Shocking the Nine Heavens With My Sword
Chapter 188 - 181: The Second Layer (2/5)

Chapter 188: Chapter 181: The Second Layer (2/5)

Chapter 181: The Second Layer

Zhou Heng naturally entered the Nine Mystic Trial Tower.

He wasn’t feeling particularly generous; he had entered the Treasure Pagoda because his Spiritual Power had been massively depleted, and he could no longer sustain the Swift Cloud Radiant Step!

Although he deliberately controlled his speed to reduce the consumption of his Spiritual Power, it still wasn’t possible for him to keep it running indefinitely. Moreover, he wasn’t merely running; the operation of the Nine Nether Ice Heaven Jue and the Eight-Colored Lotus also massively drained his Spiritual Power.

He had to confront a formidable enemy from the Heaven-Opening Third Layer Heaven, a competitor not in his capacity to overpower. Each engagement was exhaustingly strategic!

Zhou Heng had already cleared nearly ninety percent of the weapons racks. Even if he ceased now, he’d have made a substantial gain. Moreover, after recovering his Spiritual Power, it was likely that Zhao Family’s Old Ancestor and the others still wouldn’t have been able to decipher the restrictions on the weapons racks, allowing him another sweep.

"Zhou Heng, how are things?" Xiao Huoshui and another woman approached him. They had heard from Zhou Heng about his plans to explore the cave dwelling of a Spirit Sea Realm Expert, but they couldn’t see what was happening inside the Nine Mystic Trial Tower.

They only saw countless Magic Artifacts falling from the sky, overwhelming them. Although the two women weren’t very strong, being born into the top households of Cold Blue Country, they knew the value of these artifacts.

The majority of the artifacts were from the Mountains and Rivers Realm, Heaven-Opening Realm, and Land Cleaving Realm, with a few from the Initial Separation Realm. While these were of lower realms, their quality was exceptionally high, grade three at least, with even more being of grade two.

Additionally, there were two Magic Artifacts from the Spirit Sea Realm, graded six and five, respectively. If put up for sale, they could shock all the major households of Bright Moon Country!

Orchid Concubine’s heart was pounding wildly. Such treasures were beyond even the Nangong Imperial Family, let alone the Heavenly Star Sect, which would appear penniless in comparison!

Following this man might feel somewhat distressing now, but when he truly became the Dragon of the Nine Heavens, that would be her moment to rise!

Just thinking about holding great power, revered by all, especially picturing people like Nangong Hong, Consort Ying, and Rain Concubine bowing at her feet, she couldn’t help but become exhilarated.

Zhou Heng glanced at her, genuinely puzzled by her sudden excitement! He already disliked Orchid Concubine and his antipathy only grew, wishing he could kick her away.

"Everything is under control!" he said to Xiao Huoshui with a smile, then went upstairs to recover his Spiritual Power.

It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Xiao Huoshui, or worried that Orchid Concubine might stab him in the back. Now, being a Land Cleaving Realm practitioner and fortified by the terrifying physique formed from the capabilities of the Gold Devouring Clan, even if the two women attacked him with swords until their dying days, they couldn’t hurt him in the slightest. It was simply that out of sight was out of mind, and every sight of Orchid Concubine was infuriating.

He took out a few pieces of Middle Grade Spirit Stones, which he had incidentally collected while harvesting the Spirit Core. The quantity wasn’t large, but it was sufficient for occasional recovery of Spiritual Power.

Half a day later, his Spiritual Power was fully restored, but upon leaving the Nine Mystic Trial Tower and checking the armory again, he found the place utterly deserted, and every weapons rack had been cleared.

He hadn’t expected that Zhao Family’s Old Ancestor and his group would act so quickly, having emptied the remaining items in just half a day!

Zhou Heng wandered around the armory, inspecting it for any overlooked Magic Artifact, but ultimately found none and couldn’t help but sigh as he exited through the opposite corridor.

The corridor was long, yet he reached its end quickly due to his speed, revealing a spiral staircase extending upwards.

Zhou Heng ascended the corridor, which wasn’t formed into steps and was rather steep, making it strenuous for ordinary people, but it was as easy as walking on flat ground to someone of the Land Cleaving Realm.

After at least a couple dozen turns, he inwardly cursed Ma Buqian’s peculiar tastes. As a Spiritual Sea Realm practitioner, a leap could easily cover a hundred meters; why bother with such an intricate path instead of leaping up directly?

Finally, he emerged from the spiral corridor, greeted by a vast Flower and Grass Garden, larger than the eye could see, likely occupying the entirety of the hollow mountain.

Zhou Heng was momentarily stunned; this was inside a mountain, devoid of sunlight and moonlight—how could anything grow here? Yet, this vast garden was thriving luxuriantly.

The garden was divided into countless small flower beds, each emitting a soft glow from several pearls, presumably serving for illumination, for even plants adapted to the dark couldn’t cover such an extensive area with such diversity without proper light.

Zhou Heng, having visited the Spirit Herb Garden of the Dayan Sect, recognized several plants of not insignificant grade immediately.

Indeed, this was a Spirit Herb Garden of a Spirit Sea Realm Expert!

Zhou Heng took out a fresh Void Shattering Talisman and stuck it on himself, as the previous one had been depleted. Observing that most of the Spirit Grass was still intact, he surmised that there must be protective restrictions in place; otherwise, Zhao Family’s Old Ancestor and his group would have pillaged it thoroughly already.

For Zhao Family’s Old Ancestor and his group, Ma Buqian’s Cultivation Technique lineage was their prime interest. Thus, they did not value these Spirit Grasses as highly.

Refined Spiritual Medicines were indeed precious, like the Azure Dragon Pill, which was extremely valuable, but the items here were merely raw materials not yet processed by a Pill Master, mostly just good for sale and seldom directly consumable.

Zhao Family’s Old Ancestor and his group naturally didn’t want to waste more time here, unsure when Zhou Heng might return, hence they focused on obtaining the Spirit Sea Realm Cultivation Techniques first.

Once they acquired Ma Buqian’s legacy, they were confident of advancing to the Mountains and Rivers Realm, and dealing with Zhou Heng would then be child’s play!

Experts could ascend to the skies to slay dragons and also endure fleeting moments of anger!

Zhou Heng shook his head, unfolded his figure, and started searching for valuable, mature Spirit Grass Exotic Fruits. Although this place was established by a Spiritual Sea Realm Expert, some Spirit Grass could not even mature within Ma Buqian’s lifetime.

Martial artists defy the heavens and seize life, possessing nearly five thousand years of life—a longevity unimaginable to ordinary people!

Yet, when compared with the natural world’s oldest beings, five thousand years truly isn’t much.

In the world of spiritual medicine, herbs that mature every thousand years are not rare; those maturing every ten thousand years are bountiful!

Plants lack spiritual wisdom and cannot cultivate, placing them at the bottom tier; yet, the heavens are fair, bestowing them with lifespans that even Divinity Transformation Realm Experts cannot reach.

The lifespan of someone in the Spirit Sea Realm is about two thousand years, and by the end of Ma Buqian’s life, most Spirit Medicine would still not have matured, leaving only blessings for future generations.

Zhou Heng’s standards had now become higher; he disdained Spirit Grass of a mere hundred years, and he would only consider thousand-year Spirit Grass based on quality. He targeted ten-thousand-year Spirit Grass, the kind of treasures that even Divinity Transformation Realm Experts couldn’t wait to mature!

"Strange!"

After walking around a large portion, Zhou Heng’s brows suddenly furrowed. The flower beds showed little damage, yet many of the Spirit Grasses that should have aged significantly were unexpectedly all about a hundred years old.

Even Spirit Grass has a limit to its life; even if it takes ten thousand years to mature, seed falling and plant death are normal. However, it’s utterly abnormal for many seven-thousand-year, eight-thousand-year, nine-thousand-year, and ten-thousand-year maturing Spirit Grasses to be uniformly only about a hundred or at most two-hundred years old.

It seems like someone had harvested them once, which could explain this situation.

Has someone already been here?

It’s not surprising, because to enter here one only needs to find the control mechanism, and it doesn’t require any exceptional strength to break the restrictions. It is acceptable that someone had come here before.

But what’s strange is, if that person could break the garden’s restrictions to harvest Spirit Grass, why would they ignore the Magic Artifacts in the armory?

Don’t say that the Magic Artifacts aren’t precious, there are two Magic Artifacts of the Spiritual Sea Realm level inside that could certainly cause a major struggle among Bright Moon Country’s elite, at least they wouldn’t be inferior to many thousand-year Spirit Grasses!

Not taking a single Magic Artifact, yet sweeping the precious Spirit Grasses clean, this is undeniably peculiar.

That person’s discernment is truly strong; Zhou Heng couldn’t find a single sufficiently aged precious Spirit Grass. Regarding those herbs that could be used for medicine in three to five hundred years, he didn’t bother with them, passing by as if merely browsing, without any opportunity to act.

Soon, he arrived at the center of the herb garden, and from afar, he could see a column reaching up to the sky, leading to the third layer of space.

From a distance, this pillar looked like a thin stick, but in fact, it was at least thirty feet thick, hollow in the middle, spiraling upwards.

Zhou Heng saw Zhao Family’s old ancestors and others, but their number had sharply decreased, leaving only the four Great Heaven-Opening Realm ancestors. Presumably, they feared being continuously misdirected by Zhou Heng and let the others leave.

Why were these four still here?

The answer was simple; they were blocked!

Zhou Heng’s eyes narrowed because what prevented Zhao Family’s four ancestors from advancing was not a person, or I should say a mechanism, a restriction, but an enormously large Black Serpent, coiled with its body’s length indiscernible but definitely not less than twenty to thirty feet, and the trunk as thick as a foot, its scales like tiles!

Heaven-Opening Third Layer Heaven!

This Black Serpent had a formidable aura, having also broken into the Heaven-Opening Realm, and with a Demon Beast’s robust physique—being in the same Heaven-Opening Third Layer Heaven but far from what human Martial Artists could compare—the brute strength of its body alone allowed it to contend against several experts of the same realm!

If this Black Serpent also possessed deadly poison, then it would be even more difficult to handle.

Zhao Family’s four ancestors wanted only to break through the Black Serpent and pass, but the serpent possessed a strong territorial sense, treating the passage to the third layer as its den and staunchly defending it.

Zhou Heng suddenly speculated: were those thousand-year and ten-thousand-year Spirit Grasses eaten by this huge serpent?

Perhaps this Black Serpent wasn’t originally so powerful, but it possessed the ability to ignore restrictions and had plundered the precious Spirit Grasses here before refining them over several hundred years; thus, growing into the Heaven-Opening Realm wouldn’t be strange.

And since Demon Beasts naturally don’t need Magic Artifacts, that’s why nothing in the Armament Pavilion was disturbed.

This was the only reasonable explanation Zhou Heng could think of.

(This is the revised filler content; please accept apologies, as the number of words had already been set and needed to exceed the original word count for changes. Stay tuned for more. If you like this work, feel free to vote at Qidian (qidian.com), your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)