A quarter of an hour later, inside the ruins of the small island, in a dark stone house, Zhang Ling and the Xuan Turtle stood, examining a circular altar about ten feet above the ground.
This altar was perfectly circular, with a diameter of over sixty feet, surrounded by twelve large black pillars engraved with many dark spiritual patterns.
Zhang Ling circled the altar, stroking his chin as he pondered.
"No mistake, it's an ancient teleportation array. Looks like a long-distance one too. I wonder if it still works."
Muttering to himself, Zhang Ling flashed onto the ancient teleportation array. He'd know if it worked once he activated it.
The ancient teleportation array was also engraved with spiritual patterns and covered in a thick layer of dust, clearly untouched for a long time.
Zhang Ling gently stomped his foot, and with a flash of yellow light, a yellow gust of wind swept out, blowing away all the dust.
At his feet was a small pit, now empty, where spirit stones were placed to activate the teleportation array.
A sweep of his divine sense revealed eight slots on the array, though not all were empty. One slot contained a spiritual energy fluctuation.
Zhang Ling approached the slot and saw a dark, earth-yellow spirit stone.
The spirit stone, about the size of a fist, emitted spiritual energy fluctuations, appearing to be a mid-grade earth-attribute spirit stone.
He pointed a finger at the spirit stone, and it floated up.
But it floated very slowly, wobbling, taking two or three breaths to reach Zhang Ling's hand.
As soon as he grabbed the spirit stone, Zhang Ling's hand sank slightly, because the stone was extremely heavy, weighing over a thousand pounds.
Something wasn't right. A mid-grade spirit stone should weigh at most ten pounds, and even a high-grade spirit stone wouldn't be much heavier. How could it be so heavy?
Suddenly, his eyes lit up, remembering a rumor. He quickly rubbed the spirit stone in his hand.
A faint scratching sound came as a layer of earth clung to the stone, and small cracks began to appear, like a cracking eggshell, scattering debris on the ground.
The spirit stone's true appearance was revealed, and through the cracks, a layer of extremely soft yellow light could be seen.
Once the dust on the stone was removed, the spirit stone illuminated the entire stone house.
Bathing in the soft yellow light, Zhang Ling felt warm and comfortable. The yellow light contained extremely pure earth-attribute spiritual energy.
He involuntarily absorbed a bit of the spiritual energy, which was immediately refined upon entering his body.
The earth-attribute spiritual energy was extremely pure, without impurities, allowing it to be refined quickly.
"Oh, where did you get a supreme-grade spirit stone?"
Just then, a childish voice entered his ears.
Next to the spirit stone, a golden light flashed, and the spirit bird reappeared, circling the stone.
Hearing the spirit bird's voice, Zhang Ling thought, 'So it really is a supreme-grade spirit stone.'
Supreme-grade spirit stones were not ordinary treasures. At the Azure Cloud Pavilion auction, cultivators wanted to exchange for them but couldn't.
Supreme-grade spirit stones were almost extinct in the human realm, though not entirely gone. In the last thousand years, only two or three had been found occasionally.
The spiritual energy contained within was extremely pure. Directly absorbing it was like consuming a great supplement for Nascent Soul cultivators.
It was said that even a simple spirit gathering array set up with supreme-grade spirit stones could assist in breaking through the bottleneck of Nascent Soul cultivation.
A single supreme-grade spirit stone was enough to attract the competition of many Nascent Soul cultivators.
Feeling the pure spiritual energy emanating from the supreme-grade earth-attribute spirit stone in his hand, Zhang Ling was overjoyed. He hadn't expected to suddenly find one.
"Too bad, this supreme-grade spirit stone has already lost a good portion of its spiritual energy," the spirit bird said with dissatisfaction.
"It's already lost half its spiritual energy?"
Hearing this, Zhang Ling frowned. Sure enough, upon closer inspection, he found that a small portion of the spirit stone was translucent.
Zhang Ling shook his head, but his joy didn't diminish. Even though it had lost a lot of spiritual energy, it was still a supreme-grade spirit stone.
At the same time, he remembered another characteristic of supreme-grade spirit stones: if placed in a spiritual vein, it might replenish its spiritual energy.
Supreme-grade spirit stones were different from ordinary ones. Ordinary spirit stones, once their spiritual energy was exhausted, would turn into ordinary rocks.
But even a supreme-grade spirit stone that had lost all its spiritual energy was still a special material called Spirit Crystal Jade.
This material had a special property: it could quickly absorb spiritual energy. As long as Spirit Crystal Jade was buried in a place with abundant spiritual energy, it might eventually give birth to another supreme-grade spirit stone.
However, it was said that it would take a very long time.
Besides, Spirit Crystal Jade could also be used to refine several special treasures.
With a series of 'poof' sounds, the spirit bird flapped its wings a few times, its body flashing with spiritual light, and released the black Yin-Yang Gourd again.
"I want this supreme-grade spirit stone."
"What does Senior mean by this?"
The spirit bird's sudden demand for the supreme-grade spirit stone darkened Zhang Ling's face. With a flip of his hand, he instantly put the spirit stone into his storage bag.
Although he had reached a cooperation agreement with the spirit bird, promising to help it rebuild its physical body, he wouldn't listen to it in other matters.
They were just partners, and newly established ones at that. How could he give away a spirit stone he found himself?
"Don't misunderstand. I'm not greedy for this supreme-grade spirit stone. Since you've agreed to help me rebuild my physical body, supreme-grade spirit stones are a major auxiliary material that needs to be collected."
"Senior didn't say that I would need supreme-grade spirit stones, just that you could fuse with it yourself after I helped you find your physical body."
"Hmph, my true body and primordial spirit were sealed in a land of absolute spiritual energy by those old monsters. Even if my physical body hasn't decayed, after ten thousand years, its spirituality will be lost. I must gather five supreme-grade spirit stones of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth to assist a Soul Fusion Array to fuse with my physical body."
Hearing the spirit bird's words, Zhang Ling pondered. A land of absolute spiritual energy was a special environment where the laws of heaven and earth had changed, lacking any spiritual energy.
If trapped in a land of absolute spiritual energy, one's own spiritual power couldn't be replenished, and over time, one's cultivation would greatly decline.
If the spirit bird's true body was really trapped in a land of absolute spiritual energy, even if its original cultivation was profound, after being sealed for ten thousand years, it was questionable whether it still had any vitality.
"I won't take the supreme-grade spirit stone for nothing. Don't you want to activate this treasure? The Void Spirit Gourd was originally a spatial treasure I refined, lost in battle. It originally contained nothing."
"But now it contains a large pool of heavy water, likely placed there by the Xuanming Little Turtle. It's quite powerful, but with your current cultivation, you can only unleash thirty percent of its power. But even this will make you invincible among your peers."
While Zhang Ling's thoughts raced, the spirit bird snorted disdainfully. A ray of spiritual light struck the black Yin-Yang Gourd, which spun around, releasing a black light, and a large amount of black water poured out of its mouth.
The black water was as thick as ink, covering a large area above.
Standing below, Zhang Ling immediately felt a pressure.
"How about it? Help me collect supreme-grade spirit stones, and I'll tell you the spell to control this treasure," the spirit bird said leisurely, its words full of temptation, as if it had Zhang Ling completely figured out.
But in its heart, it sighed. It now only had a wisp of primordial spirit left, and its cultivation was pitifully low.
That's why it was seeking cooperation with this lower realm cultivator, a helpless move.
With its current strength, it couldn't even reach the depths of the Heavenly Abyss, let alone pass through the layers of restrictions to find its true body and restore its cultivation.
"Alright, I'll do as Senior says."
Zhang Ling looked at the large pool of black water above him and nodded without much hesitation. At the same time, he took out the supreme-grade spirit stone he had just stored in his storage bag.
"You keep it. Here's the method to activate this treasure. Our cooperation has just begun."
The spirit bird glanced at the supreme-grade spirit stone but didn't take it. It just shook its head, and a flash of light shot out from its eyes, forming a golden and blue ray that circled in the air before turning into a grain-sized spiritual light floating in front of Zhang's eyes.
Zhang Ling scanned the spiritual light with his divine sense and sensed a message from it.
After checking it several times and finding nothing abnormal, he released a wisp of his divine sense to wrap around it and receive the information.
It recorded a spell to activate the treasure, which was very different from the usual method of simply imprinting it with divine sense, slightly refining it, and injecting spiritual power.
This spell was accompanied by special hand seals and incantations. This was often the secret method to activate certain treasures.
Zhang Ling immersed himself in studying it carefully and found that this secret method seemed incomplete, like only a part of it. Like the first layer of a cultivation technique.
Was the spirit bird intentionally hiding something, or was there another reason?
The spirit bird seemed to know his thoughts and said with a chuckle.
"This is indeed only half of the secret method, but it's enough for you. Only when your cultivation reaches the late stage of Nascent Soul will I give you the second half. Your current strength isn't enough to help me break through the seal."
As it spoke, the Void Spirit Gourd flashed with spiritual light, absorbing all the black water above its head, and floated in front of Zhang Ling.
Hearing the spirit bird's explanation, Zhang Ling didn't say much, just nodded slightly, and took the Void Spirit Gourd.
After a quarter of an hour, Zhang Ling's eyes lit up, feeling that he had understood it enough.
His hands quickly formed hand seals, and incantations rang from his mouth. He continuously cast a dozen spells on the black Void Spirit Gourd.
The treasure spun rapidly, emitting a layer of black spiritual light.
With a 'whoosh' sound, a water tank-sized ball of black water spewed out of the gourd.
Zhang Ling pointed at the pool of black water, and it quickly flowed, turning into a two-foot-long black snake. With a shake of its head and tail, the snake's tail suddenly lashed out, and with a loud boom, it created a several-foot-deep hole in the stone wall in front, with cracks spreading like spiderwebs.
The entire ground shook, kicking up a large cloud of dust.
It didn't seem very powerful, but Zhang Ling was extremely satisfied. Because the walls of this stone house weren't made of ordinary materials, but of black iron stone, a hard material.
To cause this kind of damage showed how powerful the black water was.
With a thought, the black snake transformed back into a large ball of black water, swirling and then splitting into countless black water droplets, surrounding him.
He raised a finger, and a water droplet landed in his hand. Feeling the heavy pressure from the droplet, it weighed a thousand pounds.
Zhang Ling thought, 'So it really is heavy water.'
This was a kind of spiritual water. Although it didn't have other special abilities, each drop of heavy water weighed a thousand pounds. Now it seemed true.
At this time, he hadn't fully activated the treasure. Zhang Ling felt that, with full activation, he could release at least eleven or twelve balls of heavy water of this size at once.
The weight of these heavy water balls alone would be no less than a small mountain.
And this was only about thirty percent of the heavy water in the gourd. If all the heavy water was released, the power would be unimaginable.
With another change in the hand seals, the released heavy water gathered again into a ball of black water and entered the gourd.
Holding the Void Spirit Gourd in his hand, Zhang Ling was quite satisfied. With a thought, he released a wisp of divine sense to explore the inside of the gourd, but it was blocked by a strange restriction.
Clearly, the spirit bird hadn't completely unlocked the restrictions on it, preventing him from exploring the inside.
Zhang Ling's own natal treasure was the Yin-Yang Gourd, and he knew that the inside of the gourd had a special space.
Logically, he should be able to explore it, and even enter it without any problems.
"I wonder how this treasure is different from the Yin-Yang Gourd I refined." Zhang Ling really wanted to know the answer to this question and couldn't help but ask.
At the same time, he flipped his hand and released his own Yin-Yang Gourd, which floated in front of him.
Hearing the question, the spirit bird didn't want to answer him at first. But seeing him release the Yin-Yang Gourd, it seemed to become interested and circled Zhang Ling's Yin-Yang Gourd a few times.
"Oh, the material of your Yin-Yang Gourd is top-notch. The internal space is even slightly larger than the Void Spirit Gourd. It's probably been growing for over twenty thousand years. Strange, where did you get this gourd? Could it be that it wasn't cultivated from the seeds I brought down? A twenty-thousand-year-old Yin-Yang Gourd is rare even in the spirit realm."
Zhang Ling didn't know much about the Yin-Yang Gourd, only that it was a treasure nurtured by a seventh-grade spiritual root, and that the green and white energy inside the gourd could temper magical treasures. He knew nothing else.
The spirit bird in front of him seemed to be an old monster above the Transformation God stage, and perhaps knew more than him.
However, although he had released the gourd at this time, he hadn't shown the inside of the gourd to the spirit bird. This guy had instantly seen the size of the internal space of his Yin-Yang Gourd.
A trace of surprise appeared on Zhang Ling's face, but it was too late to take back the Yin-Yang Gourd. He simply steeled himself and said casually.
"I don't know if this gourd is related to Senior's Void Spirit Gourd. I obtained this treasure by chance from a secret realm. Seeing that it was extremely extraordinary, I refined it into a magical treasure."
"Is that so?"
The spirit bird flapped its wings a few times, somewhat disbelievingly. Zhang Ling naturally wouldn't explain anything further. Then it said strangely.
"The green and white energy in the Yin-Yang Gourd can indeed temper magical treasures. As long as you cultivate it carefully, there's a great chance that the magical treasure inside it will give birth to spirituality and become a spiritual treasure in a thousand years. But this isn't all the function of this treasure. This treasure has other uses. You refined this thing into a natal spiritual object, hehe, should I say you're lucky or unlucky?"
"Could there be some hidden danger?" Hearing this, Zhang Ling frowned, feeling that this fellow didn't seem to be lying.
He had been nurturing the Two Forms Gourd within his body for a hundred years, and there had been nothing amiss.
"Hehe, want to know all the information about the Two Forms Gourd? I can tell you, as long as you agree to one more condition, how about it?" The bird spirit's eyes flashed with golden light, as it said enticingly with a childish voice.
Zhang Ling hesitated for a moment, opened his mouth wanting to ask something more, but swallowed the words back, his brow relaxed, and he slightly shook his head.
"Since Senior is unwilling to speak, then forget it. Let's first see if this teleportation array can be used."
With a flash of spiritual light in his hand, his Two Forms Gourd transformed into a green light and disappeared into his body, while the black Two Forms Void Gourd, Zhang Ling tossed it with one hand, and it was collected by the Xuan Turtle.
Given that the bird spirit was truly strange, if he were to ask it for information about the Two Forms Gourd again, it might make some excessive demands.
Going back and forth like this, he would inevitably be restrained by it.
Fortunately, this matter was not urgent, and he could find another opportunity in the future.
As for this black Two Forms Gourd, it was better to let the Xuan Turtle control it.
At the same time as he received the magic incantation, his second Nascent Soul naturally mastered this technique as well, and the Xuan Turtle was a demon cultivator with ice and water attributes, so it could better use this treasure.
Furthermore, it was better to be cautious towards this kind of old monster who didn't know how many years it had lived.
The bird spirit watched Zhang Ling ignore it, snorted twice, and then transformed into a spiritual light again, returning to the Xuan Turtle's sleeve.
This fellow didn't seem too concerned about leaving this place.
Zhang Ling slandered inwardly, and similarly put away his thoughts, lightly patted his storage bag, took out eight middle-grade spirit stones, and placed them into the grooves on the teleportation array.
A magic incantation struck his feet, and a layer of five-colored spiritual light immediately lit up on the teleportation array. As the spiritual light flowed, the teleportation array was activated.
