Chapter 127: Spirit Burying Terrace (1)
Upon arriving at the pile of rubble, Su Chen silently calculated the time.
In a little while, it would be past midnight.
After midnight, the second day would begin, and that was also the twenty-second of the seventh month, the date when the Spirit Burying Terrace would open.
A star finally began to shine in the sky.
That star was the Lofty Point Star.
This star only appeared on the twenty-second day of the seventh month, and so this day was also known as the Lofty Point day.
The Lofty Point Star’s appearance was always very precise.
More precisely, the timekeeping clock could have errors, but the Lofty Point Star would not.
Thus, according to the timekeeping clock, it was not yet the Lofty Point Day, but the appearance of the Lofty Point Star implied that the day had arrived – all of the various officials adjusted their timekeeping devices.
Upon seeing the Lofty Point Star appear, Su Chen didn’t immediately make a move. Rather, he waited for a few moments.
As time went on, the Lofty Point Star began to shine more and more brightly.
Before Su Chen’s eyes, a strange scene started to appear.
A ray of starlight began to descend from the sky, landing not too far in front of Su Chen, forming a hazy circle of light that faintly covered a smaller half of the valley. There were a few threads within the circle that criss-crossed, forming an incredibly complex map.
Upon seeing this, Su Chen silently confirmed that Old Sang had been completely right. As expected, this place was filled with devious traps, and the underground was protected by a large formation which could even conduct starlight. Where the starlight landed was where the Origin Energy Formation was located. By using the starlight, this Origin Energy Formation appeared.
This was precisely the creativity of the people who had set up the protective mechanisms of the chamber. Every thousand years, it would attract the starlight from the Lofty Point Star. At that time, as long as a person experienced with formations who could proceed according to the instructions of the formation was present, it was easy to open it up and open up the grave to see the light of day once again.
Naturally, Su Chen did not understand formations, but Sang Zhen had told him how to unlock all of the mechanisms long before.
After seeing this formation diagram appear, Su Chen walked through the formation, arriving at a location where a Profound Arcana Triangle symbol was located. He pulled out something from his Origin Ring. It was merely a hollow iron pole, which he used to stab the triangular intersection until there was no resistance. Next, he arrived to another pattern, but this time he pulled out a small sheet of iron and buried in the earth. He then arrived near another pattern, and spilled a unique bloody liquid on the ground.
He went back and forth to a total of thirty six patterns and making thirty six arrangements before pulling out an Origin Formation Disk, placing it three feet below the ground in the center.
Activate!
A mysterious light began to shine out from the ground. When the light began to shine on the patterns on the Origin Energy Formation, they in turn began to emit a powerful light.
The light shone more and more brilliantly. When Su Chen saw it, he was quite nervous. Would such a large commotion attract others over?
Finally, this intense light began to disappear.
However, the ground suddenly started to move.
The fierce trembling almost made Su Chen believe that it was an earthquake, if it weren’t for the fact that the mountains around him were fine, and only the ground around his feet was shaking.
Next, Su Chen saw that the at the center of the Origin Formation, where he had placed the Origin Formation Disk, a depression had formed in the ground, and a pitch-black opening had appeared.
Upon seeing the opening, Su Chen didn’t immediately enter. Instead, he first drunk a vial of medicine, then pulled out a special item and then completely covered himself from head to toe with items. Even his eyes had been completely covered by crystal chips before he began to enter.
The Spirit Burying Terrace contained Corpse Spirit Flowers. They were extremely poisonous items.
Although the Immortal Temple had given him the antidote, Su Chen did not place all his hope on the other party.
After applying two layers of insurance, Su Chen lifted the crystal lamp and entered the cave. His own crystal lamp had shattered; he had taken the one in his hand from another exam candidate.
The cave was very deep, and he walked step by step downwards before finally reaching the end. However, he saw a pitch-black, winding tunnel in front of him.
After walking along the tunnel for quite some time, he finally emerged. Su Chen discovered that he had already arrived at a large, open room.
Su Chen didn’t immediately enter the large room. Instead, he pulled out an Origin Formation Disk and tossed it inside.
As soon as that Origin Formation Disk entered the room, a brilliant red light shone forth.
This implied that the Origin Energy in the room was extremely concentrated to the point that it had reached the Red Star level.
This indicated two things. One: the Origin Energy circulation in the Spirit Burying Terrace was very good, and most of the mechanisms would still be in effect. They would not have broken down or decayed because of age. Of course, this could also be seen from the Origin Formation at the entrance. If the place had decayed, the Origin Formation should have lost its effectiveness a long time ago. Obviously, this place had been appropriately prepared, allowing the Spirit Burying Terrace to be preserved for tens of thousands of years without decaying. Second: the Origin Energy in this location was dense enough to be considered at the Red Star level.
The levels of Origin Energy that Origin Qi Scholars possessed could be divided into purple, black, brown, red, blue, green, and yellow stars. Origin Energy at a density of the Red Star level was equivalent to the Origin Energy a cultivator in the Light-Shaking Realm would possess.
That was also to say that the mechanisms here could kill Light-Shaking Realm cultivators.
That was a Monitoring Disk. After looking at it, it self-destructed.
Upon discovering these two pieces of information, Su Chen became even more cautious.
Two rows of stone carvings were erected in the large room. They were all martial artists wearing red chestplates, and a blood-colored longsword was at their waist. Su Chen had heard that there was a kind of martial artist during the Divine Illustrious Dynasty known as the Bloodmelting Swordsmen. They were corpses that had been refined by a unique, secret bloodline technique. At the same time, it was a byproduct of a failed experiment to produce the Bloodline Extraction Instrument.
The twelve stone statues in front of him were the Bloodmelting Swordsmen. Although they looked like stone statues, they were real Bloodmelting Swordsmen that had been sealed via a unique sealing technique into a stone sculpture. If any outsiders were to barge in, these twelve Bloodmelting Swordsmen would awaken and break out of their seals, attacking anyone who barged in.
However, Su Chen was not worried about this. He pulled out a black medallion and placed it on himself, then walked over step by step. Those Bloodmelting Swordsmen did not move at all.
This was an insignia that the Immortal Temple had created when constructing the Spirit Burying Terrace. Those Bloodmelting Swordsmen were controlled by that medallion and would not attack. Unfortunately, because Su Chen didn’t understand the method used to control them, but was best to not even attempt it at all. They could very easily cause trouble for him, and after all the Immortal Temple had not planned on wanting them.
After crossing the large room, he was greeted by a large set of stone doors.
Su Chen did not open the stone doors. Instead, he squatted about a foot away from the doors. He searched around on the ground for a moment before finally discovering a movable stone slab. He raised the slab and pulled out a circular handle. Upon pulling on the handle, the stone doors slowly opened. At the same time that the stone doors opened, he could hear the sound of mechanisms shifting behind the doors.
Su Chen knew that this was the sound of the mechanisms in the door shutting down.
If he hadn’t known about the setup behind the door ahead of time and just gone to open the door, he most likely would have died very tragically.
A large hall was behind the stone doors. It was much more vast and imposing when compared to the stone chamber behind him. Night Pearls were illuminating the large hall from its ceiling, making it seem as if it were daytime. These pearls did not appear at all like they had suffered from seven thousand years of corrosion. They were preserved just like in the past, and even the air in the entire large hall was very fresh.
The walls were covered with mysterious engravings, which appeared to be decorative in nature. In reality, they were a portion of the entire underground Origin Formation, and they had preserved the air, freezing time and ensuring that this place was unaffected by the passing of seven thousand years. But as Su Chen “activated” the tomb, the seals of the Origin Formation slowly began to disappear. From this day onwards, this location would no longer be isolated.
On both sides of the large hall stood four giant sculptures in total. Each one was over thirty feet tall, and they were covered in black armor. They were extremely majestic and domineering in appearance.
These were the very well-known Origin Demon Puppets.
These four Origin Demon Puppets were all battalion-grade Origin Demon Puppets.
The armies of the Seven Kingdoms were split into squadrons, fireteam, guards, wards, battalions, garrisons, and armies. Ten people made up a squadron, thirty a fireteam, a hundred a guard, three hundred a ward, a thousand a battalion, three thousand a garrison, and ten thousand an army.
Battalion-grade Demon Puppets implied that these kinds of Demon Puppets could resist the military strength of a normal battalion. Based on the standards for military strength set by the Divine Illustrious Dynasty at the time, a normal battalion had one Yang-Opening Realm person, fifteen Blood-Boiling, three hundred Qi Drawing, and seven hundred martial artists.
To deal with such a battalion, one had to at least be an expert at a high layer in the Light-Shaking Realm.
That was to say that these Demon Puppets possessed strength equal to an expert at a high layer in the Light-Shaking Realm.
There were four complete battalion-grade Demon Puppets here. No wonder the Origin Formation Disk released a brilliant red light.
But unfortunately, although these puppets were extremely strong, it was impossible to store them in an Origin Ring because their Origin Energy content was simply too high. Normal Origin Rings wouldn’t be able to withstand it at all. In addition, they weighed an inconceivable amount, and the ground would shake if they walked, so it was not possible to bring them out. Thus, the Immortal Temple had no intention of taking them. Rather, they had placed their attention on the items responsible for driving these four Demon Puppets.
Tool-grade Sark’s Energy Nuclei.
Because of their rarity, even a tool-grade Sark’s Energy Nucleus was much more valuable than an Origin Demon Puppet.
Su Chen, who was wearing the medallion, would not be attacked by the Demon Puppets. He directly walked behind the four Demon Puppets and opened the mechanism on their lower backs according to how Sang Zhen had taught him. A device roughly as large as a millstone was revealed.
This was the Sark’s Energy Nucleus, an incredibly powerful device.
Su Chen’s Origin Ring couldn’t store even just these four Sark’s Energy Nuclei, but he was not anxious. His gaze had already landed on the highest place in the large hall.
There, a pedestal made out of black gold was erected there, and a lotus terrace was constructed out of cloud jade. Floating above the terrace were three six-sided crystals, slowly revolving in midair. Upon closer inspection, some kind of substance was faintly discernable inside the transparent outer crystal layer. Those were Void Essences.
Void Essences were a unique space-attribute item, and they possessed powerful space properties. They could isolate a certain space, forming a standalone region. The Spirit Burying Terrace had not been affected by the passing of time because the Void Essences had separated this place from the outside world. It wasn’t until now, when Su Chen had unraveled the Origin Formation, that everything dissipated.
Upon arriving in front of the Void Essences, Su Chen pulled out another Origin Formation Disk from his Origin Ring, then gently placed it on the black gold pedestal.
The Void Essences were a unique item possessing space attributes, and it was impossible to physically grab them. Neither could they be stored in an Origin Ring. He could only use the current method and slowly draw them over using an Origin Formation Disk.
As the Origin Formation Disk began to let out a scintillating light, the three Void Essence Crystals slowly drew near to the Origin Formation Disk. Even though they were only a palm’s width away, they flew through the air as if it were a distance of tens of thousands of kilometers. Finally, they landed on top of the Origin Formation Disk, and three more pearls appeared on the Origin Formation Disk. Those who knew understood that those were Void Essence Crystals, while those who didn’t know would think that they were just Night Pearls.
With these three Void Storage Crystals, combined with the Origin Formation he had prepared, this Origin Formation Disk had become a storage disk that could completely contain items. The space inside, as well as its sturdiness, was more than enough to store four Sark’s Energy Nuclei inside.
After placing those four Sark’s Energy Nuclei in the Origin Formation Disk, Su Chen let out a sigh.
As for the black gold pedestal and the cloud jade lotus terrace, Su Chen stored them into his Origin Ring – based on their agreement, Su Chen could take anything that the Immortal Temple had not requested.
Although these two items did not possess any particular value, as raw materials they were relatively precious, and they were also antiques. They possessed a very clear style of the Divine Illustrious Dynasty, and they would be worth quite a sum if sold.
After taking care of all of this, Su Chen let out a long sigh.
Up until now, everything had ended up the way Sang Zhen had said it would. No unexpected occurrences had happened.
All that remained was the final step.
Su Chen gazed at the wall at the back of the large hall.
Up until now, everything that Su Chen had discovered, whether it was the Sark’s Energy Nuclei or the Void Essence Crystals, were not the real treasures of the Spirit Burying Terrace. They existed solely to protect this area of land.
Behind that wall was hidden the true treasure of the Spirit Burying Terrace – Corpse Spirit Flowers.
At the same time, it was also the location where accidents were most likely to happen.
In order to allow the Corpse Spirit Flower to grow, it could not be cut off from the outside world. Thus, while the guardians of the Spirit Burying Terrace existed in an isolated space, the place where the Corpse Spirit Flowers were growing had really experienced the passage of seven thousand years.
No one knew what kinds of changes would occur after seven thousand years. Even Sang Zhen and the others were unable to prepare for what could happen.
As soon as that wall was opened, all of the dangers would be faced by Su Chen and Su Chen alone!
He sucked in a deep breath, then activated more than ten Meg’s Guardians before pressing the switch to open the wall.
With rumblings and creaking, the back wall slowly opened.
A dark current suddenly poured into the room, swirling towards Su Chen.
