His figure instantly transformed into a streak of light.
Whoosh!
He shot directly toward the Medicinal Garden.
The speed far exceeded anything he had displayed previously.
The Heaven Mending Fruit...
He absolutely had to obtain it before anyone else.
Fortunately...
According to the inherited memories...
Very few people understood the true value of the medicinal garden.
Most cultivators would naturally prioritize inheritances.
Techniques.
Weapons.
Scripture pavilions.
The medicinal garden usually attracted fewer people during the initial exploration.
As long as nothing unexpected happened...
He should arrive first.
Qin Fenxing smiled confidently.
"The Heaven Mending Fruit..."
"It will be mine."
His figure disappeared rapidly across the ancient ruins, completely unaware that the medicinal garden had already become a battlefield drenched in blood.
Silence reigned on the seventh floor of the Scripture Pavilion.
Unlike the lower floors, where damaged shelves and missing jade slips hinted at the frantic evacuation of the Heaven Seal Gate's disciples, the highest floor remained largely untouched. Rows upon rows of ancient jade slips floated quietly within transparent barriers, each surrounded by faint restrictions that had weakened with the passing of countless years.
Lin Sheng stood in the center of the vast hall.
His eyes remained closed.
Around him, nothing seemed to happen.
Yet within his mind, the Chip operated at terrifying speed.
His Perception Field expanded like an invisible web, sweeping across every jade slip, every fragment of parchment, every damaged inscription engraved upon the stone walls. Information continuously poured into the Chip before being organized, categorized, compared and reconstructed.
---
Scanning...
Formation Records: 1,482
Teleportation-related Records: 317
Cross-Continental References: 29
Ancient Spatial Array Theories: 61
Beginning integration...
---
Countless streams of information merged together.
Many jade slips only contained incomplete theories.
Others merely discussed ancient history.
Some only recorded the maintenance of large-scale teleportation arrays.
Separately, they possessed little value.
Together...
They gradually painted the outline of an enormous picture.
Lin Sheng slowly opened his eyes.
"So that's how it works..."
He looked toward one of the ancient murals depicting cultivators standing within an enormous circular formation stretching for hundreds of meters.
The formation wasn't simply used for transportation.
It tore through space itself.
It anchored two distant coordinates before forcing a stable spatial tunnel into existence.
A feat that ordinary formations simply couldn't accomplish.
Even Rank Three array formations were insignificant before such a creation.
According to the reconstructed records...
A genuine Cross-Continental Teleportation Formation required at least a Rank Five Array Master merely to maintain it.
Constructing one demanded an even greater realm.
That immediately confirmed one of Lin Sheng's previous assumptions.
"The formation on the island..."
"It definitely isn't intact."
If such a formation had remained operational for thousands of years without maintenance...
It would be nothing short of a miracle.
Rather than expecting a complete teleportation array, he needed to prepare for a damaged one.
Perhaps broken formation nodes.
Collapsed spatial anchors.
Destroyed spirit conduits.
Or worse...
An unstable teleportation path.
A single mistake during activation could scatter someone into the endless void between continents.
Even Purple Palace cultivators would perish there.
Lin Sheng wasn't arrogant enough to gamble with his own life.
Which meant...
He needed someone proficient in formations.
His thoughts immediately landed upon one person.
Qin Fenxing.
A newly advanced Rank Three Formation Master.
A Core Disciple Token holder.
Someone who had just inherited the entire Array Center.
Lin Sheng's eyes narrowed slightly.
"I was originally planning to break into the Array Center myself."
"But..."
He glanced toward the exit.
"...that would waste far too much time."
Even with the Chip assisting him...
Breaking a Rank Three defensive formation wasn't a simple task.
Especially one left behind by an ancient sect specializing in formations.
The Chip had already completed several simulations.
---
Estimated Time Required
Direct破解: 5–8 days
Success Probability: 82.6%
---
Five days.
Perhaps eight.
Far too long.
The secret realm would become increasingly chaotic with each passing hour.
Fortunately...
Qin Fenxing had unknowingly solved that problem.
Since the Array Center's inheritance had already fallen into his hands...
There was no longer any need to crack its formations.
Lin Sheng simply needed to obtain everything from Qin Fenxing himself.
Alive.
Or dead.
It made little difference.
A faint smile appeared on his face.
"Thankfully..."
"...that idiot walked out of his safe zone."
He slowly descended the staircase.
As he reached the sixth floor, voices drifted upward from several cultivators gathered near one of the damaged bookshelves.
"...did you hear?"
"Hear what?"
"The Alchemy Pavilion!"
Someone immediately leaned closer.
"What happened?"
"A Peak Foundation Establishment cultivator found a Purple Qi Pill!"
The surrounding cultivators collectively inhaled sharply.
"A Purple Qi Pill?"
"No way!"
The speaker nodded vigorously.
"I saw it myself."
"It still retained its medicinal efficacy."
"The experts estimate it's at least Rank Three."
"It can increase the probability of breaking through to Purple Palace by nearly seventy percent."
Someone's breathing immediately became ragged.
"Seventy percent..."
That single sentence was enough to drive countless Foundation Establishment cultivators insane.
Breaking into Purple Palace had always been the greatest bottleneck of their lives.
A single pill capable of increasing the success rate to such an extent...
Its value couldn't be measured merely by spirit stones.
The speaker continued.
"It doesn't stop there."
"The Purple Qi Pill also stabilizes one's Purple Palace."
"The better the foundation established during the breakthrough..."
"...the greater the future potential."
Immediately, everyone understood why the secret realm had become so chaotic.
The fortunate cultivator who discovered the pill had likely become the prey of every Peak Foundation Establishment expert inside the ruins.
Lin Sheng quietly walked past them.
He had no interest in joining that pursuit.
The Purple Qi Pill was valuable.
But not irreplaceable.
His Martial Path didn't require it.
The cultivation inheritance within the Scripture Pavilion...
The Cross-Continental Formation...
Qin Fenxing...
Those mattered far more.
Just as he reached the pavilion's entrance, another conversation entered his ears.
"I heard Qin Fenxing appeared in the medicinal garden."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"They say he fought dozens of cultivators alone."
Another person shook his head.
"No..."
"I heard he was fighting a powerful sword cultivator."
"Someone else said it was an entire group."
"The information is all over the place."
Lin Sheng paused for only a single heartbeat.
Then he silently activated his movement technique.
Whoosh!
His figure vanished from the Scripture Pavilion like a streak of wind.
Regardless of what truly happened...
Qin Fenxing had been there.
That alone was enough.
If the medicinal garden battle had already concluded...
Then Qin Fenxing was likely moving toward his next objective.
Lin Sheng intended to find him first. He definitely has an idea on this sect ruins with the way he was moving.
---
The dense forest surrounding the medicinal garden had long since lost its former tranquility.
Broken trees littered the ground.
Deep sword marks stretched for dozens of meters across the earth, leaving behind sharp Sword Qi that refused to dissipate even after several hours. Large craters pockmarked the landscape, while the surrounding Spiritual Qi remained chaotic, evidence of an intense battle between numerous Foundation Establishment cultivators.
Lin Sheng slowed his pace.
His gaze calmly swept across the battlefield.
His Perception Field spread outward like an invisible tide.
Within a radius of several hundred meters, every movement entered his senses.
The Chip immediately began reconstructing the battlefield.
---
Analyzing Residual Spiritual Fluctuations...
Sword Qi detected.
Array fluctuations detected.
Estimated participants: 40–60 cultivators.
Estimated duration: 2 hours 17 minutes.
---
Lin Sheng crouched beside a massive scar carved into the ground.
The cut was perfectly straight.
Even after all this time, faint Sword Intent lingered within it.
"A sword cultivator..."
"And not an ordinary one."
He lightly touched the edge of the slash.
The Sword Qi dispersed beneath his fingers.
The attacker possessed remarkable attainments in the Sword Dao.
More importantly...
Qin Fenxing had survived such a battle.
That meant the Core Disciple Token was proving even more useful than expected.
Lin Sheng stood once more.
"There are no corpses."
"Only traces."
"Whoever won had enough time to clean the battlefield."
Just as he prepared to continue deeper into the medicinal garden—
A faint ripple brushed against his Perception Field.
Tiny.
Almost imperceptible.
Like a leaf drifting through still water.
Lin Sheng didn't move.
His breathing remained unchanged.
His footsteps continued at the same leisurely pace.
Yet inwardly...
His senses sharpened to their peak.
Someone...
Was behind him.
Unlike ordinary cultivators who relied upon Divine Sense, martial artists cultivated their physical senses to an astonishing degree.
Combined with the Chip's constant monitoring...
Concealment became far less effective.
Especially when the assassin unknowingly stepped within his Perception Field.
The hidden figure approached silently.
Every step was measured.
Even their heartbeat had slowed.
A high-quality concealment cloak covered their aura almost completely.
To an immortal cultivator...
The assassin had essentially disappeared.
Unfortunately...
Lin Sheng wasn't relying upon aura.
He was observing subtle disturbances in airflow.
Minute changes in ground pressure.
The displacement of Spiritual Qi.
Even the assassin's shadow shifted ever so slightly beneath the afternoon sunlight.
Lin Sheng continued walking.
Three steps.
Two.
One.
The assassin's eyes flashed coldly.
Now!
A black dagger emerged soundlessly.
The Rank Two weapon glowed with a poisonous green sheen as it stabbed directly toward the back of Lin Sheng's neck.
The attack was swift.
Precise.
Merciless.
Clearly practiced thousands of times.
The assassin had already imagined the scene.
The dagger piercing flesh.
Blood spraying into the air.
Mission complete.
Instead—
Clang!
A sharp metallic sound echoed through the forest.
The dagger stopped abruptly.
Its tip rested against an invisible layer of Gang Qi.
No matter how much force the assassin applied...
It refused to move another inch.
The assassin's pupils contracted violently.
"What?!"
Before shock could fully appear—
A terrifying force erupted from the Gang Qi Barrier.
Boom!
Like a compressed explosion, violent force surged backward through the dagger.
The assassin's wrist instantly fractured.
The weapon flew from their hand.
Their entire body was thrown backward like a kite with its strings cut.