Just as man and serpent began to doubt and guard against each other, that earth-shaking tremor once again swept through the cavern.
This time, the quake was even more violent than before. Stones tumbled from the ceiling in a ceaseless downpour, striking the air with shrill whistles. The two cunning adversaries had no choice but to abandon their schemes, scrambling in disarray beneath a jutting slab of rock for cover.
On an ordinary day, with the thickness of Zidian's armor-like scales, even a rain of boulders could not have left the slightest mark. But in such turbulent times, avoiding danger meant gaining one more sliver of hope for survival.
Suddenly, Lin Tian's heart jolted. The long-slumbering Lingwu Scripture seemed to awaken, as though stirred by some mysterious force, its will burning with heat and fervor.
In his sea of consciousness, a flash of golden light erupted. Near his spiritual root appeared a grand talisman, densely inscribed with ancient characters. At its top and bottom were two inset illustrations—the true form of the Lingwu Scripture revealed at last.
Lin Tian's body trembled. Ignoring Zidian at his side, he plunged his mind into his sea of consciousness. For the first time, he beheld the Lingwu Scripture's other face so clearly. If not for the familiar images on its surface, he might never have believed that this talisman was the true body of that silk-bound scroll he once possessed.
The man-and-woman figures depicted on it suddenly began to spin, so fast they blurred, until they merged into a yin-yang Taiji diagram. The scroll of mountains and rivers beneath them grew deeper and more layered, its rivers and peaks seeming endless.
His sea of consciousness brimmed with golden radiance. Two spiritual roots twined like twin dragons, greedily drawing in that power and swelling rapidly in strength. Lin Tian felt the magic in his body surge like a tide, as if he could shatter all shackles in an instant and step into complete liberation—though he knew well this was but an illusion born of the Scripture's mutation.
"You… are alive?" he finally asked within his mind, unable to hold back.
The Lingwu Scripture burst forth with an even more dazzling golden light. Ancient words floated into the air before him.
In that moment, Lin Tian understood—the Lingwu Scripture's goal was to devour and fuse with the Five Elements Dragon-Trapping Grand Array!
In the distant age of the Primordials, this formation had been crafted to bind and slay the dragon race, its might second only to the Execution Immortal and God-Slaughter arrays. Though the one before him now retained barely a thousandth of its original power, to the Lingwu Scripture—still far from its peak—it was a gift from the heavens. If it succeeded in consuming the formation, it would immediately give birth to an artifact spirit and ascend to the rank of Lingbao!
A Lingbao was no ordinary magic weapon—it possessed full sentience, and could even take human form. The Lingwu Scripture was now only a high-grade spirit artifact, but once fused with the array, it would transform into a true Lingbao.
However—if the trapped flood dragons within were released, the consequences would be unimaginable. Even the weakest among them would be a Grandmaster-level fiend, perhaps even a Void-shattering celestial beast!
Yet the benefits the Lingwu Scripture promised were so tempting they defied refusal. If it succeeded, his fifteen-year-old self could sweep aside all opponents below the Innate realm, standing shoulder to shoulder with the greatest prodigies of the Yaochi Sword Palace's golden era.
With his decision made, Lin Tian opened his mind completely, guiding one of his spiritual roots—carrying his spirit and soul—into the depths of the Lingwu Scripture.
In an instant, searing soul pain tore through him. The spiritual root embedded itself into the mountains-and-rivers scroll at the talisman's base, becoming part of the painting itself. His perception spread into every inch of that land, sensing the will and rhythm of every blade of grass and tree.
Only then did he realize—the mountains-and-rivers scroll was no illusion, but a complete Minor World. Though only ten thousand miles across, its mountains, waters, and vegetation were all granted life by divine power, akin to the soulborn races of the Outer Demon Realm—alive, yet without physical form.
As the Lingwu Scripture revolved, the Minor World was torn free, compressed into a sphere, and placed within his sea of consciousness. It appeared only one zhang, four chi, and four cun in diameter on the outside, yet within it lay fourteen thousand four hundred miles of vast terrain.
At this moment, he and the Lingwu Scripture together became the sovereigns of that world.
Meanwhile, the Taiji diagram upon the talisman stilled. Where the mountains-and-rivers image had been, a hazy phantom emerged—tortoise and serpent entwined, the serpent's form particularly vivid. This was the first glimpse of the Scripture's nascent spirit; once the array was devoured, the serpent would take physical form, replacing the mountains-and-rivers scroll entirely.
Though he had lost one spiritual root, the other—empowered by the Scripture—now possessed magic several times stronger, its purity nearing the peak of the Mind Condensation realm. More importantly, he now held the most fearsome storage space in the cultivation world—someday, with enough power, he could even store the entire Kunlun Mountain within it!
Lin Tian clenched his fist, a sharp gleam in his eyes. Whether to deal with the Sky Silkworm Sect or to protect himself, this was an opportunity he could not let slip.
Little did he know, that seemingly impossible dream would, on a certain day in the future, truly come to pass.