klisemfg Chapter 740 Hidden Mission 26
Chapter 740 Hidden Mission 26
After traveling at breakneck speed for more than half a month, with the help of the powerful perception and path-clearing of the Fire Iron Flying Ants, Yun Chu avoided countless dangers, both overt and covert. She also harvested a lot of unique spiritual herbs and rare minerals that were unique to this world, as well as the treasures of a few unlucky Golden Core stage demonic beasts that she encountered.
As the storage ring gradually filled up, her understanding of this ancient secret realm deepened.
On this day, she followed a faint spiritual energy vein fed back by the Fire Iron Flying Ants and went deeper into the area. Suddenly, a shimmering lake appeared before her eyes.
The lake water was a deep, almost inky blue, so calm that there wasn't a ripple, like a huge, solidified piece of black jade embedded in the dense forest.
The surroundings were eerily quiet; even the chirping of insects and birds had vanished, leaving only an almost tangible sense of heaviness in the air.
"Strange." Yun Chu frowned slightly and immediately released her divine sense to probe the surface of the lake.
However, something unexpected happened!
Her powerful divine sense, which could easily cover a range of dozens of miles and explore hundreds of feet underground, was instantly "bounced" back as if it had hit an invisible yet incredibly tough wall when it touched the surface of the lake!
Beneath the lake's surface lies a chaotic void, impenetrable even by divine sense!
"Divine sense isolation?" Yun Chu felt a chill run down her spine.
This was the first time she had ever encountered a natural body of water that completely shielded her from divine senses.
This means that the unknown lies hidden deep beneath the lake, which could be a natural, strange field, or a forbidden relic set up by some powerful being.
Either way, they all signify something extraordinary.
Danger and opportunity coexist; this is an eternal truth in the world of cultivation.
Yun Chu hesitated for a moment, a resolute look flashing in her eyes.
Now that she's here, there's no reason to back down, especially since she needs a chance to find clues to her way home.
With a thought, the Fire Iron Flying Ant nimbly flew back, folded its wings, and hovered beside her like the most loyal guard.
Yun Chu took a deep breath, and a vast amount of spiritual energy flowed around her body, forming a thin but tough protective aura, which brought her aura to its limit.
She lightly touched the ground with her toes, and her body glided silently into the deep, inky lake like a swimming fish.
As soon as I entered the water, I felt a sudden increase in pressure all over my body.
The lake water was not only icy cold, but also had a viscous and sluggish feel, as if one were in some kind of sticky gel, which greatly restricted movement.
Even more strangely, the suppression of her divine sense did not disappear. Her perception range was compressed to less than ten feet around her, and all she could see was a blurry, distorted, eerie blue light and shadow in front of her.
Dive!
Continue descending!
The surroundings were deathly silent, with only the faint sound of water flowing over the protective aura.
The light grew dimmer and dimmer until it disappeared completely, plunging us into absolute darkness.
Only the protective aura emitted a faint glow, barely illuminating the small area.
With its unique biological senses, the Fire Iron Flying Ant faithfully hovered beside her, like a tiny lighthouse in the darkness.
I don't know how long I descended, it felt like I had pierced through layers of solidified ink. Finally, I felt a hard texture beneath my feet.
"It's over."
Yun Chu steadied herself and landed on the lake bottom, which was covered with fine sand and strange, slippery moss.
She carefully activated her spiritual light, illuminating her surroundings.
The lake water took on a deep blue-black hue under the light, but visibility remained limited. Beneath my feet lay the slightly undulating lakebed, thick with silt and bone fragments of some unknown creature.
Just as she was about to explore her surroundings, the Fire Iron Flying Ant suddenly emitted an extremely subtle but clear soul fluctuation—not a warning, but a directional "discovery".
Yun Chu immediately followed her senses and looked in that direction.
About twenty feet to the left front, the rock walls at the bottom of the lake seem to be different from other places.
It wasn't silt there, but rather a layer of smooth, mirror-like rock with faint, dark silver veins. The shape of the rock wall was also too regular, like a huge... door?
She approached cautiously.
The closer they got, the stronger the sense of oppression seemed to become, but the guidance from the Fire Iron Flying Ants also became clearer.
Finally, she saw it clearly.
It was not a natural rock wall, but a huge, extremely smooth stone wall made of an unknown material, its surface covered with intricate, ancient, and mysterious patterns resembling star trails.
These patterns are not static, but rather, like living things, they flow with a dark silver light extremely slowly, forming a powerful yet restrained force field. It is this force field that isolates the inside from the outside and shields all divine sense from detection!
"An ancient restriction!" Yun Chu's pupils contracted slightly, her heart filled with shock.
The ancient and boundless patterns of the barrier exuded an aura far surpassing any later array she had ever encountered, carrying a profound and mysterious weight originating from the primordial era.
It fits perfectly into the rock strata at the bottom of the lake, as if it has existed since time immemorial.
"The entrance to the cave?" A thought flashed through her mind in an instant.
Such a powerful protective barrier is no ordinary thing. The secret of this lake may very well lie behind this barrier!
Breaking the rules!
Yun Chu did not hesitate at all. She hovered cross-legged a few feet in front of the restrictive stone wall, with fire iron flying ants guarding her side.
Although her divine sense was suppressed, she had some knowledge of formations. In particular, although the restriction was strong, it seemed to have loosened due to its age, and the flowing dark silver light was not as stable as it was in its prime.
She closed her eyes, not to look with her naked eyes, but to immerse herself in perceiving the flow of the restrictive patterns.
With pure spiritual energy gathered at his fingertips, he cautiously extended them, like the most precise carving knife, trying to capture the "Tao" and "principle" contained in the ancient patterns, and to find the nodes of its operation and the weak points of its energy.
Time passed in absolute silence and concentration.
The lakebed was icy cold and as dark as ink. Only the massive stone wall and the seated Yun Chu emitted faint spiritual light, creating a mysterious and lonely scene.
After an unknown amount of time, Yun Chu's fingertip finally and precisely touched a seemingly inconspicuous "gap" on the stone wall at a certain moment, where several dark silver patterns intersected and were about to separate!
"Om-!"
A deep, ancient-sounding hum suddenly resounded! The entire lakebed seemed to tremble in response!
The massive stone wall, smooth as a mirror and shimmering with dark silver patterns, suddenly shone with a dazzling silver light at the spot where Yun Chu's fingertip touched!
Like a pebble thrown into water, the silver light spread rapidly outwards from that point!
The intricate restriction patterns seemed to be infused with new vitality, flowing, recombining, and flickering wildly!
Powerful energy fluctuations surged and roared within the stone walls like a giant beast awakening!
"Crack...crack..."
The fine, clear cracking sound finally rang out!
On that indestructible barrier of light, spiderweb-like cracks rapidly spread from the point where Yun Chudian was located!
The silver light grew stronger, the cracks multiplied, and finally—
"Boom!"
A deep, resounding roar echoed across the bottom of the lake! The entire massive stone wall barrier, like shattered glass, suddenly crumbled into countless shimmering silver fragments!
These fragments did not scatter and fly everywhere. Instead, at the moment of disintegration, they were drawn inward by an invisible force, collapsing and dissolving!
A deep, dark cave entrance, exuding an ancient and rich spiritual aura, suddenly appeared before Yun Chu!
Beyond the cave entrance was a downward-sloping passageway leading to an unknown destination.
A spiritual energy, purer and more ancient than that at the bottom of the lake, seemingly having accumulated over millennia, mixed with a faint scent of dust, slowly emerged from it.
The ancient cave dwelling is now open!
Yun Chu slowly exhaled a breath of stale air, her eyes flashing with a sharp light. She stood up without the slightest hesitation, and with the Fire Iron Flying Ants in her arms, stepped into the deep cave entrance, her figure instantly swallowed by the darkness within.
Behind them, the fragments of the collapsed barrier vanished completely, and the lakebed returned to its deathly silence, leaving only the dark entrance, like the open mouth of a giant beast, awaiting the arrival of explorers.