Stepping into Muyunjin, a completely different sight unfolded before them.
The waters and the shores were adorned with blooming Changming flowers. Several islands were linked together, forming what appeared to be a swaying sea of crimson from afar.
Ji Rong and Gu Baiyi rowed a small boat across the river.
The little fox clung to the edge of the boat, staring at the floating Changming flowers.
The fallen petals were exquisite, each one resembling a silver-red lantern glowing softly in the misty light.
From Muyun Ferry to Yunxian Cavern, it would take about a day aboard the "Soul-Guiding Boat."
This meant that, aside from the fox, Ji Rong would be alone with the lunatic heroine for an entire day.
Just thinking about it felt torturous.
"Senior Sister, there's no way forward."
Gu Baiyi's voice drifted through the mist, becoming increasingly distant.
Ji Rong followed her gaze and saw that a barrier had cut off the waterway. Strange runes were etched across its surface.
Looking closely, she fell into silence.
Wasn't this just an invisible wall?
In the past, whenever she took the Muyunjin route, she only needed to complete a brief task to teleport directly to Yunxian Cave. But now, she had crashed into an unexpanded map, nothing but invisible walls in every direction.
"Developers, do you even have a heart?" She had repeated these words so many times that she was tired of saying them.
In her past life, Gu Baiyi had chosen the Leihuojian route, so this time, she wanted to try Muyunjin instead.
Now, she ran her hand over the barrier, frowning slightly, but she had no idea how to break through it.
"Stop trying, it's not going to work."
Ji Rong pointed at the glowing runes and began spouting nonsense with a serious expression. "This place is under a restriction. We'll have to find another way."
Gu Baiyi chuckled and asked, "And where exactly is that?"
A good question.
Ji Rong racked her brain, trying to recall any of the hundred possible ways to bypass Muyun Ferry.
Then she suddenly remembered, this place had a hidden storyline she had never completed.
At that moment, an electronic voice chimed in.
[Beep! Player, please decipher the runes on the barrier to trigger the hidden storyline.]
Ji Rong finally started examining the runes on the invisible wall. The surface was covered in countless symbols, resembling cuneiform script.
She stared at them for a long time but couldn't make sense of anything.
It felt like the developers had written these using some arcane coding language.
Meanwhile, Gu Baiyi was studying the barrier with great focus, lost in thought.
Seeing her so serious about deciphering the code, Ji Rong nodded approvingly.
Here it comes, the protagonist's halo!
In moments like these, the heroine would always have a sudden realization and find a way to break through the barrier.
But under Ji Rong's expectant gaze, Gu Baiyi merely shook her head and said, "These symbols are too complex. I can't understand them."
Game mechanics have betrayed me.
Ji Rong remained calm on the surface, but inside, she felt a chill creeping over her.
If even the protagonist's halo couldn't crack this code, then there was probably no way through.
Just as she was thinking this, another unexpected electronic voice echoed in her mind.
[Beep! Detected Ye Chuyang's favorability rating for the player at ≥10. Unlocking hidden storyline: "Painting the Bones."]
Ji Rong: "?"
What did a hidden storyline have to do with the male lead?
In the distance, a Soul-Guiding Boat drifted toward them.
Two figures stood aboard, one clad in black robes, the other in crimson.
One had a calm expression, the other wore a perpetual smile. It was none other than Ye Chuyang and Xie Bai.
Ye Chuyang paddled wordlessly.
Xie Bai, standing at the bow, grinned and cupped his hands in greeting. "Ah, what a coincidence! To think I'd run into you two Senior Sisters again, this must be fate."
Gu Baiyi smiled faintly and replied, "Junior Brother Xie is absolutely right. The Tianshui Secret Realm is vast, meeting here must be fate indeed."
Ji Rong glanced at Gu Baiyi's insincere smile and thought to herself:
These two are definitely up to no good.
One spoke ghostly words, the other uttered empty ones, perfectly in sync.
As the boat neared the invisible wall, Xie Bai flicked open his folding fan and stepped ashore with practiced ease. Ye Chuyang followed right behind him.
Noticing the barrier, Xie Bai paused in surprise before flashing a grin. "Oh my, no way forward? Now, what should we do?"
Ji Rong: "..."
Did that even need to be said? The three of them were already staring right at it.
"Indeed, there's no path ahead. Junior Brother Xie, do you perhaps have a way to get past this barrier?"
Gu Baiyi smiled as she turned to acknowledge Xie Bai, breaking the silence.
Xie Bai pondered for a moment before saying, "If you ask me, it's not too late to turn back and take the Thunderfire Ravine route."
"I'm afraid that's not an option," Ye Chuyang interjected with a frown. "The closest place to Muyunjin is Duanyan Mountain. Even if we hurry, it would take a full day and night to get there. And from Duanyan Mountain to Leihuojian, it would take another three days and nights."
Gu Baiyi nodded in agreement. "Yes. If we turn back to Duanyan Mountain, we'll fall behind by several days. By then, all the sect disciples will have already reached Yunxian Cave, rendering this journey pointless."
Xie Bai raised an eyebrow. "Then what do we do? We can't go forward or back, are we just supposed to stand here and enjoy the scenery?"
To everyone's surprise, Ye Chuyang gazed at the runes on the barrier, then picked up a Changming flower and said, "Yes. We wait and watch the scenery."
Xie Bai: "?"
...
By sunset.
The drifting clouds of Muyunjin were bathed in brilliant golden light, casting a shimmering glow over the water's surface.
The runes on the barrier, illuminated by the setting sun, began to shift in their arrangement. The symbols and inscriptions merged under the light, gradually forming coherent text.
Even so, Ji Rong still couldn't make sense of them.
After all, the script was crooked and erratic, slithering like serpents under the changing light.
However, Gu Baiyi seemed to have realized something. She smiled and said, "The name 'Muyunjin' comes from the saying, 'At dawn, we watch the sky; at dusk, we watch the clouds.' Only at sunset can these words be truly seen."
Ye Chuyang nodded. "Senior Sister Gu is absolutely right."
Ji Rong watched as Gu Baiyi and Ye Chuyang focused intently on deciphering the script. At this moment, she and Xie Bai were unexpectedly on the same page, doing nothing and simply observing.
Yet, for some reason, when Ji Rong reached out and touched the invisible barrier, a strange sense of familiarity washed over her.
The unfamiliar runes resembled the hands of a clock, flowing through her fingers with a precise and unerring rhythm.
She mused to herself, since this was all part of a pre-designed mechanism, of course, it would follow a set pattern.
Her gaze fell upon the drifting Changming Flowers at her feet.
Their sepals, stems, and veins were so meticulously detailed that they didn't seem artificially generated.
As Ji Rong was lost in thought, Ye Chuyang had already deciphered the script on the barrier.
"This is an ancient spell once used by the Tianyin Division," he explained. "It states that only a supreme master can break this barrier."
Ji Rong let out a cold laugh.
A supreme master?
Wasn't this barrier supposedly unbreakable by anyone but the game developers? Those damn devs sure loved stroking their own egos.
"In that case, we should turn back as soon as possible," Xie Bai suggested, already ready to retreat before Ye Chuyang even finished speaking.
But Ye Chuyang continued, "It also says that if we follow the direction in which the Changming Flowers drift before the sun sets over the sea, we will find the way out."
Xie Bai: "…"
"Then why didn't you say that earlier?"
"Because Senior Brother Xie did not give me the chance to finish speaking," Ye Chuyang replied calmly.
"Ah, Junior Brother Ye, you—"
The two of them seemed ready to bicker indefinitely.
Gu Baiyi rubbed her temples, stopping them just in time. "The priority is to find a way out. Let's not waste time arguing."
Xie Bai swallowed back his words and agreed, "You're right. Finding an exit is what matters most."
Ye Chuyang, never one to be overly talkative, fell silent as well.
The four of them boarded the boat, took up the oars, and followed the drifting Changming Flowers.
The flowers floated farther and farther away, their blood-red petals rising and falling on the jade-green sea, radiant and eerie, like the blossoms of the underworld.
From time to time, the little fox scooped one from the water, absorbing its essence. As the flower's soul was devoured, the Changming Flower withered, drained of all vitality.
Gu Baiyi narrowed her eyes at the seemingly clueless fox.
Changming Flowers were born from heaps of bones, flowers of flesh and blood. The sheer number of them here was already baffling.
Yet this Tianshan Snow Fox, untouched by the lingering ghostly aura and capable of consuming souls, was even more suspicious.
At last, the blood-red petals reached their destination.
A broken bridge loomed ahead, its span stretching between two points—one end in Muyunjin, the other leading toward Yunxian Cave, but the middle section had completely vanished.
The four disembarked from their soul-guiding boat and stepped onto the shore, gazing at the half-bridge before them.
It was built from Zhongshan jade, an arched structure like a rainbow resting upon the waves.
At the bridge's entrance stood a stone pillar, from which an old painting floated in midair. Beside it hung a wolf-hair brush.
Ji Rong followed Gu Baiyi forward, her eyes fixed on the painting.
Even Ye Chuyang, who was well-versed in ancient texts and history, looked visibly surprised.
Frowning slightly, he murmured, "This is the Xuanghe Floating Immortal Bridge from Yue City… But it collapsed a hundred years ago. Why is it here?"
"It's a mirage," Ji Rong replied, her gaze lingering on the half-bridge.
She was certain this was yet another random piece of content forcefully crammed in by the devs.
According to Sword God's laws, every major plot node had to feature some key artifact from a past era.
After all, the previous devs never bothered fixing the gaping plot holes in the story, so why not just keep piling on more lore?
Gu Baiyi examined the painting closely. "It depicts the eve of the Battle of Demon Suppression, when the four great sects convened."
Hearing this, Xie Bai leaned in to take a look.
The scroll was about two feet long, capturing a midwinter scene. Several figures sat around an Eight Immortals table, while a delicately carved incense burner sent curls of fragrant smoke into the air.
Just then, a figure in red robes lifted the beaded curtain and stepped into the room.
The people at the table turned toward the newcomer. A woman in blue, arm-in-arm with the man beside her, seemed to whisper something, and the two laughed together.
The edges of the scroll were slightly damaged, the rice paper faded and yellowed, clearly an ancient relic.
Ji Rong couldn't recognize most of the people in the painting, but there was one she would never mistake—
That red-robed beauty who had lifted the curtain… wasn't that my crossdressing wife, Mei He?!
Xie Bai seemed to recognize her too, chuckling, "This elegant young man does bear some resemblance to Sect Master Mei. And that person holding the jade flute… seems to be Tianyin Division's Sect Master Meng."
Ye Chuyang nodded. "Judging by how Sect Master Meng interacts with the man beside him, that should be Senior Yan Haiyao."
Ji Rong was impressed by Xie Bai and Ye Chuyang's keen eyes.
They could identify Meng Ruo and Yan Haiyao despite the low-quality, nearly disintegrating painting? That was some serious skill.
Listening to their discussion, Ji Rong turned to look at the wolf-hair brush.
Faint spiritual energy rippled at the tip of the brush. A bold thought crossed her mind, could it be…
"Are we supposed to draw the missing half of the bridge?"
Ji Rong hadn't expected to say this at the exact same moment as Gu Baiyi. Instinctively, she glanced at the latter.
As their gazes met, Ji Rong thought, Why does the heroine seem more like a seasoned gamer than I do?
Gu Baiyi was momentarily stunned as well. Her dark eyes grew even more profound before she curved her lips into a smile. "Senior Sister, it seems we're thinking alike."
[Ding! Congratulations, Player—Gu Baiyi's favorability +10]
Xie Bai laughed. "Looks like Senior Sister Ji and Senior Sister Gu are truly in sync."
Ji Rong stared at him blankly.
No. This wasn't sync.
This was the heroine using hacks.