379: Leyline Cave

Not long after, you arrived at Tianyu City with Zhong Linger.

After finding a quiet inn in the city to settle her in, you went to Langgan Pavilion alone.

The ninth floor of Langgan Pavilion, the terrace seating area.

Old Monster Xinghen was staring blankly at a cup of spiritual tea that had long since gone cold, his brow furrowed as if something was weighing on his mind.

The space beside him shimmered silently, and your figure suddenly appeared.

Old Monster Xinghen was startled, leaping up like a cat that had its tail stepped on. Spiritual light surged within him as he stared fixedly at you, his face full of vigilance and suspicion.

Teleportation! This was an ability only a Spirit Transformation Cultivator possessed!

Why would a Spirit Transformation Cultivator come to this backwater Tianyu City? And why did they seek him out of all people?

His mind raced with turbulent thoughts, filled with shock and uncertainty.

Seeing that you showed no Killing Intent, he barely managed to steady himself, cupped his hands, and said in a slightly dry voice, "Senior, may I ask... what instructions you have for your visit?"

"Pavilion Master Qin sent me to take a wisp of world origin." Your tone was indifferent as you stated your purpose directly.

As soon as the words "Pavilion Master Qin" reached his ears, Old Monster Xinghen's tense nerves immediately relaxed, and a respectful, familiar smile instantly appeared on his face. "I see, please forgive my lack of manners!"

He didn't ask further, nor did he dare to.

Using Qin Yang's name was just a casual excuse you made up; you hadn't expected it to actually be so effective.

You said nothing more, simply watching him quietly.

The more one says, the more one errs; silence instead made you appear mysterious and more imposing.

Seeing that you were a man of few words, Old Monster Xinghen dared not be negligent and stepped aside to lead the way. "Please, follow me!"

He led you through many corridors to a back garden deep within Langgan Pavilion that was hidden by an illusion formation.

The moment you entered the Formation, the scene before you suddenly changed—

In the center of the garden, there were no exotic flowers or rare herbs, but a circular teleportation formation inscribed with profound runes and embedded with Spirit Stones. The Formation patterns shimmered with a faint, deep blue light.

Your expression remained unchanged as you followed him into the center of the Formation.

Old Monster Xinghen performed a hand seal to activate it. The Formation patterns flared up, and blue light engulfed your vision.

After a brief sensation of weightlessness and spatial distortion, the scene before you changed completely.

An extremely vast cave, a thousand zhang high, appeared before your eyes.

The cave walls were not rough stone but were covered in complex, precise inscriptions glowing with a faint silver light, completely sealing and isolating the aura within.

In the center of the massive cave, an earth core a hundred zhang in diameter, dark red and slowly rotating, was suspended in the air!

It didn't seem like a physical object, but rather like a highly condensed, liquid-like energy core, emitting a vast and boundless Dao charm that felt as if it carried the weight of an entire world.

The earth core was enveloped by an even grander and more complex three-dimensional Formation.

The Formation was like a precise spiderweb, constantly "extracting" strands of energy from the surface of the earth core. These strands were as thin as gossamer yet displayed ten magnificent colors—

Red, orange, gold, green, cyan, blue, purple, black, white, and gray. The ten colors intertwined and shifted, emitting the most original and pure aura of Origin.

These extracted ten-colored energy streams followed the veins of the Formation and eventually gathered into a foot-wide jade box nearby.

The jade box was neither metal nor wood, crystal clear throughout. Its surface was carved with layer upon layer of nearly invisible miniature Restrictions. Shimmering with light, it firmly locked and stored the Power of Origin, which was potent enough to instantly annihilate high-level Cultivators.

Around the earth core sat over a hundred Golden Core Cultivators, putting all their effort into maintaining the Formation's operation. Each had a serious expression, their foreheads dripping with sweat.

At the main control position of the Formation sat a man, causing your gaze to pause for a moment.

The man appeared to be in his early twenties, with a face so handsome it was almost eerie. His eyes and brows in particular were as exquisite as if they had been painted, yet they carried a hint of cold detachment.

The most striking feature was his snow-white long hair, which formed a sharp contrast with his youthful face.

The Spiritual Pressure he emitted, though restrained, was clearly at the Mid-Spirit Transformation stage!

You understood in your heart that he was—Jiang Ci.

The Spirit Transformation Cultivator who had fought you on the Shattered Star Continent in the last simulation.

You hadn't expected him to be guarding this place all along.

It turned out that Langgan Pavilion's method of stealing world origin was to delve deep into the earth veins, find the earth core, and then use this special grand Formation to slowly "peel away" the purest power of Origin bit by bit.

This method required profound techniques that ordinary people simply couldn't achieve.

But for the Venerable Tianming, it wasn't difficult.

As you were observing, Old Monster Xinghen's figure flickered, and he arrived beside Jiang Ci. His lips moved as he quickly reported:

"Elder Jiang, this person is an impostor..."

You heard clearly; he was saying that you had come under a "false name."

Your expression didn't change.

You hadn't expected to keep it a complete secret anyway. If he was sensible, it would save trouble; if not, you had plenty of ways to deal with him.

However, Old Monster Xinghen was indeed clever.

He didn't expose you to your face but instead brought you to see Jiang Ci.

After listening, Jiang Ci's gaze swept over like a cold sword blade. His brow furrowed almost imperceptibly, and his voice was calm and steady:

"Fellow Daoist, have you come for a wisp of world origin?"

Meeting his gaze, you smiled slightly. Your tone was relaxed, yet it carried an air that brooked no negotiation:

"Precisely. I wonder if Fellow Daoist... could part with it?"

Jiang Ci's figure flickered as he teleported to a spot ten zhang away from you, standing with his hands behind his back.

"If you want a wisp of world origin, it's not impossible..." He spoke flatly, but his gaze was as sharp as a needle. "Unless you can withstand three of my moves."

Before his voice had even faded, he had already struck!

He didn't release a Magic Treasure, nor did he perform hand seals or chant incantations.

He simply raised his right hand and lightly clenched his fingers toward the Void Realm where you stood.

"Buzz—"

The surrounding space instantly froze!

A massive, invisible force surged from all directions, as if the "rules" of the entire cave were obeying his command, turning into countless tough "walls" that pressed and contracted violently toward you.

The air became as thick as glue, light distorted, and even the circulation of spiritual power within your body experienced a hint of sluggishness.

This was a preliminary application of the Law Power, the most common probe when Spirit Transformation Cultivators fought—stripping away the flourishes to strike at the core.

Clearly, he wanted to see to what extent your "control" over the rules of heaven and earth had reached.

Your expression remained unchanged, and you didn't even lift an eyelid. You simply raised your left hand casually, palm outward, and gave a light flick.

The movement was very light, like brushing dust off a table.

With that flick, the invisible Law Power pressing in from all sides seemed to hit an absolutely smooth and tough wall, stopping abruptly three feet in front of you! It could no longer squeeze in!

Two invisible wills of Law silently collided and annihilated each other in mid-air, causing the faint light of the inscriptions in the cave to flicker violently. The faces of the dozen or so Golden Core Cultivators maintaining the Formation turned pale, and they nearly spat out blood.