The jade slips in front of her contained information about spirit beasts and the formulas for various medicinal pills. The young woman skimmed through them quickly.
But when she extended her spiritual sense to examine the contents of the final jade slip, she froze in place.
Inside was a cultivation method called the "True Gold Art." Curious, she delved a little deeper into it and was immediately captivated by what she found. She held the jade slip and studied it for nearly half an hour before she finally withdrew her spiritual sense in a daze, her face filled with shock.
This "True Gold Art" was actually a rare, top-tier cultivation technique. But how could such a valuable set of cultivation instructions simply be left lying on a stone table without any protective formations whatsoever?
Though the young woman understood the technique's worth, after hesitating for a moment, she reluctantly placed the jade slip back where it had been. Then, with considerable interest, she proceeded to examine the rest one by one.
After more than half a day, the young woman had gone through every jade slip on the stone table. Most of them contained texts related to medicinal pills, formation arrays, and other miscellaneous subjects of immortal cultivation. Only a few contained cultivation techniques, but without exception, every one of them was of the highest caliber.
Among them, a technique called the "Jade Binding Art" caught her eye more than any other.
Green Spirit Gate was only a very small sect in the Chaotic Star Seas, and its primary cultivation method, the "Green Spirit Art," was merely a steady but moderate technique—nowhere near comparable to the Jade Binding Art in power.
Having finished reading all the jade slips, the young woman sat in a daze inside the stone chamber for a while before remembering there were still other areas she had not yet explored.
After thinking it over for a moment, she left the stone chamber and returned to the main hall.
Two of the remaining three arched doorways were, as before, blocked by the giant ape standing guard nearby, but one of them was still open for her to enter.
The young woman passed through the archway and arrived before another sizable stone hall.
This time, the moment she stepped through the entrance, she was struck completely dumb, standing rooted in place without moving for a long time.
Before her lay a grand hall at least twenty zhang across. In the center of the hall stood a massive formation array roughly ten zhang in diameter, from which a layer of faint red, crystalline light emerged, shimmering and shifting ceaselessly in dazzling splendor.
Within that sphere of light, over a dozen small swords, short halberds, and other weapons of various designs flickered about. Some emitted faint, clear hums, while others collided and chased one another—each one brimming with spiritual awareness.
Outside the light sphere, near the surrounding walls, stood several crude double-tiered wooden shelves, each level displaying numerous magical artifacts of different colors.
Though these artifacts did not possess the same vivid spiritual quality as the items within the light sphere, each one still gleamed with a faint glow, their spiritual energy palpable.
The young woman had never seen anything like this before, but she knew that objects possessing such vivid spiritual awareness within a light sphere could only be the legendary magic treasures.
Poor girl—though she had yearned for magic treasures for a long time, having so many appear before her all at once made it almost impossible to believe. Her large, dark eyes were filled with astonishment.
After a long while, she finally composed herself. With a peculiar look in her eyes, she gazed into the light sphere a few more times before hesitantly walking toward one of the wooden shelves.
She casually picked up a dark, ruler-shaped artifact from the shelf and gave it a brief inspection, only to discover that even such an unassuming object was a superior-grade magical artifact.
But perhaps she had already been too overwhelmed by the earlier revelations—the young woman showed remarkably little surprise this time.
She then went through the rest of the items one by one. Everything on the shelves was either a superior-grade artifact or a top-tier artifact; not a single inferior one existed among them.
Had the young woman obtained any single one of these artifacts in the past, she would have leapt with joy.
But now, gazing at the numerous magic treasures and nearly a hundred artifacts filling the room, the thought of herself being a cauldron cast a shadow over her expression. She left the chamber empty-handed.
…
Two days later, the young woman was in the stone chamber storing the jade slips, sitting on a round stool with a jade slip in hand, studying its contents with her spiritual sense. Her face was full of concentration, as though she had been completely absorbed by what was inside.
"This Jade Binding Art is indeed suited for women to cultivate—though I obtained it from a male cultivator." A gentle male voice suddenly came from the doorway.
At the sound, the young woman's body trembled slightly. She hastily withdrew her spiritual sense and turned around in a fluster.
Standing outside the door was a young man in blue robes with unremarkable features, gazing at her with a faint smile.
"You… you are the Senior?"
Gongsun Xing hesitated.
Though the voice sounded somewhat similar, the calm young man before her looked far too young. He bore no resemblance whatsoever to what she had imagined.
After the earlier shocks, the young woman had naturally pictured this senior as a venerable elder of vast power and profound mystical arts.
She had even anxiously speculated that he might be temperamental and eccentric!
"What? I don't look the part?" This young man was none other than Han Li, who had just emerged from seclusion. He chuckled softly as he stepped into the stone chamber.
"Senior, these techniques, I…" For some reason, upon hearing that Han Li truly was the powerful expert who had spoken to her, the young woman felt a measure of relief. But she still stammered, trying to explain the situation before her.