Trap inside a trap?

"Where am I supposed to put this thing?"

Su Xiaobai circled the pond, careful not to let even a toe touch the shimmering water. If he did, a shadow puppet would appear—an exact copy of himself, down to his cultivation level.

And without any backup, fighting himself was a guaranteed loss. He grimaced at the thought. How could he possibly overpower a clone that knew every technique he did?

"The water is practically dripping with condensed qi," he muttered, pacing back and forth. "A hundred days of soaking in there would probably boost someone's cultivation to the Meridian Expansion Realm, if they didn't explode first from qi saturation..."

He sighed, still unable to figure out where to place the key. As he peered into the pond, he realized something he'd overlooked—this wasn't just a pond.

It was a rare, high-tier spiritual pond, probably formed naturally over centuries of gathering heaven and earth qi.

If not for the formation sealing it, he could easily use it to ascend to the next realm.

"Wait a second... No formation?" A flash of realization hit him like a bolt of lightning. "Right! The point of the trial is to 'break' the formation!"

But that brought him right back to the question: How?

Frustrated, he crouched by the pond's edge and stared into his own reflection, his mind racing. For a moment, he panicked—who was that strange man staring back at him?—only to remember with a wry chuckle that he had dyed his hair last week.

"Useless pond..." Su Xiaobai grumbled. "I can't even soak in it until I break the damn formation!" He muttered irritably, but his muttering soon turned into a sharp insight, as his eyes gleamed with sudden clarity.

"Wait... the formation and the pond are connected, aren't they?" He leaned closer, his breath fogging the water's surface. "The pond is 'fueling' the formation, isn't it? Like feeding spirit stones into a furnace array!"

Su Xiaobai's mind worked rapidly, piecing it together. This formation was built on the principles of shadow puppetry, meaning it required constant energy to function. And the pond's water, filled to the brim with pure, condensed qi, was its power source.

Without the water, the formation would become useless.

"But..." He hesitated. He could use his Infernal Flames—half-step sky-grade flames that could reduce the pond to steam over time.

It would take a week of continuous burning, but it wasn't impossible.

However, evaporating the water would mean losing all that precious qi. And while absorbing it all at once would be like trying to drink from a waterfall, he could at least take in enough to make a significant leap in his cultivation.

"Who the hell designed this torture device of a trial?!" Su Xiaobai groaned, rubbing his temples.

His hand brushed against something cool, and he glanced down at the two rings on his fingers.

"Spatial ring?" He blinked, his mind suddenly spinning with possibilities. "Could I... store the water inside?"

The ring from his mother, Matriarch Su, was a family heirloom, but unfortunately, its space wasn't large enough to hold even a fraction of the pond.

His mood dimmed for a moment before another thought sparked in his head.

*Wait... what about the ring I stole from Infernal Emperor?

Suddenly, his expression lit up, like a starving farmer who just discovered his hen lays golden eggs. That ring was from a immortal cultivator known for hoarding treasure and spatial artifacts.

Maybe, just maybe, it had enough storage capacity to hold the entire pond.

His grin widened. "If this works... I'll have enough qi to boost my cultivation and still destroy the formation!"

It was a ridiculous plan, the kind that only a desperate man would concoct.

But then again, desperate times called for...

Su Xiaobai took a deep breath, cracking his knuckles as he stared at the spatial ring in his hand. "Alright, here goes nothing." With a flick of his wrist, he activated the ring, channeling his qi into its core.

WHOOOOSH!

The pond responded immediately, the water spiraling upward as if a giant invisible drain had just been pulled. The spiritual qi-laden liquid surged towards the ring, forming a whirlpool so intense it made his robes flutter dramatically.

"Ha! It's working!" Su Xiaobai shouted, his grin widening as the water continued its frenzied suction into the ring.

The entire pond was being drained, and fast.

GLUG GLUG GLUG GLUG!

The swirling water revealed the altar, standing on a sturdy stone pillar at the center of the pond like some ancient relic of a forgotten era. The altar had been floating just above the surface the whole time, supported by the stone column underneath, but now that the water was vanishing, Su Xiaobai could clearly see the pillar's base jutting from the muddy pond floor.

"Well, that's some quality craftsmanship right there. Real sturdy—didn't even budge with all this water! I need to get one of these for my backyard," Su Xiaobai muttered to himself, half admiring, half distracted as more water continued to pour into his ring.

SLLLLLLURP!

The pond was almost completely drained now. The swirling water made gurgling, almost reluctant noises as it was sucked into the spatial ring.

Su Xiaobai couldn't help but feel like the pond was protesting the entire process.

Finally, with one last SPLOOOOSH!, the last drops of water vanished into the ring, leaving behind a quiet, eerie silence in the cave.

Su Xiaobai stared down at the now-exposed bottom of the pond, blinking at the muddy mess left behind.

"Well… that was less dramatic than I thought." He glanced at the spatial ring, feeling a bit disappointed that the once magnificent pond now existed as a weird swimming pool inside a ring on his finger.

The altar stood in the center of the empty pond, just as he expected, its surface smooth and ancient, with intricate runes glowing faintly beneath the grime that had settled over centuries.

The pillar it rested on reached deep into the cave floor, as if holding up the ceiling itself.

He walked over to the center, the mud squishing under his boots with a sound that was far from dignified.

SQUELCH! SQUELCH!

"Great. Now I'm a grand cultivator, but I still get dirty like a mortal farmer." He grimaced, wiggling his foot to shake off the mud. "This better be worth it."

As he reached the altar, he noticed the key-shaped groove on its surface, the same one from which he'd earlier retrieved the key.

But something else caught his eye—the faint outlines of jade lines glowing beneath the surface of the altar.

"Huh? Wait a second..." Su Xiaobai rubbed his chin, staring at the groove. "So the key wasn't just for unlocking the pond's formation?"

Suddenly, it clicked—no, not just in his head, but physically. A low CLICK! echoed as the jade lines lit up fully.

The altar rumbled as if it had been woken up from a deep slumber.

RUMMMMMMMBLE!

The sound reverberated through the chamber, and the altar slowly began to descend into the pillar it had stood on for so long.

Su Xiaobai watched, wide-eyed, as a hidden passageway was revealed beneath it, stairs spiraling downward into darkness.