Mysterious Writing

The two entered the main hall. The first thing that caught their eyes was an enormous stone table, at least five times larger than the ones normally used. A solid stone stool stood on each side of the table, and there was nothing else.

To their left was a deep passageway. Jiang Yun and Zhang Tie cautiously made their way inside. Before long, they found two stone doors standing opposite each other.

Jiang Yun flicked his hand and formed a spell. A white orb of light instantly appeared and floated above their heads, bathing the entire passage in a soft glow and making everything clearer.

Zhang Tie strode to the stone door on the right, took a deep breath, and shoved hard. The stone door slowly opened to one side. As they stepped inside, they were surprised to find that the room contained nothing but four walls. However, the walls were made of some exceptionally unusual material, clearly different from those outside.

Zhang Tie walked up to a wall, raised his fist without hesitation, and threw a heavy punch. Yet to his surprise, not even the slightest mark appeared on the wall.

This time, Zhang Tie held nothing back. He gathered all his strength into his fist and slammed it against the wall again. With a dull bang, the wall gave a faint impact sound, but still bore no trace of damage.

"This was probably a room ancient cultivators used to practice spells," Zhang Tie guessed. Jiang Yun nodded slightly, fully agreeing. He had seen Zhang Tie's terrifying strength with his own eyes. If even Zhang Tie could not leave a mark on the wall, its hardness was beyond imagination.

Zhang Tie left the cultivation room and headed straight for the room across from it. He pushed open the stone door, and the entire room came into view.

A row of bookshelves stood neatly along the left side of the room, packed with countless books. Beside them sat a stone chair and a small square table half a zhang wide.

On the wall to the right was a mysterious pattern.

Zhang Tie and Jiang Yun first approached the bookshelves together. Zhang Tie reached for an ancient book, but the instant his hand touched it, the volume turned to dust. He tried several more, with the same result every time. Zhang Tie looked up at Jiang Yun, and each clearly saw the deep disappointment in the other's eyes.

Zhang Tie frowned slightly and cast several spells. A small tornado as tall as two people suddenly appeared in the room, sweeping past the bookshelves like a gale scattering clouds. In just a few breaths, the books vanished without a trace, reduced to powder and carried by the wind into a corner, where it piled up.

"Hmm!" Zhang Tie's eyes lit up with delight, and he hurried toward one of the bookshelves. Something had actually remained on it. Zhang Tie raised his hand and drew it into his grasp. Looking closely, he found it was a palm-sized rectangular white jade pendant.

Zhang Tie immediately poured spiritual power into it, but the jade pendant showed no reaction. After hesitating for a moment, he began infusing it with the power of his blood and vitality. Soon, the pendant started to hum, then floated into the air and projected a sheet of golden writing.

There were not many characters, perhaps around two hundred, but Zhang Tie did not recognize a single one. He turned to Jiang Yun and asked, "Do you recognize these characters?"

"No. But they should be ancient writing. There may be records related to them in the sect," Jiang Yun replied.

Zhang Tie said nothing further. With a wave of his hand, he put away the jade pendant, then stored the bookshelf in his Storage Pouch as well. The bookshelf had remained intact after tens of thousands of years, so it was certainly no ordinary item.

The two then moved to the right side and stared at the pattern on the wall. A moment later, both showed delighted expressions.

"This should be a map of the surrounding area. This square mark is presumably our current location," Jiang Yun said.

"Right. Let's each make a rubbing," Zhang Tie said.

They took out the beast hide used for rubbings. Zhang Tie was the first to pour spiritual power into his hide, causing it to expand instantly and cling tightly to the wall. He then cast another spell, and the hide spun back into his hand. When Zhang Tie opened it, the map had already been copied in full. Jiang Yun followed the same method and successfully made a copy as well.

Zhang Tie took out his flying sword and slashed wildly across the map, utterly destroying it.

The two left the room and headed for the passage opposite them. Along the way, Jiang Yun clearly noticed Zhang Tie looking back several times at the cultivation room with regret in his eyes.

When they reached the passage across from it, there was only one stone door. Zhang Tie pushed it open forcefully and saw that the room contained only a huge stone bed over three zhang long. Zhang Tie walked over and knocked around on it unwillingly, hoping to find some hidden compartment.

"Brother Zhang, what are your plans next?" Jiang Yun asked.

Zhang Tie did not answer directly. Instead, he unfolded the map they had just copied, examined it carefully, and said, "What do you think?"

Jiang Yun also looked at the map spread across the bed and fell into thought. After a while, he said, "According to the markings on the map, this area should be rich in spiritual herbs and medicinal plants, while this area is extremely dangerous. They have all been marked with an '×.' As for this place, I truly cannot figure out what it is." As he spoke, Jiang Yun pointed at a circular mark and looked toward Zhang Tie.

"You're fine now, right? Fully recovered? We'll go to the spiritual herb area first, then the area marked with the circle," Zhang Tie said.

"I'm mostly recovered. But I think it would be safer for Brother Zhang to keep this token." Jiang Yun held out the token, but Zhang Tie raised a hand to block it and said, "That won't do. What if we run into a troublesome opponent and you abandon me to flee on your own?"

Jiang Yun's face reddened. "What are you saying, Brother Zhang? I'm only afraid of holding you back. Also, I think the Five Elements Forbidden Breaking Formation is especially fated with Brother Zhang, so I'll give it to you."

Jiang Yun took out the formation flags, formation plate, and token, then handed them to Zhang Tie again with an expression of obvious reluctance. Zhang Tie hesitated, but ultimately accepted them and stored them in his Storage Pouch. "The sect's interests come first. I'll hold on to the token for now." At this point, Zhang Tie had four tokens in total, including his own.

The two carefully planned a route to the spiritual herb area. They then left the ruins of the cave residence, used the Wind Riding Technique, and sped toward the spiritual herb garden.