Chapter 206

Lin Zhangqing picked up the second jade slip and pressed it against his forehead to read; the content of this slip was not very extensive, and he finished reading it in no time.

The main content inside was a simplified map, a list of market names, and some strange and peculiar contact methods.

There were only contact methods but no contact persons, totaling twenty-five in all, which gave Lin Zhangqing the feeling that it was very much like a secret organization that could not see the light of day.

However, these were not the main point; the point was the names of the markets on the list, none of which he had ever heard of, and he immediately had a guess in his heart.

So, in order to verify this guess, Lin Zhangqing picked up the map jade slip his grandfather had given him and carefully searched and compared it.

He truly did not find the names of these twenty-five markets on his own map jade slip; there was not even a single one that was the same, and compared to that simplified map, they matched even less.

Now the only explanation was that this cultivator did not come from any power within the scope of the six Qingyun sects, and it was most likely that they were an outsider cultivator.

This aroused Lin Zhangqing's great interest; in fact, through the map jade slip his grandfather had given him, he already knew the geographical environment where the six Qingyun sects were located.

To the northeast, due east, and southeast of the six sects lay the endless, rolling Qingyun Mountain Range; this place was the territory of demon beasts, among which there was no shortage of fifth-stage demon beasts, and there were likely sixth-stage demon beasts as well.

The south and west were both surrounded by the endless Demon Beast Sea, and the north was a very vast grassland.

The fifty mu of alfalfa grass planted in Lin Zhangliu's inner space came from the northern grassland, but that place was no longer within the sphere of influence of the six Qingyun sects.

That place was ruled by another power, and bordering that power was the Heavenly Star Sword Sect.

Now Lin Zhangqing was guessing whether this cultivator came from the grassland or some other more distant region; how exactly did he come here? Afterward, he picked up the third jade slip and directly pressed it to his forehead to read; the content inside this jade slip was more extensive and answered some of Lin Zhangqing's questions.

The first part of this jade slip recorded Zhao Zihong's cultivation insights, experiences, and so on, from the Qi Refining stage to the Purple Mansion Great Perfection.

It also included some problems encountered and the methods used to solve them later, which still had some reference value for Lin Zhangqing, but this was not the main point.

The latter part was similar to an autobiography; the main content, summarized, was that the sect Zhao Zihong belonged to, the Black Soul Sect, was one of the top major sects on the Qixuan Continent.

The sect had one Deity Transformation Venerable and dozens of Nascent Soul True Lords sitting in command, and Golden Core True Persons were countless.

The territory ruled by the power was incomparably vast, but because of their cultivation method, they had always regarded the mortals under their rule as cattle and sheep, and the souls of cultivators from other sects as resources for cultivation.

The shift in the situation was because a Golden Core True Person of the Black Soul Sect had refined the great-grandson of a Deity Transformation Venerable of the Hunyuan Sect into soul liquid, which ultimately became the final straw that destroyed the Black Soul Sect.

It triggered a joint siege of the Black Soul Sect by various sects on the Qixuan Continent, ultimately leading to the destruction and removal of the Black Soul Sect, and all of the Black Soul Sect's cultivation methods were banned, with some even being destroyed on the spot.

From a top power, they became like rats crossing the street, and the disciples under their sect were hunted down by various sects; when the tree falls, the monkeys scatter, and the disciples of the Black Soul Sect fled in all directions.

Some simply changed their cultivation methods and disguised themselves, some stayed hidden and never came out, and some even found ways to escape to other continents.

As for this Zhao Zihong, he was hunted down, and later, by a stroke of luck, he entered a dangerous place to hide, where he discovered a huge formation in a secret location.

Zhao Zihong recognized that this was a long-distance teleportation array, and on a whim, without thinking much, he installed high-grade spirit stones and directly activated the teleportation to leave, intending to use this long-distance teleportation array to shake off his enemies' pursuit.

He did not expect that this teleportation would basically cost him his life, because while this huge formation was indeed a teleportation array, it was a cross-continental ultra-long-distance teleportation array, and Zhao Zihong did not have a specialized long-distance teleportation token for protection.

During the teleportation process, he suffered spatial compression damage, and the two defensive magic treasures on his body were also destroyed during this process; otherwise, he would not have been able to hold on until the teleportation ended. However, after arriving here, he was already seriously injured, and it was a rare spatial attribute injury; he consumed all the pills he had for treating internal and external injuries, but there was no improvement.

In the end, he could only leave behind a rough record with great reluctance, and not long after, his injuries completely flared up, and he passed away beside the cross-continental teleportation array.

The jade slip contained roughly this much content; as for what that piece of black wood was, there was not a single bit of record, which made Lin Zhangqing a little disappointed.

Perhaps this was also his secret, just like Lin Zhangqing's secret, which would not be recorded in any form.

In fact, after looking at the things inside this storage bracelet, Lin Zhangqing himself already had a bold guess.

That Zhao Zihong had clearly been in this place for a long time; from the fact that all the spirit medicines in the jade boxes had rotted and the spirit pills had turned into dregs, it could be inferred that he had been dead for a long time.

Theoretically, his soul should have returned to reincarnation, but that black light just now, although it did not speak, let out several screams, proving that it was the soul of a cultivator.

Therefore, the greatest possibility was that the black light was Zhao Zihong's soul, and that piece of black wood could protect Zhao Zihong's soul from being extinguished and could also penetrate Lin Zhangqing's seven-layer defense.

This proved that the black wood had the effect of nourishing and protecting the soul, and it was very likely one of the three great divine woods famous in the cultivation world: Soul-Nourishing Wood.

Looking at the color, it did match, but it looked quite thin, only a little thicker than a chopstick.

Thinking of this, Lin Zhangqing was already a bit impatient, but just in case, he still did not touch the black wood himself.

Instead, he released a Purple Crystal Scorpion from the spirit beast bracelet and let it go over to pick up the black wood first.

Then, after a while, seeing that the Purple Crystal Scorpion was still full of life, Lin Zhangqing prepared to take the black wood into his hands to study it.

Suddenly, he thought again that this thing had been worn by someone else and had been hanging on a corpse for so long; Lin Zhangqing could not help but cast the Water Ball Technique many times, and only after washing it seven or eight times did he feel it was clean.

Holding it in his hand and looking at it carefully, it was black and heavy; then he cautiously brought it to his nose and sniffed it; fortunately, there was no smell.

The length was only about two inches, slightly thicker than a chopstick, and a piece of translucent silkworm silk was tied to it.

To be honest, holding it in his hand, he did not feel anything special, so Lin Zhangqing decided to wear it around his neck to try it out.

Thinking of it, he did it; after wearing it close to his body, Lin Zhangqing found a clean place to sit down, concentrated his mind to feel it carefully, and sure enough, there was an extremely faint purple energy transmitted to his sea of consciousness, which was absorbed by his soul.

It was just that this energy was really too faint; if he had not been observing carefully on purpose, he might have really ignored it.

However, although it was extremely faint, its advantage was that it was continuous; perhaps in one or two months there would be no change, but in three or five years, it would definitely accumulate, which could be considered as moistening things silently, and his soul would unknowingly become stronger.

But what Lin Zhangqing thought of was not this; Lin Zhangqing had Earth Soul Fruit, a spirit medicine that strengthens the soul, so he did not value it that much; Lin Zhangqing had already thought of how to use this black wood.

It was to let the children just born in the family wear it to slowly nourish and strengthen their souls; in this way, if they had spirit roots and could cultivate in the future, it could be considered as taking a step ahead of others.

However, before having children, he would wear it himself first; perhaps after a long time, he could discover other secrets of this black wood.

Moreover, even now, Lin Zhangqing could not be certain that this black wood was Soul-Nourishing Wood, but it did not matter; anyway, he had already obtained the item, and there would always be a time to figure it out in the future.

(End of chapter)