When that vast spiritual qi containing great dao fragments and life essence roared out from the door crack, everyone was greatly invigorated, as if the fatigue from successive bitter battles had been washed away. However, Mu Qingfeng was not carried away by this sudden opportunity. He maintained the formation's stability, his voice steady and powerful: "Though the spiritual qi is good, don't greedily absorb it. Guard your minds against tricks! Xiao Qi, recover quickly. Junior Sister Lin, guard against the inside!"
Xiao Qi followed the instruction, sitting cross-legged, fully absorbing this pure spiritual qi to nourish his nearly depleted meridians and mind. That jade slip recording the "Yimu Ningxin Art" played a huge role at this moment. Under the technique's circulation, his recovery speed far exceeded others, his pale face reddening at a visible rate.
Liu Yun stood with sword before that door crack barely wide enough for one person, her sword intent held but not released, her spiritual sense carefully probing inside to sense the situation. After a moment, she withdrew her spiritual sense, her eyes showing surprise: "There doesn't seem to be direct danger behind the door, but... the spatial sense is very strange. My spiritual sense doesn't penetrate far before it's like a clay ox entering the sea, unable to sense clearly."
After about half an incense stick's time, Xiao Qi rose, his eyes bright with spirit, his condition recovered to seventy or eighty percent. "Eldest Senior Brother, I'm ready."
Mu Qingfeng nodded, his gaze sweeping over the spirited everyone, saying gravely: "Good! Maintain formation, let's go in! Remember, the situation inside is unknown. Caution is paramount above all. Don't act without authorization, don't advance greedily!"
"Yes!" everyone responded in unison. Their recovered morale and the opportunity temptation overflowing from that door crack filled everyone with anticipation and alertness.
Mu Qingfeng took the lead, his figure flashing like merging into shadow, silently passing through that narrow door crack. Next was Liu Yun, her sword light flickering slightly as she entered. Xiao Qi followed closely. In the instant he crossed the door, he felt as if passing through a layer of cool water film, the surrounding scene instantly changing.
After steadying himself and seeing the scene before him clearly, he couldn't help but inhale sharply, his eyes filled with shock. Other fellow disciples entering behind him also exclaimed in wonder.
Behind the door was not the imagined hall interior but a vast, boundless world filled with immortal qi!
The sky was a soft milky white, radiating even, bright light. There were no sun or moon, yet it seemed to have its own light source. Looking out, distant mountains rose and fell in ranges, with waterfalls like the Milky Way pouring down between them, their roars faintly audible. Nearby, pavilions and towers were hidden among exotic flowers, rare plants, and towering ancient trees, with carved beams and painted rafters, flying eaves and brackets, the style ancient and grand, consistent with the hall's majestic exterior outside. White jade-paved paths wound tortuously, connecting various buildings. Further away, one could even see a sparkling lake and the outline of medicine fields.
The spiritual qi density here was several times stronger than what overflowed from the door crack, almost forming a faint spiritual mist winding among mountains, waters, and buildings. With each breath, not only did spiritual power grow, but the soul also felt waves of comfort and clarity.
"This... this isn't a hall? It's clearly a small world!" a disciple murmured, thoroughly convinced by this divine craftsmanship. A hall only a hundred zhang high on the outside had such an expansive cave heaven inside—this spatial folding technique had far exceeded their understanding.
Mu Qingfeng was also shaken in his mind, but he quickly suppressed his surprise, calmly observing around: "Indeed it contains a universe. Though this place seems peaceful, it absolutely cannot be without defenses. Everyone stay close. We'll proceed along this main road. Don't deviate."
He pointed to a main road ahead, the widest one leading straight to a most majestic mountain peak in the distance. On that peak, one could faintly see an especially magnificent palace, presumably the true core of this small world.
The team proceeded cautiously along the white jade main road. On both sides of the road, they occasionally saw some independent buildings like pill rooms, artifact pavilions, and scripture towers. Some had tightly closed doors with circulating restrictions; others were wide open but dark inside, their reality unclear. One could even see some puppet remains that had long lost their spiritual light and become ordinary metal scattered in the grass, as if recounting the ages this place had experienced and possible events.
After walking less than a li, a white jade arch bridge appeared ahead spanning a spiritual qi stream. The bridge was exquisite, but the moment the team stepped onto the arch bridge, something suddenly changed!
On the stone-carved railings on both sides of the bridge, those originally motionless auspicious beast statues suddenly had their eyes light up with red glow! Immediately after, dozens of extremely sharp golden light beams comparable to early Golden Core cultivators' full-power strikes sprayed from the auspicious beasts' mouths like a violent storm, covering the entire bridge surface!
"Enemy attack! Formation defense!" Mu Qingfeng had been prepared, roaring as he and Liu Yun simultaneously acted. Mu Qingfeng's sword aura transformed into a thick earth-yellow light shield blocking before the team; Liu Yun's sword danced like a wheel, countless fine sword qi weaving a large net that shredded the light beams attacking from the flanks.
Xiao Qi reacted extremely fast, instantly deploying the Black Tortoise Shield to protect weaker fellow disciples behind him. Other disciples also used various means, sword lights and spell techniques lighting up, barely blocking this sudden attack.
The light beams lasted about three breaths before abruptly ceasing, and the red glow in those auspicious beast statues' eyes dimmed, returning to their original state.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief but didn't dare be careless, quickly passing through the arch bridge.
"Seems the tests here are everywhere. These mechanisms and traps are perhaps a kind of screening for intruders," Mu Qingfeng said gravely, warning everyone to be even more careful.
Continuing forward, they successively encountered several more traps. Sometimes it was poisonous vines suddenly shooting from seemingly ordinary flower thickets; sometimes the stone slabs beneath their feet suddenly flipping, revealing bottomless pits with strange powers sucking at souls from within; once, they even triggered a small illusion formation that caused momentary disorientation, fortunately Xiao Qi's spiritual sense was keen and he used purification power to break the formation eye in time, preventing chaos.
These traps were quite powerful but seemed to leave a thread of life, not being killing situations, more like comprehensive tests of intruders' strength, character, and adaptability.
On the way, they also tried exploring some roadside buildings with open doors. In a side hall marked "Hundred Herbs Pavilion," they found some spiritual herb fossils long losing medicinal properties and several jade slips recording ancient pill formulas. Though most content was blurry from age, the remaining information was eye-opening. In a "Metal and Stone Pavilion," they found some artifact refining material scraps and a simple puppet that had lost its core and couldn't be driven.
There were gains, but clearly not the core heritage.
As they continued deeper, the surrounding buildings grew more magnificent, and the traps encountered grew more ingenious and dangerous. Even some energy-constructed ancient spell creations with simple combat instincts began appearing, their strength comparable to Golden Core cultivators, forcing the team to slow down.
Now they stood before an extremely large medicine garden covered by a faint light shield. Inside the garden, spiritual qi swirled, with many rare spiritual plants long extinct in the outside world vaguely visible, their ages old, their medicinal fragrance striking. However, the medicine garden's entrance had no obvious portal, only a constantly twisting, changing light film flashing with various runes.
"This medicine garden's restriction is much more complex than the previous traps," Liu Yun observed, her brow slightly furrowed.
Mu Qingfeng tried probing with spiritual power, and the light film immediately reacted, the runes circulating faster, emitting a warning aura. "Forcefully breaking it will likely trigger the entire medicine garden restriction's counterattack. The gain won't be worth the loss."
Everyone's gazes again fell on Xiao Qi. Throughout this journey, Xiao Qi's unique purification power had not only shone brilliantly against demon cultivators but repeatedly achieved success in breaking some restrictions leaning toward energy blockade and illusion.
Xiao Qi stepped forward, concentrating on sensing that light film. The runes on the film seemed to circulate chaotically, but their core still seemed to revolve around the concepts of "purity,""vitality," and "balance." He took a deep breath, again condensing purification white light on his fingertip, carefully reaching toward several nodes on the light film where energy circulation was relatively gentle.
However, this time, his purification power touched the light film but didn't smoothly merge like before. Instead, it triggered violent ripples. The runes on the film suddenly lit up with piercing light, and a powerful repulsive force came, bouncing his finger away!
Xiao Qi let out a muffled groan, retreating two steps, his fingertip numb.
"No good!" Xiao Qi shook his head, his expression grave. "This restriction not only requires pure spiritual power but seems to have extremely high requirements for the spiritual power's 'quality' and 'quantity.' My power... isn't enough to gain its complete recognition."
Everyone showed regret upon hearing this. Seeing a garden full of rare spiritual plants so close yet unreachable was truly难受.
Just as everyone hesitated whether to give up and continue toward the core mountain peak, the jade pendant at Xiao Qi's chest again transmitted clear heat. This time, the warm current pointed not at the medicine garden before them but at a completely unremarkable small path beside the garden, almost completely hidden by dense vines.
Xiao Qi's mind moved. Pushing aside the vines, he saw the small path winding, leading to a bamboo forest behind the medicine garden.
"Eldest Senior Brother, this way..." Xiao Qi indicated.
Mu Qingfeng pondered briefly, then decisively said: "Since the main door is hard to enter, perhaps there's another path. Let's go see!"
The team turned to tread that secluded small path. The path wound tortuously, passing through a quiet bamboo forest with pleasant bamboo fragrance. After walking a short while, a simple small house built entirely of emerald bamboo appeared ahead. The house had no door, only a bamboo curtain hanging down.
The jade pendant at Xiao Qi's chest was extremely hot here. He gently lifted the bamboo curtain, and the scene inside the small house entered his view—
Inside, the furnishings were extremely simple: only a table, a chair, and a meditation cushion. On the table lay an ancient book neither gold nor jade, dark in color, with the ancient characters "Tai Chu Qing Hua Record" on its cover. Beside the book was a small, emerald-green token emitting dense vitality, engraved with the character "Medicine."
On that meditation cushion, however, there was not emptiness but a skeleton draped in a pale blue daoist robe, sitting in meditation posture, its bearing serene, as if merely sleeping.