After the stone door opened, an old and decayed aura floated and rose, dimly lit.
Zhang Ling patted his storage bag, and a moonstone floated out, lighting up with a soft light, illuminating the space about two or three zhang(丈: zhang, a unit of length) ahead.
Drip… drip…
Walking into it, he heard the sound of dripping water. Zhang Ling released his spiritual sense to roughly explore the stone cave.
This seemed to be a natural stone cave with stalactites of varying sizes on the ceiling, dripping water.
He immediately saw a small pool about three zhang(丈: zhang, a unit of length) in size, with clear water, so deep that you couldn't see the bottom.
On both sides of the pool, there were also four identical evil ghost stone sculptures. These sculptures were only about one person tall, with ferocious and menacing expressions, holding white bone forks.
Zhang Ling was initially cautious, but now he was no longer surprised. A spiritual sense exploration revealed that there were no traces of spiritual power fluctuations on them, and these statues were all inanimate objects.
After walking a few steps past the water platform, a huge black jade screen appeared in his eyes, with sacrificial scenes engraved on it using silver lines.
Zhang Ling glanced at it with little interest. The patterns on it were exactly the same as those on the stone door outside. This was also an inanimate object.
Behind the screen was a square space, only about five or six zhang(丈: zhang, a unit of length) in size.
At a glance, Zhang Ling saw a white jade platform against the front stone wall, with an old man in a gray robe sitting cross-legged on it.
At first glance, there was nothing special, but as soon as his spiritual sense swept over him, Zhang Ling felt a sense of danger in his heart.
Suddenly, he felt a dizzy spell, and he involuntarily took a step backward.
But then this feeling disappeared. When he looked at the cross-legged old man again with his spiritual sense, there was no longer the aura he had felt before.
There was no sign of life on him. This person had been dead for a long time.
Zhang Ling calmed his mind. The aura he had felt from this old man could not be fake, so this person must have been a high-level cultivator during his lifetime.
Zhang Ling took a few steps closer and carefully observed the old man. This person had white hair and beard, and was sitting cross-legged with his eyes closed, giving him a somewhat immortal appearance.
As his gaze swept over the old man, Zhang Ling's face lit up with joy. There was a small purple-black bag on his waist.
He did not rashly reach out, but with a flash of spiritual light in his hand, a yellow gust of wind swept towards the old man, and the purple-black storage bag flew into the air, hovering in front of him.
The body of the old man sitting on the jade platform, after being caressed by the breeze, silently turned into specks of dust, leaving only a pile of flying ash on the jade platform.
Although Zhang Ling's face was expressionless, his heart was filled with some waves. No matter how powerful this old man was during his lifetime, he would eventually return to dust after death.
Perhaps he would have such a day too.
Suddenly, Zhang Ling's spiritual sense stirred. He discovered something under the dust. With a wave of his hand, he blew away the dust, and a black wooden tablet appeared on the jade platform where the old man was sitting.
With a thought, the black wooden tablet also floated in front of him. After checking it, it seemed to be an identity token.
Only the three characters 'Ghost King Sect' were engraved on it, and there was no other information. No matter whether spiritual power was injected or spiritual sense was used to explore, the wooden tablet did not respond at all.
Zhang Ling flipped his hand and put the wooden tablet into the storage bag, waiting to study it later. Then, his gaze fell on the purple-black storage bag.
His spiritual sense probed into it, and the space inside was very large. It was also an advanced storage bag, twice as big as Dongfang Ya's storage bag.
The restrictions on it had long disappeared with the death of its master. This storage bag alone was a treasure.
A ray of light flashed on the opening of the storage bag, and a pile of things fell to the ground.
A pile of things suddenly appeared on the ground, emitting various colors of spiritual light, but the next moment these spiritual lights dimmed. Many of them instantly turned gray-black.
Zhang Ling's face stiffened, and his mood sank all of a sudden, but soon, he hid the dejected look on his face and rummaged through the useful things.
The first thing he saw was a piece of jade stone half a person tall, emitting colorful spiritual light.
After probing with his spiritual sense, Zhang Ling frowned. Although the jade stone looked extraordinary, it was a huge spiritual stone block condensed from various attribute spiritual stones.
It seemed that the time this place had been sealed was longer than he thought. Judging from the level of spiritual power on it, most of them were originally mid-grade spiritual stones. He also felt different attribute spiritual powers such as wind, thunder, and ice in it.
Judging from its size, there were at least three hundred mid-grade spiritual stones.
Unfortunately, the spiritual power in it had been condensed into one piece. For cultivators, absorbing the spiritual power in it would be time-consuming to refine the remaining attribute spiritual power, which was extremely wasteful.
However, he still put this huge spiritual stone into the storage bag.
This huge spiritual stone block was still very useful in other aspects, such as charging the formation, or breaking it up and burying it in the spirit field to cultivate spiritual herbs.
Then, with a wave of Zhang Ling's hand, a dusty long sword fell into his hand, covered with rust. Without any spiritual light, it had become a waste product.
Afterward, he found four or five more magical artifacts, all of which had turned into waste products due to the long years. Only a gold and cyan circular shield still had a trace of spiritual light. It had not been scrapped.
Zhang Ling took the shield and knocked on it, making a sound of metal, indicating that it was still very hard.
Spiritual power was injected into it, and a layer of gold and cyan spiritual light appeared on it, but the light only covered its surface, and the shield itself did not change.
Zhang Ling frowned and increased the input of spiritual power. After dozens of breaths, some mysterious runes appeared on it. But it did not activate the shield.
In this situation, Zhang Ling was happy instead. At the same time, he also saw two ancient characters on the inside of the shield.
After careful identification, they were the two ancient characters 'Wu Jin(乌金: Black Gold)'. He was so delighted because, if he was not mistaken, this was a 'magic treasure'.
Although he could not control it now, this was the first magic treasure he had obtained! After playing with it for a while, he reluctantly put the 'Black Gold Shield' carefully into the storage bag.
Then, his gaze fell back on the things on the ground, hoping to find something useful.
However, the remaining things were not valuable. Whether it was the dozen or so jade bottles or some jade boxes, they were either empty or the original things had long dissipated with the passage of time.
Finally, there were more than a dozen old books and jade slips, which were some cultivation methods and secret techniques, and most of them were related to the fire attribute.
It seemed that this old man was a cultivator who specialized in fire attribute cultivation methods. However, some of the books also recorded some casual notes.
Although it was not related to the cultivation method he practiced, it could also be mutually verified. Zhang Ling put away the useful things.
Similarly, the purple-black storage bag was also put into his sleeve.
Then he checked the rest of the place, but this square space only had one passage, which was the one he had entered before. The rest of the place was stone walls, and it seemed to be the end.
