Chapter 263: 263. Chapter 260: Starry Sky Spirit Vein Hall

263. Chapter 260: Star Spirit Vein Hall

"Right. So far no one has ever left the Opening Heavens Battlefield. Whether we can get out is still unknown."

Mo Zheng sighed.

Hu Wuxin suddenly said:

"Is it possible that some people actually can get out, but because they obtained something good, the result was…"

Hu Wuxin didn't need to finish his sentence; Ding Huan and Mo Zheng both understood what he wanted to say.

Actually, Ding Huan had long had the same guess. With so many people entering the Opening Heavens Battlefield, there had to be one or two lucky ones.

But the fact that not a single person could leave was strange.

"What's this?" Mo Zheng suddenly picked up a jet-black stone.

"Battle Soul Crystal? A ninth-grade material." Hu Wuxin said in shock.

Ding Huan also said: "It really is a Battle Soul Crystal. It's a top-grade auxiliary material added when refining treasure artifacts."

Whether in merchant halls or auction houses, Battle Soul Crystals were extremely Gao Ang in price.

They were formed by absorbing the world's primordial energy and the aura of slaughter, being eroded by countless souls, and accumulating over endless years.

Hu Wuxin sighed:

"Setting everything else aside, just this one Battle Soul Crystal—if a low-level cultivator obtained it and those scoundrels found out, they'd surely start scheming."

"No matter what, once we're in here, we're bound to gain something." Mo Zheng pocketed the Battle Soul Crystal, his mood greatly improved.

Ding Huan took out a few talismans and handed them to the two:

"These are emergency teleportation talismans and defensive talismans. From now on we'll each search for things separately. But stay in contact at all times—if anything happens, use the teleportation talisman to escape."

"These are sixth-grade talismans?" Hu Wuxin took the talismans and said in shock.

Not to mention the Dao Cultivation World—no one could possibly refine sixth-grade talismans.

Even in the Ascension World, sixth-grade talismans were top-tier existences.

The number of people who could refine sixth-grade talismans could be counted on one hand, and even if they could, they couldn't produce this many at once.

Ding Huan cultivated the Grand Cosmos Art. When refining talismans, he operated the Grand Cosmos Art and unconsciously blended his vaguely sensed cosmic rules into the talismans.

Therefore, his talisman-making speed and quality far surpassed those of ordinary talisman masters.

"Correct, these are sixth-grade talismans. This place is fraught with danger. After we split up, if there's some special reason to enter a certain place or go far away, leave a message for everyone."

"Good, I agree with Ding Huan's suggestion. Let's exchange communication beads." Mo Zheng said immediately.

Hu Wuxin also expressed his agreement. They had come to the Opening Heavens Battlefield mainly for treasures.

Three people together was indeed a bit safer, but then it would defeat the purpose of coming here.

Soon the three exchanged communication beads, and Ding Huan chose a direction and swiftly headed off.

Hu Wuxin and Mo Zheng each chose a direction as well. Whether or not they could eventually leave, since they had come to the Opening Heavens Battlefield, they couldn't return empty-handed.

Ding Huan's choice of direction was purposeful. He cultivated the Grand Cosmos Art, had been cultivating at the entrance of the cosmic vortex, and later had been cultivating on the star spirit vein.

Therefore, he was very sensitive to star spirit veins.

He sensed some aura of star spirit veins here, so the place he was heading to now was the direction with a faint star spirit vein aura.

Although Ding Huan could have gone faster, considering this was the Opening Heavens Battlefield, he still deliberately slowed his pace somewhat.

Along the way he encountered some dangers—mostly soul soldiers, along with some yin fog and poisonous miasma.

But these posed no threat to Ding Huan, indicating that where he was should be the outer perimeter of the Opening Heavens Battlefield, a relatively safe zone.

Three days later, Ding Huan stopped.

He had clearly been drawn here by the aura of star spirit source energy, but upon arriving, he discovered there was only a lone Shanfeng.

The Shanfeng emanated waves of extreme yin-cold aura, as if countless vengeful souls were swirling around it.

With his divine sense, he could directly cover this Shanfeng.

There were some corpses on the peak top; from the look of them, they hadn't been dead for long.

Ding Huan frowned slightly. Something was off. The Shanfeng before him couldn't possibly have the aura of a star spirit vein.

This Shanfeng had no star spirit vein, and this chilling, bone-piercing aura was clearly abnormal. Ding Huan swiftly arrived at the peak top.

The storage treasures on the corpses were all gone, which struck Ding Huan as odd.

The fact that the storage treasures could be taken meant these people had been killed.

There was also another possibility: the storage rings on the corpses had been teleported away by the teleportation array patterns on the Ascension Cards.

While Ding Huan was still wondering what had caused these people's deaths, a powerful binding aura locked onto him.

Ding Huan merely circulated his true essence once, and the binding aura was shattered by him.

Immediately after, he saw squads of soul soldiers marching in neat formations sweeping toward him.

Ding Huan's divine sense swept over these soul soldiers—each one had an aura equivalent to late Foundation Establishment or the True Pill realm.

About the same as the soul soldiers they'd encountered when first entering the Opening Heavens Battlefield. These soul soldiers posed no threat to him.

But for Foundation Establishment or True Pill realm cultivators, they would be lethal.

Ding Huan's divine sense swept, and rows of wind blades pounced on these soul soldiers. In just a short while, the soul soldiers scattered completely.

Then Ding Huan grabbed formation flags and tossed them down one by one. Soon Ding Huan reached down and grabbed a spirit vein several tens of zhang long and pulled it up.

Once the spirit vein came out, the yin-cold aura grew even thicker.

Ding Huan sighed. He knew about yin veins and had heard of them plenty, but this was the first time he'd actually seen one.

This was still a top-grade yin vein. If given to ghost cultivators or soul cultivators, the value of this yin vein would be incalculable.

Ding Huan cast several prohibitions to seal this yin vein, then tossed it into his ring.

Fortunately, what he had obtained was Lu Yuan's small world. A yin vein of several tens of zhang, though large, could still fit inside.

After the yin vein was taken by Ding Huan, the yin-cold aura of this Shanfeng instantly dissipated. The wailing sounds of the Shanfeng rang out everywhere, then slowly faded away.

Ding Huan descended from Shanfeng, closed his eyes, and sensed again.

Correct—the aura of the Starry Qi Vein was still detectable, and it was right nearby.

Ding Huan meticulously scanned the area with his divine sense, even setting up one array after another, yet still could not locate the Starry Qi Vein.

Looking at the surrounding void, Ding Huan began to suspect whether the Starry Qi Vein was hidden within a void array.

He still could not carve void array markings; after studying arrays for so long, he knew void array markings existed here.

Void arrays could be formed by carving markings invisible to both divine sense and the naked eye—such arrays were terrifyingly powerful.

When he came from the Dao Cultivation Realm to the Ascension Realm, a ripple had blocked him.

That blocking array had been formed by void array markings, though traces of those markings still remained.

Perhaps the void array markings had interwoven with natural array flags, creating such traces.

A true void array, fully formed, should leave no trace whatsoever.

Ding Huan continuously scattered array flags.

A day later, he was disappointed—he didn't know if it was due to his insufficient array knowledge, but he had not touched any space sealed by void array markings.

It seemed the Starry Qi Vein did not belong to him.

Ding Huan was helpless; as he prepared to leave, he suddenly noticed something odd beside him.

When he looked again, it seemed to have returned to normal.

This was certainly not his imagination.

At that moment, Ding Huan remembered he had fused the Great Wilderness Eye.

Though his Great Wilderness Eye had not yet matured, it could already reveal subtle signs of illusions.

Ding Huan activated the Great Cosmos Art, opened his eyes, and carefully scanned his surroundings.

This time, he indeed saw something different: the once-empty spaces now revealed one after another orderly steps.

Ding Huan excitedly stepped forward—and instantly felt all the scenery around him change.

He stood on a downward-facing step; behind him was a stone wall.

Ding Huan was certain that if someone had been with him just now, they would have seen him vanish abruptly.

Thick Starry Qi surged toward him; Ding Huan gazed down at what lay below the steps.

It was a hall at least a hundred zhang long; in its center rested two Starry Qi Veins.

Judging by their quality, they were better than the mid-grade Starry Qi Vein he had previously obtained.

Ding Huan was certain these were also mid-grade Starry Qi Veins—just of higher quality.

Besides the two Starry Qi Veins, there was a pile of Qi stones scattered around.

In the center of the Starry Qi Veins sat a meditation cushion.

No one was on the cushion.

Looking around the hall, it was utterly empty.

It seemed this had been someone's seclusion chamber, though the cultivator had long since vanished.

Ding Huan walked over and tossed the cushion aside.

The cushion was of high rank, but Ding Huan was uncomfortable cultivating on someone else's cushion.

Ding Huan decided to try here—whether cultivating beneath two Starry Qi Veins would be far more effective than beneath one.

Standing between the two Starry Qi Veins, he activated the Great Cosmos Art—and instantly felt two streams of Starry Qi drawn to him, forming a Starry Qi Source closed loop.

Within a single Zhou Tian, Ding Huan felt his cultivation surge upward.

Even more astonishing to Ding Huan was that as he cultivated, the hall itself began to change, transforming into a vast starry sky.

Ding Huan sucked in a sharp breath—this was an enormous feat.

He halted his cultivation, stunned as he stared at the hall.

How had this been arranged? This hall's setup must exceed a Level Nine array.

And cultivating beneath two Starry Qi Veins to form a Qi Source closed loop was more than several times faster than beneath one.

This technique must be learned—it must be a form of grand array control.

He absolutely could not miss this place.

Ding Huan calmed himself, activated the Great Cosmos Art once more, and resumed cultivation.