Chapter 229 : Lingxi Pill Shattered
Chapter 229: Lingxi Pill Shattered
After briefly reading through the remnant soul memory of Yan Yue, Chen Beiwu slightly shook his head.
His perception had not been wrong—Yan Yue truly harbored ill intent, deliberately hiding much information regarding the relics of the Tai Void Formation Sect.
For instance, the relics were not a fortuitous encounter of Yan Yue’s, but something her master, True Person Yuheng, had stumbled upon during his travels. She then reported it, and the Blazing Flame Sect had been secretly excavating it for over three hundred years.
Now that Chen Beiwu had learned the truth, it was already too late.
If his guess was correct, most of the opportunities within the Tai Void Formation Sect had likely already been taken by the Blazing Flame Sect, leaving only some difficult-to-obtain formation inheritances untouched.
The so-called ancient teleportation array Yan Yue had revealed was merely a hidden formation inheritance she had stumbled upon by coincidence, something even the Blazing Flame Sect had overlooked.
However, that place of formation inheritance was filled with danger. Yan Yue had nearly perished upon reaching the second trial, and thus never dared to enter again.
‘The information about the ancient teleportation array can be revealed to the sect depending on the situation.’ Chen Beiwu thought to himself.
As a Foundation Establishment cultivator, he could not make a True Monarch faction yield, let alone share the rights to explore the relics.
By relying on external power and letting his sect step in, he might instead be able to gain a share of the Tai Void Formation Sect’s relics.
Keeping this thought in mind, Chen Beiwu took out two storage rings and began refining them.
“Buzz!”
Urging his divine sense, he peered into the storage space at the numerous spirit stones, pills, talismans, and formation disks, and disappointment flashed across his eyes.
Most of these pills and talismans were only second-tier, of little value, suitable only for assisting Foundation Establishment cultivators in cultivation and battle.
Excluding two third-tier artifacts and one third-tier 【Boundary-Breaking Talisman】, Chen Beiwu roughly calculated that the total wealth of the two Blazing Flame Sect true inheritors amounted to merely around eighty thousand lower-grade spirit stones.
Indeed, unlike sect cultivators of mediocre talent who tended to hoard cultivation resources for future descendants, geniuses like Luo Yongjie would almost never let higher-grade resources lie idle, but would instead consume and refine them immediately.
Carefully storing away the rings, Chen Beiwu turned to the seven treasure herbs and profound herbs on the jade-built medicine field.
Protected by the grand formation, these herbs had not been damaged in the slightest, unaffected by the previous battle.
‘Troublesome!’
After studying for a day and a night, Chen Beiwu found the protective formation of the medicine field was overwhelmingly strong. With his current attainment in formations, he could only recognize some of its features, unable to break it at all.
After a moment’s hesitation, Chen Beiwu first took out a jade slip and recorded the characteristics of the medicine field’s formation. He then activated the Gate of Ten Directions and set down a spatial anchor within the great hall.
It was meaningless to persist further. A formation he could not open would likewise be impossible for Foundation Establishment cultivators of the Southern Wastes to open. The Myriad-Phase Mysterious Grass and Blood-Dragon Ginseng would be safe here within the great hall, without fear of being taken away.
“Buzz!”
Once the anchor was set, Chen Beiwu let out a sigh of relief.
The Myriad-Phase Mysterious Grass and Blood-Dragon Ginseng were things he was determined to obtain, but there was no need to be overly attached to them now.
After all, with the Gate of Ten Directions, Chen Beiwu could return to this hall at any time.
If necessary, he could even return to the Immortal Alliance and consult the Yuqing Immortal Sect’s formation teachers on how to break the array.
Casting one reluctant glance at the Myriad-Phase Mysterious Grass, Chen Beiwu located the teleportation formation inside the hall and infused it with mana.
“Boom!”
As Chen Beiwu poured mana into the array, its light flared brightly, enveloping the puppet he had resummoned with the 【Puppet Talisman】 and making it vanish.
‘The distance of transmission is too far, causing the puppet’s sensing connection to disappear.’
After a brief test, Chen Beiwu opened his eyes and stepped onto the teleportation array, channeling mana once more.
…
The world spun.
It might have been a single breath, or perhaps a quarter-hour.
When the teleportation finally ended, Chen Beiwu felt as though he had been struck on the back of the head with a heavy cudgel, leaving his mind hazy.
“Whoosh!”
At that moment, a black figure—so fast it nearly surpassed the limit of a Foundation Establishment cultivator’s divine sense—shot out silently from the shadow beneath the roots of an ancient tree, carrying with it a stench of blood.
Without turning his head, Chen Beiwu extended his forefinger and tapped lightly.
There was no heaven-shaking aura, no dazzling mana phenomenon. Only his Condensed Clearwood Mana flashed briefly at his fingertip.
“Bang!”
With a muffled sound, his finger precisely struck the assailant’s vital point.
Its upper body was instantly smashed apart as though struck by an invisible hammer, bursting into mist and blood.
A half-severed snake corpse, relying on inertia, weakly fell onto the carpet of rotting leaves, twitched a few times, and went still.
Chen Beiwu retracted his hand and glanced at the snake’s body.
Its scales were black as jade, veined with blood patterns, its length about sixteen feet.
This was a Double-Tier Nether Serpent, one of the second-tier serpent spirit beasts infamous for its poison, unparalleled at ambush and assassination.
Its venom was strong enough to corrode a Foundation Establishment cultivator’s divine sense and Dao Foundation. In texts of the Southern Wastes, it was called the Foundation Assassin, the Path-Blocking Serpent.
Once bitten, a Foundation Establishment cultivator would undoubtedly die within three days, unless they found the corresponding second-tier superior antidote herb, Nether-Heart Grass.
But even if Nether-Heart Grass were found and consumed, the sequelae of Double-Tier Serpent Venom would be enough to halt a cultivator’s path of progress forever.
Retracting his gaze, Chen Beiwu swept his divine sense around.
Within two hundred zhang in every direction stood towering trees blotting out the sky, light dim, with only scattered rays filtering down through the canopy.
The forest floor was thick with rotting leaves, concealing dozens of the deadly Double-Tier Nether Serpents.
The serpent’s materials were worthless. Chen Beiwu closed his eyes briefly, using his half-baked Supreme Dongxuan Spiritual Treasure Scripture of Karma and Causality to divine fortune and misfortune. He then activated Wave-Stepping through the Tide and flew northwest.
…
An hour later, Chen Beiwu halted, eyes solemn as he gazed at a vortex-shaped spatial rift glowing with five-colored light.
Through it, he could faintly see the Dragon-Que Mountains.
With a thought, a thin azure stream of water shot out into the air, yet it could not even touch the vortex, as if the two existed in different dimensions.
According to ancient records, without doubt, this five-colored vortex was a spatial passage leading out of the Tianyan True Realm.
‘Strange.’ Chen Beiwu narrowed his eyes.
Why would his divination yield an auspicious sign that pointed to leaving the Tianyan True Realm?
Could it be that within the secret realm lurked a fatal danger enough to take his life?
After pondering a while, Chen Beiwu took out the fourth-tier Profound Talisman bestowed upon him by Senior Brother Jiang and placed it close to his body before continuing onward.
With such a talisman for protection, even if True Monarch Tianyan returned from the dead, it would at least buy him the time needed to activate the Gate of Ten Directions and escape.
Soon, half a month passed.
While searching for the inheritance of a True Monarch, Chen Beiwu killed a few second-tier spirit beasts and gathered over a dozen second-tier spirit herbs. Yet he still did not find a single third-tier treasure herb.
“Buzz!”
At that moment, the Lingxi Pill hanging at Chen Beiwu’s waist suddenly trembled and crumbled on its own.
‘Could it be that Senior Sister Feng has already encountered a fatal calamity within the secret realm?’ Chen Beiwu’s eyes flickered.
The Lingxi Pill only produced a sensing reaction within a hundred li, but if crushed directly, as long as the distance was less than ten thousand li, its twin Lingxi Pill would collapse as well.
Before entering the secret realm, Senior Sister Feng had said that if she ever encountered a deadly threat a Foundation Establishment cultivator could not resist, she would crush the Lingxi Pill to send the retreat signal.