More than ten thousand years ago, an exceptionally fierce gale of cosmic winds swept across the entire Cloud Sea. It is said that this gale lasted for nearly a century, devastating parts of the islands controlled by both the human and demon races. This natural disaster was even more severe than a beast tide.
The Celestial Palace also disappeared without a trace. Some cultivators speculated that it was also destroyed by the gale. Many Core Formation cultivators searched the Cloud Sea but could not find it. Even the few Transformation Stage cultivators who existed among the human race at that time could not locate the Celestial Palace.
Since then, Transformation Stage cultivators have gradually ceased to reveal themselves in public.
However, eight thousand years ago, the Celestial Palace reappeared mysteriously, but it was no longer in its original location. Instead, it was situated near a spatial rift in the Cloud Sea.
It is said that it was first discovered by several demon cultivators by chance.
That place seemed to be the source of the gale, and it was also the largest windless area in the Cloud Sea. Not only was the Celestial Palace blown there, but also some continental fragments were swept there, including some ancient cultivator ruins. Even some ancient demon race areas from the ancient times were among them. Therefore, there were also some ancient demon ruins there.
The reappearance of the Celestial Palace was no longer just a palace but had become a new ancient relic. The Celestial Palace's reappearance naturally shook the entire cultivation world, attracting many cultivators to enter and search for treasures.
However, very few cultivators came out alive, because the area where the Celestial Palace appeared contained countless flowing spatial rifts, as well as many hidden spatial rifts.
The space there was very unstable. Core Formation cultivators who accidentally entered would die without a chance of survival. Golden Core cultivators found it even more difficult to enter.
After that, it became an even more dangerous place than the Heavenly Abyss Secret Realm, and very few cultivators dared to venture into it. But one type of cultivator was an exception.
Over the millennia, some cultivators whose lifespans were nearing their end did not hesitate to venture into it, mostly old monsters at the Core Formation level. But very few were able to come out again.
However, those who could come out were often able to gain a lot.
Calculating the time, the time previously agreed upon with Jin Yu was also approaching.
Now that he encountered Ding Ruozhao, who might have been afflicted with the Soul Sealing Mark, to awaken this woman, he would need to refine a sixth-grade Soul Awakening Pill, perhaps that could awaken her. Zhang Ling had to consider whether or not to go to this dangerous secret realm.
Looking at Ding Ruozhao's pale and bloodless face, he recalled some past events that occurred during his few encounters with this woman.
If it were someone else, he would never meddle in other people's affairs. But seeing this woman again, he felt a sense of inexplicable emotion in his heart, and there was still a trace of joy.
To let him just ignore it, turn around and leave, and let Ding Ruozhao die, Zhang Ling asked himself that he couldn't do it. For a moment, his mood was very complicated. After a moment of silence, he sighed and said.
"Whether your sister's coma is caused by the Soul Sealing Mark, I need to check again. If it is caused by other circumstances, perhaps there may be a solution."
"Then I'll have to trouble you."
Ye Zimei looked at Zhang Ling with a complex expression when she heard this, just responded, and walked out of the stone house without saying anything more.
She sought out Zhang Ling for her sister. Now, this Core Formation cultivator, who had a relationship with her sister and whose cultivation base was much higher, might be able to directly awaken her sister.
After Ye Zimei left, Zhang Ling's hand flashed with spiritual light, and he took out four formation flags. A piece of spiritual light sprinkled out, and the formation flags landed on the four corners of the stone house, immediately forming a light curtain that enveloped the entire stone house.
Then, with another wave of his hand, an ancient incense burner appeared on the table next to him. He flicked his finger, and a wisp of firelight hit it, and a faint purple smoke floated out of the incense burner.
After the purple smoke was generated, he could smell a faint sandalwood fragrance. This layer of purple smoke was the Mind Nourishing Powder refined with Devouring Cloud Stone and other materials.
Zhang Ling usually lights this kind of Mind Nourishing Powder that helps with soul cultivation when he cultivates. It can keep his mind clear, assist in cultivating the Soul Refining Technique, and also prevent some demonic disturbances caused by long-term cultivation.
Ding Ruozhao fell into a coma, and her physical body was not damaged, so it could only be that her soul had suffered severe damage.
The purple smoke generated by the Mind Nourishing Powder was condensed and did not disperse, and gradually filled the entire stone house.
Zhang Ling stretched out a finger and slowly stirred it. The purple smoke also rotated with his finger, forming a purple vortex, slowly rotating around Ding Ruozhao in the wooden barrel.
After a few breaths, although Ding Ruozhao was in a coma, she instinctively breathed these fumes under the envelope of the purple smoke. Gradually, the woman's pale complexion also improved.
Zhang Ling smiled, and secretly said that it was indeed useful. This was much more useful than the Soul Stabilizing Liquid in the wooden barrel.
The Soul Stabilizing Liquid configured by Ye Zimei was also a kind of spiritual liquid that helps to treat soul trauma, and all the materials used were rare.
Just such a barrel would cost at least tens of thousands of spirit stones. Although it was valuable, it was definitely not comparable to the Mind Nourishing Powder he refined.
Although the materials used for the Mind Nourishing Powder were only Devouring Cloud Stone, Seven-Colored Seven-Leaf Flower, and Soul Nourishing Wood. But each one was a top-notch spiritual object, not to mention Soul Nourishing Wood, which was a divine wood for nourishing the soul.
Zhang Ling stretched out his hand and pulled on his neck, and pulled out a small black wooden token that was two thumbs wide, which was the Soul Nourishing Wood that he wore all year round. He walked up to Ding Ruozhao and put on this Soul Nourishing Wood as well.
With this Soul Nourishing Wood, even if the soul was traumatized, it would not let the soul gradually die, but also gradually nourish the soul, and maybe it could let her wake up on her own.
Among all the injuries, soul trauma is the most difficult to heal. With these two protections, the next step is to find out the condition of this woman's soul, and it can also provide an extra layer of insurance.
Zhang Ling flashed and sat cross-legged next to him, pinching the magic formula in his hand, pointing at his eyebrows, and his Nascent Soul left his body.
The Nascent Soul waved his small hand, and the storage belt around his waist flashed with spiritual light, and a scroll flew out of it, and it unfolded with a swoosh.
The painting was gray, and there was nothing on it. Zhang Ling's Nascent Soul flashed and entered the painting. Then the painting emitted a dazzling yellow light, rattling and shaking, and the yellow light was like starlight, instantly sprinkled on Ding Ruozhao.
The woman trembled all over, and a wisp of light green fluorescence floated out of her body. These spiritual lights quickly merged into a light ball in the air, and then a phantom of Ding Ruozhao appeared.
This phantom was Ding Ruozhao's soul, and he directly pulled it out of her body.
Zhang Ling planned to pull out the woman's complete soul and enter the Soul Refining Diagram to carefully examine it.
As for why he used the Soul Refining Diagram, it was because he had done a lot of research on this treasure after he entered the Nascent Soul Stage.
As he entered the Nascent Soul Stage, the Soul Refining Diagram could still produce phantoms that were exactly like him. During the research process, he also used the Bronze Ancient Lamp to enhance the power of his divine sense, and solved the two Nascent Soul Stage phantoms.
Not only did he obtain the fourth level of the Nine Yuan Soul Refining Technique, but he also obtained some uses of the Soul Refining Diagram. This diagram can absorb other people's souls into it, producing special illusions, thereby temporarily imprisoning other people's primordial spirits.
It can also check some secrets of monks based on these illusions. This is a similar effect to using the Soul Searching Technique. But it is an illusion autonomously generated by the monk's soul, which will not cause too much damage.
This is very similar to the role of the Questioning Heart Mirror, which makes people unconsciously fall into hypnosis and say some secrets.
Zhang Ling now plans to imprison Ding Ruozhao's soul in the Soul Refining Diagram first, and then use secret techniques to check the state of damage to the woman's soul.
As he pulled out most of Ding Ruozhao's soul, Zhang Ling suddenly sensed a resistance, and a special spiritual light emerged from Ding Ruozhao's body, trying to prevent the soul from leaving the body.
Seeing this scene, he increased the intensity of his spellcasting. This situation was expected. Ding Ruozhao's strength was not weak, and she was already a peak Golden Core cultivator. Her soul was also quite tough, and the connection with her body was naturally deeper. This was a natural reaction.
But then Zhang Ling realized that something was wrong. Although the woman's strength was not weak, with his Nascent Soul's strength, and the woman was in a coma, without autonomous consciousness, he should be able to pull out her entire soul in an instant.
But the resistance from her body was actually stalemating with him.
This made Zhang Ling very surprised. Even a sober peak Golden Core cultivator, with his divine sense power, pulling out the soul would be easy.
How could there be such a big resistance? He seemed to be forcibly pulling the soul of another Nascent Soul cultivator.
Zhang Ling's Nascent Soul flashed and flew out of the Soul Refining Diagram. With a sweep of his divine sense, he discovered that the pulling force from Ding Ruozhao's body was not the woman's instinctive consciousness, but the spiritual patterns engraved on her back that looked like feather totems.
These spiritual patterns were also not transformed by the woman's thunder attribute spiritual light, but were transformed by some special spiritual power. This was obviously not Ding Ruozhao's own power.
It seemed that these spiritual patterns were the reason for Ding Ruozhao's coma.
Zhang Ling instantly realized this. The feather spiritual patterns seemed to have an independent consciousness, wanting to prevent Ding Ruozhao's soul from leaving the body.
He thought for a while, and then snorted coldly. As the Nascent Soul waved his small hand, he shot out magic formulas and hit the Soul Refining Diagram, and increased the intensity of his spellcasting.
This time, he used all his divine sense power at once, intending to pull out Ding Ruozhao's complete soul in one go.
As the Soul Refining Diagram shook, it sprinkled a large piece of spiritual light and covered Ding Ruozhao's body. With a swoosh, he pulled out all of the woman's soul.
But before Zhang Ling could be happy, he discovered that the spiritual patterns on Ding Ruozhao's back also left the body along with Ding Ruozhao's soul, turned into a pair of strange wings, instantly wrapped Ding Ruozhao's soul, turned into a light ball, quickly shook, and merged into the body again.
Zhang Ling quickly shot out a few magic formulas, controlled the Soul Refining Diagram and shot out a piece of spiritual light to cover the light ball. The Soul Refining Diagram sent out a suction force, and it took more than ten breaths of effort to pull the light ball into it.
The Nascent Soul also flashed and entered the Soul Refining Diagram.
After Zhang Ling's Nascent Soul and Ding Ruozhao's soul entered the Soul Refining Diagram, the Soul Refining Diagram emitted a special layer of spiritual light, floating in mid-air, rattling and shaking, and the picture in the diagram also changed rapidly.
Inside the Soul Refining Diagram, as the magic formula was activated, Ding Ruozhao's soul gradually stabilized and was imprisoned in a gray space. This was the illusion space of the Soul Refining Diagram.
Zhang Ling stared at Ding Ruozhao's soul with a gloomy face. The feather spiritual patterns stained on the woman's soul also came in, still tightly attached to the soul, as if they were integrated.
This was too weird. He had never seen such a situation.
These feather spiritual patterns seemed to really have consciousness, emitting quite chaotic spiritual light, and were devouring Ding Ruozhao's soul power. This was also the reason why Ding Ruozhao's soul was constantly weakening.
However, the speed at which the spiritual patterns devoured the soul power was very slow, as if it was deliberately controlled, forming a symbiotic relationship with Ding Ruozhao's soul, and did not devour all the soul at once. This was also why the woman was only in a coma and did not directly die.
This situation reminded Zhang Ling of some evil spirits with strange supernatural powers. Possession, or some evil spirits possessing, could cause this situation.
This situation continued, and Ding Ruozhao's soul would eventually be devoured, directly die. Even the body would be occupied by strange things.
This kind of evil spirit may be some incomplete remnant souls, or some special evil spirits born from the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.
This kind of thing is not completely conscious. Some will look for a host, parasitize in the monk's body, and continue to grow stronger. At a certain moment, they will devour the monk's primordial spirit, merge with the monk's soul, occupy the body, and become a strange monster.
However, most of these evil spirits are Yin and evil, and carry a strong Yin evil aura. However, the feather spiritual patterns stained in Ding Ruozhao's soul, although containing special spiritual energy, are not Yin evil aura.
Zhang Ling couldn't judge for a while, but what was certain was that these feather spiritual patterns were the reason why the woman had been in a coma.
In any case, the most urgent task was to find a way to expel these spiritual patterns.
Judging from the state of spellcasting just now, it was probably impossible to forcibly remove the spiritual patterns. These spiritual patterns had parasitized in Ding Ruozhao's soul. Forcibly erasing them would definitely cause greater damage to the woman's soul, and even turn her into an idiot or die directly.
Zhang Ling thought in his heart, and the magic formula in his hand changed rapidly. A large cloud of mist emerged from the gray space painted by the Soul Refining Diagram, and wrapped Ding Ruozhao's soul in a cloud of gas.
His Nascent Soul opened his small mouth and spewed out a cloud of yellow essence, and a wisp of divine thought was invested in it. This cloud of essence turned into a phantom that was exactly the same as him.
This phantom was like a ghost, very blurry, but full of spirituality. This was exactly a wisp of divine thought incarnation. With a thought, the divine thought incarnation also submerged into the cloud of gas and carefully checked Ding Ruozhao's soul condition.
The feather spiritual patterns were too weird and could be stained on the soul. Zhang Ling had to be careful to prevent being entangled by this thing. Releasing a divine thought incarnation, even if something happened, at most he would only lose a wisp of divine thought.
After a while, the cloud of gas that wrapped Ding Ruozhao's soul showed many vague phantoms. Some of these phantoms were fleeting, while others were constantly changing, looking quite strange.
