184: Horrifying Thrust

"Unknown Relic Items?"

On the mission hall's bulletin board, in addition to regular cultivation resources, there was a special section for acquiring items salvaged from relics, things whose purpose and origin were completely unknown.

Ancient Spiritual Artifacts so damaged their original form was unrecognizable, strange spiritual materials with unknown properties... even some ancient Jade Slips.

However, these Jade Slips were ridiculously cheap, with the most expensive priced at no more than one hundred merit points.

Zhang Sheng glanced at the description, and his heart instantly sank by half—these were all 'junk' from which not a single piece of information could be extracted.

He felt he had been thoroughly tricked by that Xiao Buyu fellow!

Fortunately, the other party at least provided a teleportation pearl.

Besides these 'junk collecting' missions, the hall also offered guard duties or long-term watch assignments, which were considered legitimate ways to earn merit points.

Behind the mission hall was the renowned Ten Thousand Treasures Hall.

Since he was already here, how could he not go in and broaden his horizons?

Zhang Sheng squeezed his empty merit token; his authority was low, but his strong curiosity couldn't be suppressed, so he stepped through the grand entrance.

Inside the hall, a dazzling array of cultivation supplies glowed with brilliant colors.

Zhang Sheng's gaze was quickly drawn to a special area—where 'waste products' recovered from the Qinglan Guards, also from relics, were prominently displayed.

Even more surprisingly, the depths of the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall even offered teaching courses!

Public lectures by Divine Power Realm experts specializing in certain Divine Abilities started at one hundred merit points; while one-on-one tutoring directly soared tenfold, often costing thousands.

Course details and schedules could be checked in real-time via Qinglan Academy's communication Jade Slips.

The most astonishing, however, was the one-on-one course with the Dean of Qinglan Academy—a hundred thousand merit points per session!

Zhang Sheng's breath hitched for a moment as he looked at that astronomical figure.

But then, he thought about it again and felt relieved.

A Star God Realm Expert! In the entire Qinglan Prefecture, there were only two or three such existences publicly stationed by the Imperial Dynasty.

The Dean of Qinglan Academy was one of them, towering like a mountain.

The moment Zhang Sheng stepped out of the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall—

A sudden change occurred!

An indescribable sensation of sourness abruptly stung his eyes!

Having Cultivated until now, his Physical Body had long been tempered far beyond ordinary people; such mundane physiological reactions should not appear.

He subconsciously closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, his vision was blurred by a thin layer of clear tears.

However, as those two drops of clear tears fell, he refocused his vision—

The entire world was suddenly different!

Everything around him was exquisitely clear, and even the tiniest dust particles in the air were distinctly visible.

His gaze extended into the distance, his eyesight amplified several times, allowing him to clearly see the textures of the roof tiles far away.

No!

This was absolutely not a transformation of the eyes themselves!

It was the Spiritual Eye Technique!

Zhang Sheng held his breath and gazed intently—only to see countless incredibly tiny, star-dust-like flickering specks of light suddenly appearing in the previously empty environment!

They were ubiquitous, filling every inch of space like air.

Spiritual Qi molecules!

In his Sea of Consciousness, the talent panel refreshed silently.

Zhang Sheng's gaze locked onto the 'Spiritual Eye Technique' line, and his heart pounded wildly:

Spell: Spiritual Eye Technique - First Order (True Intent First Layer: 0.00001%)

Following the Breath Concealment Art, the second Spell had entered the legendary True Intent Realm!

Spells in the True Intent Realm were known as 'Minor Divine Abilities,' almost the ultimate means a Cultivator below the Divine Power Realm could master!

A huge surge of joy coursed through his entire body like an electric current.

Zhang Sheng had no time for anything else, practically teleporting back to his residence.

He quickly took out the ancient Jade Slip from his storage ring, the one Xiao Buyu had given him as 'junk'.

Perhaps the transformation of the Spiritual Eye Technique... could see through its disguise?

However, the warm Jade Slip in his hand, even under the scrutiny of the True Intent-level Spiritual Eye Technique, still appeared ordinary and dull, its texture even inferior to a riverside pebble.

A hint of disappointment welled up in Zhang Sheng's heart, and he held the Jade Slip, somewhat dazed.

It was in this moment of distraction—

He caught it!

Extremely slow, extremely faint, like the gentlest breath... countless imperceptible Spiritual Qi molecules were quietly seeping into the ancient Jade Slip at an unimaginably low speed!

Moreover, the Jade Slip absorbed Spiritual Qi molecules at a specific frequency.

Had his Spiritual Eye Technique not reached the True Intent Realm, and had he not been intently lost in thought at that precise moment, this process, tens of millions of times slower than a snail's crawl, would have been absolutely impossible to discover!

"It can absorb Spiritual Qi molecules... what about spiritual power?" A thought flashed through his mind like lightning.

Zhang Sheng's eyes narrowed, and a wisp of pure spiritual power quietly condensed on his fingertip. Following the same frequency, he carefully touched the surface of the Jade Slip.

"Hiss—"

With a barely audible soft sound, that wisp of spiritual power was instantly devoured by the Jade Slip, vanishing without a trace!

There's a way!

Zhang Sheng's spirits lifted significantly, his heart pounding like a drum.

He no longer hesitated; the spiritual power from his fingertip began to flow continuously like a trickling stream.

This unassuming Jade Slip was like a bottomless abyss, greedily devouring the incoming power, refusing nothing.

"I'd like to see how much you can swallow!" Zhang Sheng's competitive spirit was also aroused, and his spiritual power output suddenly increased.

As spiritual power continuously poured in, an astonishing change occurred—the layer of murky 'patina' on the Jade Slip's surface began to peel and recede visibly, like a receding tide!

Beneath, the jade body, as warm and lustrous as mutton-fat jade, with an inner glow, gradually revealed itself, so exquisite it seemed otherworldly.

Zhang Sheng was ecstatic, and his spiritual power output became even more surging.

It wasn't until the vast spiritual power contained within one of his 'spirit suns' was almost completely drained that this greedy Jade Slip finally stopped absorbing.

At this moment, it was completely renewed, with an inner glow and a warmth to the touch, its texture and spiritual essence far surpassing common second-tier Jade Slips on the market.

Ordinary Jade Slips were merely carriers and would not actively absorb spiritual power... this characteristic, however, was somewhat similar to a jade talisman.

Zhang Sheng took a deep breath, and with immense anticipation and a hint of apprehension, slowly extended his Mental Energy into it.

No obstruction at all!

Buzz—

A massive and ancient flood of Divine Sense information, like a bursting dam, instantly surged into Zhang Sheng's Sea of Consciousness!

The sheer volume and strange structure of the information made his head swell, and it took him a while to recover.

What was recorded within the ancient Jade Slip was actually an extremely special Spell—

The Soul-Startling Thorn!

Its special characteristic was that it was an attack method directly targeting the Divine Soul!

Attacking the Divine Soul?

In Zhang Sheng's knowledge, this was an unheard-of forbidden Domain!

Even more wondrously, when Zhang Sheng had fully absorbed the Divine Sense information within the Jade Slip, the incantation for the Soul-Startling Thorn was deeply imprinted in his Divine Soul, yet the ancient Jade Slip did not turn to dust like ordinary Jade Slips.

It remained perfectly intact, as warm and pristine as ever, lying quietly in his palm like a top-grade blank Jade Slip, even feeling as if it was slowly absorbing the Spiritual Qi in space to repair itself!

This refining technique completely exceeded Zhang Sheng's understanding of existing cultivation techniques.

Zhang Sheng held the Jade Slip, lost in thought.

Xiao Buyu gave it to him as junk, clearly not having discovered its miraculous nature.

The reason was simple—inertial thinking.

Who would have thought that a 'waste jade' from which no information could be detected would require spiritual power to be infused at a specific frequency to unlock it?

In the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall, there were still many similar 'junk' ancient Jade Slips... a bold idea sprouted in Zhang Sheng's mind:

The opportunity to find a treasure seems to be right before his eyes!

His attention quickly returned to the Soul-Startling Thorn itself.

Carefully pondering the incantation, Zhang Sheng was surprised to find that this ancient Spell inherently required no hand seals or incantations!

This was completely different from all modern Spells, which had to rely on hand seals before reaching Perfected State!

Driven by curiosity, Zhang Sheng immediately searched for relevant information through the 'omniscient guide'.

The result shocked him: all ancient Spell Jade Slips excavated from the wilderness ruins recorded Spells that required no hand seals!

However, without exception, their cultivation difficulty was thousands of times higher than modern Spells!

Even if someone fortunately obtained an ancient Legacy, only one in a hundred could truly become a Beginner!

Most of these Jade Slips originated from the 'War of Creation' period, discovered in the forgotten civilization ruins deep within the wilderness.

The omniscient guide's records revealed an intriguing speculation:

Before the rise of human civilization on the current Tianxing Continent, there might have existed an unimaginably glorious ancient cultivation civilization on this vast land.

But for reasons unknown, having encountered some terrifying catastrophe, that civilization completely perished in an extremely short time, leaving behind only ruins everywhere, countless powerful desolate beasts, and the elusive and unpredictable Void Demons wandering in the shadows of the ruins!

Opinions varied widely on the omniscient guide.

Some 'Discontinuity Theorists' believed that after the destruction of the ancient civilization billions of years ago, Ascenders from the Lower Realm came to open up new territories and fight against desolate beasts.

While 'Divine Grant Theorists' scoffed at this, arguing that newly arrived Ascenders would be powerless to survive and develop amidst the surrounding desolate beasts, firmly believing that all of this was the grace and arrangement of the 'Lord of the Tianxing Universe'...