As they approached the island, it became clear that it was a lush, verdant isle. Its vegetation was abundant, and the island spanned less than a hundred miles, dominated by a single mountain several hundred feet high.
After about a quarter of an hour, he landed on the island, descending directly onto the eastern peak of the main mountain.
Standing atop the peak, Zhang Ling immediately sensed the rich spiritual energy within the mountain, no less potent than a high-grade spiritual vein.
It was simply not as vast as the Tianheng Mountain on Nine Dragons Island that he had visited before. However, the distribution of spiritual veins isn't determined by size alone.
Looking down the mountain, he spotted a silver waterfall cascading down the hillside, forming a turquoise pool at the base. The water's surface was calm, and he could faintly see corridors, pavilions, and other buildings hidden among the vegetation.
From time to time, he could also see large birds flying through the mountains, indicating that the mountain was home to many wild beasts.
The area where he stood on the mountain top was a flat, square-shaped platform. A scene of dilapidation met his eyes.
All around were stone steps made of bluestone, and the high platform had some stone pillars, most of which had collapsed. Only one pillar, five or six feet tall, leaned diagonally into the ground, covered in moss.
After a few glances, Zhang Ling discovered that the pillar was engraved with ancient characters. "The eternal and indestructible origin of the Heavenly Dao, the boundless immortal path, eight thousand years of divine Hao's immortality..."
The words below were fragmented and illegible.
Zhang Ling waved his hand, and dust flew into the air, revealing a stone plaque buried in the soil, with the three large characters "Divine Hao Ridge" written on it.
He couldn't help but be surprised. After a moment of contemplation, he recalled some introductions he had seen in ancient books. Divine Hao Ridge seemed to be the location of the mountain gate of an ancient sect, the "Divine Hao Sect."
The Divine Hao Sect was a rather unique sect. It never had many members and was a secluded immortal cultivation sect. However, it produced many capable individuals.
It was said that the cultivators of this sect were proficient in numerology and divination, able to predict heavenly mandates and fortunes, discern fate, which sounded like nothing more than the tricks of secular Jianghu diviners.
However, in the world of immortal cultivation, divination was indeed one of the hundred arts of cultivation, but very few cultivators were proficient in it.
This sect rarely engaged in activities even before the formation of the Wandering Cloud Sea, and later disappeared completely, never to be seen again in the world of immortal cultivation. He never expected to see the ruins of the Divine Hao Sect here.
Zhang Ling stroked his chin, sighing in his heart.
Eternal years had passed, and once-powerful sects now only left behind desolation.
Cultivators seize the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to cultivate, returning great power to themselves. In the end, they only lived a little longer than ordinary mortals.
He then sat cross-legged on a rock, restoring the spiritual power he had consumed earlier.
Half an hour later, Zhang Ling walked down the mountain.
Now that he had discovered the ruins of the Divine Hao Sect here, he naturally had to investigate. The way down the mountain was relatively peaceful, and soon he arrived at the pool at the foot of the mountain.
The pool water was still, and perhaps because no one had come for a long time, many messy red aquatic trees grew along the edge, and the air was filled with a decaying and humid smell.
Some bluish-purple grasses also grew by the pool. This was a second-grade purple wood grass, which could be used to refine several kinds of elixirs. Along the way, he also collected some.
Walking along the edge of the pool for a while, Zhang Ling came to the building complex at the foot of the mountain. The buildings covered a large area, with corridors, courtyards, and tall buildings. Looking at the scale, it would not be a problem to accommodate thousands of people.
What interested him was that these buildings were mostly built of a grayish-white wood.
Zhang Ling stood on a white wooden corridor and knocked on a gray-white pillar beside him, and a clang sound came out.
This was a spiritual wood called White Cang Wood. It was a second-grade iron wood, and its characteristic was that it was as hard as iron and difficult to invade by water and fire. A hundred-year-old White Cang Wood could be used to refine medium and high-grade magical artifacts.
Rarely, these buildings were mostly built with hundreds of years of White Cang Wood. The scale was so large that it showed the original power of the Divine Hao Sect. If this building complex was demolished, the spiritual wood alone could be exchanged for millions of spiritual stones.
Zhang Ling chuckled and said to himself, "Rich and powerful."
Carefully shuttling through this building, walking through the corridor, a two-story pavilion appeared in front of him. He waved his hand and summoned a gust of breeze, and with a bang, he opened the door of the house. After waiting for a few breaths, the house was quiet, and there seemed to be no restrictions or formations.
He walked in, but came out not long after. It was empty, with nothing in it, let alone treasures.
Next, using the same method, he opened several houses, all of which were empty, just some sundries, which turned to ashes as soon as they were touched due to the age. Searching like this was time-consuming and laborious, and it was not good.
Zhang Ling flashed and flew directly to the roof of a pavilion, looking around at the surrounding buildings.
The layout of these buildings was the same, like practice rooms for the disciples. It seemed that it would be difficult to gain anything from the other houses. The buildings with the highest possibility of having treasures were still those tall pavilions.
Thinking of this, his eyes flashed with brilliance, and he released his spiritual consciousness to directly cover the building complex.
The ordinary houses next to him were unremarkable, without the slightest fluctuation of spiritual power. He changed several positions in a row. After more than ten breaths, he couldn't help but smile, sensing a place containing rich spiritual power in a place on the right.
Zhang Ling was overjoyed. After a few jumps, he came to a tall building a mile away.
This pavilion was located in a courtyard twenty feet wide, with a pool of dozens of feet in front, in which a series of pink lotus flowers grew, and a burst of fragrance could be smelled from a distance.
Looking at these lotus flowers, he immediately recognized that they were third-grade water light lotuses, and the largest three lotus flowers were ten feet in size, and looked at least a thousand years old.
However, scanning his spiritual consciousness into the water, there was a layer of water mist on the water surface, and he sensed several breaths in the water. Obviously, there were wild beasts in it.
Zhang Ling smiled, waved his hand, and several sword lights struck the pool, and there were several loud noises.
After a while, a large cloud of black mist emerged from the pool. Gurgling sounds came. Two five- or six-foot-sized flying fish, one red and one white, jumped out.
Scanning his spiritual consciousness, he saw that they were two fourth-order peak fish beasts, looking like two fat carp.
Zhang Ling smiled and waved his sleeves, and a green light flashed, instantly killing the two fourth-order fish beasts.
At the same time, he clapped his hands, and a yellow light turned into a spiritual light hand, quickly grabbing and taking away several water light lotuses growing in the pool.
Then, he turned to look at the pavilion.
The pavilion was also built of white Cang wood, with three floors, five or six feet high, and some dark spiritual patterns were engraved on it. He could sense a weak fluctuation of spiritual power, and there was a formation to protect it.
Zhang Ling scanned it several times with his spiritual consciousness and sensed that the restriction above was not strong.
I don't know if it was because the original owner was weak, or because the time was too long, causing the restriction to be damaged. But these are not the point. Since there is a restriction, there may be treasures left inside.
He directly threw out two flying swords and attacked the door of the pavilion, making bursts of explosions.
The sword light attacked several times, and the pavilion shook for a while, and a layer of spiritual power airflow flew outward. With a creaking sound, the door of the house was broken by a sword light.
Scanning his spiritual consciousness inside, he went directly into it, and at the same time patted the spirit beast bag, and released the double-tailed cat.
This place is after all on the fifth floor of Tianyuan, and there may be dangers, and the double-tailed cat is also a not weak help.
