Chapter 822: The Divine Temple Opens! Sacred Plant Water!

"How far is the new Hundred Flowers Valley from here?" Xu Jingming asked.

"Not far—straight-line distance is less than a hundred kilometers."

Zhou Yu replied softly, her voice melodious, "With my wind affinity enhancement, we can get there in under four minutes."

"Alright, let's go take a look." Xu Jingming nodded.

In terms of flight speed, wind affinity is undoubtedly the most skilled among elemental affinities.

He paused, then added, "But wait for me a moment—I'll deal with the ferocious beasts below."

"Ferocious beasts?"

Zhou Yu blinked in surprise.

When she flew over earlier, her spiritual sense had already scanned the area below in full detail.

There were indeed ferocious beasts below, but the strongest was only sixth-rank.

Under Xu Jingming's SS-rank Heavenly Thunder strikes, they wouldn't even leave corpses, let alone usable materials.

Besides, sixth-rank ferocious beast materials were useless to Xu Jingming now.

Could Xu Jingming be hunting ferocious beasts just to vent his anger?

"I heard Xu Jingming's parents died in a beast surge years ago."

"It's normal for him to harbor such hatred toward ferocious beasts."

Recalling the data related to Xu Jingming, Zhou Yu immediately understood.

But before she could speak further, a thunderous boom echoed from afar.

Immediately after, a strange energy surge swept across, as if something had emerged into the world.

"Is this... the disturbance of a heavenly treasure manifesting?"

Xu Jingming's eyes lit up; he forgot about the beasts below and hurriedly said:

"Sister Zhou, let's go see!"

Any rare flower or herb causing such a disturbance must be at least SS-rank or higher!

It might even be a legendary SSR-rank rare flower or herb!

Zhou Yu clearly understood this too, pushing her wind affinity to its limit.

She enveloped herself and Xu Jingming, speeding swiftly toward the source of the disturbance.

"The divine temple! I've finally found it!"

Five kilometers away, an ancient palace floated in midair.

The ancient palace was exquisitely built; every wall and tile seemed to radiate golden light.

Outside the palace, the American Ryan wore an ecstatic expression.

He had been in the Ye Er Secret Realm for eighteen days, leading American elites in searching for this divine temple ruin.

Just now, his space fluctuation detector suddenly triggered an alarm.

He then pulled out his key and plunged it fiercely into the anomalous space—finally bringing the divine temple back into the world!

"Owen, Nathan, guard the entrance. If anything's amiss, alert me immediately."

"The rest of you, follow me into the temple!"

"Yes!"

Two men—one muscular, one thin—stood guard at the space entrance, their auras formidable.

The rest followed Ryan into the temple, facing unknown dangers ahead.

Including Ryan himself, there were ten of them altogether.

Aside from two mid-eighth-rankers, all others were pure upper-eighth-rankers.

Owen and Nathan's strength was even more terrifying—they had reached the peak of eighth-rank!

That's why Ryan assigned them to guard the space entrance; with their power, few adepts could defeat them.

Even if someone truly surpassed them, they could still call for help in time.

Meanwhile, Xu Jingming and Zhou Yu had already flown near, about one kilometer from the temple.

"That's the American Owen and Nathan."

Xu Jingming activated his Mind Net, effortlessly sensing the situation through spiritual energy.

"Good—it's just two eighth-rank peak enhancement adepts."

"If they were elementalists, their spiritual senses would've already detected us by now."

Zhou Yu also had her own perception technique and sensed the same situation.

Her voice carried a hint of awe: "I didn't expect such a divine temple was hidden in the Ye Er Secret Realm."

After carefully sensing the palace's shape and sharing the image via spiritual energy with Eva, Xu Jingming asked:

"Could this palace be the one left behind by the Flower Goddess?"

Although Eva was an artificial lifeform, her spiritual energy was weak and couldn't perceive the scene.

Upon receiving the image, Eva immediately replied excitedly: "Yes! This is the Flower Goddess's palace!"

After her excitement, Eva grew regretful: "Too bad the Americans found it first."

"Otherwise, we could've seen what treasures the Flower Goddess left behind a thousand years ago."

She knew Xu Jingming's current combat power well.

Though strong, he couldn't defeat Ryan, who possessed an S-rank affinity and was an upper-eighth-ranker.

"Not necessarily," Xu Jingming's eyes flickered as he fell into thought.

With his Yuan Armor, he didn't need to fear Ryan's group harming him.

That meant he could take the temple's treasures right under Ryan's nose.

The only problem was the two eighth-rank peak guards at the entrance—if he approached, they'd immediately alert Ryan.

Ryan would then come out and drive him away.

He couldn't even enter the temple, let alone steal its treasures.

"If only there were a way to bypass those two eighth-rank peak adepts."

For high-rank adepts, sight was no longer the only way to detect enemies.

After all, some assassin-type adepts activated abilities that warped light to achieve invisibility.

Spiritual energy was the standard method high-rank adepts used to detect foes.

Disappearing from an opponent's spiritual perception was usually the privilege of spirit-type adepts.

Logically, Xu Jingming, as a lightning-affinity adept, shouldn't possess such a technique.

But in reality, having received Zachary's ninth-rank peak spiritual energy inheritance, he might truly have a way.

"I remember there should be a related technique."

Xu Jingming carefully searched Zachary's inherited memories and quickly found one.

【Concealment Technique (SS-rank)】: Uses powerful spiritual energy to warp light and vanish from an adept's spiritual perception.

Note: Requires Spirit-type affinity of A-rank or higher to learn.

"This is it!" Xu Jingming's eyes lit up.

The requirement of an A-rank spirit affinity wasn't a problem.

Thanks to the SSS-rank Spirit Refinement Art, "The Lei Hai Contemplation Method," his spiritual energy now rivaled that of a standard A-rank spirit adept.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have learned the SSS-rank "Slave Heart Seal" and "Soul Subduing Tower."

"Deep Blue! Add points!"

Xu Jingming instantly summoned his system panel.

With 1. 3 million affinity points in hand, he could upgrade any technique!

Besides, Zachary's inheritance was directly engraved in his mind, skipping the learning step.

Affinity points -20, 00!

Concealment Technique → Concealment Technique (Beginner)!

Instantly, the SS-rank Concealment Technique became as natural to him as if he'd always known it, deeply imprinted in his mind.

To minimize detection as much as possible, he spent another 120, 00 affinity points to raise the technique to Master proficiency.

"I've fully grasped it," Xu Jingming smiled with calm mastery.

At that moment, Zhou Yu beside him was already preparing to leave: "Let's go—Ryan's here. We have no chance."

To her surprise, Xu Jingming rose directly from the hidden shrubbery and walked toward the temple.

"Sister Zhou, you go ahead. I'm going to take a look."

Such a casual remark made Zhou Yu's eyes widen in shock.

Wait—that's American S-rank Ryan!

Plus several other American upper-eighth-rank masters. Was Xu Jingming really going over there? Was he trying to die?

Xu Jingming moved fast. By the time Zhou Yu reacted and tried to stop him, he was already hundreds of meters away.

"You're usually so level-headed—why are you suddenly so reckless?"

"Even if there's a great opportunity, you still need the strength to seize it!"

Zhou Yu's expression grew anxious, but she couldn't abandon Xu Jingming.

Frustrated, she stomped her foot and rose, preparing to forcibly drag him back.

But before she could activate her wind affinity, Xu Jingming had already entered the temple's range.

"Oh no!" Zhou Yu's heart dropped.

At this distance, even if those two eighth-rank peak grand masters were enhancement-type adepts with weak spiritual energy, they should still have sensed Xu Jingming.

So she quickly turned to look at them—but to her surprise, neither showed any reaction, as if they had completely failed to sense Xu Jingming's presence.

"What's going on?" Zhou Yu was baffled.

Xu Jingming was now less than two hundred meters away from them. Not even an eighth-rank peak enhancement-type adept could miss this.

Even an eighth-rank mid-tier adept should have sensed him by now.

The next moment,

something even more shocking happened.

Xu Jingming simply walked out into plain view before the two of them.

Yet the two eighth-rank peak grand masters remained utterly unmoved, as if they hadn't seen Xu Jingming at all, letting him enter the temple's spatial domain without a hint of awareness.

"This is...?!!"

Zhou Yu's eyes widened in disbelief as she stared at the scene.

What was unfolding before her had surpassed her understanding.

She couldn't fathom how Xu Jingming had achieved this.

Yet as an eighth-rank upper-tier grand master, she had seen many things—and quickly recalled a similar case.

"I once witnessed an eighth-rank spiritual-type grand master demonstrate a similar combat technique.

By warping an adept's perception with powerful spiritual energy, he achieved concealment."

Realizing this, Zhou Yu became even more confused.

Isn't Xu Jingming a Lightning-type SS-rank awakened adept?

How could he use a spiritual-type combat technique?

Keep in mind that this kind of concealment combat technique cannot be learned by all psychic abilities users.

"Never mind—I'll ask him after he comes out."

Shaking her head, Zhou Yu gave up trying to understand and decided not to dig deeper.

She stood quietly in place, ready to intervene if Xu Jingming encountered any trouble.

On the other side, Xu Jingming, having successfully entered the temple's spatial domain via concealment, smiled.

Indeed, this was an SS-rank spiritual-type combat technique—enough to fool even eighth-rank peak grand masters.

"S-level, when did you learn this technique?"

A puzzled voice echoed in his mind.

Eva had been constantly beside him and had never seen him practice this technique before.

It was as if he had suddenly acquired it out of nowhere—and his proficiency already seemed high.

"While you were asleep," Xu Jingming replied without elaboration.

Eva was stunned.

As an artificial intelligence, she had no need to sleep.

Even when she was shut down, it was always Xu Jingming who forcibly powered her off.

And the only time Xu Jingming ever forcibly shut her down was during one specific circumstance...

"Whoa, S-level, are you this strong? Even when you were with Ling Shuang and the others, you still trained combat techniques?"

Eva couldn't help but draw a sharp breath.

In both the Second and Third Civilizations, she had encountered many diligent adepts.

But none had trained to this extreme—Xu Jingming was the first.

Xu Jingming: "..."

He'd just made up an excuse—and now he'd dug himself a hole.

He didn't bother explaining further, and changed the subject:

"Now that we're inside the temple, where do we go?"

"Head straight to the main hall—it should hold the Flower Goddess's most important treasures.

Other palaces contain items too, but nothing compares in significance to what's in the main hall.

The Americans are probably already there."

Eva replied.

"Alright."

Nodding, Xu Jingming maintained the concealment technique

and flew toward the central main hall of the palace complex.

Soon he spotted Ryan and his group approaching the main hall.

As Xu Jingming followed behind using concealment, Ryan at the front suddenly frowned and halted.

"Lord Ryan? What's wrong?" asked an eighth-rank upper-tier grand master behind him.

"I felt a presence watching us."

Ryan frowned. "Did Owen or Nathan outside send any alert?"

"No," the grand master replied.

"Then it might be my imagination—or perhaps some powerful unknown creature resides within the main hall."

Ryan mused, "Either way, we proceed. We'll adapt if anything happens."

"Understood!"

They nodded and followed Ryan into the main hall.

"No wonder S-level upper-tier adepts have sharper perception—they're more sensitive than others.

But Zachary's legacy isn't worthless. He might sense something odd—

yet he can't detect my presence. That's enough."

Xu Jingming smiled and followed them into the main hall.

The entire palace complex was exquisitely constructed.

As the Flower Goddess's primary residence, the main hall was even more luxurious than the others.

The entire main hall shimmered with golden light, as if forged from some special metal, filling one with awe.

At the center of the main hall stood a pool of water.

The water glowed a vivid, tender green, like fresh grass—strikingly beautiful.

As Xu Jingming observed it, the Thorned Sword Grass clinging to him suddenly surged with intense longing toward the pool!

Had Xu Jingming not forcibly restrained it, the Thorned Sword Grass would have already rushed forward to devour it.

At that moment, Eva's excited voice echoed in his mind:

"S-level, this is the Flower Goddess's Plant Sacred Water—it dramatically accelerates the growth of rare flowers, exotic plants, and all plant life!"