Chapter 514 - 484: Undersea Secret Chamber

Chapter 514: Chapter 484: Undersea Secret Chamber

The ground beneath his feet was cold stone.

The air was filled with an incredibly dense Water Element Spiritual Qi, its concentration far surpassing the outer sea and even the stone chamber he’d just been in. This Spiritual Qi enveloped the area like an invisible curtain of water. With every breath, he could feel pure Water Spiritual Power pouring into his lungs.

Li Yuan stood his ground, not rushing to move. He first swept the area in all directions with his Divine Sense.

’A completely sealed space.’

The secret chamber wasn’t large, measuring roughly sixty feet square and thirty feet high. The walls, ceiling, and floor were all constructed from some kind of incredibly hard, dark blue rock. Its surface was polished as smooth as a mirror, faintly gleaming with a watery luster.

No doors, no windows, no passages leading to the outside.

The only way in or out was the Teleportation Array beneath his feet. Its Array Base belonged to the same system as the one in the ruins; the materials and the style of the runes were identical. However, this one was in far better condition, with almost no damage.

’Of course, a damaged array shouldn’t have been able to teleport anyone.’

Li Yuan looked away from the Teleportation Array, his gaze sweeping across the chamber’s four walls.

The walls were covered in Array Patterns.

They were dense and layered, stretching from the floor to the ceiling without a single inch of empty space. The carvings of the Array Patterns were exquisite, their lines fluid, their strokes seemingly etched in one breath. Every pattern emanated the lingering resonance of ancient Spiritual Power.

After studying them for a moment, Li Yuan came to a conclusion.

’This is a High Tier Spirit Gathering Array.’

The array’s core function was to draw Water Element Spiritual Qi from the outside world, then purify and compress it within the chamber to create a cultivation environment with an extremely high concentration of Spiritual Qi. The dense Water Element Spiritual Qi filling the chamber was the result of this array operating for who knows how many years.

Li Yuan withdrew his gaze and turned toward the center of the chamber.

A set of remains sat cross-legged on a stone platform in the very center of the chamber.

The remains were perfectly preserved, like a lifelike stone statue. The man had a gaunt face with a white beard and hair, and he wore a faded, dark blue magical robe. His hands rested on his knees, forming a hand seal, and his posture was serene, as if he were deep in meditation.

But not the slightest ripple of Spiritual Power remained within the body.

’He’s been dead for who knows how many years.’

Several items were scattered on the stone platform around the remains: two dull jade slips, a shattered jade bottle, a fist-sized Array Hub Crystal Stone, and a crystal-clear bead the size of a pigeon’s egg.

Li Yuan looked first to the Array Patterns on the walls.

Although the Array was still running as a whole, many of its materials were damaged or missing. The auxiliary Array Materials for three of the six key nodes had disintegrated into dust, leaving only empty grooves in the rock and faint traces of Spiritual Power. The Spirit Stones at another two nodes were completely depleted, and the array was only just clinging to operation through the sheer inertia of its Array Patterns.

Only a single node remained perfectly intact.

It was the main Array Hub, located in the center of the chamber’s eastern wall. A dark blue Crystal Stone, the size of a baby’s fist, was embedded in a groove in the rock, its surface shimmering with an exceptionally pure Spiritual Light. All the Spiritual Power circuits of the Array Patterns converged on this stone, which managed the operational rhythm of the entire array.

Li Yuan walked to the eastern wall and reached out to touch the Array Hub Crystal Stone.

Within a three-foot radius, a blue light flared.

[Detected Equippable Item: Void Stone (Complete)]

[Equip Entry Preview: Array Rhythm (Blue)]

[Effect: Increases Array proficiency growth rate by 30%. Raises Array Dao attainment by one minor stage; cannot be raised further after reaching perfection. When analyzing unknown Arrays, greatly enhances intuitive judgment regarding the logical connections between Array Patterns.]

[Permanence Condition Preview: Reach Minor Achievement in Tier Three Array Dao.]

’A blue entry.’

The effect was a perfect fit for his current needs. Li Yuan’s proficiency in the Array Dao was at Tier Three, still some distance from Minor Achievement. But with his rate of progress and the bonuses from his many array-related entries, it was only a matter of time before he broke through.

’Besides, once this Array Hub is made permanent, the hidden information it triggers might contain details about this secret chamber.’

Li Yuan didn’t equip it just yet, instead turning his gaze to the other items on the stone platform.

The crystal-clear bead caught his attention.

The bead was completely transparent, with extremely fine patterns of Spiritual Power circulating slowly within. The arrangement of these patterns was entirely different from that of a typical Magical Artifact. They formed an inward-focusing, radial structure, like a miniature eyeball.

Li Yuan reached out and picked up the bead.

Within a three-foot radius, a second blue light flared.

[Detected Equippable Item: Spiritual Eye Bead (Complete)]

[Equip Entry Preview: Illusion-Breaking Spirit Eyes (Blue)]

[Effect: Allows Divine Sense to penetrate a certain degree of Illusion Techniques, disguises, concealment Skills, and Arrays. Penetration power is directly proportional to the user’s Divine Soul strength. Increases Divine Sense detection range by 20%.]

[Permanence Condition Preview: Cultivate a Tier Three Pupil Technique to the introductory level.]

’Another blue entry.’

’The permanence condition is to cultivate a Tier Three Pupil Technique to the introductory level. I don’t know any Pupil Techniques at the moment, but that kind of Magic shows up in the major markets from time to time. I’ll just have to keep an eye out for one.’

Next, Li Yuan’s gaze fell upon the two dull jade slips on the stone platform.

The jade slips were made of an ancient material and coated in a fine layer of Spirit Dust. Li Yuan picked up the first one and probed it with his Divine Sense.

The information within the jade slip was perfectly preserved.

It contained extremely detailed notes on arrays, recording some of the structural principles and debugging insights for the Spirit Gathering Array on the chamber walls, as well as other arrays. The writing was rigorous and the phrasing concise, clearly the work of a Cultivator with profound attainments in the Array Dao.

Li Yuan put down the first jade slip and picked up the second.

The contents of the second jade slip were completely different.

It wasn’t notes on arrays, but a personal journal.

The writing was equally ancient, with turns of phrase that were noticeably different from those used in the modern cultivation world, but the meaning was not hard to grasp.

The writer, who gave his surname as Zhou, was a Late-stage Golden Core Cultivator skilled in the Array Dao and Water Magic.

This place was a seclusion chamber provided by a certain Sect for cultivators attempting to break through to the Nascent Soul realm.

The jade slip recorded some of his observations and judgments on the state of the world at the time.

Li Yuan’s gaze fell upon a particular passage.

"The Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi wanes daily. According to my Sect’s scriptures, there is a spatial passage on the Celestial Essence Continent and another on Yao Guang Island, at the heart of the sea. They constantly channel Spiritual Qi from the Upper Realm, maintaining the total volume of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi in this lower realm. I fear these two passages do not have much time left."

"Once the passages close completely, the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi will begin an irreversible decline. When it reaches a certain point, Golden Core Cultivators may be able to maintain their cultivation through meticulous Spiritual Power control, but I fear that for Cultivators below Foundation Establishment, things will become increasingly difficult."

"The only hope lies in Divinity Transformation."

"I have entered seclusion here to attempt my breakthrough to the Nascent Soul realm. If I succeed, and then can reach for Divinity Transformation, perhaps I can grant this world a sliver of hope. If not, then my life will end here."

The record ended there.

Li Yuan set down the jade slip and fell silent for a moment.

’Celestial Essence Continent.’

’He had never seen that name in any modern cultivation text. But judging from the description in the jade slip, this "Celestial Essence Continent" must be the very land he was standing on.’

’Two spatial passages, one on the Celestial Essence Continent and one on Yao Guang Island at the heart of the sea. Constantly channeling Spiritual Qi from the Upper Realm to maintain the total amount in the lower realm.’

’As for whether Cultivator Zhou succeeded in his breakthrough to the Nascent Soul realm... judging by the state of the remains, the answer was obvious.’

Li Yuan stored the two jade slips in his personal storage space.

The shattered jade bottle left on the stone platform was worthless, so Li Yuan ignored it.

He walked back to the Array Hub on the eastern wall and removed the ancient Spirit Gathering Array Hub from its groove. The instant it came free, the Spiritual Light of the Array Patterns on the walls dimmed drastically. The entire Spirit Gathering Array, having lost its core, ground to a halt.

The dense Water Element Spiritual Qi pervading the chamber began to slowly dissipate, but it wouldn’t vanish completely right away.

Li Yuan placed the Array Hub Crystal Stone into an equipment slot.

[Array Rhythm (Blue) has taken effect.]

A blue light flared in the equipment slot.

An incredibly subtle shift in perception spread through his sea of consciousness. As Li Yuan’s gaze once again swept across the Array Patterns on the walls, their once-abstruse logic suddenly felt much more intuitive. The connections between patterns, the deeper principles of Spiritual Power circulation, the nested logic between nodes—all of it presented itself to his senses with a newfound clarity.

’It wasn’t that he understood it, exactly. His intuition had just become much sharper.’

When faced with an unfamiliar combination of Array Patterns, even if he couldn’t analyze its principles theoretically, he could now rely on his intuition to judge how the different parts were connected.

This intuition would be a tremendous help in analyzing unknown Arrays.

Li Yuan remained in the chamber for a while longer, using his Divine Sense to carefully record the sections of the Array Patterns on the walls that he could understand, storing them in his sea of consciousness. Perhaps the design philosophy behind these patterns could one day provide inspiration for his own cultivation of the Array Dao.