"The top priority is to merge the Spirit Martial Scripture with the Five-Element Dragon-Trapping Grand Array as soon as possible. Otherwise, everything is just empty talk." Lin Tian's expression was grave within his Sea of Consciousness. "This Minor World, which might have been a burden to the Scripture before, has now become a crushing weight upon me. If my strength doesn't rise immediately, once this Minor World collapses, my Sea of Consciousness will shatter into dust. Even if an immortal descended to the mortal realm, they wouldn't be able to save me."
As soon as the thought fell, he withdrew from his inner world. Having obtained the fortuitous chance of the Spirit Martial Scripture, he naturally had to clear every obstacle in its path.
Back in reality, Lin Tian instantly noticed the abnormal changes around him—The violent trembling of the underground cavern was like a mountain collapsing into the sea.The once calm and steady underground river now churned with towering waves across its ten-zhang-wide, five-zhang-deep surface. Water sprayed like dancing blades of light, while the stalactites above came crashing down one after another, as if the end of days had arrived.
"What's going on?" he called out in shock.
"You've got the nerve to ask!" Purple Lightning's voice was laced with fury. "This place is about to collapse, and you still had the leisure to enter deep meditation! If you hadn't woken up just now, I would've swallowed you whole! Sure, I haven't formed qi into demonhood yet, and my vital energy is lacking, but with your pure blood and powerful essence, you'd at least be enough to push me to mid-stage Qi-Forming as a snack."
Lin Tian gave a wry smile—though Purple Lightning was a vicious beast, its blunt honesty made him feel a faint warmth. At least it had no real intention of eating him.
"Cut the nonsense!" he said sternly. "This commotion isn't something a Zhao Clan innate-stage expert could cause. Eight or nine chances out of ten, it's connected to the treasure hidden here. But whatever that treasure is, compared to what I need right now, it's worthless."
"What do you mean by that?" Purple Lightning blinked, its serpent pupils full of doubt—this brat had only meditated for a short while, so why had his aura suddenly soared to the heavens?
"I want this Five-Element Dragon-Trapping Array!" A ruthless glint flashed in Lin Tian's eyes. "As long as I get the five Five-Element Origin Spirit Pearls, the array will be nothing but scrap!"
Purple Lightning's pupils shrank violently, nearly lashing out on the spot. "What did you just say? Destroy a Dragon-Trapping Array that might have been crafted by ancient cultivators? Are you trying to get yourself killed—or have you gone insane? If you're going to lose your mind, I might as well bite your head off now!"
It had inherited knowledge from the divine sense sealed within the Ten-Thousand Beasts Seal, giving it far greater understanding of ancient matters than ordinary beings. To its ears, Lin Tian's words were pure madness.
To break an ancient array capable of trapping a flood dragon? Forget Lin Tian, who hadn't even stepped into Qi-Forming— even a grandmaster or a True Person of the Converging Truth Realm wouldn't dare boast such a thing! And besides—once the array was broken, who could guarantee that the dragon trapped for thousands of years wouldn't immediately devour them whole?
But Lin Tian's tone brimmed with certainty. "That's right—under normal circumstances, this array would be unbreakable. But now, its strength is down to a mere one-thousandth of its peak. And haven't you noticed? The balance of the Five Elements has been broken. The Water-element Origin Spirit Pearl is clearly weakened."
"It is a bit weak…" Purple Lightning mused. "Of the five spiritual power nodes here, the one with the Water Pearl is indeed weaker than the other four."
Lin Tian sneered. "The so-called 'Supreme Water Crystal' the Zhao Clan seeks is just a material for forging spirit artifacts. At the site of the Water Pearl, the spiritual essence it leaks every century naturally condenses into that crystal. What they're after is just the tip of the iceberg!"
Purple Lightning's eyes swirled as it slowly came to agree. "That makes sense… If the true treasure here is the entire Dragon-Trapping Array, it would explain why the Zhao Clan only covets the Supreme Water Crystal. But even weakened, the Water Pearl is beyond your current reach—unless you had a supreme spirit treasure, or even an immortal artifact!"
"The Five-Element Origin Spirit Pearls contain primal elemental power—both martial and arcane cultivators would kill for them." Purple Lightning narrowed its gaze.
Lin Tian snorted. "If I really had an immortal artifact, I wouldn't care about your little stash of magic tools. I've only got one method—one that can drain the Origin Spirit power from the Five Pearls in an instant. Once they're emptied, they're nothing but useless stones, and without them to suppress it, the array will collapse into nothing but an empty cavern!"
A dangerous light flickered in Purple Lightning's pupils. "Good! Even if there really is one of my serpent clan's ancestors inside, once freed, it wouldn't necessarily be hostile to us!" Its intelligence gradually overrode instinct, and that wisp of divine sense from the Ten-Thousand Beasts Seal quivered faintly in approval.
Man and serpent plunged into the water. The elemental power at each of the five array nodes was so intense it needed no searching—its presence was obvious. Lin Tian's only worry was whether this disturbance might draw the Zhao Clan's innate-stage expert—one innate, two peak Qi-Forming, and one high-stage Qi-Forming. Any one of them would be enough to put him in a desperate situation.
They first targeted the Water Pearl—located in the circular underground river, shrouded in heavy mist. It should have been the strongest node, yet now it was the weakest. To break the array, it was the obvious starting point.
"Purple Lightning, can you push the water aside?" Lin Tian asked via divine sense.
"I'm awakened with fire affinity—you want me to play with water?" Purple Lightning hissed in annoyance.
"The river current isn't fast—just hold it back with your energy for a stick of incense's time. That's all I need."
Purple Lightning rolled its eyes but still summoned its power. A vortex formed before it, and the water slowly parted until a two-zhang-wide gap revealed the smooth riverbed. Lin Tian leapt down, closing his eyes as his divine sense, guided by the Spirit Martial Scripture's true spirit, locked onto the Water Pearl—it now possessed strength equivalent only to a high-grade Five-Element Crystal.
The Life-Death Shuttle shot forth, boring one zhang into the riverbed before meeting resistance—the protective layer of the array's network. Lin Tian poured the earthen spiritual energy he had borrowed from the Spirit Martial Scripture into it. Even when the shuttle's runes brimmed to the limit, he didn't stop. The glyphs began to glow; cracks spiderwebbed through his spiritual roots; blood seeped from his seven orifices—yet he bit down and made no sound.
"Earth-element qi—detonate!" he roared. Earth restrains water—pure to the point of near-immortality, the earthen spiritual energy melted into the barrier like molten iron sinking into butter, forcing its way toward the Water Pearl's core.
The ground quaked violently. Purple Lightning almost lost control of the water wall, but when it saw Lin Tian's growing strain, it gritted its teeth and held on—life and death were now bound together, with no retreat.