Hunyuan Immortal Sect

Chapter 480 Forbidden Treasure
As Song Xian was pondering, a stone statue attacked him, swinging its stone axe and crashing down on the fire shield he had gathered.

The fiery shield enveloped him like an inverted bowl, and when the stone axe struck it, the shield did not react.

Song Xian manipulated the remaining fireballs, instantly engulfing the stone statue once more.

Seeing the stone statue, which had been shattered into pieces by the fireball, come back to life and its red eyes still glowed, a sudden thought flashed through his mind, reminding him of the time when he and Han Yuan and the others explored the secret realm together.

That was many years ago, when I went through a strange stone wall to a secret place. I encountered a similar guard then, except that the one I met was a puppet.

I still remember that the puppet was extremely difficult to deal with, and its strength was even greater than that of the stone statue. The puppet not only had thick skin and flesh, but it could also cast spells.

On the surface, the doll and the stone statue have nothing in common, and they are different in both their attack methods and characteristics.

The only similarity is that both are inanimate objects, and both have eyes that emit an eerie red light.

At that time, the group was also engaged in a fierce battle. In the end, Han Yuan discovered the flaw and attacked the puppet with his divine sense.

According to his deduction, the reason why the puppet could move freely was because a remnant soul that could control its movements was hidden between its eyes.

Just as Song Xian was about to try out the Soul-Shocking Technique, a loud shout suddenly came from his left.

"Do not attack their bodies. Their weakness is the remnant soul in their eyes. You can destroy them by attacking with your divine sense."

He turned his head and saw that light was gathering between Taylor's forehead, and a bright beam of light shot out from his forehead like a sharp sword, piercing straight into the eyes of the stone statue.

Without any sound of impact, the red light flashing in the statue's eyes flickered for a moment, like a flame being blown by a strong wind, and quickly went out. The next moment, the statue seemed to have lost its life and fell straight down.

Upon seeing this, Thor and Huang Jie were both invigorated and then each used their divine sense techniques to attack the stone statues.

All of them were at the late Foundation Establishment stage and had lived for over a hundred years. Generally, people at this level of cultivation, even if they hadn't cultivated any spiritual sense techniques, would at least know some kind of spiritual sense attack method.

Because the method of attacking with divine sense is unlike various elemental spells, which require the possession of the corresponding elemental spiritual root to cultivate.

Spiritual attack techniques can be learned regardless of aptitude or talent; generally, high-level cultivators will master at least one spiritual attack technique.

In Song Xianzhen's discerning eyes, he could clearly see the strength of the spiritual attack techniques of the several people.

Taylor is the most skilled among them, and his spiritual power is also the strongest among the three, with 2600 points. This is obviously due to his cultivation of some powerful spiritual power technique, which makes his spiritual power far exceed that of ordinary people.

Thor and Huang Jie both possessed spiritual power at the average level of cultivators, making it clear at a glance that they had not cultivated any spiritual power techniques.

Seeing that the three of them had used their divine sense techniques, he couldn't hold back either, so he also launched a divine sense attack. The Soul-Shocking Technique was silent, invisible, and formless, and it attacked the eyes of the stone statue. He could clearly feel a resistance resisting his divine sense, just like a sludge block the flow of water in a pipe.

As his spiritual attack intensified, the resistance quickly dissipated, and at the same time, the red light flickering in the statue's eyes completely vanished.

On the left, Taylor had already dealt with two stone statues using his divine sense. Looking back, he saw that Song Xian had silently destroyed the remnant soul of one of the stone statues. The muscles at the corners of his eyes twitched slightly, but this expression only flashed by. The next moment, he returned to his original appearance and turned to deal with the other stone statue.

Soon, the twelve stone statues collapsed to the ground under the attack of the four people's divine senses.

Although these stone statues were quite powerful and possessed near-immortal healing abilities, they were completely helpless against this kind of spiritual attack and had no means of resistance. Therefore, the group easily resolved these troubles without much effort.

"Fellow Daoist Taylor, how did you discover the flaws in these stone statues?" Song Xian looked at Taylor beside him with curiosity.

“I encountered these guards before during a treasure hunt, so I know their weaknesses,” Taylor replied calmly.

"Does this fellow Daoist know how these stone statues were made? Why did they come to life as soon as we entered?"

"As far as I know, this refining method is a relatively ancient technique that has been lost to time. This refining secret method requires the cultivator's soul to be fused with the puppet. As for why they came back to life, it may be because they sensed the spiritual energy on our bodies, or perhaps, when we attacked the restriction just now, we awakened the residual soul within them."

Taylor walked forward as he spoke, pushing open the heavy stone door at the end of the courtyard, revealing another spacious courtyard.

However, there were no stone statues standing in the courtyard, but the bluestone floor of the courtyard was engraved with blood-red patterns that looked like ghostly talismans, which was obviously some kind of restriction.

The four of them stood still in front of the courtyard, and none of them dared to step in.

Taylor tilted his head slightly and glanced at the group, his gaze conveying a clear message: he wanted to know who would volunteer to go and investigate.

But no one paid attention to the meaning in his eyes; Song Xian and Huang Jie remained silent, seemingly ignoring it.

"Now that we've come this far, there's no reason to turn back. Fellow Daoists, let's move forward together!" Seeing that the two remained silent, Thor coughed slightly and offered his suggestion before walking forward.

Taylor followed closely behind, while Huang Jie glanced at Song Xian expressionlessly before also going inside.

The four of them used defensive spells to protect themselves and entered the courtyard.

The courtyard was eerily quiet, save for the faint echoes of a few footsteps.

Whether it was because the courtyard was too quiet or because the stone slabs were made of a special material, the sound of their footsteps seemed unusually loud, echoing all around, as if an army was running at full speed.

This made all four of them stop in their tracks, filled with doubt. Just then, the blood-red patterns, which looked like ghostly scribbles, carved on the ground of the courtyard suddenly emitted a faint light and then seemed to come alive and move around.

Blood-red threads spread from the ground.

Seeing this unexpected turn of events, the group quickly retreated from the courtyard.

The crimson patterns engraved on the ground shone brighter and brighter, and countless crimson threads emerged from the ground, gathering in mid-air and vaguely forming a human shape.

The four stood outside the courtyard, watching the commotion inside, their expressions varied, unsure whether to attack the gathering of the blood-red threads or leave immediately.

Because they didn't know what it was, none of the four dared to make a move. Just as they were hesitating, the blood-red patterns engraved in the courtyard suddenly stopped moving, and the light they were emitting also abruptly stopped.

The faint human-shaped object formed by the blood-red threads immediately disintegrated, turning into blood threads that scattered in the blink of an eye, and even the blood threads disappeared without a trace.

The courtyard returned to its previous state, as if everything that had just happened was merely an illusion.

Seeing this, the four of them exchanged glances, all filled with surprise and uncertainty.

The restriction had clearly been activated, but then it abruptly stopped without warning, leaving everyone puzzled. "It's probably because it's been around for too long, causing the restriction to lose some of its effectiveness, and thus failing to fully solidify," Taylor said slowly after a moment of contemplation, then added, "It's also possible that the restriction itself was incomplete."

"This restriction seems quite powerful. Fortunately, it failed, otherwise it would have been a real problem." Huang Jie's eyes flickered slightly, his words revealing his apprehension.

“Now that the restriction has expired, let’s go!” Thor didn’t continue the conversation and strode into the courtyard.

Song Xian remained silent.

The four of them stepped into the inner room again, passed through the courtyard, and came to the end. They pushed open the heavy stone door and saw an ordinary blue brick house, which looked like a farmer's hut.

In addition to a stone coffin, there are three black cabinets arranged in a row inside the room.

The three cabinets and the stone coffin glowed faintly, forming a semi-transparent light curtain that enveloped them.

Upon seeing the layout of the room, Song Xian's heart skipped a beat, and a bad premonition arose within him.

Every time he encountered a place like this, a secret realm containing a stone coffin, nothing good ever came of it. The first time, he was almost possessed by Dong Chenxuan, and the second time, he encountered an incredibly powerful guardian statue and almost lost his life on the spot.

Recalling those two encounters, he felt increasingly uneasy, his eyes fixed on the stone coffin as if afraid that something might suddenly jump out.

The other three, however, did not feel any danger at all. Although they were also somewhat wary, they were much more relaxed than him, and their eyes were filled with joy.

Thor was the first to walk to the stone coffin, reaching out his hand towards the transparent light screen, his spiritual power flowing into it continuously.

Impacted by the spiritual energy, the restrictions on the stone coffin gradually deformed. The other three stood behind him, quietly watching him break the restrictions.

Before long, the transparent light screen shattered like a mirror, and Taylor and Huang Jie unconsciously craned their necks to look ahead, like two turtles about to peck at food.

Song Xian quietly stepped back, staring warily at the stone coffin.

With a soft cracking sound, the restriction shattered, and the coffin lid flipped open. At the same time, Song Xian's pupils contracted, and he quickly retreated.

Noticing his movement, Taylor and Huang Jie, though confused, assumed something had happened and instinctively retreated. Only Thor remained unmoved, turning back to look at the three of them with a mixture of wariness and suspicion in his eyes.

Taylor and Huang Jie also turned to look at Song Xian, and in an instant, all three of their eyes met on him.

At this moment, Song Xian also saw the contents of the stone coffin. There were no ghosts or dramatic changes as he had imagined; there was only a skeleton.

It turned out he was overthinking things. The moment he saw the coffin lid open without any wind, he immediately thought of his previous two adventures with the stone coffin and naturally had a stress response.

Unexpectedly, the stone coffin was overturned only because the restriction was broken and the spiritual power within Thor's body surged.

"When the coffin lid was opened just now, I mistakenly thought that something strange had happened inside the stone coffin." Seeing that the three of them were looking at him with puzzled expressions, Song Xian felt a little embarrassed, but he still kept a straight face.

"I see. I was wondering if Fellow Daoist Su had sensed some danger."

Thor rarely smiled, having successfully broken the stone coffin's seal. With the treasure right in front of him, he was in high spirits.

Besides the skeleton inside the stone coffin, there was also a high-level storage bag, which was obviously the person's personal belongings. This person's cultivation level must have been quite high before his death. To be able to set up such a powerful restriction and array, his cultivation level should not be lower than that of a Golden Core cultivator.

The valuables he left behind must have been quite substantial.

Huang Jie and Taylor relaxed, and the three of them walked forward to examine the skeleton.

Thor took the opportunity to grab the storage bag.

The skeleton in the stone coffin, apart from the fact that the flesh and blood on its body had melted away, was white and smooth as new, without any trace of decay. The robe covering its body was somewhat rotten, indicating that it had been dead for many years.

After Thor took the storage bag from the sarcophagus, the three men focused their attention on him. Although no one spoke, their meaning was clear.

"Let's see what treasures are in this storage bag first?" Thor naturally understood what the three of them meant, and with a smile, he opened the storage bag and took out the items inside one by one.

This is just an ordinary personal storage bag, filled with all sorts of things, including various cultivation materials, talismans, and spirit stones. The most valuable item among them is undoubtedly a golden staff.

This staff is entirely golden, with a snake-shaped ornament on top; it is a genuine magical artifact.

The four people looked at the items in the storage bag with different expressions, because the items were not of equal value and it was difficult to divide them fairly.

“There are three more cabinets here. Since they are all protected by restrictions, there must be treasures inside. Let’s break the restrictions first, take out all the contents, and then discuss how to distribute them.”

After a moment of silence, Taylor finally spoke. As the organizer of the team, he had a certain amount of authority, and what he said was reasonable. Song Xian and Huang Jie naturally couldn't refuse, and both nodded.

At this moment, Thor replied with a smile, "There are exactly three cabinets, one for each of you three. Let's see how our luck is going."

Taylor glanced at him, then stepped forward: "Alright, I'll go first."

After saying that, he stretched out his palm toward the semi-transparent light screen, and his spiritual power surged into it. As time passed, the transparent light screen gradually twisted and deformed. After a soft cracking sound, the restriction shattered, the cabinet door opened wide, and a black book was placed inside.

Taylor reached out and took out the book, which had five large characters on it: Qian Yuan Jin Zhuan Gong.

This turned out to be a high-level cultivation technique book, and the expressions of the group of people looking at the book varied.

Song Xian was slightly disappointed. He had thought there would be some special treasure in the cabinet, but it turned out to be just a cultivation manual. He already had two top-level cultivation manuals, the Profound Heaven Fusion Fire Technique and the Desolate Heaven Expansion Knowledge Technique, so he didn't care about other cultivation manuals at all.

It's unclear what the original owner's motives were, but instead of putting the cultivation manual in a storage bag, they deliberately set up a restriction to hide it inside, seemingly without finding it troublesome.

He felt that the technique was useless, but others didn't think so.

Seeing Taylor take out a book of martial arts techniques, Thor and Huang Jie's eyes lit up and they moved closer to Taylor.

For independent cultivators, a high-level cultivation technique suitable for their own cultivation level is far more important than spirit stones and pills, and even the most valuable magic treasure in their storage bag cannot compare.

After all, spirit stones, pills, and magic treasures are all external items, consumables. High-level cultivation techniques, however, are rare and indispensable, determining the upper limit of one's cultivation path.

(End of this chapter)