Chapter 159: Black Metal Capable of Sealing Spiritual Power

Whoosh!

Wang Ping leapt forward repeatedly with several carp‑style jumps, then hurriedly turned his head to look back, a wary glint appearing in his eyes.

What just happened was too sudden; given his current cultivation, not to mention he couldn't be tripped, even if he really were tripped, he couldn't possibly fall flat on his face.

But that trip just now, by the time he reacted, his face had already slammed hard into the ground.

That feeling was as if all his senses had been blocked, instantly turning him into an ordinary mortal.

Wang Ping swept his divine sense over and over, carefully observing the spot where he had just fallen, but found nothing unusual.

This battlefield was too high‑level; any slight change could kill Wang Ping, so he dared not be careless, yet after a full hour had passed, he still detected no abnormality.

This time he slowly shuffled to the spot where he had just fallen, scanned it with his divine sense—no abnormality there, and his eyes saw nothing unusual either.

He slowly squatted down, and Wang Ping slowly reached out to grope the black‑red soil; this time he felt something abnormal.

His fingertip seemed to touch an extremely cold piece of metal; upon contact he seemed to dazed for a moment, and even though Wang Ping was prepared this time, he was still dazed.

The most terrifying part was that in that dazed instant, Wang Ping felt all his spiritual power and divine sense sealed, reducing him completely to an ordinary mortal.

This feeling was very brief; after regaining his senses, Wang Ping quickly withdrew his finger, but his movements became extremely stiff—clearly the earlier effect lingered.

Wang Ping took out a shovel from his storage bag and slowly dug away the surrounding soil; soon a palm‑sized block of black metal was fully exposed. He kept digging, and after fifteen minutes a rectangular block the size of a washbasin of black metal was revealed.

Is it this thing that made me lose my spiritual power for a short time and left my consciousness dazed?

Next, Wang Ping successively brought the metal into contact with metal, jade, cloth, spirit wood and over a dozen other materials, and finally discovered that whenever something containing spiritual power or possessing a spiritual aura touched it, he would be affected.

Wang Ping felt greatly astonished—what kind of metal is this? He had finished reading the entire Essence of Refining Tools, and had also thoroughly studied his master Chiyanzi's refining notes, yet he had never seen a description of such metal.

But merely from its ability to block spiritual power and briefly affect divine sense, Wang Ping keenly realized that this lump of black metal was not ordinary.

Since it's been confirmed that this metal affects objects with spiritual power, that's easy to handle.

Wang Ping deliberately picked a relatively normal patch of land, curled his right hand into a claw, gave a slight pull, and lifted a large clump of earth into the air. Then a mass of water poured down, quickly turning it into mud.

With a thought, a fireball the size of a water tank appeared, wrapping the clump of earth. Wang Ping, at the Foundation Establishment stage, then cast the fireball technique—no hand seals needed; just a thought could condense a large number of fireballs.

Soon Wang Ping fashioned a rectangular box made of fired earth.

Although it looked ugly, it didn't matter—it was just a container. The metal wasn't heavy; even though Wang Ping couldn't use spiritual power while holding it, thanks to his Second Stage Body Refinement cultivation he could still lift it. After the dazed feeling passed, he slowly placed the black metal lump into the ceramic box with both hands, sealed it completely, and the spiritual power in his dantian recovered.

Wang Ping slapped his storage bag, and the black metal lump was stored inside. He had unexpectedly obtained this strange metal; his mood was decent, but he became more cautious.

After two successive strokes of luck, it seemed Wang Ping's fortune had been exhausted; thereafter he encountered no more suitable items.

Only when he walked out of this ancient battlefield did he realize that fifteen days had passed since he entered.

On the horizon, faint green peaks appeared; as soon as he stepped onto the normal yellow ground, he was instantly enveloped by surging, pure spiritual energy.

Wang Ping turned around, looking toward the place he had come from; the black‑red land and the yellow earth were clearly divided into two sides.

Only a line apart, yet it seemed like two worlds; looking again, that place was not just an ancient battlefield, but more like a tomb.

What Wang Ping did not know was that, after he walked out of that ancient battlefield, the bluish‑green tree shadows behind him seemed to have fulfilled their mission and gradually faded, leaving the imprint of a single crystal‑clear jade‑green leaf on his back.

And within the battlefield, where Wang Ping had thought it was utterly silent, the ancient battlefield now teemed with beast silhouettes crisscrossing, phantom birds soaring across the sky; at the spot where he had absorbed the essence of five‑element spirit metal, a towering phantom giant appeared, roaring heavenward, as if silently accusing something.

All of this had nothing to do with Wang Ping; no matter how lively the ancient battlefield became inside, not a sound leaked out to the outside.

All along the way, Wang Ping noticed that the spiritual energy concentration here was nearly on par with that of the Spirit Realm; even if it fell short, the difference was slight.

With the nourishment of spiritual energy, many spiritual herbs sprang up around; at first they were merely aged medicinal herbs, later numerous herbs of graded quality appeared in succession.

Although for Wang Ping's current cultivation these first‑grade herbs were not worth his notice, recalling his earlier encounter with the black metal, he still picked a little of each and gathered some.

By the time he reached the foot of the mountain, he had already collected over a thousand different herbs.

Upon arriving here, he still couldn't fly, so Wang Ping had to trek up the mountain on foot; the peak wasn't high, and when he reached the midpoint, an isospectral stone tablet appeared on his necessary path.

Wang Ping stepped forward for a closer look; the tablet was pure white snow, bearing three large characters that were unmistakably written in Spirit Realm script: Black Crane Peak!

Beside the three large characters were thirty lines of small text, which Wang Ping scanned word by word and sentence by sentence.

Xuanhe, a member of the Black Crane clan from the Third War City of the Hundred Battle Domain in the human race of the Spirit Realm, achieved Foundation Establishment at eighteen, Golden Core at thirty, Nascent Soul at fifty, and though only a hundred years old had already entered the Spirit Transformation stage; after another thousand years he reached late Spirit Transformation. Throughout his life he endured over a thousand great and small battles of life and death, slaying more than a hundred foreign Spirit Transformation cultivators, and was ennobled by the Human Sovereign as a Heroic Lord to guard a region for humanity.

The Spirit Realm True Immortals have endured 3,920,030,000 years; the Green Emperor vanished, the demon race seized the chance to invade the lower realm, accompanying the Three Great War Kings of the Hundred Battle Domain in descending to subdue demons—yet little did they know this was actually a plot against humanity.

In that battle, two of the Three Great War Kings died and one was wounded; Xuanhe single‑handedly slew the supreme genius seeds of the Heaven Eye, Bone, and Winged Dragon clans, and ultimately died from exhaustion.

Following the Human Emperor's decree, a memorial tomb was established here to preserve his legacy; any cultivator who participated in the earlier descent to the lower realm, whether at Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, or even ten thousand years of age, may come here to seek fortune.

Wang Ping finished reading, remained silent for a long time, and for the first time gained a clear understanding of the talents of the upper realm.

He also realized that this battlefield was probably not from the ancient great war, because Liu Haodong once said the Green Emperor's disappearance occurred ten thousand years in Spirit Realm time, which would be at least several tens of thousands of years ago in the lower realm.

The timelines don't match!

Carrying his doubts, Wang Ping climbed the summit; here stood a simple memorial tomb—if a visitor meets the requirements set by the tomb's owner, he may enter to seek fortune.

But after Wang Ping had stood here for ten breaths, seeing no movement from it, he realized he did not meet the conditions of the Black Crane Heroic Lord.

Standing on the summit and gazing outward, he saw that there were still over a thousand peaks within; at the farthest edge of his vision loomed an enormous mountain, from this spot he could see only a vast black silhouette.