I established the Eternal Immortal Clan by taming beasts.

Without hesitation, Lin Che headed straight for the most crucial martial arts hall in these ruins.

If we were to consider where records of ancient secrets of this place are most likely to be preserved, then important places like the Hall of Martial Arts, which carries on traditions and ancient texts, would undoubtedly be the first choice.

He quickly passed through the dilapidated martial arts halls, the empty and desolate preaching halls, and the sect trading areas overgrown with weeds and reduced to mere ruins...

Between every broken wall and ruin, there lurked ferocious beasts with bloodshot eyes, their growls and fighting sounds never ceasing.

After some effort, Lin Che finally found a magnificent three-story building with a plaque hanging diagonally at the end of a relatively open square.

The building itself has weathered many storms, with its exterior walls peeling and rubble scattered everywhere. Only the plaque with the three ancient seal characters "Gongfa Hall" still faintly discernible silently testifies to the former glory and status of this place.

To ensure everything went perfectly, Lin Che summoned the Burning Heaven Sacred Sparrow and the Azure Profound Realm Spirit with a thought.

With them protecting you, you can not only deal with sudden dangers, but also escape immediately if things go wrong.

"Sparrow, be alert to your surroundings. If there is any unusual activity, act immediately!" Lin Che instructed the sacred sparrow, which was surrounded by faint crimson flames.

He then looked at the Azure Profound Realm Spirit, whose entire body was filled with green spiritual energy: "Little Xuan, if you sense any ancient cultivator's aura or restrictions that are difficult to resist, do not hesitate, we will retreat immediately."

The two spirit beasts nodded.

The Heavenly Sacred Sparrow let out a clear cry, its sharp eyes scanning the surroundings, its wings fluttering slightly, ready to pounce.

The Azure Profound Realm Spirit did not maintain its physical form, but transformed into a faint blue stream of light, hovering around Lin Che and sensing the subtle changes in space and energy.

The two heavy bronze doors of the Gongfa Hall had long been open, and the protective array that should have been there had long since lost its power, clearly having been ineffective for some time.

Lin Che, accompanied by two spirit beasts, stepped into the hall without any hindrance.

The interior of the lobby on the first floor was even more dilapidated.

The jade shelves that were once used to display books, the futons for disciples to read and contemplate, and the desks used to manage cultivators—none of them were intact. They were all overturned and broken, covered with a thick layer of dust, as if no one had set foot on them for hundreds of years.

Lin Che gave a signal with his eyes, and the Burning Heaven Sacred Sparrow immediately flapped its wings and flew to the left side of the area. The Qingxuan Realm Spirit's perception also spread to the right like ripples on water.

He himself focused his mind and carefully explored every corner of the hall with his divine sense, urging the system to check each one, fearing that there might be some ancient remnant soul hidden here, or some sinister trick left behind by ancient cultivators.

However, after a thorough investigation, the palace was found to be either deathly silent or dilapidated.

No unusual energy fluctuations were detected, nor were any monsters lurking there.

Lin Che then relaxed slightly and began to examine the remaining items.

Looking at the scattered jade slip fragments on the ground and the violently damaged storage cabinet, Lin Che frowned slightly.

The scene here doesn't resemble natural decay; rather, it looks like a frenzied looting, with almost all valuable scrolls, jade slips, and inherited texts having been plundered.

He bent down and picked up a few relatively intact jade slips. He probed them with his divine sense, but the information recorded in them had become incomplete due to the passage of time, with most of them consisting of only some unimportant fragments.

The only piece of valid information that could be pieced together was the confirmation of the name of this dilapidated sect.

Thousand Water Beast Taming Sect.

Their sect's tradition mainly focuses on raising and contracting various aquatic spirit beasts.

Without further hesitation, Lin Che immediately set off for the second floor of the Cultivation Hall.

In stark contrast to the chaos on the first floor, a remnant array at the entrance to the second floor was still slowly operating, with a pale blue light curtain rippling like water, isolating the inside from the outside.

Through the light screen, you can see rows of neatly arranged sandalwood bookshelves inside, with clear wood grain and a new color, as if time has stood still here, and they are very well preserved.

However, this formation, which is still stubbornly operating, has also become an obstacle.

Lin Che's knowledge of the various arts of cultivation is not deep. Apart from his in-depth study of the beast taming tradition, his understanding of formations is only at a basic level.

He roughly judged that this formation was probably at the fourth level when it was at its peak, and even now, with its energy depleted and its condition not good, it still maintains a strength of about the upper level of the third rank.

This is far beyond his current ability to crack. Without the corresponding entry token, even a forced attack would be extremely difficult to break through in a short time.

Just as Lin Che frowned and pondered a solution, the Azure Profound Realm Spirit, who had been quietly standing by his side, sensed his distress through the soul contract and took a light step forward.

"Master, I have a way." Its voice came through the Heart of All Beasts, and a pure silver light shone in its eyes, causing subtle ripples to spread around it.

The next moment, a silver mark engraved with mysterious runes condensed in front of him, then ignored the array's light barrier as if it were nothing, lightly passing through it and firmly imprinting itself on the ground inside the array.

Seeing this, Lin Che's eyes flashed, and he couldn't help but praise, "Excellent! I didn't expect the spacetime beacon could ignore the array's obstruction! Little Xuan, well done!"

The Azure Profound Realm Spirit's calm expression remained unchanged as it activated its divine power once more.

A flash of silver light enveloped Lin Che and the Burning Heaven Sacred Sparrow.

In the next instant, the three of them had already passed through the array light barrier and were safely in the scripture pavilion on the second floor of the cultivation method hall.

As soon as he entered, Lin Che became alert.

He immediately activated the system's detection function to the fullest extent, and invisible ripples swept across the entire second-floor space to ensure that there were no hidden dangers.

This method is much faster and safer than checking it yourself.

A flood of information rushed into Lin Che's mind in an instant. He quickly sifted through it, and a look of surprise appeared in his eyes.

The collection here is quite rich, mostly second-tier inheritances, covering all kinds of cultivation arts such as alchemy, weapon crafting, talisman making, and array formation. Unfortunately, they are all common items used to fill the quota and have nothing particularly outstanding.

The most numerous are naturally those related to beast taming, especially focusing on the cultivation and use of water-attribute spirit beasts, which is quite in line with the name "Thousand Water Beast Taming Sect".

Lin Che scanned the information fed back by the system with his divine sense and found that the situation was as he had expected.

The breadth and depth of the heritage here cannot compare with the systematic heritage he possesses.

What he possesses here is basically all included in his lineage, and is even more detailed and sophisticated.

Taking a specific method for cultivating a spirit beast as an example, the inheritance here can at best be considered one of the many cultivation routes in one's own beast-taming inheritance, and it is even somewhat crude and lacking in comparison.

In addition, this place also contains a number of spells, techniques and secret arts suitable for the Foundation Establishment stage, but most of them are water-attribute techniques, while those of other attributes are relatively ordinary.

Since that's the case, Lin Che stopped trying to have everything.

He glanced around and selected only a few high-grade jade slips containing cultivation techniques with relatively unique insights, as well as those second-tier inheritances that, while mediocre, could supplement his knowledge system and cover different schools of thought.

Not taking them away together was also part of Lin Che's preparation for setting up the nest. His plan hadn't started yet, but the preparations had to begin first.

Lin Che then had the Azure Profound Realm Spirit teleport them directly out of the array's range.

We rushed to the third floor of the Gongfa Hall without stopping.

Logically, the most precious heritage should be kept in the highest place!

The protective array on the third floor is more complete than that on the second floor, and the runes flowing on the light screen are more complex and profound.

But this still couldn't stump the Azure Profound Realm Spirit.

A silver light shimmered in its eyes, and the spacetime beacon once again silently pierced through the array barrier.

Amidst the flashing silver light, the three had quietly "smuggled" themselves into this core scripture repository.

Compared to the second floor, the third floor is more spacious, and the number of jade slips displayed there is also much smaller. At a glance, there are only about a dozen slips, which are carefully placed on a few sandalwood shelves.

Lin Che cautiously scanned the entire floor with the system's detection function first, and only after confirming that there were no hidden traps or dangers did he begin to quickly browse the contents of these jade slips.

Soon, his gaze was drawn to two jade slips that exuded an ancient aura.

One of them records the core technique of the Thousand Water Beast Taming Sect—the "Mysterious Water Beast Taming Technique".

Unfortunately, this is only a fragment, and its cultivation limit is restricted to the Golden Core stage.

Judging from the exquisite nature of the fragments, the complete "Mysterious Water Beast Taming Technique" is likely a precious Earth-rank cultivation method.

This cultivation technique is of little value to Lin Che, who already possesses a Heaven-rank cultivation technique.

Fortunately, the preface to the cultivation method contains a detailed account of the Thousand Water Beast Taming Sect.

Through this information, Lin Che finally gained a clear understanding of the place.

It turns out that this site was originally just a small spirit beast breeding base set up by the Thousand Water Beast Taming Sect on the outskirts of the Southern Region. Its true nature was a Golden Core sect with a Golden Core cultivator in charge.

The true sect of the Thousand Waters Beast Taming Sect is a Nascent Soul level sect with Nascent Soul cultivators, located deep within the Fulong Mountains, thousands of miles away.

The existence of this site also confirms the ancient legend.

In extremely distant times, the sphere of influence of human cultivators in the Southern Region was far wider than it is now. For some unknown reason, it has been shrinking ever since, and now they can only occupy about a quarter of the Southern Region's territory.

After putting away the jade slip containing the cultivation techniques and history, Lin Che turned his gaze to another, even more special jade slip.

This is not a mature legacy, but rather... an unfinished experimental record!

Coincidentally, the research topic recorded therein coincided with Lin Che's next spirit beast breeding plan, which was to transform a dragon into a jiao!

The only difference lies in the selection of experimental subjects.

Relying on the system, Lin Che directly targeted the highly promising second-tier superior spirit beast, the Cangming Spirit Serpent, starting from the top.

Back then, the sect leader of the Thousand Water Beast Taming Sect, Master Shui Jing, chose a more common, lower-difficulty second-tier mid-grade spirit beast—the Corrosive Poison Python.

Of course, dragon species formed from this foundation will inevitably be at the bottom in terms of bloodline purity and potential among dragon spirit beasts.

To advance this grand experiment, Shui Jing Zhenren made an extremely bold, even insane, decision.

He transformed one of the sect's only two third-tier spiritual veins into the insidious and domineering Earthly Fiend Poison Vein!

Furthermore, a vast and complex array was used to forcibly transform the environment above the entire spiritual vein into a state most suitable for the "Evil Poison Dragon" to break through to the Dragon Transformation Realm.

Their cultivation methods are even more radical, employing the "fight poison with poison" approach. They feed the venomous dragon with far more potent poisons than usual, forcibly accumulating its inherent strength in an attempt to break through the shackles of its bloodline and transform it into a dragon.

However, the experiment repeatedly failed. Without exception, all the "Evil Poison Dragons" that they cultivated, which were transformed from the Corrupt Poison Pythons, failed at the last moment of the dragon transformation, and the experiment was once at a stalemate.

The turning point came when they successfully captured a young "Vicious Dragon" in the wild, a creature born with a third-tier bloodline.

Compared to artificially bred individuals, the bloodline of this naturally bred venomous dragon cub is undoubtedly stronger and purer, bringing new hope to the experiment that was in dire straits.

However, the record in the jade slip ends there.

Lin Che slowly withdrew his divine sense from the jade slip, opened his eyes, and a hint of understanding flashed in them.

"I see!"

If his speculation is correct, the formation of the Black Tooth Swamp, and why this place has become a deadly wasteland, is likely due to an unknown change that occurred to the modified "Earthly Fiend Poison Vein" and its associated formation.

Ultimately, this led to a terrifying, uncontrolled spread of the toxic substance, which contaminated and destroyed the entire sect!

After thinking for a moment, Lin Che put the not-so-useful cultivation technique back in its original place, leaving two copies of the remaining third-tier beast taming techniques on it and taking the rest with him.

Without further delay, Lin Che immediately set off for the core testing site mentioned in the experimental records.

That experiment, which was never recorded, may hold the truth behind the sect's destruction and the hidden dangers that the Zhao family cultivators could not resolve!