At Last
As Elder Zuo's aura completely dissipated under the Thunder Spear, Lin Ming waved his hand, and the Thunder Spear flew up again towards the disciple of the Sacred Demon Palace.
How could he possibly withstand the Thunder Spear, a true Sacred Artifact?
Within a few breaths, this disciple of the Sacred Demon Palace followed in Elder Zuo's footsteps.
Seeing this, Lin Ming made another move, and the purple-white Thunder Spear was pulled out of the corpse on its own. It spun in mid-air, and the bloodstains left on the spear were scorched by the lightning and evaporated in an instant, leaving only a faint smell of burnt blood before returning to him and being absorbed.
Lin Ming then directly stored the corpses of Elder Zuo and his disciple into his Inner World, intending to examine the spoils later when he had more free time; he didn't have time to inspect them now.
At this moment, Lin Ming turned his gaze to the Stone Door. Behind this Stone Door should be the place where the original body of the Ancient Mandala Flower was located.
The dark green Stone Door was about three zhang tall, and its surface was engraved with a circle of dense Mandala Flower. The patterns intertwined and spread, like a flower field compressed onto the door panel.
The edges of the Stone Door still bore remnants of the Restriction Elder Zuo had placed earlier. These remnants, like a torn spiderweb, hung on the door frame and had now faded completely with Elder Zuo's death.
Lin Ming hesitated for a moment, then tensed his body and, without further hesitation, stretched out his hands and slowly pushed open the Stone Door that had been closed for thousands of years.
The Stone Door was extremely heavy. Every inch he pushed it open required him to channel his Spiritual Energy into his arms. The door hinges made a long, muffled creaking sound as they turned, like the sigh of a giant beast that had been sleeping for ten thousand years as it turned over.
The heavy Stone Door slowly opened, and light streamed in through the cracks in the Stone Door, revealing the various scenes Lin Ming.
As the Stone Door opened, an ancient and weathered aura swept over us.
The aura was thick and deep, like a jar of ancient wine sealed for thousands of years being opened, the time sediment within causing Lin Ming's soul to tremble slightly.
Beyond the Stone Door was a dilapidated, massive hall that had clearly witnessed a fierce battle.
Inside the grand hall was a vast plaza, several times larger than the hall where he had just fought Elder Zuo, stretching from the Stone Door to the very end of his sight.
The square is filled with enormous stone pillars, each as thick as several people could hug and over a hundred feet tall, like a giant, petrified forest.
The arrangement of the stone pillars may seem chaotic, but when viewed from above, one can see that they have a very precise symmetry, like a disassembled chessboard.
The earth was covered with deep cracks, some as wide as several meters, like a ravine cleaved by a giant axe, others as thin as a hair, like a mark left by a sharp blade.
A dark blue Spatial Turbulence surged within the cracks, flowing slowly like a group of snakes trapped in a fissure in the earth.
The ground here has clearly been reinforced by Spirit Formation; the edges of the cracks are covered with dense remnants of Spiritual Runes, like a torn net still hanging on the cracks.
Even so, it is now completely destroyed. Most of the Spiritual Runes have broken and dissipated, leaving only a few scattered fragments that stubbornly shimmer with a faint light.
Inside the main hall, one can still see some corpses shimmering with a white light. These corpses are scattered throughout the square, some leaning against stone pillars, some lying on the edge of cracks, and some lying across the center of the square.
Several of the skeletons, even after ten thousand years, still exuded a powerful sense of oppression. That oppression emanated from the depths of the bones, like the remains of a group of ferocious beasts that had been dead for ten thousand years, still retaining their former ferocity.
Clearly, he must have been an extremely powerful being in life.
The entire square was in a state of utter devastation, like a Scroll Painting frozen in time at the moment of destruction.
However, Lin Ming paid no attention to the devastation in the ruined square at this moment, because his gaze immediately turned to the end of the square.
There, on Lotus Pedestal carved from Blood Jade, a jet-black flower, dazzlingly bright, quietly bowed its head.
The Lotus Pedestal was exactly the same as the one he had seen in the light and shadow before. The dark red jade surface was covered with natural patterns, like a piece of bloodstone carved into the shape of Lotus Pedestal.
The black flower was about ten feet tall, growing from the center of the Lotus Pedestal, like a giant black tree shrunk countless times.
The petals unfold layer upon layer, each one like a scimitar that has been ground to an extremely thin edge, with a dark purple sheen on its edge.
Tiny golden specks of light flickered slowly at the flower's stamen, like a swarm of fireflies trapped inside the flower's heart.
A faint, eerie light emanated from the flower, so dark it seemed to devour all light, absorbing the light within a radius of several feet and creating an area even darker than darkness itself.
Within the dim light, numerous ancient patterns emerged, stretching from the base of the petals to their tips, like rivers carved into black jade. Each pattern had a different direction and curve, intertwining and entwining with one another, showcasing its extraordinary and mystical nature.
Lin Ming stared intently at the alluring flower. He knew that this flower was the true form of the Mandala, the real Ancient Mandala Flower!
"Finally found it." Lin Ming stared at the alluring flower for a moment before tilting his head back and letting out a long breath.
However, even though the Ancient Mandala was right in front of him, he did not rush forward rashly.
Because from that scene, he knew that a mid-level Grandmaster Spirit Formation, fraught with danger, was hidden in the square.
The corpses and stone pillars scattered across the square were not placed randomly; they were connected to each other in a very precise pattern, like a spider web spread across the square. Any creature that stepped into it would trigger the array's strangulation.
Lin Ming's gaze swept across the room and then stopped at the base of the eight stone pillars.
Beneath those stone pillars sat eight skeletons, unlike the other scattered corpses in the square. They sat cross-legged with their backs straight and their hands in mudras in front of their knees, like a group of old monks who had passed away in meditation.
They looked as if they had lost all life, just ordinary white bones with a dull, grayish-white sheen on their surface.
However, Lin Ming knew that the location of these eight skeletons was the central point of the Spirit Formation. In other words, they were the source of power for this Spirit Formation.
Each skeleton contained extremely dense Spiritual Energy fluctuations. Although these fluctuations were extremely weak, the eight skeletons together formed a small spiritual vein that slowly circulated, transmitting Spiritual Energy through the stone pillars to every corner of the entire plaza.
This Spirit Formation was quite magnificent and profound, and the powerful aura it exuded made Lin Ming dare not underestimate it.
The Spiritual Runes that spread outward from the eight stone pillars were like taut strings stretched between the pillars and the ground, each string flowing with power enough to tear Earth Sovereign to pieces.
Looking at this formation, Lin Ming, who inherited the legacy of the Master of the Lin Residence, knew that breaking it only required disrupting the balance of this Spirit Formation.
The balance of this Spirit Formation comes from the control of its central Spirit Formation, which is currently the eight corpses and the stone pillars behind them.
The corpses are the source of Spiritual Energy, like eight hearts still beating weakly; the stone pillars are the channels used to connect the Spirit Formation, like eight blood vessels extending from the heart.
Eight hearts pump Spiritual Energy through eight blood vessels to every part of the great array, maintaining the tension of this giant net.
If the remains could be separated from the stone pillars, the balance would be broken.
Just like removing the heart from the blood vessels, those blood vessels will dry up and shrink on their own after losing their blood supply.
Lin Ming suddenly raised his head, his eyes gleaming. He stared intently at the eight stone pillars and the corpses, his dark, unfathomable eyes shimmering with a mysterious light, like a locksmith carefully examining a complex lock.
He carefully discerned the directions, from the first stone pillar to the eighth, from the position of the first corpse to the sitting posture of the eighth corpse, taking in the way the stone pillars and corpses were connected, the direction of the Spiritual Runes, and the nodes where those Spiritual Runes converged on the surface of the stone pillars.
After a long while, a smile finally appeared on his young face.
The smile held a hint of understanding and a touch of certainty, like a chess player making a crucial move after calculating all the possible variations.
With a light laugh, Lin Ming began to retreat. He moved his feet back several feet, widening the distance between them to a safe level.
Then, with a flick of his sleeve, his Spiritual Energy surged forth and shot towards a stone pillar and a corpse.
The Spiritual Energy, like an arrow shot out, struck precisely the spot beneath the corpse.
With his attack, the corpse shifted slightly.
The skeleton swayed slightly under the impact of Spiritual Energy, its seated posture tilting half an inch to the right, like a clay sculpture swaying in the wind.
Seeing this, Lin Ming's smile widened. Although he had only moved slightly, it had a superficial effect.
Although that slight shift was so minute as to be almost negligible, it did indeed alter the relative positions between the corpse and the stone pillar.
It's like removing a speck of dust from a precise scale; the change may be subtle, but the scale is no longer the same.
Therefore, as long as he continues to attack this one point, he can gradually increase the offset until the connection between the corpse and the stone pillar is completely severed.
A slight smile played on his lips as he added more force to his hand, launching another ball of light that accurately struck the same spot.