Chapter 243: Oaths Within the Ruins

Zheng Fa observed the growth of those spirit plants.

Spirit plants are different from ordinary plants — he had already discovered this back at the nursing home.

For example, the Evergreen Talisman could spur ordinary plants to ripen overnight, cutting crop cultivation time down to the extreme.

But it was useless against the spirit-plant peas Zheng Fa had grown — in his conjecture, this was because they contained spiritual Qi within them, giving them a kind of "resistance" to spirit talismans.

Put more simply, the talisman's effect was being disrupted by the spiritual Qi inside them.

He guessed that some sects probably had secret arts that could speed up the ripening of certain spirit plants.

But something like this Jin Zhong, which directly made an entire herb garden's spirit plants and spirit beasts grow at flying speed — Zhang Shijie herself had never even heard of such a thing, let alone Zheng Fa.

"Time…" Zhang Shijie's eyes grew hazy. "That Tianzun is probably far more powerful than we imagined…"

A silver gleam flashed in Zheng Fa's gaze as he watched the various spirit plants in the herb garden, seemingly observing something, and did not hear Zhang Shijie's murmur.

"Junior brother, what are you looking at?"

Zhang Shijie asked curiously.

"I'm watching the increase of spiritual Qi on these spirit plants… it's very strange…"

A thought had just stirred in his mind — he thought of Spirit Wood Thunder.

More precisely, he thought of that earlier experience of summarizing a kind of Spirit Wood Thunder by observing the growth of pea sprouts.

Under the effect of Spirit Wood Thunder, that kind of pea changed from containing no spiritual Qi to containing spiritual Qi — put simply, the pea sprouts underwent a mutation dominated by Spirit Wood Thunder.

Therefore, he wanted to see whether this kind of mutation also existed within this herb garden.

He hadn't expected to actually discover one!

"Strange?" Zhang Shijie frowned, not understanding what he meant.

"Every kind of spirit plant, within one rotation of sun and moon, will simultaneously experience a surge of spiritual Qi! This surge will occur twenty-four times in one rotation!"

Zhang Shijie was stunned for a moment, then also activated her Cave Void Spirit Eye and looked toward the herb garden.

After a while, she slowly nodded.

"Indeed," Zhang Shijie confirmed. "Although the strength of spiritual Qi each spirit plant produces varies, in every rotation of sun and moon, their spiritual Qi actually does change twenty-four times at the same time?"

"Twenty-four?"

Yuan Shijie, who was nearby, suddenly said, "Weren't there exactly twenty-four divine statues in that shrine earlier? And those twenty-four chairs!"

Zheng Fa and Zhang Shijie exchanged a glance and both nodded lightly.

The number twenty-four was no ordinary number, so Yuan Shijie's association was very natural.

Only, Zhang Shijie looked at Zheng Fa's expression and suddenly asked: "You have other thoughts, don't you?"

Zheng Fa had no intention of hiding anything in front of his two senior sisters, and said: "Senior sister, do you still remember what Qianhe Sect's True Person Han said, that all spirit-farmer secret arts are related to the solar terms?"

"You mean the twenty-four solar terms?"

Zheng Fa nodded.

"Then these twenty-four are the gods who preside over the solar terms?"

"That I don't know." Zheng Fa shook his head. "It's just that I have a feeling right now…"

"Mm?"

"Spirit Wood Thunder, perhaps there are also twenty-four of them…"

"Twenty-four kinds? There's some logic to that…" Zhang Shijie frowned slightly, clearly thinking it was a bit many. "This… will keep you busy researching."

Indeed, Zheng Fa's research that produced the first Spirit Wood Thunder was somewhat a matter of chance.

If there were twenty-four of them, relying on luck, one really wouldn't know how long the research would drag on.

Zheng Fa looked at the various spirit plants growing at flying speed in the herb garden, and a thought suddenly arose in his mind:

Actually, if one were to measure the magnetic field strength during the spiritual Qi mutations in this herb garden, then twenty-four kinds, or even two hundred and forty kinds, would be very simple…

Only short of an electromagnetic laboratory!

Huh?

Zheng Fa suddenly glanced at Zhang Shijie, a thoughtful look in his eyes.

Since Zhang Shijie could serve as a talisman-arts laboratory.

Wasn't Xiao Yuying's Yuan Magnetic Body precisely a fine electromagnetic laboratory?

At the very least, measuring magnetic field strength should be a breeze.

Only, this woman was both rich and powerful, so getting her to obediently cooperate was probably not going to be easy.

Indeed, people born into too good a family are hard to trick into being workhorses…

……

When the Jin Zhong fell, spirit plants rose one by one from the herb garden and landed before Zheng Fa — precisely the various spirit plants he had selected on the jade stele earlier.

As for the other spirit plants, they did not move at all.

This Jin Zhong did not look easy to provoke, so even Yuan Shijie did not dare reach out to pluck the remaining spirit plants.

Zheng Fa gripped the silver seal before him, his heart stirred, and he suddenly understood something. He said to Zhang Shijie and the other beside him: "Shall we go look at other places?"

The two senior sisters nodded, clearly both somewhat interested.

His divine soul tapped the silver seal, and the seal summoned three gentle breezes that carried Zheng Fa forward toward the other "islands."

The first spot was closest to the herb garden.

"The shape of this plot of land…" Before they had even landed, Zhang Shijie spoke up. "It actually subtly matches that herb garden?"

Zheng Fa also examined the edges of the "island" before him carefully, then briefly recalled the shape of the herb garden from earlier, and could not help but nod.

Some ten or so courtyards stood before them.

There seemed to be some scent in the air, and Zhang Shijie's expression changed, as if about to speak.

A flash of splendor shot from the silver seal, sweeping across the three of them, and the scent immediately dissipated.

"Shijie Zhang?"

"This place must be the alchemy workshop of the Tiangong." Shijie Zhang frowned and said, "The scent just now must have come from medicinal herbs or pills that have been stored too long and turned toxic. Without this silver seal, we had best leave immediately." The three of them walked into a courtyard. This courtyard had only one entrance. In the main hall stood an alchemy cauldron, which was empty inside.

In the side room on the left stood several rows of herb racks. They should have held some spiritual herbs, but now they were all dried up into black, thread-like lines.

The scent just now probably came from these things.

Inside the room on the right were dozens of jade bottles and gourds, likely the place where refined pills were stored.

As expected, the jade bottles and gourds were also empty. Even the few remnants left behind seemed to have been accidentally dropped; after the ravages of time, they could no longer be taken.

They walked through other courtyards.

The scenes inside were much the same, except that in some courtyards the alchemy cauldrons had been toppled, and some gourds and jade bottles lay shattered on the ground, as if a fight had occurred.

"It is common for the alchemy rooms and herb gardens to be in the same place."

Stepping out of the courtyard, Shijie Zhang suddenly said.

"So this Tiangong was originally a single entity?" Zheng Fa understood Shijie Zhang's meaning and spoke up, "I fear a great battle took place here."

"Yes. Judging by the state of this alchemy room, the people here seemed to know danger was coming and prepared to evacuate in advance..."

The three circled through these courtyards again and found nothing else.

They then headed toward other "islands."

The other islands disappointed them even more.

These seemed to be the cave abodes of great powers, but they had long been empty of people, containing no treasures or secret manuals.

"As expected, these people must have evacuated in advance... that is why nothing was left behind."

"But what about that golden bell?"

Shijie Yuan asked, puzzled.

Zheng Fa understood her meaning. That golden bell was clearly a fine treasure; if they truly intended to flee, wouldn't it be better to take that thing with them?

"As for that, I am not sure." Shijie Zhang thought for a moment and said, "I feel that the golden bell was not unwilling to be taken, but rather could not be taken."

Zheng Fa nodded, feeling this guess was quite plausible.

After walking through several "islands" and finding nothing, Shijie Yuan's face showed signs of boredom.

The last island was the largest.

It was a grand yet ruined palace complex, comprising about a thousand palace halls, yet not a single hall was intact...

Everywhere were collapsed palace walls, jade pillars smashed onto the ground, and tiles broken into fragments of rubble.

"This must have been the residence of the Tiangong's master," Shijie Zhang said. "It was likely where the great battle occurred."

The three headed deeper into the palace complex.

Most of the palace halls were empty, with nothing remaining.

Some halls contained a few magical treasures, but after the erosion of time and the lack of a master's nurturing, most had become dim and lost all their power.

Having toured the place earlier, they were mentally prepared, so they were not disappointed this time and simply walked straight inward.

Finally, they reached the deepest palace.

This palace had originally been the largest, but it was also the most severely damaged, leaving only its foundation.

As the few of them walked within, suddenly Shijie Yuan pointed to a corner of a courtyard wall and shouted, "What is that over there?"

Zheng Fa looked up. That section of the courtyard wall was still over a person's height, and something on it was shimmering.

When the few of them approached, they saw two columns of green characters on it. Unknown what was used to write them on the wall, these many years had not only failed to fade them, but they even emitted a dim glow.

Zheng Fa looked twice before confirming—he did not recognize this script.

Or rather, he could only recognize it vaguely and imperfectly.

"Shijie Zhang?"

"This is likely a script from before the previous epoch. I have seen it in the classics." Shijie Zhang frowned and said, "Let me see..."

She slowly recited aloud:

"All sentient beings are ignorant, insufficient to rely upon. The Divine Path serves as Shen Jiayi; Huorong Tianzun is no longer himself."

"Now, Jiuyou..."

Shijie Zhang's tone paused slightly as she exchanged a glance with Zheng Fa.

Jiuyou...

"Now, Jiuyou intends to open the Great Dao for Xuanwei. The gods blocked the way, so I killed them."

The two columns of characters left both Zheng Fa and Shijie Zhang in silence.

Even Shijie Yuan, who was usually dull-witted, stammered from the side, "Does this Jiuyou refer to that Jiuyou Demon Ancestor?"

"It is likely..."

It was not that others could not be named Jiuyou.

Rather, the Tianzun of this realm should have been formidable; how many Jiuyous in the history of the Xuanwei Realm could have killed him?

The most likely candidate was actually the current Jiuyou Demon Ancestor.

"Then... the Jiuyou Demon Ancestor... opening the Great Dao for all sentient beings? Doesn't that mean we have no work left to do?"

Shijie Yuan's voice was full of confusion.

Zheng Fa was also somewhat speechless. He had previously known that the Demon Ancestor himself might not be the representative of the old ways as he had imagined in his early years.

Now, this was confirmed here.

Indeed... the original intention of this Jiuyou Demon Ancestor was so similar to his own and to that of Tianhe Zunzhe?

But what now?

Zheng Fa gazed at the sky, thinking of one thing at this moment: Did these Demon Ancestors turn from dragon-slaying youths into evil dragons, or did the youths already die, leaving only the evil dragons alive?

Or perhaps the Demon Ancestors truly forged another path?

(End of this chapter)