Mortal: Starting with the Seven Mysterious Sects, I proved my Dao through sacrifice.

After tireless efforts, Murong Fan felt he had acquired the secret technique to break the restrictions of the ancestral cave, so he gladly went there. Murong Fan stood in front of the mottled stone gate of the ancestral cave and took a deep breath.

This time, his gaze was no longer lost, but sharp as a hawk's, locking onto the almost imperceptible spiritual energy fluctuation node on the stone gate. He was determined to seize the treasure in this cave.

"The information recorded in that jade slip from the Thousand Machines Pavilion really didn't fool me. This kind of restriction technique does indeed have its most vulnerable 'fatal flaw.'" He held the jade slip, examining it carefully and pondering it over and over again.

Before long, he actually found the breakthrough. The information in the jade slip was only half complete, but based on his experience of successfully avoiding danger last time, he already had a pretty good idea of ​​how to break through.

"Better safe than sorry. Let's test the waters first and then act accordingly!" Murong Fan thought to himself.

So he let out a low shout, and a wisp of powerful spiritual energy, tempered by a fourth-order demon core, gathered at his fingertips. Instead of charging in recklessly, he aimed precisely at an ancient rune in the lower left corner of the stone gate, like a snake spitting its tongue.

Om-!

The stone door trembled violently, and a suction force a hundred times more ferocious than before suddenly erupted. The original stone door was just a simple physical barrier, but now it was a strange vortex specifically targeting the soul. The vortex tried to follow the spiritual power at his fingertips and drill directly into his mind, attempting to drain his consciousness.

"court death!"

Murong Fan snorted coldly, and the divine sense that had been tempered by thunder, fire, and ice between his brows suddenly erupted. If his divine sense before was a trickle, it was now like a raging river.

The suction force, under the impact of this immense divine consciousness, only held for a moment before disappearing and disintegrating like melting ice and snow.

With a loud "crack," the long-sealed stone door finally slid open slowly to both sides, revealing a deep and cold passage.

A chilly wind blew through the passage, and the ever-burning lamps on the walls had long since gone out. Only the sound of Murong Fan's firm footsteps echoed. He dared not be careless in the slightest, his divine sense forming a dense net that completely enveloped his three-foot radius.

"Tap! Tap! Tap!"

The moment he stepped into the passage, the bluestone slab beneath his feet suddenly sank!

"I've been on guard against you for a long time!" Murong Fan smiled slyly.

Murong Fan did not move, but his divine sense had already detected the mechanism's engagement trajectory. Spiritual energy surged beneath his feet, and he rose three feet into the air like a puppet, dodging a row of poisoned crossbow bolts that shot out from both sides of the wall.

The crossbow bolts grazed his clothes and pierced the opposite stone wall, their fletchings still trembling and emitting a faint blue light.

Immediately afterwards, the stone bricks above their heads flipped over, and countless sharp barbs fell like raindrops.

"Wind Control Technique!"

With a flick of his wrist, Murong Fan drew his longsword, its light weaving into an impenetrable net above his head like a bolt of lightning. A series of clanging sounds rang out as the barbs were deflected, sparks flying everywhere.

His movements were as swift as lightning. Under the cover of the sword's light, he transformed into a streak of azure light, weaving through the layers of traps and mechanisms. Sometimes he nimbly climbed walls like a monkey, sometimes he darted through shallow waters like a fish; every move was fraught with danger, yet precise and flawless.

After passing through the last trapdoor, Murong Fan finally arrived at the most central secret chamber of the cave.

In the center of the secret chamber, two jade slips emitting a faint blue light floated silently above the stone platform, as if waiting for a destined person. However, the closer one got to the jade slips, the more intense the chilling pressure of divine consciousness in the air became.

"If you want to take my inheritance, you'll have to get past my divine sense first!"

An ancient and sinister divine thought surged through Murong Fan's mind like a thunderclap.

In an instant, a semi-transparent ghost face appeared in the void of the secret chamber, its mouth wide open. A terrifying suction force directly acted on Murong Fan's sea of ​​consciousness, attempting to forcibly pull his soul out of his body!

This is not a physical attack, but the most dangerous form of spiritual obliteration!

Murong Fan felt dizzy, as if he had been thrown into a blender, and his consciousness was churning wildly, almost bursting out of his body.

The ghostly face emitted a sinister and terrifying laugh, clearly having devoured too many intruders' souls; its methods were extremely cunning and skillful.

"A mere remnant soul dares to be arrogant? No matter how powerful you were before, you've really met your match today!"

Murong Fan's eyes widened, and a purple light flashed between his brows. He forcibly stabilized his shaky mind, and the pain he felt when he swallowed a fourth-tier demon core in the Taiyue Mountains flashed through his mind—the thunderous piercing pain, the bone-chilling freezing cold, and the scorching heat of burning flames!

"Freeze it!"

He roared, transforming that painful memory into a flame of will that instantly ignited his sea of ​​consciousness. His previously stretched and slender divine sense, at this moment, recombine like rivers flowing into the sea, transforming into a soul-slaying sword composed entirely of divine sense!

"cut!"

The demonic face clearly hadn't expected this young cultivator to possess such a resilient soul. Instead of collapsing in the face of its devouring attack, it launched a counterattack. It tried to retreat in terror, but it was too late.

The sword of divine sense, with its unstoppable sharpness, struck the core of the ghost face fiercely.

"No--!"

The ghost face let out a shrill scream, twisting and shattering violently like a punctured balloon, eventually turning into specks of starlight and dissipating into the air.

The secret chamber instantly fell silent again, save for Murong Fan's heavy breathing after the fight. Cold sweat beaded on his forehead. Although the attack had shattered his remnant soul, it had also depleted most of his consciousness. In an instant, a throbbing pain shot through his head, as if his entire body had been hollowed out.

But he couldn't rest. He forced himself to walk forward, his hands trembling, and finally managed to grasp the two jade scrolls in his hands.

The moment the jade slip entered, one could feel its warmth, and at that moment, an ancient and powerful flow of information surged wildly into the mind through the palm of the hand.

On the left is a scroll with three simple characters engraved on the cover: "The Secret of Green Wood".

This is no ordinary foundation-building technique, but a top-tier Qi-refining art that has been lost for a long time. It is based on wood-attribute spiritual roots and emphasizes "continuous life and evergreen trees". Upon reaching the pinnacle of cultivation, one can not only possess terrifying vitality and regenerative abilities, but also manipulate plants and trees, drawing upon the power of the wood spirit of heaven and earth for one's own use.

The Green Wood Technique is far more profound and advanced than the Everlasting Spring Technique, and it can help him in his later stages of cultivation, such as Foundation Establishment and Golden Core.

On the right is a scroll, its sword aura chilling, clearly the "Azure Origin Sword Manual".

This is a set of sword techniques that complement the "Azure Wood Manual." The manual is divided into nine levels, each corresponding to a different sword intent. The first level, "Budding Green Sprouts," emphasizes the continuous flow of sword energy; the second level, "Ancient Trees Reaching the Sky," emphasizes the weight and power of the sword strike; the third level, "Ten Thousand Leaves Flying," emphasizes the complexity of sword moves…

Murong Fan felt his heart pounding wildly, and the weariness in his eyes was instantly replaced by ecstatic joy. These two jade slips, one for offense and one for defense, one for support and one for battle, were practically tailor-made for him!

He suppressed his excitement, put the jade slip into his storage bag, scanned the secret room with his divine sense again to make sure nothing was missed, and then quickly turned and left.

Outside the cave, the sun shone brightly.

Murong Fan transformed into a streak of azure light and soared into the sky, heading straight for the depths of the Taiyue Mountains. At this moment, not only had his cultivation level greatly improved, but he also possessed these two top-tier manuals, giving him even greater confidence in his cultivation journey.

In the days that followed, Murong Fan once again entered seclusion to cultivate diligently, determined to master both supernatural abilities. He vaguely sensed that with the appearance of these two jade slips, his cultivation speed would increase even further!

Murong Fan had no intention of stopping there! The Pavilion Master Lin of the Thousand Machines Pavilion had made it clear last time: "The path of cultivation is very long. If you want to excel, you need to learn skills in martial arts, formations, pills, talismans, and weapon crafting..." In short, you can never have too many skills. Cultivation is a long-term endeavor; you have to persevere and work hard for a long time!