The entire Heavenly Palace Secret Realm is quite large, besides the Heavenly Palace at its very center.
Due to the sweeping impact of the celestial astral winds, many lost ancient sect ruins were even drawn into it. For example, Mount Qionghua is said to be the former base of a destroyed sword cultivator sect from ancient times, once a coveted blessed land.
Now that I'm in here, the first thing is to figure out my current location. It would be bad if I'm too far from the Blackwater Pool and Mount Qionghua area.
Zhang Ling advanced cautiously, constantly releasing his divine sense. Although he didn't fully unleash its power, it always surrounded him within a twenty to thirty-mile radius. He could carefully observe everything within this range, and react immediately to any disturbance.
This way, he could both explore the surroundings and reduce the consumption of his divine sense. After traveling hundreds of miles in this manner, Zhang Ling emerged from that static region.
A dark mass of land appeared ahead, stretching endlessly, like a giant island. It featured a series of mountain ranges, covering an area of at least a thousand miles, and he could hear strange roars of beasts and cries of birds.
Besides the large island ahead, there were several other islands of considerable size floating in the sky in various directions.
Such floating islands are common in the Flowing Cloud Sea, but generally, islands formed from fragments of the original continent are located on a horizontal plane.
However, this phenomenon doesn't apply in the endless sea of clouds. Especially since the Heavenly Palace Secret Realm was formed by a special event, a celestial upheaval swept by astral winds. The islands that were drawn into this place are scattered randomly, in all directions: up, down, left, and right.
Therefore, it's difficult to determine one's location.
Zhang Ling flew towards the island while scanning the jade scroll in his hand with his divine sense, but looking at the surrounding environment, he still couldn't identify his position.
There are many islands formed by landmasses like this in the Heavenly Palace Secret Realm, some are barren islands without any landmarks, and some are ancient cultivator ruins. All were swept into this area by the celestial astral winds.
The area where this secret realm is located is the eye of the storm formed by the outside astral winds. The entire Heavenly Palace is vast, at least a million miles. Aimless and blind actions would involve many risks.
After thinking for a moment, Zhang Ling decided to first enter these islands to determine his location, so that he could better rendezvous with the Xuanwu.
As for the Xuanwu, his situation was the same as Zhang Ling's. After being separated from Jin Yu and Old Man Wan, he was also looking for his location, seeking the direction towards the Blackwater Pool.
Before they separated, they agreed to meet at the Blackwater Pool.
In the time it takes to brew a cup of tea, Zhang Ling flew to the giant island. A scan with his divine sense revealed towering ancient trees, and many high-level demonic beasts.
Fortunately, he was still wearing the Shapeshifting Mud and Spirit Concealing Gauze, his figure appearing blurred, which prevented him from alarming these high-level demonic beasts. Otherwise, he would be in for some trouble, and he couldn't afford to linger in a strange place for too long.
In the blink of an eye, a quarter of an hour passed, and he crossed the island without incident.
But Zhang Ling's expression turned gloomy, because the previous few islands were all barren, without any special landmarks, making it difficult to determine his current location.
He could only roughly determine that he was in the northwestern region of the secret realm based on the sun in the sky and the moon on the other side. Meanwhile, the Blackwater Pool and Mount Qionghua were located in the southwestern part of the secret realm.
Zhang Ling speculated that the distance was not short, and it might take a day or two, or even longer, to reach there. Although he felt somewhat helpless, he could only speed up while proceeding cautiously.
After nearly two more hours, Zhang Ling traveled three to four thousand miles, crossed more than a dozen floating islands, and finally saw a unique environment.
At this time, several more islands appeared ahead, none of them large, but one of the islands, ten or so miles away, was emitting a layer of fire, and a rich fire-attributed spiritual energy emanated from it, very similar to his rented Fire Cloud Island.
He expanded his divine sense towards that area, and he saw clearly that the layer of fire was coming from several geothermal volcanic mountains on that island, and there were traces of buildings on it.
Zhang Ling was overjoyed and flew towards that place. It would be good to explore the islands with buildings, and perhaps he could identify his location.
This was a stone island, less than a hundred miles in area, with only three dark geothermal volcanoes on it. Rumbling sounds echoed from the mountains, like thunder, and the craters were emitting rich flames and plumes of black smoke.
In a short while, he approached the area and landed on the mountainside of a volcanic mountain. The surroundings were empty, but beneath his feet was a black stone plaza made of black boulders.
This plaza was ring-shaped, seemingly built around the entire mountain. The entire plaza was riddled with potholes, and many places had cracks in the ground, with flames and hot air rising from these cracks.
But on the side closer to the mountain wall, he could see a series of ruins. These buildings were constructed from huge stone materials, the largest of which was a giant stone palace, but most of it had collapsed.
Zhang Ling slowly walked towards that place. Although the buildings on the mountain looked dilapidated and decayed, the scale was very large, indicating a clear ancient cultivator ruin.
Walking to the front of the stone palace, he immediately saw a stone plaque hanging under the eaves of the stone palace, still intact, with three large characters carved on it.
Zhang Ling glanced at it and recognized it as a type of ancient immortal script, carving the three characters 'Crimson Flame Hall'.
Crimson Flame Hall, he recited a few times, recalling relevant information in his mind, while looking at the surrounding environment, and identifying the architectural style of this palace.
After a few moments of silence, Zhang Ling's eyes lit up, he really found some clues.
If he guessed correctly, this Crimson Flame Hall seemed to be a landmark building in a market under the jurisdiction of a force called the Flame Fire Merchant Alliance.
This merchant alliance originally had considerable strength. The places where the Crimson Flame Hall could be built basically had geothermal volcanoes of good quality. This kind of special market was originally famous for renting out geothermal fires, which could attract many alchemists and artifact refiners to settle in.
But it is said that in the celestial astral wind sweep, several high-quality geothermal volcanoes of this merchant alliance were destroyed. This Crimson Flame Hall in front of him may have been swept here by the astral winds at that time.
Moreover, in the information he collected, there was a location information of a Crimson Flame Hall. It happened to be located in the northwestern region of the secret realm. If he judged correctly, taking this Crimson Flame Hall as a reference, his current location was roughly forty to fifty thousand miles away from the Blackwater Pool.
This distance was neither short nor long.
If he flew at full speed, he could barely reach it in a day and a night. But the current environment was special, Zhang Ling estimated his travel speed, it would take at least two days to reach there.
Zhang Ling retracted his mind and walked towards the dilapidated stone palace. Since he saw the Crimson Flame Hall, it wouldn't hurt to go in and take a look. Maybe he could have some other gains.
