Chapter 68: Chapter 63: Small World, The Remains of a Pseudo-Immortal
The fully restored Condensing Space Bracelet was aqua green throughout and felt warm and smooth to the touch. The bracelet was slender at the mouth, with dense patterns sprawling across it, faintly outlining a landscape of mountains and seas.
Seeing the update on the information panel, Chu Zheng couldn't help but feel a bit surprised.
A small world?
Without giving it much thought, Chu Zheng closed his eyes and concentrated, squeezing a thread of essence blood from the tip of his tongue, and began refining this Tongxuan Spiritual Treasure.
He was not versed in the methods of the Immortal Path and, with his cultivation not high and his Divine Soul not yet condensed into a spiritual imprint, he could only use the blood sacrifice method common among Qi Cultivators to refine the Condensing Space Bracelet.
The essence blood smoothly merged into the Condensing Space Bracelet, without the slightest rejection.
This made Chu Zheng breathe a sigh of relief; he had been somewhat worried that, once the Condensing Space Bracelet was repaired, it might still retain the imprint of its previous master.
Now it seemed that even the panel couldn't restore the brand of a deceased person.
Half an hour later, Chu Zheng had established a faint connection with the Condensing Space Bracelet.
In just a moment, he understood all the properties of this Spiritual Treasure.
The Condensing Space Bracelet was merely a gateway that could open a path to a small world, rather than containing a space within it.
Besides that, the Condensing Space Bracelet also carried a Treasure Technique named 'Space Condensing'.
Treasure Techniques were unique abilities of Spiritual Treasures, which, when activated by a cultivator, could display astonishing power, akin to Divine Skills.
The Space Condensing Art could freeze space within a small area.
The power of this Divine Skill was related to the strength of the user.
With Chu Zheng's current level of cultivation, although he could not completely freeze space, he was still able to slow down the movement of certain beings. In battle, it was akin to having an extra ace up his sleeve.
After getting to know a bit more, Chu Zheng placed the Condensing Space Bracelet within his Dantian to nurture and deepen the connection.
At the same time, his Yuan Qi stirred lightly, flowing into the Condensing Space Bracelet, opening the gateway to the small world.
An illusory gate of light appeared before his eyes, with shimmering blue light swirling inside, the path beyond unclear.
This was a spatial passageway, connecting to an unknown, distant alien realm.
Only the mighty ones of the Tongxuan Secret Realm could touch upon the Laws of Space, crossing the void in a blink to reach millions of miles away.
Chu Zheng glanced at Fu Quanliang, who was unconscious at the mouth of the valley. Without waking him, he stepped into the gate of light alone.
The moment he entered the passageway, Chu Zheng felt a void beneath his feet and a tightness around him as if wrapped by an invisible membrane, followed by a gentle pushing force from behind.
After a few breaths, Chu Zheng felt solid ground under his feet and, with his eyes still closed, he sensed a wave of vegetation Essence Qi rushing toward him.
Opening his eyes, Chu Zheng found himself covered by spirit grass rising taller than a person.
[Nurturing Spirit Herb (Second Order): matures in five hundred years, the main ingredient for refining Ascension Pills; having grown for over ten thousand years, its medicinal efficacy is exceptionally profound.]
Chu Zheng rose into the air and scanned the surroundings, seeing at a glance a prairie with no visible end.
The sky held neither sun nor moon, just two small stars, casting a faint, hazy light, leaving the entire world as if entombed in twilight, permeated with a tinge of duskiness.
Dozens of miles away, one could barely discern a deep abyss, bottomless to the eye.
The Spiritual Energy between heaven and earth was exceedingly abundant, surpassing that of the Phantom Spirit Sect's residence by more than a measure, which was sufficient evidence that beneath this small world there must be an entire Spirit Vein buried!
The value of this Spirit Vein alone was incalculable.
After some consideration, Chu Zheng concealed his aura and began exploring the surroundings using the Invisibility Technique.
This was a small world with its own cosmos, and since there were Spirit Grasses growing, he couldn't be certain there weren't living creatures as well. Being cautious was undoubtedly the right approach.
He soon crossed the prairie that spanned dozens of miles and entered a plain.
Along the way, he saw many cracks, seemingly left by some unknown weapons, stretching dozens or even hundreds of miles.
In these cracks, an extremely intense aura of dead silence lingered. No one knew how many years had passed, yet there was still a scorching heat that prevented any grass from growing where the cracks were.
An hour later, Chu Zheng had advanced a thousand miles and could vaguely feel that he was getting closer to the center of this Small World.
The further forward he went, the more cracks there were on the ground.
After exploring thousands of miles, Chu Zheng finally made a new discovery.
Amidst the thousand miles of red earth, stood a set of blue clothes with white bones, holding a spear upright.
The spear, thick as a wrist and nearly ten feet long, seemed to be flowing with magma, its entire body a glowing red, exuding an oppressive feeling that took one's breath away.
Chu Zheng observed the surroundings for a moment and carefully approached, tentatively touching the long spear.
[Lihuo Spear (Sixth Order): Due to the owner's death and significant wear and tear, its True Spirit has fallen into slumber. After a long period, it has recovered eight or nine parts out of ten. Your current cultivation is insufficient to subdue it. It can be repaired (0/200).]
Chu Zheng withdrew his hand like a flash of lightning, fearing to awaken the True Spirit within. A battle-type warrior weapon was starkly different from a Spiritual Treasure like the Condensing Space Bracelet.
Although both were Sixth Order, the reason the Condensing Space Bracelet was considered Sixth Order was largely due to this Small World; it had not developed its own spiritual intelligence.
The Lihuo Spear, however, already had its own True Spirit. Once it revived autonomously, it would be no different from a living Tongxuan powerhouse, equivalent to a revival of a Pseudo-Immortal, who could crush him effortlessly.
Fortunately, a slumbering Spiritual Treasure wouldn't wake up easily without external force.
Chu Zheng subdued his aura and quietly reached out to touch the white bones beside him.
[Nameless Corpse Bone (Sixth Order): Human Race, former Elder of the Taixuan Sect, Superior Immortal Bone, bone age seven hundred and ninety-four, his cultivation reached the peak of the Sixth Order, unable to trigger Immortal Tribulation due to flaws in the Heaven and Earth Laws, and failed to escape this Small World, eventually dying of exhaustion.]
Superior Immortal Bone.
Chu Zheng's eyelids twitched; this was the person with the highest level of innate talent he had encountered since coming to this world.
His bone age also proved this point. At just over seven hundred years old, he had already stepped into the peak of the Tongxuan Realm, just one step away from Becoming an Immortal.
Considering the information given by the panel and then thinking about the Demon King's bones in the ancient battlefield of the mine, Chu Zheng quickly deduced some of the original situation from back then.
The Condensing Space Bracelet did not have the power to trap enemies forcefully, so there could only be one possibility.
This former Elder of the Taixuan Sect had walked into this Small World on his own.
When that great battle erupted, perhaps he was in seclusion within this world. The relationship between him and that Demon King must also be somewhat mysterious.
The great battle broke out, and the Demon King was ambushed; the Condensing Space Bracelet was shattered. She fought desperately to reclaim the fragments, probably hoping to release this person.
This Small World was closed off. Without the Condensing Space Bracelet opening a passageway, there was no way to leave.
The Tongxuan Secret Realm was not an Immortal after all; it couldn't forcefully shatter this Small World. With the flaws in the Heaven and Earth Laws and no progress in cultivation, the final outcome could only be death by entrapment.
A Pseudo-Immortal fell, a fact that inevitably elicited sighs.
At this thought, Chu Zheng's gaze returned to the skeleton, pondering. A Pseudo-Immortal couldn't possibly only have this spear.
After carefully searching for a moment, he soon made a discovery.
On the pearly white finger bones, there was a ring, and around its neck, there hung a Jade Token.
Chu Zheng first reached out for the Jade Token.
[Taixuan Divine Fire Scripture (Eighth Order): The Taixuan Sect's secret technique, at its highest level, one can ascend to immortality, and Immortal Techniques span the heavens.]
The information transmitted from the panel made Chu Zheng inhale a breath of cold air; he never expected to stumble upon such an unexpected windfall.
A true Immortal Ascension Method!