Flender's Accidental Entry into Great Thunderclap Temple!

Qin Mu ran over and crouched down beside Blind Man.

Blind Man turned his head slightly, the black ribbon fluttering in the wind.

"Sunbathing. Nourishing my spirit."

Blind Man replied in a hoarse voice, then tapped his bamboo staff lightly against the ground.

"Mu'er, how have you been practicing the method Village Chief taught you these past few days to open the Divine Treasuries?"

When Qin Mu heard that, he quickly sat up straight, like a good student reporting on his homework.

"I remember it all. Grandpa Village Chief said the first step in cultivation is the Spirit Embryo Divine Treasury."

"He said you have to sense the god that belongs to you deep in the space between your brows, then use vital qi to nurture it until the spirit embryo breaks through the wall and emerges."

Hu Liena, standing to one side, immediately pricked up her ears, not even daring to breathe loudly.

She knew the most crucial information about the cultivation system was coming.

Outside the light screen, everyone from Douluo also held their breath, wishing they could carve every word Qin Mu was about to say into their minds.

"Mm, not bad." Blind Man nodded.

"What comes after the Spirit Embryo?"

Qin Mu counted on his fingers and began reciting very smoothly.

"After the Spirit Embryo is the Five Luminaries Divine Treasury."

"Grandpa Village Chief said the Five Luminaries are the five elemental forces of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth inside our bodies. You have to light up five stars inside your body and let these five powers flourish endlessly, circulating in a cycle."

"Once you open the Five Luminaries Divine Treasury, your physical body can become indestructible as diamond and possess boundless strength."

Qin Mu recited seriously, while Hu Liena listened with her heart pounding.

Light up five stars inside the body? Indestructible as diamond?

This sounded exactly like something out of a myth.

"After the Five Luminaries is the Six Harmonies Divine Treasury."

Qin Mu continued, his voice clear and bright.

"The Six Harmonies represent above and below, as well as the four directions of east, south, west, and north. Once you open the Six Harmonies, you can communicate with heaven and earth, linking your own body with the surrounding space."

"When that time comes, you can fly through the air and kill people from a distance!"

At this, Hu Liena felt her breath catch.

Fly through the air?

On the Douluo Continent, only Soul Sages above rank seventy, or soul masters with flying-type martial souls, could stay airborne for a short time.

But in this world, merely at the third major realm, one could already grasp such a heaven-defying ability.

"And after that?" Hu Liena could not help asking.

Qin Mu scratched the back of his head and looked at Blind Man, somewhat uncertain.

"After that... I think it's the Seven Stars Divine Treasury."

"Grandpa Village Chief said the Seven Stars are the Big Dipper in the sky. You have to open seven huge star vortexes inside your body and absorb the power of starlight from above the nine heavens."

"Once you open the Seven Stars, you can master all kinds of ever-changing divine arts, and one person can fight tens of thousands of big bugs!"

Blind Man smiled slightly and said nothing, which counted as tacitly accepting Qin Mu's explanation.

The more Qin Mu recited, the more excited he became. He stood up, gesturing in the air with his little hands.

"There's more after the Seven Stars. It's the Heavenly Human Divine Treasury!"

"Grandpa Village Chief said that at this step, heaven and man resonate. Heaven is me, and I am heaven. You can borrow the power of all heaven and earth to fight!"

"After Heavenly Human is the Life and Death Divine Treasury. Once you break through life and death, you can live for a very, very long time."

"The last one is also the most powerful..."

Qin Mu took a deep breath, his little face filled with longing.

"It's called the Divine Bridge Divine Treasury!"

"You build a golden bridge to the heavens inside your body, and as long as you walk up along the golden bridge, you can directly become an immortal!"

When they heard these words, the entire Douluo Continent fell silent in an instant.

From the palace of Heaven Dou Imperial City to the streets and alleys of Spirit City, and then to those remote villages.

Everyone's mouths hung open as they stared blankly at the light screen in midair.

Qin Mu's childish voice was like peals of thunder, striking their foreheads one after another.

Spirit Embryo, Five Luminaries, Six Harmonies, Seven Stars, Heavenly Human, Life and Death, Divine Bridge!

Seven great realms in total!

The description of every single realm far surpassed the limits of their understanding of power.

On the training field of Shrek Academy.

The quill in Yu Xiaogang's hand had long since fallen somewhere unknown. His knees went weak, and he dropped straight to the grass, clutching that little notebook in both hands as his entire body trembled.

"Seven realms... seven whole realms!"

Yu Xiaogang's voice was so hoarse it barely sounded human, and tears were about to spill from his eyes.

"Our soul master system on Douluo Continent seems to have ten major stages, from Soul Scholar to Title Douluo."

"But in reality, their very first realm, the Spirit Fetus, already displays destructive power on par with our Title Douluos!"

"And after that, the Five Luminaries, Six Directions, Seven Stars..."

Yu Xiaogang did not dare keep thinking about it.

Tang San stood beside him, his expression graver than it had ever been.

He had always believed that with the secret arts of the Tang Sect from his previous life, plus his twin martial souls, as long as he cultivated step by step, he would become a god sooner or later.

But now, after hearing about this "Divine Treasury system," he finally realized that the trump cards he had been so proud of seemed a little pathetic.

"The Divine Bridge Divine Treasury... building a golden bridge lets one become a god..."

Bibi Dong sat upon the Supreme Pontiff's throne, her expression somewhat ugly.

In order to inherit the Rakshasa God position, she had paid a price ordinary people could hardly imagine, enduring in dark corners for so many years.

But the cultivation system in the Great Ruins only required one to open the Divine Treasuries step by step and cultivate to the final stage—then everyone could become a god!

This gap was enough to drive one to despair, yet it also made one unable to resist wanting to seize it at all costs.

"That village, that Crippled Old Village!"

Bibi Dong suddenly stood up, and the scepter in her hand struck heavily against the floor.

"As long as we can enter that village and obtain the method to open these Divine Treasuries, Spirit Hall will be able to rule every plane!"

At that moment, the powerful figures across the entire continent were all deeply provoked by the concept of these seven great Divine Treasuries.

In the Sky Screen's image.

After Qin Mu finished reciting the realms, his mouth was a little dry, so he ran to the water vat, scooped up a ladle of water, and drank.

Hu Liena sat on a stone, her mind a complete mess, filled entirely with the names of the Divine Treasuries she had just heard.

The sun slowly sank toward the west, stretching the shadows in the village until they were long and thin.

Daytime in the Great Ruins was always so brief it felt unreal.

"It's almost dark."

Blind Man put away his bamboo staff, stood up from the large rock, and slowly headed toward his thatched hut.

At the very moment the final trace of the sun's afterglow vanished beneath the horizon.

The four stone statues at the village entrance once again lit up with a faint golden glow with a hum.

Outside, the thick, ink-like darkness swept in like a tide, blotting out the sky and covering the earth.

The familiar low roars, accompanied by the sound of bones shattering, rang out once more in the night.

Hu Liena looked at the terrifying darkness beyond the light barrier. This time, the fear in her heart had actually lessened somewhat.

Because she knew that as long as she endured the night, tomorrow she would be able to learn even more terrifying things in this village that would overturn everything she knew.

Just when everyone thought today's light-screen broadcast was about to end and were preparing to digest the massive amount of information they had just received.

The Sky Screen in midair suddenly lit up.

After a flash of white light, the image that had originally belonged to Crippled Old Village vanished in an instant.

In its place was a vast, unending stretch of majestic ruins.

Towering broken walls and shattered remnants rose into the clouds, giving off an ancient, weathered aura.

And in the very center of the ruins, an enormous temple, though damaged, still radiating faint Buddhist light, slowly entered the eyes of the people of Douluo.

On the temple's plaque, three large characters could faintly be seen: Great Thunderclap Temple!

A line of words appeared beneath the image.

Second batch of explorers: Heaven Dou Empire, Dean of Shrek Academy, Flender.

Location: Great Ruins, Great Thunderclap Temple ruins.

When the viewers across the entire continent saw this scene, they froze once again.

Dean Flender?

He had actually been transported to a place that looked like an ancient divine relic?

When Flender's name appeared on the light screen.

On the training field of Shrek Academy, a considerable commotion instantly broke out.

"Dean! It's Dean Flender!"

Ma Hongjun rubbed his little eyes, pointed at the light screen in midair, and shouted.

"Holy crap, the dean's luck is insane! He actually got teleported into a temple!"

Beside him, Zhao Wuji slapped his own thigh and let out a long breath.

"That old miser Flender may pinch pennies all day, but when it counts, his life's pretty tough."

"That place looks run-down, but at least there's golden light everywhere. It's way better than Hu Liena's black forest, where she ran into monsters the moment she appeared."

Yu Xiaogang gripped the little notebook tightly, pushed up the glasses on the bridge of his nose, and a hint of certainty appeared on his face.

"Flender has a flying beast martial soul, and his level has reached seventy-eight, Soul Sage."

"Combined with the survival rule Qin Mu mentioned just now, as long as Flender doesn't run around and stays beside those glowing Buddha statues, he'll definitely have no problem making it through the night."

Everyone nodded one after another. The heavy stone in their hearts finally settled.

At the same time.

In the Great Ruins, at the ruins of Great Thunderclap Temple.

A breeze blew past, sweeping up a few withered yellow leaves from the ground.

In a pile of rubble, a heavy bluestone slab was suddenly pushed aside.

Immediately after, a middle-aged man in a worn-out long robe, wearing a pair of black-framed crystal glasses, crawled out from inside, covered in dust and dirt.

This man was none other than Flender, who had just been teleported over.

"Pah, pah, pah!"

Flender spat out the dirt in his mouth, patting the dust off himself while adjusting the glasses on the bridge of his nose.

He raised his head and surveyed his surroundings.

Big.

That was the first thought in Flender's mind.

The ruins before him were simply too vast.

The bluestone steps beneath his feet were each more than half a person tall.

In the distance, the broken stone pillars were each as thick as a small hill.

Looking up along the steps, a dilapidated temple with more than half its roof collapsed stood silently at the highest point of the ruins.

Above the temple gate hung a plaque at an angle. The writing was somewhat blurred, and he could barely make out the words "Great Thunderclap."

"This place looks pretty old."

Flender rubbed the stubble on his chin, his eyes darting around behind his glasses.

He looked up at the sky.

By now, the sun over the Great Ruins was about to set, dyeing the horizon a blazing red.

A cold wind blew past, and Flender shivered out of nowhere.

Before being teleported over, he had seen the scenes on the light screen clearly.

He knew that the night in the Great Ruins devoured people, and he also knew the life-saving method Qin Mu had mentioned.

"Find the glowing stone statues..."

Flender muttered to himself, his gaze sweeping back and forth across the ruins.

Very soon, his eyes locked onto the ruined temple ahead.

Though half the main gate had collapsed, he could clearly see a faint golden halo radiating from inside the temple.

"Heh, heaven never seals off all exits!"

Flender's heart leaped with joy. He pushed off with his feet, and his whole body darted like a nimble swallow, taking the huge bluestone steps two or three at a time as he rushed toward the ruined temple.

The moment he stepped through the temple gate, Flender froze.

The inside of the temple was even more absurdly spacious. The entire floor was paved with some kind of jade whose material he couldn't identify.

Although rubble and cobwebs were everywhere, more than a dozen enormous Buddha statues still sat upright in the center of the main hall.

Many of these Buddha statues had broken arms or missing heads.

But their surfaces were all coated in a thick layer of gold paint, emitting a gentle golden Buddhist light that illuminated the entire hall brightly.

At the sight, the fear in Flender's heart was instantly flung beyond the ninth heaven.

The little eyes hidden behind his crystal glasses now shone outright with two greedy green gleams.

"This... this is all gold!"

Flender swallowed, feeling his heartbeat speed up.

He quickly walked up to a Buddha statue with half an arm broken off and reached out to touch it.

It felt cold to the touch, its texture hard.

Most crucially, even after countless years, the gold lacquer on them still shone brilliantly. One look was enough to tell they were priceless treasures.

Flender had been stingy his whole life, budgeting every day for Shrek Academy's expenses.

Now, seeing so many glittering golden Buddha statues, he felt as if he had fallen into a pile of money.

"We're rich, we're rich!"

Flender rubbed his hands together and circled the Buddha statues, the wrinkles on his face blooming with a grin.

"If I can take some gold leaf back, just scrape off a pound or two, that broken thatched hut of our academy can be renovated into the grandest teaching building in Heaven Dou City!"

"When the time comes, I'm definitely building a big fountain in the courtyard!"

At that thought, Flender no longer cared about this being a pure land of Buddhism.

He directly took a sharp dagger out of his soul tool.

He fixed his eyes on a slightly raised patch of gold leaf on the base of a Buddha statue, raised the dagger, and prepared to scrape it off.

At that moment, the sky outside had already gone completely dark.

Boundless darkness poured in through the temple doors, only to be held three meters away by the golden light radiating from the Buddha statues.

The main hall was very quiet. There was only Flender's heavy breathing.

"Clink."

The tip of the dagger had just touched the base of the Buddha statue when it made a faint, crisp sound.

At the exact same moment that crisp sound rang out.

Flender's movements suddenly froze.

The hand holding the dagger hung in midair, and every hair on his body stood up one after another.

Because he heard it clearly. From inside the lotus pedestal beneath the Buddha statue came an extremely muffled sound.

That sound was like some heavy thing blowing a bubble at the bottom of the water.

"Gurgle..."

Immediately after, the sound of chains scraping against stone slowly rang out from beneath the floor of the main hall.

"Clatter, clatter..."

Flender swallowed, then slowly lowered his head and looked at the enormous base of the Buddha statue.

The originally intact gold leaf on the base had suddenly split open with a crack.

A wisp of black-red mist slowly seeped out through that crack.

Along with that mist, a faint sigh also sounded directly in Flender's mind.

"Hungry..."