Looting the First Hall
After taking the Ancient Mandala Flower into his Inner World, Lin Ming also took the blood-red Lotus Pedestal.
Although the healing effect of the crimson Lotus Pedestal was useless to him, since he possessed the Bodhi Ancient Tree, whose vitality was far more abundant and stronger than the healing power of the Lotus Pedestal.
However, this is equivalent to a Mid-Rank Sacred Artifact, so there is absolutely no reason to leave it here.
After making his purchase, Lin Ming noticed that there was nothing of value left in the place and left without lingering any longer.
Returning along the same path, he passed through the Spirit Formation he had breached at the end of the square. This time, he moved faster and more calmly. In his eyes, the Spiritual Energy storms were like river channels marked with all the hidden reefs, and he stepped on the safest gaps with every step.
Back at the Stone Door, Lin Ming slipped through the crack and stepped once more onto the underwater Ruins.
The sea outside the palace remained deep blue and calm, with the broken stone pillars and collapsed palace walls half-buried and half-exposed in the seabed silt, like a Ruins forgotten by time.
He glanced back at the dilapidated hall; the Stone Door slowly closed behind him with a dull creak.
After all, this is the First Hall, and the First Hall Master is the strongest person after the Heavenly Emperor.
The Hall Master's cultivation level during his lifetime was at least at the Perfected Earth Sovereign, and it is even more likely that he reached the Half-Step Heavenly Sovereign level.
He was a whole level above the Nine Residences Lords, and the scale and treasures of his mansion were undoubtedly far beyond what the Nine Residences could offer. Therefore, there must be many more treasures inside this hall; how could he linger here without searching for them?
Lin Ming turned around and faced the underwater Ruins. His senses spread across the seabed like an invisible giant net, sweeping over the collapsed palace walls, broken stone pillars, scattered rubble, and artifacts half-buried in the silt.
Occasionally, faint fluctuations of Spiritual Energy emanated from those Ruins, like a group of fireflies that had been sleeping on the seabed for millennia still stubbornly flickering.
After sensing the surroundings, Lin Ming headed towards the east side of the dilapidated hall.
There was a side hall that had mostly collapsed; the roof had completely collapsed, crushing the furnishings inside into a jumbled mess.
The rubble and broken wood were piled up together, like a toppled tower of blocks.
Lin Ming landed at the edge of the Ruins and carefully searched among the rubble.
After a moment, he raised an eyebrow slightly. At the bottom of the Ruins, there was a very subtle Spiritual Energy fluctuation. The fluctuation was wrapped in a broken array, like a bead hidden deep in a pile of stones, still emitting a faint light.
With Spiritual Energy surging in his hands, Lin Ming swung his sword towards the pile of rubble, prying aside several large stones to reveal a flat stone slab underneath.
The stone slab was engraved with a dense circle of Spiritual Runes. Although most of the Spiritual Runes had faded, their structure remained intact, like a net with a torn corner still barely covering what was underneath.
This is a protective formation, but its grade isn't very high, around the early stage of a Grandmaster.
Those Spiritual Runes contain a kind of illusionary Law; anyone who tries to open the stone slab will be confused by the illusions produced by the array, like a fly buzzing around on a piece of paper coated with glue.
Lin Ming looked at the formation; having inherited the Master of the Lin Residence, he found its flaw with just a glance.
There was a slight misalignment in the arrangement of those Spiritual Runes in the northeast corner, like a pin stuck in the lock cylinder of a lock.
Lin Ming extended his finger and gently flicked the misaligned spot. A beam of light shot from his fingertip and precisely embedded itself into the gap.
The Spiritual Runes on the stone slab suddenly lit up, and then fell off the slab like beads with a broken string. The fragments of Spiritual Runes drifted around the seabed like a swarm of startled fireflies before fading away completely.
The stone slab slid open silently, revealing a hidden compartment about a foot square underneath.
Inside the hidden compartment was a Jade Casket. The Jade Casket box was a warm, lustrous white, with no extra decorations on its surface, except for a thin gold thread as fine as a hair inlaid at the seam between the lid and the body.
Lin Ming took out the Jade Casket and opened it. Inside the box was a Jade Slip wrapped in gold foil, with several lines of fine text engraved on Jade Slip.
He glanced at it and saw that it was a divine Cultivation Method called "Sea-Suppressing Seal". It was of a high grade, roughly equivalent to a superior divine power. It used the power of water to condense a giant seal to suppress the opponent, and its power was quite considerable.
He put the Jade Slip into his storage bracelet. Although this supernatural ability wasn't very useful to him, he could still learn it later.
Lin Ming then continued his search forward.
Not long after, in the western corner of the side hall, he discovered another hidden compartment protected by an array.
This time, the formation was even more concealed. The Spiritual Runes were engraved on the back of a seemingly ordinary broken brick. If he hadn't inherited the formation techniques from the Master of the Lin Residence, he probably would have overlooked it and left without ever noticing it.
This formation is of a slightly higher grade than the previous one, reaching the mid-stage of the Grandmaster level. The arrangement of the Spiritual Runes is more precise, resembling an extremely intricately woven bamboo basket.
Lin Ming stood in front of the broken brick for a moment and found a very hidden node in the Spiritual Runes.
The node was covered by three intersecting Spiritual Runes, like a bead held by three fingers.
He used his Spiritual Energy to peel away the three Spiritual Runes one by one, like an embroiderer unraveling a piece of fabric that had been embroidered incorrectly.
After the Spiritual Runes dissipated, the broken bricks cracked open automatically, revealing a storage ring hidden inside.
The ring was entirely a deep blue color, with a sapphire the size of a grain of rice set in its face. Upon opening it, one could find more than a dozen fist-sized pieces of "Deep-Sea Cold Iron" inside.
This is an extremely rare material for refining weapons. Each piece exudes a chilling aura and remains icy cold even after being stored in the underwater environment for tens of thousands of years.
Lin Ming put it into his sleeve and continued searching the next spot.
Next, he found a secret chamber protected by an array on the south side of the side hall.
The Stone Door to the secret chamber was carved from a single piece of Blue Stone, and a complex array of mid-level Grandmaster level was engraved on the door surface. The array integrated the functions of bewilderment, trapping, killing, and warning.
Looking at this, Lin Ming spent the time it takes for an incense stick to burn dismantle the formation layer by layer. First, he broke the outermost warning Spiritual Runes, then he dismantled the middle layer of trapping and killing Spiritual Runes, and finally he unlocked the innermost layer of bewildering Spiritual Runes.
The Stone Door slid open silently in front of him, revealing a small Stone Chamber inside.
Inside the Stone Chamber was a row of stone shelves, on which dozens of Jade Bottle were neatly stacked. The jade bottles were in very good condition, and although the seals at the mouths of the bottles had faded considerably, they still contained a portion of the medicinal power within.
Upon inspection, more than a dozen bottles of pills had completely lost their effectiveness, the Medicinal Pill inside turning into grayish-white powder.
Seven or eight bottles still retained about 30% of their medicinal potency. Most of these pills were used to restore Spiritual Energy and heal injuries. Although their efficacy was reduced, they were still rare treasures for ordinary cultivators.
There are also three bottles that are in the best condition, with more than 60% of the medicinal power remaining in the pills. One of them is a "Realm-Breaking Pill", which is specially used to break through the bottleneck of the Tier 9 Supreme.
The other bottle contains a "Spirit-Calming Pill," which helps cultivators stabilize their minds and prevent external demonic interference when breaking through to the Earth Sovereign.
Lin Ming carefully stored the three bottles of pills separately, and also put the remaining dozen or so bottles into his storage bracelet.
When I emerged from that secret chamber, my Spiritual Energy swept across the entire Ruins once more, and I discovered another corner protected by an array on the north side of the side hall.
The array was hidden even deeper, buried between two collapsed palace walls. The Spiritual Runes were engraved in the interlayer of the walls, like a butterfly caught between the pages of a book.
He spent some time shattering the two walls with his Spiritual Energy, revealing a mid-level Grandmaster-level array hidden in the interlayer.
The structure of this formation is more complex than the previous ones. The Spiritual Runes are intertwined like a disassembled Rubik's Cube, with each piece connected to several others.
He stared at the formation for a long time, mentally tracing the direction of each Spiritual Runes and the connection method of each node, before finally finding a gap that could be exploited.
The gap was located in the southeast corner of the formation. The three Spiritual Runes converged there, leaving an extremely narrow gap, like a door that was slightly ajar.
He probed his Spiritual Energy through the gap, like an eel slipping through a crack in a fence into a vegetable garden, and then severed the key Spiritual Runes at the core of the formation one by one.
The entire formation collapsed limply, like a snake whose spine had been removed.
After the formation dissipated, a bronze box hidden behind it was revealed. The bronze box was about a foot square and was made of some kind of dark gold alloy. There were no patterns on the surface, except for a thumb-sized mechanism on the front.
Upon opening the bronze box, three jet-black tokens were found inside. Each token was engraved with a menacing black Flood Dragon, and the reverse side was inscribed with a line of extremely small characters.
Lin Ming deciphered the text for a moment; it was a code from the Ancient Heavenly Palace, roughly meaning "First Hall Inner Vault Access Token."
These three tokens turned out to be access passes to the inner treasury of the First Hall.
Lin Ming carefully put away the three tokens, secretly calculating in his mind that the inner treasury should be where the most valuable items were stored in the First Hall. With these three tokens in hand, he might be able to save a lot of effort in breaking the formation.
After searching the side hall, they found several hidden compartments protected by arrays in the Ruins surrounding the main hall. They also found some spiritual materials and artifacts there. Although the value of each individual item was not as high as the previous ones, they added up to a considerable fortune.
He collected the items one by one and then returned to the main hall's entrance.
The main hall's gates were more magnificent and complete than the dilapidated hall he had just entered. Each of the two gates was about ten zhang high and was carved entirely from some kind of dark blue stone. The surface of the gates was covered with dense Flood Dragon patterns, and a faint dark golden light flowed within each pattern.
The palace door was ajar, and an extremely dense Spiritual Energy fluctuation emanated from the crack, like a spiritual vein that had been locked behind a door but was still slowly breathing.
Lin Ming stood in front of the palace gate, looking up at the two Giant Gate, and probed his Spiritual Energy into the palace.
His senses penetrated through the crack in the door and spread throughout the main hall. The space inside was more than ten times larger than that of the side hall. Although most of the furnishings inside were damaged, one could still see the magnificent atmosphere of its former glory.
Deep within the main hall, there was an area where the Spiritual Energy fluctuations were exceptionally rich and concentrated, like a pearl buried at the bottom of the hall emitting a faint glow.
That should be where the inner treasury of the First Hall is located.