Shenwu Yutianlei

The spiritual mist in the valley rolled like the finest Hangzhou silk, entwining the half-human-high spiritual herbs in strands, making the emerald-like leaves look even more translucent.

The air was filled with the refreshing fragrance of plants and trees, mixed with the moist scent of spiritual springs, which was completely different from the fishy and rotten smell of the poisonous forest - taking a deep breath, it felt as if all the internal organs were cleansed, and even the lingering sound of thunder and lightning in the meridians became docile.

The jade ground beneath your feet has a faint milky white luster, and the patterns on it are like naturally formed leaf veins, winding along the terrain towards the center of the valley.

With every step, one can feel the warm touch of jade. The spiritual energy slowly seeps into the body through the Yongquan acupoint on the sole of the foot, nourishing the spiritual power consumed when crossing the poisonous miasma forest.

Every few meters along the way, there was a spiritual plant with golden light. Some of the leaves were like palm-sized jade with gold edges; some had furry buds, like a rising sun. The rolling dew on the leaves fell to the ground, splashing tiny spiritual ripples. Those ripples condensed in the air and turned into fleeting runes, vaguely the "gathering spirit" marks commonly used by ancient immortal cultivators.

From afar came the sound of gurgling water, as clear and melodious as the sound of jade hitting each other.

Following the sound, I saw a white jade waterfall falling from a cliff dozens of feet high. The water hit the bluestone between the cliffs, shattered into thousands of pearly points, and then gathered into silver chains and fell into the green lake below.

With the occasional moonlight shining through the poisonous miasma, the lake water took on a faint rainbow color, as if a crushed rainbow had melted in it. Palm-sized lotus leaves floated on the water, with crystal lotus seeds in the center of the leaves, each of which was emitting a pill-like halo. Occasionally, a lotus seed would roll gently, creating circles of golden ripples, dyeing the surrounding spiritual mist a warm color.

Shen Yun walked slowly forward, his eyes flashing with uncontrollable surprise as he glanced at the spiritual plants along the way. The jade road under his feet was winding like a belt, and spiritual herbs broke out of the ground every few feet on both sides. Some leaves were shining with silver light like moonlight, and some roots were wrapped with faint spiritual light threads. Obviously, they were all treasures that absorbed the rich spiritual energy in the valley.

He leaned over and pushed aside a clump of green grass half a man's height. Under the leaves were three "blood heart grasses" as red as agate. This was the main material for refining healing pills. The unique dan pattern of the third-level spiritual plant was clearly visible in the sun. The blood beads condensed at the roots swayed gently, emitting warm spiritual power fluctuations. Shen Yun carefully took out the jade box and used a silver shovel to dig up the grass stems and soil, fearing that the thin medicinal film as thin as a cicada's wing would be broken.

Further ahead, a "sunflower" with a golden flower disk stretched its petals towards the waterfall, and the fine stamens on the edge of the flower disk shone like golden sand. Shen Yun recognized that this was a rare third-level spiritual plant, and its pollen could enhance the purity of spiritual power. Even in the Lin family's medicine garden, there were only a few plants. He took out the jade bottle and moved closer. The flower disk seemed to have spirituality, and it automatically shook off three grains of gold powder into the bottle. The moment it touched the jade wall, it condensed into translucent crystal beads.

When he reached the edge of the pond, he suddenly caught a glimpse of a faint blue color emerging from the cracks in the rocks - it was actually a "Ice Soul Orchid". The leaves of this spiritual plant were like ice crystals, and the petals were covered with fine frost patterns. When you touch it, you can feel the biting coldness. It is the key material for refining body quenching liquid. Shen Yun held his breath and concentrated, running the "Thunder God Art" to suppress the thunder and fire in his body, and then dared to carefully pick it up with jade tweezers, for fear that his body temperature would melt the fragile petals.

The spiritual plants collected along the way gradually filled the storage bag on his waist. The light sound of the jade box colliding and the fragrance of the spiritual herbs intertwined. Shen Yun's fingertips brushed over a "Dragon Beard Vine" with curled leaves. The vine suddenly trembled slightly, revealing a bunch of purple-black fruits at the root - this is the third-level "Concentration Heart Fruit", which can stabilize the spiritual power fluctuations of the cultivator during the breakthrough. He had seen the map in the Lin family's classics before, but never thought that he could see the real thing here.

He identified them as he walked forward, occasionally stopping to record the environment in which the spiritual plants grew: Sunflowers mostly grew in the warm places of jade, Ice Soul Orchids attached themselves to the shady stone walls by the pond, and there must be dewdrops of spiritual energy condensed around the Blood Heart Grass - these discoveries may be more valuable than the spiritual plants themselves. The heavy touch of the storage bag made Shen Yun smile even more deeply. This Jue Ling Valley was indeed worthy of its reputation. The spiritual plants along the way alone were enough to equal half of the Lin family's medicine warehouse, and the fragments of the Qingming Sword in the stone hall in front were undoubtedly a bigger surprise.

The Qinglei Sword suddenly emitted a clear sound, and the sound pierced through the spiritual mist like a crane's cry, carrying a sharp edge that penetrated all illusions, and echoed endlessly in the valley. The hilt of the sword gently hit Shen Yun's palm, with a tremor of joy, like a child seeing a long-lost relative, or like a soldier smelling the smoke of the battlefield. Every tremor was in sync with his heartbeat, arousing an indescribable resonance in his blood.

Shen Yun looked in the direction of the sword and saw the stone hall in the center of the valley half-hidden in the vines. The walls were covered with emerald ivy. The vine leaves were thick like jasper, and a faint spiritual light flowed between the veins, as if it was built with the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. The vines were dotted with purple flowers. The petals were only the size of a fingernail, but they flickered with tiny particles of light in the spiritual mist. Those particles of light flickered with the opening and closing of the flowers. Upon closer inspection, they looked like condensed stars, faintly forming the outline of some ancient formation. The dome of the stone hall collapsed slightly, revealing dark brown beams and pillars, but it did not look dilapidated at all. Instead, it was heavy with the accumulation of years, like a silent old man guarding the secrets of the valley.

The top of the stone hall was covered with thick moss, which was so green that it almost looked black, but it couldn't hide the broken sword-shaped stone sculpture in the center. The stone sculpture was about half a person's height, and was made of neither stone nor jade. It felt like warm ancient jade, but it also had the coldness of metal. The surface was covered with star patterns that originated from the Qinglei Sword. At this moment, those patterns were flowing with faint green light, like sleeping galaxies being quietly awakened, echoing with the star patterns on the spine of the Qinglei Sword in his hand, forming a wonderful resonance. Even the surrounding air was trembling slightly with this resonance, and the spiritual mist turned into fine light dust in the trembling, slowly rotating around the stone hall, as if an ancient ceremony was being held.

Shen Yun could clearly feel that the breath coming from the stone sculpture was of the same origin as the Qinglei Sword, but it was richer and more majestic than the fragment found at Broken Sword Peak. The breath was like a deep-sea dragon, with the majesty of sleeping for eternity, slowly waking up at this moment, and every breath made the spiritual energy in the valley boil. He could even vaguely see that the space around the stone sculpture was slightly distorted, as if an invisible giant sword was about to break through the stone and split the chaos between heaven and earth.

"Sure enough, it's here." Shen Yun clenched the Qinglei Sword, his fingertips turned slightly white due to the force, but his eyes flashed with a fiery light. The power contained in this fragment of the Qingming Sword far exceeded his expectations. If it could be integrated into the Qinglei Sword, the power of the sword would surely usher in a qualitative leap. He took a deep breath, suppressed the excitement in his heart, and couldn't help but speed up his pace and walked towards the stone hall. With each step closer, the sound of the Qinglei Sword became clearer and the resonance with the stone sculpture became stronger, as if telling a forgotten past.