OBS Chapter 2121 Digging 3 Feet Deep
Chapter 2121 Digging 3 Feet Deep
Chapter 2121 Digging Three Feet Deep
Gu Yanzhen frowned slightly as he felt the faint repulsion and attraction between the demonic energy within his body and the compass.
This compass was originally designed for cultivators practicing orthodox techniques, and its ability to detect living beings is primarily aimed at such auras. However, the Nine Nether Soul Devouring True Demon Art he cultivates is deeply demonic and filled with overwhelming malevolence, which clashes significantly with the compass's righteous attributes.
Forcibly activating this treasure will certainly grant extremely strong detection capabilities, but the drawbacks are also obvious.
In order to keep the compass running and resonate with some deep-seated energy within the ruins, he had to divert a portion of his pure demonic essence to continuously infuse the treasure. This caused the surging demonic energy around him to be unable to be perfectly contained within his body as usual, and a portion of it would always leak out uncontrollably.
Intertwined with the faint but pure probing fluctuations emanating from the compass, they formed a unique energy storm.
This would undoubtedly increase his risk of exposure, or alert his prey in advance. Gu Yanzhen suspected that the disappearance of the two Tai Cang Realm cultivators was because they sensed his presence beforehand.
"But so what if they notice?" Gu Yanzhen's lips curled into a cruel smile. The uncontrollable demonic energy emanating from his body seemed to sense its master's emotions, churning even more violently, faintly forming a distorted dark phantom behind him.
Gu Yanzhen, with a late-stage Tai Cang Realm cultivation, possessed profound demonic arts and several incredibly powerful demonic treasures.
With this compass in hand, he could spot those peak Tai Cang Realm cultivators in advance and quickly avoid them. As for those in the late Tai Cang Realm, Gu Yanzhen was confident he had no fear whatsoever.
As for those whose cultivation was inferior to his, whether they were in the mid-stage or early-stage of the Tai Cang Realm, in his eyes they were no different from lambs to the slaughter. Even if they sensed it in advance, how far could they escape?
Faced with an absolute disparity in strength, any struggle seems laughable.
Gu Yanzhen's deep gaze swept over the surroundings again, his divine sense like invisible tentacles, meticulously caressing every inch of land, every piece of gravel, and even the slightest flow of primordial energy in the air.
He looked down at the compass, and the trembling of the pointer clearly indicated that the two people were in this area, but they had disappeared.
It wasn't death, because the compass has a different mechanism for sensing the annihilation of life, and the pointer would behave differently. It was simply the erasure of its existence from this space.
"Traversing a million miles in the blink of an eye?"
Gu Yanzhen's eyes flickered slightly. In the complex spatial structure of the ancient Heavenly Court ruins, it was almost impossible to teleport such a distance instantly, and it would inevitably cause violent spatial fluctuations, leaving traces that would linger for a long time.
Here, apart from faint traces of battle and the deathly aura of vengeful demons, the space was stable, showing no signs of large-scale relocation. It was absolutely impossible for two juniors at the mid-stage of the Tai Cang Realm to have accomplished this.
Gu Yanzhen's eyes flashed slightly with a crimson light. "They used some kind of rare treasure to not only deceive my senses, but also temporarily fool this ancient compass that is used for investigation."
This conjecture quickly transformed Gu Yanzhen's initial displeasure into intense interest and a chilling greed.
Treasures that can deceive his late-stage Tai Cang Realm divine sense are rare, but some top sect disciples may possess them.
But something that can temporarily interfere with and block even the ancient celestial treasure, the Qian Yuan Ding Zong Si Nan, is definitely extraordinary. It must be either a hidden treasure of extremely high quality or a special object deeply connected to the ruins themselves.
"Interesting, really interesting."
Gu Yanzhen chuckled, his voice hoarse, carrying a hint of mockery and cruelty, "I'd like to see how long you can hide this, and what kind of treasures you can come up with."
Gu Yanzhen no longer relies solely on visual observation and mental scanning. At his level, he is well aware of many sophisticated concealment techniques that are difficult to detect using conventional methods.
He slowly raised his hands, forming a strange and complex hand seal in front of his chest. The moment the hand seal was completed, the demonic energy emanating from his body seemed to be drawn inward, rapidly converging and condensing, finally transforming into a point of profound, pitch-black demonic light at his fingertips, seemingly capable of devouring all light.
The Nine Netherworlds demand souls, and all things manifest!
Gu Yanzhen uttered low, obscure syllables, each word seemingly carrying a strange magic that caused the surrounding thin demonic energy to tremble slightly. His right hand, which was forming a hand seal, gently pressed down on the dark demonic light on the ground below, which was condensed with pure demonic essence and divine soul power.
"puff!"
With a soft sound, the demonic light silently disappeared into the ground without any earth-shattering noise. But immediately afterward, from the point where the demonic light landed, concentric circles of pitch-black ripples, somewhere between reality and illusion, spread rapidly in all directions, like pebbles thrown into a calm lake.
This ripple was not an ordinary energy fluctuation. It did not destroy any matter where it passed, but it seemed to be able to penetrate rocks, soil and even space itself, capturing and reflecting all the traces and auras that had existed here not long ago.
This is an extremely strange tracking technique from Gu Yanzhen's cultivation of the Nine Nether Soul Devouring True Demon Art, the Nine Nether Soul Chasing Seal.
This seal does not emphasize killing; it excels at capturing the lingering soul essence, life imprints, and even traces left by intense emotional fluctuations of living beings, and briefly manifesting them.
The higher one's cultivation level, the wider the range of this technique, the clearer its manifestation, and the longer its residual time. With Gu Yanzhen's cultivation level at the late stage of the Tai Cang Realm, it was enough to trace back to events that occurred within a radius of hundreds of miles several hours ago.
The pitch-black ripples spread silently, quickly covering an area of nearly a hundred miles in radius.
Gu Yanzhen's scarlet eyes were fixed on the void swept by the ripples. Under the gaze of his demonic spiritual eyes, as the ripples spread, some extremely faint shadows began to slowly emerge and condense within them.
The first thing to appear was a tall, dark shadow emanating a thick aura of resentment and deathly demonic energy. The shadow was violent, with claw-like hands, as if it were roaring to the sky.
Immediately afterward, near the shadow of the vengeful demon, two more relatively clear shadows emerged from the ripples.
Gu Yanzhen's crimson gaze was fixed on the three shadows that appeared in the ripples.
The pitch-black humanoid shadow representing the vengeful demon maintained its fighting and roaring posture in the ripples for only a moment before its outline began to flicker and distort violently, then quickly became thin and dim.
In just a few breaths, the shadow vanished completely like a bubble, disappearing into the rippling black waves without leaving a trace.
"When the body dies, the Dao vanishes, and the soul is scattered."
Gu Yanzhen understood; this was entirely in line with his judgment. With the vengeful demon slain, its remaining traces of existence naturally wouldn't last long.
His gaze then turned to two other figures, two figures shimmering with a faint light, who had quickly cleared the battlefield after the battle and finally stood side by side.
However, just as Gu Yanzhen was concentrating on trying to deduce the whereabouts of the two people from the details of the changing shadows, without warning, as if they had been wiped off the canvas in an instant, the two shadows disappeared abruptly at the same time.
Within the black ripples of the Nine Nether Soul-Chasing Seal, those two locations instantly became empty, leaving only the black ripples of the ripples themselves.
"Hmm?" Gu Yanzhen's pupils suddenly contracted, and the scarlet light intensified. With his knowledge and understanding of this technique, he instantly understood what this strange phenomenon meant.
The two cultivators had entered a special area that could completely isolate and even erase all traces of their own aura.
Even a tracking technique like the Nine Nether Soul-Chasing Seal, which directly targets the origin of the soul, cannot trace any traces they left after entering this area.
"It really is hidden nearby!"
Gu Yanzhen's facial muscles twitched slightly, and in his narrowed eyes, the scarlet light was like a tangible blade, revealing a cold excitement.
He had initially guessed that the other party had used a secret treasure or special means to conceal themselves, but the feedback from the Nine Nether Soul-Chasing Seal pointed in another direction.
Behind the illusionary barrier, in the empty and desolate hall.
Time seemed to stand still, with only dust slowly rising and falling in the extremely dim light. Chen Fei and Cao Feiyu were like two stone sculptures, their auras completely concealed, as if they had merged with the environment of the hall.
Outside, the terrifying magical pressure, though separated by a barrier, still loomed over the two of them like a tangible shadow.
Chen Fei stared at the distant barrier, his brows furrowed, before his mind sank back into the control panel.
Instead of checking the still-forming spiritual material, he opened the newly acquired map encyclopedia.
The chaotic background, the scattered markers, and the silver dots representing their current positions are once again clearly presented.
This time, Chen Fei observed even more carefully, his gaze fixed on the silver dot representing this location. Soon, he made a new discovery.
"Huh?" Chen Fei's heart stirred slightly.
Previously, he had focused more on the nearby inverted tower marker, but now Chen Fei discovered that the location of the silver dot representing this temple was not an isolated point in the complex and intertwined energy network on the map.
Several extremely fine dotted lines extend from the silver dot, and there is a very subtle spatial connection between them and several other marked areas in the surrounding area.
"Besides searching normally from the outside, could there be other ways to connect to this hall?" A thought arose in Chen Fei's mind.
Once the idea took hold, it couldn't be suppressed. Rather than passively waiting for the barrier to break, it's better to actively seek out possible solutions, even if there's only a glimmer of hope.
With that thought in mind, Chen Fei stopped staying where he was.
He glanced at Cao Feiyu, then silently moved his feet and began to carefully examine the walls of the main hall inch by inch once again.
Although Cao Feiyu was confused, she trusted Chen Fei completely and did not hesitate at all. She also concealed her aura and carefully followed a few steps behind him, while keeping a vigilant eye on the barrier outside the hall in case of any emergency.
Chen Fei's investigation was more meticulous than when he was controlling the puppets.
He knew that the puppet had already searched the area once before and had not found any hidden doors. However, the puppet's search had its limitations. Perhaps some mechanisms required specific energy to activate, or perhaps some passages were hidden in spatial layers and were difficult for non-living beings to detect.
At this moment, Chen Fei was gambling on that one in a million possibility.
Chen Fei's steps were light, yet his pace was not slow. He walked along the walls of the main hall, starting from the left side of the entrance, passing the side walls, then the innermost main wall, then turning to the right wall, and finally returning to the starting point near the hall door.
Nothing was gained!
The walls were solid and thick, cold to the touch, and were made of some kind of giant stone mixed with special spiritual materials. Apart from the mottled murals, there were no unusual protrusions or depressions, or energy nodes on them.
The floor tiles were flat and the joints were tight, producing a dull echo when tapped. The dome was high and far, and although there were broken murals and cracks, the structure was intact and there were no hidden passages.
No matter how you look at it, the entire hall presents a complete and enclosed state, as if it was designed with only one entrance and exit from the very beginning.
Chen Fei frowned slightly. Had his guess been wrong? Was this main hall really just an isolated area? Was the spatial arrangement shown on the map merely an abstract marker, or did it require entering through another external path?
Chen Fei's gaze fell upon the special area depicting the image of a ferocious beast carrying a stele. It was this stele that had provided him with the map and encyclopedia. So, if there were a passage, would it still be related to it?
Chen Fei stepped forward silently and walked to the mural, stopping a few feet away from the image on the stone tablet.
He didn't touch it, but simply gazed silently at the massive stone slab that seemed almost integrated with the wall. In the dim light, the ferocious beast carrying the stone tablet looked exceptionally menacing, its image mirroring the ancient inscriptions on the tablet.
But apart from that, it sits quietly embedded in the wall, blending seamlessly with the surrounding murals, without any energy fluctuations or signs of any mechanism, just like a real decorative stone carving.
Cao Feiyu stood quietly half a step behind Chen Fei, her long sword hanging low, the tip pointing to the ground. She didn't speak, nor did she even look at the stone tablet; most of her attention remained on guard. But out of the corner of her eye, she could sense Chen Fei's focused gaze.
Cao Feiyu could sense that Chen Fei was searching for something, based on some clue or intuition she didn't know. Although she hadn't found it yet, she chose to wait silently and protect him from behind.
Inside the main hall, a heavy silence returned. Only Chen Fei's gaze, as if it were a tangible presence, swept over the ancient stone tablet again and again, his mind racing through every detail of the map, pondering possible connections.
Beyond the barrier of illusion.
Gu Yanzhen did not become agitated or enraged by the brief loss of his target's whereabouts. Instead, his face, shrouded in distorted demonic energy, revealed a cruel patience that was almost a form of enjoyment.
His scarlet eyes, like two ghostly flames, scanned the ruins beneath his feet again and again.
His divine senses, centered on him, spiraled outwards. Gu Yanzhen even closed his eyes, relying solely on his perception of energy fluctuations, spatial folds, and even the most subtle anomalies to touch the reality of this area.
The black ripples left by the Nine Nether Soul-Chasing Seal had long since dissipated, but the scene of the two figures suddenly disappearing was deeply imprinted in his mind.
“Hidden space…the hidden space of the ancient Heavenly Court…” Gu Yanzhen’s scarlet eyes seemed to pierce through the illusion of the ruins before him and see the legacy they represented.
The illusion barrier, like the most exquisite painter, separates the inside from the outside into two worlds.
Inside the barrier, Chen Fei and Cao Feiyu searched for a way to survive in the darkness and silence. Outside the barrier, Gu Yanzhen, driven by silent killing intent and burning greed, transformed into the most patient hunter.
Gu Yanzhen began to change his strategy. Previously, he used a wide range of divine sense scans to look for obvious energy anomalies or spatial fluctuations.
Now, he narrowed the range of his divine sense's probe, but increased its precision to the extreme. His divine sense no longer covered everything indiscriminately, but transformed into fine threads of thought, beginning to tap and pierce every inch of space in the area before him.
He suspected that the entrance was not a fixed gate, but rather a spatial fold or array node that required specific conditions to be triggered.
This kind of entrance may be attached to a seemingly ordinary object, or it may even be just a special energy flow trajectory.
Gu Yanzhen stood with his hands behind his back, his black robe fluttering without wind. The demonic energy around him was forcibly contained within a certain range, no longer running rampant, so as not to interfere with his extremely precise investigation.
He began to walk slowly across the ruins. His footsteps landed on the ground without making a sound, not even stirring up the dust.
Gu Yanzhen's gaze was no longer limited to the ground and ruins, but began to observe the fractured surfaces of the rocks shattered by the aftershocks of the battle, to pay attention to the vortex of energy generated by the remnants of the ruins, and even to sense the subtle differences in the refraction of light in this place.
Any discord, any deviation from the norm or any abnormality, could become a breakthrough point.
Time ticked by, second by second, as Gu Yanzhen meticulously searched with an almost obsessive intensity.
He wasn't anxious; Gu Yanzhen had no shortage of patience.
Especially when the prey and the treasure are within reach.
Inside the main hall, there was no sound.
The chilling, oppressive force from the outside world hung like a sword over Chen Fei and Cao Feiyu's heads.
Chen Fei's mind raced, connecting all the clues. His gaze refocused on the stone tablet and murals. His fingers unconsciously twitched slightly inside his sleeve, simulating a certain trajectory, when he heard Cao Feiyu's very low question beside him.
"Have you found anything?" Cao Feiyu's voice was very soft, almost like a whisper.
Chen Fei did not answer immediately. His gaze, like a carving knife, once again traced the ancient and mysterious patterns on the stone tablet.
The map, provided by the stone tablet, points to adjacent spaces, and the passages may require specific keys or paths to open. What is this key? Is it a specific energy? Some kind of mark? Or...?
A bold idea flashed through Chen Fei's mind like lightning.
Since the illustrations were provided by the stone tablet and are the result of interpreting the ancient texts, is it possible that feeding back the information from the illustrations to the stone tablet in some way the key to opening the passage?
“No clear mechanisms or array nodes were found,” Chen Fei finally spoke, his voice also very low, but with a tentative determination, “However… we can give it a try.”
Before he finished speaking, Chen Fei slowly raised his right hand, his index and middle fingers joined together, and a pure and condensed pale golden Yuan Power quietly appeared on his fingertips.
Under Cao Feiyu's slightly puzzled gaze, Chen Fei pointed his fingers like a brush and lightly touched the mural on the stone tablet in front of him.
"laugh……"
With a sound like a pen tip touching the surface of water, the pale golden Yuan energy at Chen Fei's fingertip did not attempt to penetrate the stone tablet. Instead, it fell gently onto a spot on the stone tablet's mural, like ink dripping into clear water.
That location was not the center of any stroke of the ancient Daoist script on the stone tablet, but rather the corresponding position of the silver dot on the map in Chen Fei's mind, representing the hall where they were currently located.
"Buzz!"
The stone wall touched by the Yuan energy, its rough, dusty surface suddenly rippled outwards like a lake, with concentric circles of pale golden ripples spreading out from that point.