Chapter 1828: Chapter 960: Ruins (Part 2)
The Duke of Thunder used space movement, flickering continuously within the restriction, and quickly returned to the crater.
The crater, having lost the Heavenly Mechanism Treasure, remained in a sealed state.
The Duke of Thunder followed the crater downwards, descending a hundred meters, vaguely seeing the red magma below. Using the glow of the red magma, he could see a transparent section of the volcanic exit passageway.
This transparent section of the volcanic passageway vaguely revealed the underground facilities established around the crater.
The Duke of Thunder arrived in front of the transparent wall, reaching out to touch it, confirming through his perception that it was also constructed through ancient restrictions, capable of blocking the high-temperature seawater from the crater.
The Duke of Thunder’s hand was blocked; it seemed this transparent restriction did not allow life to pass through.
But such a restriction was not capable of stopping the Duke of Thunder at all.
With a flicker, the Duke of Thunder moved directly to the other side of the transparent wall.
The surrounding temperature was somewhat cool, contrasting the previously high temperatures in the volcanic passage, and although the scorching crater was nearby, not a trace of its heat was transmitted.
The Duke of Thunder extended his senses, observing the surrounding environment.
The ground was made of a type of Fourth Grade Spirit Jade, engraved with complex patterns.
Controlling the Duke of Thunder, Li Shiming had the IBMz15 record the complex ground patterns into the database.
These were indeed real ancient runes. Though his understanding of ancient runes was limited, such unprotected ancient runes were rarely encountered in ancient relics of the Cultivation World.
In places typically engraved with ancient runes, the ancient runes would be hidden, or more complex runes would be added to obscure the true ancient runes.
Through the Duke of Thunder’s perception, he understood what the ground’s ancient runes were for.
The ancient runes engraved on the Fourth Grade Spirit Jade ground served to extract energy from the magma.
The Duke of Thunder perceived within the energy channel constructed by the ground’s ancient runes, a continuous stream of energy being extracted from the crater and input into the ancient relic.
To be frank, the ancient runes on the ground alone made this venture worthwhile.
Unlike the current Cultivation World, where large formations require Spiritual Energy to set up.
Generally, large formations are placed on spiritual veins to continuously extract Spiritual Energy from the veins to meet the formation’s consumption.
Smaller formations do not require spiritual veins for support but similarly absorb Spiritual Energy from the void through the formation to sustain consumption.
However, this ancient relic utilized natural forces to convert into energy, as evidenced by the ancient runes engraved on the Fourth Grade Spirit Jade.
If one could thoroughly research these ancient runes, it would be possible to supply the operations of large formations using natural forces without needing Spiritual Energy.
This technology has many applications but requires extensive research.
Recording the ancient runes on the ground did not take much time.
After finishing examining the ancient runes, the Duke of Thunder’s attention shifted to a portal.
The Duke of Thunder approached the portal without opting for violent destruction.
Earlier, Phoenix Palace Master activated this ancient relic by taking the Heavenly Mechanism Treasure.
The Duke of Thunder was unsure if damaging the portal might trigger more significant troubles.
The Duke of Thunder carefully scrutinized the portal, which also bore ancient runes, though vaguely visible; it had undergone anti-decryption measures, and at least the current IBMz15 database lacked enough foundation to decrypt the ancient runes.
Establishing that the restriction on the portal was unbreakable, at least not in a short period.
The Duke of Thunder didn’t hesitate any longer; with a flicker, he again used space movement, this time moving a short distance to appear inside the portal.
White ground, white walls, transparent partitions, with golden energy chains locking up an unseen spirit beast within the partitions.
The portal through which the Duke of Thunder passed turned into a massive stone pillar, supporting this white space.
The Duke of Thunder circled the massive stone pillar, discovering such partitions every ten meters, densely packed throughout the space, numbering one hundred and eight transparent partitions.
The transparent partitions were arranged according to the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, forming an apparently chaotic yet orderly Formation around the massive stone pillar.
Through the Duke of Thunder’s perception, Li Shiming was startled to find that the spirit beasts within the one hundred and eight transparent partitions still possessed life aura.
Taking a closer look at these spirit beasts, they resembled worm-like creatures.
All these spirit beasts were of the Fourth Grade Late Stage; realizing this, even Li Shiming felt chills down his spine.
One hundred and eight Fourth Grade Late Stage spirit beasts, existing for unknown thousands of years.
Any one of these spirit beasts taken outside would undoubtedly cause considerable trouble.
The Duke of Thunder’s cultivation level was so high that, although it lacked "Divine Sight," mere perception allowed him to detect minute energy fluctuations.
He found that the spirit beasts in the one hundred and eight transparent partitions were having their life force extracted.
The life force extracted from the one hundred and eight Fourth Grade Late Stage spirit beasts traveled through one hundred and eight energy transmission channels upwards.
Though the species of these one hundred and eight Fourth Grade Late Stage spirit beasts was unknown, one thing was certain: their life force was exceptionally formidable.
He even speculated whether these Fourth Grade Late Stage spirit beasts might be immortal.
Otherwise, after thousands of years of life force extraction, the one hundred and eight Fourth Grade Late Stage spirit beasts should have perished.
Alternatively, there might be a method to automatically replace Fourth Grade Late Stage spirit beasts here, swapping out spent Fourth Grade Late Stage spirit beasts with new ones.
However, this would complicate matters further, necessitating a system for cultivating Fourth Grade Late Stage spirit beasts.
"Better check where the life force is being delivered!" Li Shiming thought, directing the Duke of Thunder to use space movement.
In this ancient relic filled with various restrictions, even ordinary Half-step Great Powers could only obediently seek the correct path.
But the Duke of Thunder was different. The Half-step Great Power level Duke of Thunder naturally commanded spatial power, allowing it to use space movement to bypass most formations and restrictions.
This wasn’t surprising; at the Half-step Great Power level, spatial control abilities could easily ignore the restrictions only as strong as the Peak Great Cultivator level, wasn’t that perfectly normal?
The Duke of Thunder used space movement, forcibly passing through the ceiling and layers above.
It emerged in a vast Formation, where abundant life force was palpable.
Within the vast Formation, the flowing energy was not typical energy but life force.
At the center of the vast Formation was a Crystal Stone Bed, upon which lay a cultivator.
It was described as a cultivator rather than a corpse because the abundant life force in the vast Formation continually nourished the cultivator on the Crystal Stone Bed, keeping a subtle trace of life force within the cultivator.
As long as there is life force, the cultivator remains alive; this is applicable to any organism or plant.
The Duke of Thunder did not rashly disturb the cultivator at the center, now understanding the ancient relic’s purpose to let the cultivator live.
This could have been the experiment of some Ancient Cultivator, a successful one, using the life force of one hundred and eight Fourth Grade Late Stage spirit beasts to sustain his own life force.
The Duke of Thunder sensed the Formation while IBMz15 began analyzing and researching the Formation.
Even though ancient formations differ from those today, the tradition of formations has not been entirely severed, allowing deductions about the Formation through some details.
Following IBMz15’s analysis, the Formation’s role was to use other life forces to nourish the cultivator, enabling the cultivator’s body to achieve immortality.
Extracting the life force from others to sustain one’s own, this seemed like a demonic method, yet, whether in demonic paths, Taoist, or Buddhist, similar techniques exist.
