0p0 Chapter 472 Small Spirit Vein
Chapter 472 Small Spirit Vein
Shen Rugo's expression remained unchanged as she calmly said, "I have a special ability to sense the fluctuations of an array."
"Oh?" The burly man became interested. "Let me demonstrate."
Shen Rugo took out a level one "Spirit Sensing Talisman" from her storage bag. She had drawn it casually, and after activation, the talisman emitted a faint spiritual light.
"A sensing talisman?" The burly man was somewhat disappointed. "There are plenty of those on the market."
“Mine is different.” Shen Rugo controlled the changes in the intensity of the talisman’s spiritual light. “I can judge the type and strength of the formation by the changes in the spiritual light.”
This was obviously nonsense, but she acted with extreme confidence.
Shen Rugo was dressed as a boy at the moment. Even in this cultivation world, there are more men than women, let alone a girl in her teens. Under normal circumstances, she would never travel alone without the company of family or elders from her sect.
The burly man hesitated for a moment, then finally nodded: "Alright, you're in. But let me make this clear beforehand: once inside, you must obey orders, otherwise..."
He made a motion of wiping his neck.
Shen Rugo nodded nervously in agreement.
The team set off that afternoon.
In addition to the more than thirty recruited rogue cultivators, the expedition team itself had fifteen members, including an old man in the early stage of the Nascent Soul realm and three Golden Core cultivators.
The group entered the Black Wind Mountains and arrived at their destination, a secluded valley, three days later.
The valley entrance has been occupied by hundreds of cultivators belonging to seven or eight different factions, who are wary of each other and in a standoff.
Deep in the valley, a cave entrance shrouded in mist can be vaguely seen, with more than a dozen corpses scattered in front of it, their deaths gruesome.
"As expected, there is an array." Shen Rugo scanned it with her divine sense and understood.
That mist is a kind of illusionary killing formation, which has both illusionary and offensive effects.
With her expertise in formations, breaking it wouldn't be difficult, but since she's currently playing the role of a minor Qi Refining cultivator, she naturally won't step forward.
As expected, various forces began to organize manpower to scout ahead. The first batch of twenty rogue cultivators were forcibly driven into the mist, and screams soon rang out. In the end, only three escaped covered in blood, while the rest perished in the formation.
The second batch, the third batch...
More than fifty people died in just half a day.
Shen Rugo's team was also asked to send someone. When the burly man called out names, he specifically pointed to Shen Rugo: "Can't you sense the formation? Go ahead and scout the way."
"I... my cultivation level is too low..."
Shen Rugo pretended to be scared and backed away.
"Enough talk! If you don't go, you'll die right now!"
A Golden Core cultivator snorted coldly.
Helpless, Shen Rugo could only cautiously walk into the mist.
The moment she entered the mist, a glint of light flashed in her eyes. Her hands moved swiftly, forming hand seals and setting up a small defensive array in front of her, while her figure darted through the gaps in the array like a fish.
In her eyes, this illusionary killing formation was full of flaws; if she weren't hiding her strength, she could have broken it with a wave of her hand.
To outsiders, the boy appeared to be dodging and weaving through the mist, occasionally pausing to observe, and he actually managed to avoid all the deadly attacks, gradually approaching the cave entrance!
"Huh? That kid's got some skills!"
someone exclaimed.
"Could he really understand formations?"
The Nascent Soul elder leading the group's eyes lit up: "Send the order, everyone follow, stepping on that young man's path!"
Everyone quickly did as instructed.
Sure enough, following the route Shen Rugo took, although danger still existed, casualties were greatly reduced.
In the end, more than 30 people successfully passed through the fog and arrived at the cave entrance.
However, there was another restriction at the entrance of the cave. The heavy stone door was covered with runes, and several Golden Core cultivators tried to attack it, but the stone door did not budge.
"Make way, this old man will handle this."
The Nascent Soul elder stepped forward, summoned a crimson flying sword, and unleashed a full-force attack.
"boom!"
The stone gate trembled, sending down a flurry of dust, but it remained closed.
"This restriction requires at least the mid-stage of the Nascent Soul realm to be forcibly broken."
The old man's face was grim.
Everyone fell silent. After going through so much trouble and losing so many people, they still couldn't even get through the door?
Just then, Shen Rugo timidly spoke up: "Senior, I... I think I understand a little bit of the runes on the door..."
"Hmm?" The old man was overjoyed and looked at her. "Speak!"
Shen Rugo pointed to several runes on the stone door: "These are ancient spirit-sealing runes, which require specific techniques to open. If I'm not mistaken, the mechanism to open them is over there."
She pointed to an inconspicuous rock on the left side of the cave entrance.
The old man was skeptical, but he sent a burst of spiritual energy through the rock. The rock shattered, revealing a groove containing a handprint-shaped mark.
"Bloodline verification or special spiritual power attributes are required."
Shen Rugo analyzed.
The old man tried to press his hand on it, but there was no reaction. He then had several cultivators of different attributes try, but it still didn't work.
Just as everyone was feeling disappointed, Shen Rugo suddenly said, "Why don't you let me try? I have both fire and wood spiritual roots, which is rather special..."
The old man glanced at her and nodded in agreement.
Shen Rugo placed her hand on the mark!
"Buzz!"
The stone door opened slowly with a deep thud.
"It's open! It's really open!"
Everyone was overjoyed.
The old man's gaze towards Shen Rugo held a deeper meaning: "Kid, you're quite good. Stay close to me after you go in, and you'll reap the rewards."
"Thank you, senior!"
Shen Rugo said gratefully.
It wasn't some special attribute spiritual power; she had simply seen through the array's mechanism long ago.
The group rushed into the cave.
The cave was larger than I had imagined, with a maze of passages and branching paths everywhere. The walls were covered with ancient murals, but most of them were already faded and illegible.
The further you go in, the richer the spiritual energy in the air becomes.
Shen Rugo quietly extended her divine sense and quickly figured out the layout of the entire cave. It was indeed an ancient cultivation cave, but it was not the ancient sect ruins she had expected. Instead, it was the place where a Nascent Soul cultivator passed away.
However, to her surprise, there was a small spiritual vein beneath the cave!
Although it was a low-grade spiritual vein, the total amount of spiritual energy it contained was equivalent to millions of top-grade spirit stones, which was a godsend for her.
But the problem is, how to collect it without anyone noticing.
The cave was riddled with traps and mechanisms: poison gas, hidden arrows, puppets, illusion arrays...
In just half an hour, more than twenty people died.
Shen Rugo kept a low profile and followed behind the group, occasionally offering pointers to help them avoid fatal dangers.
The Nascent Soul elder valued her more and more, even letting her walk in the middle of the group to protect her.
Finally, the group arrived at the main burial chamber.
In the center of the tomb chamber was a jade coffin. The coffin lid was open, and the inside was empty, indicating that it had been visited long ago. Scattered around were some decayed ritual objects and jade slips, but none of them were of any value.
"Damn it, all that work for nothing!"
Enraged, a Golden Core cultivator kicked over a nearby stone platform.
The others also looked grim.
Shen Rugo was secretly delighted, for she sensed that the core of the spiritual vein was right beneath the jade coffin!
"Senior, I always feel that there is something strange about this tomb."
She hesitated.
"How to say?"
"Logically speaking, the main burial chamber should be the most important place, but the concentration of spiritual energy here is not as high as that in the outer passage. And look at the ground."
Shen Rugo pointed to the ground beneath the jade coffin, "There's a faint spiritual light shining through the cracks in the stone slabs there."
The old man's eyes lit up, and he smashed the stone slab on the ground with a single palm strike.
Below was a bottomless pit, from which rich spiritual energy gushed forth like a spring!
"A spiritual vein! It's a spiritual vein!"
Everyone went crazy.