Walker Of The Worlds

Chapter 3942: Shifting Encryption

Lin Mu carefully compared both formations within his memory.

The more he compared, the more convinced he became.

"There has to be a connection."

Perhaps they did not share the same creator and perhaps belonged to the same lineage, but even that possibility carried enormous significance. Someone connected to the Wild Peak had almost certainly participated here.

That thought alone justified coming all this way.

Time slowly passed and Lin Mu remained completely absorbed within the formation. Nearly another hour disappeared before he finally withdrew his Immortal Sense.

"Haah..." He released a quiet sigh.

It was neither exhaustion, nor frustration though. Rather it was a mixture of admiration and regret.

"What a pity..." His gaze settled upon the ancient stone. "The only way through is to destroy part of it."

Many formations possessed elegant unlocking methods like secret hand seals, special keys, hidden passwords or even bloodline verification. But this one possessed something entirely different: Destruction.

’Carefully controlled destruction.’ Lin Mu thought.

The creator had hidden the true entrance behind what essentially amounted to surgery. Anyone attempting conventional dismantling would fail and anyone attempting brute force would also fail.

The surface layers presented what appeared to be ordinary formation nodes. But that impression proved completely false. Those visible layers merely served as deception as an enormous encryption network concealed the actual structure beneath.

If someone attempted dismantling the formation one layer at a time... They would unknowingly activate the wrong sequence. And the deeper one progressed... The more inevitable failure became.

Finally, one incorrect adjustment would awaken the true defensive mechanism and initiate complete self destruction. Everything hidden beneath would vanish forever.

Lin Mu silently appreciated the ingenuity. "It truly leaves almost no room for mistakes."

Fortunately, he had already discovered the genuine solution. Several hidden nodes floated independently beneath the surface. They appeared unrelated and only after observing the entire structure simultaneously did their purpose become obvious.

Removing those isolated nodes together would collapse the encryption layer instantly and the remaining formation would briefly lose balance. During that fleeting moment, the concealed entrance would reveal itself.

There was no second opportunity as failure meant destruction.

Lin Mu slowly walked around the stone and every few steps he paused. His Immortal Sense measured distances repeatedly and he carefully memorized every location. A few minutes later his body gradually assumed a relaxed posture.

Someone observing from afar would think he intended nothing more than touching the rock.

His right hand slowly rose as vitality quietly gathered within his fingertips. There was no overwhelming aura or any pressure, everything remained perfectly contained. Lin Mu understood exactly how much force each point required.

Too little and the node would remain intact. Too much and the surrounding structure would destabilize. Precision mattered infinitely more than power.

He stepped toward the first position as one finger lightly poked the stone.

Tap.

Nothing appeared to happen before he moved elsewhere and another finger descended toward empty ground.

Tap.

Again the result was complete silence. Anyone watching would struggle to understand why he randomly touched ordinary rocks and soil. Only Lin Mu knew that terrifying amounts of condensed vitality had already traveled deep underground.

Each touch struck precisely one hidden floating node.

His movements gradually accelerated as he struck the third, fourth and more nodes. Every strike appeared casual but every strike carried astonishing accuracy. His fingers danced across the weathered stone like a musician performing an ancient melody.

The vitality entered the earth without damaging its surface.

But deep below, hidden formation nodes quietly fractured one after another. Hairline cracks spread invisibly through structures that had remained untouched for untold ages. Lin Mu never paused and his expression remained completely focused.

’One mistake...’ Lin Mu reminded himself.

And everything beneath would disappear forever.

He completed another sequence before suddenly changing direction entirely. This time his fingers landed directly upon bare soil surrounding the stone many times. Each seemingly insignificant poke released concentrated vitality that ignored everything else before striking only the isolated floating nodes buried deep beneath the earth.

For several long moments, nothing changed and the forest remained silent. Even the weathered rock appeared exactly as before. Then, a faint vibration traveled beneath Lin Mu’s feet and his eyes immediately sharpened.

"It begins."

Deep beneath the ancient stone, the hidden formation started responding. Lin Mu watched carefully as the transformation spread outward from the points he had struck. At first, there was almost no visible difference.

The ancient rock remained beneath his feet, the surrounding trees continued to sway gently in the underground breeze, and the moss hanging from the branches continued to give off its faint illumination.

Then the ground moved and Lin Mu’s eyes narrowed.

The soil around the weathered rock suddenly appeared to lose its solidity. It did not crumble, collapse, or break apart. Instead, its properties seemed to change entirely. The individual grains of earth began flowing around one another as though the ground had suddenly become liquid.

Then transformation spread farther as rocks that had been buried beneath the soil became soft and flexible. Their surfaces rippled slightly, almost like thick sponges being pressed by an invisible hand.

The trees standing nearby remained intact, yet the ground beneath their roots behaved as though it had ceased obeying the ordinary laws of matter. Lin Mu stared at the scene for several breaths.

"What kind of formation is this?" His question was almost rhetorical.

He had seen strange formations before. He had encountered arrays capable of manipulating space, suppressing cultivation, concealing entire regions, altering gravity, creating illusions, and even affecting the laws of nature to a limited degree.

But this formation was doing something different. It was changing the properties of the physical environment itself. Lin Mu felt the soil beneath his feet separate and his body slowly sank.

There was no sensation of falling and there was no resistance either. The earth simply parted around his body, allowing him to descend through it as naturally as someone stepping into water or a still lake.