Chapter 71: Jungle Ruins

Wang Lin pondered for a moment, then pointed his right hand at the spiritual mist that had fused with Teng Li's Spiritual Root. The spiritual mist immediately swelled, strangely churning and wriggling.

Immediately after, the blood orb suddenly shot out, drilling into the spiritual mist and rapidly dissolving. Gradually, the spiritual mist began to contract. Subsequently, the flesh orb and bone orb successively merged into the spiritual mist.

At this point, the spiritual mist's shape had greatly changed, shrinking into a ring, emitting a soft glow, and floating in mid-air.

Wang Lin took a deep breath. He knew that the Base Seizing Great Art had reached its final step, so he calmed his mind and focused his spirit, controlling the last soul orb to slowly merge into the halo.

After a long while, the halo suddenly shot out a dazzling light. Wang Lin's eyes flashed, and he bit his tongue, spitting out a mouthful of fresh blood. As soon as the blood touched the halo, it immediately made a sizzling sound and vanished in an instant.

After the halo absorbed the blood, it trembled violently for a moment, and waves of pressure emanated from it. All living creatures within a hundred-li radius sensed the abnormality in this place at that instant.

Several powerful auras emerged from the jungle and swiftly rushed towards Wang Lin's location.

Wang Lin didn't even blink. He reached out and summoned the halo, which immediately flew over and merged into Wang Lin's chest. A surge of majestic spiritual power instantly filled Wang Lin's body, and his complexion immediately became rosy.

Wang Lin took a deep breath, moved his body, and shot out of the tree hole like an arrow from a bowstring. After a few flashes, he disappeared into the depths of the jungle.

Not long after he left, a gigantic python suddenly revealed its huge head from the adjacent jungle. After sniffing around the area a few times, a bewildered expression appeared on its face. It shook its head and turned to slither away.

Immediately after, an ape over a zhang tall, moving like lightning, arrived at the spot in an instant, drilled into the tree hole to search, and only then left unwillingly.

Several other powerful exotic beasts of this kind arrived, but without exception, all returned bewildered.

Wang Lin ran through the jungle. Extremely dense Spiritual Qi surged within his body, and in addition, every pore on his skin ceaselessly exuded foul-smelling black matter.

A tearing sensation continuously emanated from within his body. Wang Lin frowned, then suddenly stopped. After walking in a circle, his eyes flickered. He cast the Gravity Spell at the ground, and the surging spiritual power within his body immediately gushed forth.

The soil on the ground was pushed aside rapidly as if by two invisible large hands, and in a short while, a bottomless pit appeared.

Without another word, Wang Lin leaped into the pit. Immediately after, the surrounding soil quickly moved back, and before long, it returned to normal, with no abnormalities visible from the outside.

Sitting cross-legged underground, Wang Lin calmed his mind and focused his spirit, beginning to sort out the spiritual power within his body. His body was rapidly changing, everything moving towards Foundation Establishment.

Coupled with the extraordinary silence, deep underground where no one could disturb him, Wang Lin began his third secluded cultivation.

Time flew by, years like a song, and in a blink of an eye, three years passed.

The ground where Wang Lin was in secluded cultivation was covered with thick layers of decaying leaves, and various poisonous insects crawled in and out from time to time.

On this day, the earth suddenly trembled. Countless poisonous insects swiftly crawled out from the dead branches and rotten leaves. Immediately after, the soil on the ground rapidly moved aside, and a completely black figure emerged from underground.

As soon as the figure appeared, the surrounding crawling insects immediately let out terrified hisses and quickly retreated.

"This Base Seizing Great Art is indeed miraculous. I've finally reached the Foundation Establishment Stage." This figure was none other than Wang Lin, who had been in secluded cultivation for three years.

Wang Lin's eyes were like lightning, and his entire body radiated powerful spiritual power. He opened his mouth and spat out a green light; a small green sword appeared before him, shimmering.

Wang Lin's eyes flickered, and with a flick of his right hand, the Scabbard in his Storage Pouch slowly rose into the air. His expression was normal as he muttered to himself, "This Scabbard has been refined almost completely within these three years. When used with the Flying Sword, its effect will surely be extraordinary."

Putting away the Scabbard and Flying Sword, Wang Lin stood in place, pondering for a moment. He touched the mysterious Stone Bead on his chest and thought to himself, "Situ Nan consumed too much Nascent Soul essence three years ago, especially after he cast a Spell to conceal the curse during my secluded cultivation, making him even weaker. He's been dormant for over two years now, and I don't know when he'll wake up. Fortunately, I've already memorized the entire Yellow Springs Ascending Aperture Art Mind-Cultivation Technique. The most important thing now is to find an extreme yin place to Cultivate the Yellow Springs Ascending Aperture Art."

After making up his mind, Wang Lin took a deep breath, swept with his Divine Sense, and swiftly fled north. Not long after, he arrived at a jungle river, where he thoroughly cleaned himself, finally washing away the black grime from his body. A refreshing feeling naturally arose.

Sitting on a rock by the river, Wang Lin recalled his past experiences with deep emotion. He didn't know if Zhang Hu was alive or dead, and silently prayed in his heart that Zhang Hu could escape this calamity.

With a light sigh, Wang Lin put away his thoughts, his eyes showing a pensive look. After a long while, he formed Hand Seals with his right hand and cast a white light. As soon as the white light appeared, its color immediately changed from white to gray, and the color continued to deepen. At the same time, it flickered rapidly, flying swiftly westward.

Wang Lin was startled. The Hand Seal he used to cast this white light was a specialized Spell taught to him by Situ Nan for finding extreme yin places. The deeper the color, the closer it was to an extreme yin place. When it turned completely black, it meant an extreme yin place had been found.

Wang Lin immediately gave chase without a word, following the guiding light that had completely turned gray. He swiftly moved through the jungle. The gray light band's color grew deeper and deeper, and at the moment it turned completely black, the light band dissipated with a 'bang'.

Suddenly, Wang Lin stopped. He stared blankly at the distance, his heart so shocked he couldn't speak.

Spread before him was an boundless ruin. He couldn't see its end. Most of the houses he saw had collapsed, and countless winding plants covered the entire ruin.

The ruins were overgrown with weeds, and animal droppings were everywhere. Small beasts, not large in size, scurried within, occasionally letting out cries.

The ground was scarred with cracks, like gaping bloody mouths ready to swallow life at any moment, revealing its ferocious face.

Large metal remnants stood tall, like broken walls and ruined structures, presenting a scene of a doomsday wasteland. The monotonous gray intertwined with the green of the plants, exuding an aura of despair that was shocking to behold.

Wang Lin took a deep breath, his heart greatly shaken as he looked at this ruin.

Just then, a light suddenly flashed on a towering remnant in the ruins, then emitted a white beam of light that shot down instantly.

Wang Lin was startled, then his expression subtly changed. He turned his head to look at the nearby jungle, only to see a small beast, covered in blood, struggling to crawl out and hobble towards the spot where the light beam had landed. Its right leg had a wound, revealing stark white bone, and as it crawled, it left a deep trail of blood behind it.

After a long while, it finally crawled to the base of the light beam and immediately let out a joyful cry. Its right leg healed at an extremely rapid pace; the entire process took only a few seconds, and the small beast was restored to its original state.

It joyfully shook its body, walked out of the light beam, and its figure gradually disappeared into the distance.

At this moment, the light beam was still continuously condensing. Wang Lin's mind was greatly shaken, and he was speechless as he stared at the light beam.

Just then, the light beam transformed into specks of silver light and dissipated. Wang Lin pondered for a moment, then stood aside to continue observing. Half an hour later, the light beam reappeared.

This cycle repeated several times. Wang Lin watched for an entire day and finally noticed some clues.

According to Wang Lin's judgment, the appearance of this light beam must be related to sunlight. Clearly, even though this place had become ruins, some Magical Artifact-like items had not lost their function, and after absorbing sunlight, they displayed this miraculous scene.

Moreover, many wild beasts knew that this light beam could heal injuries. In that single day, Wang Lin saw no less than twenty injured wild beasts come here.

As dusk approached, Wang Lin calculated that it was almost time for the last light beam to appear. He no longer hesitated and immediately stepped forward, extending his hand into the light beam. A warm current immediately enveloped his hand. This current was not spiritual power, but a substance completely unfamiliar to Wang Lin.

Silently sensing the current, Wang Lin's eyes flickered. He immediately made a cut on his arm and once again extended his hand into the light beam. Within the light beam, the wound healed at an astonishing speed. In just a blink of an eye, the wound disappeared.

Wang Lin pondered for a moment, then without another word, swiftly moved through the ruins. In a short while, he arrived at the base of the tall remnant that emitted the light beam.

This was a grand, cylindrical megalithic remnant, broken from its middle section. Although mostly collapsed, its former splendor could still be seen. Two massive statues holding great swords stood beside it, and atop them rested a thirty-zhang long tower-shaped structure.

As Wang Lin gazed at the remnant, a scene involuntarily appeared in his mind: a towering pagoda reaching into the clouds, broken in the middle during a sudden disaster, its spire crashing onto the statues standing on either side.

The light spot emanated from a Stone Bead, approximately two zhang in diameter, at the tip of the pagoda.

Looking at the Stone Bead, Wang Lin hesitated. This thing was too large to take away, and he hadn't fully analyzed its healing principle. If he forcibly removed it, he didn't know if it would lose its effect.

After much consideration, Wang Lin did not act rashly but instead wandered and observed within these ruins. Gradually, Wang Lin's expression became strange; he had inspected many places and found an anomaly.

In some relatively well-preserved houses within the ruins, he saw some still intact pottery on the ground, some of which even contained residual black substances.

As the sky grew darker, Wang Lin dared not linger here at night, so he swiftly moved towards the jungle. At the moment complete darkness descended, Wang Lin exited the ruins. He stood outside, staring at the ruins, his eyes flickering.