Chapter 85

In a room, thin, blade-like knives, as delicate as silkworm wings, were shooting towards the vital points of Zuo Yang's body. However, when these knives approached him, they were all deflected by a layer of protective qi that surrounded Zuo Yang.

These flying knives could not get anywhere near Zuo Yang.

This protective qi not only enveloped Zuo Yang but also covered the few people around him, protecting them from the attacks of the flying knives.

The people around Zuo Yang, leaning close to him, looked at him with admiration.

What Zuo Yang was now displaying was the external emission of true qi, a technique for protecting oneself with primordial energy, which had not been mastered by anyone in the martial world for over a hundred years.

Just from this, it was evident that Zuo Yang's martial arts talent was truly terrifying. He had already mastered such a legendary skill at his age.

It was no wonder that the people of the Qingyun Sect looked at him with such reverence.

However, Zuo Yang himself did not look good at all. He thought about the various traps and mechanisms he had encountered along the way and was secretly worried about the fate of the other members of the Qingyun Sect in other directions.

He had a bad feeling about their situation.

...

Ding Qi was now in a large hall, carefully examining the surroundings.

He was no longer near the original grand hall but in another place. Although the original grand hall had many rooms, Ding Qi's search there yielded no useful results.

After that, Ding Qi opened the stone door behind the grand hall and walked all the way to this hall.

"This hall is even worse than the original grand hall," Ding Qi thought, frowning as he inspected the hall.

In the previous grand hall, although Ding Qi did not find what he needed, he at least found some items related to martial artists. In this hall, however, there was nothing at all, not even those items.

With a rather depressed mood, Ding Qi pushed open another door connected to the hall and stepped in to search again.

The hall was not just a single room but was similar to the grand hall he had passed through earlier, consisting of several connected rooms.

After searching the second room, Ding Qi found nothing again.

Shaking his head, Ding Qi smiled bitterly and pushed open another stone door. However, when he pushed the door and looked up at the third hall, Ding Qi, who had not expected much, suddenly froze.

Ding Qi stared in surprise at the scene before him, lost in thought.

The third hall behind the stone door was not much different from the first two, and was even smaller.

The interior of the hall was very clean, with only a stone table in the center. There were no other furnishings, similar to the layout of the two larger halls.

The only difference was that there was a jade box on the stone table. However, Ding Qi's attention was not on the jade box.

If it were just a jade box, it would not have surprised Ding Qi so much, let alone made him freeze.

Based on his experience in the previous grand hall, the jade box was most likely empty. Opening it might trigger a trap, launching an attack on him.

He had encountered such situations several times on his journey.

What truly surprised Ding Qi was the scene around the stone table.

"This is... a talisman array," Ding Qi said, squinting his eyes as he looked at the stone table.

Ding Qi saw that dense layers of talismanic symbols surrounded the stone table, centered around it. This strange situation was what made Ding Qi freeze.

Ding Qi carefully examined the talismanic symbols, standing by the stone door. After the initial surprise, a smile gradually appeared on his face: "Finally, I've found a clue."

After examining the talismanic symbols, Ding Qi realized that they were the same as those on the brocade and the giant stone at the entrance to the secret realm.

After spending so much time in the underground palace, he had finally found a clue related to the先天功 (Xiantian Gong).

Just as he was about to enter the third hall, his heart racing, his foot suddenly hovered in mid-air, and his face gradually took on a serious expression.

Shortly after, Ding Qi retracted the foot he had already stepped halfway into the stone door.

Taking a deep breath, he suppressed his excitement and looked at the densely drawn talismanic symbols on the ground and the jade box on the stone table with caution.

After a moment of silence, Ding Qi suddenly reached out and slapped the nearest wall. With a single effort, he easily shattered the hard stone wall, scattering pieces of stone.

Ding Qi picked up a fist-sized piece of stone from the rubble and held it in his hand.

Ding Qi smiled slightly as he looked at the stone in his hand. Then, he turned to look at the talismanic symbols and the jade box in the hall. He raised his hand slightly and threw the stone towards the talismanic array with great force.

With the enhancement of his Great Strength Technique, the stone whistled through the air as it crashed into the talismanic array.

Ding Qi was on high alert, watching what would happen after the stone hit the array, and he was ready to run at the slightest sign of danger.

However, to Ding Qi's surprise, the stone he threw with the Great Strength Technique easily penetrated the stone floor where the talismanic symbols were drawn, creating a hole.

During this time, nothing dangerous happened as he had expected.

This made Ding Qi look puzzled.

After staring at the talismanic array outside the third hall for a while, Ding Qi finally gritted his teeth and cautiously stepped into the hall.

Upon entering the hall, Ding Qi's face did not relax at all. The moment he entered, he suddenly extended his right hand and slapped the ground in front of him.

With the full force of his Great Strength Technique, the entire floor of the hall was instantly torn up, and the ground with the talismanic symbols was completely destroyed.

Only then did Ding Qi truly relax.

He straightened up and looked at the hall, which had been completely destroyed by his palm strike. Ding Qi's face was a mix of surprise and joy, but also a bit of confusion.

"Did I just completely destroy that talismanic array?" Ding Qi thought, finding it hard to believe.

In Ding Qi's mind, a talismanic array like the one in the hall should be extremely difficult to deal with. Before opening the secret realm at the center of Qixia Mountain, Ding Qi had used all kinds of methods to break a single talismanic symbol.

Even so, he had failed.

When he saw the dense layers of talismanic symbols surrounding the stone table in the hall, Ding Qi instinctively felt that the situation in the hall would be extremely troublesome, even dangerous.

That was why he was so cautious when he decided to enter the hall.

He did not expect that the talismanic array, which he thought would be extremely difficult to deal with, was so easily destroyed. Even now, Ding Qi still found it hard to believe.

Ding Qi did not know that the array he had destroyed was actually called a Spirit Locking Array in the cultivation world, a type of array with no defensive power.

This array had neither offensive nor defensive capabilities. Its only function was to lock the spiritual energy of the item placed at the center of the array, preventing the item's spiritual energy from dissipating over time. Therefore, it was easily destroyed by Ding Qi.

After much thought, Ding Qi could only shake his head speechlessly and finally looked at the jade box on the stone table in the center, walking towards it.

"This jade box, being protected by a talismanic array, I wonder what it contains," Ding Qi thought, filled with anticipation.

When Ding Qi opened the stone door and saw the talismanic symbols drawn on the floor of the hall and the jade box on the stone table, he already knew that the jade box must contain something precious.

With a nervous heart, Ding Qi quickly reached the stone table and picked up the jade box.

Ding Qi carefully examined the jade box in his hand, noting its intricate design and the cold aura emanating from it. The jade box was made of the rare Cold Jade. Seeing this, Ding Qi's anticipation for the contents of the jade box grew even more.

As Ding Qi opened the jade box, a medicinal fragrance wafted out.

Inside the jade box, pure white pills were neatly arranged.

"This is... the Spirit Gathering Pill," Ding Qi's face showed excitement as he recognized the contents of the jade box.