Chapter 156: Fire‑Separating Burning Body Break Formation

These runes, once manifested, wildly emit an astonishingly scorching aura, and the surrounding air temperature suddenly rises, as if instantly standing at the edge of a blazing furnace!

Immediately after, countless fine as cow hair, yet containing terrifying high‑temperature crimson fire lines, shot out from the rune nodes in all directions like a sudden storm, instantly sealing all paths forward and backward!

"It's the 'Fire‑Separating Burning Body Formation'!" Lin Xue's mind flashed the formation information, and she quickly reminded at high speed.

"This formation specifically counters Yin‑cold attributes! Attack its formation eye with pure yang qi force!"

In fact, she didn't need to remind; Zhang Jun's bodily reaction was faster than his thoughts!

He lunged forward a step, shielding Lin Xue behind him, and his whole body condensed a massive pure yang qi force that erupted like a volcano without reservation!

A flash of golden light in his eyes vanished, instantly locking onto the core node within that crimson rune network where the energy flow was densest and the glow most intense!

"Break it for me!"

Accompanied by a domineering roar, Zhang Jun's right fist thundered out like a cannonball!

Condensed to the extreme, seemingly solidified pure yang fist force leaked no trace, gathering into a dazzling golden pillar that, with unmatched momentum, precisely and fiercely struck that formation eye node!

"Boom!"

A deep, resonant blast echoed through the narrow passage!

The entire crimson rune network trembled like struck glass.

The formation eye node hit directly by the golden pillar shattered like fragile glass, cracks spreading outward like lightning!

Those crimson fire lines that had surged with momentum instantly lost their energy source, scattering and disappearing with a crackling pop like kites whose strings were cut.

The suffocating heat in the air receded rapidly like a tide.

"Hey, that was quick. Almost got roasted on a skewer," Zhang Jun flicked his fist; the palm still retained a trace of scorching heat from the earlier strike.

"The mechanisms here are more concealed than those we met beneath the White Tower Temple, and their activation is more direct, with greater lethality," Lin Xue said, watching the rune traces on the stone wall fade quickly, her gaze growing weightier.

"Feels… like it's designed to filter a specific constitution or inheritance."

"Who cares who it filters? Anything blocking our way, we just dismantle it," Zhang Jun grinned, unfazed, lifted his foot and kept moving forward.

The road ahead, as Lin Xue had foreseen, was indeed far from peaceful.

They encountered several more traps, each with a different style yet equally insidious and deadly.

Sometimes it was a Mind‑Distorting Array that could silently stir the deepest fears and negative emotions, creating realistic terrifying hallucinations, which Lin Xue stabilized with the Ice Heart Technique, while Zhang Jun forced his way through the illusion core with radiant supreme yang qi.

Other times the ground beneath them would collapse without warning, revealing a bottomless pool of poisonous water flashing a ghostly green toxin; fortunately the two, highly sensitive to energy fluctuations, always sensed it at the last moment and narrowly leapt away.

These traps all exuded an ancient, cunning aura, were exquisitely crafted, and seemed closely tied to certain special knowledge or attribute of the Medicine Sect inheritance.

Had Zhang Jun and Lin Xue not just obtained the complete and massive Medicine Sect inheritance, their power surging and their bodies housing complementary yin and yang energies with superior perception far beyond ordinary people, they would likely have been stuck in these endless traps, perhaps even perished here long ago.

Each successful dismantling deepened their understanding of the newly acquired Medicine Sect inheritance, refined their use of personal power, and their coordination reached a tacit, wordless harmony.

After painstakingly traversing a narrow, wind‑trap‑filled corridor, the scene ahead opened up!

A huge, almost unimaginable underground space suddenly appeared before them.

The vaulted ceiling was extremely high, studded with many strange stones that glowed soft, steady white light like night‑bright pearls, illuminating the vast space as if it were daylight.

Most of the area was a vast, astonishing expanse, meticulously divided into blocks of almost identical size.

Only, the fields that had evidently been used for planting were now completely empty.

The soil displayed a dead, gray‑pale hue as if all life essence had been squeezed out.

The plants that once grew here were reduced to withered, lifeless remnants, like skeletal frames dried by time, scattered along the ridges.

Zhang Jun casually brushed a withered branch of an unknown plant; the branch instantly "pop"ed into the finest ash and vanished into the air.

The air was thick with a profoundly dead silence, the scent of completely depleted plant essence, oppressive to the heart.

"This… what the hell is a medicine garden?" Zhang Jun stared at the vast yet utterly barren scene, disbelief written on his face.

"It used to be," Lin Xue said, walking to the edge of a field, slowly squatting and picking up a pinch of the gray‑pale soil with her fingers.

She closed her eyes, carefully feeling the lingering, extremely faint spiritual qi fluctuations within.

"Moreover, judging from the faint aura left in the soil, what was once cultivated here were probably top‑tier rare elixirs that have long been extinct in the outside world, existing only in legend."

She stood, surveying the desolate yet once‑glorious underground medicine garden, a complex, indescribable emotion flashing in her eyes.

Fragments of inherited memory were triggered, giving her an inexplicable familiarity with this place and… deep regret.

The two silently passed through the barren medicine fields, heading toward the very center of the garden.

There, a roughly half‑person‑high, antiquated circular stone platform stood.

The platform was entirely carved from an unknown dark‑green jade, its surface polished smooth as a mirror, faintly shimmering.

Its surface was densely etched with countless filigree runes finer than a hair strand, seeming to contain a rule and exuding an ancient, profound aura.

Directly above the platform, about a meter up in the air, a constantly shifting phantom of pure energy light hovered unaided!

The outline of the phantom was unmistakably a three‑legged, two‑eared, archaic, majestic… medicine cauldron illusion!