In Patriarch Reliance’s meditation zone, all of the Cultivators from the State of Zhao were staring at the stone stele which had been left behind by Chen Fan 1. With great enthusiasm, they copied the text onto jade slips.
“This stone stele is the Sublime Spirit Scripture!”
“I never imagined it would be so simple to get! Haha! Even though I’ve already established my Foundation, with this scripture, I can form a second Core sea. With this Qi Condensation manual, I can raise the Dao pillars of my Foundation from Fractured to Cracked. It might even be possible to form a Flawless Foundation!”
Lord Revelation approached, followed by the dignified old woman. “No,” she said, “only half of the scripture is here….” She could tell the truth of it from a single glance.
Lord Revelation continued forward a few steps, his eyes shining with a strange light.
Suddenly, the stele, as if it couldn’t withstand being the subject of so many gazes, began to fracture. Popping sounds could be heard as cracks spread out across it. Everyone watched on in shock.
As the cracks spread, the golden characters faded, to be replaced by another set of characters, these ones dim and barely readable. These characters were the second half of the Qi Condensation manual of the Sublime Spirit Scripture.
Before everyone could finish reading the text, a boom rang out and the stone stele exploded, fragmenting into eight pieces.
Eight multicolored beams of light could be seen as the pieces flew off in various directions.
The onlookers were shocked, but immediately scattered about. The seven Core Formation Eccentrics each shot after one of the pieces, as did Lord Revelation. The eighth piece was left to the ten or so Foundation Establishment experts to deal with.
Within an instant, everything was thrown into chaos. Upon scattering, the newcomers discovered that Patriarch Reliance’s meditation zone was filled with magical items, spirit stones and medicinal pills. This of course caused quite a sensation among them. Unfortunately, all of the items were protected with restrictive spells. Unless they could force the spells open, the items were untouchable.
Suddenly, roaring sounds erupted within the meditation zone. Within the gray light appeared multiple figures. With crazed appearances, they charged toward the intruders.
As for Meng Hao, as soon as the chaos broke out, he pulled out a Vorpal Jade Blood Crystal and stepped off to the side. He had used quite a few Blood Crystals the last time he was here, but in the end had two left over, which he’d stuffed into his bag of holding. After pulling one of them out, the crazed automatons which had suddenly appeared refused to approach him.
“I’ve brought everyone here. Now let’s see how Patriarch Reliance deals with them.” Meng Hao’s eyes glittered coldly. He didn’t have any good feelings whatsoever about these people. He watched as they went chasing after the fragments of the stone stele, a cold smile on his face. He couldn’t wait to see them dead.
Of course, the stone stele was a fake. He’d known that the instant it had appeared, a year ago. Exercising caution, he slowly walked forward, avoiding the other Cultivators. He wasn’t sure of the exact location where Patriarch Reliance sat in secluded meditation. But he knew that he couldn’t leave this place until the Patriarch helped him dispel the poison from his body.
Also, there was the reward that the Patriarch had spoken of.
Shortly afterwards, Meng Hao stopped and looked around. Booms filled the air and explosions shook the ground. Off in the distance, he could see the dignified old woman, her hair flying about in disarray as she used one magical art after another to batter a glowing shield in front of her.
Within the glow of the shield was one of the stone stele fragments.
The old woman was of the Core Formation stage. Her attacks caused everything around her to shake wildly. Her magical arts shot out one after another like a silver river, sending out bone-piercing coldness which caused everything around her to freeze into pieces of ice. Within the river, there could be heard what sounded like the shrieks of countless wailing souls from the yellow springs of the underworld. It was as if the river itself had sprung from the nine hells.
She flicked her sleeve, and the murky image of a mountain appeared, bearing down toward the glowing shield. The mountain, which seemed to be composed of stars, solidified into a burning point, which then became black. Despite being black in color, it radiated a bright light.