A thought flashed across Ding Hao’s mind.
He extracted a mysterious crystal from the stone wall with his will, then it fell into his hand.
He released his divine senses to probe and observe it carefully.
They were indeed top-grade mysterious crystals. The energy contained within was extremely abundant, and there were almost no impurities. Martial artist could absorb them directly, integrating them in their meridian channels and Qi Seeds without the need to refine or discharge the impurities; this would reduce the chances of incurring in Qi deviation to the greatest extent.
This kind of top-grade mysterious crystal was a treasure that every martial artist dreamed of owning.
Ding Hao tried to absorb all the Qi into his body. He felt the energy merging with his body and still had no clue about what it made them different.
“These are perfect mysterious crystals, but for some reason, it felt a little weird…” Ding Hao thought in his heart.
When he lowered his head and looked at the crystal in his hand again, he was suddenly stunned.
“This is… No. After all the energy is absorbed, the mysterious crystal would usually turn into powder and disappear. Being the essence of heaven and earth, it is a body of energy in its purest form. But why did this mysterious crystal become an ordinary rock after its energy was absorbed?”
Ding Hao was shocked.
The mysterious crystal in his hand didn’t turn into powder after he absorbed the internal energy.
Instead, it turned into an ordinary rock.
He carefully observed the rock.
It looked familiar. This was the ordinary black rock on the cliff of the Great Abyss.
Ding Hao clenched it with his hand. With a crack, the rock was crushed into small grains of sand. The inside of the crystal had completely decayed, and the rock structure had almost been destroyed. Even ordinary people could crush it into powder.
“This is indeed an ordinary rock. It turned into a mysterious crystal only after it had been injected with vast energy in an instant.” The voice of the Sword Master suddenly reverberated in his mind. He said, “In other words, these mysterious crystals were man-made. I’m afraid that they have only existed for less than three months!”
Hearing this, Ding Hao was lost in thought.
After a pause, Ding Hao said in surprise, “Could it be that the legendary purple dragon Qi changed these rocks?”
“It’s hard to say. If you want to figure it out, you have to explore deeper and see the purple dragon Qi pillar yourself.” The Sword Master was not sure, either.
Ding Hao nodded. He wrapped himself in Heaven Fire Qi and continued his descent.
Further down was an abyss that had never been explored.
The Heaven-Splitting Swordsmanship Sect had not forced the imprisoned disciples to mine so deep. Ding Hao’s eyes flashed like lightning. Two golden lights burst out, piercing the evil spirit and the astral wind and monitoring the cliff.
Just as it happened in other places above, the rocks had also been transformed into mysterious crystals.
Moreover, all of them were top-grade mysterious crystals.
Even Ding Hao, who was the most affluent man in Snow Province, felt astonished at the sight of such a terrifying number.
This immense wealth was enough for the Swordsmanship-seeking Sect to squander for hundreds of years.
At the same time, Ding Hao found that as he descended deeper into the abyss, the color of the black crystal gradually changed to purple. It had a sense of majesty that belonged to the ancient-Gu era. The massive crystals glowed with dazzling lights. The stones were so transparent that one could almost see the texture deep inside at a glance.
The surge of demonic Qi was getting weaker.
There was some warmth in the air. With the Spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth surging in the space, a person could cultivate by simply breathing.
Ding Hao could roughly estimate that this place was more than 3,000 meters deep.
Only at his present level of Qi cultivation and physical strength could a cultivator reach this place. If it were anyone else, even Wan Jiansheng, the grim-faced elder of the Heaven-Splitting Swordsmanship Sect, reaching that place would have been impossible. Anyone would have been crushed by the terrible demonic Qi and the astral wind at about 2,500 meters deep.
There was a purple mist-shrouded abyss further below.
The abyss was like the mouth of a terrifying beast, whose depth was impossible to fathom.
Ding Hao couldn’t help but feel agitated.
While holding the rusted sword and the magic saber, he remained vigilant as he continued to descend slowly.
It was an extremely long process.
“By the way, Sister Saber, have you deciphered the Fake God’s characters on the Stone Puppets?” The surroundings were so quiet that it was a little eerie. Ding Hao simply changed the topic to think about something else. The Sword Master was the only one who had spoken thus far. It was a little unusual that the Saber Master had remained silent all this time.
“Ah haha, you finally remember me?” The Saber Master laughed loudly and said, “I just wanted to see how long it would take you to speak to me if I stay quiet. Haha, it seems that it didn’t take long!”
Ding Hao: “…”
“What an interesting game! Should I understand it as childish innocence?”
The Sword Master sneered and said, “You are making a fool of yourself. Little Chap Ding was not thinking of you. He was concerned about cracking the Fake God characters, okay?”
The Saber Master was furious. “You are a miserable narcissist. Narcissist Master, a name you rightfully earned. Just now, Little Chap Ding had yet to ask you a thing before you interrupted him. Look at your eager face. I won’t bother to speak with you.”
Ding Hao: “…”
“What kind of games are these two old monsters playing?”
He quickly changed the subject once again, “Sister Saber, have you managed to decipher those characters?”
The Saber Master suddenly changed her tone and said with a sweet voice, “Don’t worry, Little Chap Ding. I am more than qualified for this and have already deciphered all of them. The Fake God’s characters are also a kind of inscription. The Great Tao comes from the same source. Once you understand the Tao in one thing, you can apply it to tens of thousands of problems…”
The Saber Master roughly explained the origin of the Fake God’s characters.
Ding Hao was half a master of inscriptions, but he didn’t fully understand at first exposure. He had to think carefully to understand some parts.
Fortunately, the Saber Master was very patient. She explained it over and over again.
In the end, Ding Hao had a general idea.
Once he returned to the ground level, Ding Hao would be ready to remake stone puppets to defend the sect gate, especially the four giant ones at the peak of the Martial Emperor realm. If they could be of use, nothing in the entire Snow Province could pose a threat to the Swordsmanship-seeking Sect.
“Thank you, Sister Saber. You are amazing.” Ding Hao didn’t forget to flatter her.
The Saber Master tilted her head upwards and laughed hysterically.
The Sword Master couldn’t stand it anymore. “Crazy woman, you are shameless. The Fake God’s characters were deciphered by the two of us. Why are you hoarding all the credit now?”
The Saber Master sneered and said, “Did you participate in the deciphering? I don’t remember that.”
The Sword Master was furious. “Crazy woman, you used to have some bottom line. Now you have lost all your integrity!”
Saber Master asked, “What is integrity?”
Sword Master was speechless.
So was Ding Hao.
It was true that one should never mess with women.
Ding Hao often felt that these two old monsters were like two children who had never grown up. They always fought for various extremely childish matters, and he was like a poor single father of two innocent children. He had to help them calm down from time to time.
However, it was undeniable that the two old monsters had an abnormally profound knowledge in martial arts, alchemy, and inscriptions. Even in the entire Northern Region, only a few people could compete with them.
As they were speaking, a sudden change occurred.
Without warning, there was a sudden surge of majestic purple airflow coming from the deep abyss.
Ding Hao was directly lifted up dozens of meters as he had been caught unprepared.
“Is it the rumored purple dragon Qi pillar?” Ding Hao was shocked. He quickly stabilized his body and ran his Qi. He would not dare to relax at all.
He looked up.
The calm abyss suddenly became restless: the inert purple flame turned violent, steaming like a pot of boiling water. The atmosphere grew more frightening as if something terrible were trying to break free from the imprisonment in the depths of the abyss.
The next moment, columns of purple Qi suddenly burst out from the depths.
Waves of dragon roars echoed wildly in the abyss cave.
Ding Hao dodged in a hurry and avoided the impact of a Qi column.
It was the purple dragon Qi pillar!
Ding Hao narrowed his eyes in surprise.
Sure enough, the legendary purple dragon Qi pillar had truly appeared.
The Swordsmanship-seeking Sect disciples had not exaggerated at all.
The purple Qi pillars were indeed like a dragon, letting out bouts of roars. Ding Hao stayed close to the cliff, where he could clearly see those dragon-shaped Qi pillars in full detail: the dragon’s head, body, claws, and even the scales. It was as if they were alive.
However, his Divine Senses told him that those vivid purple dragons were just energy columns without any vitality.
But that was shocking enough.
“A dragon-like pillar of Qi?” The Sword Master also exclaimed, “Oh my god, it’s amazing. I’m afraid that such a magical phenomenon might be the sign of a rare treasure of heaven and earth in the abyss!”
Saber Master could not help but agree with him. “Yes, it’s amazing. It’s incredible. There must be some kind of supreme treasure that triggered a change in the tides of heaven and earth. Otherwise, such an abnormality would not have appeared. Of course, it’s also possible that there’s a god-level paradise in this bottomless abyss.”
