Chapter 854: Escaping

Ning Prefecture in the Eastern Yu Kingdom of Tiannan is an inconspicuous little prefecture adjacent to Chang Prefecture, where the Fallen Demon Valley is located.

Unlike the boundless dense mountain ranges of Chang Prefecture, this prefecture is full of yellow soil and barren slopes, with rare trees and rivers. Therefore, there are very few cultivators living in this prefecture. Only some small cultivation families occupy the few low-quality spiritual veins in this prefecture, living comfortably without anyone competing with them.

In the southwest of Ning Prefecture, there is a mountain range called Spirit Lin Mountain. It is one of the few spiritual vein places in this prefecture.

The area of this Spirit Lin Mountain is not very small, covering more than a hundred miles. However, the spiritual vein of the mountain range is only a mere ten miles or so.

Only the main peak of Spirit Lin Mountain and the two small hills nearby can barely allow cultivators to sit and practice. But in such a small place, three cultivation families, one large and two small, live here, occupying the three peaks respectively.

These three families, Huang, Li, and Wang, forced to settle in such a place with scarce spiritual energy in Ning Prefecture, are naturally some unranked small families. Even the strongest Huang family among them doesn't have any Core Formation cultivators, and there are only two Foundation Establishment cultivators. The rest of the disciples are all low-tier disciples at the Qi Condensation stage, and most of them are at the third or fourth layer. There are even thousands of family disciples without spiritual roots who have to live in the outer areas of Spirit Lin Mountain.

With the three families so close, they can live in peace without any incidents, and their usual friendship is naturally quite good. In the past hundred years, there have been many intermarriages among the three families, forming marriage alliances. The root cause is that although the spiritual veins of Spirit Lin Mountain are not very good, the three families share a strange spiritual spring on the top of the main peak.

Although this spiritual spring is not a rare Spirit Eye of the Spirit Eye Spring, it is also a spiritual object with magical effects.

After soaking spiritual tea with this spring water and some spiritual medicines, it can cleanse the marrow and change the bones of low-tier disciples below the fifth or sixth layer of Qi Condensation to a certain extent, which is of great benefit to future cultivation. This is also one of the main reasons why the three families insist on staying here despite knowing that this place is not a good place for cultivation.

However, although this spiritual spring has such strange effects, it is not available for use all year round. It only gushes out from the ground for a few fixed days each year, and the spring water is pitifully small, not enough for the three families to distribute.

As a result, after the elders of the three families discussed it many years ago, they simply sent people to seal the spiritual spring together. It is opened once every ten years.

The quantity of spring water accumulated in ten years is just enough for the three families to use once. And every ten years, it happens to be the time when the new disciples of the three families grow up, which will not cause the spiritual spring to be wasted.

This mere spiritual spring has bound the three families together, guarding and using this spiritual object together, and opening the spiritual spring once every ten years for the young disciples in the family to cleanse their marrow and change their bones.

And on this day, on the top of the main peak of Spirit Lin Mountain, a grand spiritual spring opening ceremony is being held.

In front of a pitch-black stone wall more than a hundred zhang high, dozens of disciples from the three families are lined up in several rows, all with excited faces looking at everything in front.

These disciples are no older than sixteen or seventeen, and the younger ones are only eleven or twelve.

Their cultivation bases are mostly at the third or fourth layer of Qi Condensation, and there are even many at the first or second layer.

At the front of the crowd are more than ten cultivators who are much older. They are all existences above the tenth layer of Qi Condensation. There are even three old men whose cultivation bases have already stepped into the Foundation Establishment stage. One is in the mid-stage, and two are in the early-stage.

These ten-plus "highly cultivated" cultivators are holding magic tools in their hands in front of the stone wall, chanting incantations non-stop, performing the ceremony of lifting the magic array restrictions.

On the opposite high stone wall, seven or eight restriction talismans of different colors are pasted, flashing with dim and bright spiritual light.

At this moment, led by the three old men, the chanting of the ten-plus cultivators became high-pitched and urgent, and the magic flags in the three men's hands also shone with bright white light.

A moment later, the three old men raised their hands almost simultaneously and cast a magic formula. It turned into a piece of glow and swept away.

The talismans on the stone wall trembled slightly in the glow cast by the magic formula, then drifted down one after another.

At this time, several disciples holding jade boxes who had been waiting for a long time hurriedly rushed forward, picked up these spiritual talismans one by one, carefully put them into the boxes, and immediately retreated.

This kind of restriction talisman is also a treasure for small families like them, and cannot be lost.

The stone wall without the talisman restriction emitted white misty spiritual light and trembled gently at the same time.

Instantly, including the three old men, the cultivators in front raised the magic flags in their hands at the same time, and thin light threads of different colors shot out from the tips of the flags, disappearing into the white light one after another.

The shaking of the stone wall became even more violent, and amidst a thunderous roar that shook the earth, the stone wall gradually split into two halves from the middle, revealing a semi-circular gap ten-plus zhang wide in the middle.

The young disciples of the three families behind all widened their eyes, hurriedly staring at the situation in the gap.

You know, this spiritual spring is regarded as a treasure by the three families, and ordinary family disciples might only have this one chance in their lives to see the spiritual spring with their own eyes. Naturally, none of them wanted to miss anything. In fact, almost every three-year-old child in the family could clearly describe the true appearance of this spiritual spring.

A water pool three zhang long and one zhang wide, built with pure white jade, is located deep inside the gap within ten zhang. Looking at it, only a small half-pool of clear and transparent spring water is in the jade pool. It is incredibly pure, as if it is untainted by a single speck of dust.

What makes people feel its extraordinariness even more is that a kind of indescribable fragrance is faintly emitted from these pool waters, making people feel refreshed and invigorated after smelling it.

The young disciples were in a stir, and the white-faced, beardless old man among the three old men suddenly turned around, his eyes shooting out sharp essence as he swept across the surroundings.

Instantly, all the stirring subsided.

This person was exactly the elder of the Huang family, Huang Yuanming, whose cultivation base had reached the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment. He could be considered the true number one cultivator of Spirit Lin Mountain.

Not only were the disciples of the Huang family in awe of him, but the young disciples of the Wang and Li families were also incredibly respectful to him.

"Hehe! Brother Huang's prestige is still the most effective. It can make these little guys listen honestly." Another gray-robed old man saw this scene, narrowed his eyes, and said with a smile.

"That's for sure. Brother Huang's cultivation base should have reached the end of the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment now, right? Maybe he can go a step further and enter the late-stage of Foundation Establishment?" Another green-robed old man also said with envy.

"The two virtuous brothers are joking. This old man is already at this age. Where is there still a chance to go a step further? Such an opportunity should be left for the juniors to do. Let's quickly brew the spiritual tea and let these little guys take it. This time, there seems to be more spring water in the pool than in previous years, which is a good thing." Huang Yuanming laughed and said modestly.

The other two old men were naturally the Foundation Establishment elders of the other two families.

These two families were even worse than the Huang family, and could only barely cultivate one Foundation Establishment cultivator to support the family. Huang Yuanming and these two had also been close friends for many years, so they didn't take the previous words to heart at all.

The other two old men also smiled faintly, didn't mention this matter again, and began to order the secret-transmitting disciples of their respective families who were brewing spiritual tea to come forward and start brewing immediately.

Instantly, two disciples from each family responded and flew out, heading straight for the water pool. But just as they were about to reach the side of the spiritual pool in front of everyone, a shocking accident suddenly occurred.

I saw that three or four zhang above the water pool, a low thunder sound suddenly rang out, and after the five-colored glow flashed a few times, a pitch-black light ball emerged out of thin air in an instant.

Then this pitch-black, lusterless ball made a strange "Zhi-la" sound, twisted and deformed, and actually turned into a zhang-long space rift.

Then with a "Plop," amidst the dumbfounded crowd of cultivators, a figure was thrown out by a piece of five-colored glow, falling exactly into the jade pool below.

Then this space rift flashed a few times and vanished without a trace.

After this figure fell into the water pool, a light "Eh" sound came from his mouth, and his figure swayed and stood up. After glancing at the crowd of cultivators in front of the water pool, a look of extreme strangeness appeared on his face.

Huang Yuanming and the other cultivators were already too shocked to speak a word.

The figure was a young man in a cyan Confucian robe. Seeing that there were so many cultivators present where he fell, he felt slightly surprised, and a trace of embarrassment flashed across his face, but then his expression returned to normal.

Cyan light flashed on his body, and the Confucian robe in the water pool instantly evaporated its moisture and became incredibly dry.

"What place is this? Is it still Eastern Yu Kingdom?" The young man raised his foot casually, floated out of the water pool, and then his gaze shifted, easily finding Huang Yuanming, who had the deepest cultivation among the cultivators present, and asked indifferently. His tone was full of unquestionable authority.

"This is Ning Prefecture of Eastern Yu Kingdom? I don't know the Senior's name, can you enlighten me?" Huang Yuanming had long used his spiritual sense to scan the young man's cultivation base, and as a result, his heart was shocked, unable to see the slightest depth of the other party. This meant that the other party was at least a Core Formation cultivator. And the situation of his appearance was incredibly eerie, so he naturally didn't dare to be the slightest bit negligent, bowed deeply, and replied carefully.

The other two old men also sensed the unfathomable cultivation base of Han Li, and were terrified in their hearts, bowing deeply and accompanying him with smiles.

"Ning Prefecture..." The young man blinked, his expression unchanged, but he repeated it in his mouth, a look of contemplation appearing on his face.

This person was naturally Han Li, who had just escaped from the Spirit-Myriad Garden remnant. At this time, twenty-seven years had passed since the Fallen Demon Valley battle.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 855 =====