A moment later, Yuan Ming opened his eyes and swept his divine sense over himself, nodding slightly.

After a period of mana nourishment, the runes on the gold inner armor had stabilized slightly more than before. Now reassured, he thought that once he returned to his residence, he could spend some time each day to slowly nourish it.

Then, he took out Sha Hao's storage ring and pinched a magic gesture to activate it.

A white light flashed on the ground, and a pile of items appeared, most of which were spirit stones piled about a yard high.

Besides the spirit stones, there were also several magic artifacts, three jade boxes, a giant yellow gourd taller than a man, two jade bottles, one grey and one white jade scroll.

Yuan Ming first counted the spirit stones, finding there were nearly a hundred thousand, which brought joy to his heart.

In recent times while running the Spiritual Fragrance Shop in Little Lake City, although he was making thousands of spirit stones per month, the expenses were practically all spent on cultivation resources, elixirs, and mystic fragrances. It had only allowed him to reach his current level of cultivation, but he had still not been able to break through to the mid-stage.

This was partly due to his talent and partly because he did not have the financial power to buy better elixirs; if he could really practice without restraint, he believed the progress would have been much faster, though the spirit stones needed would more than double.

For example, during the Tianxiang Auction he had once seen a Gathering Spirit Formation that could greatly enhance the efficiency of cultivation. The starting price alone was ten thousand spirit stones, and it eventually sold for as much as seventeen thousand spirit stones. Each activation reportedly consumed several mid-grade spirit stones, making it an extreme luxury that he had previously been reluctant to pursue.

Besides, although he was putting most of his effort into cultivation, he still occasionally needed to make time to produce incense in exchange for spirit stones, preventing him from truly secluding himself for full-time cultivation.

This time, in order to deal with Sha Hao, he had nearly spent all his spirit stones, likely unable to meet even his prior conditions for cultivation in the short term. Now, with such a large pile of spirit stones, he could finally afford a real seclusion.

Yuan Ming happily collected the spirit stones and then turned his attention to the magic artifacts.

There were nine magic artifacts in total, among them five command flags that appeared to be part of the same array set.

These five flags were red, yellow, blue, green, and gold in color, all identical in size and shape; the yellow command flag he had used earlier to open the great doors of the mansion was among them.

From Sha Hao's memories, he knew these five flags were used to control the arrays surrounding the mansion: they were the Array Flags of the formation.

This array was called the "Five Elements Illusion Destruction Array", quite sophisticated, far beyond the capabilities of the Thousand Mechanism Water Rope Array or the Bronze Thunder Pattern Array.

It was said that the Five Elements Illusion Destruction Array was not only an illusion technique array but also contained intricate derivations of the Five Elements. Due to its ingenious design, even ordinary cultivators could activate its illusion restrictions, trapping those who rashly entered. It was difficult for a normal Foundation Establishment cultivator to escape, thus it was also known as the 'Small Immortal Entrapping Array'.

If one had mastery of certain Five Elements Techniques, it was also easy to manipulate changes corresponding to those attributes within the array, allowing illusions and the Five Elements to enhance each other, shifting between illusion and reality, and thereby greatly increasing its power.

Upon considering this, Yuan Ming activated the command flags and tried stimulating the array.

Soon, the surroundings of the mansion were illuminated with red, yellow, blue, green, and gold light, which then turned into the illusory shapes of flames, flowing water, giant trees, mountains, and golden blades, their appearances flickering and uncertain, occasionally transforming into real objects, yet seemed somewhat chaotic and disordered.

Since he had scarcely dabbled in arrays and was a novice, his technique was clumsy. After repeatedly practicing several times, he barely got the hang of it.

As his cultivation of the Nine Elements Technique was one of the best in the Wood Attribute cultivation methods, after several more attempts, he also mastered a few Wood Attribute transformations among the Five Elements.

However, whether he was to fully grasp the Wood Attribute transformations for combat or to continue comprehending transformations of other attributes, he still needed more time to ponder and practice.

Although the power of the Five Elements Illusion Destruction Array was remarkable, its consumption was also substantial; setting it up even once could easily cost over a thousand spirit stones, not affordable for ordinary cultivators.

Yuan Ming collected the five command flags and continued to check the remaining four magic artifacts. They were a black short sword, a blue flying boat, a white round orb, and a blue round mirror.

He had already seen the black short sword and the blue flying boat; the former was a top-grade magical tool with considerable offensive power, the latter a common flying artifact.

The white round orb, called the "Soul-Locking Pearl", was a top-grade Soul Cultivation Magical Artifact capable of locking onto someone else's Divine Soul Aura and tracking from a distance.

As long as the target was within a hundred li, the Soul-Locking Pearl could accurately sense the opponent's location. In his previous confrontation with Sha Hao, Sha Hao had firmly located his position using this magical artifact, nearly forcing him into a dire situation.

The Soul-Locking Pearl could not only lock onto enemies from a distance but was also extremely covert, so much so that even Core Formation Stage cultivators might not detect it.

The only drawback of the pearl was that it had a time limit; each locking could only last for three days, after which the Divine Soul Aura inside the bead would dissipate, necessitating a re-lock.

As for the blue round mirror, it was called the "Water Observation Mirror", a mid-grade Water Attribute Magical Artifact with some scouting capabilities. In places abundant with water vapor, it could probe hundreds of meters.

However, if there was no water nearby, the effectiveness of the Water Observation Mirror would be significantly reduced, even worse than ordinary magical artifacts.

Sha Hao had taken a different approach by combining the Water Observation Mirror with the Five Elements Illusion Destruction Array, thus he could use this mirror to scout within three hundred meters around the array.

Both of these magical artifacts were valuable; if used wisely, they could have remarkable effects.

Yuan Ming put away all the magical artifacts and picked up three jade boxes, opening them to find a shiny black iron block, a green crystal stone, and a yellowish-brown round orb.

He recognized these three items as Black Mysterious Iron, Green Water Amber, and Mountain Spirit Pearl, all precious materials for refining top-grade magical tools, though he currently had no use for them.

Yuan Ming then checked the yellow gourd and discovered it was filled with white jade-like elixirs, almost a thousand in number.

He took out one elixir, feeling the cold touch of a snowball in his palm, and smelling a strong medicinal aura, immediately recognizing it as a Strengthening and Nourishing Spirit Pill, superior to the ones he was currently taking.

"Could this be the Snow Crystal Pill?"

The Snow Crystal Pill was considered one of the best Strengthening and Nourishing elixirs among those available during the Foundation Establishment Stage, unfortunately, they were very expensive and beyond Yuan Ming's means for long-term use. He had not expected Sha Hao to have so many.

Yuan Ming felt secretly overjoyed; with so many Snow Crystal Pills, along with the abundant spirit stones he had obtained earlier, he wouldn't have to worry about elixirs for a considerable time. These pills would support his cultivation up to the Late Foundation Establishment.

As for the other two jade bottles, one contained a Detoxification Elixir and the other a Healing Pill, both of top grade.

Finally, Yuan Ming took out two jade scrolls for inspection. The gray jade scroll contained a cultivation method called "Mystic Jade Technique" and a soul cultivation technique called "Heart Cleansing Technique."

He already possessed many cultivation techniques and paid little attention to the "Mystic Jade Technique," focusing instead on the "Heart Cleansing Technique."

This was his first encounter with a soul cultivation method other than the "Moonlight Technique," and he was quite curious, immersing himself in thorough contemplation and quickly finishing it.

The "Heart Cleansing Technique" was also a refined soul cultivation method, yet it still fell short of the "Moonlight Technique." However, this technique had unique aspects in refining the mind and eliminating emotional distractions.

According to the jade scroll, this technique could sever all Seven Emotions and Six Desires at a profound stage, even achieving the "Four Nones" state of "Heartless," "Ignorance," "No Recognition," and "Painless."

"This really is a sinister technique," Yuan Ming muttered, realizing that cultivating it could truly make one unmovable as a mountain in mental state, but at the risk of becoming a being devoid of thoughts, a likely side effect of the "Heart Cleansing Technique."

Fortunately, his "Moonlight Technique" carried no such drawbacks.

Yuan Ming then picked up the white jade scroll, his divine sense penetrating it.

His expression suddenly turned puzzled as the white jade scroll seemed to devour his divine sense, but it quickly released it back to him.

"What's going on?" Yuan Ming wondered, releasing his divine sense once more to probe the white jade scroll.

This time there were no surprises, and his divine sense smoothly entered the inside of the white jade scroll.

He paused for a moment, deciding to ignore the earlier anomaly, and concentrated on reading the contents of the scroll.

The white jade scroll contained the Great Elder's insights on soul cultivation practice, most of which were related to the "Heart Cleansing Technique" and offered considerable value for reference.

The scroll also recorded several secret soul cultivation techniques that caught his eye.

The ones that Yuan Ming paid most attention to were the Soul Splitting Skill, the Soul Shaking Secret Technique, and the Dream Butterfly Illusion Technique.

The Soul Splitting Skill allowed one to split their Divine Soul form, maintaining the capabilities of the Divine Soul form after splitting, though it significantly weakened them.

The Great Elder had used this technique during the annihilation at Biluo Cave, splitting his Blood Bat into hundreds, nearly reversing the entire battle scenario.

However, this technique consumed an immense amount of Soul Power and was perilously dangerous, as even a moment of inattention could lead to soul exhaustion.

The Soul Shaking Secret Technique, true to its name, could shake the Divine Soul, specifically counteracting illusions and enabling one to rescue themselves from illusions.

Yuan Ming suddenly understood why Sha Hao could so easily escape his illusions during the battle at Yunluo Mountain Range.

Once mastered and skillfully applied, he wouldn't need to use soul collision to escape illusions any longer.

As for the Dream Butterfly Illusion Technique, it was a powerful illusion technique that could trap someone unaware in an illusion from which they could not escape, using the illusion to consume the enemy's Divine Soul Power and harm them intangibly.

This technique was far superior to the illusion techniques Yuan Ming had used before, and Sha Hao had indeed used this technique against him.

The Dream Butterfly Illusion Technique was profound and mysterious, divided into four stages: Mirror Flower, Mirage, Illusion Dream, and Void Silence, and was tremendously difficult to cultivate.

Sha Hao had only cultivated it to the first stage, the Mirror Flower, which was just the beginning. However, his Divine Soul form, the Blood Bat, could emit strong blood-colored Soul Waves with strong penetration ability, which allowed him to remain unaffected by the Fog Incense in the previous big battle and easily penetrate deep into the divine soul to execute illusions with twice the result for half the effort.

Sha Hao had combined the Dream Butterfly Illusion Technique with his blood bat's Soul Wave, greatly enhancing its power. From the Southern Border to Central Plains, no low-level cultivators could escape his illusions; if not for Yuan Ming's prompt use of his soul collision secret technique to hit his own divine soul and save himself, he might only have faced defeat that day.

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