The two rocks were only temporarily near each other. As of this moment, they were now moving apart, each one heading off in a different direction. Meng Hao realized that taking the time to kill the man completely would be a waste, and as such, had returned to his own large rock.
The man now only had his Nascent Soul left, and no cold-resisting treasure. He would die for certain.
Therefore, Meng Hao did nothing. He sat down cross-legged on his large rock. He then took out the five small rocks and studied them for a moment. He was about to erase the branding seal on them, when it suddenly began to fade away on its own. Meng Hao looked thoughtfully back toward the smaller rock which was disappearing into the void. The middle-aged man’s Nascent Soul was now completely frozen solid.
“The cold in this void is shocking,” thought Meng Hao, quickly branding the small stones to himself. Immediately, a glow appeared, surrounding Meng Hao and reducing the cold by more than half. Meng Hao let out a sigh of relief. Now, his confidence in being able to proceed through the void on this large rock was even greater.
Sitting there cross-legged, he produced the man’s bag of holding, opened it, and glanced over the contents. There were quite a bit of Spirit Stones and a random collection of odds and ends. There were quite a few magical items, but Meng Hao ignored them, searching instead for jade slips.
He found a total of eight. After glancing them over, he selected one, which he began to study closely. After a moment, he lifted his head up, and a bright glow appeared in his eyes.
“So, the great Tribes really are well-equipped to come to this place. They even have maps!” The jade slip he held in his hand contained a simple map. The map depicted four locations in which the fragments of the bridge formed large land masses. One of them was the place that Meng Hao had just come from.
“It seems this guy was heading toward Harmony City. However, I explored the place thoroughly and didn’t find anything unusual.” Meng Hao frowned. He continued to look through the bag of holding, eventually pulling out a jade box.
The box emitted a soft glow. Meng Hao didn’t open it immediately, but studied it closely to make sure there wasn’t anything dangerous about. Finally, he opened it, whereupon a dense Qi sprang out. The Qi contained a medicinal aura that seemed capable of moving his spirit. In addition, it gave him an indescribable feeling that was similar to ultra high-grade Spirit Stones, except, even stronger.
After taking only a single breath, Meng Hao’s spirit was shaken, and his skin went tight.
Inside of the box was a finger sized clump of black soil which was where the powerful Qi was emanating out from. After examining it closely, two characters sprang up in Meng Hao’s mind.
“Celestial soil!” His eyes glittered as he examined it. After doing so, he was now certain that this soil did contain the power of the five elements.
“Too bad there’s so little. If I had a lot more, I could use the same method I used with the Fire-type power to make my own Earth-type totem!” Meng Hao’s heart was beating as he closed the box and then put it away.
“If I want to get more Celestial soil, it will require robbing others. Well… then rob I shall!” His eyes filled with determination. To Meng Hao, the matter of forming his Earth-type totem was just as important of a reason for coming to the Realm of the Bridge Ruins as was acquiring a Demon Spirit. He looked out into the void and began to recall the shocking power of the Lotus Sword Formation earlier.
“The power just now far exceeded the ordinary power of Time. It was able to cause a Nascent Soul Cultivator to abandon his physical body in the blink of an eye. It made time pass so quickly that even minor teleportation wouldn’t work. The only way for him to get away was to cause his Nascent Soul to emerge. Just now, the Lotus Sword Formation emitted Time power equivalent to one thousand years!”
Meng Hao began to pant as he took out his Wooden Time Swords to look at.
No matter how he studied them, however, they appeared normal. Meng Hao couldn’t find any signs of change whatsoever.
“Could it have something to do with this void?” he thought. “Or is it because, as I speculated, time flows differently in the Realm of the Bridge Ruins than outside in the Western Desert?” After thinking about the matter for some time, Meng Hao couldn’t come up with any more clues. Nonetheless, his eyes flickered with a bright glow. If he could figure out the true reason for the increase in power, then maybe he would be able to cause the Lotus Time Formation to permanently increase its power.
“In any case, even if it only has this effect in the Realm of the Bridge Ruins, it’s still an incredible advantage for me!”