The two spent half a month preparing before finally setting off and entering that special spatial rift.
After a bout of intense dizziness, Lu Xuan found himself in an unfamiliar environment. The lack of any restrictions on the attack meant his initial assessment was correct. The Lingmiao Garden's defense system wasn't designed to target human cultivators. In the original story, the ancient demon was killed, but Han Laomo wasn't harmed.
However, it seems that Old Demon Han didn't appear in the same place as him. This isn't surprising, just like when entering the Fallen Demon Valley. After all, entering through a spatial rift isn't the main entrance. Where you end up is random.
Composing himself, Lu Xuan looked around. He found himself in a dilapidated hall, a hall reduced to ruins. However, this wasn't a typical sect hall; it seemed to be some kind of warehouse, only unusually large, giving the impression of a grand hall.
The warehouse was divided into various areas by various restrictions. Each area was filled with hundreds of densely packed shelves... ruins. But unfortunately, most of the ruins were empty.
After a thorough inspection, Lu Xuan discovered that the entire hall appeared to have suffered some kind of severe damage, with most of the restrictions already broken. Considering that this place was located behind a spatial rift, this situation was not surprising.
It's estimated that the spatial rupture interfered with this place. The restrictions, including those on the main hall, were completely torn apart by the spatial storm. The items and magical artifacts displayed there were likely swallowed up by the spatial rift.
After searching the entire dilapidated hall, Lu Xuan finally found a relatively intact shelf in the deepest corner. At the very bottom of the shelf, a restriction had barely been destroyed, preserving something.
Lu Xuan broke through the restriction and retrieved the contents. He discovered it was a special metallic spiritual material, one he had never seen before. It contained an extremely rich and sharp metallic aura. Spells and magical powers were completely unaffected by its presence. Even without being refined, it was already comparable to a top-tier magical artifact.
Clearly, at least this area should have been used to store materials for refining weapons. Unfortunately, the rest of the area was completely destroyed, and countless top-grade materials and rare treasures were swallowed up by the spatial storm.
Lu Xuan put away the metallic material, unperturbed. He had already discovered that there were many unexplored buildings surrounding the main hall, many of which were far better preserved than this place. Therefore, the real treasure hunt had only just begun.
Just as Lu Xuanchu was making his progress, Old Demon Han was also encountering his own opportunity. This guy seemed to be a natural-born drug addict. Even under these circumstances, he was still teleported to the herb garden.
Before him lay countless spiritual herbs over 100,000 years old. 100,000-year-old spiritual herbs—they were practically nonexistent in the mortal realm, let alone of value. Yet here, they were everywhere. In the cultivation world, the age of spiritual herbs was extremely important. Many herbs with mediocre effects would undergo a qualitative change after reaching a certain age. These were things that cultivators could only encounter by chance.
What shocked Han Laomo the most was that he didn't recognize most of the medicinal herbs in the entire herb garden. He didn't understand why the medicinal herbs of ancient times were so different from those of the present day.
Meanwhile, Lu Xuan deciphered numerous broken and intact restrictions along the way. He finally succeeded in entering the second dilapidated building. Compared to the previous warehouse, this building was in slightly better condition. However, the result was no different.
Almost all the treasures were swallowed up by the spatial rift. Only some broken and worthless fragments remained. However, Lu Xuan was not discouraged. After a careful inspection, he continued to the next building.
After searching through five or six dilapidated buildings, Lu Xuan found almost nothing. However, a strange expression appeared on his face. He had discovered an interesting problem.
The architectural style, size, and numerous details of the entire 'Lingmiao Garden' provided Lu Xuan with a crucial piece of information: the previous owner of this 'Lingmiao Garden' was not human.
In this era, there are only two major races in the cultivation world: the human race and the demon race. Moreover, the so-called demon race is just a general term. Even the demon race in the Chaotic Star Sea is nothing more than a loose alliance composed of various powerful races and subordinate races.
Lu Xuan was certain that the Spirit Garden before him did not belong to the human race, but it also did not seem to belong to the demon race...
Chapter 546 Nine Transformations of the True Spirit
Old Demon Han was very frustrated because he discovered that he couldn't preserve those spiritual herbs. No matter if he used a jade box or more sophisticated methods, or even dug up the spiritual soil from the herb garden and sealed it, it was still useless. As soon as the herbs left the herb garden, they would quickly decay and rot.
The spiritual herbs are genuine; their spiritual energy doesn't lie. However, these herbs seem to have stayed in this herb garden for far too long. A strange connection has formed between them, making it impossible for any of them to leave each other.
With so many spiritual herbs, abandoning them was out of the question. However, for Old Demon Han, this problem wasn't insurmountable. He could simply consume them on the spot. With so many spiritual herbs, Old Demon Han directly took out his alchemy furnace, harvested the herbs on the spot, and then extracted the essence from the herbs to refine them into pills. In this way, he could finally preserve the properties of these spiritual herbs.
Having confirmed this, Old Demon Han immediately went into seclusion. After setting up a defensive formation, he began to focus on refining pills and improving his cultivation.
On the other side, Lu Xuan finally arrived at the core of the dilapidated building complex. This was also the only main hall in the entire complex that had maintained a certain degree of integrity.
However, a massive wound completely shattered this integrity. The entire hall seemed to have been cleaved diagonally in two by a colossal sword reaching to the heavens. It was unclear whether this was due to some great divine power or torn apart by a spatial rift.
Strangely, there were almost no restrictions inside the hall. Lu Xuan walked in easily.
Compared to the previous warehouse, this was a real grand hall. It didn't appear particularly opulent, but even amidst the ruins, one could still sense the immense spiritual energy that had once existed around it. Regardless of the faction or race that left these structures, their owners must have possessed an incredibly glorious civilization. However, Lu Xuan felt that this once-glorious civilization might no longer exist.
Along the way, Lu Xuan discovered that the destruction here wasn't solely caused by the spatial storm. It also included significant damage from a large-scale battle. However, with the erosion of time, those traces had almost completely disappeared.
He gained almost nothing along the way, but Lu Xuan could vaguely sense that something extraordinary was quietly waiting for him in the deepest part of the main hall.
quickened his pace and swiftly passed through the dilapidated hall to reach the deepest part of the main hall.
Before Lu Xuan appeared a high platform resembling an altar. Around the platform, countless restrictive lights flickered faintly. However, most of these restrictions were now ineffective.
Because the chasm that stretched across the heavens and earth had cleaved right through one side of the altar, only a portion of the platform remained before Lu Xuan. Most of the surrounding restrictions had also been destroyed. The only good news was that the items on it were still there.
It seems the enemy didn't actually breach this place. Or perhaps something unexpected interrupted their advance.
Three things floated silently on the high platform.
A page shimmering with golden light. A small bottle radiating a milky white glow. And a translucent, silvery-white object, wriggling as if alive. It looked like flowing moonlight, but upon closer inspection, one could see a shimmering luster like stars, like a cloud of starlight transformed into dust.
Lu Xuan recognized the golden pages; this should be the Golden Jade Book. Its original origin was likely from the Celestial Realm. Later, it ended up in the Spirit Realm, with a very small number falling to the mortal world.
This item is divided into two volumes, the upper volume being a gold book and the lower volume a silver book. They are written in gold tadpole script and silver tadpole script respectively. In the original story, Han Laomo obtained more than one page of this item. Later, it basically became one of his trump cards.
After testing the waters with a few spells and confirming there was no danger, Lu Xuan took out the golden book page. He didn't understand the Golden Tadpole script, but miraculously, upon touching the page, he discovered a spell that translated its contents.
At the same time, Lu Xuan himself received a message hidden within the pages of the book. Perhaps due to the passage of time, the message was incomplete and fragmented. However, Lu Xuan still roughly understood the origin of everything.
The Spirit Garden truly doesn't belong to this realm. It actually comes from the Spirit Realm.
According to the information, Lingmiao Garden was the headquarters of a human sect in the Spirit Realm called Tianyuan Sect. However, Tianyuan Sect later encountered a great calamity. The information stated that the sect knew this calamity was unavoidable, and therefore fought a desperate battle. But at the same time, they also made other arrangements.
They gathered all the sect's resources and then banished the entire sect to a spatial rift. The meaning was clear: I may be wiped out, but you will gain nothing. Forget cultivation techniques and resources, I won't leave you even a single brick.
Much of the information has become fragmented over time. Lu Xuan hasn't even been able to find out who this sect's enemy is. Unfortunately, the spatial rift destroyed most of the resources, leaving only these few core inheritances.
These things were probably specially protected to preserve their legacy. However, Lu Xuan didn't find the sect's inherited techniques. He guessed that they might have fallen into the spatial rift along with the severed platform.
All that scheming and plotting resulted in nothing but external possessions. The sect's heritage was lost. This was undoubtedly a complete tragedy. However, for Lu Xuan, these things were far more valuable.
Let's start with that Golden Jade Book. It records a cultivation technique called the Nine Transformations of True Spirit. As the name suggests, it allows one to transform into various true spirit bodies to fight against humans. Correspondingly, to cultivate the Nine Transformations of True Spirit, one needs the assistance of nine different types of true spirit blood.
Seeing this, Lu Xuan couldn't help but recall the Twelve Transformations of Awakening of Insects that Old Demon Han had obtained in the Spirit Realm. Both were cultivated using the bloodline of a true spirit, and both allowed one to transform into a true spirit to fight. However, the Twelve Transformations of Awakening of Insects was only a half-finished product. It was never truly complete. Even its creator hadn't mastered it. He only tried it once, and immediately suffered a bloodline backlash, going insane.