"Huh, what's this..."
Suddenly, Zhang Ling noticed that the withered wood where several Red Spirit Fungus were growing seemed unusual. It was a blackish-blue color, appearing to be a broken branch from a large tree. However, upon closer inspection, he realized it was a massive spiritual bone, still radiating a rich spiritual power.
Such a large spiritual bone was quite valuable, enough to refine two or three magical artifacts.
But this spiritual bone was already dilapidated. Although it still contained rich spiritual power, most of it had been absorbed by the Red Spirit Fungus.
Zhang Ling shook his head and put the entire spiritual bone and the Red Spirit Fungus into his storage bag. Then, he left the cave.
He passed through a short mountain crevice and entered a tunnel, continuing to search for a way out.
This place had powerful restrictions, preventing even high-level wild beasts from entering. Since he saw a wild beast here, there might be an exit nearby.
...
After half a day, Zhang Ling had passed through several intermittent tunnels. The space here was large, and the tunnels were winding. He occasionally saw stone houses and other buildings.
But they were all dilapidated and contained nothing of value.
Along the way, he also discovered that this place seemed to have experienced an earthquake, with many areas having large and small cracks.
These cracks did not lead to the outside world, as they were blocked by thick layers of rock. If it were just ordinary rock, he could use brute force and spend some time to break through to the outside.
The rock layers here looked ordinary, but there seemed to be some kind of restriction on them, preventing him from using earth遁 techniques or other escape methods to pass through.
He continued forward along the tunnel in this intermittent manner.
Before long, a square stone door appeared. The stone door was wide open, and there was a pile of rubble on the ground, seemingly fragments of the stone door. The rubble was covered in dust, indicating that no one had been here for a long time.
The doorway was dark and gloomy, without a trace of light.
Zhang Ling stopped several feet away from the stone door. With a wave of his hand, a gust of wind swept through, and thick black smoke immediately poured out from behind the door. Even standing outside, he could smell a rotten odor.
After waiting for a moment, when most of the smoke had dissipated, he flashed into the doorway.
Inside was a square space, about a hundred feet in size, but very tall, with no visible ceiling. The upper part was a natural rock layer, and only the lower few feet were man-made.
Zhang Ling patted his storage bag and released three condensed yellow orbs, which floated in three directions, emitting a soft spiritual light, illuminating a large area. He could now see things more clearly, and he also released his divine sense to scan the space.
Immediately, his expression changed slightly, and he couldn't help but turn his head to look at the stone door he had entered through. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the exit was intact.
Because this space was quite strange, his divine sense was reflected back when it scanned the surrounding rocks, possibly due to some kind of strange restriction.
At the same time, the four walls were smooth, with colorful murals carved on them.
Zhang Ling carefully scanned them and found that they were very similar to the images transmitted on the Sky Abyss Token, depicting many battle scenes. The protagonists of the pictures included both human cultivators and demon race great demons.
Besides these murals, there was also a circular pool in the center of this space, like a small spring, bubbling with water. It was similar to the spring outside, but this one did not have a flowing water curtain and looked much more ordinary.
However, there were also several statues around this small spring, all of human cultivator statues, a total of seven statues.
There were both men and women. The statue in front of him was a young man wearing a Taoist robe. This person had a peaceful expression, holding a horsetail whisk, with an immortal and Taoist demeanor. His other hand held a round gray stone bead. It was engraved with dense spiritual patterns, but it was in a dim state, as if the spiritual light had dissipated.
The statue on the left was a black-clothed man, carrying a giant sword on his back, also holding a dim stone bead in his hand.
The person on the right looked like a beautiful woman in palace attire, her hands forming a magic seal, also holding a stone bead in her hand.
The seven statues, each with a different image, had one thing in common: they all held a stone bead. They surrounded the small spring on the ground, looking like some kind of formation.
Then, he explored this space several times, but found nothing else.
Zhang Ling thought for a moment, then flashed through the doorway he had entered through, but did not leave. Instead, he waved his hand and shot out a fist-sized ball of yellow spiritual light.
This ball of spiritual light divided into seven strands of spiritual light, which fell on the stone beads in the hands of the seven human statues.
The seven stone beads were strange, and he planned to see if he could activate them. As expected, when spiritual power was injected into the seven stone beads, they reacted. The stone beads lit up with white light, illuminating the space in front of him.
Zhang Ling held his breath and focused on observing his surroundings, in case he triggered some kind of formation.
Buzz...
With a low buzzing sound, some light and shadows appeared in the white light. They were blurry and unclear, seemingly just illusions.
Zhang Ling quickly used his divine sense to carefully check, and found that they were just ordinary projections and there was no danger. He walked inside.
At this time, the space inside was brightly lit, as if he was in a white canvas. The gray and dusty figures seemed to be performing, enacting some scenes.
After watching for a while, Zhang Ling discovered that these light and shadows were enacting the pictures carved on the four walls, looking even better in the form of light and shadows, appearing real, as if he was there.
He touched his head and glanced at the stone beads in the hands of the statues. Were these just ordinary image-recording beads, used to record these pictures? Zhang Ling wondered in his heart.
Just as he was wondering, he suddenly heard a creaking sound. He put away his thoughts and turned his gaze to the spring on the ground. Water was slowly flowing inside, and some water droplets were rising from time to time. It was just an ordinary spring.
But at this moment, he keenly heard that something seemed to be crawling inside, and there seemed to be quite a few of them.
Zhang Ling frowned and released a strand of divine sense to probe under the water, his expression sinking.
Without the slightest hesitation, he waved his hand, and three flying swords quickly danced around him, transforming into a large expanse of sword light.
He suddenly adopted a defensive posture, naturally because he had detected wild beasts below.
