining the tentacles of the 'Ink Bearded Seal'. "Everyone, be careful! Its ink has a paralyzing effect!"

Feng Yuzheng took out a silver short bow from her sleeve, condensed an arrow of spiritual power at her fingertips, and shot it accurately at Mo Xuzhang's eyes.

Mo Xu Zhang felt pain and swung its tentacles violently, tearing off the algae that were wrapped around it and rushing towards Feng Yu Zheng.

Feng Jingyan stood in front of his sister in time, and a light blue sword appeared in his hand. The sword body was flowing with ice spiritual power, freezing most of Mo Xuzhang's tentacles.

"Don't bother with it, let's go to the pagoda as soon as possible!" Su Xiaoya drew out the long sword from her waist. There were fire runes engraved on the blade, which ignited a layer of light red flame in the water. She slashed at Mo Xu Zhang's head.

The flames collided with the sea water, and the steam produced temporarily blocked the monster's vision.

"Mu Yu, take Xiao Xiao and Mian Mian and go first, we will be there soon!"

Mu Yu nodded, put his arm around Mu Xiaoxiao's waist with one hand, grabbed Mu Mianmian's wrist with the other hand, tapped the water surface with his toes, and moved quickly towards the pagoda with the support of spiritual power.

Yu Shuheng took the opportunity to set up a defensive formation around everyone to prevent other monsters from attacking.

Wu Yefeng took out a Wu clan token from his arms. The token glowed red in the water, forming an invisible barrier that temporarily drove away the sea beasts swimming around.

The crowd fought as they moved, and soon arrived under the pagoda.

This pagoda has nine floors, and wooden bells are hung under the eaves of each floor. Although it has been submerged in water for countless years, the exquisite carvings can still be seen.

The tower gate was tightly closed, and there were complex patterns engraved on it, similar to the patterns Yu Shuheng had seen on the ancient city wall before, but more complete.

Yu Shuheng stepped forward and carefully observed the array pattern, his fingertips lightly tracing the incisions on the door. "This is the 'Nine Palaces Soul Locking Array'. We need to find the corresponding array center to activate it."

Everyone looked towards the door.

"Look, there are nine grooves on the door, corresponding to the nine directions of the palace. Each groove is engraved with a different pattern - the Qian position has dragon patterns, the Kun position has tiger patterns, the Zhen position has bird patterns, and the Xun position has tortoise patterns..."

Yu Shuheng pointed at the grooves and explained to everyone bit by bit: "These patterns should correspond to different spiritual power attributes. Someone needs to inject the corresponding spiritual power into the grooves to activate the formation."

"Let me try the shock position!" Feng Yuzheng was eager to try. Her fire spiritual power just corresponded to the sparrow pattern.

She placed her palm on the groove of the shock position and slowly injected light red spiritual power into it. The sparrow pattern in the groove suddenly lit up, faintly echoing the blue crystal on the top of the tower.

"Leave the Kun position to me." Gui Qiangye stepped forward, leaned the giant black iron axe against the wall, pressed his hands on the Kun position groove, and the earth-type spiritual power was injected like a thick mountain, and the tiger pattern lit up.

Lin Yanyan chose the Xun position, where the wood spiritual power blended with the tortoise pattern, emitting a faint green light.

Everyone found the corresponding position and injected spiritual power in turn:

Feng Jingyan's ice spiritual power corresponds to the snake pattern in the Kan position, Bai Luoluo's wood spiritual power corresponds to the dog pattern in the Gen position, Hui Zhijia's earth spiritual power corresponds to the horse pattern in the Li position, Hui Mengmeng's water spiritual power corresponds to the sheep pattern in the Dui position, Hui Xionger's gold spiritual power corresponds to the dragon pattern in the Qian position, and Wu Yefeng's dark spiritual power corresponds to the Qilin pattern in the Zhonggong position.

When the last spiritual power was injected into the groove, all the array patterns on the door suddenly lit up, forming a green light gate.

The cyan crystal on the top of the tower shone brightly, enveloping the entire pagoda in cyan light.

Everyone looked at each other, Su Xiaoya took the lead and stepped into the light gate, followed closely by everyone behind her.

After passing through the light gate, everyone found themselves on the first floor of the pagoda.

Unlike the darkness outside, the tower was filled with soft white light. The floor was paved with green jade, and the surrounding walls were hung with silk paintings that recorded ancient stories:

There are scenes of witch priests controlling the flow of water, scenes of giant monsters guarding the mountains and forests, scenes of human craftsmen building cities, and scenes of gods holding jade scepters overlooking the earth.

"It turns out that Guixu was once a place where various tribes coexisted." Wu Yefeng looked at the silk painting, his eyes filled with shock. "The ancient records of our tribe record that a great war broke out among the tribes in ancient times, and many tribes disappeared afterwards. I didn't expect Guixu to preserve such history."

Yu Shuheng walked to the center of the first floor, where there was a circular stone platform with a pattern similar to a compass engraved on it.

He placed the compass in the center of the stone platform. The compass needle began to spin again, eventually pointing to the staircase leading to the second floor. "It seems we need to decipher the mechanisms floor by floor to reach the top of the tower."

Everyone walked up the stairs to the second floor, where the scene was completely different from that on the first floor.

The ground on the second floor was full of traps. Every few steps there was a bottomless crack, from which rose black mist and a pungent smell.

The walls are inlaid with many transparent crystals, which contain spiritual powers of different attributes, some of which are scorching fire spiritual powers, and some of which are icy ice spiritual powers.

"The mist in these cracks is corrosive, everyone be careful." Bai Luoluo took out a few specially made leaves and distributed them to everyone. "Put the leaves in your mouth to temporarily resist the poisonous gas."

Yu Shuheng carefully observed the cracks on the ground and discovered that their arrangement was related to astrology. "These cracks form the 'Big Dipper Formation'. We need to follow the directions of the Big Dipper to avoid traps."

He pointed to a crack on the far left, "That's the Tianshu position. We start from there and pass through Tianxuan, Tianji, Tianquan, Yuheng, Kaiyang, and Yaoguang positions in order, and we will reach the stairs."

Su Xiaoya took the lead and took a step in the direction indicated by Yu Shuheng. As soon as her feet stepped on the ground corresponding to the Tianshu position, the surrounding crystals suddenly lit up, and a stream of fire spiritual power shot towards her!

Su Xiaoya quickly dodged sideways and swung her sword to cleave the ice energy that followed. "Be careful! The crystal will attack anyone who gets close!"

"I'll block the attack!" Gui Qiangye stood in front of the team carrying a giant axe. The earth-type spiritual power formed a thick earth wall in front of him, blocking all the spiritual attacks shot out by the crystal.

Lin Yanyan took the opportunity to mobilize the wood-type spiritual power, growing vines on the ground, connecting the ground between the cracks to facilitate everyone's walking.

Everyone advanced cautiously according to the direction of the Big Dipper. They were constantly attacked by spiritual power along the way. Fortunately, with the defense of Gui Qiangye and Yu Shuheng, as well as the counterattack of Feng Jingyan and Feng Yuzheng, everyone arrived at the third floor safely.

The space on the third floor is more spacious than the previous two floors. There is a circular pool in the center. Nine green lotus flowers are floating in the pool. Different runes are engraved on the petals of each lotus.

There are nine stone pillars surrounding the pool, on which are carved totems of various ethnic groups, similar to the reliefs on the ancient city walls.

"This is the 'Nine-Rank Lotus Platform Formation'. Nine lotus flowers must be arranged in a specific order to open the passage to the fourth floor."

Yu Shuheng squatted by the pool, carefully observing the runes on the lotus. "These runes correspond to the nine palace directions and echo the array pattern on the first-level door. We need to move the lotus in the Qian position to the center palace, the one in the Kun position to the Qian position, and the one in the Zhen position to the Kun position..."

Everyone followed Yu Shuheng's instructions and carefully moved the lotus in the pond.

Every time a lotus is moved, the water level in the pool will rise by one point, and the totem on the stone pillar will light up.

When the last lotus returned to its place, the water level in the pool suddenly surged, and nine stone pillars simultaneously shot out blue beams of light, forming a rotating light gate in the center of the pool.

"Hurry up and go in! The water level is still rising!" Su Xiaoya jumped into the light gate first, and the others followed closely behind.

After passing through the light gate, everyone found themselves on the fourth floor, which was actually a dense forest - to be precise, a forest growing in water.

The branches of the trees are blue-black, and the leaves are transparent and crystal-like. The sunlight shines through the sea water, reflecting colorful light on the leaves.

"The trees here are rich in wood-type spiritual energy." Lin Yanyan reached out and touched the crystal leaves, her eyes full of surprise. "And the growth rings of these trees seem to record the history of Guixu."