Chapter 93: Breaking the Restriction

Song Qingming cast a series of hand seals, and the magic power within his body slowly merged into the formation disk in his hands. A moment later, a golden light emerged from the gray formation disk, which began to rotate slowly and flew into the air.

"Two fellow Daoists, quickly inject your magic power into the formation flags on the stone door. You must not stop until I have broken the restriction, otherwise, all our previous efforts will be wasted."

Hearing Song Qingming's urging, the old Daoist Chen and Zhou Tangjin did not ask any questions. Both of them quickly cast their red and blue magic power toward the formation flags on the outer side of the stone door ahead.

The six formation flags instantly emitted six rays of spiritual light, which then converged and were injected into the formation disk above Song Qingming.

Song Qingming carefully controlled the formation disk. After the spiritual power inside it gradually stabilized, he began to operate the golden-glowing formation disk, pressing it against the pitch-black stone door.

Upon contact with the stone door, the golden spiritual power within the formation disk transformed into thin lines, connecting directly to the rune above the stone door.

The parts of the originally pitch-black rune that touched the golden spiritual light slowly turned golden as well, and then gradually spread upward. The golden spiritual power flowed slowly across the rune as if it were golden blood.

It was not until half an hour later that the golden spiritual light completely covered the entire rune, and the originally lifeless black rune had turned a golden-yellow color.

"Fellow Daoist Song, can we stop now?" Seeing that the black rune had turned golden, Zhou Tangjin immediately opened his mouth to ask Song Qingming.

Hearing Zhou Tangjin's words, the old Daoist Chen also turned his face and looked at Song Qingming with a smile.

Song Qingming shook his head at the two of them and replied calmly: "It is not that simple. I have only just begun. I ask that you two have more patience; next, I must patiently deal with this rune restriction."

"Fellow Daoist Song, please feel free to busy yourself; leave this side to us two. Since we have already reached this point, a little more time does not matter. Isn't that right, Fellow Daoist Zhou?" The old Daoist Chen said to Zhou Tangjin on the side with a chuckle, fearing he was too impatient.

Zhou Tangjin revealed a smile, nodded, and did not speak again.

The method Song Qingming was using to break this restriction was precisely a formation-breaking technique from the Liu family's formation classics known as the "Rune-Stealing Seal Method."

This method is very effective for some relatively simple formations and restrictions. As long as the person breaking the formation can understand the general rune patterns of the formation that needs to be broken, they can use the stealing seal method to work backward from the final line of the rune, using spiritual power to re-open the spiritual veins of the entire formation restriction.

Afterward, by forcibly dispersing a portion of the already opened spiritual veins, the power of the formation restriction would be greatly weakened, allowing the formation to be forcibly broken from the outside.

Three hours later, Song Qingming withdrew his spiritual power, and the formation disk pressed against the stone door returned to his hands. The rune on the stone door's restriction also changed from golden back to its original pitch-black color.

After putting away the formation disk in his hand, Song Qingming said to the two people behind him: "It is done, fellow Daoists. Next, as long as we all attack with full force together, we should be able to break this restriction."

At this moment, the magic power within the bodies of the old Daoist Chen and Zhou Tangjin had been more than half consumed. The old Daoist Chen, whose cultivation was lower, had a face that had turned somewhat pale due to excessive consumption of magic power.

Hearing Song Qingming finally say that the breaking was complete, the two let out a long sigh of relief, hurriedly withdrew their magic power, and once again took elixirs to begin recovering the magic power within their bodies.

In fact, once the Rune-Stealing Seal Method begins, it does not require the cultivator to continuously inject spiritual power; one only needs to inject spiritual power at intervals to replenish the golden spiritual power inside the formation disk.

The reason Song Qingming did not explain this clearly to the two was, firstly, that it was troublesome to explain to those who did not understand formations, and secondly, he wanted them to know that breaking this restriction was very difficult, so they would not underestimate his contribution. That was why he did not explain this situation to them.

After Song Qingming put away the formation flags around the stone door, seeing that the old Daoist Chen and Zhou Tangjin were still meditating to recover their magic power, he also sat down and began to meditate to recover his own magic power.

He had also consumed a lot of magic power while breaking the restriction just now, but compared to the two of them, he was much better off. After taking a Qi-Returning Pill and meditating for a moment, the magic power within Song Qingming's body was soon seven or eight-tenths recovered.

In order not to let the two easily see the little schemes he had while breaking the formation just now, after Song Qingming's magic power was recovered, he still pretended to meditate in place for a while longer.

After Song Qingming finished meditating, he stood up and looked at the two who were still meditating. He knew that it would still be very difficult to open this black stone door by himself, so he did not waste his energy trying at the stone door.

Feeling somewhat bored in this spacious cave, Song Qingming walked to the stone table on one side of the stone door and picked up the scattered bamboo slips on the ground to read.

These bamboo slips were basically classics introducing some relatively common spiritual items, as well as the experiences of the cave's owner while traveling abroad and insights from cultivating certain techniques.

Song Qingming had always been interested in unknown things in the cultivation world, and upon seeing these classics, he immediately became interested.

However, before he could finish reading the scroll of bamboo slips in his hand, someone soon interrupted his thoughts. Zhou Tangjin, who had always been somewhat impatient, was the first to stand up and finish his meditation.

Seeing that both had finished meditating, the old Daoist Chen, whose magic power had only just recovered by half, could only stand up as well with some helplessness.

Seeing that Song Qingming was still looking at the bamboo slips by the stone table, which he had already picked through several times, the old Daoist Chen opened his mouth to urge him with some puzzlement.

"Little Fellow Daoist Song, I have already looked through those things several times; they are indeed useless items. Fellow Daoist should not waste time there."

Song Qingming put away the bamboo slips in his hand, narrowed his eyes, and said indifferently: "I have some interest in the scenery and strange tales in these bamboo slips. If you two do not want these things, I will take them back to read slowly. You two fellow Daoists have no objections, right?"

"Let it be so. They are useless things anyway. Fellow Daoist, hurry up and do not delay the main business. After all, this place is deep in Mount Yunwu; it would be troublesome if we encountered a second-tier demonic beast." Zhou Tangjin did not care about these things, thinking that Song Qingming was living too frugally, which was why he wanted these items of little value.

Song Qingming took out an empty storage bag, quickly packed these bamboo slips into it, and then walked toward the old Daoist Chen and the other.

By now, Song Qingming already had more than one storage bag on his person. He had obtained two storage bags when he was attacked on Mount Bailin last time, and two years ago in Qinghefang, Song Qingming, not lacking spirit stones, had specifically exchanged his original low-tier storage bag for a high-tier one.

After putting away these bamboo slips, Song Qingming flipped his hand and released his White Jade Sword. The old Daoist Chen took out a silver iron ruler, and Zhou Tangjin also had a long yellow spear in his hand. The three of them each released the magic tools in their hands and simultaneously launched an attack on the rune above the black stone door.

After a violent noise, a crack appeared on the rune above the stone door. Seeing that the effect of the attack was good, the three of them revealed smiles, increased their magic power, and continued to attack the rune.

After the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, with a 'bang', under a forceful strike from the yellow golden spear in Zhou Tangjin's hand, the rune shattered completely. Following the shattering of the rune, the black stone door automatically sank into the ground.

Among the three, the magic tools in the hands of Song Qingming and the old Daoist Chen were both mid-grade, and only the golden spear in Zhou Tangjin's hand was a top-grade magic tool. That they were able to break the restriction so quickly was mainly because Zhou Tangjin had exerted great effort.

As the stone door fell, this predecessor's cave dwelling, which had been hidden for many years, finally appeared before the eyes of Song Qingming and the other two.

Song Qingming swept a glance and discovered that this cave dwelling was much larger than the outer room, and a burst of abundant spiritual energy emerged from within. Although it could not compare to the spiritual vein of Qinghefang, the intensity of the spiritual energy exceeded that of the Song family's Mount Funiu, and it was estimated to be approaching the second tier.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 94 =====