Everyone was engrossed in studying the ancient texts, the stone chamber so quiet that only the occasional turning of pages and soft exclamations of surprise could be heard. Lin Feng was completely absorbed in comprehending the mysteries of ice-type spiritual power when suddenly he sensed a faint, unusual aura. The aura carried a hint of blood, similar to the aura emanating from the Blood Shadow Sect woman's cultivation technique, yet subtly different.
Lin Feng frowned slightly, subtly glancing around. He saw the Blood Shadow Sect woman intently studying an ancient text, but something seemed to be trembling slightly in the shadows behind her. Lin Feng's heart tightened, but he remained outwardly calm, continuing to feign studying the text while secretly gathering his spiritual energy, ready to deal with any unexpected situation.
Just then, a soft "ripping" sound rang out, like fabric being torn. Everyone subconsciously looked up and saw that the shadow behind the Blood Shadow Sect woman was twisting as if it were alive. An arm formed from black mist suddenly stretched out and grabbed the ancient book in the Blood Shadow Sect woman's hand.
The Blood Shadow Sect woman reacted with lightning speed, dodging the grab with a swift movement. She roared, "What is that!" and rapidly conjured a ball of crimson spiritual energy in her hand, hurling it at the shadowy mass. The shadow, struck, emitted a piercing shriek, but instead of dissipating, it extended several more black misty arms, reaching out to grab at the group.
"Watch out!" Lin Feng shouted, his ice halberd flashing out instantly, transforming into a streak of cold light that shattered a misty arm reaching towards Su Ran. Su Ran reacted quickly as well, swinging her ice sword and sending icy shards flying towards the shadows.
Xuanfeng's palms danced, his wind-elemental spiritual power slicing through the misty arms like sharp blades. The female general commanded the Zhengyang Army soldiers to form a tight battle formation, their spears forming a forest to defend against attacks from all directions. The woman in white formed hand seals, and raging flames shot into the sky, incinerating the approaching misty arms.
However, the shadow seemed endless; its severed misty arm rapidly regenerated, continuing its frenzied attack on the group. The Blood Shadow Sect woman, while fighting the shadow, cried out, "This isn't an ordinary shadow! It seems to be some kind of sealed evil entity, awakened by the spiritual energy fluctuations of this inherited technique!"
Lin Feng's heart tightened. He knew that if they couldn't deal with this evil creature quickly, everyone would be in danger. He circulated all his spiritual power, and the ice halberd shone brightly. "Ice Dragon Break!" With a roar, a huge ice dragon roared and charged towards the shadow. Wherever the ice dragon passed, space seemed to freeze. The shadow's misty arms were frozen into ice crystals the moment they touched the ice dragon, shattering and scattering.
The shadow seemed to sense a threat, abandoning its other targets. All its misty arms coalesced into a gigantic black fist, which it slammed towards Lin Feng. Lin Feng's expression turned solemn as he fully activated his Ice Dragon to meet the attack. With a deafening boom, the Ice Dragon collided with the black fist, and a powerful surge of spiritual energy radiated outwards from the two of them.
The walls of the stone chamber trembled precariously from the impact of the spiritual energy, and some stones began to fall. Everyone staggered back a few steps, regaining their footing. Lin Feng's blood surged from the recoil, but he gritted his teeth and persevered.
Just then, Su Ran seized the opportunity and unleashed the water-based spiritual energy transformation technique he had just mastered. A corrosive stream of water, radiating a ghostly glow, shot towards the shadow. Struck by the water, the shadow let out a painful roar, and the mist began to dissipate.
The woman in white and Xuanfeng seized the opportunity to join forces. The woman in white's flames enveloped the wind blades that Xuanfeng had condensed, shooting them like burning darts at the shadows. Under the combined attack of the group, the shadows gradually could not hold on, and the mist continued to thin.
However, just when everyone thought they were about to successfully eliminate the shadow, it suddenly stopped struggling, and all the mist rapidly contracted, forming a black sphere. Runes flickered on the surface of the sphere, and then a black beam of light shot into the sky, causing the entire stone chamber to shake violently.
"Oh no, it's going to self-destruct!" Lin Feng was shocked and shouted, "Everyone, quickly find a place to hide!" Without thinking, everyone rushed towards the corner of the stone chamber.
The black sphere's light grew stronger and stronger. Just as it was about to explode, the skeleton inside the crystal coffin suddenly emitted a soft glow. This light acted like a protective membrane, enveloping the entire stone chamber. "Boom!" The black sphere exploded, but the powerful impact was blocked by the light emitted from the skeleton. Although the stone chamber still shook, it was not destroyed.
As the light faded, the glow emanating from the skeleton also gradually dimmed, as if it had expended a tremendous amount of power. The group emerged from the corner, looking at the vanished shadow with lingering fear.
"What exactly happened? Why did this evil creature suddenly appear?" Su Ran asked, still shaken. The woman from the Blood Shadow Sect frowned, pondered for a moment, and then said, "This inherited cultivation technique is too powerful. Perhaps while sealing the evil creature, it also attracted it. Just now we..."
The woman from the Blood Shadow Sect continued, "Just now, we were focusing all our efforts on studying the cultivation technique, and the fluctuations in spiritual energy were too intense. We unintentionally triggered the seal of the evil creature, giving it an opportunity to attack." Upon hearing this, everyone felt a wave of fear. If it weren't for the skeleton's intervention at the crucial moment, they would probably all have perished here.
Lin Feng walked up to the skeleton, bowed respectfully, and said, "Thank you for your help, senior. If it weren't for you, we would all be dead today." The others followed suit and bowed as well.
After completing the ritual, Lin Feng looked at the skeleton in the crystal coffin again and suddenly noticed a faint rune on the skeleton's finger. He leaned closer to examine it closely; the rune seemed to be some kind of ancient script, emitting a faint glow. A thought struck Lin Feng, and he tried to use his spiritual energy to touch the rune.
The moment the rune came into contact with Lin Feng's spiritual power, it shone brightly, and a soft ray of light shot out from the rune, projecting onto the wall of the stone chamber. A blurry map gradually appeared on the wall, marked with several locations, one of which emitted a strong light, seemingly guiding something.
"This is..." Everyone gathered around, looking at the map on the wall with surprise. Xuanfeng stroked his chin and said, "It seems that this senior skeleton not only saved us, but also left us some clues. The glowing places on this map must contain something important."
The female general nodded and said, "Whatever it is, this is guidance given to us by the skeletal elder, and it may be closely related to this inherited cultivation technique." The woman in white looked at the map, a hint of curiosity flashing in her eyes: "Should we follow this clue to take a look?"
The woman from the Blood Shadow Sect sneered, "What? You just went through a life-or-death crisis and haven't learned your lesson yet? Who knows what dangers we'll encounter if we follow this clue?" Su Ran frowned and thought for a moment before saying, "But this might be the key to unlocking the deeper mysteries of the inherited technique. Besides, since Senior Skeleton left clues, he probably wouldn't harm us."
Lin Feng looked at everyone and said, "I agree with Su Ran. We've come this far through so many hardships, it would be a real shame to give up this lead because of fear. However, we can't rush in; we need to be fully prepared."
After hearing this, everyone nodded in agreement. They then began to discuss their countermeasures. First, they decided to organize what they had learned from the inherited techniques, exchange insights, and strive to improve their strength in a short period of time.
Lin Feng shared his understanding of ice-type spiritual power with Su Ran, and Su Ran also shared her insights on the transformation of water-type spiritual power with Lin Feng. The two learned from each other and gained new understandings in the application of spiritual power. Xuan Feng and the woman in white explored the possibility of combining fire-type and wind-type spiritual power. After some research, they discovered that they could create a new spell that could compress flames within a vortex formed by wind-type spiritual power to achieve greater destructive power.
The female general and the soldiers of the Zhengyang Army focused on perfecting the techniques for coordinating battle formations with spiritual energy. Based on the records in the inherited cultivation method, the female general made some adjustments to the battle formation, making the soldiers' use of spiritual energy smoother and enhancing the power of the battle formation.
Although the woman from the Blood Shadow Sect cultivated alone, she gained some inspiration from the conversations of others. She discovered that she could fuse her Blood Shadow Technique with other spiritual attributes to create more varied attack methods.
While everyone was cultivating, Lin Feng carefully studied the map on the wall. He discovered that besides the glowing locations, several other marked areas seemed to hide some kind of connection. He tried observing the map from different angles, attempting to find the pattern.
After some effort, Lin Feng finally discovered that the marked locations, connected in a specific order, formed an ancient array pattern. And the glowing location was precisely at the core of the array.
"Everyone, come and see!" Lin Feng excitedly called out to the crowd. After everyone gathered around, Lin Feng told them about his discovery. Xuan Feng exclaimed in surprise, "It seems this map isn't just a simple guide; there's a hidden formation behind it. That glowing spot might just be the key to unlocking the formation's secrets."
The Blood Shadow Sect woman looked at the map, a hint of doubt flashing in her eyes: "But we've never seen this formation before. Can we really handle it if we go there rashly?" Lin Feng patted her shoulder and said, "We've come this far, we can't back down. Besides, everyone's strength has improved after this period of training. I believe we can definitely do it."
Encouraged by Lin Feng's words, everyone expressed their willingness to follow him to the location marked on the map. Thus, after making thorough preparations, the group embarked on their new journey with a mix of trepidation and anticipation.
They proceeded along the passageway of the stone chamber, heading towards the glowing location according to the map. A light mist filled the passageway, and the only sound was the clatter of their footsteps.
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