Chapter 822: Divine Palace Unleashed! Sacred Plant Water!

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

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

Zhou Yu replied softly, her voice melodious, "With my wind affinity enhancement, we can arrive 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.

After a pause, he added, "But wait a moment—I need to deal with the ferocious beasts below."

"Ferocious beasts?"

Zhou Yu paused in surprise.

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

There were indeed ferocious beasts in the forest below, but the highest rank was only sixth-tier.

Under Xu Jingming's SS-grade Doushen Shenlei, they wouldn't even leave behind corpses, let alone usable materials.

Besides, sixth-tier ferocious beast materials are utterly useless to Xu Jingming now.

Could Xu Jingming be hunting ferocious beasts merely 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 suddenly echoed from afar.

Immediately after, an unusual energy surge swept violently through the air, 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:

"Zhou Jie, let's go check it out!"

Rare flowers or herbs capable of causing such a disturbance must be at least SS-grade or higher!

Possibly even the legendary SSR-grade rare flowers or herbs!

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

She swiftly flew toward the source of the disturbance, enveloping both herself and Xu Jingming.

"The Divine Palace! 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 Lane wore an ecstatic expression.

He had entered the Yer Secret Realm for a full eighteen days, during which he led America's elites in searching for this divine ruin.

Just now, the spatial fluctuation detector suddenly sounded an alarm.

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

"Owen, Nathan, guard the entrance. If anything seems off, alert me immediately."

"The rest of you, follow me into the divine palace!"

"Yes!"

Two men—one muscular, one slender, both radiating formidable energy—stood guard at the spatial entrance.

The rest followed Lane into the palace, facing potential unknown dangers.

Including Lane himself, there were ten of them altogether.

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

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

That's why Lane assigned these two to guard the spatial entrance; with their power, few adepts could defeat them.

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

At this moment, Xu Jingming and Zhou Yu had already flown near, about one kilometer from the divine palace.

"That's America's Owen and Nathan."

Activating his Mind Net, Xu Jingming easily sensed the situation there through his spiritual sense.

"Good thing they're two enhanced-type eighth-rank peak Grand Masters."

"If they were elementalists, their spiritual sense would've already detected us at this range."

Zhou Yu also possessed her own perception technique and sensed the situation there as well.

Her voice carried a hint of awe: "I didn't expect such a divine palace was hidden within the Yer Secret Realm."

After carefully sensing the palace's shape and sharing the image via spiritual sense 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 sense was weak and unable to perceive the scene.

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

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

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

She knew well Xu Jingming's current combat power.

Though strong, he still couldn't defeat Lane, who possessed an S-grade affinity and was an upper-tier eighth-ranker.

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

With his Yuanjia, he didn't need to fear being harmed by Lane's group.

That meant he could take the palace's treasures right before Lane's eyes.

The only trouble was the two peak eighth-rank experts at the door — once he got close to them,

they would immediately raise the alarm, alerting the Rei Kesi inside, who would come out and drive him away.

He couldn't even enter the temple, let alone talk about snatching the treasure.

"If only there were some way to get past those two peak eighth-rank Grandmasters at the door."

For high-rank ability users, line of sight was actually no longer the only means of detecting enemies.

After all, some assassin-type ability users, once they activated their abilities, would have combat skills that distorted light to achieve a stealth effect.

Spiritual power was the common means high-rank ability users used to detect enemies.

And disappearing from the opponent's spiritual perception was generally the privilege of psychic-type ability users.

Logically speaking, as a lightning-type ability user, Xu Jingming shouldn't have had any related combat skills.

But in reality, having received the peak ninth-rank spiritual power inheritance of Zackley, he might actually have a way to do it.

"I remember there should be a related combat skill."

Xu Jingming carefully searched through the inheritance memories Zackley had given him, and quickly found a combat skill.

【Concealment Art (SS-rank)】: Uses powerful spiritual power to distort light and vanish from ability users' spiritual perception.

Note: Only psychic-type ability users of A-rank or above may learn it.

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

As for the A-rank psychic-type ability required as a learning condition, that wasn't a problem either.

Under the refinement of the SSS-rank spirit-tempering art "Lei Hai Visualization Method," his spiritual power was already no inferior to that of an ordinary A-rank psychic-type ability user.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to learn the SSS-rank "Slave Heart Seal" and "Soul-Suppressing Pagoda."

"Deep Blue! Give me some points!"

Xu Jingming directly summoned the system panel.

With 1.43 million ability points in hand, he could allocate points to any combat skill!

Moreover, Zackley's inheritance was directly imprinted in his mind, saving him the step of learning the combat skill.

Ability points -20,000!

Concealment Art → Concealment Art (Beginner)!

In an instant, the SS-rank combat skill Concealment Art was, as if he had always known it, deeply imprinted in Xu Jingming's mind.

To avoid detection as much as possible, he spent another 120,000 ability points to raise Concealment Art to Master-level proficiency.

"I have already grasped everything." A smile of having everything in hand surfaced on Xu Jingming's face.

At this moment, Zhou Yu beside him was already preparing to leave: "Let's go, with America's Rei Kesi here, we don't stand a chance."

But to her surprise, Xu Jingming actually rose directly from the concealing bushes and walked toward them.

"Zhou Jie, you go on ahead, I'll go over and take a look."

A casual remark, yet it made Zhou Yu's eyes go wide in an instant.

No way, that was America's S-rank Rei Kesi!

There were also several of America's upper eighth-rank Grandmasters present — for Xu Jingming to just walk over like that, wasn't that seeking death?

Xu Jingming moved very fast; by the time Zhou Yu came to her senses and tried to stop him, he had already run several hundred meters away.

"Usually so steady, why so suddenly impulsive now?

No matter how great the opportunity, you still need the strength to take it!"

Zhou Yu's expression was anxious, but she couldn't just leave Xu Jingming be.

Annoyedly stamping her foot, she likewise rose and prepared to forcibly drag Xu Jingming back.

But before she could even unleash her wind-type ability, Xu Jingming had already entered the temple's range.

"It's over!" Zhou Yu's heart sank with a jolt.

At this distance, even if those two peak eighth-rank Grandmasters were enhancement-type ability users whose spiritual power wasn't that strong, it was enough to sense Xu Jingming.

So she hurriedly looked at the two of them, but unexpectedly, the two showed no reaction at all, as if they hadn't sensed Xu Jingming's appearance at all.

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

Xu Jingming was now less than 200 meters from them — let alone peak eighth-rank enhancement types,

even mid-eighth-rank should have long since sensed him.

The next moment,

something even more shocking to Zhou Yu happened.

Xu Jingming actually swaggered right into view before the two of them.

Yet those two peak eighth-rank experts remained unmoved, as if they hadn't seen Xu Jingming at all, letting him enter the temple's spatial range.

"This is......?!!"

Zhou Yu's eyes went perfectly round, staring at this scene in disbelief.

Everything happening before her had already exceeded the bounds of her understanding.

She couldn't figure out why Xu Jingming could do this.

But as an upper eighth-rank Grandmaster, she was also fairly well-experienced, and quickly thought of a similar situation.

"I once saw a psychic-type eighth-rank Grandmaster demonstrate a similar combat skill —

using powerful spiritual power to distort ability users' perception and achieve a stealth effect."

Having figured this out, Zhou Yu became even more dumbfounded.

Wasn't Xu Jingming a lightning-type SS-rank ability awakener?

How could he use a psychic-type combat skill?

One must know that this kind of stealth combat skill wasn't something every psychic-type ability user could learn either.

"Forget it, I'll ask Xu Jingming after he comes out."

Zhou Yu shook her head and decided not to dwell on what she couldn't understand.

She waited quietly in place, ready to intervene if anything happened to Xu Jingming.

On the other side, Xu Jingming, having successfully entered the temple space using his concealment technique, smiled.

Indeed, this was a Spirit-type SS-rank combat technique—it could even deceive an eighth-rank peak Master Zongshi.

"SS-rank, when did you learn this combat technique?"

A puzzled voice echoed in his mind.

She had always been by Xu Jingming's side and had never seen him practice this technique before.

It was as if he had suddenly acquired it out of nowhere, and his proficiency seemed far from low.

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

Hearing this, Eva was stunned.

As an artificial lifeform, 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 needed to forcibly power her off was... one single occasion...

"Whoa, SS-rank, are you this strong? Even when with Ling Shuang and the others, you still find time to train combat techniques?"

Eva couldn't help but draw a sharp breath.

Whether in the Second Civilization Era or the Third Civilization Era, she had encountered many hardworking psychics.

But Xu Jingming was the first psychic she had ever seen who trained this intensely.

Xu Jingming: "..."

He had merely made up an excuse on the spot, never expecting it to trap him.

Xu Jingming didn't bother to explain 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 most important treasures left by the Flower Goddess."

Other palaces contain artifacts too, but nothing compares in importance to what's in the main hall."

"The Americans must have gone there too," Eva replied.

"Alright."

Xu Jingming nodded and maintained the concealment technique.

He flew toward the main hall at the center of the palace complex.

Soon, he spotted Ryan and his group heading toward the main hall.

When Xu Jingming followed them using concealment, Ryan, walking at the front, suddenly frowned and stopped.

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

"I feel as if I'm being watched."

Ryan frowned. "Have Owen and Nathan outside not raised any alarms?"

"No," the Master Zongshi replied.

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

Ryan mused, "Either way, let's enter the main hall first. We'll adapt if anything happens."

Leon mused aloud, "Never mind that. Let's head into the main hall first, and we'll deal with whatever comes up as it happens."

The group nodded and followed Ryan into the main hall.

"No wonder he's an eighth-rank upper-tier SS-rank—his perception is sharper than the others'."

"But Zachary's legacy isn't useless—he can sense anomalies, at least."

"Still, 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 main hall where the Flower Goddess resided daily, it was even more luxurious than the other palaces.

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

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

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

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

Had Xu Jingming not forcibly restrained it, the Thornblade Grass would have already rushed forward to drink greedily.

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

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

"S-rank, this is the Plant Sacred Water left behind by the Flower God. It can greatly accelerate the growth speed of exotic flowers, rare herbs, and plant lifeforms!"