Wet viviparity

Chapter 755 Treasure Mansion, Little Thorn Gorge
Upon reaching the hilly coast, the old barbarian did not linger there.

He rushed to send Black Owl here so that he could investigate the Mirage Realm as soon as possible and retrieve the Yin Yang Golden Talisman. As for the time it took for Black Owl to adapt to the Hill of Earth without his protection, that was none of his concern.

To reiterate, Black Owl has been effectively expelled from the family and will now live as a demon, having no blood relation with him whatsoever.

After giving a few instructions, he left behind a small booklet recording the local customs and scenery of the hills and mountains, and then the old barbarian rushed into the clouds and fled westward.

Ordinary people would need several days to adjust to such a desolate and lonely environment, which is similar to an ancient and untouched place. However, Black Owl is different. He has a whole plan in his hands.

Whether it's the Dharma of the Wealth King, the Zen practice of Avici Hell, the Buddhist secret physical cultivation technique of the Primordial Yang Child Skill, or breaking through the Jia Xiang chapter in the "Book of Six Jia Spiritual Flight Strategy," these tasks are undeniably demanding.

However, before that, we need to find a place with good feng shui to live in.

After carefully examining the old barbarian's booklet for a while, and then finding the geography and map collection left by the old man in the Shuhan Residence, Black Owl had a general understanding of this place by comparing the two.

In general, Diqiu is a small island at the end of the East China Sea, a long and narrow territory that is about a thousand miles wide and four or five thousand miles long.

In prehistoric times, the entire area of ​​Diqiu was a much larger territory, and it was not called Diqiu at that time, but Daxu. Later, during the reigns of Emperor Yuanhuang and Emperor Tianhuang, most of the territory was gradually submerged by the sea, forming the present-day narrow island of Diqiu.

I've heard that a thousand miles east of Diqiu, there lies a vast blue sea, one of the four cardinal directions of heaven and earth.

Near the hill, there are three spirit islands, which were formed from the tops of the three highest mountains that were not submerged after the Great Ruins were submerged. These are Li Mao, Da A, and Dong Ji Islands.

Dongji Island is the Daoist temple of Bai Ranfeng, a terrestrial immortal of the Zhenling Sect.

A little further offshore, Black Owl saw an even more expansive wasteland, where the soil was hardened and cracked, with crisscrossing fissures that were ankle-deep.

A great river flows across the wasteland, deep and dark, dividing it into two large sections. This river is the Blackwater River on the hill.

Black Owl flew across the plain for a while. With his current powerful physique, he felt a chill after staying here for so long. Fortunately, he could still hold on, so he ventured deeper into the wasteland and traveled a long way.

According to the booklet given by the old barbarian, there is a small thorny gorge on the banks of the Blackwater River in Diqiu.

The booklet records that this place was originally the home of the Ji Hu, one of the Nine Hu Birds in the ancient Great Ruins Kingdom, in ancient times. It remains a secret place with deep underground veins, waiting to be discovered by future generations.

As for what the Great Ruins Ancient Kingdom was and what the Nine-Hawk Bird was, the old barbarian did not specify in the booklet, and there seemed to be a sense of taboo between the lines.

As Black Owl traveled along the Blackwater River, deep into the wilderness, for over a hundred miles, he indeed came across a gorge. At the gorge's entrance, the two walls stood steep and imposing, with jagged rocks resembling halberds and swords.

The area was covered with a layer of grayish-white frost, which shimmered with a cold luster under the pale light.

Upon reaching this point, Black Owl couldn't help but tighten his cloak. The withered, low grass beneath his feet struggled to stay there, clinging to the ground and trembling in the strong wind. Standing here, one couldn't discern any feng shui about this place.

"If there are ley lines in the earth, how could this place be so cold and harsh? Are the contents of this booklet outdated?!"

Black Owl looked back at the desolate wilderness outside the canyon. The north wind was biting, cutting like a knife to his face. He didn't waste any time and went straight into the canyon.

In any case, let's find a place to settle Shu Hanju first. Then he can live in the Spirit Mansion and be completely independent, regardless of what the outside world is like.

Inside the gorge, the cold was biting, several times colder than outside.

Black Owl comforted himself, saying, "An extraordinary place naturally has an extraordinary climate."

In such a cold canyon, in order to conserve his yang energy and body temperature, he no longer rode the Tengshe Qipo Baoxiang to travel.

Ahead of him, the road on the cliff was initially quite wide, but it became narrower and narrower as he went further.

As they ventured deeper into the path, Black Owl would occasionally look up. The two cliffs above the gorge seemed to be touching, forming a narrow strip of sky. The clouds were gloomy and distant, as if from another world.

In the winding rock path on the cliff, Black Owl walked sideways. As he moved forward, he could occasionally feel dark springs seeping out. The water was warm at first, but gradually turned cold. As it flowed down to the ice cap below, it froze into icicles hanging down like fangs.

The sight of the flowing spring relieved Black Owl; wherever there are sacred lands and treasure mountains, warm springs and flowing water are a clear sign.

After traveling for about a few miles, they were already more than a thousand feet above the ground when the situation suddenly changed.

On the cliff path ahead, there is a wide cave, which is a semi-open space of several acres. It is wide at the top and narrow in the middle. Inside, there are piles of rocks, and hidden among them are broken stone altars, half buried in the ground. The shape is ancient and simple, obviously not used by modern people.

As Black Owl ventured into the cave, the cold wind outside was blocked, and he immediately felt a slight warmth on his body. He circulated his Yang Qi throughout his body, completing a full cycle, and felt greatly invigorated. Walking further in, past piles of rubble, he could see faint carvings on the innermost rock wall. They were neither words nor pictures, but upon closer inspection, they resembled strange feather patterns, interspersed with sharp claw marks, penetrating deep into the stone marrow.

"Could it be related to the thornbirds that used to live here?"

If this were on land, Black Owl might not have made this connection, but this hill is located at the end of the East Sea, and perhaps no one has visited it even once in ten thousand years. Everything inside has been perfectly preserved in its original state.

After pondering for a long time in front of the wall, Black Owl still couldn't figure it out.

Suddenly, he felt a chill run down his spine. He looked around and found the place deserted, with only the sound of the wind whistling through the empty cave, like the mournful cries of birds at night. This inexplicably filled him with a sense of loneliness and desolation.

"That's it."

Black Owl thought to himself.

He didn't come here for sightseeing; there's no need for him to find a perfect sacred mountain or blessed land to settle down in.

Having made up his mind, Black Owl silently channeled his Yang Qi, sweeping the wind from his palms through the cave, moving all the scattered rocks away and sending them all into the deep, secluded gorge ahead, leaving only the broken altars for future study in his spare time.

Soon, a large area of ​​flat land was cleared out from the several-acre empty space.

Once the site was completed, Black Owl took out the fist-sized, exquisitely crafted Mustard Seed Mansion—Shuhan Residence.

The moment the object left the bag, it sensed Black Owl's intention and trembled slightly in his palm, like an ice spirit awakening, its cold light contained within.

With a "humph," the black owl exhaled a stream of breath, lifting up the Mustard Seed Mansion.

Just as he was about to settle his humble abode here, he suddenly felt a premonition and walked to the edge of the cave, which was also the edge of the stone platform hanging above the gorge.

He looked toward the cliff not far away, directly opposite. Although it was obscured by frost and mist, he could vaguely sense a watchful gaze from the shadows.

After waiting for a while and seeing no movement from the other side, Black Owl decided to first secure his own Shuhan Residence. By the time the time came, this place would be his home, so he had nothing to fear from petty thieves. He then gently gestured to Mustard Seed Mansion and whispered, "Rise!"

In an instant, the micro-management spun around and flew towards the narrow gorge between the two cliffs outside the cave.

The ice crystal plaque, barely an inch in size, suddenly shone brightly. The vermilion veins within the mansion, like red snakes and earthworms reviving, meandered and spread from the cold walls and icy ground. The three ancient seal characters "Shuhanju" were as red as blood, shining brilliantly.

The translucent ice silk, as clear as a cicada's wing, grows taller and spreads rapidly in the wind.

In an instant, the ice silk transformed into four crystal walls, sparkling and shimmering with light, with wisps of cold mist rising from them.

The iron couch, the size of a chess piece, flashed with dark light, expanded in the wind, returned to its original size, and landed steadily inside the ice wall.

Inside the Lingfu Mingtang, a sudden burst of light appeared, then scattered into hundreds and thousands of ice crystals, which roared and rose straight up to the dome. With a "clinking" sound, they instantly condensed into hundreds of crystal-clear ice spikes of varying lengths, hanging down like a forest of swords, illuminating the entire mansion.

The most peculiar thing is the location of the Chaotic Pool within the mansion.

The pool bottom shimmered with light, dazzling and brilliant. Eighteen columns of nectar containing various strange and precious objects burst into the air, their water clear and blue, radiating a spiritual glow.

The water column rose several meters high, spraying out a fine, sweet rain that fell into the pool, creating ripples. The refreshing air spread out, slightly dispelling the biting cold in the surroundings.

In just a few breaths, the entire Shuhan Residence stood prominently at the top of the precipice of Xiaoci Gorge.

The ice crystal walls and hundreds of hanging icicles refract the pale light from the gorge top, casting hazy, shimmering shadows on the dark canyon walls, like a cold moon reflected in water, further enhancing the place's profound mystery.

The black owl landed in front of the mansion, admiring it with satisfaction for a long time. Then, it activated a bit of the spirit within the mansion and said again, "Merge!"

In an instant, the ancient cold energy within the Spirit Mansion connected with the extreme cold spiritual energy within the Little Thorn Gorge. The two interacted and gradually mixed together, like a dragon and tiger mating, weaving together a mysterious forbidden technique. Slowly, it formed a barrier on the Little Thorn Gorge, isolating the desolate north wind from the outside.

Standing before the Black Owl's independent mansion, the hem of his robe fluttered beneath his cloak, his figure reflected on the shimmering ice wall, a stark contrast to the ancient, desolate gorge below.

This completed spirit palace seems to be the only pristine and isolated place beside the Blackwater River on this hill.

Black Owl shifted his gaze from the cloud-covered wall to the ice crystal plaque of Shuhan Residence. With a thought, the three ancient seal characters on the plaque immediately changed to "Hanming Treasure Mansion".

(End of this chapter)