Chapter 1650: Shocking Discovery
Outer South Garden.
A gloomy, ancient stone house stood with moss-covered stone walls, two of which had cracks and holes. The bronze door had long since rusted into a mass of green metal.
Inside the stone house, the swirling sacred energy contracted inward, converging from one hundred and forty-four acupoints into Zhang Ruochen’s body.
“Hoo.”
Zhang Ruochen parted his lips and exhaled a long breath.
The breath condensed into a hair-thin air pillar, striking the rust-covered bronze door with a soft “chi” sound, piercing straight through it.
“After consuming six different types of sacred fruits in a row, the sacred dao rules within my body have increased by another three thousand seven hundred, bringing the total to eight thousand two hundred.”
Because of his significant breakthrough in cultivation, Zhang Ruochen’s exhaled breath could pierce a palm-thick bronze door within ten zhang.
In his Qi Sea, the flow of the Tongtian River was noticeably faster than before.
Having cultivated eight thousand two hundred sacred dao rules, even without testing on the Nine-Step Heaven-Ascent Path, Zhang Ruochen was certain he had reached the Second-Step Saint King realm.
“Feng Yan was right. The Fengshen Platform Assembly is indeed an unprecedented great opportunity. I’ll continue searching for sacred fruits and strive to break through to the Third-Step Saint King realm while still on the platform.”
With his cultivation greatly improved, Zhang Ruochen was in excellent spirits and even more confident.
Beside him, Mu Lingxi was still refining the sacred fruits. The sacred radiance emanating from her body grew brighter and brighter, her pure and holy figure seeming as if carved from celestial jade.
Zhang Ruochen took out the sacred fruits he had collected earlier, storing some in divine wood jars and others in jade boxes. In total, there were several hundred.
Among them were seven types of sacred fruits, including the Heart-Moon Sacred Fruit, which could enhance a Saint King’s cultivation—all of which Zhang Ruochen had already consumed.
The remaining twelve types of sacred fruits served various purposes: some could refine sacred meridians, some could increase lifespan, some could strengthen the sacred soul, and some could help cultivators practice special techniques and sacred arts…
In short, they were all rare treasures of the world, hard to find elsewhere.
Zhang Ruochen temporarily set aside these fruits. After all, the Fengshen Platform Assembly lasted only three days, so he had to seize the time to search for other treasures.
Mu Lingxi’s cultivation technique was not as advanced as the Nine Heavens Bright Emperor Scripture, so she refined the sacred fruits more slowly than Zhang Ruochen.
Another half hour passed before she slowly awakened, opening her eyes and looking forward.
There, Zhang Ruochen was holding a broad, heavy sword, studying it. Occasionally, he would swing it or execute a complete sword technique.
Seeing Mu Lingxi awake, Zhang Ruochen thrust the heavy sword into the ground, turned around, and examined her. Smiling, he nodded. “Not bad. You should have reached the Second-Step Saint King realm.”
“Consuming seven types of sacred fruits increased my sacred dao rules by nearly four thousand. Breaking through to the Second-Step Saint King realm is only natural, isn’t it?”
Mu Lingxi slowly stood up and walked out of the stone house. A mass of Extreme Yin Nether Ice Qi emanated from her palm, and she swept her arm behind her.
“Chi chi.”
The Extreme Yin Nether Ice Qi landed in the stone house, and in an instant, the house was frozen inside a small iceberg. With a clench of her five fingers, the iceberg and the stone house together shattered into fist-sized fragments.
Mu Lingxi stared at the heavy sword thrust into the ground, a hint of surprise in her eyes. “This is a Three-Shining Ten-Thousand-Pattern Sacred Artifact-level war sword. Its material is very special and should be extremely heavy.”
Zhang Ruochen grabbed the heavy sword with one hand, shrunk it to the size of a dagger, and tucked it into his sleeve. “On the Fengshen Platform, revealing my identity isn’t a good idea—it would easily attract those enemies. For now, I’ll use this heavy sword instead of the Abyssal Ancient Sword. I’ve already tamed its sword spirit, so I can use it as I please.”
After that, Zhang Ruochen and Mu Lingxi continued their search in the Outer South Garden, heading to areas they hadn’t explored before, hoping to pick more sacred fruits.
The Outer South Garden was vast. Walking in one direction for over three hundred li would bring them to its edge.
Within this area were numerous ruins, canyons, cliffs, ancient forests… The sacred trees grew in extremely dangerous environments, each with its own perils.
However, because many cultivators were participating in the Fengshen Platform Assembly and several hours had already passed, by the time Zhang Ruochen and Mu Lingxi reached those perilous locations where sacred trees grew, they found that most of the fruits had already been picked clean.
It was a race—whoever was stronger and faster could gather more sacred fruits.
After spending an entire hour, their harvest was meager.
“Aside from the area above the White Bone Slope, we’ve searched almost the entire Outer South Garden. Even if some sacred trees are hidden within illusions or formations, finding them would take a lot of time. How about we head to the Outer East Garden to dig up sacred flowers and herbs?” Mu Lingxi suggested.
The venue of the Fengshen Platform Assembly was divided into ten garden areas:
The Outer Four Gardens, the Inner Four Gardens, the Central Bihuang Garden, and the Free Trade Garden.
According to the rules, cultivators from major worlds ranked after the thousandth place on the Myriad Worlds Merit Ranking—except for world leaders—could only stay in the Outer Four Gardens.
Those who passed the qualification test and entered the Fengshen Platform were also restricted to the Outer Four Gardens.
Of course, cultivators from the top thousand worlds could also seize treasures in the Outer Four Gardens. This was the advantage of powerful worlds, leaving cultivators from other worlds envious.
Everywhere, the strong preyed on the weak, and the Fengshen Platform Assembly was no exception.
Even within the Outer Four Gardens, the treasures distributed were different.
The Outer South Garden mainly grew various sacred trees.
The Outer East Garden was home to various rare flowers and herbs, primarily ten-thousand-year sacred medicines.
The Outer North Garden contained various sacred springs.
The Outer West Garden was an ancient mine where one could dig up sacred stones and various sacred jades.
The only area in the Outer South Garden that had not yet been explored was above the White Bone Slope. It was pitch black, looking from afar like thick black ink surging, and even spiritual power could not penetrate it.
Many cultivators stood at the periphery, watching with hesitant expressions.
Before participating in the Fengshen Platform Assembly, their elders had warned them that this area was extremely dangerous and must never be entered. In every assembly, at least one being had perished inside.
The reason for their hesitation was that their elders had also said this area was vast—much larger than the entire Outer South Garden. Some powerful and incredibly lucky individuals had entered the area, walked out alive, and brought back large quantities of sacred fruits. Some of those fruits were even more precious than the treasures of the Inner Four Gardens.
Since they couldn’t enter the Inner Four Gardens, this area became their chance to seize great opportunities.
But life was precious, and no one dared to take the risk lightly.
Feng Yan had mentioned this area, his expression extremely grave, as if he feared it greatly. He had repeatedly warned Zhang Ruochen never to take the risk, saying that an Eighth-Step Saint King-level divine disciple had perished inside.
Thus, although Zhang Ruochen was quite curious about the place, he suppressed his curiosity and did not go. Instead, he and Mu Lingxi headed toward the Outer East Garden.
Between the Outer South Garden and the Outer East Garden flowed a river over twenty meters wide.
The river did not contain water but a white sacred spring. A faint layer of white sacred mist hung over the surface, making the riverbanks seem like a fairyland.
Near the riverbank grew all kinds of rare flowers and herbs, most of which were several hundred years old, with some even reaching a thousand years.
Of course, such spiritual flowers and herbs were of no use to Zhang Ruochen and Mu Lingxi; they didn’t even bother to look at them.
Mu Lingxi sighed. “If cultivators below the Half-Saint level discovered this sacred spring in the river, they would go crazy collecting it. But for us, it’s completely useless.”
Zhang Ruochen said, “These sacred springs are useless to us, but they can nurture sacred flowers and herbs. Let’s search upstream along the river; we might find some precious ten-thousand-year sacred medicines.”
Some precious ten-thousand-year sacred medicines could also enhance a Saint King’s cultivation realm.
Mu Lingxi nodded, spread a pair of phoenix wings, and flew out first.
Zhang Ruochen stepped with a mysterious gait, walking along the riverbank. He appeared slow, but his speed was no less than Mu Lingxi’s.
The rare flowers and herbs on both sides of the river had already been searched by other cultivators more than once, and no ten-thousand-year sacred medicines could be found. Even spiritual medicines over three thousand years old were rare.
After traveling about seven or eight li upstream, Zhang Ruochen suddenly stopped, as if he had noticed something. His gaze fixed on the river’s surface.
At the center of the river, there was a small whirlpool.
Just now, relying on his powerful spiritual power, Zhang Ruochen had sensed a peculiar fluctuation coming from beneath the whirlpool.
The fluctuation appeared only once and then vanished. When he tried to probe it again with his spiritual power, he could detect nothing unusual, making him wonder if his perception had been mistaken.
“What’s wrong?”
Mu Lingxi flew over from the opposite bank and landed beside Zhang Ruochen, also staring at the whirlpool.
“It seems there’s a remarkable discovery.”
Zhang Ruochen took out the Water Star Gourd, threw it out, and suspended it above the river. He softly chanted, “Collect.”
Instantly, the mouth of the gourd erupted with a powerful suction force, drawing the sacred spring from the river into the gourd. The water level rapidly dropped, and soon the river dried up, revealing a dark purple riverbed.
Zhang Ruochen looked closely and saw a cave on the riverbed, its entrance less than two meters in diameter. No one knew where it led.
An astonishing medicinal fragrance wafted out from the cave.
Zhang Ruochen and Mu Lingxi both showed delighted expressions and were about to enter the cave to investigate.
But at that moment, several sounds of wind breaking came from afar, along with a somewhat familiar voice: “Such a rich medicinal fragrance! Could there be a hundred-thousand-year-old ancient sacred medicine here?”
The next moment, five figures with white angel wings appeared in Zhang Ruochen and Mu Lingxi’s line of sight. All were Saint King-level experts, and one of them was Lansibai, who claimed to be Shang Zihong’s cousin.
//
Genius remembers this site’s address in one second: . Mobile version reading URL: