Chapter 3664

Ye Chen never imagined that after nearly searching the entire underground city, he would find no cultivation materials, only to discover a large quantity of spirit stones in the ring Lin Wan'er gave him.

Saying it's a large quantity is no exaggeration, because Ye Chen carefully counted them, and these spirit stones, big and small, added up to over two thousand pieces!

Moreover, Ye Chen found that without exception, all these spirit stones had high spiritual energy content; compared to the Peace and Wealth Stone he had previously obtained, the spiritual energy content per equal volume was at least ten to twenty times higher, and some top-grade spirit stones could be over a hundred times higher.

These over two thousand spirit stones were already an absolute astronomical figure for Ye Chen—he was like an ordinary commoner spending less than a hundred a day, suddenly gaining hundreds of millions in assets, with so much spiritual energy before him, he didn't even know what to use it for.

Although the spiritual energy in spirit stones can be directly absorbed, Ye Chen realized after coming here that directly absorbing the spiritual energy from spirit stones is actually a huge waste for the stones.

Because spirit stones are more like high-density batteries in the cultivators' world, a universal energy source; using them directly to replenish one's own spiritual energy is actually not cost-effective, like a portable diesel generator that can work anywhere—though the electricity it produces has a high unit cost, it can be life-saving in the wilderness or places without power, but using it at home for energy is obviously not cost-effective.

The greatest use of spirit stones should be to power various different formations, ensuring they can keep running even when no one is present.

Moreover, compared to batteries or generators, spirit stones have an additional great advantage: they themselves do not deteriorate or degrade; they won't lose their charge like batteries left unused for years, and the spiritual energy they contain can be preserved forever, which is why this teleportation formation can operate continuously for thousands of years without stopping.

Ye Chen couldn't help but sigh, regretting that he knew little about formations; the Nine Mysteries Heaven Scripture, as an introductory cultivation method, mentions few formations, and most are basic, such as those used in the Thunderclap Command and Piercing Soul Blade, but formations like concealment, protection, or even teleportation formations are not recorded at all.

However, for Ye Chen, it's fine if he doesn't yet grasp the secrets of these formations; having these spirit stones is equivalent to possessing a large amount of scarce cultivation resources, and if properly preserved, they will naturally be useful in the future.

As for daily cultivation and replenishing spiritual energy, he can come here anytime via the teleportation formation to cultivate—not only is the spiritual energy inexhaustible and endless, but his cultivation speed will also increase greatly; if he could retreat here for a period, breaking open the Niwan Palace might not be a big problem.

If it weren't for thinking of Lin Wan'er, Yun Ruoge, and Song Ruoyu still waiting for him at the Nordic research station, Ye Chen would really want to retreat here for a month to experience it.

Thinking of this, Ye Chen began to ponder two matters: first, whether to let others know about this place's secret; second, if the answer to the first is yes, whether he could bring others in.

Based on the first question, the only person Ye Chen could think of who would need no worry at all was Lin Wan'er.

For such a heaven-shattering secret, the only person Ye Chen could fully trust was Lin Wan'er; this trust wasn't just about whether she could keep the secret, but also whether she could adapt to it.

For example, Xiao Churan—leaving aside her current lack of news, even if she hadn't left and he still trusted her, such a heaven-shattering event would be extremely difficult for her to adapt to.

As for Yun Ruoge and Song Ruoyu, both being cultivators, adapting to this secret would certainly pose no problem, but Ye Chen never dared to trust them completely.

So, Ye Chen quickly concluded that this secret could currently only be shared with Lin Wan'er, and if the opportunity arose, he would also try to see if he could bring Lin Wan'er in.

As for others, for now they should still keep the secret, and decide later based on circumstances.

Afterwards, Ye Chen wanted to continue exploring the other levels of the Four Directions Treasure Pagoda, but when he tried to go out through the windows around the pagoda, he discovered that the windows here also had an invisible barrier, which he could not pass through, so he could not exit the pagoda through the windows.

Moreover, Ye Chen didn't know which level of the pagoda he was in; he only knew there were no stairs or entrances/exits up and down inside, which puzzled him—when he came, he was sent here by a teleportation formation that suddenly appeared in the Hall of Three Purities, but the nine teleportation formations here all correspond to places outside Antarctica, and now he is here, he can go to those nine locations on different continents and different countries, but he cannot go outside the Four Directions Treasure Pagoda.

Just as Ye Chen didn't know what to do, a detailed map suddenly appeared in his mind, depicting precisely this underground city, and the map marked a total of eighteen teleportation formations, each corresponding to a heart method mantra.

Through this map, Ye Chen discovered that the Four Directions Treasure Pagoda has nine levels in total, each with a teleportation formation, and there is also one beneath the plaza.

Besides this, the Hall of Three Purities and other important public areas in the city also have teleportation formations, and what delighted Ye Chen even more was that there is also a teleportation formation on the ground at an altitude of one thousand meters.

That is to say, if he wants to leave the Four Directions Treasure Pagoda and go out, he doesn't need to return by the original route.

This also relieved Ye Chen, because the exit back is on a cliff tens of zhang high; with his current cultivation, without the help of flying swords or similar magical devices, descending is not difficult, but if he wanted to leap up tens of zhang in one go, the difficulty would still be very great.

Thinking back, the cultivators who once lived here must have had very high cultivation; for them, this height would not be like walking on flat ground, but should be as easy as walking up steps.

Moreover, this stone wall was cut extremely smooth, with almost no place to gain leverage in the middle; the possibility of climbing up bit by bit or jumping up bit by bit is almost zero; if there were no teleportation formation directly reaching the ground, he would at least have to find a way to chisel out some footholds for climbing.

But now everything is much simpler.

Ye Chen silently recited the mantra in his heart, and in the next moment, he found himself appearing on the ice cap above ground, his body surrounded by a mass of golden light, as if he were inside a glass cover filled with golden radiance.

At that moment, another prompt appeared in Ye Chen's mind, instantly making him understand the purpose of this golden light: originally, this teleportation formation corresponds to the nine teleportation points of the Bagua diagram, but those nine points' teleportation formations are almost all hidden in mountain caves, and the caves themselves have formation protection, so they won't be seen by ignorant people just after teleportation.

However, this teleportation formation on the Antarctic ice cap has no such cave protection, so this golden light is actually a protective mechanism; being within this golden light, outsiders cannot see him, nor can they see the golden light—it's like an isolation shield; after ensuring no risk, walking out of this golden light on his own means he has entered the outside environment.

Ye Chen looked left and right, discovering this was exactly the place where he dueled with Wu Bolin; all around, not to mention human shadows, not even a penguin could be seen, so naturally there was no exposure risk, and he directly walked out of the golden light.

After walking out of the golden light, Ye Chen looked back and found everything had completely vanished, but he knew the teleportation formation was still here; he only needed to stand in this position and silently recite the heart method to go to any of the remaining seventeen teleportation formations in the underground city.

Ye Chen was overjoyed, memorized this position, and then began to follow the way he came, embarking on the journey back to the Nordic research station.