Zhang Ling swept the thirty-odd people present with his divine sense, instantly gauging their strength.
The middle-aged male cultivator with the 'eight' shaped mustache had crossed paths with him once before.
This was the Elder Jiang of Myriad Elephant City who had been drawn to him when the Sky Abyss Token in his possession had emitted an abnormal fluctuation before the opening of the Sky Abyss.
He wondered why these people had suddenly come to this place.
With some doubt, Zhang Ling glanced at the yellow-clad female cultivator beside him and asked, "May I know who this fairy is?"
"Allow Jiang to introduce you, friend. This is Junior Sister Su from the Purple Sun Sect," Jiang Hao said with a smile as he introduced the female cultivator beside him. The female cultivator also smiled gracefully at Zhang Ling and replied, "This little girl, Su Yu'er, greets Fellow Daoist Zhang."
Zhang Ling was slightly taken aback. This female cultivator looked to be in her early thirties, but her face was very delicate and she was also at the mid-stage of the Golden Core realm. He was not surprised by her cultivation level, but rather by her identity as a cultivator from the Purple Sun Sect.
The Ten Great Sects were the top forces of the human race in the Flowing Cloud Sea, each with a Grand Cultivator in the late stage of the Nascent Soul realm overseeing them. But when it came to which sect was currently the most powerful, it would be the Purple Sun Sect and the Sacred Demon Gate of the Demonic Path.
It was said that the Purple Sun Sect had more than ten Nascent Soul realm cultivators alone.
After the three exchanged a few pleasantries, Jiang Hao revealed the purpose of their visit.
It turned out that these people had accepted a special mission from Myriad Elephant City. Their sudden stop on Fire Cloud Island was because they had sensed his return. Jiang Hao wanted to pull him in to carry out the mission together.
As for what the mission was, they did not say. In fact, Zhang Ling had also been planning to go to Myriad Elephant City during this time.
Originally, his plan was to refine the Mind Soothing Powder, then go to Myriad Elephant City to resist the beast tide and establish some merit in exchange for a top-grade spiritual vein cave. After the beast tide passed, he could cultivate in seclusion and prepare to form his Nascent Soul.
Jiang Hao and Su Yu'er exchanged a glance, seemingly communicating through sound transmission. Jiang Hao patted his storage bag and took out a jade token, waving it as he said.
"Now, all of our human cultivators are working together to resist the beast tide. There are quite a few cultivators gathered in Myriad Elephant City, with disciples from other sects and rogue cultivators gathering here."
"Although the large-scale beast tide has not yet approached Myriad Elephant City, they have resisted more than a dozen waves of scattered beast groups in the past few months. The first line of defense in the desolate region has completely collapsed. Now, the area from Myriad Elephant City to the desolate region has become a battlefield. The large and small islands, sects, and rogue cultivator forces have all been involved. The Ten Great Sects and Myriad Elephant City have issued a call to arms, and we high-level cultivators are naturally no exception."
Zhang Ling glanced at the jade token in Jiang Hao's hand and saw the symbols of the Ten Great Sects and Myriad Elephant City on it. At the same time, his divine sense sensed a pressure within it.
This pressure was not weaker than the spiritual pressure of a Nascent Soul realm cultivator, which made his heart sink. He instantly understood the purpose of this token. This might be a specially made summons token.
It was said that during past resistances against the beast tide, the Ten Great Sects and Myriad Elephant City would jointly issue a summons to many human forces. Any human cultivator who saw it would have to temporarily obey orders.
This summons token was also a deterrent. Its greatest effect was to deter high-level cultivators like him who had reached the Golden Core realm. As for those in the Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment stages, they naturally did not have the strength to resist.
He did not expect that this person would have a summons token in his hand. It seemed that Jiang Hao's status in Myriad Elephant City was not simple. Ordinary elders would not possess a summons token.
Zhang Ling still confirmed by asking, "This is the summons token of Myriad Elephant City?"
"That's right, Fellow Daoist recognizes it. The situation is special now. Jiang is fortunate to hold a special position in Myriad Elephant City and was assigned a summons token," Jiang Hao's answer confirmed his guess. As he spoke, he took out a cyan jade slip.
"A powerhouse like Fellow Daoist, who is in the late stage of the Golden Core realm, naturally has some special considerations. But rest assured, the sects and immortal cities will not arbitrarily order us around. As long as Fellow Daoist Zhang joins our team to carry out the mission together, you will receive a considerable reward upon completion, and even some rare spiritual objects can be exchanged for."
As Jiang Hao spoke, he threw the jade slip in his hand over.
Zhang Ling expressionlessly flicked his finger, stopping the flying jade slip in front of him. A wisp of divine sense entered it to check the information inside.
There was a lot of information inside. The first thing he saw was a passionate and stirring speech. The general meaning was that with the outbreak of turbid mist and the invasion of the beast tide, human cultivators should work together to resist it.
The information that followed was much simpler and clearer, recording more than a dozen lists. It listed many spiritual medicines, elixirs, magical treasures, secret techniques, and so on. It basically included all the resources needed by cultivators.
Zhang Ling was also delighted after seeing this information. It was indeed similar to the information he had learned. Every time the beast tide broke out, these immortal cities and sects would take out some spiritual objects and other precious treasures to reward the cultivators who resisted the beast tide.
Of course, to exchange for treasures, one had to establish merit. Simply put, it meant putting in more effort to hunt down wild beasts. Therefore, Myriad Elephant City had recently released many missions in the past two to three months. As long as the mission was completed, there would be a certain amount of merit points, which could be exchanged for the treasures on the list.
Among them, there were three lists specifically for Golden Core realm cultivators.
After reading the list, Zhang Ling also coveted the treasure ranked first on one of the lists, which was the Nascent Soul Pill that Golden Core realm cultivators dreamed of.
There were also many rare things such as ancient treasures. There were also several places for the high-level spiritual vein cave that he was looking for, but the merit points required for exchange were not small.
After Zhang Ling finished reading the jade slip, he returned it to Jiang Hao. Then, he asked this person about some related matters, and Jiang Hao answered them one by one.
After considering for a moment, Zhang Ling nodded and agreed to join their team to carry out the mission together. He was going to Myriad Elephant City anyway, so it would not hurt to carry out the mission directly, although it was a bit rushed. Moreover, Jiang Hao had taken out the summons token, so he could not object to avoid causing trouble.
"Haha, with Fellow Daoist joining us, our mission will be easier to complete. By the way, this is a special identity token that can record the cultivator's merit points. With this token, you can exchange for the treasures on the list in Myriad Elephant City," Jiang Hao said with great joy, and took out a bronze token and handed it over.
"Time is tight, Brother Zhang, do you need to prepare for a while? We are about to set off."
"Oh, is the mission so urgent? Then please wait a moment, let me prepare," Zhang Ling took the bronze token and entered the cave. After a cup of tea, he walked out of the cave and left Fire Cloud Island with Jiang Hao and others.
More than half a day later, the group, led by Jiang Hao, arrived six thousand miles south of Myriad Elephant City.
Looking from afar, a desolate island appeared in front of them. It looked like a black stone island, and the area was not large. What was strange was that the desolate island was shrouded in a layer of deep blue mist, which was flowing rapidly, forming a hurricane that covered the entire desolate island.
"We're here. Our mission is to use the array on this Suspension Magnetic Island to descend into the Chaotic Cloud Layer," Jiang Hao said to the group with a happy expression when he saw the strange desolate island, and took the lead to fly inside.
During the flight, Jiang Hao threw out a cyan-black copper plate with one hand. Several magic seals were struck on it, and the copper plate lit up with white spiritual light, like countless lightning bolts, constantly entangled and transformed into a cyan light ball.
Then, the cyan light lightning crackled and connected into a piece, forming a thunder light cover that wrapped everyone in it and quickly flew towards the desolate island.
After approaching the desolate island, they passed through the hurricane outside the island without any hindrance and entered the island. The crowd landed directly on a black stone platform about a hundred feet in size.
Zhang Ling released his divine sense and swept around, and found that except for this platform which was artificially built, the rest of the place was full of scattered black-cyan boulders, bare and without any vegetation. The others also looked around the surrounding situation, and did not find anything.
"Two fellow Taoists, wait a moment, Jiang will go and start the formation."
Jiang Hao seemed to know this place very well. He explained to Zhang Ling and Su Yu'er, shook the copper plate in his hand, and took a few Foundation Establishment cultivators to the center of the round platform, took out some formation equipment and began to work.
After a while, Zhang Ling felt a shaking on the ground, and a black stone pillar rose from the center.
This stone pillar was not wide, only ten feet wide and more than ten feet long. Standing on the ground like a flagpole. Many ancient spiritual patterns were engraved on it, which had a sense of mystery and were lighting up one by one.
The amplitude of the ground shaking became larger and larger. At the same time, the scattered large and small stones nearby all flew up, as if attracted by some force, suspended in mid-air, and slowly gathered towards the platform.
Zhang Ling glanced at the stone pillar and recognized that it was a stone pillar made of Tianxin Stone. At the same time, he thought about the purpose of the mission that Jiang Hao had told him not long ago.
Speaking of which, their mission was also related to Tianxin Stone, which was to collect Tianxin Stone.
Tianxin Stone is a very special spiritual ore, which can resist the erosion of turbid air when worn on the body. However, this spiritual ore cannot be produced where spiritual veins gather, but must be collected in the chaotic cloud layer in the Flowing Cloud Sea.
After the formation of the Flowing Cloud Sea, the original entire continent rose to a high altitude, and most of the area was transformed into a desolate area. The broken land on the periphery became large and small islands, which were controlled by the human and demon races.
After the entire continent rose to a high altitude, it was basically on a flat line. This is actually only a layer of area in the Flowing Cloud Sea.
The Flowing Cloud Sea is divided into three layers in total.
Tens of thousands of miles below this plane is a boundless sea of clouds, which is the so-called chaotic cloud layer, which is the real Flowing Cloud Sea. This is the second layer of the Flowing Cloud Sea.
In the turbulent layer, the clouds gather and do not disperse. The environment inside is harsh and not suitable for the survival of the human and demon races.
Not to mention that mortals cannot survive there at all, even Zhang Ling, a high-level cultivator in the Golden Core stage, is not suitable for survival in the chaotic cloud layer. Because strong gusts of wind often blow in the chaotic cloud layer, and the land islands that exist inside are fluid.
At the bottom of the chaotic cloud layer, there is also a layer of strong heaven and earth gang wind, which is the third layer of the Flowing Cloud Sea.
This layer of heaven and earth gang wind exists not only below the chaotic cloud layer, but also in the area tens of thousands of miles above.
It is said that as long as you pass through this layer of heaven and earth gang wind, you can leave the Flowing Cloud Sea and return to the area where the original continent is located. However, this layer of heaven and earth gang wind is extremely fierce, and even cultivators at the Nascent Soul level are difficult to preserve when entering it.
If Myriad Elephant City is taken as the horizontal line, tens of thousands of miles below Myriad Elephant City is the chaotic cloud layer. If they want to collect Tianxin Stone, they have to go to this chaotic cloud layer.
As Jiang Hao, the elder of Myriad Elephant City, commanded and stimulated the formation. All the mist surrounding the Suspended Magnetic Island gathered above the black stone platform where they were standing.
At the same time, the scattered large and small boulders on the island all flew to the platform, and condensed into stone pillars at intervals on the periphery of the platform, forming a circle like a stone wall.
Soon, the stone platform where everyone was standing slowly flew up, detached from the Suspended Magnetic Island, like a stone boat, wrapped in a layer of black and blue hurricane and flew downwards.
"The formation has been activated. In a few hours, we will be able to descend into the turbulent layer. With this Myriad Disk in Jiang's hand, we will be able to find the Tianxin Stone scattered in the chaotic cloud layer. At that time, the juniors will directly collect the spiritual ore. The three of us only need to protect this formation," Jiang Hao said to Zhang Ling and the other two after arranging the formation.
"Oh, according to Fellow Daoist Jiang, there are many dangers in the chaotic cloud layer," Zhang Ling asked when he heard this person's words. He didn't know much about these things. Since he was going to carry out the mission there, he naturally wanted to know about it.
Jiang Hao smiled bitterly, licked the corner of his mouth and was about to answer, but Su Yu'er next to him took the lead to explain. "Fellow Daoist Zhang doesn't know, the chaotic cloud layer was originally not peaceful, and the environment inside is extremely harsh due to the influence of the heaven and earth gang wind. It can only be described as unpredictable."
Jiang Hao also nodded and added. "Junior Sister Su is right, and now it is the period of the beast tide outbreak, the heaven and earth gang wind is more violent, and the chaotic cloud layer will be more dangerous. One moment it may be sunny and the next moment it may become a storm. There are also some special places where the heaven and earth spiritual energy is extremely disordered. It is difficult for us to survive if we are involved in it. It is not a good place to go."
"But don't worry, we have the protection of the formation on the Suspended Magnetic Island. As long as we don't go to dangerous areas, safety is still guaranteed."
"If it weren't for the fierce beast tide and some areas eroded by turbid air that need a large amount of Tianxin Stone for special protection, this task of collecting Tianxin Stone would usually be done by Nascent Soul ancestors, and it would not be assigned to us," Jiang Hao said, stroking the copper plate in his hand, frowning slightly.
But turning his face to look at Zhang Ling, he said with a smile. "Haha, with the addition of fellow Taoists this time, we can search for a longer time. The more Tianxin Stone we collect, the more merit points we will be allocated after the mission is over. Jiang has several favorite treasures to exchange. If he saves enough merit points, he may be able to exchange for a Nascent Soul Pill."
As Jiang Hao spoke, his face showed excitement. Although he had just broken through to the later stage not long ago, there was still a long time before he could cultivate to the Golden Core Perfection, but seeing that he was not far from the Nascent Soul realm, he also had the dream of being able to condense the Nascent Soul.
"It seems that Senior Brother Jiang's ambitions are not small. Little sister can't compare. I will be satisfied if I can accumulate some merit points and exchange for an ancient treasure," Su Yu'er joked, glancing at Zhang Ling and asking. "I wonder if Fellow Daoist Zhang also has any favorite treasures."
"Zhang also has a few treasures that he has taken a fancy to," Zhang Ling said with a haha and casually.
