Upon hearing Zhou Zhen’s words, Zhang Chen’s eyes revealed a hint of fear. Such a multitude of strange entities, once unleashed, would cause a terrifying disaster.
Not just Jinling City, even Jiangnan would turn into ruins within a month.
"My father said, these strange entities are imbued with inexplicable Power of Law and possess various incredible powers. If one can obtain any of them, they would become top-notch in the world." Zhou Zhen patted Zhang Chen’s shoulder and encouraged him: "You should work hard, seize the opportunity. If you can comprehend any mysterious Law, you can summon it, and you’ll strike it rich."
Hearing this, Zhang Chen nodded: "Thank you for your guidance, brother."
After chatting for a while, Zhou Zhen turned and left, leaving Zhang Chen staring silently at the strange engravings on the wall.
"Oddly enough, these patterns are indeed strange, yet why don’t they drop any experience points?" Zhang Chen wondered.
His eyes scanned over the patterns on the wall, indeed finding no experience points dropped from any of the strange entities, nor any skills.
"I wonder if my True God Golden Light can stimulate these entities to drop skills." Zhang Chen had this thought, and the next moment he extended his hand to the inscriptions on the wall. A strand of True God Golden Light flowed from his palm. The next moment, Zhang Chen withdrew his hand with a thoughtful expression: "I probably understand why these entities don’t drop experience points. It’s because they are in a state of being sealed; their Qi Mechanism is wrapped by Sealing Power, completely isolated from the outside, so no experience points drop."
Zhang Chen felt a bit regretful. There are over ten thousand strange entities here; if they could drop experience points, he’d be rich.
As for the strange entities on the wall, Zhang Chen glanced at them but couldn’t muster any interest. He turned towards the direction of that ruler: "That ruler is a good treasure. If I can obtain it, it would surpass all my gains. It might even be on par with the Exquisite Tower."
Zhang Chen started walking towards the direction of the ruler, and upon arriving, no longer saw any human presence around, except for the initial curiosity; everyone had dispersed after the excitement.
Everyone came from wealthy families and had already discreetly gathered information before coming to Chongzheng Academy. They knew of the various key points and had been instructed by their elders not to waste time on that ruler.
So when Zhang Chen arrived, there was no one in sight.
He stepped forward, extended his smooth, fair hand, and took the ruler in his grasp. With a slight lift, his eyebrows raised—it was unexpectedly heavy, about thirty pounds. Touching it felt nothing like decayed wood; instead, there was a cold metallic sensation as if holding an iron rod.
Zhang Chen held the ruler in front, examining it, and saw that beneath the dark grime, some remnants of markings were visible, proving it was indeed a ruler.
The ruler had a total of thirty-six markings, but each critical marking was missing its primary indicator.
For instance, on a ten-centimeter ruler, there’d be 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4...0.9, but the neat markings of 0 and 1 were missing, making it strange.
He carefully examined the thirty-six missing markings, and felt they seemed somewhat familiar, but couldn’t recall where he’d seen them before.
"These missing markers are quite strange; they seem a bit familiar." The Great Freedom Celestial Demon circled the ruler, curious eyes fixed on its markings.
"They are indeed familiar," Zhang Chen stood there pondering, yet couldn’t remember where he’d seen them.
However, with his current Power of the Primordial Spirit, anything he’d seen wouldn’t be forgotten. His memories began rewinding rapidly like a movie reel, and after thirty heartbeats, the scene froze; a snowy landscape appeared in his mind. In that snowstorm, Zhang Chen held a small bag, containing purple gemstones that sparkled with mysterious light.
"Baiya Academy, Chen Sanliang..." Zhang Chen finally recalled. The reason the markings felt familiar was due to part of them being hidden by grime; the revealed appearance wasn’t clear, only vaguely familiar.
"Previously, Chen Sanliang said that Baiya Academy has a Secret Treasure that can communicate with the legendary Spiritual World. It seems these gemstones are it. This ruler is connected to me!" Zhang Chen stroked the ashy ruler, True God Golden Light streaming through his hand into the ruler, but the ruler reacted as if it were ordinary wood, showing no response to the True God Golden Light.
"The level of this ruler should be higher than my True God Golden Light, hence no response," Zhang Chen murmured to himself.
But it doesn’t matter; he has other means; he has the Devouring Power.
No treasure escapes the efficacy of his Devouring Power.
Zhang Chen observed as magical power flowed through his body, and in the next moment, a stinger of the innate mosquito slowly emerged at the contact point between his palm and the ruler.
As Zhang Chen’s palm tightly connected with the ruler, his actions were extremely discreet. The mosquito’s stinger flashed forth like a fine hair, gradually piercing into the ruler.
In the next instant, the ruler emitted countless silver threads in a flash, followed by a silver light sphere dropping out from the dark ruler, as a force of resistance circulated within, trying to block the intrusion of Zhang Chen’s mosquito stinger.
Feeling the resistance from the ruler, Zhang Chen decided not to proceed further lest its power awaken and cause trouble. He put the ruler back and looked at the silver light sphere on the ground.
[Power of the Strange detected, do you wish to pick it up?]
"Pick it up!" Zhang Chen commanded silently in his heart.
With Zhang Chen’s command issued, the light sphere vanished, and a stream of information surged through his mind:
[Acquired the Celestial Measuring Ruler Manipulation Mantra manual.]
Then, a vast influx of information poured into Zhang Chen’s mind, filling his eyes with astonishment: "Celestial Measuring Ruler — an innate spiritual treasure?"
It took Zhang Chen a long while to process the immense information, eventually realizing: "No wonder the Celestial Measuring Ruler can sense the Thirty-Three Heavens because it is formed by the Space Law, corresponding to the Space Dao."
With this manipulation mantra for the innate spiritual treasure, grasping this treasure shouldn’t be too difficult, should it?
Zhang Chen meticulously pondered the ruler’s mantra, then once again reached out to hold the Celestial Measuring Ruler. Looking at its dull gray shaft, Zhang Chen could only lament how the treasure had collected dust, unable to say much else.
Zhang Chen silently activated the manipulation mantra, channeling his magical power to attempt an initial sacrificial refining of the Celestial Measuring Ruler, hoping to leave a trace of connection. Yet, when his magical power infused the ruler, there was no response at all, as if his efforts sank into the sea without a ripple — let alone refining it, even with the mantra being recited until smoke rose, there was no reaction.
"Indeed, innate spiritual treasures aren’t easily refined, especially those formed during the era of change between Heaven and Earth; refining them is incredibly challenging."
Then Zhang Chen contemplated for a moment and directed strands of innate qi through his skin’s pores into the Celestial Measuring Ruler. Upon sensing the innate qi, the ruler’s countless threads brightened instantly, greedily devouring the qi strands.
"I knew it; no innate spiritual treasure can resist innate qi." At this moment, Zhang Chen’s eyes shone brightly as he seized the chance to channel magical power and activate the mantra. With the infusion of innate qi, countless silver threads remarkably guided Zhang Chen’s magical power into one particular thread, leaving Zhang Chen’s mark within. It took a full hour before the silver thread transformed completely into a qi mechanism, embedding Zhang Chen’s primordial spirit imprint.
Then Zhang Chen withdrew the mantra, having exhausted his magical power within this brief hour. However, he had gained significantly; he had established a preliminary sensing connection with the silver thread.
But this wasn’t the best moment to take the treasure away, so Zhang Chen put the Celestial Measuring Ruler back. At that moment, Tushan Qing’s voice sounded behind Zhang Chen, mysteriously appearing: "Big brother, did you see something intriguing in this treasure? I’ve seen you standing before it for a whole hour."
Before Zhang Chen could speak, a scoffing voice called from afar: "If standing for an hour could decipher such a supreme secret treasure, wouldn’t the mysterious experts in the Great Victory Royal Palace have long decrypted all of its secrets, spending months and years before it?"
Upon hearing this, Zhang Chen looked over, spotting Zhang Gaoqiu and Jiang Nan approaching from a distance. Zhang Gaoqiu spoke first, his voice full of ridicule: "Such a wild man like him could comprehend this treasure? If anyone could, it’d only be me."
With that, Zhang Gaoqiu came to the Celestial Measuring Ruler and began examining it in his hand.
"Where are you from, you useless brat, daring to compare yourself to my brother..." Tushan Qing was instantly displeased by Zhang Gaoqiu’s condescending and arrogant demeanor and was about to retort.
"No need to argue; it’s pointless to waste words with fools like him," Zhang Chen said grumpily, stopping Tushan Qing and heading towards the distant entrance.
"Hey, wait for me!" Tushan Qing called, quickly chasing after Zhang Chen’s departing figure.
"Big brother, I don’t see you as someone who tolerates insults quietly; why allow that brat to mock you?" Tushan Qing asked, puzzled.