Chapter 562: Gained Benefits

Seeing this scene, the group, who had just been relaxed, suddenly felt their hearts tighten and used their own defensive means to resist this swift and fierce thunder.

Fortunately, although there were many more thunderbolts, the power of each thunderbolt was about the same as before, without much change. Relying on the defensive magic treasures in their hands and various artifacts to control the thunder, the group still quickly blocked the attack of these thunderbolts.

"This place should be a Cloud Thunder Formation. Once someone breaks into the formation, the thunder will not stop. We must break through quickly!"

Seeing a patch of sparks light up above the stone pillars all around, the knowledgeable Zhao Menglian hurriedly reminded the group and took the lead to fly forward, wanting to quickly pass through these stone pillars in front of her.

However, just as she flew out more than ten zhang, the thunder in the sky fell rapidly and concentrated directly on her alone, forcing her down from the high sky.

Seeing this scene, Song Qingming and the others, who were preparing to follow, immediately stopped their figures.

"It seems that in this Cloud Thunder Formation, one cannot fly at will and can only walk over step by step!" After falling from the sky, Zhao Menglian also saw some clues and immediately explained to the group.

Seeing this, the group could only use their strongest response means and bite the bullet to walk forward step by step.

After walking more than ten zhang, hundreds of thunderbolts fell from the sky again. Although these thunderbolts were not very powerful, the number after each fall was clearly increasing, making the pressure felt by the group increasingly greater.

After walking a distance like this, as there were more and more thunderbolts in the sky, Zhang Tieyang, who had a weaker strength and no specialized means to deal with this kind of thunder, was the first to be unable to hold on.

Being able to cultivate to the Jin Dan realm, Zhang Tieyang naturally knew when to advance and when to retreat. No matter how many good things could be found inside, once he lost his life for this, then there would be nothing left.

"The magic treasures on this person's body have all been damaged. I don't know if there are any good things in this storage bag!" After stepping forward to pick up a severely damaged magic treasure held in the corpse's hand and looking at it, Zhao Menglian soon discovered that there was still a storage bag on this person's waist, and a look of joy immediately appeared on her face.

Seeing that the thunder in the black clouds above was about to fall again, Zhang Tieyang bowed to the group helplessly and immediately turned around to retreat along the original path.

Zhao Menglian did not use any magic treasure to restrain the thunder for protection. She could persist until now mainly relying on her ice-attribute cultivation technique with strong defensive power and her natal magic treasure "Profound Ice Red Silk."

After walking a distance forward, Zhao Menglian, who was walking in front, suddenly saw a figure lying motionless on the ground and couldn't help but let out an exclamation.

Shortly after, Jin Ziyuan and Yun Xinxue also chose to stop their forward steps because their magic power was somewhat insufficient. Only Zhao Menglian and Song Qingming were left in the formation still insisting.

"Although several hundred years have passed, things like spirit stones can never be damaged. No matter what, I still have to congratulate Senior Sister Zhao."

The two walked closer and discovered that it was a cultivator's corpse that had been trapped in the "Cloud Thunder Formation" and had long since died. This corpse still had some dried skin and flesh, and it seemed to have died much later than the white bone outside. It should be a cultivator who broke in when the "Heaven-Reaching Tower" opened last time.

Although Zhang Tieyang also knew that the "Cloud Thunder Formation" in this place was so powerful that he could likely find some good things inside, he was troubled by his own insufficient strength and really didn't have enough confidence to continue walking forward.

Song Qingming, on the other hand, always had a golden bead artifact on top of his head. This bead was very miraculous. Every time the thunder fell from the sky, it could be directly absorbed by this bead without a trace, which made Song Qingming's state at this moment look even more relaxed than Zhao Menglian's.

After Zhang Tieyang took the initiative to withdraw, the group continued to walk forward for a distance. True Person Qingluo, who relied on a second-tier thunder-defending artifact, saw that the artifact in his hand was about to be damaged and helplessly took the initiative to withdraw from the team.

Walking to here, the sea of clouds in front still couldn't see the end. If they continued to walk forward, once the magic treasures defending against this thunder were damaged or their own magic power was exhausted in advance, it was highly likely that they would be trapped to death in this formation.

"Fellow Daoist Zhao, I'm very sorry, I really can't continue to walk forward."

Seeing Zhang Tieyang's bitter expression, Zhao Menglian could only nod to him and said, "If Fellow Daoist Zhang doesn't want to go in, then wait for us outside first!"

"Fellow Daoist Song, don't worry. Since this item was discovered together with you, I naturally cannot break the rules. After opening it, I will naturally share a portion with you." After Zhao Menglian put away the storage bag, she explained to Song Qingming with a smile.

"Hehe! Then I will thank Senior Sister Zhao first."

After Song Qingming bowed to Zhao Menglian and was about to walk forward again, Zhao Menglian looked around and said, "Junior Brother Song, this Cloud Thunder Formation, I don't know how long it will take to reach the end. I don't have much magic power left, so I don't intend to continue walking forward."

"If Junior Brother can still hold on, then you continue to walk forward and take a look. If it's really not possible, don't force yourself too much. After all, even Jin Dan cultivators can be trapped to death here, so it's certainly not so easy to break through."

Seeing this Jin Dan cultivator's corpse, the confidence on Zhao Menglian's face clearly disappeared a bit. Even with her cultivation base, she could walk to here, but the "Cloud Thunder Formation" ahead still couldn't see the end. Hearing that she didn't intend to continue walking forward, Song Qingming was not too surprised.

"Many thanks to Senior Sister Zhao for your concern. I will walk forward for a distance and try. If it's really not possible, then I can only retreat. Please rest assured, Senior Sister, I have a sense of proportion in my heart."

After giving Song Qingming a few instructions, Zhao Menglian threw out a ray of spiritual light to roll up the corpse on the ground, turned around, and retreated along the original path directly.

After Zhao Menglian left, hundreds of thunderbolts fell from above Song Qingming's head again, but without exception, they were all absorbed cleanly by the golden silk bead above his head.

The golden sphere on top of Song Qingming's head was called the "Thunder-Gathering Bead," a very rare magic treasure in the cultivation world that could restrain thunder and lightning, made from the Jin Dan inside the body of a thunder-attribute demon king.

Years ago, when Song Qingming followed Huo Feng into the Taiyue Lake Secret Realm, he had seen the power of this magic treasure with his own eyes and had always kept it in his heart. Later, by chance, Song Qingming found an opportunity to exchange some spiritual items with Huo Feng for this treasure. He didn't expect that this time entering the Heaven-Reaching Tower would finally give it a chance to be of great use.

No matter how much thunder and lightning fell from above, it was almost all swallowed cleanly by the "Thunder-Gathering Bead." It was precisely by relying on this magic treasure that Song Qingming walked here easily all the way.

Seeing that the situation of the "Thunder-Gathering Bead" had no damage, and the spiritual light on it became even stronger after being tempered by the thunder, Song Qingming also completely let go of the worry in his heart.

No matter how far ahead it was, with this magic treasure that restrained thunder and lightning, even if he couldn't find any good things, returning along the original path would certainly not encounter any major problems.

With an expressionless face, he took a look at the black clouds in the sky, and Song Qingming lifted his feet and continued to walk forward.

After walking another distance of dozens of zhang, there was another skeleton corpse ahead. After checking that there was nothing useful on the other party, Song Qingming did not delay and continued to walk forward.

As he went deeper into the formation, Song Qingming encountered several white bone skeletons of similar appearance. Unfortunately, except for picking up a few severely damaged magic treasures and artifacts on the ground, Song Qingming didn't find anything on them either.

After walking for about a mile, Song Qingming finally passed through the cloud-black area with black clouds pressing down on the top and arrived at an open space located in the middle of many stone pillars.

Seeing that there were no more black clouds releasing thunder at any time in the sky, Song Qingming finally breathed a sigh of relief and carefully put away the "Thunder-Gathering Bead" above his head.

In this open space, except for the scattered stones and weeds on the ground, there were also two spiritual trees full of fruits near the middle. Song Qingming stepped forward and looked carefully, discovering that many of these spiritual fruits had already matured.

Seeing this scene, Song Qingming was overjoyed and summoned Jin Feng to step forward and pick all the mature spiritual fruits on the trees.

These two spiritual fruit trees were located in this "Cloud Thunder Formation" and had been there for many years. Among them, one older spiritual fruit tree had already reached the third-tier mid-quality, and many of the spiritual fruits on it had also reached the third tier in quality.

This time, Song Qingming obtained a total of four third-tier spiritual fruits and more than ten second-tier spiritual fruits of varying quality. Adding these things together was enough to exchange for tens of thousands of spirit stones, and Song Qingming was very satisfied with this in his heart.

After counting the spiritual fruits Jin Feng brought back, Song Qingming put them all into his storage bag with a box carefully with a satisfied face.

Song Qingming naturally would not mess with the immature spiritual fruits. Since he had already gained benefits, he always had to leave some opportunities for future generations.

After all, the "Heaven-Reaching Tower" secret realm only opens once every three hundred years. By the time it opens next time, the immature fruits on the trees should also be mature!

If things were done too absolutely in such a place, it would inevitably damage the merits of the Heavenly Dao, and Song Qingming might encounter more setbacks and tribulations in his future cultivation.

After putting away the things he obtained, Song Qingming returned to the "Cloud Thunder Formation," brought the skeletons of the cultivators who had been exposing their corpses outside for hundreds or thousands of years, and let Jin Feng dig a pit in the middle flat ground to bury these people one by one here.

These people could walk so close to the middle position, and they must all be cultivators above the Jin Dan stage. It's just that perhaps they themselves didn't expect that they were Jin Dan ancestors who were famous in one area before they died, but after death, they could only end up exposing their corpses in the wilderness here so miserably.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 563 =====