The Ancient Hall of Inheritance!

The pitch-black ancient hall stood alone in the center of the ruins, built entirely from an unknown black stone, its surface covered with mottled traces of time and blurred ancient runes.

A heavy, oppressive, and heart-pounding aura emanated from the hall, like a slumbering ancient beast.

The hall door was tightly shut, its surface shimmering with flowing light, clearly covered by extremely powerful restrictions.

The veiled woman, Leng Weiyue, the saintess of the Heavenly Demon Sect, stopped her escape light a hundred zhang away from the ancient hall, bringing Li Qingshan with her.

Her expression was solemn, and she took out a compass-like magical artifact. The pointer on it spun wildly, emitting a faint dark glow.

"Stay close to me. One wrong step and you'll trigger a killing formation, and even a Golden Core cultivator would have trouble saving you," Leng Weiyue said, her voice clear and cold, brooking no argument.

"Yes!"

Li Qingshan replied respectfully.

She formed a hand seal, and the compass's dark light flared, projecting a distorted path of light that wound its way towards the ancient hall's entrance.

She stepped onto the path of light first, her figure like a ghost, skillfully avoiding countless invisible restriction nodes in the void.

Li Qingshan followed closely behind, his divine sense fully deployed, carefully placing each step on Leng Weiyue's footprints.

He could clearly feel the terrifying energy fluctuations in the surrounding space, hidden yet potent enough to tear him to shreds instantly. Fine beads of cold sweat broke out on his forehead.

The complexity and power of the outer restrictions far exceeded his imagination.

The two arrived at the massive hall door without incident.

Viewing it up close, one could better appreciate the door's weight and antiquity. It was carved with ancient patterns of the sun, moon, stars, flowers, birds, fish, and insects, though most were now blurred.

Leng Weiyue put away the compass, her expression even more solemn.

She extended her delicate hand, squeezed out a few drops of vital blood from her fingertip, drew a complex bloody rune in the air, and pressed it towards the center of the hall door.

"Buzz--!"

The hall door trembled, and the flowing light on its surface suddenly intensified, rippling like water waves before revealing three clearly visible, nested light screens.

Each light screen flowed with different runes, emitting an aura that was either scorching hot, ice-cold, or as heavy as a mountain.

"As expected, it's guarded by the triple Lesser Tri-Origin Restriction."

Leng Weiyue's voice carried a hint of fatigue, clearly indicating that the secret technique had consumed a significant amount of energy.

She turned to look at Li Qingshan and pointed to the outermost light screen, which flickered with a yellow-brown light and possessed the heaviest aura: "This first layer, the Thick Earth Restriction, focuses on defense. It requires immense strength or a specific earth-elemental magical artifact to break through forcefully. Leave it to me."

She then pointed to the middle light screen, which crackled with blue arcs of lightning: "The second layer, the Yin Water Lightning Restriction, is extremely venomous and specializes in corroding spiritual energy and the physical body. I have a secret treasure that can counter it."

Finally, her gaze fell upon the innermost transparent light screen, which appeared the most ordinary yet subtly emitted spatial distortion waves: "This third layer is the most troublesome, it's the Lesser Void Restriction. It seems weak but is best at reflecting attacks and distorting spells, making it extremely difficult to exert force upon.

It requires extremely precise divine sense perception to find its fleeting nodes and break it with skillful force. Fellow Daoist, this restriction is for you."

Her words were calm, but her eyes were sharp as she looked at Li Qingshan, with a scrutinizing and unrefusable tone. "I know you must have been holding back, Fellow Daoist. There's no need to hide your abilities now. If we can't break this restriction, we'll both leave empty-handed."

Li Qingshan cursed her slyness inwardly.

This woman clearly had a plan. She was prepared for the first two layers of restrictions, only leaving the most difficult, most skill-requiring, and most dangerous third layer to him.

It was both a test and an exploitation.

But with things having come to this point, he had no way back.

If he refused forcefully, the veiled woman before him would likely turn hostile immediately.

Li Qingshan nodded with a solemn expression: "This humble one will do his best to try."

He took a step forward, closed his eyes, and sank his entire mind into his divine sense, cautiously probing the transparent Lesser Void Restriction.

This restriction was indeed profoundly mysterious. Its structure was not fixed but was constantly undergoing subtle distortions and changes, with its nodes shifting unpredictably and difficult to capture.

Even cultivators with powerful divine senses would find it difficult to capture and calculate the fleeting flaws in time.

However, Li Qingshan's divine sense, tempered multiple times by the Longevity True Art and the Wish-Fulfilling Gourd, had long surpassed that of his peers, and its fine control was astonishing.

Time trickled by. Li Qingshan's forehead began to sweat again, but his mind was more focused than ever.

Finally, amidst the endless changes, he captured a trace of a pattern!

"Now!"

He suddenly opened his eyes, his fingers forming a sword. A condensed to the extreme cyan finger wind, containing a trace of his Longevity True Essence, silently pointed towards a tiny distorted point on the transparent light screen that was about to dissipate!

Ching!

A light sound, like a needle piercing a balloon.

The seemingly tough Lesser Void Restriction vibrated violently in response, then, like melting snow and ice, it rapidly dissipated without a trace!

Immediately after, Leng Weiyue also let out a soft cry, conjured a large seal that glowed with a yellow-brown light, and smashed it fiercely onto the Thick Earth Restriction. At the same time, she threw out a small silver net, covering the Yin Water Lightning Restriction. Lightning flashed, but it was quickly absorbed by the net.

Boom! Crackle!

Two explosions sounded almost simultaneously, and the first two layers of restrictions were also broken!

The heavy, pitch-black hall door let out a dull creaking sound and slowly opened a gap just wide enough for one person to pass through. A more ancient, desolate scent, carrying the dust of old books, wafted out from within.

"Let's go!"

A flash of joy crossed Leng Weiyue's eyes, and without a moment's hesitation, she was the first to dart inside.

Li Qingshan hesitated slightly before following her into the hall.

The space inside the hall was far more vast than it appeared from the outside, as if some form of spatial expansion technique had been employed.

However, the sight that met their eyes was somewhat disappointing.

It was a massive circular hall where bookshelves that should have been filled with cultivation technique jade slips were now mostly toppled over and completely empty.

The floor was littered with broken fragments of jade slips and rotted wood shavings, appearing incredibly chaotic and dilapidated.

Clearly, this place had been visited before, perhaps more than once.

"Hmph, as expected, the core inheritance has long since been taken by those who came before."

Leng Weiyue let out a cold snort; she had seemingly anticipated this, yet the look of disappointment was still hard to conceal. She did not stop her movements, her divine sense swiftly sweeping across the entire hall as she waved her hand to gather the few remaining intact jade slips scattered on the ground, stowing them into her storage bag without even a glance.

Li Qingshan followed suit, carefully searching the hall and picking up a few jade slips that appeared complete.

His divine sense also meticulously scanned every corner when, suddenly, in the narrow gap between a collapsed bookshelf and the wall, he sensed a dust-covered, dull-colored, and unremarkable black jade slip.

The material of this jade slip was unique; his divine sense felt a slight resistance when it swept over it, and it was hidden so discreetly that it would have been nearly impossible to discover had his divine sense not been superior.

His heart stirred, and in the moment Leng Weiyue was focused on collecting a few jade slips on the other side, he moved his feet nonchalantly. With a slight flick of his sleeve, a subtle force quietly swept the black jade slip into his cuff; the entire process was silent and as fast as lightning.