401: Chapter 401 Backup Spirit Pool (Part Two)

"It seems to be here; the herbal scent is stronger," Han Li suddenly spoke up.

The two of them turned to look at her at the same time.

Han Li was still squatting beside the crack, her hands resting on her knees, her nose less than ten centimeters from the opening of the crack.

"Could this be a remnant of a Spirit Spring?"

She raised her head and asked the group.

Randan Spirit had been floating above without speaking.

Upon hearing the words "Spirit Spring," his semi-transparent body suddenly sank a section, almost touching the top of Han Li's head.

"Spirit Spring?"

The old man pointed his wooden staff toward the crack, and a streak of pale golden Spiritual Qi extended from the tip, drilling into the crack.

Three seconds later, the Spiritual Qi was retracted.

Randan Spirit's expression changed.

His brows first knitted tightly together, then slowly relaxed, and as they relaxed, his mouth opened slightly.

"This old man remembers now."

He slammed his wooden staff heavily against the ground, his voice suddenly rising in pitch.

"There is a backup pool here!"

Su Mingyuan and Tao Zhe looked at him simultaneously.

"Something happened in the history of the Danding Heavenly Palace." Randan Spirit's speaking speed was much faster than before as he drew a circle in the air with his staff. "It was roughly during the era of the Sixth Palace Master, over three thousand years ago. At that time, the main Spiritual Vein of the Spirit Ruins Pool experienced a disturbance. Fourteen of the thirty-six Spirit Springs ceased flowing, and the pool water dropped to below thirty percent of its normal level within three months, nearly cutting off the cultivation resources for the Disciples."

He pointed his wooden staff toward the northwest corner of the pool wall.

"The Sixth Palace Master was a cautious man. After the Spiritual Vein recovered, he secretly excavated a backup Spirit Ruins Pool in the deep rock formation behind the main pool. Its scale was far smaller than the main pool, but it was connected to an independent branch of a Spirit Spring, separate from the water source of the main pool. This way, even if the main pool ceased flowing again, the backup pool could maintain basic operations."

He paused, a look of annoyance appearing on his semi-transparent face.

"Because so much time had passed, and the Spiritual Vein never had any issues afterward, the backup pool was gradually forgotten. Only the successive Palace Masters and a few of the closest Elders knew its specific location. This old man is an artifact spirit and does not participate in the daily affairs of the Heavenly Palace; I only happened to hear the Palace Master at the time mention it once."

He aimed his wooden staff at the rock wall where the crack was located.

"If this old man remembers correctly, the backup pool is in the deep rock formation behind this stone wall. The Spirit Spring flows from the independent branch into the backup pool, and the excess water pressure seeps outward along the natural fissures in the rock layer. The water vapor in this crack is seeping over from the direction of the backup pool."

Su Mingyuan turned to look at Tao Zhe.

Tao Zhe had already stood before the rock wall, placing both palms against the stone, closing his eyes, as Spiritual Qi seeped from his palms into the interior of the stone wall.

After about twenty seconds, he opened his eyes.

"The stone wall is about three meters thick. Beyond the three meters, there is a cavity. I can't tell exactly how big it is; when my Spiritual Qi passed through, it was blocked by something."

"That is a Seal," Randan Spirit said. "The entrance to the backup pool was treated with a Seal to prevent Spiritual Qi from leaking out and affecting the Spiritual Qi circulation of the main pool. It's nothing Advanced; it's just a common Qi-locking formation. Back then, any random Nascent Soul Elder could have set it up."

Tao Zhe's hand was still on the stone wall, and he turned his head to glance at Randan Spirit.

"Can you break the Seal?"

"Don't be in such a hurry."

Randan Spirit floated to the front of the stone wall, his wooden staff moving slowly along the surface of the stone, as if searching for something.

When the tip of the staff passed over a slightly protruding rock, the old man stopped.

"Found it, the formation eye is here."

His wooden staff drew a circle on that protrusion.

"The structure of the Qi-locking formation is very simple, with three layers of nested spirit patterns, and the core is a Five Elements balancing lock. You need to input a stream of Spiritual Qi from the outside, first going through Metal, then Water, and finally Wood. If you strike the formation eye in this order, the lock will automatically release."

After listening, Tao Zhe did not act immediately.

He glanced at Su Mingyuan.

Su Mingyuan nodded.

Tao Zhe placed his right hand on the position of the formation eye, and Spiritual Qi surged from his palm.

First came a sharp, metallic-textured Spiritual Qi, which struck the stone wall with a crisp sound.

Immediately afterward, the attribute of the Spiritual Qi shifted, turning into a gentle Water attribute, seeping inward along the gap created by the metallic Spiritual Qi.

Finally, the Spiritual Qi changed again, becoming a mild Wood attribute, and the entire mass of Spiritual Qi expanded once inside the formation eye.

A muffled "click" came from inside the stone wall, as if a mechanism that had been stuck for a long time had released.

A layer of extremely faint light patterns emerged on the rock at the location of the formation eye, flashed twice, and then dissipated from the center outward like an ebbing tide.

A portion of the stone wall began to recede.

It wasn't the entire wall, but a section in the middle of the stone wall, about two meters high and one meter wide, which retracted backward as a whole, revealing a pitch-black passage.

The passage was very narrow, only allowing one person to pass through sideways.

Air surged out from the passage, carrying a chill.

Han Li stood at the entrance of the passage and took a breath.

Her eyes lit up.

"There is the sound of running water."

Without her saying it, Su Mingyuan also felt it.

The air surging out of the passage was humid, cool, and carried an indescribable herbal scent.

The group exchanged glances and then squeezed into the passage one after another.

The passage was not long; after walking about a few hundred meters and turning a corner, the view suddenly opened up.

This was a space much smaller than the main pool.

It was oval-shaped, with a long axis of about three hundred meters and a short axis of two hundred meters. The dome was not high, estimated at about ten meters. The stone walls were rough and had not been finely polished; there were no complex spirit pattern carvings like those in the main pool, only a few stone pillars embedded in key positions, with simple patterns carved onto them.

To put it plainly, it was a hole chiseled out in a rush; compared to the meticulous craftsmanship of the main pool, it looked more like a temporary project.

But no one looked at the stone walls; instead, they all looked down.

There was water at the bottom of the pool.

It was pale cyan, not much, only covering about one-fifth of the pool floor.

Tao Zhe was the first to walk to the edge of the pool, squat down to look for two seconds, and reach out to dip his finger in.

When he lifted his finger, the liquid did not drip like water; instead, it pulled out a thin thread that hung for nearly a second before breaking.

At this time, Randan Spirit had also floated above the pool floor.

The old man's wooden staff reached down toward the layer of pale cyan liquid. The moment the tip of the staff touched the surface, a tiny ripple spread across it, and wherever the ripple passed, it lit up, emitting a faint cyan glow.

The tip of the staff paused for about five seconds before being retracted.

The old man did not speak immediately. He scanned the three-hundred-meter-long backup pool from beginning to end, his gaze lingering on the rough stone pillars and the simple spirit patterns, before finally falling back onto the pale cyan liquid at the bottom of the pool.

Then he laughed out loud.

"Haha, three thousand years."

The group looked at him, waiting for him to continue.

"From the time this pool was chiseled out until now, over three thousand years, not a single person has used it." Randan Spirit waved his wooden staff in a circle around them. "On the main pool side, tens of thousands of Disciples take turns soaking every year, and the Spiritual Qi is constantly consumed, so the concentration is always maintained at a level that is sufficient but not high. This side is different. Although the Spirit Spring branch is thin, with a flow rate only one two-hundredth of the main pool, it has been accumulating for three thousand years without any outflow."

His staff tip turned in a circle above the liquid surface.

"All the Spiritual Qi has settled into this water. The quantity is small, but the concentration is higher than even during the Peak period of the main pool. You saw the liquid pull into threads just now, right? Normal Spirit Spring water is similar to ordinary spring water, but although the quantity here is small, to be able to become this viscous means the Spiritual Qi concentration is at least eight to ten times that of the main pool."

He raised his head and scanned the thirty-plus people.

"It is enough. Even if all thirty of you possess spirit bodies, the Spiritual Qi in here is enough for you to activate them."