I can gather experience beads

"Where exactly is this place..." Accompanied by the dazzling white light, the transmission seemed to continue endlessly.

Time seemed to solidify into a thick liquid, passing away bit by bit, and Cao Rui could clearly feel that he was experiencing a long migration.

Finally, when he slowly woke up from the dizzying space teleportation, the scene before his eyes left him dumbfounded—he was actually in a vast and boundless void "mud pond"!

Why is "mud pond" used to describe this strange place?

The reason was simple: Cao Rui was shocked to find that the magic power in his body, which used to flow freely like a gurgling stream, was now like being stuck in a swamp, making it difficult for him to move forward.

Every time he tried to mobilize these magical powers, it seemed as if he was struggling with an invisible huge resistance, and the difficulty of its operation increased hundreds of times compared to before!

Despite this, Cao Rui still tried his best to use his magic power and barely managed to stay floating in this strange mud pond.

However, it is wishful thinking to want to move around by relying on magic power as usual. After all, if you do so, the magic power will be consumed at an alarming rate and it will not be able to be sustained for long.

Fortunately, he was pleasantly surprised to find that his body was less affected by this restraining force, or perhaps it was because his body itself was very strong. Although his body was heavy, he was still free and flexible in his movements.

So, Cao Rui suddenly had an idea and came up with a clever idea: first rely on magic power to stabilize his body and float in the air, and then condense the magic power with his feet to provide a fulcrum, giving full play to the powerful strength of his body and moving forward courageously.

After some trial and error, he finally found the correct way to move forward in this mysterious void mud pond.

"Damn it! Ji Zhan, this guy, knew he was about to lose, but he actually used such a sinister method to forcibly teleport me to this damn place!" Cao Rui gritted his teeth and cursed this damn star pirate.

After cursing, Cao Rui couldn't help but think to himself: "Where exactly is this place? Why are there such strange restrictions?"

Since he could only rely on his physical strength to move forward, Cao Rui's flying speed at this time was much different from before. It was like one was soaring in the clouds while the other was crawling hard on the ground.

Cao Rui took a deep breath and slowly extended his consciousness outward. He carefully felt the changes in the surrounding environment and prayed in his heart that he would not encounter any obstacles or abnormal situations.

What surprised him was that this time the development of his spiritual consciousness was very smooth and was not restricted at all.

He couldn't help but frown slightly and began to think about the rules of this special area.

After a long period of careful observation and in-depth analysis, Cao Rui finally came to an important conclusion: it turns out that the restrictions set here are mainly aimed at restricting the magic power in the bodies of cultivators.

The power of this confinement is extremely strong and can effectively limit the ability of the monk to use his magic power to perform various magical powers and spells.

However, surprisingly, the restriction on the monk's body was not so strong, and its restraining effect was relatively weak. What was even more surprising was that the monk's consciousness was completely unaffected by this restriction.

Thinking of this, Cao Rui couldn't help but mutter to himself: "If those monks who are good at performing various magical powers accidentally step into this mysterious land, I am afraid they will lose their most relied-upon power in an instant and become like useless trash. When facing the enemy, they will be unable to perform powerful spells and will have no power to fight back, and can only be slaughtered!"

However, fortunately, for a cultivator like Cao Rui who has cultivated both exquisite spiritual powers and physical skills, the situation is much better.

Despite being in this place full of restrictions, they are still able to rely on their unique advantages to barely maintain a certain level of combat effectiveness.

Therefore, Cao Rui released his spiritual consciousness with all his strength without hesitation, and allowed it to continue to extend in all directions.

He concentrated on searching every inch of space around him carefully, not missing any corner where other monks might be hiding.

Time passed minute by minute, and Cao Rui never relaxed at all, but the result disappointed him greatly.

Within the vast range of his spiritual awareness, not to mention a single living person, he was unable to detect even the slightest aura related to other cultivators.

The scene before him seemed dead silent, and he was the only one alone in this strange place shrouded in prohibition.

In desperation, Cao Rui could only take out the star map from the blue ring and gently unfold it.

As he expected, the star map appeared clearly before his eyes, clearly indicating that the place they were in was a completely unfamiliar and unknown area that had never been explored.

Looking at the empty map area, as if it was a blank sheet of paper waiting to be filled with secrets and dangers, Cao Rui couldn't help but feel an indescribable ripple of uneasiness in his heart.

This feeling of uneasiness surged into his heart like a tide, tightly gripping his heartstrings.

Despite this, Cao Rui did not give up easily. Instead, holding on to the last glimmer of hope, he anxiously tried to use the star map to establish contact with the monks far away - Zhan Chen, Ning Xin, Sun Daoyi, Master, or other companions who were traveling together.

However, reality was like a heavy hammer, ruthlessly shattering his expectations.

No matter how hard he tried to send in the subpoena request, it always ended in failure.

On the cold star map, the despairing words "the stars are too far away" kept flashing mercilessly.

It should be noted that this magical star map originally possessed extremely powerful communication capabilities, and its effective range could even easily span several vast nebulae.

But the current situation can only illustrate one cruel fact - Cao Rui's current position has already deviated far away from the nebula where the red cloud vortex is located, and the distance between him and everyone else is probably at least as far as several nebulae.

When this thought emerged in his mind, Cao Rui couldn't help but feel his heart suddenly tighten, and an ominous premonition instantly enveloped his whole body.

Thinking back to all the extremely strange phenomena in this place, he couldn't help but take a breath: Could it be... that he was really teleported to a desperate place that was as horrifying as a natural prison?

No, no!

This place doesn't look like a prison, does it? After all, I can move freely, and there are no obstacles around. After thinking about it in his heart, Cao Rui quickly chose a direction, and then without hesitation, he exerted all his strength and rushed away like a flash of lightning.

Time flies, and half a year has passed in the blink of an eye.

During this long six months, Cao Rui has always maintained a state of full speed, but what surprised and disturbed him was that even after flying at such an astonishing speed for so long, the area covered by his spiritual sense was still empty and void. Although the road was unobstructed, he could not see where the boundary of this mysterious quagmire was.

After walking for a while, Cao Rui finally stopped.

An indescribable feeling of strangeness came over me: "I always feel like something is wrong... I've been moving forward along a straight path, but why do I seem to be going in circles all the time?"

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but frown and fell into deep thought.

Fortunately, there are still more than three million secrets of heaven in the blue ring. These precious resources are enough to support his successful advancement to the fusion stage.

Cao Rui knew that if he could successfully break through his current realm and take his cultivation to a higher level, then finding a way to leave this place might become much easier.

So after careful consideration, he finally made a decision - to stop moving forward temporarily, to find a safe place to practice, and then to look for a way out after his strength improved.

Fortunately, before being teleported to this strange place, Sun Daoyi trusted Cao Rui and handed over all the secrets.

If I didn't have these secrets, and was trapped in such a deserted place, I would be helpless!

Cao Rui gently patted the blue ring on his hand, took out some refining materials from it, and with his superb skills, he quickly created a rune plate that could float in the air.

Then, he jumped onto the rune board, crossed his legs, adjusted his breathing rhythm, carefully took out the precious secrets from the blue ring, and officially began to practice in seclusion.

A jade bottle opened.

I saw those rays of mysterious light flashing, like nimble fish, converging towards Cao Rui.

Cao Rui clasped his hands together and muttered something, guiding these divine secrets into his body. He continuously refined them, transforming them into pure and rich energy to supply the Chaos Lingyuan Gong Experience Pearl suspended in his soul.

With the integration of a large amount of heavenly secrets, the experience bead became like a black and purple star that was gradually shining, and the energy contained in it became increasingly powerful.

With Cao Rui's current level of cultivation, he can actually refine nearly 100,000 high-grade heavenly secrets every year!

According to this speed, it would only take more than twenty years, and after consuming more than two million Daos of Heavenly Secrets, he would be able to successfully break through to the Fusion Stage!

Time flies, the years are like a shuttle.

Cao Rui was completely immersed in the world of cultivation, unaware of anything in the outside world.

There was really nothing in this empty space that could attract Cao Rui's attention.

In the blink of an eye, more than ten years have passed.

On that day, when Cao Rui looked inward again, he was pleasantly surprised to find that the experience beads of the Chaos Spiritual Energy Merit had reached 56% of the progress, and he was already halfway to the goal of advancing to the Fusion Stage.

Originally, Cao Rui had made up his mind to work hard and practice continuously, striving to break through to the fusion stage in one go.

However, just as he was fully focused and immersed in cultivation, suddenly, his unusually sensitive and powerful consciousness seemed to sense something unusual.

In an instant, an inexplicable throbbing surged into my heart.

After some careful investigation, he discovered that not too far away from him, there was a completely unfamiliar figure of a monk.

Relying on the experience accumulated from many years of practice and the ability to accurately perceive various aura fluctuations, Cao Rui quickly determined that this cultivator was also a Void Refining cultivator, and was trapped in the Void Swamp trap just like himself.

The existence of the Void Swamp has tightly imprisoned all of this person's magical powers, making it impossible for him to unleash any magical power.

What's worse is that judging from the aura emanating from this person, his physical strength is far inferior to Cao Rui's.

In this void swamp area full of dangers and unknown dangers, this poor stranger, due to the limitations of his own strength, can only walk slowly like an ordinary mortal.

At his snail-like pace, it was almost an impossible task for him to leave this dangerous area safely and unscathed.

It is not an exaggeration to say that even if this cultivator waits until his daily Void Refinement Stage thunder tribulation arrives, he probably will not have enough time to escape from this area. In the end, he can only watch himself walk towards death step by step, being trapped here and becoming a pile of bones.

Thinking of this, Cao Rui couldn't help but feel moved: "Maybe this person knows some important information about this mysterious place!"

So, with this thought in mind, Cao Rui condensed the magic power under his feet, burst out with the strength of his physical body, and rushed towards the monk in trouble as fast as a flash of lightning.

Although Cao Rui's speed at this moment could not be described as lightning fast, it was definitely not slow either.

However, if you compare it with its previous state, there is a world of difference.

Now that his magic power was restricted, even the ethereal cloak that was specially used to increase his speed when traveling seemed to be sealed, and it was difficult to stimulate the magical effect it should have.

As for magical spells like sword-wielding that require more mana, there is no need to even think about it.

In the current situation, Cao Rui had no choice but to use his own magic power. With every step, he would build a fulcrum on his feet, and then rely on the powerful explosive power of his body, just like those warriors from the secular martial arts world, he kept jumping forward.

Fortunately, Cao Rui's spiritual awareness was strong, and as he became more and more proficient in constructing focus points, his speed became faster and faster, and this special way of traveling also greatly increased the speed.

It is worth mentioning that although Cao Rui’s magic power is severely limited at the moment, the range covered by his spiritual awareness is still astonishingly vast.

His spiritual sense could easily lock onto the location of the strange monk.

However, relying solely on physical strength to move forward was too slow, even though Cao Rui tried his best and rode non-stop, it still took him more than ten days to finally reach the location where his spiritual sense was.