The Space Wormhole's transmission wasn't instantaneous; they experienced a bout of spatial turbulence and distortion along the way.
But for Lin Chen and Medusa, both already at the Dou Zong level, this degree of turbulence was no longer troublesome.
With his Spirit Realm soul power, Lin Chen could even faintly sense the mysteries of the spatial trajectories.
His understanding of the power of space deepened a little.
As the chaotic spatial energy around them gradually settled and the light before their eyes steadied,
a surge of heaven-and-earth energy several times richer and purer than that of the Northwest Continent swept over them, mingled with the bustle and prosperity of a thriving land.
They had set foot on the Central Plains Continent.
They had arrived at a vast plaza.
Across the plaza, silver Space Wormholes of varying sizes shimmered, and people constantly streamed in and out, making the place exceptionally busy.
Towering city walls and rows of buildings surrounded them, their style utterly different from that of the Jia Ma Empire.
The buildings here were grander and more exquisite, and an ancient, powerful aura permeated the air.
This was Sky Yellow City, a major city on the edge of the Central Plains.
Even as a frontier city, its prosperity far surpassed that of Jia Ma Holy City.
The streets teemed with people, and the auras of powerful cultivators were everywhere.
Dou Wang cultivators seemed commonplace here; every so often, they could even sense the aura of a Dou Emperor or Dou Zong streaking across the sky.
Xiao Yi Xian and Qing Lin had never seen a sight like this, and couldn't help feeling a little nervous.
They instinctively edged closer to Lin Chen. Xiao Yi Xian lightly clutched the strap of her medicine pouch, her knuckles faintly whitening.
Anxiety over their unfamiliar surroundings lurked in her eyes.
Qing Lin, meanwhile, hid half her body behind Xiao Yi Xian, her emerald eyes timidly sweeping over their surroundings.
Only when she saw Lin Chen's back did she quietly relax.
Zi Yan's big eyes darted around. Everything filled her with curiosity.
She was especially drawn to the shops wafting with the aroma of food and rippling with energy. Her nose twitched nonstop, clearly tempted by the delicious smells.
"So this is the Central Plains? It's so lively!"
Zi Yan excitedly tugged at Lin Chen's sleeve.
Medusa's expression was cool as she surveyed her surroundings, her Three-Star Dou Zong aura held slightly in check.
Yet her innate queenly bearing still drew sidelong glances.
"The energy here really is beyond compare with the Northwest Continent. No wonder it can produce so many powerful cultivators."
Medusa spoke calmly.
Lin Chen gave a slight nod, his soul power quietly spreading like quicksilver spilling across the ground.
He gathered fragments of information drifting through the air. When one had just arrived somewhere, intelligence was the most important thing.
Soon, one topic of conversation, discussed by many people, caught his attention.
"...Have you heard? There's been some activity around Saint-Falling Mountain!"
"Sure have. They say the spatial fluctuations there are getting more and more intense. An ancient ruin might really be about to appear!"
Someone else chimed in.
"Tsk, tsk, Saint-Falling Mountain... You can tell it's no ordinary place just from the name. Maybe it's a cave dwelling left behind by a Dou Sheng Expert!"
Another person exclaimed.
"Hey, even if it is a Dou Saint Ruins, that doesn't mean just anyone can enter."
Someone lowered their voice. "I heard there's an extremely powerful spatial barrier around the outer perimeter. It restricts cultivation levels, and anyone above Three-Star Dou Zun can't enter."
"That's still incredible! Even with the restriction, whatever trickles out from inside would be enough to benefit us for a lifetime!"
A look of longing flashed in someone's eyes. "What a pity... Without a Relic Key, it's hard even to approach the core area..."
"A key? Supposedly, whenever the ruins stir, one appears at random somewhere within a thousand miles of them."
Another person added, "You can't seek one out; you just have to get lucky..."
"Saint-Falling Mountain? Dou Saint Ruins? A cultivation restriction? Relic Keys?"
A flicker of interest crossed Lin Chen's eyes. Even to him, a Dou Saint Ruins held great allure.
And the cultivation restriction actually worked in his favor.
After all, Medusa was only a Three-Star Dou Zong, and with the restriction in place...
"Let's take a look around the city's trading district."
Lin Chen made his decision. Since the keys appeared at random, a trading district—a place where all kinds of people gathered—was the likeliest place to find a lead.
Sky Yellow City's trading district was enormous and divided into several sections.
Lin Chen and his group headed straight for the free-stall area, where all sorts of people mingled.
The place was bustling with voices. Hawkers' cries and the haggling of customers rang out without end.
The stalls were piled high with all manner of goods, from low-tier medicinal herbs and Magic Cores to weapons and scrolls that looked ancient and battered. There was no telling what was genuine and what was fake.
Lin Chen's Spirit Realm soul power swept slowly across them. Most of the goods were unremarkable.
But a few contained faint, unusual fluctuations.
He wasn't in a hurry to look for a so-called Relic Key. First, he bought jade slips with basic information about the Central Plains, such as geographical records and maps of the various factions.
As they passed an inconspicuous stall in a corner, Lin Chen's steps slowed.
His gaze fell on an irregularly shaped object covered in thick dust, which looked like a fragment of some kind of metal.
The fragment looked like junk, but Lin Chen's soul power sensed within it an extremely subtle fluctuation that faintly resonated with the surrounding spatial energy.
The stall owner was a lean-faced Da Dou Shi with shifty eyes. When he saw Lin Chen stop, he immediately became enthusiastic.
"You've got a keen eye, young master! This fragment's a family heirloom of mine. They say it was dug out of some ancient ruins. It's incredibly hard, so it's bound to be something good!"
Lin Chen couldn't be bothered to listen to his sales pitch. "How much?"
The stall owner's eyes rolled as he held up five fingers. "Five hundred gold coins! No, five thousand!"
Lin Chen remained expressionless and tossed him a fourth-grade pill. "Is this enough?"
The stall owner took the pill and sensed its pure medicinal power. He immediately beamed and repeatedly said, "That's plenty, that's plenty! You're very generous, young master!"
To him, trading the useless rock for a fourth-grade pill was like a windfall falling from the heavens.
Lin Chen reached out to take the metal fragment.
Just then, an arrogant voice rang out. "Hold it! I've got my eye on that fragment!"
Several young men in matching silver robes embroidered with wind-and-thunder patterns strode over.
Their leader wore a haughty expression as he looked over Lin Chen and the others.
His gaze lingered on Medusa and Xiao Yi Xian, and a lecherous gleam flashed in his eyes.
Their auras were all at the Dou Wang level. They were clearly disciples of some sect.
"They're from the Wind Lightning Pavilion..." someone nearby whispered, looking wary.
The stall owner's face turned pale. He clearly recognized the newcomers.
Zi Yan couldn't stand this sort of arrogant thug. She curled her lip. "Hey! Who are you? We saw it first!"
The Wind Lightning Pavilion youth sneered. "Where did this brat come from? You dare fight me for something?"
His tone grew even more arrogant. "In Sky Yellow City, whatever the Wind Lightning Pavilion wants belongs to us!"
"If you know what's good for you, get lost and leave that fragment behind."
The youth pointed at Lin Chen, his voice flippant.
"Maybe I'll consider sparing your lives!"
Medusa's eyes turned icy in an instant, and the space around her rippled.
Pale purple Dou Qi silently gathered at her fingertips. At the slightest signal from Lin Chen, she could strike in an instant.
Lin Chen's gaze was just as placid as still water, but cold intent churned in the depths of his dark eyes.
Anyone who knew him could tell this was a warning that he was about to lose his temper.
"You're asking to die!"
Zi Yan didn't care about any of that. She'd been itching for a fight, and the moment the other youth insulted them, pale golden Dou Qi instantly curled around her little fist.
Her golden fist force cracked through the air as it shot straight toward the Wind Lightning Pavilion youth's face.
He hadn't expected her to attack outright. In his haste, he channeled pale blue lightning Dou Qi and crossed his arms in front of himself.
A shield appeared in an instant!
"Bang!"
A dull thud rang out as the lightning Dou Qi was instantly scattered by the golden fist force.
"Boom!"
The shield shattered outright!
Fine cracks spread across the sleeves of the youth's robe. He staggered back several steps.
His arms were so numb he could barely lift them. His face was full of shock. "Y-You... what kind of monster are you?!"
"How dare you bully Zi Yan!"
Though nervous, Xiao Yi Xian stepped forward without hesitation, faint green poison Dou Qi rippling within her.
Seeing Zi Yan gain the upper hand, her tense shoulders relaxed a little, but she still watched the other Wind Lightning Pavilion disciples warily.
"Attack together! Take them down!"
Humiliated and furious, the Wind Lightning Pavilion youth called on his companions to attack.
In an instant, lightning blazed across the four Wind Lightning Pavilion disciples, pale blue currents crackling over their robes.
Their footwork shifted and changed. It was the Wind Lightning Pavilion's Wind Lightning Step.
Like bolts of lightning, they converged from several directions—the disciple on the left condensed his Dou Qi into a sharp claw and swiped at Zi Yan's back with a keen whistle.
The two on the right joined forces to execute Wind Lightning Slash. Two semicircular arcs of lightning Dou Qi interwove into a net, cutting off Lin Chen and Medusa's escape routes.
The last one circled around behind Xiao Yi Xian, intending to pin down the seemingly weakest target.
But in Lin Chen's eyes, their movements were slower than snails crawling.
Lin Chen didn't even move his feet. He merely cooled his gaze, and a glint of icy light seemed to flash through his dark pupils.
He no longer held back the pressure of his Spirit Realm soul. Like a slumbering behemoth abruptly awakening, it burst from his body with overwhelming force!
The invisible power first took the shape of a circular shockwave, instantly smashing apart the approaching net of lightning Dou Qi.
Pale blue fragments of energy scattered through the air like fireworks.
Then the pressure locked precisely onto the five Wind Lightning Pavilion disciples, weighing down on them like five invisible mountains.
It crashed brutally into their souls!
The youth at the front was just about to channel his Dou Qi again when a rumbling "buzz" exploded in his mind.
It was as though countless steel needles had stabbed into his sea of consciousness. His vision went black in an instant.
His body pitched forward beyond his control, and he slammed heavily into the ground, foaming at the mouth as his fingers twitched.
He couldn't even summon a trace of Dou Qi.
The disciple who had swiped at Zi Yan froze mid-motion. His eyes rolled back, and his body toppled stiffly backward.
He crashed into a nearby stall, sending clay jars and herbs scattering across the ground.
The two on the right who had performed Wind Lightning Slash seemed to have all their strength drained away. Their knees buckled, and they fell to the ground.
They buried their faces in the dust and groaned in pain. The agony in their souls left them too weak even to raise their heads.
The disciple who had circled behind Xiao Yi Xian had it even worse. The pressure made him spit out a mouthful of blood.
His body curled into a ball, and his aura visibly withered. His soul had clearly suffered grievous damage.
In less than a breath, all five Wind Lightning Pavilion disciples at the Dou Wang level had fallen, without managing even a decent defense.
Lin Chen had taken them all out in an instant with the pressure of his soul!
It was as if the air had frozen. The once-noisy free-stall area fell utterly silent.
Only the stall curtains rustled in the breeze.
The bystanders who had been whispering moments ago all stared wide-eyed, their mouths hanging open.
Their faces were filled with disbelief. One person pointed at Lin Chen, his body trembling with shock.
An old herb seller had forgotten to pack up. She still clutched a handful of herbs she had been about to hand to a customer.
Several mercenaries who had come to watch the commotion instinctively backed away, their eyes full of fear as they looked at Lin Chen.
He seemed like a deity no one dared offend.
"W-What kind of strength is that? Even a Dou Emperor couldn't do that so easily, could he?"
A trembling voice broke the silence.
"He has to be a Dou Zong! Only the soul power of a Dou Zong Expert could kill Dou Wang cultivators with nothing but pressure!"
Someone else immediately chimed in, their voice brimming with awe. "The Wind Lightning Pavilion has just hit a wall. They actually dared to provoke a Dou Zong Expert!"
"That youth was acting so arrogant just now. Look at him now... He really dug his own grave!"
Someone muttered mockingly, but kept their voice extremely low, afraid Lin Chen might hear.
The stall owner who had sold the metal fragment had already slumped to the ground. A large wet patch spread across his crotch, and a foul, fishy stench filled the air.
He looked at Lin Chen's back with relief in his eyes. Thank goodness he hadn't dared cheat this lord just now. Otherwise, he'd probably have ended up just like those Wind Lightning Pavilion disciples.
Xiao Yi Xian was stunned, too.
The unease in her heart vanished in an instant, replaced by complete reassurance.
Qing Lin peeked out from behind her, her jade-green eyes full of admiration. Looking at Lin Chen's back, she quietly clenched her small hands.
She secretly resolved to grow stronger quickly and stop holding everyone back.
Zi Yan put her hands on her hips and shot the Wind Lightning Pavilion disciples on the ground a smug glance.
Then she tipped her chin up at Lin Chen. "Lin Chen, you're amazing!"
Lin Chen didn't even look at the Wind Lightning Pavilion disciples on the ground, as if he'd merely brushed away a few pesky flies.
He reached out, and a gentle force drew the metal fragment into his hand.
It felt slightly heavy and cold to the touch. The dust on its surface fell away on its own, swept off by the surrounding force.
Fine, dark-gold lines emerged beneath it, and its resonance with the power of space grew clearer.
After sensing it carefully for a moment, he could be almost certain: this was one of the Relic Keys required to enter the Saint-Falling Mountain ruins.
"Wind Lightning Pavilion... Looks like we've made an enemy of them."
Lin Chen felt no ripples in his heart. A branch sect with only a Dou Emperor as its Pavilion Master and disciples who were no more than Dou Kings wasn't worth taking seriously.
He put the metal fragment into his Storage Ring and said to Medusa and the others, "Let's go."
The group followed behind Lin Chen and slowly left the marketplace.
Passersby instinctively stepped aside to make way for them. No one dared look at Medusa or Xiao Yi Xian again.
They didn't even dare meet Lin Chen's gaze, not until he and the others had gone far away.
Only then did the marketplace grow noisy again, though now everyone was talking about Lin Chen's lightning-fast slaughter of the Wind Lightning Pavilion disciples.
They found a quiet inn to stay at, and Lin Chen set up a soul barrier.
Then he began studying the metal fragment and the jade slip containing the information he had purchased.
After cross-referencing the information, he confirmed that the news about the Saint-Falling Mountain ruins was essentially true.
In about half a month, the barrier would weaken enough to allow people to enter.
As for the fragment in his hand, it was indeed a spatial token known as a "Relic Key."
Once he had finished with that, Lin Chen turned his attention back to his Storage Ring.
He had previously obtained the complete inheritances of two Sixth-Grade Alchemists, as well as that jade slip containing the Seventh-Grade Alchemist Inheritance.
He had been busy cultivating and dealing with other matters, so he hadn't studied them in detail.
Now that he had reached the Dou Zong realm and his soul had entered the Spirit Realm, it was time to fully digest this knowledge.
He first reviewed the inheritances of the two Sixth-Grade Alchemists in his mind.
With his current cultivation and comprehension, knowledge that seemed abstruse and difficult to ordinary people was as clear to him as the lines on his palm.
He grasped its essence in an instant, and could even draw inferences and devise better solutions.
In less time than it took to drink a cup of tea, he had thoroughly absorbed and integrated everything the two Sixth-Grade Alchemists had learned in their lifetimes.
Next, he took out the dark-gold jade slip containing the Seventh-Grade Alchemist Inheritance.
His soul power flowed into it, and a vast stream of information flooded his mind.
The medicinal properties of the ingredients involved in refining Seventh-Grade pills were far more complex.
Controlling the flames required pinpoint precision, while using soul power had reached an entirely new level.
One even began to draw upon a trace of the world's power and merge it into the pill, imbuing it with spirituality!
For ordinary alchemists, they might spend their entire lives without ever glimpsing the threshold of this knowledge.
But with his monstrous comprehension, transformed by the Blood Scripture and Styx's inheritance, and the support of his Spirit Realm soul power, Lin Chen absorbed it all in an orderly fashion.
Like a precision instrument, he rapidly analyzed, understood, and absorbed the mysteries of Seventh-Grade alchemy.
Complex recipes, exquisite pill-condensation techniques, the secrets of fine soul-power control... He mastered them all, constantly simulating and refining them in his mind.
He even felt that he had already touched the pinnacle of Seventh-Grade alchemy.
He needed only practical experience and a certain opportunity before he could attempt to break into the Eighth-Tier!
However, he lacked the inheritance for Eighth-Tier alchemy.
It wasn't impossible to work it out through his own comprehension, but that would require a great deal of time and effort spent learning through trial and error.
With the ruins about to open, this wasn't the best time to seclude himself for research.
More importantly, he needed to find a relatively safe and stable place for Xiao Yi Xian and Zi Yan, as well as Qing Lin, whose strength was somewhat weaker.
The forces of the Central Plains were tangled together, and danger lurked everywhere. He couldn't keep them by his side at all times.
And alchemy was undoubtedly one of the most respected and safest professions in the Central Plains.
"The Pill Tower..."
Lin Chen opened his eyes, a glint of wisdom flashing within them. It was the holy land of alchemists in the Central Plains, with the most complete inheritances, the richest resources, and an exalted status.
If he could obtain a high-ranking position in the Pill Tower, he would not only solve the problem of the missing inheritance.
He could also provide Xiao Yi Xian and the others with powerful protection.
"We're going to the Pill Tower."
Lin Chen made his decision.
Medusa had no objections. She only needed to follow Lin Chen.
When Zi Yan heard that the Pill Tower surely had plenty of delicious pills, she eagerly agreed.
Xiao Yi Xian and Qing Lin trusted Lin Chen's arrangements without question.
With their destination decided, the group wasted no more time. After a brief rest, they left Sky Yellow City.
Following the map's directions, they sped toward the Central Plains' heartland, the Pill Region—the holy land that every alchemist longed for!
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