Hunyuan Immortal Sect

Chapter 524 Talisman Incarnation
The wind howled and the rain poured down.

Dark, heavy clouds covered the sky, as if they were about to fall.

As Song Xian passed through the rotating spatial black hole, he felt dizzy and disoriented. Looking around, he saw only boundless darkness. His body was enveloped in an invisible barrier and was being driven by some force to fall rapidly, as if he were passing through a long tunnel.

As the blinding white light surged in, he had already fallen from the rotating spatial black hole.

The weather in this secret space is the same as in the South China Sea, but the world beneath your feet has changed completely, and as far as the eye can see, there is an endless desert.

Abu, Ap, and Nis had arrived earlier and were waiting for him below.

Before long, Afar, the last to enter, also arrived, and the five of them reunited.

“Opening the spatial passage just now has consumed a lot of spiritual energy. Should we recover first before continuing our exploration?” Afar landed beside the group and said.

"This entrance might close at any time. We don't have much time. We need to find the treasure in the secret realm and leave as soon as possible."

Afar frowned slightly: "We don't know if there are any dangers here. We're not in good shape right now, and if we encounter any danger, we might not be able to cope."

“If you are afraid, fellow Daoist, you might as well return to the island first. Why come here to take such a risk?” Abu replied coldly, his attitude very firm.

This Afar was a partner he had found, indicating that the two had previously interacted or cooperated, but he showed no respect whatsoever.

As expected, Afar's face immediately darkened. Golden Core cultivators were already powerful figures in their own right, and could be considered prominent people no matter where they were.

As the leader of the Guiyun Sect, he was surrounded by disciples who were all obsequious and flattering; none of them dared to speak to him like that.

Nice immediately stepped in to smooth things over: "Fellow Daoist Afar's concerns are valid. Everyone has already exhausted a lot of spiritual energy, and if we encounter any trouble, there could indeed be danger. However, Fellow Daoist Abu is also right. Time is of the essence. If we wait until we recover our spiritual energy before searching for treasures, the entrance and exit will be closed by then, and we won't even have a chance to get back."

"Everyone saw what happened just now. After the secret space was opened, the stone pillar collapsed and the altar was shattered. To open it again, we need a lot of manpower and resources to rebuild the restrictions."

"When faced with two evils, choose the lesser. Let's focus on finding the treasure first. If we encounter trouble, we can decide what to do next."

Hearing his words, Afar's expression softened slightly. He knew, of course, that Abu's words made sense, but he disliked his tone and attitude.

Song Xian and Apu naturally had no objections, and both remained silent, offering no comment.

Ap was the kind of person who didn't talk much and was taciturn.

Although he was opinionated, he rarely gave orders to others. Although he had a serious demeanor, he was actually quite gentle in his attitude towards people.

In contrast, Abu is not only cold to people, but also has a very strong personality.

Song Xian collaborated with them on two treasure hunts, both times with Aibu directing the operation and Apu rarely interfering.

Although Song Xian's cultivation level was the lowest among the five and his spiritual power was inferior to theirs, he was the one least worried about his lack of spiritual power.

He carried several bottles of century-old spiritual milk with him, which could instantly restore spiritual energy to its full potential. When everyone's spiritual energy was severely depleted, he was even the one with the greatest advantage.

As Abu's escape light rose, the others quickly followed, and the group soon arrived in front of a majestic mountain.

This mountain is about a hundred feet high and stretches for a long time. It is bare and has no green plants, but it is not an artificial mountain built by human hands.

Its appearance in the seemingly endless desert was both abrupt and conspicuous.

"Fellow Daoist Aibu, could this mountain be the location of the hidden treasure?" As the group landed in front of the mountain, Niss asked.

"Based on the clues I have, it should be so." Abu stepped forward and groped along the shiny stone wall. After a short while, he found the mechanism.

He suddenly pushed against the stone wall, and the stone block that was originally tightly fitted was pushed in. There was a dull thud, as if the door frame had been pulled open. The stone wall slid open from the middle to both sides, revealing a wide stone staircase that stretched down.

Abu went straight down the stone steps, with the others following behind.

The sound of footsteps echoed through the stone steps, and soon they reached the end of the steps.

What comes into view is a huge and wide natural cave, with sharp stone pillars hanging from the ceiling, as if it were a trap set up by someone, ready to fall at any moment and take the life of any intruder.

It turns out that the inside of the mountain had already been hollowed out.

"Zizzi."

"Zizzi."

Just as everyone entered the cave, faint cries came from all directions, and in the pitch-black cave, pairs of blood-red eyes appeared.

The flapping wings of numerous bats made a hissing sound, and a large amount of black mist spread from their bodies, surging towards the group.

Song Xian remained outwardly calm, but inwardly he was filled with astonishment and suspicion, wondering where these strange bats had come from.

With his eyesight, he could clearly see that although the swarms of bats coming from all directions had red eyes, their bodies were unusual. Their bodies seemed to be ancient and petrified, and their whole bodies were coated with a layer of grayish-white like rocks.

But that wasn't the strangest thing. What truly alarmed him was that he hadn't noticed the bats at first. He only discovered them when he heard the hissing sound of their wings flapping and saw the crimson light in their eyes. With his divine sense, this was almost impossible. He had already used all his divine sense to search the stone-stairs tunnel before entering and hadn't found anything unusual.

Because using his divine sense to its fullest extent was very taxing and couldn't be sustained for long, he withdrew it after only examining the internal situation once.

However, as a precaution, everything within a radius of five hundred feet was under the influence of his divine sense.

However, he did not notice the approaching swarm of bats.

At this moment, he was also unable to sense the spiritual energy fluctuations emanating from these bats.

Not only was he unaware, but the other four were also oblivious.

The moment the bat appeared, the expressions of the group subtly changed.

Thick black mist emanated from the bodies of numerous bats and surged towards the group.

Abu made the first move. With a flick of his wrist, a golden flag appeared in his palm. As spiritual energy flowed in, the flag shone brightly, and countless wind blades spun and condensed into a giant tornado, which grew larger and larger as it took shape.

Wherever the wind blade tornado passed, the thick black mist was absorbed into it, and huge wind blades shot out from the tornado, like gleaming, cold blades.

In an instant, the bats were cut to pieces.

More than a hundred bats were shredded into pieces by countless blasting wind blades, yet not a drop of blood spilled from their bodies.

After a flash of black light, the scattered bat corpses transformed into sheets of talisman paper.

The black fog dissipated, leaving only a pile of white scraps of paper scattered on the ground.

"No wonder my divine sense couldn't detect these things; they were actually cursed paper avatars." Afar picked up a piece of paper from the ground and frowned.

A cultivator's divine sense can only detect living things, such as tables and chairs in a room; it cannot detect them.

Since this bat was formed from talisman paper, it had neither life characteristics nor spiritual energy, so it could not be detected by divine sense.

Song Xian also picked up a piece of scrap paper and examined it closely. He saw black symbols drawn on the paper.

He had never seen such a secret technique before, and even his True Eye of Observation couldn't detect its secrets, which shows how exquisite this secret technique is.

Of course, his True Eye is not omnipotent, but illusions and concealment techniques cannot be hidden from him.

“This paper talisman was definitely cast by someone, which means that the people here have already discovered us. He probably used this technique to test us, so we must be careful,” Nice said in a low voice.

Without his reminder, the others had already thought of this. Abu snorted coldly, "That cowardly rat hiding his head and tail, we'll drag him out later."

Although he said that, his actions spoke louder than words. He had already poured his spiritual power into the golden flag of the magic weapon, forming a faint white barrier around his body.

The others also used their magic to protect themselves, and Song Xian pulled out a fiery red fan from his hand.

This was obtained when he explored the secret realm with Han Yuan. It was called the Fire Pattern Fan and has now been refined by him, who left his divine thoughts within it.

This is a double-heaven fire-attribute magic weapon, capable of converting spiritual power into fire-attribute attacks, which is compatible with the cultivation method he practices.

The Second Heaven Magic Treasure is a low-grade magic treasure, with a conversion rate of one to ten between spiritual power and physical power.

If you pour a thousand points of spiritual power into it, you can unleash an attack with ten thousand points of fire attribute power.

Song Xian currently possesses three magical treasures, the first of which is this Fire Pattern Fan, which was the first magical treasure he obtained.

Secondly, a golden serpent staff; thirdly, a white robe.

The latter two items were obtained by him and several other independent cultivators in the Hundred Thousand Mountains of the Muhe Grassland during their treasure hunt.

The Golden Serpent Staff is also a low-grade magic weapon, only at the first level, and it doesn't come with any attributes.

The white robe is a triple-layered magic treasure, belonging to the auxiliary category, used to conceal one's appearance.

He poured his spiritual energy into the Fire Pattern Fan, which then emitted light and formed a fiery red circular shield that enveloped him.

At the same time, Ap and Nis also took out their respective magical artifacts.

Ap brought out a large golden bell, while Nis used a black and gold bowl.

Of the five, only Afar did not take out any magical artifacts or use any spells to protect himself.

Abu still led the way, with the others following behind him at a leisurely pace, heading into the dark interior of the mountain.

(End of this chapter)