I'm in Yellow Maple Valley, and I have one equipment slot!

"I need all the information about your Thousand Bamboo Sect's founder, the Great Evolution Divine Lord, including his life story, cultivation cave, place of death, and any clues about his legacy, even if it's just rumors, anecdotes, or snippets from ancient books. Find it all for me."

Zhou Yuan's voice was calm, yet carried an undeniable authority, echoing in the quiet room.

"Yes! Yes! I understand! I will do my utmost to collect all relevant records for you, senior!"

Upon hearing this, Jin Jiaozhu was filled with surprise and doubt, wondering why this terrifying Nascent Soul senior would suddenly be interested in the ancestor from ten thousand years ago. However, at this moment, his own life and death were in the hands of the other party.

They dared not be negligent in the slightest, and hurriedly nodded in agreement, their tone extremely respectful.

For the next period of time, Zhou Yuan stayed in this quiet room.

Leader Jin dared not disobey in the slightest and personally supervised the operation, mobilizing the entire power of the Thousand Bamboo Sect. From the main altar's library, the private collections of past leaders and elders, and even the secret vaults of some ancient branches of the sect, a continuous stream of books, jade slips, ancient scrolls, and even some rubbings of broken inscriptions were sent.

Zhou Yuan sat upright on the jade chair covered with soft animal hide, which the leader of the Jin Cult had specially brought over, and began to examine the materials one by one.

He possessed a powerful spiritual sense, a photographic memory, and an extremely fast reading speed, often finishing hundreds of volumes in a single day.

Leader Kim stood by, like the most obedient servant, ready to obey orders at any time, not daring to even breathe loudly.

These materials mostly record the rules of the Thousand Bamboo Sect, the succession of its leaders, important events, and various puppet-making tips, improvement diagrams, and so on.

There are not many records about the founding patriarch, the Great Evolution Divine Lord, and most of them are superficial, nothing more than praising him and proclaiming how he was so powerful in the past, how he used puppetry to dominate the south, and how he forced the major sects to cede the western lands, etc.

Regarding the specific place of cultivation, details of his passing, and the whereabouts of his lineage, the information is either vague or consists of myths and legends fabricated by later generations, making it highly unreliable.

But Zhou Yuan was not discouraged. He knew that since the Great Evolution Divine Lord had chosen to hide, he would not leave any obvious clues.

What he was looking for were those illogical details, those clues that had been hidden by time.

After nearly a month of this, and after going through countless volumes of documents, Zhou Yuan's gaze finally stopped on an ancient manuscript with yellowed paper, worn edges, and seemingly having been read countless times but abandoned in a corner.

This notebook is not an official text, but rather a private notebook of an ancient cultivator from the Thousand Bamboo Sect, recording some sect secrets and his thoughts on puppetry.

On one of the pages, there is a passage that is almost like rambling:

"...I once stumbled upon an abandoned ancient cave with remnants of ancient protective barriers at its entrance, suspected to be remnants from antiquity. I speculate that this is one of the former sites of a 'sanctuary' from thousands of years ago..."

"The sanctuary... has mysteriously disappeared..."

A glint of light flashed in Zhou Yuan's eyes.

In the official records of the Thousand Bamboo Sect, the whereabouts of the "Holy Hall" after the passing of the Great Yan Divine Lord are either vague or stated directly that it was destroyed by natural disasters or internal strife.

However, this private notebook mentions the existence of an abandoned ancient cave that is suspected to be the site of the former church.

This should be it!

Zhou Yuan was overjoyed.

Zhou Yuan left the main hall directly.

A few days later, they arrived at a remote, desolate mountain. Their divine sense spread out like mercury, searching.

"This is it."

Zhou Yuan raised his hand and waved it, unleashing a sharp sword aura that severed the thick, hanging vines in front of him at the roots, clearing them away.

Behind the vines, a dark opening, barely wide enough for one person to pass through, was revealed, almost completely covered by weeds and moss.

There was no obvious restrictive light at the entrance of the cave, but the faint fluctuations of spiritual energy and the feeling of stagnation emanated from there.

Without hesitation, Zhou Yuan stepped into the cave entrance.

The cave was initially narrow and dark, but after walking for about ten zhang (approximately 33 meters), the passage gradually widened, and a seemingly ordinary stone wall appeared in front of us.

However, under Zhou Yuan's divine sense, the stone wall was densely covered with complex and profound restrictive runes. These runes were dim in light, almost blending into the color of the stone wall, and many places showed signs of damage and breakage. Obviously, they had been worn down over a long period of time, and their power had been greatly reduced, but the overall structure was still in operation and had not completely failed.

"A restriction from ten thousand years ago is indeed extraordinary."

Zhou Yuan observed carefully for a moment and then made up his mind.

Although this restriction has been neglected for many years and has become loose, it was still made by someone like the Great Evolution Divine Lord, and its exquisite complexity far surpasses that of ordinary beings.

Forcibly cracking it is not impossible, but it may trigger unknown countermeasures or self-destruct mechanisms.

To be on the safe side, we need to find the key points in the flow of spiritual energy and dismantle them one by one.

He sat cross-legged, condensed his divine sense into fine threads, and carefully probed into the restriction, beginning to analyze its structure as if peeling back layers.

This was an extremely demanding and meticulous task, but fortunately, Zhou Yuan's divine sense was strong enough, and he also had the advantage of his equipment slots to enhance his comprehension. He also had considerable knowledge of formations and restrictions.

It took Zhou Yuan two full hours to finally figure out the main structure of this ancient restriction and find several relatively weak spiritual energy nodes.

He formed hand seals and unleashed several streams of pure magical power, like precise surgical scalpels, striking those key points.

"Buzz..."

The restrictive runes on the stone wall flickered intermittently, emitting a low hum, before their light quickly dimmed and finally vanished completely. The seemingly solid stone wall rippled like water, revealing a deep, downward-facing stone staircase behind it.

Zhou Yuan got up and walked down the stone steps.

At the end of the stone steps, there was another heavy stone door, which also had a restriction, but it was much simpler than the one at the entrance of the cave. Zhou Yuan broke through it in the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.

"Rumble..."

The stone door slowly slid open to one side, revealing the scene behind it.

Behind the stone gate was a huge stone chamber, more than thirty feet square.

The stone chamber was empty, with a few long-lost luminous pearls embedded in the ceiling, casting a dim light. Apart from a gray, simple, and unadorned stone coffin placed in the center of the chamber, there were only a dozen or so puppet remains scattered around, each with a different shape, but most of them were incomplete or even broken.

The air was filled with a musty smell of dust and a faint metallic rust.

Zhou Yuan's gaze first fell on the stone coffin in the center, but he only glanced at it before looking away.

As a time traveler, he naturally knew that the true location of the Great Evolution God's soul was not in that stone coffin, which might be a cenotaph or a cover-up.

His attention was entirely focused on the scattered remains of the puppets.

His divine sense carefully scanned each skeleton. These puppets were made of extraordinary materials, and even after ten thousand years, the exquisite craftsmanship of their creation was still evident. However, their internal structure had long been damaged, and their spiritual cores had dissipated, rendering them truly inanimate objects.

Only one...

Zhou Yuan's gaze finally settled on the corner of the stone chamber, on a giant ape-shaped puppet that was leaning against the stone wall, seemingly having fallen due to an impact, and whose appearance was relatively well preserved.