Qin Mu ran over and crouched beside Blind Man.
Blind Man turned his head slightly, the black ribbon fluttering in the wind.
"Basking in the sun to nourish my spirit."
Blind Man replied hoarsely, then lightly tapped the ground with his bamboo staff.
"Mu'er, how has your practice been these past few days with the Divine Treasury opening method Village Chief taught you?"
Hearing this, Qin Mu quickly sat up straight like a good student reporting his homework.
"I remembered it all. Village Chief said the first step of cultivation is the Spirit Embryo Divine Treasury."
"He said I had to sense the deity that belonged to me deep within my brow, then nourish it with vital energy until the Spirit Fetus broke through its shell."
Standing nearby, Hu Liena immediately pricked up her ears, scarcely daring to breathe.
She knew the most crucial information about this cultivation system was coming.
The people of Douluo Continent outside the Sky Screen also held their breaths, wishing they could carve every word Qin Mu said next into their minds.
"Mm, not bad." Blind Man nodded.
"What comes after the Spirit Fetus?"
Qin Mu counted on his fingers and recited fluently.
"After the Spirit Fetus comes the Five Luminaries Divine Treasury."
"Village Chief said the Five Luminaries are the five elemental forces within our bodies: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. You have to light five stars within your body, letting these five forces endlessly circulate."
"As long as you open the Five Luminaries Divine Treasury, your body will become indestructible and immensely powerful."
Qin Mu recited earnestly, while Hu Liena listened with her heart pounding.
Light five stars inside the body? Become indestructible?
It sounded like something straight out of a myth.
"After the Five Luminaries comes the Six Harmonies Divine Treasury."
Qin Mu continued, his voice crisp and loud.
"The Six Harmonies represent above, below, east, south, west, and north. Once you open the Six Harmonies, you can communicate with heaven and earth, connecting your body with the surrounding space."
"By then, you can fly through the air and kill people from afar!"
Hearing this, Hu Liena felt her breathing stop.
Fly through the air?
On Douluo Continent, only Soul Sages above level seventy, or Soul Masters with flying-type Martial Souls, could remain airborne for a short time.
Yet in this world, one could grasp such heaven-defying power at merely the third major realm.
"What comes after that?" Hu Liena could not help asking.
Qin Mu scratched the back of his head and looked uncertainly at Blind Man.
"After that... I think it's the Seven Stars Divine Treasury."
"Village Chief said the Seven Stars are the seven stars of the Big Dipper in the sky. You have to open seven enormous stellar vortices inside your body and absorb the power of starlight from above the nine heavens."
"As long as you open the Seven Stars, you can master ever-changing divine abilities. One person can beat tens of thousands of giant bugs!"
Blind Man smiled faintly without speaking, tacitly approving Qin Mu's words.
The more Qin Mu recited, the more excited he became. He stood up and gestured in the air with his little hands.
"There's more after the Seven Stars. It's the Heavenly Human Divine Treasury!"
"Village Chief said that at this stage, heaven and man resonate with each other. Heaven is me, and I am heaven. You can borrow the power of the entire world to fight!"
"After Heavenly Human comes the Life and Death Divine Treasury. Break through life and death, and you can live for a very, very long time."
"The final one, and the most powerful one..."
Qin Mu took a deep breath, his little face filled with longing.
"It's called the Divine Bridge Divine Treasury!"
"Build a golden bridge that reaches the heavens inside your body. As long as you walk up the golden bridge, you can become an immortal directly!"
Upon hearing this, the entirety of Douluo Continent fell silent.
From the palaces of Heaven Dou Imperial City to the streets and alleys of Spirit City, and even the remote villages.
Everyone stood with mouths agape, staring blankly at the Sky Screen overhead.
Qin Mu's childish voice was like peals of thunder, striking their minds one after another.
Spirit Fetus, Five Luminaries, Six Harmonies, Seven Stars, Heavenly Human, Life and Death, Divine Bridge!
Seven whole realms!
The description of every realm far exceeded the limits of their understanding of power.
On the training grounds of Shrek Academy.
Yu Xiaogang's quill had long since fallen somewhere. His knees gave out, and he dropped directly onto the grass, clutching that little notebook with 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 nearly fell from his eyes.
"Our Soul Master system on Douluo Continent seems to have ten major stages, from Soul Scholar to Titled Douluo."
"But in truth, the destructive power displayed by their very first realm, the Spirit Fetus, already rivals our Titled Douluos!"
"Then the Five Luminaries, Six Harmonies, Seven Stars that come after..."
Yu Xiaogang did not dare think any further.
Tang San stood beside him, his face graver than ever.
He had always believed that with the Tang Sect techniques from his past life and his Twin Martial Souls, he would become a god sooner or later as long as he cultivated steadily.
But after hearing of this "Divine Treasury system," he finally realized that the trump cards he had been so proud of seemed somewhat pathetic.
"The Divine Bridge Divine Treasury... build a golden bridge and become a god..."
Bibi Dong sat upon the Pope's throne, her expression darkening.
To inherit the Rakshasa God's divine position, she had paid prices unimaginable to ordinary people and endured in dark corners for so many years.
Yet the cultivation system of the Great Ruins allowed everyone to become gods, as long as they opened their Divine Treasuries step by step and cultivated to the final stage!
The gap was enough to drive one to despair, yet it also made people want to fight madly for it.
"That village, that Crippled Old Village!"
Bibi Dong suddenly rose to her feet, slamming her scepter heavily against the ground.
"As long as we can enter that village and obtain this Divine Treasury opening method, Spirit Hall can rule every plane of existence!"
At this moment, every expert across the continent was deeply shaken by the seven Divine Treasuries.
Within the Sky Screen.
After reciting the realms, Qin Mu felt parched and ran to the water vat to scoop up a ladle of water and drink.
Hu Liena sat on a rock, her mind in complete chaos, filled with the names of the Divine Treasuries she had just heard.
The sun slowly sank toward the west, stretching the village shadows long.
Daytime in the Great Ruins was always so brief that it felt unreal.
"It's getting dark."
Blind Man put away his bamboo staff, rose from the large rock, and slowly headed toward his thatched cottage.
At the instant the final ray of sunlight vanished beyond the horizon.
The four stone statues at the village entrance lit up once more with a hum, glowing with faint golden light.
The thick, ink-black darkness outside swept in like a tidal wave, blotting out the sky and covering the earth.
Familiar deep roars, accompanied by the sounds of bones breaking, rang out through the night once more.
As Hu Liena watched the terrifying darkness beyond the barrier, the fear in her heart was unexpectedly reduced.
Because she knew that if she endured the night, she could learn even more terrifying things that would overturn her understanding of the world in this village tomorrow.
Just as everyone believed the Sky Screen broadcast would end for the day and prepared to digest the overwhelming amount of information they had received.
The Sky Screen overhead suddenly flashed.
After a burst of white light, the scene that had belonged to Crippled Old Village vanished instantly.
In its place appeared endless, majestic ruins.
Towering broken walls and crumbling structures that reached into the clouds radiated an ancient, weathered aura.
At the very center of the ruins, an enormous temple, though damaged, still radiating faint Buddhist light, slowly came into view before the people of Douluo Continent.
On the temple's plaque, three large characters could vaguely be made out: Great Thunderclap Temple!
A line of words appeared below the image.
[Second explorer: Flender, headmaster of Shrek Academy, Heaven Dou Empire.] [Location: Great Ruins, Great Thunderclap Temple ruins.]
Viewers across the continent froze again at the sight.
Headmaster Flender?
He had actually been transported to a place that looked like an ancient divine relic?
When Flender's name appeared on the Sky Screen.
A burst of commotion immediately erupted across the training grounds of Shrek Academy.
"Headmaster! It's Headmaster Flender!"
Ma Hongjun rubbed his tiny eyes and pointed at the Sky Screen overhead as he shouted.
"Damn, Headmaster's luck is insane! He actually got transported into a temple!"
Zhao Wuji beside him also slapped his thigh and let out a long breath.
"That old miser Flender pinches every penny in daily life, but his luck is pretty damn tough when it matters."
"This place may be a wreck, but at least it's glowing gold everywhere. It's much better than Hu Liena's black forest, where she ran into monsters the moment she arrived."
Yu Xiaogang tightly gripped his little notebook, pushed up the glasses on his nose, and showed a confident expression.
"Flender possesses a flying beast Martial Soul, and he has already reached level seventy-eight, a Soul Sage."
"Combined with the survival rule Qin Mu just mentioned, as long as Flender does not wander around and stays near those glowing Buddhist statues, he will definitely make it through the night."
Everyone nodded one after another, and the heavy stone in their hearts finally dropped.
Meanwhile.
Great Ruins, Great Thunderclap Temple ruins.
A breeze swept past, lifting several withered yellow leaves from the ground.
Within a pile of rubble, a heavy bluestone slab was suddenly shoved aside.
Immediately afterward, a middle-aged man in a shabby long robe and black-rimmed crystal glasses crawled out, covered in dust and dirt.
This man was Flender, who had just been transported there.
"Pah, pah, pah!"
Flender spat out the dirt in his mouth, dusting himself off as he adjusted the glasses on his nose.
He raised his head and surveyed the surroundings.
Huge.
That was Flender's first thought.
The ruins before him were simply enormous.
Every bluestone step beneath his feet was more than half a person tall.
The broken stone pillars in the distance were each as thick as a small hill.
Looking up along the steps, he saw a ruined temple with most of its roof collapsed, quietly standing at the highest point of the ruins.
A plaque hung crookedly above the temple gate. The lettering was blurry, but he could barely make out the words "Great Thunderclap."
"This place looks pretty old."
Flender stroked the stubble on his chin, his eyes rolling around.
He looked up at the sky.
At that moment, the sun of the Great Ruins was nearly setting, and the horizon was dyed a brilliant red.
A cold gust swept past, making Flender shiver.
Before being transported here, he had clearly seen the scenes on the Sky Screen.
He knew that night in the Great Ruins devoured people, and he also knew the method Qin Mu had mentioned for staying alive.
"Find glowing stone statues..."
Flender muttered as his gaze swept across the ruins.
Soon, his eyes fixed on the ruined temple ahead.
Though half the main gate had collapsed, he could clearly see a faint golden glow radiating from within the temple.
"Heh, heaven never seals off every path!"
Flender's heart leaped with joy. He pushed off with his feet, leaping like a nimble swallow as he rushed up the massive bluestone steps toward the ruined temple.
The moment he stepped through the temple gate, Flender froze.
The inside of the temple was even absurdly spacious, with the floor entirely paved in some kind of jade whose material he could not identify.
Although broken stones and cobwebs were everywhere, more than a dozen enormous Buddhist statues still sat in the center of the main hall.
Many of those statues had lost arms or heads.
But their surfaces were all coated in a thick layer of gold paint, radiating soft golden Buddhist light that illuminated the entire hall.
At the sight, the little fear in Flender's heart was instantly thrown beyond the clouds.
The tiny eyes behind his crystal glasses now gleamed with greedy green light.
"Th-this is all gold!"
Flender swallowed, feeling his heartbeat quicken.
He hurried over to a Buddhist statue with half an arm broken off and reached out to touch it.
It felt icy cold and hard.
Most importantly, even after countless years, the gold paint on them still gleamed brilliantly. At a glance, they were priceless treasures.
Flender had been stingy his entire life, meticulously budgeting every day for Shrek Academy's funds.
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 and circled the statues, the wrinkles on his face blooming into a grin.
"If we can bring back some gold leaf, scrape off a pound or two, our academy's shabby thatched huts can be rebuilt into the grandest teaching building in Heaven Dou City!"
"Then I absolutely have to build a huge fountain in the courtyard!"
At that thought, Flender no longer cared that this was a place of Buddhist serenity.
He directly pulled a sharp dagger from his Soul Tool.
He picked out a slightly raised patch of gold leaf on a statue's base and raised his dagger, ready to scrape it off.
By then, it was completely dark outside.
Boundless darkness poured in through the temple doors, only to be held back three meters away by the golden light radiating from the statues.
The main hall was silent, filled only with Flender's heavy breathing.
"Clang."
The tip of the dagger had just touched the statue's base when it let out a faint, crisp ring.
At that exact moment, the sound rang out.
Flender's movements abruptly froze.
The hand gripping the dagger hung in midair as every hair on his body stood on end.
Because he clearly heard an extremely muffled sound coming from inside the lotus pedestal beneath the statue.
It sounded like something heavy blowing a bubble underwater.
"Gurgle..."
Then, the sound of chains scraping against stone slowly rose from beneath the main hall.
"Clatter, clatter..."
Flender swallowed and slowly lowered his head to look at the statue's massive base.
The once-intact gold leaf on the base suddenly split open with a crack.
A wisp of blackish-red mist slowly seeped out through that fissure.
Along with the mist, a faint sigh sounded directly in Flender's mind.
"Hungry..."
Before you continue