Li Huo Palace was a sect from another immortal cultivation world. However, it was not a very powerful sect, with its sect leader only at the late Nascent Soul stage. Their sect-guarding cultivation technique was only of high-grade spirit level, which did not hold much attraction for Li Qingyun and the others. For others, however, it was quite appealing.
As before, unless they entered holding hands, everyone would land randomly upon entering the secret realm. Although Li Huo Palace was only a small sect, in the immortal cultivation world, such a sect could accommodate tens of thousands of cultivators, including servant disciples, outer disciples, inner disciples, personal disciples, as well as various elders, the sect leader, and so on. Such a sect had a very complete system.
Li Huo Palace was divided into six sub-sections: the Alchemy Hall, responsible for elixirs; the Beast Taming Hall, responsible for raising demonic beasts; the Discipline Hall, responsible for managing discipline; the Merit Hall, responsible for distributing tasks; the Sect Main Hall, responsible for discussing major affairs; and the Spiritual Artifact Hall, responsible for refining artifacts.
This once prosperous sect was now desolate, with only gusts of chilling wind howling. The magnificent buildings were also in ruins, as if they had endured endless years. Its area was even equivalent to a small town. Just standing here, it felt as if one could see cultivators flying through the sky, stirring everyone's emotions.
Luo Xiaowei stroked the ground and exclaimed, "The spiritual energy concentration here is quite dense. There must be a spirit stone vein underground!" It was good that the spiritual energy concentration was sufficient, as they had to spend two years here.
"A large sect would naturally choose a place with good feng shui!" Qin Xiaoxiao said, holding the phoenix egg. Since bringing this Ice Phoenix egg out of the demonic beast secret realm, Qin Xiaoxiao had carried it with her everywhere, whether eating or sleeping. Although she could clearly feel the life within the egg, it would still take some time for it to hatch.
Luo Xiaowei quickly drew his sword and pointed at the buildings ahead, saying, "No time for sighing! Hurry! Let's explore inside quickly!" Qin Xiaoxiao also hurried to catch up. The others, after entering, first marveled at the sect of this true immortal cultivation world, then realized the preciousness of time, and rushed towards the sect's buildings.
However, to their disappointment, they seemed to have no access to the inner sect. A golden barrier isolated all of them. They had no idea what the access to the inner sect was. But since Chu Yang said that two years was more than enough to explore this sect, it meant that obtaining access to the inner sect required them to find their own way.
Li Qingyun stood before a dilapidated building, his expression somewhat solemn. In front of him were many haphazardly scattered corpses, though they were now just skeletons. "I don't know what this sect went through. It must have been annihilated." Above the front hall hung a damaged plaque, but the three characters "Yan Wu Ting" (Training Hall) could be recognized. A sect, even with inner and outer divisions, would have many facilities for the outer sect.
Li Qingyun searched through these corpses. It was unknown if it was due to the influence of time laws, but the flesh and blood of these people were gone, yet their clothes remained intact. Unfortunately, he only found a few low-grade spirit stones on their clothes. Some magical treasures were also scattered on the ground, but upon picking them up, they found that the spiritual energy contained within had long been worn away by the years, turning them into heaps of scrap metal.
Li Qingyun sighed, "As expected, there are no good things like spirit stones and cultivation techniques everywhere. The priority now is to find a way to enter the inner sect. Good things are definitely inside the inner sect." "But how can we enter this inner sect?"
...
The others, like Li Qingyun, were pondering ways to enter the inner sect. Only those who wanted to get rich were searching through the skeletal remains of the wind-worn corpses. Bai Nianchen walked calmly along the street, contemplating as he went. "This formation only isolates those who lack a certain aura... So, what am I lacking?" Daoist Bai had studied formations and could sense that the formation separating the inner and outer sects required some kind of token to enter.
"Huh?" Bai Nianchen suddenly had a flash of inspiration. "If they were inner disciples, they would surely be able to enter the inner sect area of Li Huo Palace, right?" He noticed that among the disciple corpses of Li Huo Palace lying before him, one skeleton's clothing was clearly different from the others. Daoist Bai also found a token from this skeleton. Upon examining it, he found that the spiritual energy within had been so eroded by time that it was almost depleted.
Several trial participants who had entered together followed behind Bai Nianchen. He looked back and asked doubtfully, "Are you planning to make a move on me?" The few people awkwardly smiled and quickly waved their hands. "No, no, no, we just admire Daoist Master!" "Yes, yes, we have no ill intentions, we just don't know if Daoist Master needs any help?" "We don't know if Daoist Master has any insights into this barrier?"
Bai Nianchen looked back carefully. These four people, three at the late Qi Refining stage and one at the middle Qi Refining stage, posed no threat to him. However, they likely knew that Bai Nianchen had studied formations and seemed approachable, so they wanted to latch onto him, preferably to enter the barrier with him. Bai Nianchen suddenly showed a very benevolent smile and said, "So that's how it is. Everyone is the future hope of humanity, so I naturally won't be stingy! In fact, I have already found some clues."
The eyes of the few people immediately lit up. "Daoist Master will surely teach us!" "Cough, cough! Everyone can think about it, what kind of identity can enter and exit the inner sect of a sect?" The few people looked at each other, waiting for Bai Nianchen to answer.
Bai Nianchen said, "That would naturally be the elders and inner disciples of the sect. As long as we find the corpses of inner disciples or sect elders, and search them for some kind of token that allows entry and exit from the barrier, then entering the inner sect will not be difficult." "But... as you can see, due to the long passage of time, even if there are tokens, the spiritual energy contained within is very scarce, and the intricate small formations within have also been damaged."
Bai Nianchen showed these people the small token he had just found and said, "This is the token for entering the inner sect. If you can find enough tokens, I can repair the small formations within, and then it won't be difficult for us to enter together." The few people immediately became excited, not expecting Daoist Master Bai to be so accommodating!
"Daoist Master, please rest assured! We will definitely find this token! But where will we meet?" Bai Nianchen coughed dryly and said, "Barring any unforeseen circumstances, I will remain here. I need to carefully study the small formation in this token. You should be able to understand, right?" "We understand, we understand! Daoist Master, please feel free to study here! We are your tools!"