"How bizarre, how could jade bricks turn into runes? Such a strange world." Zhang Chen stood in the dark world, looking at the pieces of shattered bricks on the ground, bending down to pick them up and finding that after picking them up, the fragments all transformed from jade bricks into runic forms.
"A bit strange." Zhang Chen muttered to himself, casually discarding the runes. As soon as they left his hand, they transformed back into jade bricks, hitting the ground with a sound and sending up trails of dust.
"It shouldn’t be like this! Isn’t this the spiritual world? How could there be a palace? And the palace is destroyed? What force destroyed the palace within the spiritual world?" At this moment, Zhang Chen had too many questions in his mind but no one to answer them.
Zhang Chen carefully stepped forward, braving the dark sandstorm, walking among the shattered palace, with strange and inscrutable symbols flickering on the broken columns and bricks, with peculiar qi mechanisms circulating on the symbols, looking extremely mysterious.
Zhang Chen walked in the ruined palace for a while; aside from ruins, there was still more ruins, just like a house that had been torn down.
"I wonder if there are any treasures left in this palace ruin. They are treasures from within the spiritual world. If I could obtain one or two, I would surely gain incredible power and even have the means to deal with the Yang God True Men. If they dare to come, I’ll surely take them down." Zhang Chen walked and stopped within the ruins, constantly searching for treasures, but unfortunately, after a long search, he found nothing worthwhile.
As for the collapsed walls of the ruins, he couldn’t move them at all, so naturally, he didn’t know what was buried under the palace.
However, at a certain moment, Zhang Chen suddenly stopped, his eyes fixed on a particular pillar with runes engraved on it. At this moment, the runes flashed with flowing light according to a certain pattern, as if still operating.
Zhang Chen halted, his eyes fixed on the runic lines, and the flowing light traced the lines, a sudden realization struck him: "Aren’t those lines the sequence of drawing talismans? Or could it be the sequence in which the current rune was drawn? Although there are many runes in the world, surely there are commonalities?"
So Zhang Chen stopped moving, as this palace was too large, and he couldn’t reach the end just yet. It was better to study the runes, to see if he could comprehend the complete runes left by the Ancient Divine People using the broken runes in the palace.
Zhang Chen’s eyes fell on the runes, watching the flow of light tracing the lines, and then he mimicked the movements with his fingers in the air, comparing them with his runes.
"Interesting!" Zhang Chen murmured to himself, noticing that while the runes were different, there were commonalities in the sequence of strokes.
After observing for a long time, Zhang Chen finally withdrew his gaze, tracing a path with his finger in the air, pondering for a moment before realizing: "So that’s it! I didn’t expect there to be such a twist!"
With newfound insight, Zhang Chen realized he’d made a mistake in the sequence of drawing his previous runes.
After correcting the error inspired by the realization, Zhang Chen continued to examine the runes, pondering until he felt there was nothing more to gain from the broken rune, and then turned to look for new runes within the ruins.
Just at that moment, he suddenly sensed something, realizing that his magical power was about to be exhausted and that he needed to return.
But how to return?
As this thought crossed Zhang Chen’s mind, his consciousness returned to his physical body, staring into the darkness before him, feeling puzzled: "Has it turned dark already?"
After lighting a candle with a flint, Zhang Chen turned to look at Xiaodouding’s room. Today, Xiaodouding hadn’t come downstairs, which he found odd, but he didn’t dwell on it, instead sitting by the candlelight, pondering about the spiritual world.
"Who would’ve thought the spiritual world beyond the barrier would be a ruin, with dark sand everywhere? That sand specifically restrains souls, unfriendly to them." Zhang Chen thought of all the possibilities: "I just don’t know if it’s a palace collapsed beneath the sand or the entire world covered by it."
Zhang Chen found it odd that an entire world appeared in his meditation realm. Although the Fox Fairy Nannan had explained the mysterious Thirty-Three Heavens in the world, stumbling into it unintentionally gave him an inexplicable sense of pride.
"But I wonder about the creation in that spiritual world?" Zhang Chen’s eyes showed a hint of contemplation.
Regardless of any other gains, just those runes in the ruins were treasures enough for him.
"Perhaps I can use the broken runes in the ruins to understand how to use the two runes I obtained. The world will become increasingly chaotic, and I must gain the means to protect myself."
Zhang Chen thought to himself, then began to sit in meditation, visualizing the Heaven Square Earth Circle Diagram to restore his exhausted mind, then continued qi cultivation to restore magical power.
Zhang Chen meditated for a long time, moonlight like flowing water, continuously absorbed by Zhang Chen. Suddenly, at a certain moment, his treasure vase was filled with moonlight, bathing Zhang Chen’s Divine Soul, rapidly restoring his exhausted soul.
"The way of restoring magical power is curious, relying on Golden Light to make up for it, merging with my soul to become magical power." Zhang Chen sensed the flowing Golden Light, which, with the circulation of his qi cultivation technique, merged with the Power of the Soul, entering his Upper Dantian, pouring into the Cyan Lotus.
"Strange! What exactly is my Light of the True God?" Zhang Chen felt puzzled, but fortunately, the Light of the True God within him was inexhaustible, allowing it to be quickly replenished, otherwise, big trouble would arise, the qi cultivation technique would be ruined, and he wouldn’t be able to achieve immortality.
"So, the barren state of cultivating immortality in this world is due to the lack of mysterious material? For instance, my Light of the True God?" A thought flashed in Zhang Chen’s mind, and as his Spiritual Power recovered, operating the Heaven Square Earth Circle Diagram to replenish the exhausted soul, his form flickered, returning to the mysterious spiritual world.
Zhang Chen didn’t wander recklessly in the ruins, fearing some hidden crises within, but carefully perceived the runes engraved on the walls and bricks, to decipher the stroke order of the two runes he obtained.
The runes engraved on the pillars were the best teachers, with glowing spots wandering upon them, flowing according to the rune’s stroke order.
The ruins had many engraved runes, even if the palace was shattered, the runes still flickered.
But many broken runes were carelessly engraved throughout the ruins, as if they were ghost runes.
The broken runes were of no use to Zhang Chen, so he ignored them.
Time flew by, soon exhausting his magical power once more, his spiritual consciousness returning to his body again.
"Zhang Chen, what are you doing?" Xiaodouding, gnawing on a fruit nearby, looked on with concern: "I’ve been calling you for a while, and you didn’t respond."
Hearing this, Zhang Chen sensed the downside of his cultivation, realizing that when his spirit wandered in the spiritual world, he lost perception of the outside world. If someone tried to assassinate him, he wouldn’t be able to resist.
"Do I have to find someone to guard me in the future?" Zhang Chen thought secretly.
Suppressing the thought, Zhang Chen didn’t answer Chengyu but instead said to Xiaodouding: "Why did you come?"
"I was upstairs learning characters, and suddenly remembered that the Daoist temple is preparing for a competition. I can first pass on the complete True Dragon Form to you. Although it’s troublesome for you to cultivate, you can cultivate together and speed up the process." Xiaodouding said.