Xuantian Immortal Cultivation Record

(Auspicious snake celebrates prosperity, a new year begins with good fortune. Wishing all readers a Year of the Snake where your writing flows like a nimble snake leading the way, your brush dances like a golden snake in a frenzy, and your words soar like a soaring serpent, constantly painting brilliant new chapters in your lives!)

The old man listened, muttering to himself, seemingly lost in thought. After a long while, he asked, "Does your esteemed guest mean that innate qualities don't matter, but only later effort can cultivate a person's moral character and virtue?"

Zhang Yuanjing nodded, "Indeed!"

The old man's eyes lit up, as if enlightened, and he became radiant. He respectfully bowed to Zhang Yuanjing, "Thank you, esteemed guest, for answering the king's questions and resolving his doubts. The king will meet with you as soon as possible. However, please wait for a day or two. The king has specifically instructed you to reside temporarily in the Pure Heaven. Please!"

The old man gestured an invitation. Behind and to his side, light flickered, and a teleportation channel quickly appeared.

Zhang Yuanjing stepped into it, feeling a pure energy enveloping him, lifting him upwards. On both sides were hazy halos of light, with huge shadows occasionally passing by, like giant beasts or mountain ranges.

After a few breaths, the surrounding halos disappeared, dense clouds and mist obscured the sky and earth, and it felt as if soft cotton supported his feet. The pure energy enveloping him also vanished.

The old man did not follow. The clouds and mist were empty, with no place to rest or anyone to receive him.

He tried to step on the ground, feeling that he would not fall even without using his magical power, so he began to walk on it with peace of mind.

With his powerful divine sense, he could only cover a few miles in this place. The spirit sense of the Refined Yang Umbrella also had little perception.

This Nine Heavens Ten Earths Clock, worthy of its name, truly had its own formidable aspects.

Unable to discern the direction, he walked randomly, wandering in the clouds and mist for two hours. The ground beneath his feet suddenly became hard, and five miles away, a palace appeared in his divine sense.

He couldn't help but shake his head. The Golden Dragon King spoke politely, but played some petty tricks, hiding the palace so far away, yet saying he was inviting him to stay temporarily, which was somewhat ungenerous.

Reaching the palace gate, it was desolate and deserted, with no illusory figures like the old man to greet him. The entire palace was surrounded by clouds and mist, as if it were just an ethereal object.

This palace isolated divine sense, and he could not investigate outside the palace. So, he crossed the threshold and stepped into the palace.

Once inside, the surroundings seemed to transform from illusion to reality, and loud banging sounds echoed from the inner hall.

"Someone, come quickly, I've solved this problem! Come on!"

A violent voice pierced through the back wall and entered Zhang Yuanjing's ears. He was very familiar with this voice; it was Guo Yuanmeng.

A thought flashed through his mind: could it be that Tong Tianfu and the other six had been trapped by the six spiritual treasures here for several years?

Logically speaking, True Person Tong was a Nascent Soul cultivator and proficient in formations. He shouldn't be unable to break through the illusions created by the spiritual treasures. Unless, the jade he possessed was the Intercepting Sky Tablet, and if it deliberately made things difficult, it might be hard to escape.

The Golden Dragon King lured him here; he didn't know what his purpose was, but it probably wasn't good.

He stepped towards the hall. The front hall was quite large, fifty or sixty zhang in diameter, with many square tables. On the tables were spiritual weapons, jade slips, spiritual materials, as well as books, writing brushes, ink, gold, silver, and other mundane objects. He could see at a glance that these things were all illusory, originally just a mass of mist.

On the inner side of the front hall was a screen, with a starry sky like an abyss and a blazing sun like fire, which looked rather strange.

Behind the screen was a wooden door, with mottled gold paint and many decaying parts.

There were no restrictions or mechanisms on the door. He reached out and pushed, but the door didn't budge.

"Bang, bang, bang!"

The sound of banging on the door continued to ring, but it was clearly not the door in front of Zhang Yuanjing.

He turned to look at the items on the square tables, checking them one by one with his divine sense, confirming that there were no abnormalities. He asked Zhang San, who said that all the items had spiritual energy, each with its own characteristics, and contained different things. However, it couldn't discern whether the hidden things were real or fake.

His heart stirred, and he became interested. This clock clearly had the means to confuse divine sense.

When he was in the Core Formation stage, he could use the Quicksand Technique, which also had the effect of isolating divine sense, but that was just isolation, not confusion. After entering the Nascent Soul stage, he learned the Quagmire Technique, which was attached with a method of confusing the mind, but he had not fully grasped it, and what he could use was quite limited. This Nine Heavens Ten Earths Clock was good at this technique, so it was worth exploring.

The objects in the hall, even the entire palace, were essentially clouds and mist, which he was certain of. Since this space was named Pure Heaven, it must emphasize lightness and purity, and it was reasonable to be based on air.

This air naturally came from spiritual energy, and it was not surprising that it had spiritual energy, but the mystery was that after being transformed into different items, it could mislead divine sense. It clearly contained other items, but they couldn't be found. This method was somewhat unusual.

He had always used the power of thick earth to condense objects, and although they all resembled the original in form and spirit, cultivators could still distinguish their origin and know that they were earth-based objects. If other objects were hidden inside, they would not be invisible.

If he could also hide killing weapons in the mud like this clock, then he would have another trump card, and the power to end battles would be greatly improved.

He walked to a square table and closely observed the jade bottle on the table. At first glance, this bottle was for holding pills. But with his divine sense, whether it was the jade bottle or the pills inside, they were all air and mist.

He turned a deaf ear to the constant banging on the door and focused on identifying the pills. Two hours passed in a flash, but he couldn't find a trace of disguise.

He was greatly amazed, but even more delighted. The stronger this method, the more useful it was to him.

Because he didn't know the consequences, he had only observed closely and hadn't touched anything.

Now it seemed that he couldn't understand the principle by just looking and not touching. Moreover, he couldn't open the door without figuring out the layout of this place. This should be the real test of the Nine Heavens Ten Earths Clock.

He communicated with Zhang San and Zhang Shi, asking them to prepare themselves, and then stretched out his hand and grabbed the jade bottle. The first feeling upon touching it was coolness, which then turned into icy coldness, freezing his hand onto the jade bottle. A peculiar force, following his palm, drilled into his meridians and went straight to his dantian.

This force was not strong. If he concentrated the power of thick earth, he could break it. However, this could not identify the mysteries in this force. So, he activated the Devouring Technique, driving this force to run parallel to the power of thick earth without merging, which was also equivalent to controlling this force and leading it elsewhere.

Zhang Yuanjing was not in a hurry to refine this force, but used the power of thick earth to closely sense and observe its internal principles.

After circulating several cycles in this way, this peculiar force gradually dissipated, absorbed by the power of thick earth, and he also had some understanding of its mysteries.

The jade bottle had now disappeared, and the pills inside floated in the air, rotating one by one, attracting the energy in the hall to gather.

If there was something hidden in the jade bottle, then this thing must be hidden in one of the pills. If he still couldn't identify it by touching it, then the hidden object would break into his meridians. This might not be dangerous, but it probably meant that he had failed the test.

Zhang Yuanjing didn't hesitate and pressed his hand on top of the pills. Another stream of that peculiar force drilled into his meridians.