His Divine Sense was incredibly powerful now, so any crystal capable of generating illusions in his mind certainly wasn't ordinary. There was a very good chance it was related to the illusion formation from before.
Perhaps this crystal was the formation eye of that array — the Artifact Spirit had fetched it back, and the illusion formation had collapsed on its own. The more Yang Kai thought about it, the more sense it made. His interest in the crystal grew intense, and after steadying his mind, he gazed at it once more with heightened vigilance.
This time, no black mist surged from it. Instead, after just a single glance, Yang Kai suddenly felt his sea of consciousness churn violently. Dizziness overwhelmed him, and it seemed as though his entire body had lost all weight, floating aimlessly as heaven and earth spun upside down.
Yang Kai was startled. He quickly withdrew his gaze and closed his eyes, taking quite a while before he recovered.
Not daring to probe that bizarre crystal casually again, Yang Kai beckoned to the Artifact Spirit and had it bring the crystal over, then tossed it into his spatial ring to study in detail later.
The Artifact Spirit saw that he had finally returned to normal and stopped its incessant chattering, flying back to Yang Kai's shoulder to preen its feathers with an elegant grace.
Only then did Yang Kai begin carefully examining the sixth level.
What he saw left him greatly astonished.
He discovered that the space on the sixth level was pitifully small — perhaps only a few dozen li across. The scorching fifth level surrounded it entirely, and Yang Kai could take in the whole of the sixth level at a single glance.
The spiritual energy between heaven and earth on this level was incredibly dense. A few li ahead lay a grove of verdant bamboo, lush and teeming with life. The emerald stalks were not thick at all — rather, they were exquisitely slender, swaying gently in the wind.
At the very center of the bamboo groge stood what appeared to be a pavilion. Yang Kai couldn't tell how many years it had stood there, but despite enduring the erosion of countless ages, it remained upright and unshaken.
The entire sixth level was nestled within the fifth, yet it was completely unaffected by the waves of heat, as though it existed as its own separate world — truly miraculous.
Yang Kai fixed his gaze on that bamboo grove and the elegant pavilion within it, his thoughts in turmoil.
Even though he had already seen the ruins of an enormous sect on the fourth level and knew that this Flowing Flame Sand Ground had been inhabited long ago, encountering a pavilion here still surprised him greatly.
The spiritual energy in this place was even more concentrated than at the sect ruins. A pavilion built here clearly wouldn't have been residence for an ordinary person — it most likely belonged to a high-ranking member of that sect.
And most likely a female one. The environment here was suffused with an air of refinement at every turn, something a male cultivator would never care about.
Taking a deep breath, Yang Kai maintained his Destruction Demon Eye and began walking slowly toward the pavilion.
Having come this far, there was no reason to retreat. He very much wanted to see whether the pavilion held anything of value. And that bamboo grove — bamboo capable of growing in a place like this certainly wouldn't be ordinary.
Yang Kai had worried that the area might be riddled with restrictions, various formations concealed in wait. But after casually walking several rounds through the bamboo grove without encountering the slightest hint of danger, he was quite surprised, wondering privately whether he was being overly cautious.
Still, he didn't let his guard down. Standing amid the bamboo, he condensed a long sword of Demonic Flame in his hand and faced a stalk of bamboo only as thick as a thumb but several zhang tall. He swung his blade and hacked down.
These bamboo stalks — each one was a vivid green, brimming with spiritual energy. Clearly not ordinary bamboo at all, they would make excellent forging materials. In a grove this size, there had to be at least several thousand stalks. Yang Kai naturally wanted to chop some down and bring them back for Yang Yan to craft into Artifacts.
When his sword descended, something unexpected happened — the spot where he'd struck showed absolutely no damage. Not even a scratch remained.
Yang Kai's expression shifted. Only then did he realize he had underestimated these emerald stalks, but at the same time, he was thrilled. If the bamboo was this resilient, it was almost certainly top-quality forging material.
Without hesitation, he began hacking away continuously with his sword.
Half an hour later, Yang Kai stood in place with a dark expression, staring at the bamboo stalk before him, his face grim.
Over the course of that half hour, he had practically exhausted every technique at his disposal, yet he hadn't managed to fell a single stalk. Even after deploying the Space Blade dozens of times, he had only managed to leave a tiny, almost negligible notch at the base.
At this rate, bringing down a single stalk would take at least ten days or more.
Yang Kai didn't have that kind of time to waste here. With one last reluctant glance at the emerald bamboo before him, he let out a long sigh, abandoned his earlier plan, and turned to walk toward the pavilion.
He would see if the pavilion held any rewards first.